trains on a windy day

Bonjour, my readers!!

Ahh...shame on me!  I'm sorry to have not posted in so long.  I feel like I am neglecting my duty to write (although I'm the one who's making this a duty).  But really, it's been too long.  I'll try to be better at being more consistent.  Hahaha, for those who know me well, we'll see how long my motivation lasts. ;)

Anyways, I have had quite an exciting and eventful last two weeks.  Two weeks ago, I started spring quarter at a local state and community college.  It's been a busy, crazy couple weeks trying to get into the swing of things again and adjusting myself to campus.  I have to park my car all the way on west campus, which is miles from my classroom, and take a campus bus to my building.  I feel like such a city dweller when I go downtown and take the bus will all these young college kids.  It's nice because I feel like I'm sort of one of the crowd now.

However... I DID accidently take the wrong bus on Wednesday.  I think I must have been half asleep or something because I got on the bus, and it took a turn that I knew it wasn't supposed to take.  It was then I realized that I was in the wrong bus, and if I stayed on it, it would probably take at last a half an hour to get to class.  So I quickly got off the next stop and panicked.  There were no people or buses in sight.  "I'm stranded!!!"  I thought.  "I'll be stuck here for an hour until another one comes along!"  Fortunately, a guy came out of a near by building and climbed into a parked bus, started it up, and was about to pull out when I ran over to him, knocked on the doors, and climbed aboard.  I had no idea what bus I was on, but I knew I had to get on something or I'd be waiting there FOREVER.

Thankfully, the bus that I took went nearby my bus stop, so I just ran the rest of the way to class.  It was quite an adventure!  From now on, I'll be sure to take the right bus!! :)

Anyways, besides my crazy college adventures, I was able to go hang out with my awesome play performance buddies last weekend.  Besides me and my sister, there are three other girls who are all in the play Little Women at a local community theater.  We have a blast together!!!  So last Friday, we all went to dance that our directors put on, and afterward spent the night together.  It was so much fun!  At the dance, we ran around chasing people, eating food, naming things, trying to "break the rules,"  laughing at weird people, and having adventures in the bathroom.  Then we went back to my friend's house, eat some more, watched Tangled, told creepy clown stories, shared secrets, and fell asleep exhausted. 

The next day, we planned a photoshoot with the five of us, since my sister and one of my friends are extremely good photographers (and the rest of us like our pictures taken =]).  We went to a nearby stationary train and had a mini-shoot out in the coldness and rain.  It was so much fun!!!

Here's some of the results.  Most of them are taken by Ruthie (the ones with Red Photo on them), and a few were taken by my sis Jenn.

Caitlin, me, Ruthie, Lauren, and Jenn.

The awesome fivesome again. :)

Ruthie's idea... amazing shot.

Aw, love this one.

 Jenn (Amy in Little Women)

Lauren (Beth in Little Women)

 Ruthie (Meg in Little Women)

Caitlin (Aunt March in Little Women)

 The rest are of me (and I'm Jo in Little Women).  Aren't we the cutest March girls???

 See this link for more photos: http://www.facebook.com/?sk=messages&tid=1644260033214#!/pages/Red-Photo/182689188443315

So yes, indeed, it was a glorious weekend, and we had a marvelous time, even though it was absolutely freezing outside!  I can't wait for summer and sunshine, that's for sure.  And I can't wait till our Little Women play!!!  It's at the end of April and beginning of May... and it's going to be great!! and scary!! and so much fun! =]

Française

Bonjour mes amis! 

When I was 13 years old (wow... four years ago), I got the wonderful opportunity to visit France for a month with my mom.  My mom's good friend is a professor who was heading up her college's student study abroad program for that whole school year.  So, we had a free place to stay is Strasbourg, France, during which time we traveled through Switzerland, walked the streets of Paris, swam in the Mediterranean Sea, biked into Germany, and hiked the mountains of Cinqa Terra, Italy.

Anyways, I wanted to share some of my favorite pictures.  Be warned, however... I am the skinny, brown-haired, braces-needy, fluffy haired girl in these pictures.  These were taken a LONG time ago.  :)

This was between Switzerland and France.

The next three pictures are of Strasbourg, France, located in Alsace, the territory long disputed between France and Germany.  My mom's friend's apartment was in Strasbourg, so we spent most of our time in this beautiful city. :)

 (me sitting by the canal in Strasbourg... notice the couple behind the stone fence on the other side :)

 (my absolute favorite building in the whole city!)

(beautiful, Strasbourg-German styled buildings)

The next four pictures are from Paris!!!  I loved Paris!!! I'd absolutely do anything to live there someday.

(me and my mom in front of the Tour d'Eiffel)

 (Notre Dame -- I loved that place.)

 (the Eiffel Tower at night!  It lights up too!)

(me at Versailles, the old royal French palace.)

(Sacre Coeur -- Sacred Heart)

And, as a side trip, my mom, Lori (my mom's friend) and I visited Cinqa Terra, Italy on the Mediterranean.  We hiked about 10 miles in 2 days up and down mountains, visited 5 little cities on foot, swam in the sea, eat seafood, pesto, petas, and cheese.  It was heavenly.  By the end, I was exhausted, and I remember being so tired that I also passed out trying to catch a train back to our little hotel. :)

(probably my favorite of the 5 cities or cinqa terras -- Vernazza)

I also did a painting of Vernazza, Italy.  The lighting on this picture is really bad, but here's my version.

It was one of the best experiences of my whole life.  And someday... someday... I'm going to go back. 

À plus tard!

dancing the night away!

I have had the most glorious weekend! I went to a ball! Haha, and no I'm not princess on the way to meet her prince... NO.  It was a Celtic Ball, kind of like square dancing in sets but more formal and of course celtic!!!  In fact, a couple guys always show up in kilts each year.  I've been to this dance at least 6 times in the past, and the first time when my dad came too, he surprised my sister and I by wearing a kilt.  I wanted to die in a hole out of shame and misery, but my dad was quite proud of himself.  Thankfully, that was only the first year. :)

Indeed, Saturday was a splendid day and such a blast, especially since my sister and I had nine other girls come spend the day with us to get ready for the evening.  It was so much fun!! We all laughed, played cards, eat yummy food (love you Mommy!), did each others makeup, told secrets, got pretty, and used way too much hairspray. 

Photo credits to my mom :) And I'm the one in the white dress.

This is the end result.  Aren't we beaaaautiful?

And of course we had to get some goofy pictures. :)

Me and my pretty sister <3

I got to drive a bus full of girls up to the ball, where I saw and hugged even more of my friends.  And what's funny is when people at places like the Celtic ball know who you are, and you don't know who they are.  I had a couple of people say, "You're Cassie, right?"  Um, yeah... so who are you? lol

One of my neighbors (kinda) who I've known forever walked me in for the first dance, where we got into a conversation about Braveheart (due to the awesome bagpipe player), drama, school, and Shell Silverstein.  Another guy who asked me to dance talked about The Notebook (a movie that I don't really like but he absolutely loved, which I thought was hilarious!), adopting kids, and annoying younger siblings.  That's one of the things I love most about the Celtic Ball.  You can make friends so fast just by dancing one dance, and it's very formal while being casual at the same time.  You end up finding something in common to say, and you try to say it without messing up the entire dance.  And believe me, that's trickier said than done.

So, some of the most memorable moments of the day is laughing at Caitlin talk to the radio and her camera, playing the straw game, doing Hannah's makeup, taking hilarious pictures, playing freeze, jamming to music, seeing my friend Brooke at the ball after a really long time, and getting my feet stepped on (thanks to the guys).

By the end of it all, I was exhausted but oh so happy.  A bunch of friends and I went out to Applebee's afterward, where we made one of our friends drink a cup of salsa for $2.50 while drinking nothing afterward for at least five minutes.  He did it, unfortunately. 

A bunch of the girls came back to my house to sleepover, where we washed our faces, ate food, shared stories, laughed at the events of the night, and told juicy secrets.  When it came to waking up for church in the morning, I was an extremely sore and grumpy person. :)

But let's just say, it was all worth it!!!

::rain boots, green coat, and umbrellas::

Ahhh, keeping up with this blog is harder than I thought!  I need more time!!!  Often, I have a great idea for a blog post, but then I forget to write it.  *sighhh*  I'm going to have to work on this.

Yesterday was a huge, crazy, tiring day.  But in the midst of everything that went on, God gave me a little joy.  He gave me sunshine!!!  I even drove home from class with my sky window open!

About a week ago, I had this sudden inspiration of a photoshoot I wanted to do.  My mom just bought these adorable rain boots, so I thought, why not do outside in the puddles and take some pictures in them?  (Thankfully, my mom agreed to me going out and slopping in the mud with them as long as I cleaned them off).  Also, about 3 days ago, I bought this adorable green coat!  I looooove green!  In fact, my favorite color is teal or emerald green.  Thus, this coat makes me extremely happy!

Since yesterday was so absolutely gorgeous outside, I convinced my sister Jenn to take some pictures of me in my green coat and rain boots.  The little umbrella was an added effect out of an ingenius idea to add more color to the pictures, and it helped tie my outfit together.  I've actually had that umbella since I was 5 years old!

Thought? Favorites? Any other photoshoot ideas? 

All photos were taken by Jennoelle.  Thanks sis! :)

Audrey

Bonjour.

So, if you didn't know, I adore old movies.  Practically anything black and white is up my ally. You can't go wrong with a good Alfred Hitchcock movie, or anything with Cary Grant, William Holden, Grace Kelly, Bing Crosby, Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Rita Hayworth, Gene Kelly, Lucille Ball, Dike Van Dike, Peter O'Toole, Julie Andews, Humphrey Bogart, and lots more!

But my favorite of all time has to be Audrey Hepburn. 

She's so stylish, beautiful, and naive.  I love her accent, her soft voice, her energy, her quotes, her smile, her fashion.  In every movie I've seen with her, she has the most adorable clothes!!!  I wish we still wore stuff like that.

Sighhhhh.

The one thing that always stood out to me is her eyes.  They're beautiful.  And they sparkle.  I want bright eyes like hers.  I was watching How To Steal A Million with my mom last night, and I asked her, "How are Audrey's eyelashes so long and dark?"  My mom laughed at me and said, "They're fake.  She's wearing the kind you buy at the beauty shop and stick on."  Well, that made me feel a little better.  At least she has to work at something!

So, this post is my tribute to Audrey Hepburn, one of the most classy actresses of all time.

These photographs were all gotten on google images... just click on them to see the link.

More of Me =]

So I feel like my blog is kind of boring... it's just me writing a bunch of words.  I feel like it needs some color, some flare, some.... pictures!  :)
I love photography, and although I'm not very good, I'll try to post more pictures in the future.  I do have some pictures of myself that were taken a couple weeks ago with my sister outside in the snow.
So, here they are! =]