"Fall back!"

In a world where college students’ umbrellas turn inside out, and the streets are flooded with water and fallen leaves….

(insert dramatic music here)

If feel like we have been here before. Cold weather, lots of rain, very little hope of seeing a smidgen of sunlight. It’s back. Fall has returned.

I was peeking out from under my umbrella this morning and couldn’t help but think of several pumpkin flavored recipes. It sounds odd, but when the colors change, suddenly I crave seasonal spices and flavors. As a college student living off campus, I have to cook for myself, and therefore my culinary world is expanding faster than you can say “Sundried tomato pesto turkey Panini’s”!

I find that fall weather is the perfect time of year to be contemplative, really sift through the memories you have made. Go through all the imaginary files in your brain and thumb through all that you have learned and absorbed like a sponge.

As I sit at this familiar window at work, I ponder what I was doing on this day last year…. Was I just as cold and wet from walking the distance from campus to work? Was I happy? Upset? What was I working on? What was I thinking at the time? How did I define myself then? Surely I cannot be the same person now.

It’s strange to think how, in a year, you can change and develop so much. College is the place for expanding your horizons in countless ways: making friend, getting involved in different activities, actually learning how to dance, falling in love, getting your heart broken, making mistakes, and learning from said mistakes, re-defining yourself, making a foundation for yourself and for the big world to see. It’s quite a road to travel, but you certainly aren’t alone!

365 days and you are still here, reading my blog, seeing a different me than I was last year. Writing and conveying words to an entirely different reader than you were last year at this time.

Woah.

That’s pretty nifty, if I dare say so myself.

If you don’t believe me, just sit back and take a few moments to ponder how far you have come in life, and be sure to give yourself a big pat on the back for hanging in there through the “life is a bitch” times and shining your best at “yes! This is totally awesome!” moments.

I am mentally giving you all a high five.

Be sure to bundle up today if you live in a rainy and cold environment like myself, if you do not, I’m totally jealous. Let’s hit the beach.

Keep smiling!

~Piper

It's a new dawn....it's a new day....

It's a new life.

And I'm feeling....good.

Actually no, not good, things have been rather hectic and crazy around here. Not favorable in the least, but hopefully things will improve and the sun will come out and the freezing ice rain will leave us alone!

So...yeah...hi there. You probably don't remember me or recognize me for that matter, since I am covered in dust and dressed in the shadows of a forlorn corner of the mind. I was kindly reminded that I had not posted a blog in a while, and I realized exactly just how long it has been!

Not a whole lot has changed since my last post, a pity to those who were seeking mind-blowing excitement and earth-shattering stories of my day to day life. Nevertheless, I will tell you that the seasonal colors are absolutely gorgeous, rain is absolutely dreadful to walk though in high heels even with an umbrella, coffee is slowly but surely wearing off on me...I think I need to take a break, and last but not least MIDTERMS are over! We can all take a wee bit of a breather now that the planets are back in order and school is less stressful.

A little tid-bit that you might enjoy is my Halloween costume! This has been in the making for the past couple weeks now and AT LAST it is finished! I am dressing up at the eternally gorgeous Audrey Hepburn in her classic role of Holly Golightly in "Breakfast at Tiffany's", it shall be super fun to do and I cannot wait until I am in full Audrey mode! Watch out world, for one night and one night only, a crazy girl in college is about to take on the great role of a fabulous actress!

I hope you all have your costumes picked out or at least have a rough idea as to what you want to be. If not, e-mail me, I have a million awesome suggestions!

Now that I have assured you that I am not dead (yet), I promise I will get back to a regular blog posting schedule here soon. Perhaps updating on just tuesdays. We shall see how it goes. Until then, thank you for hanging in there! I shall see you in the next post!

Keep smiling.

~Piper