I May or May Not Have

I may or may not have thrown out some pas de deux moves in the elevator at the end of work on Friday after a stellar interview.

I may or may not have given up on the notion that I could always have an organized purse. 

I may or may not have Red Ginger Sushi on speed dial. 

I may or may not have underestimated the effect of gravity upon canon-balling into the shallow end of a pool. somehow, I am okay today.

I may not have had a valid enough reason to keep me from shopping at city creek during my lunch breaks. 

I may or may not have finished an entire gallon of samoas cookie ice cream.

I may or may not have registered to vote this week.

I may or may not be blogging when I should be sleeping. 

© 2012 by Rachel Lowry. All rights reserved. {photo via}

2011 in review

Wake up, girl. Bury your head into the stark white covers of your large down bed, eye the pattern of the canopy above you. Dismissing the burnt sparklers and half empty Martinelli bottles on the floor around you, you catch your own eye in the mirror and find yourself staring back at this girl of {twenty four} years old for the first time. Today is your Birthday. You can't seem to relinquish the gaze, for you are facing the alternate version of the self you have known all your life. The paradox intrigues you. 

Charles Lamb once wrote, Every man hath one day, at least, in every year, which sets him upon revolving the lapse of time, as it affects his mortal duration. It is that which in an especial manner he termeth his. What is this strange intrigue of possession? It is the notion that this increment of space, sustained by moments and measured by numbers, can belong to me. Can hours be defined, categorized, bracketed? If so, I would place tags on the hours - that seemingly measurable space between {twenty three} and {twenty four}. One small leap between two neighboring numbers - and yet, so much falls between the decimal points. 

Twenty three was the year of conquest; not over others, but myself. This was the year I conjured the courage to lift the bedskirt and face my monsters, barefaced and brazen. Twenty three would be the year I would come to treat more often upon the unmarked terrain of inward identity to chisel away at and polish the concave regions of within and to find there an undiluted beauty. Twenty three was my stab at sophistication; elegance; poise - and all along a growing realization that elegance isn't exactly my savoir faire when battling my work computer and one can hardly pass as dignified when having awoken to a silent alarm clock two hours' late. And, once again, loving the contradiction. 

At twenty three, I graduated. Twenty three  was the year I picked up and moved to Salt Lake City. It was at twenty three that my sisters and I had one last summer together. Twenty three was the summer my sister and I spent a summer in San Diego. At twenty three I combatted forty-two plus hours in rush hour. At twenty three, I interned on Capitol Hill with Mark Shurtleff, learning this, this, this and this. Twenty three was the year of coffee shops and writing groups. At twenty three, I mastered the art of red velvet cake balls. I helped promote the invisible children movement and began my story in ink, as inspired by Tess, Holmes, and Anna.

© 2012 by Rachel Lowry. All rights reserved.

Surviving Finals 101

Tip # 1 - one test at a time. just keep chugging along.
Tip # 2 - Let's be honest, nap time and snacks haven't lost their appeal since kindergarten. Tell yourself you can play guitar, hit the frozen yogurt shack down the street with friends, or stretch to Enya, if you study for a set amount of time.

Tip #3 - yes, a shower counts as a break. thank heavens.

Tip #4 - I hear exercise, sleep and eating right actually increases your brain's capacity to retain information. While sleep deprivation has become somewhat of a standard for me lately, I'm considering giving it a try. They say it works.

Tip #5 - pulling the all-nighter? Cookie dough is your saving grace. {Yes. I am aware that this tip coincides with two points of the preceding tip}

Tip #6 - Christmas music is both an incredible motivator and a drastic concentration killer for the studying student; play at your discretion.

Tip #7 - get rid of distractions. As entertaining as it is to watch the Halo addict throw a tantrum on YouTube, he's not going to teach you anything about the mechanisms of post-modernism in the 20th century novel. Unless you have a very ingenuitive mind.

Tip #7.5 - blogging is a shameful distraction and should be shunned with the utmost vigilance. ;)

Tip #8 - sometimes the more studying you do for an exam, the less sure you are as to which answer they want, but don't let them fool you; you know more than they think. In fact, you know more than you think.

Tip #9 - would you study harder if you knew that each five minutes of studying is equal to one point on your final?

Tip #10 - breathe. You've got this.

Good luck, friends! Happy studying.

© 2010 by Rachel Lowry. All rights reserved. (photo via)

25 Christmas Challenges

Every year, Mom sends us a Christmas package, which includes Christmas challenges on a countdown to Christmas. It always helps me get into the true spirit of Christmas. I really love this idea, and found a neat one by rockstar blogger, naomi, this year. In concordance with her post, I'd like to extend the challenge to you. They're simple, but they sure make your day a little bit more festive and cheery. 25 christmas challenges:

• go out of your way-- befriend someone today that needs a friend and follow through to christmas
• tell someone you love them
• make a tree decoration that will remind you of Christ
• in your prayers today, give thanks for every blessing without asking for anything
• try to be as kind as possible to others today
• try not to quarrel with family members today
• do a good deed anonymously
• make goals for yourself-- seal a copy in an envelope to be opened in a year
• visit someone sick or lonely or sad
• do volunteer work for some worthy cause
• do something fun for a child or younger sibling
• try to forgive someone who has wronged you, be reconciled
• make a "give list" instead of a list of gifts you'd like
• improve yourself in some way to please the Savior
• quietly reflect and choose uplifting activities vs shopping
• phone or send a card to an old friend or family member
• listen to Handel's Messiah
• make a christmas treat for someone else
• be a calming influence today and control your temper
• accept the gift of forgiveness-- pray for some weakness and ask for help in repenting of it
• look at christmas lights... where does all light come from?
• sing carols
• do something nice for someone without their knowing it was you
• be the first to say hello to people all day
• ask someone to tell you about a past christmas

© 2010 by Rachel Lowry. All rights reserved. {via: cherrybam}

To Do

© 2010 by Rachel Lowry. All rights reserved. (source unknown)

Sick

6 hours of sleep.
5 hours of homework.
4 hours of work.
3 hours of class.
2 hours of dance.
1 long bath to remind my poor sick, cold-invested body that I still love it.

© 2010 by Rachel Lowry. All rights reserved. (photo via)

One Hundred

I've reached my 100th post. I suppose it's a bit of a monumental achievement in the blogging world. Let me just say what a wonderful outlet of expression this little blog (created on the whim of a rainy Tuesday) has been.

It has really altered myperspective, seeing me through the highs and lows of college life, giving me a reason to see the beauty and charm in the ordinary and make sense of the world around me. It has helped me realize how perfectly lovely the little things are, and helped me to see that each destination, each pivotal landmark we reach, whether small or great, is, truly, beautiful. Inspired by two awesome bloggers, Kitty and Naomi I have listed 100 things that make me terribly happy.

1. Conspiracy theories

2. How perfectly lovely I feel when wearing a sundress and ballet flats

3. Tea parties in pubs or in my living room

4. Worn hardwood floors

5. Jumping in giant rain puddles with red galoshes

6. Nights with girlfriends when I laugh so hard my tummy hurts

7. Shopping at thrift stores

8. Receiving mail

9. The grace of the french language

10. Dancing while mopping the floor

11. red velvet cupcakes

12. Playing the piano as fast and as loud as I can when nobody is home

13. Romanticism

14. Sweet, stolen kisses

15. Barefoot summers

16. The security that being wrapped in a blanket three times my size brings me

17. Reading for hours at a coffee shop

18. Twirling

19. Aviator sunglasses

20. The sound of the beach

21. Being twitterpated

22. Peppermint tea

23. Heels

24. Confessions

25. Cooking in the kitchen with my Mom and sisters

26. Old tree swings and treehouses

27. Having freshly painted toenails

28. lilacs in the springtime

29. Midnight phone calls that last for hours

30. Vintage photographs

31. Picnics in the living room

32. Dancing and singing in front of the mirror when I'm getting ready with my roommates Sunday morning

33. Knowing someone misses me

34. Wedding photographs

35. A special glance

36. Good conversation

37. Waking up and realizing you still have a few hours left to sleep

38. Making new friends

39. Spending time with old ones

40. Boots. Boots. Boots. How I love me some city boots

41. Knowing you’ve done the right thing, no matter what others think

42. Finishing a paper I know is well-written

43. Metropolitan ideals

44. Photobooths

45. Pretending I am legit enough to twirl en pointe

46. Audrey Hepburn movies

47. Public transportation

48. A beautifully-packaged box of Godiva chocolates

49. A smile from a stranger

50. Travel

51. Dressing up for an occasion

52. Dressing up with nowhere to go

53. Sand volleyball in the summer

54. Clean sheets that still smell like laundry detergent

55. Disney movies

56. People watching at the airport

57. Muddy Buddies!

58. The freshness of newly-vacuumed carpet

59. The thrilling moment before the curtain rises with you behind it

60. Keeping secrets

61. A contagious smile

62. Messenger bags

63. Farmers markets

64. Making lists

65. Crossing items off the list

66. Change (Good change)

67. Musty, multi-leveled bookstores with rows and rows of old books spilling from the shelves and scattered upon the floor

68. The feeling of invincibility after a good run

69. Reading beside a crackling fire while snow falls gently outside my window

70. Laughing. Uncontrollably

71. Every romantic delicious and artistic thing about Europe

72. Jane Eyre

73. The satisfaction of reading the last page in a really good book

74. Cookie Dough. MMMMM. The following cookie-making step rarely happens

75. Unexplainable mysteries

76. Enrapturing conversation that leaves me in the highest of spirits and with newfound epiphanies

77. Organization

78. Degas’s ballerinas

79. Cathedrals

80. Lemonade stands

81. The way my heart rises with the resonance of a bow across violin strings

82. Pretending to be grown up

83. Playing with children who remind me that I don't always have to grow up

84. Tea shops

86. Fingering the strings of my beautiful guitar {whom I haven't been able to name yet}

87. People who are passionate about life

88. cruising with the window down and the music up

89. Waking up to a thunderstorm

90. Journaling

91. Daydreaming when I should be doing something I deem to be less significant

92. Vintage anything and everything

93. Sweet dreams

94. Long heart-to-hearts with Mom

95. Cold, creamy milk

96. Hot showers

97. The climax of a good song

98. Raspberry picking

99. Cherry blossoms

100. Writing, writing, writing

@ 2010 by Rachel Lowry. All Rights Reserved.