It's you, babe

Aaah, another day passes. Today was a little challenging due to being a little under the weather with a cold and rushing around to get things done but I accomplished everything, I'm sitting here in my bed at 10pm eating my go-to meal of meat, rice, and kimchi, listening to music and for the moment...I'm happy. Like really really happy. I'm soaking in it!

My five baby caterpillars arrived on schedule and are growing rapidly. So cute to watch! These aren't mine below but they're about this size today. How can they grow so much EVERY DAY?!

In other news, while dropping my kids off at Spring Break camp I ran into this...

I was so fascinated that the world left me for a good two minutes and when I came back from work to pick them up it was there waiting for me. LOL

That's all for tonight! I'll leave you with two things. The first is an embarrassment but it is what it is. I stumbled into a pop song today, Camila Cabello's Never Be the Same, and I'm hooked. It will be played to death for a few days and then left alone but for now...Preach it girl...PREACH!!!

The second, a poem that hit home this evening...

Gardens are also good places
to sulk. You pass beds of
spiky voodoo lilies 
and trip over the roots 
of a sweet gum tree, 
in search of medieval 
plants whose leaves, 
when they drop off 
turn into birds
if they fall on land,
and colored carp if they 
plop into water.

Suddenly the archetypal 
human desire for peace 
with every other species 
wells up in you. The lion 
and the lamb cuddling up.
The snake and the snail, kissing.
Even the prick of the thistle, 
queen of the weeds, revives 
your secret belief
in perpetual spring,
your faith that for every hurt 
there is a leaf to cure it.

~In Perpetual Spring by Amy Gerstler

Coming down the pipeline

Three months...that's how long it has taken for me to start feeling stagnant after finishing school. My brain is bursting with ideas for new things to experience and new goals to tackle. In an effort to keep myself under control I'm working from some lists.

First, I wanted to read for pleasure again. Unfortunately, grad school absolutely killed this for me. With the suffocating and consistent time constraints for pleasurable activities, I got to the point where I would only read graphic novels (and only the shortest ones) because I knew I could get my story fix quickly and move on. Regular novels were too much of a time commitment. When school ended I found myself still struggling to make those time commitments and no book looked appealing anymore. My solution was to dive into an old list I was working through before school and I'm now, once again, working my way around the world through books. I'm currently in the middle of Forgotton Fire by Adam Bagdasarian which is a YA, historical fiction novel focusing on one boy's experience during the Armenian genocide of 1915. Every chapter seems more horrifying than the last but I'm learning something new from history and engaged so win/win!

Second, I created a bucket list during the last few weeks of school of things for me to do and experience when I finished. It was motivating for me to think about having a life again. I've been pretty sloth-like since graduation but those fires seem to be raging again so I'm finally tackling one of the items on that list. I purchased the butterfly kit below from Amazon and my five baby caterpillars should arrive tomorrow. Somehow I missed out on this as a kid but I will finally be able to see a caterpillar turn into a butterfly! I'm a little excited. ;) In the future I hope to do it the more natural way with a milkweed plant perhaps. More on this later probably.

Finally, I have so many projects/wants/needs bouncing around in my head. I'll jot down a few...

• A complete master bathroom remodel. I've never done this before, have no one who can give me much advice, I'm overwhelmed by the options and decorating is not my strong suit, but I'm  excited!
• I've been looking for a large painting for weeks and cannot find what I'm looking for. I'm toying with the idea of doing it myself. I didn't take art classes in college for nothing!!
• In that same vein, I'm working on putting some of my own photos up in the house as well as adding some other homey things like curtains and other decorations. I'm sick of living in a house that looks like no one lives here.
• I'm ready to repaint my living and dining room which happens to be the entire middle of the house. Currently they're orange. Yes, orange. I love the orange still but I'm ready for something more neutral and with a house sale in the not-so-distant future it will have to be done eventually anyway. Pretty big project but its itching at me.
• Everyone in the house needs a new bed and mattress. $$$
• I've been waiting for the right time to buy a new, bigger TV for the living room as well as my very own PS4. Coming soon!!!
• I've picked Spanish back up and have been working hard on Duolingo to refresh myself on everything I learned there. From there, I plan to pick back up where I left off in my workbooks and begin weekly Skype chats again with my language exchange partner(s).
• My backyard garden beds are taunting me every day. "Plant us", they say. I will! I promise!

Enough of that for now. Its late and a long day is coming tomorrow. 

So, Internets, what have you been planning?