dear dandelion, you are

and i think one of the most beautiful things just might be
spring breezes in the summer
warm breezes in the winter
serendipitous surprises just because
just because you are who you are
and, love, this is all you ever needed to hear
orange lullabies and bedtime stories we still hold dear
and the sparrow chirps back when its babies call
the flowers dance even as the nights they fall 
because someone out there just maybe, really knows
how this story was meant to go, yet
that doesn’t stop us from hoping, holding, making wishes
turning just any other dandelion from weed to wings as
the spring breeze blows even as far north as we are.
and ice-cream and stickers that glow in the dark
and animal hats and cake and wandering stars 
still do sing, truly. so he takes her hand, truly.
and i think this just might be one of the most beautiful things
this life this love this everything in the everyday this
just because you are. you are.

mickey mouse photomosaic puzzle. :)

so, as a summer tradition, we started working on a new 1000 piece puzzle a few weeks ago.

yes, kyoko, our cat, has been helping too.

the first few days we made a lot of progress, and then when it came down to doing just the blue background pieces everyone kind of gave up on it, until i started working on it again, but with just one person working on it, and only for about 10 or so minutes every other day, it has been pretty slow.

especially considering how our cat made it her new favourite naptime spot, forcing us to rebuild parts that we had already finished each time we sat down to work on it. until we finally decided to stack a bunch of books and things on top of the puzzle each time we were taking a break from working on it. xD

anyway, we finally finished the background, and the latest state of the puzzle is this:

and now no one wants to fill in the black pieces because they are the hardest to do. XD

even the one piece needed to finish the nose! xP haha.

just a bit of summertime magic.

dear reader,

you know what looks really magical to me?

something that looks as though it is straight out of a fairytale?

these little white fuzzy things that look like dandelion fluff flying around in the air! when they’re all gathered, and just blissfully floating in the breeze. it looks so dreamlike ❤ i feel like they are tiny fairies, or lost wishes, or pieces of old memories, or other precious things you could capture and keep in jars (but that are much more beautiful when set free~) i feel like i should chase them or something. and they’ll lead me to a place. a place where wishes come true* haha.

googling them up led me to these:
http://www.fitsugar.com/All-Fluff-Your-Seasonal-Allergies-303967
http://www.mnn.com/local-reports/illinois/local-blog/airborne-fluff-the-cottonwood-tree
http://www.abundantnature.com/2012/06/fuzzy-white-flying-bugs.html

whatever they may be, aren’t they just magical? ❤

the image of them all floating in the air brings up pretty, magical pictures like these in my head, so:

              

okay, that’s all for now. :3

love,

– rain.

*oh, just a Clannad reference 😛

 

OH. sources for the images:
http://lilium.tumblr.com/
http://usernameisbeingused.tumblr.com/
http://hellyeskingdomhearts.tumblr.com/

catch-up post. about musical theatre class. :)

so, as mentioned before, in the spirit of carpe diem summer, i joined a musical theatre class with my sister a few weeks ago. :O

here’s what i was going to post after our first class a few weeks back:

“so we just attended our first musical theatre class the other day, and it was pretty fun! 😀

everyone was really nice, and i was surprised to discover that despite my lack of any acting/singing background, i was not the least experienced person there! ^-^ and also despite being younger than most of the other people in the class, we were treated pretty equally 😀 and we fit in pretty well, i think. :3 

 

so yeah, it was really fun. and i felt really comfortable there.

until they all started naming these famous musicals and talking about singing and things (something i have no experience in D: nor proper knowledge of) and then i felt a little silly because when they said “larger than life”, i thought of backstreet boys, when they said “seymour” i thought of final fantasy x, when they said “jekyll & hyde”, i thought of this:

 

and out all the (about five) musicals that i knew of, three of them i knew of because of glee! xD oh my goodness, i’m so un-deep. :P”

 

haha. but no, the class is actually really fun, and the people are all amazing, and i’m glad we made this spontaneous decision to join it. ^^ now. hopefully i won’t be completely embarassing during the performance at the end of the class! ^^” hehe…

 

BUT! speaking of the performance 😀 we got so lucky with the song they gave us~ judging from all the musicals they were naming the first class, we figured we’d get some famous song we aren’t really familiar with and have to learn it from scratch but we got like one of our favourite songs that we’ve been singing since we were kids! 😀 as a duet too! yay~ we even have the song listed as songs to practice for fun in our carpe diem summer’s to do list from earlier! 

 

how serendipitous~

 

 

the problem with me is,

i (often) don’t know what i want.

see, if i did, then i would go for it.
because that’s what i believe in.

but i (often) don’t. (know what i really want).

 

 

and that’s the problem.

i joined a musical theatre class :<

so one of the things i’ve always loved was the idea of working on a huge project together with a lot of people, and then finally presenting it to an audience (like they do in those movies about performances and stuff xD).

i used to be one of the quieter kids back in elementary/middle school, so even if i was part of some of the school plays and performances, i always felt like i was kind of on the sidelines, or not really there.

and in high school, i didn’t join many clubs, nor take any drama classes, or anything, so.

i often felt like i kind of missed out on that feeling of a “performance”, haha.

 

so in the spirit of carpe diem summer,
my sister and I apparently decided to join a musical theatre class with a stage performance at the end i don’t know how this is going to go – the first class is today 😡 – and i’m a little nervous – i hope everyone there isn’t too much older than me – i have a knack for kind of embarrassing myself in situations, since i’m such a silly person LOL! – aaahhhh *fingers crossed* xD hope this goes welllll. wish me luck? :B

 

oh, by the way.
i have no experience in either singing or acting. oh my~

carpe diem summer~ (2012) :)

 

one of the best times of my life, that really changed the way i do things, the way i think about things, was this one summer we (my sister and I) refer to as “carpe diem summer”. (the above picture is something my sister created as a representation of our summer by the way. for a school project. :))

i’ve mentioned it a few times before, either on this blog, or my little adventure blog (or the tumblr equivalents of each), but i feel like i never really got to do a whole recap of it the way i’ve been meaning to.

 

quoting from my earlier posts, how the carpe diem summer started was basically this:

“

You don’t have to build a roller-coaster
To find your own way, to make the most of 
Every minute. No more waiting for the right time, you’re in it.
So grab those opportunities when you see ‘em!
‘Cause everyday’s a brand new day! You gotta’ carpe diem!
– Phineas and Ferb

Inspired by an episode we watched near the beginning of last summer [a Phineas and Ferb episode with a song about seizing the day (or “Carpe diem!”)], we got this idea to make the most of our summer by trying something new each day! Grabbing opportunities, doing things we always wanted to do, and letting go of inhibitions + getting in touch with our inner child…ren? xD

“

 

so basically, our goal was to go out and try new things everyday.

 

we didn’t have the ability (nor desire) to go on huge adventures like travelling the world or anything, but that was actually kind of the point.

(i mean, phineas and ferb do almost everything from the comfort of their backyard! ok not really, but you know what i mean, haha.)

 

the point was to make the most out of everyday opportunities! to look around for things that i usually miss. to be myself, be weird, be crazy, have fun and make some scenes.

instead of just spending all of my summer in front of the computer, or cooped up at home. 🙂

 

so.

step one.

we made a list of “summer goals”. started out pretty short and simple.

 

then.

we got this journal:

 

and our list of things to do started getting longer and longer.

it kept evolving, changing and growing, as summer went by, and by the end of it, we had something like this:

 

we had to edit a few of our original goals as we see fit.

(this is one of my favourites XD lol)

 

and most of all, we had a ton of fun:

 

🙂

 

anyway.

 

i learned a lot of things and all in all, this was one of the best times of my life. and i’m planning to do something like this again, for this summer! ^-^ my first summer out of undergrad (and before starting my master’s :O). but this time, we’re going to try to include our whole family, instead of just us two sisters, as much as we can. ^-^

 

and i would encourage everyone to try something similar! 😀

it doesn’t have to be when you’re on a break! you can just take on less time-consuming things, but there are so many many opportunities the world provides us with, there’s bound to be a ton that you could fit into your own schedule, however busy you may be (if you’re too busy to do even that, then maybe, start prioritizing things a little differently? ^-^ it’s always important to make the most of every moment we have here, so, please do. 🙂 there’s more to life than school and work and mindless media/internet consumption, and i hope we never lose sight of that.)

 

so here’s to wishing everyone all the best for the spring/summer 2014~ let’s go and keep going 😀

 

excited for all the new things we’ll discover this year. ^-^

#carpediemsummer

what carpe diem means to me.

one of my earlier posts, but it’s what i wanted to say right now. i always end up thinking about things like this, during the beginning of spring/summer, when i find myself with all this time on my hands since school is out and i have to decide all the things i want to do during my wonderful break. ^-^

---

to me, carpe diem has always meant trying new things, seizing opportunities instead of letting them pass you by, and just stepping out of your comfort zone now and then. releasing your inhibitions. saying what you have to say, and doing what you want to do.

it doesn’t always have to be big, or scary. it just has to be something that you want to do. dreams don’t have to be big to be real. and it’s okay if your dreams don’t all come true. as long as you spend each day working toward something. anything. instead of living each day the same day as the one before that, and just letting time pass you by.

carpe diem is about realizing how precious each moment is. but just because each moment is precious, doesn’t mean that each of them have to be extraordinary.

they can be spent just hanging out with your family, or just taking some time by yourself to relax. that’s important too. 
just as long as you don’t lose sight of the fact that each day is a gift.

spend your life the way you want to, not the way others tell you. 
don’t be afraid of not conforming to the norm, but don’t be afraid to want the same things as others either. 
it’s okay to want a simple life. 
as much as it is to want an extraordinary one. 
just as long as its what you want it to be. 
and as long as it makes you feel like the time you spent here was worthwhile. if you can go to sleep each night feeling like there was at least something about the day worth remembering, that’s a day well spent.

personally, i believe that at the end of it all, if i can look back and think “wow, i’ve made some amazing memories here” i’d call that a success.

 

i absolutely love this.

dear dreams –

dear dreams,

i remember you being slightly bigger, way back when.
much, much bigger. like, the size of a flying building times an airplane, or the power to control the weather, and be a famous singer and dancer and an awesome kindergarten teacher, all at the same time. or something.

looking back, it seems as though, all the time that i spent growing, you spent shrinking. and your decreasing pattern was probably not linear.

the first things that i think changed you, were the things that i watched and read over and over, and then you became love songs and poems and stories, and i became a character in a novel.

you were still pretty big back then. just, a different colour, maybe. i can’t really be sure. my memory is not too good, but. i’m sure you were still pretty big. maybe.

so. then. how did you become so small?

ah. of course. the inevitable. well, maybe not “inevitable” since some do seem to be able to get away without being too affected by It, but most don’t, and i’m one of the most, aren’t i? i guess i am.

you just kept shrinking and shrinking until you went from the size of magic and fame to the size of dandelions-are-pretty, and thank-you-cards-to-strangers, and post-it-notes-at-bus-stops, and letters to no one.

but, hey,
It has only showed me the cliff,
but i haven’t fallen off the edge, have i?

even though i’m a ‘most’,
i’m still fighting, aren’t i?
fighting using letters and sounds and drawings and smiles,
instead of buildings, and fame, and nobel peace prizes.

but, still.
i am fighting, and  – though
your vision has changed,
and your path has changed –
your (realtrueultimate) goal hasn’t, has it?

i don’t know.
i think it hasn’t.

and, i guess Changes are okay.
i wonder why most ‘most’s seem so afraid of them.

i don’t mind your new look so much.

just, do one thing for me.

because i don’t want It to consume me, and
i want to keep running after you. so, just,

always be something worth chasing.

and if, sometimes, i fall behind,
please be fair and give me some time to catch up.

thanks.

yours, always,
– me.

p.s. Reality is worth a visit, but i like living in you much much better. honest.

---

 

just one of my earlier pieces. :B a letter to my dreams. it was part of this 30 day 30 letter challenge thing (which i never finished, heh~).