strawberries.

From My Sergei by Ekaterina Gordeeva:

The weather was beautiful, and Sergei and I walked around town holding hands. It was a weekday, yet all the people were walking outside, enjoying the sunshine. It looked like a Sunday. We talked about how great that was, how these people didn't live to work. How they hadn't forgotten they had just one life to live. You go to Europe, and your eyes just relax from the beauty around you, and you see the people having wine with their lunch in the sun, and you wonder, Is every day here a holiday? In America, people go to the gym instead of having lunch.

mhm.

"FOR EXTERNAL USE ONLY."

Aw. Guess the next time you decide you wanna paint your teeth a nice rose, or maybe a jewel green, you'll have to come up with some other way to get the polish off. Oh snap.

crowned with love.

Praise the LORD, O my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name. Praise the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits--who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion, who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's....For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.

Psalm 103:1-5, 11-12

accidental acetone.

Next time I guess I'll be wearing gloves.

I haven't done my nails...in forever. But, thankfully, being sick last weekend gave me plenty of time to relax and get my nails looking all glitzy and neat. And oh, did they look good!
--till yesterday, when I accidentally rubbed half the polish off with the acetone we use to wash all our glassware in organic chem lab.
It's okay though; I was getting impatient to change colors anyway!

she calls me wheelchair.

In front of the DIA, Detroit, MI.

This is Meredith.
Remember September 11, 2001? Well, that's the day I met this lovely woman. We were homeschooled together, had pet beagles together, took riding lessons together, fell in love with books by Jane Austen and Ted Dekker and C.S. Lewis together, and graduated high school together. She loves Beauty & the Beast. She's been studying at Cornerstone University for the past three years to get her degree in photojournalism; and I can't believe it, but she's going to be graduating this spring. And I'm almost jealous because I have at least two years left (if not three) before I'm done with undergrad, and then--who knows how long if I stay with premed! But we all have different stories...and I can't wait to see the different directions ours go, and the different discoveries we'll make through each other.
I don't have to wait for long, though, because she already has an amazing photography blog called the perfect rhyme. I get a little giddy inside every time I see she's posted something new, because it's always full of color and sparkle and vintage-ness and smiles.
Like her.

Us being awkward. As good friends should be.

secret wishes & real-life dreams.

So I have a little dream. One day I'd love to manage a little cafe, top floor of some old-ish downtown building in some small-ish city, with a patio open to the skyline and the night, maybe a live jazz band or cellist coming in every Saturday night or so, with a vine-covered trellis roof to cover the patio section and white curtains to separate it from the indoors. There would be a wood floor, and an almost-narrow staircase you'd have to climb to get from the hostess to the dining area; and I'd hire some new chef who needed room to make mistakes and take risks and just have fun creating, and we'd serve the freshest ingredients and the most fragrant teas and the most expertly-crafted coffees. And it would be so much hard work every day and every night--but it would be amazing.
I'm not majoring in Culinary Arts or Business Management though, so somehow I doubt this is the dream I'll end up realizing. But I'm pretty okay with that, because I've already found an amazing spot to study & make dreams & laugh with people I love.
Hepburn's is absolutely the best restaurant/cafe I have come across in the Macomb/Oakland counties area. They've fallen in love with the brilliant idea that is European crepes--true crepes--and made it available to the variety-starved appetites of us Michiganders...and for that, I can't thank them enough. But as if the food weren't fresh and wildly good and beautiful enough to keep me going back to try every item on the menu, they made their cafe the cutest little place you could imagine--especially if you adore classic movies. There's art of Audrey Hepburn everywhere--plaques and cookies and a dressing room screen and portraits and quotations showing off her little black dress and long gloves and unmistakable silhouette. Screenshots of classic movies cover the walls; the bathrooms say "Actress" and "Actor"; and the manager/former ballerina, Deanna Birg (who is lovely in her own right), is always ready to greet you with a smile and ask about your life.
Can you tell I'm completely hooked?
Go discover something brilliant and beautiful at Hepburn's Cafe. I think you might just love it.