Bats in the Belfry, Cats in the Attic

This post is coming way too late! I am just finishing my semester at school, though, and the workload is starting to slow down (but not for long!).  So, late last month, I went with my boyfriend to New Orleans.  I've been dreaming of visiting this city for years, and I finally took the chance to go. When we arrived from our bus, we went to go eat some tasty beignets at Café du Monde and then proceeded to walk all around the French Quarter, stopping at shops as we went along. While we were there, we got to stop in old Catholic churches and pray, we had some delicious New Orleans food and drinks (Ramos Gin Fizz at Bar Tonique being my favorite), we got to see a great down and dirty blues band on Frenchman street, and we met some really cool locals who told us their stories. One of the ladies, who had thirteen cats who lived in her shop, told us her Hurricane Katrina story. Another guy, an Oi! punk working at a hat shop, talked with us and gave us free beer. It's no wonder s...

This post is coming pretty late, but I've had a lot going on recently and not much time. Better late than never, I suppose! As I just mentioned, I did not have much time this year. Halloween was fast approaching, and before I knew it, it was the eve of Halloween, and I had no costume. Thankfully, I already had some ghoulish pieces in my wardrobe. This year, I incorporated my stitched tights, a babydoll dress, and some doll-like accessories for the haunted doll look. After that, I topped it off with white powder foundation, rosy cheeks, creative eyeliner, and black lipstick.  With my boyfriend- I gave him fight makeup Also, I just had my 21st birthday yesterday! It was a wonderful weekend.

Sometimes, I get the inexplicable desire to paint patches. This time, I had an image of the moon phases in my head. The next thing I knew, I was pinning the patch on to the back of my jean vest. I was very pleased with how it turned out. What do you think? In progress The finished product

There's something special about a good haircut. For me, having a fresh haircut, especially if it is an interesting style, gives me a spring in my step. I gain a little more confidence, and I get just a bit more excited about getting dressed and ready in the morning (or in many cases, afternoon). I had previously been wanting to grow out my hair after having much of it buzzed close to my scalp, so for a while, I grew it almost to my shoulders in my natural color. All the while, I craved something different. After I got tired of the color, I dyed it purple. Then, I was somewhat happy with it for a short while. Now, I am back to a short, punky haircut. I don't think I'll be cutting it anymore for the time being. Rooster comb hair next to a rooster bell.

As soon as Lion was released in June, I went to various stores to get my hands on a copy. It was after having little luck that I turned to amazon, receiving a copy of the deluxe version in the mail (which comes with the album + a live Bauhaus set). I put the CD in my car's player and subsequently jammed out for about a week straight including on the way to an observatory trip with my lovely and handsome astronomer. With great care, Ryan had planned out our evening for when Peter Murphy was to roll up into town (7 August, 2014). I got all dolled up in a white dress, since Peter Murphy commented about no one wearing white on his Ninth tour, and I did my hair up in a braided turban wrap with a flower headband.  Ryan took me out to dinner at a place called Bone Garden Cantina ( link ), which is a Day of the Dead themed restaurant filled with beautiful paintings and sculptures. Ryan had a nice looking margarita with a taco and enchilada, and I had a couple of hibiscus (flores de ...

Most of you don't know that I have started doing private English as a second Language tutoring in addition to my other work. I just had my last session with a female student around my age who is from Saudi Arabia. Over the course of time that she's been here,  I had the fortune of spending Ramadan with this student, her sister, and her aunt. We got to break her fast together after sunset during our lessons (they make such wonderful food). I have gotten to know this student and her family, and they are some of the kindest, most welcoming people I have ever met. This is why when we went to a restaurant before one of our last lessons, I was especially upset at and personally offended by the manager who was so obviously discriminatory.  My student was just ending her Ramadan fast, and since I once had mentioned my appreciation of Mexican food during a conversation, she told me that she wanted to go out to eat with me at a Mexican restaurant. I looked up a restaurant close to he...

It has dawned on me that I have been a vegetarian for almost five whole months! I made the decision originally because I was experiencing some major GI issues, for which I had to go on horrible medication, and I thought that cutting meat out of my diet would be the best decision for my health. What really put my heart into it, however, was an experience I had on the long drive home from school. That evening, a chicken truck slowly pulled into the lane beside me during bumper-to-bumper traffic. I saw a myriad of large, half-deplumed chickens stuffed into stacks of unreasonably small metal cages. None of them were moving at first, so part of me wondered if they were stunned or already dead. That was until I saw a few of them blinking and barely moving their heads. Seeing that brought tears to my eyes. I felt a choke in my throat as I wondered why the meat industry had to be so cruel and unnatural. Witnessing this was the impetus to becoming vegetarian, which has had many positive impacts...

from Festival of Chariot's gallery My boyfriend and I were driving , and along the road we see colorful tents not yet set up. We saw a sign that said, "Festival of Chariots." He looked over and said, "Oh, that's the Hare Krishna festival. They had one when I lived in D.C." I looked over with a smile, and subliminally he got my message...I had already decided that we would be going. For those of you who don't know, Hare Krishna of International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) is a small religion (some say cult) that is an offshoot of Hinduism that was formed in the 1960's. It's often associated with people with shaved heads and saffron robes. White is a funeral color in India, but also practical to stave off the heat. We went yesterday with my mother, and it was a pleasant surprise. I wanted to go mainly for the delicious vegetarian food, but also for the cultural value. We were surprised to have only received one pamphle...

Last week, I returned from a vacation to Williamsburg, Virginia. For those of you who don't know, Williamsburg has a whole section of the city (Colonial Williamsburg) that was restored to look like it did in the colonial days complete with "interpreters" and tours. Williamsburg is also home to the beautiful College of William and Mary, the second oldest college in the United States. I will share my pictures, so without further ado: Governor's Palace Marquis de Lafayette  The College of William and Mary was founded in 1693. Although I love my school, I considered applying to W&M, and I know I would have loved the old buildings with all the legends and tradition at this school. We were able to take a ghost tour of Williamsburg, and there were a few stops at William and Mary. One of the Haunted Buildings, because of suicides.  The building above, home to the English Department, had some interesting stories that I remember. One of the students...

source The first time I read One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez, I was mesmerized. I stumbled at first when trying to tell the characters' similar names apart, but each one was so colorful that I found even stumbling through the names , constantly referring back to the family tree in the front of the book, irresistible. Márquez had a way of exploring humanity with his words. He captured love, failures, struggles, beauty, and ugliness, and he wove it into magic. I found out about an event in my area called "100 Readers of Solitude." It was an event at which 100 volunteers would read from Márquez's pages in a tribute to his life and body of work. I decided to go on a day that rained in torrents. One of the readers quoted a passage about rain , saying "The air was so damp that fish could have come in through the doors and swum out the windows, floating through the atmosphere in the rooms." My favorite reading was about Remedios the B...