Today is a scarf day

A few of my favorite things: Travel mugs - one of the best inventions ever. Hats - sometimes I can pull them off...I'm bringing hats back this winter. Autumn/fall - simply put, everything about it makes me smile. Scarves - they keep you warm and they can go with just about everything.

Today, I decided, is a scarf day. I woke up this morning and knew I'd be putting on my new red coat and would top it off with a scarf - no way was I letting the frigid weather get to me. Well, not really. I caved and lost the bet with Laura this morning...It was WAY too cold to even get out of bed, so on went the heater.

Right now I'm sitting here at work (clearly not working) sipping my vanilla black tea and jamming out to Christmas songs (playing right now is Brenda Lee's "Rockin' Round the Christmas Tree - from "Home Alone), and thinking about this weekend.

On my way to school this morning I decided that today is just a really great day. The ground looked like God had a party and threw confetti made of leaves all over the place. Everywhere I looked there was burnt orange, yellow, gold and green leaves thrown about. Now I just can't wait for the leaves to dry up so I can go and step on them and make that awesome crunching sound!

I think my graduation announcements come in today, so hopefully my mom and dad can get those sent out. My cousin did an amazing job designing them. Also, I am starting to look at tickets for Europe and figure out when exactly I want to go.

For those of you who are interested, The Round Up is now at this Web site again. I have two articles this week and I'm actually pretty proud of the one about New York Times bestseller Tony Hillerman. Check it out!

Ok. I need to do something 'productive' today.

just breathe

Just breathe...
Current mood: excited
Category: Goals, Plans, Hopes

..You have four years to be irresponsible here. Relax. Work is for people with jobs. You'll never remember class time, but you'll remember time you wasted hanging out with your friends. So, stay out late. Go out on a Tuesday with your friends when you have a paper due Wednesday. Spend money you don't have. Drink 'til sunrise. The work never ends, but college does..." ~Tom Petty

Whew. T-minus a few days and I will be finished with school forever. The last few posts have been very optimistic and happy, in other words, I don't think the fact that graduating had hit me. Well, you'll all be happy to know that while I was walking to class on Wednesday it hit me. After 18 years of knowing how to "do" school, I will have to find something else to do with my life. I have my internship at Albuquerque the Magazine, but I'm going to need another job, or two, in order to make some money. Basically it's going to be like a summer or winter break that never ends... minus the comfort zone of my family in Las Cruces.

Earlier this week Laura, Natalie, Jenna, Emily and I all drove to a concert in Tucson. This was just a random Monday night and we ended up taking off part of Tuesday from school. Will I still be able to do this once I have a "real" job? Probably not. It will also be ridiculously strange to not have all of my friends over at my house until 3 am - as it happens so often over here! Or weird for it to be Laura and I at dinner or happy hour and in a matter of minutes have a pretty large group of our friends gathered around us. I'm going to miss having parties within walking distcance to my house.

That's what I'll miss. I'm not sad to graduate - per say - just a little bit anxious about this next step in my life.

I think i've done a pretty damn good job of not over analyzing what's in store for me and just enjoying every minute that I have down here. There are still some pretty sweet days in store for us Las Cruces crew...even up in Albuquerque (Ginnie and Josh's wedding, New Year's Eve, Matt and Raina's wedding). ...Not to mention the fact that Las Cruces isn't going anywhere and as long as I still have friends down here I will drive the 3 hours down here on occasional weekends =)

With that said...I have to go meet up with some friends for dinner and a movie!

'text-speak'

This is outrageous! Seriously, is this what our language is coming to? I admit that I do the occasional "lol" or "brb" but have you ever tried to actually read "text-speak"? You can't. My freshman year in college I had a friend who would have me look over his papers. Instead of "you" he would have "u" along with countless other shorthand abbreviations. Needless to say, this friend of mine dropped out of school after his sophomore year - too much video game playing... It was annoying. It really makes me sad if this is the way things are going with the English language.

Reading Rainbow

I came home today and instead of cleaning my room - which has to happen sometime in the next few hours - I turned on the TV and started watching Reading Rainbow - yeah... that show from when we were kids! Get this: It's still LeVar Burton hosting it! How crazy is that?

Well, on the show they were talking to a woman who surived the Holocaust. It made me very sad because she was telling her story to her grandchildren. I wish Nany told us all she had stored up in her head.

hotel cafe tour

Jenna and I just bought tickets for the two of us and Natalie and Laura to go see a show in Tucson. I'm wicked excited! It's called the Hotel Cafe Tour and at the show we're going to it features Cary Brothers,Joshua Radin, Rachael Yamagata, Sara Bareilles, Tristan Prettyman and Jim Bianco - basically it's the Garden State Soundtrack and Last Kiss Soundtrack musicians.

I saw Sara Bareilles when she opened for Maroon 5 (you know, when they were still playing awesome music) two or three years ago in London. She is more than an amazing singer/songwriter/pianist. Her music is sorta jazz and pop put together in a way that leaves me addicted to hearing more. I think she's selling a new CD at this show, one that I can't wait to pick up!

I'm just really excited to go on a tiny little road trip for a night to hear some outstanding music and spend time with my best friends!!

Nanny

Nanny was 98 when she died yesterday in New York. We used to joke around that Nanny would live forever - 98 is pretty damn close!

I don't know if my first memories of her are true memories, or moments I remember from old pictures and movies. I do know that we used to make a trip out to New York as often as possible - one advantage to having family across the country was that we always had an excuse to travel.

Nany was crazy! Not in the literal sense, but in the way that when I think about her I have to smile and laugh. We used to call her the "Picker" because she would always, ALWAYS, pick food off our plate. Not a lot, just a little, but she never ceased to soley eat off her own plate.

The last time we visited we were sitting around my Uncle Sid and Aunt Gail's living room and Nanny sat down. She then proceeded to do her exercises. They looked something like a young college student cheering for their favorite team. She was fist pumping with both arms up in the air...this went on for at least 10 minutes, all the while my brother and I were trying as hard as we could to keep from laughing out loud.

Nanny is going to the grave with SO much history left in her mind. She came from Austria during World War 2. She lived when during the time when she would come home and different family members would not return from their daily grind. Nanny was Jewish in every since of the word and religion.

Even before I wanted to be a journalist I knew she had stories inside of her that needed to come out. Every time I was there I proded and asked questions. The only response I ever got was "It's too hard," she would whisper while looking away, "I can't." Every time. I wish I could know more about what she went through and how it shaped who I am.

Nanny is now with my Poppy, my grandpa. I knew she missed him very much. The last time I saw her, the sumemr before I went to England, she thought my brother was Poppy.

I'm very very sad I won't get to be there for the Shiva and just to be around family. After going through the motions with Nana this summer, I know how important it is to be surrounded by family. I don't think the Jewish religion is any different...