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Lights out

Today, March 27th, from 8:30-9:30 pm, hundreds of thousands of people are turning off their lights to save the Earth.

I will be. Celebrate Earth Hour and be a part of the solution.

Today's lesson

Today, I woke with a mission- I would free up some room on my computer and copy the bulk of my digital camera pictures onto a CD.

I spent nearly four hours doing this. I painstakingly browsed through each picture; copying them, naming them, categorizing them. Then, the moment of truth came, and I wrote all the files onto a CD-R. Everything went smoothly, until…

Cannot write these files to CD. Please try again.

What? Could this really be happening? I spent all day on this!

I switched to another disk.

Cannot write these files to a CD. Please try again.

I was starting to panic. I checked the disks and made sure they were the right kind I needed. They were.

I dug through blank CDs and found another one. Then I stayed at the computer and stared at the screen as it tried again to write my files. Finally…

Copy Successful.

During my last nail-biting attempt to copy my files, something occurred to me: all I could think about for the past four hours was all the other things I could have been doing this morning. I took all this effort for granted; as if slow, meticulous, patient work on something, even something mundane, was somehow not worth my time. I was suddenly faced with the very real possibility that all that unappreciated effort might be completely in vain over something I could not control. Hours wasted. Hard work wasted.

My inner solution was to be grateful. Grateful that I still had the pictures on my computer, so nothing would be lost forever. Grateful that the pictures were taken because I had wonderful moments to make them memories. Grateful that I even have a computer to store photos on, and an apartment to keep that computer in. As a token of gratitude, I will post the (in my opinion) best photos I had the pleasure of spending four hours staring at below (and above):

Got inspiration?

This video is amazing. A very talented young man showcases his talents with...crutches. Usually something that makes me think of challenges, becomes a symbol of strength.











And if that weren't enough, this video brought me and Husband to tears.

The world will turn

Spring is infiltrating Santa Cruz. Downtown is once again filled with people, enjoying the sunshine and the Ocean breeze. People making statements and turning heads. The boardwalk is open again. Santa Cruz remembers its inner child.

Jacket off. It's time to get serious.


Neary Lagoon is alive with activity. Animals, humans, reptiles, and amphibians alike enjoy their wildlife sanctuary in its peak of beauty.

Welcome, Spring.

Welcome to my humble world

I spent a lot of time fantasizing about creating this blog, what I would write in it, who my readers would be. Now that it's finally here and I am writing my first much anticipated post, I find I have nothing to say. Or at least, nothing I feel would be of any worth or interest to others. I decided to start a recycling craft project (details on that later) and revolve my first post around that. Sort of as a, "Hello world! This is what this blog is about; this what I can contribute to your time and your life." But I think the most appropriate place to begin would be with honesty.

I love to write, but I especially love to read. My favorite author, Sue Bender, has a particularly real writing style. She doesn't try to sugar coat things or impress her readers in any extravagant way. She impacts them by simply being her raw, honest self. Uninhibited and uncensored, which makes her work compelling and easy to relate to. Most importantly, when I read her books, I discover I am realizing my own inner thoughts and feelings that I have been too busy, distracted, or afraid to consider. I would like to extend the same meaning here, in my blog.

So, on that note, a little about myself: I am a woman in her mid-twenties in a transitional phase. My years of blissfully egocentric youth are coming to an end, and I am realizing and accepting the life and responsibilities of a woman. Its been a pleasant road thus far, filled with new opportunities and major emotional growth spurts. Its also been a terrifying, difficult road that has tested my limits and made me want to balk and run.

I created this blog because I love to...well, create. As mentioned above, writing is a passion of mine. I hope to use this space as a creative outlet for it, as well all the other wacky things I get to see and do.