Met all my new kiddos yesterday!!  Well... 14 of them.  They are the cutest.  Fell in love 14x over.

A city simplified...

Exhausted but happy.  In the immortal words of Annie, I think I'm gonna like it here.

We've got everything we need...

...and right now, everything we need is enough.

I'm a do-er.  I always have been.  I like to make things happen.  I don't like for time to be wasted.  On the surface, this is a quality of which I am proud.  Down a little deeper, I know that it is a quality on which I need to work.  Sometimes actions speak louder than words.  Sometimes you have to let things happen.

My brother's house is quickly becoming 

one of my favorite places 

What we like to do:

On our last day of summer.

My furry niece and nephew

Tomorrow is the big day!  Tomorrow I will start twelve weeks of student teaching.  Nervous is an understatement.  I couldn't even focus long enough to pick out an outfit.  (In my head I'm thinking Navy pants, white blouse?  But maybe that's too dressy for an inservice week?  Maybe I should go khaki pants, nice tee, cardigan?  But honestly, I'd rather be over-dressed than under-dressed.  I... gotta go, guys...)

Update: My first day was fantastic.  If they needed a new teacher, I'd take a job at this school in an instant.

Rain and Dancing.

Oh man... this week wasn't my best for posting every day.

Things are busy, rearing up to start school and completing all of those "nagging tasks" that have bothered me throughout the summer... and for each task that I tackle, a thousand back-up errands take their place.

Discovered what the boardwalk had to offer earlier this week with one of my very favorite people.

Wild Rumpus, indeed.  I love this girl.  And Waterman's orange crushes.  Obviously it was a good night.

I'm a little stressed and a little terrified, but how could I not be?  I hope I am prepared.  I hope I am ready for all of the failures and successes that are headed my way--but especially the failures. They will happen.  Lessons will bomb.  Kids will misbehave.  THAT is where I am going to learn, not when things go right, but when things go WRONG.

But for now I'm going to relax and enjoy this MIA MICHAELS DEDICATED EPISODE OF SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE (OH my gosh...) & this rainy day.  No one does storms like Mia Michaels... or Virginia Beach.

I like to meditate now and zen.

If yesterday was any indication of what's to come, I am going to love the second grade.

Went to Maryland yesterday/this morning to pick up my newly repaired Satobot--only to get rear ended in my rental car on the way up.  Hahahaha I can't even... OH I AM SO ZEN.

Anyway, everything worked out just fine and I still got to spend time with some of my favorite people, and one of my favorite puppies:

Seriously... I love this dog more than I love most people.

Someone asked me today about my future.  Nothing makes me dizzier.  How about this:  If you're talking to someone in their twenties, don't ask them what they're GOING to do next year, ask them what they WANT to do RIGHT AT THAT MOMENT.  That's as far as I can go, really.  Life's too big and beautiful for pigeon holes.

...besides, if you're friends with twenty-somethings who have their lives planned, get new friends.  Spoiler alert: those are boring people.

Other notable things I learned today:

1. The Underworld is a stupid movie, but running from vampires in the cardio cinema is a hell of a workout.

2. Stuff You Should Know: Shark Diaries  Seriously.  You can have Shark Week any week.
(Also, I listened to an an incredible [and incredibly old] radiolab podcast about memory & forgetting, can't believe I almost forgot to post about it--HA.  Seriously though, listen to radiolab.  It will change your life. )

3.  I'm really glad that I'm not living in Berlin, Maryland right now.

A thought:

Meeting my mentor teacher today.  I'm nervous.  It's like a first date, except the state of Virginia is mandating that we be together for at least twelve weeks.

Take me the way I am.

All Ingrid, all the time.

Also, it's like one of those clue novels 

where you get to pick your ending. 

Some day I'm going to start off each morning 

singing this to my students.

Changed my desktop to a spice girls wallpaper.  #bestdecisionivemadeallday

MAN, it's going to be hard not waking up to the beach tomorrow.  #endofvacationproblems

Coffee and chocolate with an old friend today. #somethingschange #somethingsneverdo



Amazing phone conversation with my true north tonight: #book-cationpending #youcalibrateme

Missing my girl, missing that face. #nowords #hashtagsfallshort

Oh, let's get rich and buy our parents homes in the south of France...

My parents have been married for twenty-seven years today.

How many fights have they lovingly resolved,

how many times have they thought it was just too hard,

only to conjure up the strength to keep moving, keep loving?

I am inspired by them, inspired by their love.

Went on a walk tonight, 

Megan was a crab's hero,

saving it from the thrusts of a dog's jaw

and clueless human onlookers.

Because evil exists when good men stand by and do nothing, right JFK?

I stepped on this. 

23 things I should be able to do at 23 (but can't)

GPOY.

Friends

Woke up to the beach again this morning, despite the absence of her at my side.  Stealing covers is less fun when there's no one from whom to steal.

Nevertheless, today promises donuts, beachshine (that's sunshine on the beach, duh!), & QT with Nelly (my uke) on the porch.  Life is so good.  I wish it could be summer forever.

One of our favorite games is "Would you rather?"  A few days ago, during a particularly rousing round of mini-golf, I asked:

Would you rather live a normal life or live a mostly normal life that also contains the best and worst days mankind hath ever experienced?
(This question works best if you can use your moviefone voice in the asking).

It was interesting to hear each response.  My mom, who has already lived quite a remarkable life, was wise enough to pick the normal life.  My sister in law rationalized that it would take a lot more than one good day to offset the worst day of mankind, and thus also picked the normal life.

I couldn't help but consider the Keats poem that became my life's mantra in a Keezell located Gen Ed English classroom five years ago.  It boils down to this:  Every human emotion has an equal and opposite emotion.  Every sadness increases our ability to feel happiness and vice versa.

Obviously, I picked the latter option.

Enjoy all your bests & worsts today!

"Make sure you write that I'm annoying..."

Dangit... not my most successful resolution.  Oh well, I promise to try to be better from here on out!

Current status:  One foot on the coffee table, both eyes out the window looking at the ocean.  Ah, sweet summer time.

Oops... I even started THIS post yesterday and forgot to finish it.  Beach houses mean it's time to run away.

"Do you like wet towels?  Do you?  Do you?"

I'd like to keep this one, I tell you what.

Alright, she is clearly becoming bored.  I solemnly swear to try my hardest to keep updating regularly.


Sincerely,
Lauren

I forgot to post yesterday because something beautiful showed up in my driveway holding cupcakes.

You guys understand.

Also I thought maybe I needed to lose a few pounds, so I chopped off all my hair.



New hair, new life, same girl.

How We Love

2007

2012

At my core, I am still the same girl I have always been.

Just smarter, more experienced and poorer.

I am happy here.  I have been happy to be home today. 

I just needed an adjustment period.

These "one sentence" posts are good in terms of my consistency and sticking with resolutions... but they do make things a little melodramatic.

Lighter things that happened today:

"I know I need to get a hair cut... I just get so attached to it.  You know, cause it grows on me."

"You're using Christa McAuliffe in your diverse scientist study?"

"Yes...?"

"Oh, great... tell the kids to study real hard,

pursue a career in the sciences and 

then you too can blow up in space."

TOMORROW.

(Tomorrow I get to see my heart <3>

We have fallen down again tonight, in this world it's hard to get it right...

gym, rain, babies and dogs

life's good... even when it isn't.

Making my own atmosphere of growth,

learning to be a better person,

and REALLY looking forward 

to seeing my girlfriend in two days :)

Expectation is the root of all heartache

Catching up with old friends, shopping for things I can't afford, finding out sno-cones can be "stuffed."  Williamsburg.

Sunday is a day for catching up!  I've heard from nearly everyone that matters to me today.

One of my biggest fears in leaving my beautiful life in Harrisonburg was that I'd lost my "sounding board."  Thank god for Skype, for cell phones, for text messages... for never really losing touch.

Finally getting my room together.  The best kinds of fresh starts begin with organization!

Wishlist:
1. Large, black-framed perspective photo of the Eiffel Tower.
2. New lamp
3. Cute boxes for storage

"Oh, what a rumpus!"
"I don't even know what a rumpus is!"
"Well, perhaps that's part of the problem..."

Sometimes the most exciting thing about going to bed is knowing that there's a cup of coffee waiting for me on the flip-side of this pillow.  Life's grand :)

Imperceptible Smile

1. Beach

2. Wedding

3. Chocolate coffee

4. Birthday Dinner

5. Think myself silly

That's a list of things I did today.

That's funny because she took one meaning of the word "tuning..."

Amazing dinner with old friends tonight.  After a long week of wondering if this place will ever feel like home again, it's nice to laugh myself silly over a glass milk bottle.

This is a picture from last night.

Thanks for tuning in.

...See what I did there?

Human Again

 Going to see Ingrid, because that is something I can't do enough.

Finished my MAT thesis proposal an hour ago.

Have a new life-plan possibility brewing in my mind.

Am apparently into sentence fragments today.

Turning Page

I want to live like this dance feels.

As per chapter six in Gretchen Rubin's The Happiness Project, I am making a resolution for a one sentence blog every day in August.

If you haven't read this book, 

drop what you're doing

and Do it Now.

I feel as though this is the perfect way for me to catch a thousand fleeting memories.  Even though I'm cheating and today's entry is going to be a lot more than a sentence.

Meet Nelly.  It's love at first strum.

Who lives in this sad, lonely place? 

Remember when it was once the cutest apartment in the mill?  

Full of love, laughter, and admittedly some gas.  

I'm not emotionally prepared to write what I really feel

about leaving Harrisonburg behind...

(I tried, though.)

So, for now. Thank you.

No place has ever felt as much like home.