Week Three of the "52 Dates of 2012"

Find a pretty park in the city.

Friendship Park, Jacksonville, FL. The colorful pipes are what run the fountain, which was among the largest and tallest fountains in the world when it was built in 1965.

      I woke up this morning, so comfortable in my bed, to Taylor telling me how beautiful a day it was. A beautiful day for the park, he told me, sunny and warm. Our third date was an easy one. Find a park, go to it, enjoy. To my great surprise, he had already picked out a park by the time I awoke (and also fed the puppy and took her out, how lucky am I?). After a delicious sausage pinwheel breakfast, we headed out to the downtown area. The fountain has recently been redone, and is known for its amazing light show at night. It was extremely blustery and had gotten cloudy by the time we arrived, but was wonderful nonetheless. 

Juan Ponce De Leon, looking quite regal.

Making wishes in the fountain. Yeah... that's my wishing face.

I think these signs are absolutely brilliant. I've always wanted to visit every single one on a coastal road trip one day. (Also, Jacksonville was called Cowford?! Haha.)

This dress is perfect, except when you're down by the river and it's windier than the Hundred Acre Woods and there are other people around... This, my dears, is the reason I always wear cute underwear.

     We ended our date with a trip to Whole Foods and my-oh-my is ours massive. It's the biggest one I've ever been to at least, and even Taylor admitted he liked it. Taylor and I had tuna Greek salads for dinner and I bought blood oranges for dessert. I've never had them, but they just look so thrilling. He's downstairs watching the Giants game right now, so I've got to go either congratulate or console him with blood oranges and leftover cupcakes. We'll choose our next weeks date later tonight. XO.

Dear Florida,

Sometimes, I really miss you. Scratch that- all the time I really miss you.

Growing up there, I didn't really appreciate you. The beauty of sunny days, of always being able to wear flip-flops even in "winter", driving over the causeway to "beachside" and seeing the vast ocean unroll before my eyes. Every time I go back to visit I relish in the delight I get from just a single warm, sunny day, a single peek at the waves, a single toe dip in the cool water. I roll my windows down and crank my music up and think "Gosh, why did I ever move away from this place?" So really, Florida, this is an apology. I'm sorry I neglected you when I lived there and I'm sorry I didn't realize how beautiful you really are. Now that I'm here in Georgia, I miss you. I tell people about Melbourne and "The Beaches" as if you were a long lost friend, one I greatly loved but sadly moved away from. I'm proud of being a Florida Girl and being able to say I grew up in a place that most people will only vacation to. Melbourne may not be famous Miami or the Keys, but it is still Florida and there is still the ocean and the Sunshine State and I still love you.

This is getting a bit depressing, so I just want to tell you that I'M MOVING BACK! Not to the exact place, but I will soon enough be back in your loving, albeit very hot, Florida arms. I'll be rejoicing in the fact that I will never (and this is a fact) be more than 60 miles away from a beach at any given time. Despite my paleness, the beach will be a sight for sore eyes. Florida, I love you. And I cannot wait until we meet again.

All My Love, Skye.
XO.

Sweet Nothings: Summer Lovin' Edition!

Sheesh, I think I may melt down here with this 106 degree heat! Wasn't it only a few months ago that I was freezing my patootie off and wishing for hot chocolate and fuzzy boots? Now I'm hoping that Boulder will require my new (chocolate brown-finally-found-it!) cardigan and counting down the days until my car ices over. I swear, Georgia only has two weeks of happy medium weather.

But! That is all beside the point. The point is that I have ten gorgeous photos to share with you from the last couple months of bug bites, sun burns, and hot hot hot!

 

Welcome to Sunny Florida!

I drove down for one weekend to surprise the boyfriend and pick up my little brother 

the weekend of June 18th.

Just so happened that Hunter's band, Alpacalope, (hehe) was going to jam on Saturday

at his "Birthday Gig". They were awesome, and I was a proud girlfriend. 

(Though I wish I had gotten better photos.)

However, all trips must come to an end. Corykins and I drove back to my Peach State

fueled by energy drinks and too many snacks.

I was so happy to come home and see my Baby Belle though! She's getting so big!

CoryBear learned that the best way to walk Remi and Lottie is in the form of a doggie sled team.

We day-tripped to the National Infantry Museum right off post the other day. It was quite amazing.

I'll try to put up more of these pictures later.

We saw fireworks on the 3rd of July and colored the road/sidewalk with chalk.

Photography by my very patient brother. You wouldn't believe how many photos we had to take to get this.

"Happy 4th of July!" and "We love our soldier!"

And last but certainly not least, Miss Charlotte Belle has learned to chase bubbles!

All of the photos that look fancy were done using Picnik. If you haven't tried it, I highly suggest going there rightthissecond! It's free for all of the basic things, but if you want any of the super special editing stuff you have to pay a nominal subscription fee. Honestly though, all of this was done with the basic package and I haven't paid a cent. 

I'm off to Florida on Sunday and then off to Colorado next Wednesday, so I am going to be a busy little bee until then. Pinky promise, I'll take lots of pictures and upload them as soon as I can. Now off to pack and clean and hope that all of my clothes fit in my suitcase! XOXO.

When You Wish Upon a Star,

Makes no difference who you are
Anything your heart desires
Will come to you. <3

  Spring Semester began early Monday morning, so please excuse my lateness with updating. The final portion of my Winter trip was lovely; I spent the last few nights with Hunter and then headed up in my new car (!) to visit my grandmother. Mamma and I took a naughty side trip to LUSH in Orlando and coffee at the rest stop. We stayed in North Florida for two nights and then headed back home to our Peach State, only to find Brrrrr-y temperatures. My car has frosted over three out of four school evenings now, and I'm actually considering buying an ice scraper.
  And speaking of school, I'm quite excited about all of the classes I am in. Monday/Wednesday is English in the morning and then Philosophy in the late afternoon. English shouldn't be too hard, but my teacher seems to prefer Southern American literature, which I'm not too big a fan of (Tennessee Williams is my exception). Oh! and my Philosophy teacher? He totally falls into the Philosopher category. I'm talking shaggy long grey hair, scruffy beard, a geometric patterned old man sweater and a blazer! I literally giggled to myself when he walked in the room and was so giddy I had to text Hunter and tell him right away.
  Tuesday/Thursday are going to be my long, hectic days. 2D Design in the morning, French for dejeuner, and History to 1500 for late afternoon. 2D Design was terrifying yet extremely exciting. Our first project is about Abstraction through Simplification and (if I'm allowed) I'm going to use our university lampposts as my inspiration. French was.. intimidating. I'm in the second semester of it and they're beginning with Chapter Four, so I'm hoping I get my French book soon so I can try to review. (192$ is a lot of money right now!) I thoroughly enjoyed my History class and the teacher too. I'm SO tempted to call her Professor Moody (as in Mad-Eye Moody from Harry Potter)!

   And lastttt but not least today, I'm going to share a link to a super cute blog that I stumbled upon while eating my lunch. Search through the pages and find her entries about "Of the Universe"; I adore some of the things that she says and absolutely relate to being a "walking contradiction"! I'm pretty sure I've used that exact phrasing before, too. Without further ado, I bring you Lemon Soda:

XOXO.

And to All a Good Night!

Merry Christmas!

  I may not be updating for a few days, so I'd like to wish everyone a very merry holiday, whichever you celebrate: Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Christmas, Yule! All night I've been tracking Santa, and now that we've given cookies to him and even our trusty gate guards, I am headed to bed. Tomorrow I'm spending time with my family and opening presents, and Saturday I'm headed down to Florida to spend my vacation (and see that most adorable boyfriend I have for the first time in almost six months!) I've planned a holiday get-together at my house on the 29th, while Mister Hunter is out of town. On New Year's eve he'll be back from his Phish concert, and we'll gallivant around. I may or may not be dragging along this brick of a laptop, so posts will either be done on another computer or postponed until the 7th when I am back to my home sweet home. It's going to be so lovely to not have any deliveries but still be getting paid because of past deliveries the next couple weeks. I'm gonna feel so rich! Tonight however, (er, this morning now I guess) I shall be going to sleep so I can be fresh faced and cheerful in the morning to open presents. Ham and latkes in the afternoon will be our special treat! Happy Holidays to all, and to all a good night!