I'm sorry... but can you imagine having him as your professor??

I mean, I would be quoting movies every time I shared in class.  How could anyone resist throwing in a "Run Home, Jack" or a "You are going to die" line?

Bahaha... cracking myself up just thinking about it!

Portlandia

So, I was about to update you all on last weekend's road trip - Vancouver, B.C. to see Mumford & Sons - but I realized I started, but never finished my post on the last road trip I took - Portland, OR as one of six "wild" ladies (my dad's descriptor ;).  But that weekend and these pictures are too fun not to share!  Plus, it's enormous fun re-living that weekend. 

So here goes...

* * * * * * * * *

It was the first weekend in April (I know, I'm like 2 months behind).  And a group of us piled into two cars, complete with latte's, good music, and smartphones (read: Instagram).  What an adventure!

I count myself really lucky just to have conversations with these amazing, smart, creative, gorgeous ladies. 



[Quasi-candid pic of our pit-stop on the way down.]

 Some of the ladies had either never been to Portland, or had never done a proper downtown excursion. So there were a couple must-see places.

The first,(and most important) stop being: Powell's City of Books, naturally :)



[Street musician just outside of Powell's]





[Myself, Kayla, and Ashley... second weekend excursion in a row for the "Crawley Sisters"]





[Becca & Cami]

Sizzle Pie is a little, punk-pizzeria kitty-corner to Powell's.  It's quite delish.  And you should go sometime :)

[Regina's personal pizza... just kidding.  a bunch of us split that.]



[I really, really love these ladies :) ]




[I really liked this shot too!]

Next stop:  Ace Hotel!  Someday, I'm gonna stay here.  But for now, their lobby and mezzanine are quite enough to explore!



[Ace Hotel Mezzanine - love the poem on the wall and I have an obsession with small, letter sized drawers]




[photographs of photography - it happened a lot this trip]





[A scrumptious dinner at Clyde Common, also part of Ace Hotel]

I told the girls this at dinner that night.  But, it's worth repeating.  I'm incredibly grateful for friends who are so genuine.  Friends who no how to have fun without alcohol or clubs or craziness.  Friends who are just packed with fun.  Ladies who know their value and have chosen to not settle for anything less than God's best and highest adventure for their lives.  Really, really grateful.



[How stunning is she?! C'est tres chic!]

 

[These gals are just such fun!]




[camera-baby]

Another favorite spot in Portland is the thoroughly French cafe, St. Honore's.  We rounded out our Saturday evening with another round of lattes and headed back to our hotel for a Moonrise Kingdom viewing :)


[St. Honore's]



[My pictures don't do it justice - Mother's Bistro]



Sunday Morning we did brunch at Mother's Bistro.  Oh my word!  I would go back to Portland just to have brunch there!  Such a delightful place!  And the food was yummm!



[Thanks to our barista for that amazing window shot!]

We meandered here & there that afternoon before regrouping at Barista.  They've won all sorts of competitions and our resident barista (Becca) was so glad to make the stop.  Bonuses: the decor was super fun and we got to watch them do pour-over coffee.  Fascinating!



[lurve these ladies]



After Barista, we found a stair case with exposed brick and were having a fabulous little photo shoot when we though, hey, where might these stairs lead? Well, it turns out they led up to the most amazing loft unit - with big windows & exposed brick - that just so happened to be left open on the weekend.



[a smidgen of mischief]

 So we did a photoshoot.  I'll let Cami post the awesome band-photos that came out of that one (ahem, Cami ;).  But here's a hint at just how cool this place was.


[another street musician in the Pearl District]



[Victorian Authors make just about the bestest of friends!]

On our way to dinner, 3 of us got a bit turned around (oops).  But we ended up near the Library downtown.  It has benches all the way around it with author's names engraved on them.  May be hard to make out, but we got pics with some of our favorites :)



[a weekend to not soon be forgotten]


And a final dinner at Portland City Grille.  Another "high"-ly recommended spot in Portland (forgive the pun!).  It's a fabulous restaurant some 30 stories up overlooking the city and the river.  Great food & they had a live pianist playing pop hits - Thriftshop on the piano had people all over the restaurant singing along and smiling. 

It made for a wonderful last hurrah before 3 of us headed home (the other 3 had an extra day to spend in Portland - lucky ducks).



[goodbye, Portland]



It was quick, but it was precious.  Dreaming & scheming & laughing & eating with these 5 was a hilight of my Spring.  I suspect some very good things shall come of it.

Including more road trips.

Till next time.

Wednesday Creatives: Uncommon Collective

I'm so excited to be bragging about some friends this week!

Monday was the launch for Uncommon Collective, a community of artists.

I'm so excited to follow the advenutres of this group as they sift out the gold among the common.

Their vision really relates to the boat-load of some of the creative frustration I've felt lately.

Can't wait to see what they pursue.

Check them out on their website

Twitter: @UncommonInfo

Insta: @uncommoncollective

Wednesday Creatives: Neverland, Wonderland, and the British Stage

There are some plays I hear about that make me want to hop on the next plane to London.

Today I found out about one of those:

Peter and Alice

As you might be able to surmise,  the play is about the two individuals who inspired the most iconic British children's stories: Peter Pan and Alice in Wonderland.  It is a fictional account of what might have transpired at the true-life 1932 meeting between an 80 year old Alice Liddell Hargreaves and a 35 Peter Llewellyn Davies.

Intrigued yet? Well I haven't told you the best part!

The best part?

Peter = Ben Wishaw

Alice = Judi Dench

"Get outta town?" - I know, I want to!

Yes, not exactly Q and M, but reunited just the same.

These are two of my favorite British Thespians!

Logan's play explores the loss of innocence and darker outcomes of sharing a name and identity with a fictional character.  We know from the actual lives of Peter and Alice that while the latter proudly basked in being the inspiration of beloved Alice, the former disdained it, often feeling haunted by the invisible presence of his eponymous character until he committed suicide.

The production physically reproduces the characters - as well as creators Carroll and Barrie - to create imagined conversations and confrontations.

Overall, I think this would be a fascinating look at literature, inspiration, innocence, facade, and identity.

A friend of mine from Oxford is going to see it this weekend (I'll share his review), and I'm trying to practice the 10th commandment, subpoint 3.35, which clearly states, "Thou shalt not covet your neighbor's proximity or accessibility to the West End."

Help me, Lord.

**Update: his review!**

In the meantime, I'll just be scouting out Digital Theatre, etc. searching for any chance to see it for myself :)

Thought this was cute! #disneylove

Wednesday Creatives: Sleeping at Last

Who couldn't use some inspiration on hump-day?

Currently enjoying one-man-band Sleeping At Last.

And do not miss their "500 miles" (as seen on Sincerely Yours)

Also, check them out on noisetrade.

Here's la chanson du jour:

Darkness will be rewritten

Into a work of fiction, you’ll see

As you pull on every ribbon

You’ll find every secret it keeps

The sound of the branches breaking under your feet

The smell of the falling and burning leaves

The bitterness of winter

Or the sweetness of spring

You are an artist

And your heart is your masterpiece

And I’ll keep it safe...

23.

"I don't know about you, but I'm feeling twenty-two..."*


Not anymore, Taylor. But thanks anyway.

So my birthday was already 2 weeks ago. Wow!

And yes, I'm just now getting to the post about it. But you can blame that on the fact that my family has 5 birthdays to celebrate in 11 days. So I was kind of busy eating cake.


[having my cake and eating it too]



I've had quite a few people as me lately, "How old are you?? ...Oh! You're so young!" Yes. Yes I am. But I don't feel "young." Not in the "you're young" sense of YOLO/you should do whatever you want/you can make totally irresponsible decisions because you're "young." No thank you.



[Lunch date - isn't she stunning? :P]



But I've always tried to be/act older than I actually am. A lot of my "peers" are actually older than me. I spend a lot of time with the 26-27 year olds... so each birthday feels more like a "finally!" than an "already?" I knew it was bad this year when in November, I had to intentionally remind myself that I was 22, not 23. I've even threatened to jump a year when nobody's looking. Just start tell everyone that I'm a year older than I am and then reclaim that year when I'm 39 ;) So I feel older... at least in comparison to contemporary 22/23-year-olds. But...I still get carded at the movies :/ Seriously? And when people find out I was born in 1990 - they cringe. As if a great cavern exists between 1989 and 1990 - a whole decade's worth of change between those two years.



[Truth.  Oh, and Mumford is ringing in 23 later this month]



All my life, I've had the overwhelming sense that "there's not enough time." There's not enough time to waste. There's not enough to read all the books - I actually teared up in a bookstore the other day realizing I would die with a long, long "to-read" list. Trying to decide what shouldn't be left on that list? "I could no sooner choose a favorite star in the heavens." But isn't that tragic when you think about it?  Anyway........



[10 years I've had this ring.  Oh... and there's my favorite freckle.]

I'm ready for 23.  Ready to see all sorts of adventures it possesses.  I've been enjoying 23's books already.  And 23's new car :D  But there's so much about 23 I can't see yet... and I'm eager to discover.

23, it's a pleasure to meet ya.

Reading novels, Reading authors

Confession.  I have a lot of drafts written I've been meaning to publish... like since last Fall.  Here is one.  Hope you enjoy:

* * * * * * * * *

As I mentioned, I recently finished a small biography about Tolkien (now hoping to read this one and this one on the Inklings), and it was rather enlightening.  I should just say here, I know a lot of literary critics and professors seriously warn against reading through the authors life or getting into authorial intent--but, too bad, because that's some of what I'm going to get into.

Because, I love that Tolkien seemed to write himself into the tales of Middle Earth.  This biography showed me so many more parallels than I had noticed before--both funny coincidences and striking notes.  In someways, Tolkien is like his reluctant hero Frodo.  Like Frodo, he was an orphan.  I have to imagine that growing up in a boarding house was not unlike Frodo's noisy childhood in Brandybuck Hall.  Like the tiny adventurers from the Shire, Tolkien was in a very tight-knit group of four called the TCBS--of which only one other friend survived WWI.  And surviving WWI seems in Tolkiens life and writings "a wound that cannot heal."  Then of course there are lighter similarities such as Tolkien having angered a farmer as a child by stealing mushrooms.  Or the fact that "Ronald" was bitten by a tarantula at 3 years old [He claims to hardly remember the incident and that it was no influence in his creating of Shelob & Co. - but I believe in the subconscious, so yah].

Then at the same time, Tolkien admittedly identified himself as the mortal marrying wooing a woman who could only have him by making intense sacrifices.  And Edith Tolkien made sacrifices.  But the way he honored those in the Beren/Luthien, Aragorn/Arwen set up is simply beautiful.

[Luthien + Beren]

I greatly appreciate that Tolkien got vulnerable in his writing.  It's something a rate highly in an author.  And popular or no, I like to read into authors lives.

"I love you... but you don't know what you're talking about."

So the costume I went with...  Suzy Bishop from Moonrise Kingdom!

I didn't have much time, but whipped this together - including cardboard/ducttape binoculars. 

Because they're her secret power! 
Oh... and I had a library book in my bag - not overdue.

And I left my lefty-scissors at home ;)

"These are my books. I like stories with magic powers in them. Either in kingdoms on Earth or on foreign planets. Usually I prefer a girl hero, but not always."

"Why do you always use binoculars?"

"It helps me see things closer. Even if they're not very far away. I pretend it's my magic power."

Costume guess

Got invited to a costume party tonight. Only have 1 hr to pull my costume together.

Your guesses on who I'm going as:

:)

This is 800

4

years

posts

Thank you for being part of my journey!

Lunch date

Seriously... this book is wrecking me!

I have been afraid to share too much, but I had to share this one quote.

Background:  Ender Wiggin is one of the smartest boys on the planet.  He's also one of the most sensitive.  By age 6 he's been pegged by world leaders as their only hope of victory or survival against an impending alien attack.  Now at age 10, he's exceeded all expectations in military school. 

But he hates himself.

I've been thinking about myself... Trying to understand why I hate myself so badly... It took me a long time realize that I did, but believe me, I did.  Do.  And it came down to this: In the moment when I truly understand my enemy, understand him well enough to defeat him, then in that very moment I also love him.  I think it's impossible to really understand somebody, what they want, what they believe, and not love them the way they love themselves.  And then in that very moment when I love them... [I] beat them... I destroy them.

The power, the clarity in that statement - all I could do was cover my face and sob silently.