Paulie's back!

Yesterday was one of the happiest of my life.  I got a new job AND when i was packing I found my missing fave paul simon cd!  blissful ;)

Crayons

One of my favorite cliches is "not the brightest crayon in the box."  I use it enough to be labeled as judgmental (seriously, who isn't a little judgmental these days?). But, I just realized that it was not too long ago when I felt it described me. I wouldn't say it about myself now, so what changed?That got me thinking about the different boxes we place ourselves in (relative to intelligence or education).  Growing up, I think I was in the typical classic box of colors, but going to a small private school it was definitely an 8 pack and not the 64 (that was the large public school in town).  And in that classic pack I think I was definitely a bright orange, if not yellow.  I had a high GPA, worked hard to be a leader in every situation, sought ought creative solutions to the minor issues that seem HUGE in the relatively small scope of high school and was rewarded with the prestigious scholarship to my top choice college.  

I started college confident that I was still bright yellow, not realizing that I had just jumped into a much larger box. No, maybe not much larger, but this box was a lot brighter.  I mean this was like the neon pack of crayons with colors like, electric lime and neon carrot.  All of a sudden my little yellow faded into a much more mellow tone. I felt like sepia. Just ask my freshman year roommate how i used to come back after my monday night mac scholars class, bawling my eyes out because I couldn't add anything to the conversation.  My friends in the class were amazingly bright, casselbuddy was definitely a torch red, whitney: clear blizzard blue, plowden and chin were confident wild watermelon and shocking pink.  They and all the others were so fabulous and bright I wanted to sink into the shadows, but they refused to let me and in turn being in the brightness of these geniuses (seriously) I gleaned so much from their waxy residue I feel like post college I came out with a little bit of all of their colors.  Like when in grade school you take all the shavings from the bottom of your crayon pail and melt it between two sheets of wax paper to make a sun catcher? I feel like I am that blessed melange of all the colors that I encountered through my life.  

So now, "not the brightest crayon in the box" does not apply to me because there is no box. I have successfully escaped from all boxes and am forging my way forward full of flecks of every color in the rainbow. So thanks y'all and check this out, it is a list of all of the colors that crayola has named and each one is the perfect shade of brightness and complements all the rest just right, and each one reminds me of a different bright one who has helped me complete my suncatcher!

I love cities large enough to make you feel like you are in different worlds in the same day

I spent last Sunday in Atlanta enjoying a day of seeing the local eccentricities of atlanta with my friend, Alex, and then watching two of my very favorite friends get married! I love the similar energy in these two photos of two very different subjects in the same city on the same day: 

Cabbagetown bridge

Mr. and Mrs. Matt Tingle