"Storms a comin'. She's gonna blow."

As Robert McCloskey writes in his lovely children's book "Time of Wonder," storms are exciting times on the coast.  Huge waves and powerful winds batter the shore, and the sea spray mixes with the rains.  With all this talk, I'm a little excited to sit inside and watch the Irene this weekend.  Luckily, it should only be a tropical storm by the time it hits Maine - hopefully there won't be too much damage.  Should be interesting. 

I had a great trip to the beach today to prepare for the storm, where I finished my latest book, Barack Obama's "Dreams from My Father."  It was so interesting to hear about Obama's childhood and ancestry, and I'm glad I read it.  Here's the rest of my summer reading list: I need at least one more book for the summer (to get to 20). 

1. The Man of My Dreams
2. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
3. Thirteen Moons
4. Mountains Beyond Mountains
5. A Discovery of Witches
6. The Last Lecture
7. Chocolat
8. Blink
9. I Think I Love You
10. Commencement
11. The Elegance of the Hedgehog
12. Sisterhood Everlasting
13. Poisoned
14. Big Girl Small
15. The History of Love
16. In Cold Blood
17. Mortal Lessons
18. Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet
19. Dreams from My Father

An interesting mix...it has just been so great to be reading for fun again.

Exactly 2 weeks from today are Middlebury move-in and my 21st birthday, both of which I'm very excited for.  I can't wait for senior year, and spending the fall in Vermont (rowing on Lake Dunmore) is gorgeous. 

Finally, here's a song I've been listening to a lot lately.  It's very sunny side.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mtLKlB6XcC4

That's all for now, have a good weekend!

Craziness!

So it's the last three weeks of summer.  The end of junior year feels like it happened awhile ago, but at the same time I can't believe it's already the middle of August.  Here's what is on my agenda for the rest of the month:
-read as much as possible (soon to come: a list of what I've read this summer)
-buy a few things for school
-exercise a lot
-beach it

The big news of this post is that finally, after 20 years, I have gotten my ears pierced!  It was a pretty random decision, but I'm excited to enter this new chapter of my life.  Not so excited about dealing with them for the next six weeks...oh well, a sacrifice for fashion.  And you can imagine how cool I looked walking around the mall with my Claire's bag :)

Also, I just bought a clown fish pen drive.  So so cool. 

If you didn't see the NYTimes magazine today, here's a cool project being done to benefit the relief efforts in Japan: http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/08/21/magazine/mag-21Look-paper-cranes.html?ref=magazine

Finally, here's a song I have recently discovered - Don't Stop the Party by the Black Eyed Peas (I'm always a fan): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9LH_y159sg&ob=av3e

Peace out, enjoy the rest of the month!

August!!

I have a lot of stuff to get done today, so this is going to be a short post, but here are a few things of note:

1.  It's August!  I am getting really excited to head back to Vermont soonish, but in the meantime, I'm trying to soak up as much sun as possible and enjoy having free time.

2.  Speaking of soaking up the sun, I think this photo shows how successful my summer has been so far.

3.  I'm usually not a huge Colbie Caillat fan, but I do like this song a lot...very happy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KU5o6M7S5nQ&ob=av3e

That's all for now.  My family is off on a little vacation next week, which will be great.  Keep on the sunny side :)