Days Fifteen and Sixteen

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"Life lived amidst tension and busyness needs leisure. Leisure that recreates and renews. Leisure should be a time to think new thoughts, not ponder old ills." -C. Neil Strait

Great quote, right? At the very least, makes me feel significantly better about the fact that I have abandoned roughly all of my responsibilities--homework, updating this blog, etc.--in lieu of some hardcore 48-hour-long mental vegging. I know for a fact I'll be paying for it the remainder of the week (set aside a good eight hours tomorrow for homework alone) but then again, what's college without some flipping-your-shit last-minute stress-driven productivity? In other news, half-way there. 

• Show two four people how much they mean to me

(1). Cooked a not-so-wholesome dinner of lots of pasta for roommate #1, the boyfriend of roommate #1, roommate #2, and the boyfriend of roommate #2. If one cannot effectively escape the confines of fifth wheel, one should play the role of mother as to decrease level of patheticness. It's therapeutic  in some twisted, nonsensical, old-maid kind of way. 

(2). Talked a friend of a friend through a small crisis he was having; turns out we've got a lot more in common than I ever could've guessed. 

(3). Called my mother to let her know that I appreciate her; the more I strive for this whole consciousness thing, the more I realize how exhausting it is to try and love unconditionally all of the time. I've been on this earth for twenty-one years and twenty-eight days, and that woman has not put herself first for one second of that time. 

(4). Spent the day with this lovely lady to talk through some stuff, though I'll admit that my motives weren't 100% selfless, as it was equally remedial for me. 

• Help out a two stranger[s]

(1). Let a woman--one who was seemingly in more of a rush than I was--jump ahead of me in line. 

(2). Asked this adorable old dude if he needed some help digging his car out of the snow. He declined, but whatever. I tried. 

• Live instead of sleeping

Yes for day fifteen. No for day sixteen. I've decided that I can live with only getting this one right half of the time. A). What's life without a little balance? And B). I'm a straight-up bitch without sleep. 

• Do something good for myself, by myself

Things were pretty much completely shut down around here due to the snow, so both Friday and today, I figured rather than being bored as shit because of it, I'd show Nemo who's boss and brave it. Yeah, like Bear Grylls but winter-style. Just kidding, my legs got cold and my phone died so I went home. Observe these pictures of snow and trees and stuff that, in retrospect, basically all look the same. 

• Write here and write elsewhere

Check (eventually) and check (sort of). Like I said, received less-than-overachiever status these past two days. 

• Make a conscious decision to leave my comfort zone

Finally worked up the guts to start a conversation with this kid in one of my classes who really, really intrigues me. The soft-spoken-but-still-really-badass kind of intrigue. Like, 

So we talked about old-school video games, and then when we got on the topic of more recent ones, he informed me that, in his opinion, Vice City is superior to San Andreas. Yeah. I'm sensing a long-lived friendship and a hell of a lot of potential respect points. 

• Take three six pictures of three six beautiful things.

(1). See above x5
(6). See this ball of adorableness that came over to greet me on my walk. Look at that face and tell me that your heart isn't a puddle inside your chest. 

• Meditate

First thing this morning. Didn't even touch my feet to the floor beforehand. Feels good, man. 

• Look up at the sky 

Absolutely love how light the sky looks right before a nighttime blizzard. Like the snow thins out the clouds and the moon can shine right through them. 

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