I done got orientated

I had college orientation from Monday to Tuesday and I'm so excited! I've registered for classes, I've gotten on the marching band email list (I'm considering joining), the radio station email list (I've always dreamed of DJ-ing, but I could also just volunteer some other way), I've asked questions, I want to work on the student farm, in the dining commons, with student housing, as an orientation leader... I want to take this animal science class where I could just work with goats or sheep or cows for three hours, and then talk to their full-time care-taker for an hour, once a week. I wanna join the feminist club and the swing club and maybe s'more clubs. I wanna take kick-boxing classes and swimming classes (so I can finally have GOOD FORM!) and ballet classes at the recreation center. I wanna take a class on water pollution and air pollution and film-making and women's studies. I wanna volunteer in the Sexual Assault Prevention Center and the Women's Resources Center. I wanna ask the lady who came to speak for the Sexual Assault Prevention Center if she's heard of the awesome Vlogbrother-founded YouTube channel Sexplanations, because I think it could be a good resource to suggest to students who don't maybe have the time or guts to go in in person to ask their questions. I wanna take a class by her, if she's a professor (she said something about teaching a class). I wanna use the late-night study rooms. I wanna take part in dorm-wide shenanigans. I wanna do well in classes. I wanna do really well in classes. I wanna eat healthy and be healthy and be strong and be stronger. I wanna get better at biking. I wanna use all the machines at the gym. I wanna maybe take Zumba or a spin class or a yoga class, or at least try them out free for a week, just to see what all the hype is about. I wanna maybe participate in an open mic (and I wanna do an acoustic cover of a Ke$ha song there). I wanna bike and run around the Arboretum. I wanna make friends -- good, fun, close friends. I wanna go to football games (and maybe march with the band for some) and get super into it and be a part of the school spirit club and forget that idea that to be enthusiastic is stupid and dorky and embarrassing, because, ya know what? Being enthusiastic is damn cool. And it's fun.

I wanna do stuff.

So, I'm gonna do stuff.

The end

I just finished Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Like, finished finished. All 7 (televised) seasons. It was great, and it was sad, and the finale made me cry kind of a lot, and I'm sad that I got to the end of it (as well as a bit proud), and I don't know what else to say about it.

Wait, no, here's one thing: (BEWARE OF SPOILERS)

so, by the time it was explained that all potential skaters everywhere were given power, I was already crying, but that made me cry harder. The finale (and the entire show) was bursting with female power, and it was so sweet and empowering and I loved it. Joss Whedon is fantastic.

When once asked why he always wrote such strong female characters (Buffy, River, Willow, Zoe, Inara, Kaylee, etc), he replied, "Because I'm still being asked that question."

I will leave you with some pretty pictures from a lake I went to this weekend.

A fair, a hike, and a birthday

A few days ago, some friends and I went to our local fair, and spent the day going on rides (the easy, slow ones for me, the more, um, adventurous for some of my friends). We must have gone on the ferris wheel half a dozen times! I eventually got comfortable enough with the heights and the surprising speed of the wheel that I could pull my legs up in my seat, as shown in the second picture.

A few days after that, a friend and I went hiking. It wasn't a very long hike, but it was a nice one. We hiked, tried geocaching, ate some nice food, played tennis, I rolled down a hill, and then we went swimming for a while and called it a day.

And, yesterday, I turned 17. I didn't do too much. Woke up late, had breakfast, eventually went shopping with my mom and grandmother. They bought me some staple items I've needed or wanted for a while (better toothpaste, new razors), and I got myself a salad and a bowl of banana cream pie/"yellow" cake batter frozen yogurt, and we headed home. It wasn't a terribly exciting birthday, but it was still a very nice one.

I was only asked once if I "felt" 17. I'm not really sure how I feel. Nervous, maybe, because I'm growing up? I'm going off to college in the fall. Soon, I'll be a legal adult.

Life stuff is scary.

How are you?

My first follow-through

In my last post, I promised I'd post pictures of my popsicle-making attempt, and, lo-and-behold, here are those pictures! (I'm not done with the bag yet... I'll finish it someday soon! Hopefully...)

So, I used organic lemonade, frozen blueberries, and organic raspberries to make these. I poured in some lemonade first, and then added three or four (microwaved) frozen blueberries, and one or two (ripped-up, not whole) raspberries to the molds. That was not a good idea. Not knowing how much room the berries would take up, I had poured in too much lemonade, and it came pouring out of the molds onto the table when I tried to put the tops on. Whoops!

Look at that beauty! They look better than they taste, I've decided. I mean, don't get me wrong: they taste great! I just think they'd taste better without the raspberries. They added a sort of, erm, chewy quality to the popsicles that I didn't really love. The blueberries, meanwhile, were great, in my opinion, though they were a taste on their own, separate from the lemonade... I'd like to try making smoothie popsicles next (bananas, blueberries, and either milk or yogurt sound like they could combine to make good smoothie popsicles to me!).

Let me point out that I know that doing a review/how-to of these isn't really necessary, as making them is pretty straight-forward, but, hey, this is my first foray into the world of a) putting pictures in posts and b) talking about things I've made in a how-to-y manner in posts. More (and most complex) posts meeting those categories to come, though, I think!

Listening to: Diane Young - Vampire Weekend

Watching: Buffy the Vampire Slayer season six (just finished the season last night!)

Wanting: to be swimming or hiking

Looking forward to: going on a big road-trip on Sunday, and going to the fair tomorrow

A playlist and a promise

I, Violet Lastnamehere, hereby declare that I will post pictures of the finished product of my current sewing project, even if said finished product is horribly ugly and a complete disaster and actually not really even finished, assuming something goes wrong partway through and I just give up.

I'm making a bag with bunting-like accents hand-sewn on, for my mom, and I'm not using a pattern or anything, and I just really hope it's not too horrifically ugly. I mean, I'm using old shirts and old khaki pants to make it, so it's probably not going to be *~*gorgeous*~* or anything, but, still. Hopefully it'll turn out okay (or cute, even!).

Furthermore, I, Violet Lastnamehere, hereby declare that, when I'm finally able to get my hands on some damn popsicle molds, I will post pictures of the strawberry and lemonade popsicles I've been wanting to try making for the past 24 hours, even if they, too, turn out horribly.

I will now leave you with a link to this playlist, which I love even though I haven't listened to everything on it yet (it's huge!). It's by the girl who runs this tumblr, which is the best.

Compensating and self-motivating

Two posts in one day after months of radio silence? What?

Alright, it's possible I'm trying to make up for all those days and weeks and months during which I went about my merry way with no recollection whatsoever of this little old blog.

But here's the thing: I said in my earlier post that I couldn't promise I'd keep posting on this blog. Well, I'm still not gonna promise anything, but I came to this sudden realization after that last post and before this one that blogger and the blogs I follow really inspire me to do stuff. I mean, after writing and publishing that post, I looked through a few blogs I liked (and a few I have mixed feelings about but still like to turn to for inspiration), and then I suddenly decided I wanted to sew stuff. Now, last summer, I'd look at blogger a lot, and I'd get really, really inspired to do things. I wouldn't always go through with actually doing those things, but I'd at least be inspired to think about them. So, today, I decided I wanted to sew. So I started sewing. I'm nowhere near done with this, my first project (a bag with bunting-like accents for my mom), but I've started, and that's more than what I've been doing while hiding from the heat and recovering from the school year.

I think I'm done recovering! Or, at least, I'm gonna try to be. I'm gonna do stuff and have fun and be creative and be productive and that's that!

Or, well, we'll see.

And I'm gonna keep posting, I think. I'll post things about my projects, about artistic things I've done, purely wordy posts like my old ones, update/thought posts like this one, and maybe I'll even post some things I've written.

Again: we'll see.