things i just really loved about january

via my instagram

1) At the beginning of the month, I began taking an entry level college course with a few friends of mine. It's nothing particularly special, just a history class that meets once a week. It's quite a bit of reading at times, but I love it -- the material is much more interesting than an average high school class. Plus, it's fun to just walk around the campus, sip coffee, and think about when I'll be a traditional student. :) 

2) London Fog tea. The university that I'm taking the history class at has this awesome coffee shop, and this is the best thing of their's that I have tried so far. It tastes like a liquid cinnamon roll, and basically puts Starbucks to shame. 

3) Dance, specifically jazz and lyrical. We started some new routines this week, and I freaking love them! It makes me super excited to hopefully study dance at a higher level in the future. 

4) The Lizzie Bennet Diaries. Enough said. 

5) Books. I've been trying to make more time to read lately, and I've discovered some pretty fantastic books, including Divergent and Insurgent by Veronica Roth, and The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Also, I read Junie B., First Grader: Turkeys We Have Loved and Eaten (And Other Thankful Stuff) by Barbara Park to my little sister, and I think that I enjoyed it more than she did. *ahem*  I also think that Barbara Park is to elementary school as John Green is to high school. 

6) Scarves. I was never a big scarf person before, but I really like them now. {Curse you Wanelo! :P} 

via my wanelo

And speaking of wanelo, I will be hopefully purchasing this shirt. Only I currently have very little money, so that's problematic. Do you think I could pay the seller in bicuits?

also via my wanelo

Now, to find dear Nick.

~ Abby

nostalgia

This pretty much sums up exactly how I've been feeling lately. Honestly, I'm just done with high school. I'm done with stupid trivial things, and shallow people. I'm done with drama, and cliquish, catty girls. I'm especially done with immature boys, who break my friend's hearts, and want to date us for all of the wrong reasons.

I'm just tired. And I sometimes feel it; a deep ache, all the way down in my bones.

Don't get me wrong, I'm a pretty happy, laid back person. But I've basically had enough with the majority of my generation. Seriously, some of them make me want to weep for the future of humanity.

I'm just ready to move on, and leave all of it behind -- which I know is good, and natural.

But it makes me really sad. You see, three years ago I was in eighth grade. I was innocent, pure, and my biggest worry was my awkward, frizzy hair. I looked up to high school girls; I marveled at how "together" they seemed. They were poised and stunning; I was gangly and average.

I could not wait to get into high school. I was convinced that 9-12 grade would turn me into "one of those girls", and I would be completely satisfied.

But now I'm a junior, and I'm taking my first college exam tomorrow. And I am not satisfied. I'm already itching to move on to the next phase in my life. Part of that is because high school can really suck, but part of it is my attitude. I need to change that.

I don't want to live chasing the next big thing. I don't want to spend my college years anxiously waiting for graduation. I don't want to spend post-graduation pining away for a husband. I don't want to spend post-marriage waiting for retirement.

I don't want to spend my life waiting -- I want to spend my life doing.

Sometimes dreaming of the future isn't so good, I suppose.

~ Abby

p.s. I know this is kind of a depressing post, but sometimes it's healthy to remember that life is not always made of fairy dust and unicorns.

p.p.s. I feel like I need to apologize for the sporadic posting, and rather random subjects that have popped up around here lately. I also feel as if I should promise that future posts will be more concise/have more of an actual direction. But I can't promise that, because life happens. So if that bothers you, the unfollow button is there for a reason. *ahem*

p.p.p.s. I'm pretty sure that was the longest "p.p.s." in the history of the world. Also, I'm not even sure if there is such a thing as a "p.p.p.s." is it illegal to use such a term in blogland? Will I be fined? I'm just going to go now.

that one weekend I had sushi

My Saturday morning started innocently enough; I woke up to a bright sunshiny room, and a not-so-sunshiny alarm. I had some dance classes and a conditioning session before them, so I hopped into my car, and zoomed off to the studio.

Four hours later, it was lunchtime. And some fellow dancers of mine decided that it was high time that my friend Haylee and I tried sushi. So we did. 

It was interesting.

Being the sushi virgins that we were, our waitress had to show us how to eat it. {apparently stabbing it repeatedly with chopsticks is not acceptable.} After doing so, she told us that you're supposed to eat some ginger afterwards, to "cleanse the palette." {FYI, the ginger tastes like Pledge and NyQuil. I was actually wondering if they spray it with Pledge. That would certainly explain how it cleans the taste out of your mouth.}

The actual sushi wasn't bad. Except for the eel, it was all quite good. Different, but good.

However, we decided that the deep fried chicken and soy sauce was much more agreeable to our stomachs.

Such a traumatizing experience called for some rehab,  so I had a couple of friends over for the night. We had tea, a Say Yes to the Dress marathon, and laughed hysterically for about five hours straight. But hey, it's cheaper than a psychiatrist. ;)

What's the weirdest thing you've ever tried?

~ Abby

there is no such thing as boredom {a rant}

via tumblr

I got on Facebook yesterday, and what I saw shocked me. 

Nothing new there, right? 

Well no. But this was a different kind of shocking. 

Three different people were complaining because they were suffering from lack of intellectual stimulation -- a condition more commonly known as boredom. 

Boredom. Really? 

Now maybe I'm the only one who is frustrated by this. But let's take a moment and really think about what we're dealing with here; an American who is living in the most technologically advanced era mankind has ever experienced, is complaining of not having anything entertaining to do. For real? You have more data available at your fingertips than your ancestors had access to in their entire lives, and you're bored? Ridiculous. 

But I think the real problem here is this: social media and technology has, in many ways, made us lazy and uncreative. Think about it. In the past, people used their free time to do things like painting, reading, and interacting with people face-to-face. Now what do a lot of us use it for? The monstrosities known as Facebook and Instagram. 

For the sake of anyone who might be actually reading this, let me cut to the chase. Go read a book, go for a run, or call up a friend. I can personally recommend a half a dozen books right off the top of my head. But my point is, no one should ever be bored. Put the iPhone down, and go do something fun and creative. Life is too short to waste a single moment.

What will I do if I ever run out of projects? Well, I plan to dress up as Luna Lovegood, and walk dazedly around Wal Mart. It should be fun. 

Anyone have a blonde wig?

~ Abby 

of happy things

Some of my Instagrams. Please take note that all of these have been taken in less than two weeks. In fact, I'm averaging at about 1.2 Instagrams a day. I think I may have a problem. 

1// Short coffee breaks. I went on one with a friend of mine after several long hours of classes. We weren't out very long, but I thoroughly enjoyed a much needed coffee, and an even much more needed time with her. 

2// Dance. Like, why is it so freaking amazing?! I can be having the most terrible day ever, and then go to the studio and instantly feel completely better. When I dance, any tension drains away, and I feel weightless. It's therapeutic. {It also helps to have a lot of great friends to goof off with in between classes.} Also, they just moved a piano into one of the classrooms -- I'm thinking that I will be getting more use out of it than the actual pianist! 

3// Books. And writing. And typography. And music. Basically just words in general. 

4// Lemon tea, sugar cookies, and amazing Bible studies. The girls I play soccer with decided to start our own small group, and we had our first meeting last Friday. It was so encouraging and uplifting -- I absolutely love them. I've never been in a Bible study that was so open and honest; I felt like we all grew a lot closer in just 2 1/2 hours. In a nutshell, it was incredible. 

5// Lazy Saturdays. I like them. Also, sweatpants. I like those too. 

6// Breaking down and letting go. This happened to me this week, and I'm very glad that it did. Because that is a happy thing indeed. 

How's 2013 going for you so far?

~ Abby

so much lovely imperfectness

I like these days.

I like it when I'm wearing sweatpants for the 123,456,789,000 day in a row, and I wear my glasses instead of contacts. I like it when my school books have exploded all over my desk, and are practically frosted with colored pencils and gel pens. Imagine Dragons and old school Switchfoot songs are playing on my old iPod right now, and I like that too.

There's a certain beauty about ordinary days, isn't there? Time seems to slow down, and little things become more noticeable. The crease of a page in a book where it was once dog-eared. The way the afternoon light touches dust in the air. The crookedness of your baby brother's grin. To me, it all seems so much more there on days like today. There, and beautifully, wonderfully imperfect.

That's something that I really enjoy -- imperfection, I mean. Little flaws give dimension and character to things. Perfection is flat and cold and unattainable. Reality is raw and beautiful; especially in art and people.

So much lovely imperfection.

I like that.

~ Abby

of Christmas break

So over the past two weeks I have written a total of four half completed blog posts. They were about Christmas, the New Year, and such -- all oozing various amounts of cheesiness. But, I didn't really feel like writing, so I never finished one. But here's the highlights of my Christmas break:

1) I was in a car wreck, and survived. {Obviously.}

2) I ate chocolate with watched tv with pulled pranks with spent quality time with my awesome cousins. This included large amounts of Apples to Apples, a Christmas Story, and silly string. I'm really okay with that. 

3) I hung out with the rest of my fam, and my awesome friends. 

4) I discovered The Lizzie Bennet Diaries. If you like Jane Austen, or you're just a nerd in general, you should go watch these. You will love them. 

In other {non}news, I am sore and walking like a grandma due to this: 

This is my local studio. It's also pretty much my second home, and my happy place. I pretty much live there, especially during the summer... But I really don't mind.

This is the beginning of one of the routines that my friend Erica {neon shirt} and I are currently working on. It's really simple, slow, and easy, but it'll allow for a lot of facial expression and acting, and I'm super excited about that. {And on a side note, she isn't doing it full out, she's mostly just marking... We literally learned it five minutes before I took this video.}

We're also doing a pretty snazzy jazz number to a remix of "Lights". It's really fast and technical, and I'm really enjoying it. Plus, the three most advanced tappers and I are going to do a dance together. Tap is our studio's strong point, and I've performed a lot with the three of them in the past. It should be pretty epic, if I do say so myself. 

And guess what else?! There's an Orange Leaf literally two minutes away from the studio. Can you say frozen yogurt for dinner? I can. 

Working for three hours on pointe justifies the calories... Right?

How was your Christmas break?

~ Abby