Ready for the Chill in the Air?

 

All three of these classic lovelies are this season's jcrew. The cuts are just perfect, and I can't decide which I'd like best. The trench looks so Wait Until Dark Audrey, but then the spiced sunset seems so warm, and the heather color would accentuate my snow-queen skin. Mmmm, can't decide. :)

Salem, Massachusetts' Gallow's Hill Playground

In my first class of the day, Professor York briefly mentioned the Salem Witch Trials and then gleefully informed us of the local playground of that town-- Gallow's Hill Park-- where, as he put it, "You can swing where they once swang!"

Wow. Talk about childhood memories.

If I Had A Pair of Saddle Shoes

I would wear them everyday. Rory Gilmore style, for sure.

School Starts Monday

I started to sing that old song, 

"School days, school days
Dear old Golden Rule days
Readin' an' writin' an' 'rithmetic
Taught to the tune of a hickory stick..."

when I realized that its melody starts out the same as "Toy Land, Toy Land, wonderful girl and boy land..." and the sour irony of school-days compared to a land of toys and merriment made me sick. Too bad. 

Actually, I'm looking forward to school this year. Other than my microbiology class, I think I'll at least understand everything that's going on in my other classes-- since they're all History, so they're sure to get stuck in my brain easily. 

I'm especially excited for a Jewish History class; but I'm scared of it too, since the course requires 15 books. Yeesh! I'm gonna need a Mazel Tov, which directly translated means "luck--good," or good luck, but rather than wishing someone luckiness instead expresses best wishes and/or congratulations. !מזל טוב  
Why thanks, I needed that. :)

Geronimo

Two frogs above my condo door in Nauvoo, Illinois. Photo by Lindsey Watson.

I love little green froggies! The small frog near the left I named Geronimo, because he jumped four feet into the air and then fell for seven feet total off of my porch in Nauvoo, only to land and keep jumping like the distance was no biggie for someone so small. Every night after coming home from a show he'd be sweetly waiting for me on our front door, eating bugs. I already miss him.

School Supplies

"Don't you just love the fall? It makes me want to buy school supplies. I would send you bouquets of newly sharpened pencils if I knew your name and address." Tee hee. Last night I went out with my Ma to get new notebooks. So exciting!

Tres Belle

Photo from ShabbyApple

 A beauty is a woman you notice;

a charmer is one who notices you. 

--Adlai Stevenson

Correction: THIS tree.

Actual photo of the evil thorn trees along the handcart trail in Nauvoo, as taken by handcart mate Erin Patterson.

You Can't Handle the Trek

But it's only 2 miles, you say to yourself. Pah!

2 miles over your-shoe-will-be-sucked-off-by-this-quagmire mud, 

2 miles up and down every 85 degree drop/raise hill in the Nauvoo area,

2 miles across 57,989,673 tree roots (while you wonder why you couldn't just steer five feet over off the trail where it's flat), 

2 miles over cow dung (I stepped in three pies), and

2 miles where you must be sure not to lean on an evil thorn tree (people have been punctured, and some thorns are 7" long!)

This isn't your average Wyoming handcart trek, people. Beware! BEWARE!

Bruising Incident

WARNING! Exercise caution on see-saws/teeter-totters. Do not attempt to push a neighboring see-sawing friend down so that you can be higher -- or if you do, make sure your arms' reach is long enough to do so and will not instead push you off balance. 

I attempted to do this, and nearly fell to my death (or rather, maimed injury). Fortunately, I possess remarkable preventative-off-balance capability, and "sloth-grip-rolled" underneath the see-saw (thus saving my life, but giving me massive bruises), which made all four teeter-totterers (including myself) collapse with laughter. At least, I collapsed! I had to: at the time I was I was then dangling underneath the teeter-totter and required forced landing into the briny sand.

Thank you, Scott McDermott for preserving my life. You know I love your guts.

While I Was Away

I spent the last two weeks on tour with the BYU International Folk Dance Ensemble in Nauvoo, Illinois.

The St. Louis Arch

...is very very shiny. And guess what! If you stand at the base and look up at the center, it looks like the clouds hold still and the arch moves. Spiffy.

BYU Library: New Spice Commercial

Study like a scholar, scholar.