florida winter

 

current obsessions: chocolate orange with popping candy, a tribe called quest, my digital camera

thought i'd do a little private-diary meets public-diary. it's rare for me to share my diary with anyone, but i had such a beautiful moment the other night, and wanted to share.  

12/10/23

"I woke up around noon. It's kind of terrifying when I wake up and five hours later it's dark. I got a little homework done in the library. Walking to the DC from the library was so beautiful. It's 50 degrees in December, dark at 6pm, and raining. Raining enough for me to use my umbrella, but not too much that I feared getting wet. It was comfortably cool, not warm but I didn't feel cold at all. The lights reflected in the puddles. Usually I try to get from point A to point B as quickly as possible, but today I tried to draw it out as much as I could and live in the moment. (...) I turned in early. Now I'm in bed with the window open listening to the rain and admiring a ladybug on the windowsill. Life may not be perfect right now but at least it is beautiful." 

my favorite weather is what i'd call florida winter. i don't live in florida so maybe that's not an accurate description, but it sure seemed like it the times i've been there. you know, when it's warm with a cool breeze, or maybe the other way around. when you can maybe smell a bit of ocean air. when it feels like it might rain soon but doesn't.

there was another beautiful moment i witnessed maybe a week ago. i stepped outside of my dorm building, seeing a clear sunny day through the window and expecting just that. i was met with rain! rain on a perfectly bright day. made me want to stand out there in it until my clothes were soaked through. my first instinct was to scan the sky for a rainbow. none were in sight, unfortunately. but i am not any less grateful to experience sun and rain at once. 

i've rarely been one to be in awe of the weather, i tend to find myself waiting for the next season or missing the last. but lately, amid the end of the semester and various difficulties, i am grateful for rain and for sun and for unnatural temperatures. 

a few days ago i engaged in a conversation with a friend about our favorite books when we were younger. it brought me so much joy. i don't find the books i read today to have the same transformative quality they did when i was 10. i think as you get older, life-changing things get harder to come by. i've read so many incredible books in more recent years, but i still hesitate to call any one of them my "favorite book." dare i say that title still goes to i am princess x by cherie priest or bloomability by sharon creech? even if books i've read more recently are objectively "better," it's hard not to hang on to the emotions i felt at the time. most of my favorite childhood books still hold up today, but even if they didn't, i think it's the memory of those emotions that matters to me. just recalling how truly life-changing certain books were for me makes them worthy of  being my "favorite."

 

favorite books from my youth, in no particular order:

*the westing game by ellen raskin

*the castle corona by sharon creech

*looking for alaska by john green

**when you reach me by rebecca stead

**i am princess x by cherie priest

*listen, slowly by thanhhà lại

*chasing redbird by sharon creech

**11 birthdays by wendy mass

**bloomability by sharon creech

didn't put a ton of thought into this list, just some ones i found on my goodreads. very favorite/most life changing books have two stars. read one, maybe it will change your life too? 

that's all for now. see you next time x

~media~

audio

*doyathing by gorillaz

*luck of lucien by a tribe called quest

*census designated by jane remover

*video games by trixie mattel

visual

*my homework? not much time for movies and whatnot these days