6 posts tagged “summer”
I often post photos of Beth and Kathleen on my blog, but I've never had the pleasure of posting photos of my mum. <3 She is the reason for my being and is the source of all my creativity. She has taught me and pushed me in amazing new directions...
I took this photo of my mom this last weekend. She wanted some pretty photos taken of her around the house with all of her beautiful flowers and trees to give away to some special family members. (She's a fantastic and talented gardener.) I was happy to help her with this project, and I especially loved editing all of the photos. I'll try to post those at a later time.
Mom, I'm sure you'll see this since you read my blog every now and then. When you do, just know that I love you!
I went to the doctor today because of some health problems I've been having for the past week or so. I've had some severe pains in my stomach, and I had no idea what was causing them. Mom and Dad tried to do a mini exam to see if they could figure out what's going on, but even they were stumped. Mom said that if they continued to cause me problems, I would have to see the doctor today.
It's been so hard concentrating on everything I want to get done lately. As if the pain wasn't enough, I feel like my responsibilities as a human being are giving me more and more pressures.
These feelings were the first signs. I really should have known better.
I didn't go to my usual doctor, because scheduling at the last minute usually doesn't work out so well. I went to another physician that I sometimes see, a friend of the family who works with my dad. She was extremely nice and, unlike my usual doctor, she listened to what was going through my head-- probably because she's known me for so long. I didn't tell Mom this, or even Beth yet, but I almost started crying when I was talking to her. I've been hurting so much lately, and then with everything that flowed out of my head and out into the real world-- I began to realize what was wrong. She did, too.
Alice, my doctor, said that my stomach pains are mostly due to the amount of stress I'm undergoing at the moment. I've talked about everything racing through my mind lately (work, classes coming up next week, and moving to my the new apartment this weekend), but I didn't think that my body would react in such a harsh way. I've learned my lesson.
I took off work most of today; I only did what absolutely needed to be done. Right now, I'm trying to sit and relax without thinking about anything stressful. Even though Beth and I will have to move a bunch of stuff this weekend, I'm hoping that the extra day off on Monday (because of Labor Day) will give me that extra zing I need to pick myself up. It's time to rest; it's time to breathe for a while.
It's hard to believe that Shawn and I were running around and taking photos last weekend. I can't imagine myself doing that today. I feel so drained. Alice also gave me some medication that should hopefully help lessen the pain a little. The medicine has a side effect though: it's going to make me extra sleepy. That isn't a horrible thing right now, but I'm really hoping that it won't affect my schoolwork next week.
Another piece of "medicine" (advice) that Alice gave me was to not worry about school so much at this point. She said that since I've found a job that I want to stick with, a real passion for my future, that I can take some of that burden to get straight A's on my report cards off my shoulders. I know she's right, but it's difficult making a change that drastic. My entire academic lifestyle revolves around trying to do the absolute best. I've made it my personal goal to get on the Dean's List and to stay on the list for as long as possible. I want to graduate college English major with honors, and at this rate, it looks like I'll be able to do so.
Basically, I need to start prioritizing my life. I'm doing more than I've ever done before, and part of this is my own, personal evolution, so I figure that learning to juggle priorities is normal. It's just a rough time for me right now, but once I get a better hang of everything, I think I'll be oh kay.
So, here's to an end and a beginning. *raises glass* Goodbye Summer, hello Life.
Featuring Shawn and Lauren (me),
courtesy of Beth's beautiful photography skills.
And, as always, there's more to come.
The lies. I would like to take a little time in this entry to clear something up. A friend of mine recently notified me that a MySpace (gross) page was put up using pictures of me in it. False information was used, and the user did not have permission to use my own photographs or to pose as me. When clicking on some of the photographs, porn sites were brought up. Let me say this now: I was in no way affiliated with that MySpace page, so don't hold anything you see that's not in my Vox against me! I've had people steal my photographs and samples of my writing in the past and claim it as their own. I'm never happy when this happens, but putting my work up for public viewing is always a risk-- one that I'm willing to take. If you ever stumbles across work of mine (or anyone else's), always inform the rightful owner.
The transition. Whenever summer vacation rolls around, I tend to go through a transition of three: physically, mentally and emotionally. All three types of transition usually revolve around my relationship with Shawn, mostly because our schedules change radically within a very short period of time. About three weeks ago, I helped Shawn move into the my university's dorms. As luck would have it, Kohl's decided to be even more kickass and give Shawn housing right down the street from my apartment. Not only do I get to see Shawn more often, but I get to go over to his place whenever I want. The first week went by fine, but then I started to notice I was hearing from Shawn a little less I usually do. I'm normally just fine with that, but with my daily routine with sleep and work, I noticed that my goal for the day was to get through everything so I could reward myself with a little Shawn time. The problem with my "need" is that Shawn was starting to adjust to his own new life at the dorms-- meaning new friends, new social life, new routine.
At 7 in the morning, I finally got a text from Shawn asking what was up. He, of course, had been sleeping at his new place. Apparently, the connection between cell phones is just bad in his huge building sometimes. He immediately came over, and since then, I've been able to keep myself calm and collected. That kind of small breakdown happens every year around this time for me. It's a scary experience that I hate going through, but my mind and body has never dealt well with change in any way.
The girl crush weirdness. Speaking of dorm life, I've had some pretty interesting experiences at Shawn's place. The girl interns he works and lives with have crushes on me, which I'm not quite sure how to take. (It's all in good fun, but this sort of thing usually happens to Beth, not me!) Since they met me, they've been asking and talking about me with each other and with Shawn. I've never had this happen before, but I think it's really funny. I didn't believe Shawn at first when he told me that two girls in particular are obsessed with me. Then, just last night, both girls blatantly told me: "We have girl crushes on you. No, seriously, we talk about you all the time." We all laughed it off, but then I started to think about the past few days I had been there. They would crash into the room, completely wasted (of course), and come up to my face and talk directly to me. Oh, dear god. Shawn thinks it's hilarious, and I'm completely bewildered. I tend to smile and nod whenever they're around because I honestly don't know what to say.
If anyone is interested in having a Moo card of mine, just let me know by leaving a comment in this entry with your email address and the Moo card you're interested in having. I have a limited amount of each, but I thought it would be fun to give a few away to my Vox friends, since you're the ones who inspire me to keep writing and Voxing!
The Cookie Bottom: The semester is finally over with! I completed all of my exams last week, and I was able to finish my ten page paper at the same time. I knew it could be done, because I've had worse semesters in the past, but knowing that all the stress over schoolwork is gone for a few months really gives me comfort. I feel like the freedom is sinking in.
I started and finished my ten page paper in a matter of about five hours. I know that I should be happy that I could finish a paper that I was proud of by the end in only a few hours, but I still felt that I struggled at first. I never take more than a few minutes writing the introductory paragraph. Something didn't click as quickly as it usually does this time around. Whatever the problem was, I felt a huge rush of relief as soon as the paper was out of the way. After that, I focused on my three exams: Irish Literature, Oceanography and Intro to Linguistics. All of them went fairly well. This was one of my rougher semesters, so I'm just happy to get my last science class (ever!) over with. From here on out, I'll only be taking level 300 and higher English classes that specifically focus on Technical and Professional Writing. The cookie is looking mighty yummy. ^___^
Other than the rude behavior, our little vacation pretty much rocked. We were able to sleep in and do a little browsing through cute stores. I think my favorite part of our vacation was when went down to a dock near our hotel. As usual, Beth and Shawn expressed great amounts of glee because of absolutely nothing. I think that's why I love them, haha. Here's a little sneak-peak of our adventure on the dock:
When Beth screams out, "Wait, you guys! Let's pretend I'm a bird!" I pretty much know what setting I should put my camera on: action (to avoid blurs). Beth's always all over the place, but I think that's what makes her such a good photography subject-- she's not afraid of doing anything.
(Oh, and on the way back from the resort, I made sure to have Shawn pull over when we passed the Plum Bottom Road sign again. There aren't many days when I can say that I've seen Plum's name sprawled on a road sign. I think it was the best way possible to wrap up my mini-vacation.)
The Cookie Top: Starting tomorrow, I will be officially working at my new job. Six Apart was nice enough to allow me to finish all of my exams before I began the job, thank goodness. For the next few months, I'll be working five days a week, helping to improve Vox and keep it running. When I left for my vacation, I realized something: I'm not nervous about starting the new job at all. This is the first job I've ever had that I'm genuinely thrilled about. It's the perfect way to end the school year and begin my Summer. In fact, I think this cookie is the real icing.
(More pictures of my weekend can be seen in my photo section.)
I'm not one to take pictures of flowers. Flowers are beautiful, yes, but I've always found them a little boring compared to other photo subject opportunities, like people. Flowers are predictable. They're cliche. They do, however, produce beautiful photos if a little creativity in angles is added to the mix. I was so happy with how some photos of flowers turned out earlier this week that I used some of the end products as part of my gift for Mom for Mommy Day. She loved everything, but she has yet to see the ones I was able to to snap while I was at home for the weekend. Most of the photos in this post are of the gorgeous blooming trees and plants in my yard at my parents' house. There's something about going home during some weekends that really takes me back to everything happy when I was little. For the past two years, I've lived in the city most of the time and everything-- the air, the people, the everything-- seems so dry compared to the suburbs. But when I come home, it's like the magic of everything good hits me all over again. It's an escape and a place for me to hide for a while. I think these photos will explain why I love going home so much. Colors speak for themselves.
Beth and I have exams this coming week so the two of us weren't able to celebrate Mommy Day with Mom and Kathleen all at once since we were in and out of the house at different times. Instead of buying presents, we all opted for the more creative (and less expensive) choice: homemade gifts. Beth and Kathleen wrote Mom poems and I gave her a small portfolio of some of my photography. She loved everything, as usual. To this day, she still tells us that no one gives her presents like we do. I second that. ^__^
I'm going to use the rest of this entry to commemorate Mommy Day and Mom, my reason for being, just because she deserves a little something more. So, instead of writing about my rather "meh" week coming up, I'll focus on the positive and good in my life right now: here's a little preview of what goodness there is-- in mommies and beautiful days alike.
Taking photos of flowers can be really fun. I learned that a little oomph has to be put in it though.
