The Current Edition

The past few months have sped right past me, leaving me with various little bruises but rosy, hopeful cheeks. I’ve been living with this strange expectancy, knowing full well what I must do but not knowing how it will come to pass. I’ve got a path, but I can’t see where it goes because my eyes are stuck on either the cobblestones beneath my feet or the swirling clouds above my head. The trees are walking along beside me, watching to see which way these feet will take me. I’ve been liberated from the frustrating and tedious process of filling out university applications (having submitted the very last just shy of two weeks ago), and have currently received acceptance letters from Washington State University in Pullman, WA and the University of Idaho in Moscow, ID. They happen to be about fifteen miles away from each other, and I’m not too jazzed about either. I should hear back from the rest sometime this week, and will be making a decision over the next two months.
The determining factors will be as follows:
1. Quality of program. (Will it prepare me for immediate employment?)
2. Length of time required to complete said program. (How will my credits transfer?)
3. Cost of attendance, especially as relates to above. (Out of state vs. In state, grants, scholarships, etc.)
4. Location. (Middle of nowhere, ID vs. Charlottesville, VA- is there really a contest?)
I guess I should inform my readership (which I believe consists of one, maybe two people) what relevance all of this university talk has. Well, I received an Associate’s Degree last Spring, and have since been attempting to learn how to stand on my two feet and obtain some “real life” education before stepping back into the academic world. This past year has been a fantastic crash course in life, but I’m on the edge of losing my sanity- working at a coffeeshop full time is not exactly leading me toward a career in Landscape Architecture, which is what I really want to do, so- I’m packing everything up and heading off to a university this Fall. Woohoo! I feel completely inadequate, unprepared, and terrified, but damnit, I’m excited. I’m not as concerned where I go as maybe I should be, but I am excited as hell to a) get out of Fredericksburg, b) go to college, and c) start focusing on what I want to make of myself.
I am also happy to be making some tentative plans for the summer. I hope to take a long trip out West- there is a niece and a nephew I have yet to meet, a brother I haven’t seen in years, beautiful natural monuments to revisit, parents to spend time with, a niece to hang out with in Seattle, a huge book store to be perused and various street signs to take pictures underneath in Portland, an organic farm and bed & breakfast to stay at in Idaho, and miles and miles of empty road to pass through. I’m dreaming of mountains and the smell of sagebrush after an afternoon thunderstorm. I really hope I can get my fella out to see why I love the West so much, and why even after falling in love with Virginia’s rolling hills, there’s still a part of me that craves the wild and untamable.
Which leads me to my next order of business. In order to make my summer plans a reality, I have to make a few changes. Over the next two and a half or so months, I’ll be slashing my list of possessions down by at least half, and living like I should have been living all along- simply. I’ll hopefully be giving away a lot of my clothing, and any other little things others may have need or want of, mostly books, art supplies, kitchen accessories, blankets, and other bits of unnecessaries I have managed to acquire over the past few years. It’s amazing how much stuff I have, and how little of it I actually use. But I digress- anything I can do to save money (not going out, not consuming) and to make money (possibly selling a painting or two) I must do, because sadly, I cannot barter my way out West or safely rely on my good looks. So I guess this is my public declaration of my intentions, and hopefully a way in which I can hold myself accountable. I shall be chronicling this journey to simplicity, to my beautiful west, and to landscape architecture, and I hope, beyond.

How’s that for laying on the cheese?

Here are my current/most recent inspirations:

Andy Goldsworthy- Thanks to a thoughtful Valentine's Day gift : )

I guess I always have to have some spiritual inspiration...

I love it when people lend me books!

Sixto Rodriguez, really random but pretty awesome.

Thoreau. Need I say more?