Nostalgia

I've been having a couple of very nostalgic/sad-for-no-reason-except-missing-things days. It all started the other night when I went to a Stella and Dot jewelry party (love!) with my friend Jenn, and her friend Caroline who I had never met. Caroline is a music teacher, and told me about an adult singing group she's in called Collegium. Collegium is the choir I sang in all 4 years at Wake! I told her that I had sung in a choir non-stop from 6th grade through every semester of college. She encouraged me to look into joining, and I'm definitely thinking about it! I just hope my traveling work schedule will allow.

Yesterday I was trolling around facebook, as I so often do to waste hours of my life, and I saw that one of my friends had recently connected with Dr. Gorelick, the music professor at WF, and director of the Collegium choir I was in all those semesters. It was so fun to see his profile and befriend him online! Also of note: Dr. G is Kenny G's brother. The G stands for Gorelick. Fantastic! So anyway, both of those things added up to me being very sad and missing my former singing life, and mostly my Wake Forest life. Ugh.

I took Collegium every semester during my 4 years at Wake--every Tuesday and Thursday at 4:30. It was an hour of my life that was not consumed by business school or writing papers or much thinking in general. Pure fun! I miss that. The last Collegium class I went to right before I graduated was when all the sadness of leaving college hit me for the first time. The rest of the class got little gifts and flowers for the seniors, and I remember hugging Dr. G and crying all the way back to my dorm room. Thinking about that day right now still makes me sad, and makes me long for those Tuesday and Thursday afternoons. Today at 4:30 I'll probably be getting ready to leave work, go home and make myself some dinner, and get ready for another work day tomorrow. Then, I would've walked home after choir, talked to Erin about her day, eaten dinner at the Pit and hung out with my friends until a late(r) bedtime. I miss it!

Alright, enough reminiscing about that. I am excited for homecoming in the fall, and will be content dreaming about moving back to NC one day! As for other excitements, John is running a 5k this weekend at the Green Bean Festival in Blairsville, GA in the mountains! I can't wait...you all know I love a good festival. Then we're going tubing on the river. So excited.

Any fun weekend plans, friends? Any nostalgia for a time gone by that you'd like to share? Just curious :)

What a freak

I'm talking about myself, course. As I'm sitting here freezing to death in the office, while enjoying a Frosted Orange (aka milkshake) from the Varsity, I came across this photo of a simulated car wash from Copenhagen Design Week (and photo courtesy of the NYT):

It reminds me of a memory I haven't thought of in years and years. In the late 80s and early 90s (the heyday of my childhood..sigh), my mom drove a gigantic white Buick. Whenever she took it to the carwash, there would be little pieces of the rubber carwash brushes like the ones above, stuck in the cracks near the windows and mirrors. I--for some obviously unknown reason--called those little pieces of stuff "information". That's right, little broken off pieces of carwash material was "information" to me. I was, like, four years old. Who am I? It took my parents months to figure out what I was talking about when I talked about finding "information" stuck to the outside of the car. Who knows what I was thinking...

They still laugh about it sometimes, but I hadn't thought about information in years. Its funny how one picture of something so mundane can take you right back to childhood. For me that means small town North Carolina in circa 1990. A little slice of heaven.

Sometimes nostalgia just starts to take over my brain like that...I don't really mind, either. I just cannot wait to go home and be surrounded by the best people I know this weekend. I don't care how old I get or how long I live away from NC, it'll always be home and I'll always get homesick if I don't go back often enough.

Pointless Nostalgia

Anyone who knows me knows that I'm an extremely nostalgic person. I hold onto scraps of anything that remind me of a special time or a person I miss. I have a hard time throwing away class notes from 6th grade. I have every movie ticket stub from the last decade. And in our increasingly digital/computerized world, I told onto texts and voicemails and emails that I probably shouldn't. I can become nostalgic about everything. The good news is: apparently, I'm not the only one! This recent NY Times article talks about Generation Y's affliction of being nostalgic about the not so distant past, because it reminds us of our childhoods (mere years ago) and provides us comfort.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/23/fashion/23nostalgia.html?_r=2&adxnnl=1&ref=fashion&adxnnlx=1249051672-ZbPIjhOQl8TXaPrKoMJYDg (for some reason my linking isn't working correctly, so you get a big ugly link!).

I'm proud to report today that I'm starting fresh (in baby-step kind of ways). Last night I forced myself to delete some things from my phone and computer that I'd been holding onto for no reason in particular--just because its what I do, and always have done. Anyway, it hurt to press "delete", but I almost felt lighter once I did. It provided a lot more release than I had expected. So, my fresh start is beginning just before a big, long two week trip to our nation's capital. I've been looking forward to this trip for months! Not only do I get to see K again, but Emily is coming for a weekend and I get to see KT and Ash, too! Personally, I'm excited about all of the above, but seeing my Big in particular. She is one of the best listening/ranting/complaining/commisserating partners I have. It kills me that I don't ever get to talk to her in person anymore, but I'll finally get to see her in a few days!

Happy weekend to everyone, and safe travels if you are going anywhere exciting! I'll update as much as I can from D.C. K and I have decided the ultimate goal for the week is to take a half decent facebook photo--hopefully we'll succeed!

Another Year's Gone By

Oh my God what do I see, over my shoulder
Now that a year's gone by
Can't escape this memory, its burning brighter
Now that a year's gone by
And I try, not to linger, but I'll still cry
Now that a year's gone by
I hope we'll try to find some peace
Take from our history what is meant to be
Eventually the truth is plain to see
Another year's gone by
Oh my God it's part of me,
this burning anger I feel the fever rise,
fill my heart with harmony
Let it spill over, touch us deep inside
So an eye, it won't be taken, for an eye
Now that a year's gone by
I hope we'll try to find some peace
Take from our history what is meant to be
Eventually the truth is plain to see
Another year's gone by
Oh my God please answer me, why are we fighting
If you're on everybody's side
If we can't stop this misery in your name and put our fear aside
We'll be gone before we know it, blink of an eye
Another year's gone by
I hope we'll try to find some peace
Take from our history what is meant to be
Eventually the truth is plain to see
Another year's gone by

Hootie lyrics are appropriate for every occassion!

Daddy, Mom and me a year ago:)

Some of the best people in the world.