A Late Thanksgiving Post

Ahh well I haven't blogged in about a century, but I'm back! It's kinda weird blogging again, I kinda forget how it goes...Come on, Anna, just get it on the page. Boom. Pow. WRITING. You got this. I got this? I got this. Boom smap spam. Indeed.

Well the Thanksgiving of 2014 for me and my family was a little different than usual. We stayed home, the introvert inside me was smiling the entire evening. Lots of food, lots of silence. The only word I could use to describe this Thanksgiving is 'yes'. Just yes. All that is needed to be said. After I stuffed my face with as much food as I could withhold, I spent most of my evening in my room. Because one needs time to think about life, and what other time to do that than a day dedicated to food? Instead of laughing and making small-talk with people I'm not quite sure how I'm related to, I was on my bed, sprawled out, lying in defeat of the feast. I thought about where I was and where I am, and who I am and who I was. I thought about those I've loved and those I've lost and those who have brought me to make me who I am today {They come from both pools}. I wrote mindless poetry about the quiet Thanksgiving, the calm, the serenity. I reflected on my journey, and how thankful I am for every step of it. I'm thankful for the sad moments, the happy moments, and most of all the moments of pure, genuine, joy {*ahem* Varsity winning State for the first time *cough*}. Instead of simply gathering with family and people that are apparently related to in some way, shape, or form, I truly got to dwell for a moment on what life is really about. Life isn't about the grades or the money or the status - although those things are important - it's who you are and what your journey has lead you to be. It's the people you meet and the books you read and the sappy poetry you write. Life is the experience, not the status. For a moment I got to dwell on what it meant to live.
 
And then I actually got some action.

One thing my family never {like, never} does is Black Friday shopping. And ironically that day my brother was working {In the mall} from 10pm-2am, so my Mom and I made plans to go shopping then; but then my mom realized how important sleep truly is and decided to hit some 'doorbusters' {No doors actually busted, I am slightly disappointed}. We arrived at the mall a few minutes after the stores had opened, we quickly grabbed the 'doorbusting' {LIES} coupons and split into different sections of the store. In my mind, Black Friday is this evil day filled with thousands of people all wanting the same thing you want; thus, if you want something, you get it fast. So there's this blond girl in the store with her hair in a bun mindlessly looking around and snatching everything she can, then I noticed something. There's not thousands of people, there's around a few hundred, and only a handful are where I am. Surely there's enough for all of us. After this realization I started to put things back, I started to ponder if I would actually use what I was about to get, and I started to slow down. After all, it wasn't Black Friday yet, it was Thanksgiving. People are with their families, eating pie, and practicing old traditions; and as long as that's happening I can't kill someone and hopefully I won't be killed. The shopping experience was rather enjoyable, until I had to go through the mall to get to another store {It was traumatizing}.

SUDDENLY. PEOPLE. EVERYWHERE.

I grabbed onto my brother's elbow and hid behind his shadow until we passed the massive wave of people rushing to get 75% off of, well, everything. Once we came home I plopped all the bags on my bed, folded the clothes, tried them on, then treated myself to a cup of hot cocoa and sweatpants. I enjoyed my last moments of Thanksgiving with more thinking, more thanks-giving, and more food.

Why even do people go Black Friday shopping, anyway? Online shopping yo.

Sincerely,
The Introvert who thoroughly enjoyed Thanksgiving this year {And the shopping}{Even though online is better}{#OnlineBlackFridayShoppingfodayz}

The Summer of Pointless Luxuries

This summer has been rather refreshing. Needless to say, it's been filled with pointless luxuries for the past week or so - but before this week happened my summer had been filled with 14 hour car-rides and planes and soccer and sweat and tears and dear friends planning their departure from our lives and swimming and lakes and not enough ice cream. In the midst of that, sometimes all you have to do is stop. Breathe. Take a break.

Today I was scrambling through my Pinterest, searching for something to do on this summer day. Something besides planning for my incoming sophomore year. I found a picture with the caption: "Loving this weather!" My immediate response was "Maybe I should go outside for a while", then, an idea came. I shuffled my slides on and dashed out the door. I stomped out on the grass and took a seat, my furry companion soon joined for a cuddle that has been long overdue.

I took a break from life and the rather pointless luxuries to simply breathe. To reflect. To admire. It's crazy how often I overlook the gift of reflecting. I took a moment to reflect on my life and admire the Earth and notice how ginormous this planet is. The Earth is a terrifying place, and sometimes discouraging, but in small doses it's the most beautiful thing you will ever discover.

I took this time to shove away all my little life problems and just take a moment to reminiscence of the past. The now can be a bit troubling at times. With my dog at my side, the trees dancing above me to music of the wind, and the Earth surrounding me with it's presence, the memories started to come back.

I love those moments when nothing really matters and you can just realize the adventurous and sometimes stupid life you live. And you giggle at the memories of trying to impale a tree with a stick and then losing your breath from laughing simply imagining how stupid that must've looked to your older brother who had a somewhat concerned look on his face at the time. You chuckle at the memories of your little self playing in the dirt, signing the ground with  a stick - trying to get the mark deep enough to last longer than an hour. A smile starts to play on your lips as you remember licking the spoons covered with brownie batter with your brother at your side - then you laugh because you realize you still do that and not much has changed. But then, your smile starts to fade, because things are changing. People are growing and becoming part of the real world and leaving the fantasy of our childhood world. People are changing and being bombarded with responsibilities and moving on to the next chapter of their life, whether they want to or not. People are leaving, people are changing, people are growing and flourishing and spreading their wings to fly.

Your smile starts to come back when you realize that most things aren't supposed to last. They come and go like the rain sliding down your window. Some will soon be forgotten, and that's okay. Some are supposed to be forgotten but some will live in our memories and be etched in our minds forever, and that's pretty rad.

Unfortunately, most memories will start to fade when the demand of the now comes into action.

That's when a summer filled with pointless luxuries comes in, to repaint those memories and bring us joy. Each summer produces more memories, more experiences, and more change.

But hey, that's life. Changing and moving, constantly. Even when lost in the abyss pit of a motionless life, a train will come by to remind you that things are still happening, the earth is still rotating, you're still breathing.

Life never stops.

Wreck it Up

 "To create is to destroy"
-Keri Smith

Recently I ordered a Wreck this Journal. 

Now, I've been wanting to get one of these for a while; to be exact, since last year on my Birthday. As we were strolling downtown, admiring the colorful and unique tents in the street fair, we stopped to go into some buildings (When you've been outside in 90 degrees all day, some air conditioning is necessary). We went into a book store, we looked around for a while when unexpectedly, something caught my friend's eye. She gasped and quickly picked up the journal and said "Dude. These are so cool". She started flipping through the pages, reading the prompts to me. I looked with wonder at this book to see if it was true; surely, someone wouldn't publish a book for the mere sake of destroying it.. Or so I thought.

So after a long wait of wanting to get this journal, I finally did. I thought it would be a nice, artsy project to help my creative juices. At first, I thought I would go with the more popular side of the Wreck This Journal, the artsy, clean, super fancy, side. 

Excuse my hair and the planet that looks like a hamburger.

When the journal was in my hands, I flipped to a page and drew what I thought would be fitting. After a few moments I came to realization I actually have to do what it says... 

I was so wrapped up in making this journal pretty, I forgot the whole point of the book, to destroy it. I went outside, climbed our ancient fort, took a quick picture and a deep breath. Slowly the book fell out of my grasp and quickly it fell to the ground. A smile crawled on my face when I heard the sound of the book hitting the grass. A sense of freedom came to my soul, almost. Like I had been caged up in this world where everything must be perfect and unharmed without any scratches or stains and finally an escape had come. I bought something that I could actually destroy instead of keeping it propped up and pretty. And to be honest, there's something fetching about different. This book, this is different from any other. We are taught at a young age that books are a luxury that cannot be neglected; and alas, there is a cure of this law that has been taught for so many years.

And man, it feels great.

{Wreck This Journal updates are to come}

-Anna

Persons

Wow I haven't updated in four months and twenty-one days. Oopsies. School has been all in my face and my bed has been begging for attention. My time has been fought for, writing has been in last place...

Until now.

Because finally inspiration came knocking on my door and my time has made a yellow brick road leading to the magical land of blogger.

Because people have been impacting my life so much.

People are weird. At least to me, anyway.

But recently there has been a person like no other, they came into my life and showed me the world through a different perspective, and showed me through a different perspective. They've inspired me and motivated me and made me giggle and made me smile and made me look like an idiot.

But man, I love them.

Yet recently there has been a person who has impacted me like no other, who has brought me to a different view of me and has kept me in the darker perspective of the world. And they've made me cry and made me crumble and made me scream silently and tear myself apart and make me feel like an idiot.

But man, I love them.


Have you ever met that one person who just understands everything? Who can make you smile and who would do anything for you?

And, have you ever met that person who makes you feel like a complete failure and your only hope in life is a dud? The person who would do anything to keep you in that place?


People. People are weird.


But have you met that one God who loves you despite of your mistakes and your past and your scars? Have you met that one who loves you beyond measure? The one that if you fully devote yourself to Him, all things will work in the end?


That's God. And God is awesome.

And that God has made me complete and happy and joyful and loving and kind.

And that God goes over all people.

And that God covers me in love. Even when I can't see it, even when I'm too arrogant to believe it.

The Memory Jar

On this day last year I decided to do a little project. The Memory Jar.

For a whole year this little jar sat on my desk. Every few weeks or so I'd scribble on a piece of paper and toss it in there. Every day this jar would wait to be opened; but I wouldn't empty it until January 1st of 2014.

Today (I'm a little late, I know) I opened the jar. I read through the memories. Some of them I had completely forgotten, an old, faded, photograph; but others were fresh and colorful in my mind.





All the memories are different. Some are connected with others. Some are separated. Some are ripped, torn, and wrinkled; others are nicely folded into little squares. Some are in pen, some are in pencil. Some are in Minnesota, some are in Indiana. Some are good memories, some are bad memories. Some are old and some are new. Some are little some are huge.

I decided to read every memory once again, but this time I separated the ones I remember vividly and the others I remember faintly.

I had a handful {literally} of memories that are blurred in my mind.

All these faded memories all have something in common.

They're all from Minnesota.

I honestly am astonished at myself. That I would forget something so important, so dramatic, so life-changing.

I forgot everything that happened where I lived for two years, for just a moment.

For just a moment everything was in Indiana, for just a moment I had never moved. For just a moment.

And once I was done with these memories, I threw them away. Every single one. Because what happened in 2013 is not what's happening. It's like a medal dated "2013" and when people look at that and say "Wow! You accomplished so much!", and I think "What am I accomplishing?".

The year is young, one has 365 days to complete a goal. Only 365.

What are you going to do?

~Anna

Soft Pretzels, Lenses, and Meh

So.

This week.

Interesting, to say the least.

My friend and I were having a conversation when all of a sudden a thought took over my brain.

Soft pretzels.

So I wrote this two paragraph thing on how my friend is the soft pretzel to my life. And ended up drawing this.

I mean... He always smells good and he kinda looks like a soft pretzel...


And I also wrote this little word to describe my week so far.







It has been an incredibly interesting week but I have had the sudden desire to do nothing at all.


What really topped this week off was when my glasses broke. Like, actually broke. Not like that one time I was trying to get my sweatshirt off and the stem snapped. They actually....

Yeah.


'TIS STORYTIME.


OKAY, SO, I WAS AT THE GYM. Shooting around and stuff. I left to retrieve my ball and I come back and BANG! A ball hits the side of my head and little bits of plastic that I recognize to be my glasses are lying on the ground. I hear my brother yell "HEY! THAT'S MY SISTER!" as I blink myself back to reality. I pick up the pieces and face an apologetic voice "I'm so sorry, I am so so sorry.". I tell him numerous times that I'm alright and I give him a thumbs up and a bro-fist. My friend, Mattie, grabs my hand and tells me to head to the restroom to clean up some minor cuts on my face. I rip my hand away and charge to the ball I had set for shooting, the net snaps and I smile satisfactory. "Okay, now let's go clean all this blood up." I say, she grabs my hand and leads my blurry vision to the bathroom.

THE END.


That's basically what happened.

I thought I had only found one lens, but I found the other today in my bag.

And what did I do?

I had some fun with them.










Lenses are pretty cool. A little piece of glass can give you the ability to see the world like never before.

Eyes are so underrated.


I mean, think about it. There are these little orb-things IN YOUR HEAD that make you see things. They give you perspective and colors and art and mountains and grass and smiles and OTHER EYES THAT THEY CAN SOMEHOW COMMUNICATE WITH.

Eyes are cool.

~Anna

Water Color

Remember a few days ago when I said drawing would come back?

It came back. In a sorta different, simply complicated way.

But it came back.

And I still like it.


I've had water paints for about forever now. And I finally decided to bring them to some good use.

It cost me three, three, three pages to get this right.


Totally worth it.

Water painting is so much more fun than just coloring with pencil. It's more swift and spunky. Make a mistake? Just cover it up with more paint. And I make a lot of mistakes in drawings so this will come in handy.

I've been wanting to draw this since I saw my childhood favorite movie "Robin Hood" last week. When I was little this was my main movie. Robin Hood was *cough is cough* my future husband. I always looked up to this brave little fox and his partner, Little John. (Okay, hold up a minute. His partner is Little John but he's like, a ten thousand pound bear...I never understood that...)


And of course, no Robin Hood drawing isn't complete until it's topped off with an "Oh-De-Lally"! (Featured on the drawing above because that's just what I do)


Forever escaping to my paints and pencils,

Anna