Thursday, January 22, 2009

in case you ever wondered why I don't update that often

"Cara, what do you do in your free time?"

"Um, mostly sit in the dark and watch the elevators of the Hilton go up and down. I also listen to music and read occasionally. And text Bijan. When I get really excited, I make tiled wallpapers in Illustrator."

"That's not very exciting."

"I don't know what you're talking about."


(This conversation never actually took place.)

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

starting a new kid revival.

This semester is as fresh as Will Smith! In a different way, but just as good.

The first half of my freshman year at Georgia State, as many of you may know, did not go as well as planned. Valuables were stolen, hearts were broken, grades were disgusting, and I was more or less a recluse for a frightening percentage of the time. And not a study-recluse, either. A lazy one.

2009, though! The possibilities for this year are endless. I started the whole ordeal off with a planner. This is a big deal, because my life is more or less just a chain of getting new planners and using them for maybe three fourths of a day before throwing them away. I'm telling myself this planner is different because it is a Moleskine, which is a sort of notebook that I have a strange magnetic attraction to, but I am pretty sure it is different because I'm actually really motivated for change. The notes section of the first page of the year is full of various lists (things to buy at the grocery store, things not to buy at the grocery store, what to spend christmas money on, new years resolutions, blahblahblah), warnings ("Future Cara: If you've been wasting your money on ginger ale from the vending machines, I'm disappointed in you."), and a sentence that I think sums up my goal pretty well: If this page isn't just a big joke by the end of the year, it'll be a success. Because if there's anything I am a veteran at, it is laughing at the aspirations and idealistic thoughts that I once had, before they all start on a roadtrip towards THE FUTURE, only to discover that all the tires are flat after 2.3 miles. And I usually feel pretty guilty about this, because further inspection reveals that making sure the tires had air in them was my sole duty.

Enough with the metaphors.

And of course the world is constantly trying to pull me back down into a pit of despair, despite all my good feelings. I have an 8 am class Mondays and Wednesdays, and I had actually gotten to the point where I was looking forward to the early morning drizzly walk. So naturally, something had to go wrong. Enter the big fat SUV careening down J.W. Dobbs and splashing me from head to toe with nasty gutter water. Ew.

Luckily, I have xoxo, panda's (a side project of Her Space Holiday) album The New Kid Revival to keep my spirits up. It is a really great thing, and it's all about optimism and doing the best with what you've got and fresh starts. It's also really great music to bounce your head around to. I recommend it.

This is going to be a good one, guys.