Uh oh...

Mistake #1: Jeff let me walk into the pet store at the mall.
Mistake #2: Jeff let me look at the puppies.
Mistake #3: I spotted a BEAUTIFUL cream colored Shiba Inu.
Mistake #4: The lady asked me if I wanted to hold her.
Mistake #5: I said yes.

This was the result...

Jeff holding her...

!!!

Problem #1: Jeff and I vowed to never buy a puppy from a pet store.
Problem #2: We are broke.
Problem #3: We are so busy and don't have time to raise a puppy.
Problem #4: I live in a dorm and Jeff lives in a house where there are already two dogs and a cat.

But she is so fricken adorable. I just wish I could have her.

Things to be grateful for...

I am going to make a big, long list of things I am thankful for for the next few months. I am starting this list today! Please note these are in no particular order. And many of them will seem pretty silly.

Here goes.

1) Soft, fragrant towels.

2) My own bathroom. My freshman year I shared a bathroom with all the girls on my floor in the dorm I lived in. When I was hired as an RA, I still shared a bathroom with the girls, but now I worked there. When I was hired as a Supervisor, I got an "apartment," which, in my case, is a room with a cute little pantry and a bathroom. I am grateful for this little bathroom everyday.

3) Quiet Saturday mornings with no obligations.

4) Handmade cards.

5) My little fish that I get to greet every morning.

♥

Now on to my day!

Tori is going to come this evening and I am planning on making a delicious dinner! Eggplant pasta and salad and a yummy dessert!

I have been laying around like a big, lazy student who doesn't have a paper to work on...it is a life that I haven't known since the summer. Ah, recreational reading, I have missed you.

I hope everyone has an excellent & relaxing Saturday.

Lib

I'm sorry but...

This is the cutest thing I have ever seen...

Whoa!

Yesterday, I met with my literature criticism teacher to do some final editing and put some finishing touches on my final research essay for her class.

She read all thirteen pages of it without saying a word, making me very anxious.

She then said, "We are going to have to work on this title for next semester."

I was confused. This class ends this semester and I don't have her again next semester.

She then said "Because I am going to submit this for scholarships and possible publication. And I think you should consider presenting it at the National Conference for Undergraduate Research."

I was stunned. I could not, and still can't, believe that I had produced a paper that was impressive enough for her to believe it worthy of scholarships, NCUR and possible publication??

WHAT! I was SO SO SO happy! I seriously have never been prouder of myself.

I truly went into that class so scared and doubtful. We meet on Tuesdays and Thursdays and each time we meet we have about twenty pages of reading due and a two page paper. Katie (my AMAZING professor) has insane expectations for the students in her class. It is very rigorous, but I found that I was capable of fulfilling her expectations.

I seriously have never been so excited about anything in my life.

I am so proud of myself.

"I'm always in this twilight"

Writing my last of three research papers for the semester (all of which were due in a one week period! Come on, profs!)...

drinking hot chocolate+coffee from the Reslife Office

Can't stop listening to "Cosmic Love" from Florence and The Machine.

Can't stop thinking about my trip to Europe. I know it's not for like 18 months, but everytime I think about it, I get butterflies.

This is what I've been waiting for my whole life.

I keep thinking about this quote from Henry James' Portrait Of A Lady

"The world's all before us-- and the world's very large."

And I am so excited. And that word seems so flimsy for my real feeling.

I want one so so so SO badly...

So, I have been thinking about getting some tattoos pretty seriously the past few weeks.

I really want to get a quote from W.H. Auden's poem lullaby "Find the mortal world enough" on my wrist. This quote is meaningful to me for several reasons, only one of them being religious. I don't want people to get the idea that I don't believe in an afterlife from my tattoo though, so that kind of scares me. To me, it means that I will make my life what I dreamed of as being "heavenly." I hold this notion close to my heart, because I know how ugly the world is capable of making people and I chose a long time

ago to never be like that. I endured some pretty rough stuff when I was a relatively young teenager, and after that I made the concious choice to not let hate consume me. I decided that I would make myself happy, because no one else was capable of doing that for me. So that is what that tattoo would mean to me. =)

Second on my list is this...

I've wanted some kind of bird tattoo for a long time, and this is just subtle enough. I am so in love with it.

Also on my list is possible getting "A mind without books is like a body without a soul" on the back of my neck. It is actually a quote from Cicero that I perverted to suit me, haha.

I'm so obsessed. INK ME OKAY

FOUND!

I just found these funny little pictures on Jeff's computer...
...funny, I don't remember taking them...

Just living my life...picking my boogers.

What an excellent and wholesome discovery...
Isn't he great? ♥