Desiderata

I'm sitting at a bar right now listening to these two really hot girls talk about how nice they are with an overly attentive, gay bartender. There are about fifteen different sized television sets playing various late night shows and sports. "I cain't help myself, I luh you and nobody else" blasts all around me. There's a general sense of merriment in the whole establishment; I'm alone and happy. I just went and saw a movie by myself. I've never done that before. I have never seen a movie. Just kidding. But yeah, I've never been to a movie by myself. I didn't have any plans for the evening and I was really itching to see Divergent , so I just did it. I've read the books and really enjoyed the first one. It's chock full of young adulty-cliches and tropes, and sometimes I just eat that shit up. The film was really long but I was kind of happy about that. When you're looking for something to fill your evening, sometimes there's noth...

Being 25 is so strange. Things are changing in big ways, and I'm hyper-aware of it all. Days don't go by in the lazy-hazy way they did when I was in college or high school. Things seemed to magically take care of themselves and all I had to do was study, get good grades and show up to my part time job. I lived in a dreamworld back then, where songs were heartbreaks and anthems and I survived on a diet of coffee and popcorn. I didn't question much and lived pretty comfortably in a constant  state of nebulousness. The most difficult thing I had to figure out was if I wanted to study Brit Lit or World Art, and did I want to do so at the Coffee Bean or Starbucks???! These were real dilemmas. Of course, I do remember college being stressful at times: balancing work, studies and play, but there was a cloud of innocence that seemed to blanket everything, and allowed me to dwell in a deliciously whimsical state of mind. As I'm entering into true adulthood, I feel like ever...

My last post inspired some of my friends to join me in eliminating social media from our daily routines. It certainly wasn't my intention to have everyone up-and-leave Facebook and Insta, but it's nice to have people doing this with me. Solidarity, sister. I just got back from spending my first weekend without any social media interaction in Orange County, and I have to say--I absolutely LOVED it. I spent long hours talking with my mom one on one into the wee hours of the night. I went on a hike/run with my sister and nephew the next morning. The weather was bright, clear and I got terribly sunburned. After a glorious shower, I played soccer golf with my entire family and my dad's staff. My dad's company sponsored the tournament, which was a fundraising event for Pure Game (which teaches non-competitive soccer to at-risk youths). After several margaritas, doing handstands in the grass and the satisfaction of coming in 4th out of 36 teams, I went to Shane's dad...

I'm unplugging from social media for a bit. I'll keep Facebook Messenger to talk in our friend groups, because it seems impossible to get everyone on a different service, but I will not be on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, etc. for an indefinite amount of time. I thought about keeping it a secret, but unfortunately, I need more accountability... Because I sit at a desk all day, it is SO easy for me to get stuck on these sites. Whether it's on my phone or on the computer, I find that I am wasting so much time on these platforms. When I wake up, the first thing I do is reach for my phone to browse through Facebook and Instagram. Just wanna see what people were doing and thinking and eating while I was sleeping ... There's something wrong about that. When I wake up, what if I went straight outside and felt the sunshine, or made coffee, or read a book? The habit of immediately turning to social media kind of sickens me, and simply put, it's not the way I want t...

(Reblog) THE IDLER: How to do nothing Words by Nikaela Marie Peters Photograph by Maja Norrman for Kinfolk As people get older, they realize that time is more valuable than money. And finding more time to do absolutely nothing is perhaps exactly what we all need. It’s the stuff of gods and infants—the birthplace of great works of art, philosophy and science. The habit of doing nothing at all is super-important to our individual and cultural well-being, yet it seems to be dying in our digitized age. Far from laziness, proper idleness is the soul’s home base. Before we plan or love or decide or act or storytell, we are idle. Before we learn, we watch. Before we do, we dream. Before we play, we imagine. The idle mind is awake but unconstrained, free to slip untethered from idea to idea or meander from potential theory to potential truth. Thomas Aquinas argued that “it is necessary for the perfection of human society that there should be men who devote their lives to contemplation.” I...