thanksgiving.

I wanted to be a rain salesman,

carrying my satchel full of rain from door to door

selling thunder, selling the way air feels after a downpour,

but there were no openings in the rain department,

and so they left me dying behind this desk -- adding bleeps

subtracting chunks -- and I would give a bowl of wild blossoms,

some rain, and two shakes of my fist at the sky to be living.

(John Engman, Work).

my own office. appointments. meetings. schedule. heels that click. suit that fits. hard work. money. morning coffee. sharp. success. capability.

waves. weekends. tacos. sand. bikini. sunflower bouquets. barefeet. stretching. farmer's markets.

city. public transportation. crappy apartment above a thai food restaurant. disco naps. silly secretary job you can make just enough to scrape by with. light up dance floors. loud music. bright red lipstick.

back to school. learning. loans. cross-legged reading on a bed in an oversized university t-shirt. nighttime coffee. binge eating cheez-its. future plans. future anxiety.

five hippie, happy kids bouncing on couch cushions. fall leaf piles. a golden retriever. breakfast around a huge kitchen table. housing mortgage. paper hearts. popcorn ball recipes. goodbye freedom.

a writer.

change the world.

jet set. passport. bloody mary's in airport bars. chic bangs. art museums. all white apartment. sushi. happy hour. magazine articles and reviews.

scholarly. quiet. campus. preservation. pursuit. frozen in time. mothballs. bookshelves, butterfly collections, black and white movies. travel grants. research grants. published. walk to work down tree-lined paths. ivory tower.

oklahoma city thunder. the room with the wood floors. banging out the door for a run or spin class. waitress. cold pizza. wine. boredom. anxious. indecision. in love. a four week countdown to South America. and incapable of seeing anything past that.

(life, just fall into my lap).

simile.

"...but now her smile was fragmentary, it clung to her lips like cake crumbs."
(Truman Capote, Breakfast at Tiffany's).

san pellegrino, wedge pizza, almond joys.

Please bear with me, I want to recommit myself to this blog and write, write, write, write, write, write. and write.

(Kick in the pants to write more inspired by reading Mary Karr's Lit - which my boyfriend bought me at one of the best bookstores in the world, Square Books, in Oxford, Mississippi).

(Though I can guarantee I won't ever get sick of posting my beloved Sartorialist pictures).

oxford, ms.

i think that i still have it in my heart someday to paint a bookshop
with the front yellow and pink in the evening...
like a light in the midst of darkness.
(vincent van gogh).

what would we be without wishful thinking.

I'm obsessed with M. Sasek travel book illustrations.
And pretty much everything else Kate Spade draws inspiration from.

Wilco's entire Ghost Is Born album.

The White Stripes, Ugly As I Seem

The National, Mr. November

p.s.
I wish I had something insightful to say about the recent elections. But I don't.
It depresses me to think about how much government has the ability to get done and just doesn't. And that goes for both parties.

time warp.

So after one of my coworkers raved about a Lyric Theater production of Rocky Horror Show, Walker and I decided to catch a midnight performance.

...it's kind of a tradition that Walker and I see creepy, Halloween-esque things there (on our first official date we saw a performance of Sweeney Todd).

And if you haven't been to their new theater in the Plaza District, go! It's a seriously awesome venue.

Neither of us had ever even seen the movie before, so we didn't really know what we were getting ourselves into.

In a nutshell, it was really, really, really, really fun and scandalous and almost impossible to describe. But I'll try.

Costumes were encouraged, so we went with face paint and black caterer vests. And we thought we were awesome.

But garters, platform heels, lab coats, cleavage, huge hair and feather boas were more the norm. Unless you're going as preppy Brad and Janet.

Basically the audience is the key to the campy experience. There are so many dirty jokes, talk-back lines, props, hand gestures and nuanced comebacks that it's hard to keep up. And of course, everyone has to get up and dance to the Time Warp.

The best part was sitting by this 11-year-old boy who was yelling the most way too adult for his age, funny, spot-on comebacks with absolute confidence. He was with his mother and we guessed that she'd probably taken him to a million Rocky Horror productions. Now that's a childhood worth writing a novel about.

We also got a really yummy drink called "The Rocky" which definitely added to the experience.

I would put seeing Rocky Horror live on a To Do Before I Die list. Unbeatable.

And just in general, never be afraid of counterculture. You'll totally miss out.

p.s. Glee's Halloween episode theme is Rocky Horror. We couldn't have timed this more perfectly.

what you need:

love.

a blue beach.

a neon bikini.

white summertime dresses.

a tan.

board games.

a messy bun.

a hunter green convertible.

layered necklaces.

front porch chairs.

vacation.

via Miguelina's 2011 Honeymoon Collection.

I do realize I'm posting this just in time for fall weather. Ha.