I survived...

my first day back at University after a 3 month summer break. whew. & I could still speak French. I'm always terrified that if I don't practice for that long that I will lose it all. I don't want that! Also. I had the most amazing time the night before... Incubus + Atlanta + me & Ryan = one of the best nights of my life... again.

I do have some photos to share with you.

So the night started out kinda rough. We were late leaving, but since it was a Sunday there wasn't a ton of traffic so that was a plus. Then after we got there & got seated [on the lawn, mind you...] it started to rain. It wasn't some terrible downpour or anything, just the slightly annoying, slow drenching kind...
Luckily I remembered to pack our rain jackets... best investment ever, here in GA we get that nasty, cold, rain that will soak through your clothes quickly & leave you shivering afterwards [all winter long]

So the first band that played was MuteMath... they were cool, but honestly I was so distracted by being cold, the non-stop rain, & the already drunk people being escorted out of the venue, that I didn't really pay that much attention to them... my favorite being a pair of young women coming in already stumbling, pouring beer all over each other... quite the scene, & not a good one at that... more like a wreck you can't look away from. yikes.

So finally the rain starts to die down, just in time for Incubus to be on stage. [insert extremely happy face here]... They were amazing. & honestly much better than last year, BB was joking around, playfully singing INXS, & BK was really into it, he was all over the stage & I LOVED EVERY MINUTE. The best part, they were about to go off stage & BB asked if there was time for one more... HELLO??? OF COURSE!!! so M.E. brings out a lute & nearly DIE. They started playing my ALL TIME FAVORITE SONG!!! Aqueous Transmission. I think I had the biggest goofiest smile on my face the entire time. That's the first time I've heard that song live & it was amazing.

So here are some of my favorite moments/photos of the show...

Then after they were finished playing I had a brief moment of sadness because it has been reported that they are going to go on a hiatus for a bit... not as long as last time [5 years!!!] but BB wants to work on another solo album & the others have things they want to do too... sad. I guess If Not Now, When? will have to keep me going for now. 

I love you Incubus, I can't wait 5 years to see you again, so please don't make me wait that long & I will continue to love you forever. Sincerely, obsessed & in love. 

Genealogy

My dad has gotten into this kick of wanting to learn about our family's ancestors. Boy is that a job. Being his only kid, I'm always asked to help. I enjoy it, it has the potential to be fun & interesting,... & sometimes it is. But most of the time its just plain hard. Seriously. Didn't these people keep photo albums or something... where's that family Bible that every family seems to have... except ours. So we dig and dig. Sometimes we find a tiny sliver of hope, sometimes we feel like we found the whole pie, but most of the time we just have to continue digging.

It's funny how times change. I have known almost all of my aunts & uncles... even my great ones, but my dad didn't even know that his grand-parents had brothers and sisters... he was the 2nd youngest of his bunch, and his mom died early in his life, so that may have something to do with his lack of knowledge... but here we are trying to learn all we can before I get back into the grind of university, because to be honest I'm going to be doing so much research for my final undergraduate paper that my family history is going to have to sit on the back burner for a while.

I'm literally sitting here in the Genealogy Room at the Waycross-Ware Public Library. We've been working almost nonstop for 2 days now, & we have half of a day tomorrow before we travel home. I don't know if I've ever seen my dad so excited and enthralled in something before. It's nice to see him invested in something so heavily... he must think about this family tree everyday.

So as we continue on our journey to discover our ancestors... the Pioneers of Wiregrass, GA, I'd like to ask anyone who has done this sort of research before if they have any advice.

All of that being said. It makes me realize why I do this. Scrapbooking that is. I don't want my grandkids and their grandkids to have to guess about who I was. I mean seriously. & after looking at countless pages of newspaper on microfilm, I'm going to start documenting the small stuff... you know like what gas prices were like & why, how much a bottle of coca-cola costs, how much an average trip to the grocery store costs & what the store looked like. To me these are the things I wish I could learn about my ancestors.... but for them their everyday might have been like what their seasonal crop looked like, how much money their agriculture was worth, what their house looked like, heck, even what they looked like, town gossip [who doesn't want to know that ;)], where their friends lived and what transportation they used.

For me this solidifies doing Project Life again, among other things...
I've also considered using my digital skills to create a quasi-family tree book, to keep all of the stories we can find, facts about the people & where they lived, & everything else I can find. Wouldn't that be nice to have as a shutterfly book or something.

So I better get off of here NOW before my dad starts to get anxious about me helping him out. Seriously, if you have any advice I'd really appreciate it or projects like this, I would love to see them! & maybe it will inspire me, then I can share mine. Yay!

okay, bye now.

University.

I have to face it. My last semester as an undergrad is slowly approaching. While I'm excited to be exiting this chapter in my life [finally]. I don't want it to be here. I've had an ENTIRE summer to hang out, create endlessly, lay in bed, read what I want, when I want, & stay on social media all day... those days are about be cut short. I have exactly 13 days left of freedom. 13! That's it. Then I'll be at school 4 days a week... yuck. I'm going to have my head stuck into French Literature & plastered to a computer screen doing constant research for my final senior paper. YIKES! As of today, 15-25 pages seems impossible. That seems like SOOOOOOO much research, reading, note taking, outlining, writing, editing, proofreading, editing again, adding, subtracting, citing, hand cramping, & eyes hurting. I'm not looking forward to it. NOT at all! But I love my field of study & French makes my heart swoon... [wish Ryan could speak it too] so I'll make it through, & in the end I will love every minute.

In the past years, University has been a HUGE part of my life... & French has taken over my brain. I studied French in Junior & High School, but I never felt a love for it like I do today. I had wonderful foreign language teachers in high school, but they are on a different playing field than my professors... I never knew how much a professor could make me love a subject until I took my first "upper level" [past core/major] history course & then again when I took my second university level French course. They have a different mode of encouragement to give out to students. After leaving my final require foreign language courses I really felt connected... so when I came to a crossroad in what I would love to do with my life I knew I wanted French to be a part of that. I still don't know how this amazingly beautiful language will play into my future. I know I will keep it as a part of me.

I decided it was necessary to document just how important University has been to me. I have several photos from my adventures there, & the many books I have had to read throughout a semester. So what better way to document than to scrapbook it? ;)

2 Total Goofs

I've been working hard on getting back in the groove of making videos... it's hard to stay on top of it, life gets busy & YouTube gets slower. I swear. It seems like since I've started uploading videos it seems like it takes longer & longer... but I do enjoy it so I'll keep trekking along working harder and harder to make it more consistent.

With that said I have a new video & layout to share

The title is total truth. These 2 little girls can sure show how crazy they are!!

Here's the process video:

Currently Reading...

What a Professor Learned By Becoming a Student

Since I chose the non-traditional route of living at home as a freshman in college... I'm hoping it'll give me some insight into what college life living on campus is like. So far, I'm really enjoying it.. but it makes me wonder how accurate it is. I can totally see her point of students sharing their thoughts and realness to other students over their professors... I mean Ryan met some guys in some of his classes that openly admitted cheating to him & other students when the professor wasn't around. hmph, so I see her points on this, a reason for going "undercover". I can't wait to see what else is to come and the other truths that she discovers... maybe it'll make me feel like I wish all of my professors would do this, but then again it may make me say "so glad my professors don't know those things about our generation". Who knows?

I also checked out this book from our local library...

It's been a while since I've read a good classic. & I'm not familiar with H.G. Wells. I think the last time I read an English language classic was back in my American Literature course... I read books like, The Scarlet Letter, Huck Finn, The Awakening, The Sovereignty & Goodness of God, The Life of Frederick Douglass, & other such text... boy it's been a while. I've been so caught up in reading French Literature that I've been slacking on my American, British & other classics. But I sure do love French Literature & it would be really hard for me to give it up for some of those I mentioned... is that wrong of me?

Anyway, I'm looking forward to these books, I should be able to get a few more from the library too before the semester starts... then it's back to history journals, research & French Lit. but hey, I'm not complaining yet! ;)

Instagram Wednesday

Pool injuries are the worst. 

She cut her leg open a bit, after falling. She was fine, but she sat out of the pool for a bit. :(