chalk towns

1. There is a Quaker saying: ''Let your life speak.'' Describe the environment in which you were raised--your family, home, neighborhood or community--and how it influenced the person you are today.

The sun is barely up and on the dark gray asphalt a town slowly develops. First one road, then another one branching out from it, the color grows and lines connect on the two-dimensional buildings and windows. Looking out from her house, a small girl watches the shadows retreat off of the chalk creation. Children gradually join her until the miniature sidewalks fill with the flurry of scooters and bikes.

It seems like only yesterday that I spent my summer mornings creating abstract art with chalk on the driveway or imitating Pocahontas as I crept between the mountain laurel and trees of my backyard. I still venture up to the boulder that my younger sister christened “Thinking Rock” and look out into the forest, thinking. My childhood, living in the house that I did, never consisted of dolls and “house,” but tree houses, mud concoctions, and stick forts. This is where my imagination grew untamed and I developed a curiosity and creativity that define my natural love of learning.

a pair to fit

Saturday morning I went to the eye-doctors. I am due for a new pair of frames... While in the doctor's room, I wonder what the new frames will look like, I mean, whatever I get will be my choice of course, but I don't know what the options are or what I'll end up liking. When I finally emerged from the dark room, blinking away the spots that impair my vision temporarily (my eyes are intensely light sensitive), I approach the wall of spectacles. At leas a hundred, maybe two stare emptily down at me, no face wears them yet, they have no personality without a face.

Mom watches as I take down first one, and then six pairs, peering into the mirror to see what set of frames is going to perch on my face for a new two years.

I need glasses for distance, and whatever ones I get, they have to bring clarity to my vision so I don't stray off the road when I'm driving, so I can truly appreciate the foliage of fall and then the crystal waters of whatever lake I backpack to next summer. They have to bring my focus to the board when I'm in class listening and looking at the notes up at the front of the room.

I am going to be the one who is wearing these glasses, half-mooned or not. I tried on pairs that made me look like a librarian, like a journalist and like a geek. They varied from blue to orange to (not kidding) yellow. The ones I choose, well, they're rounded, kind of like my well-rounded self (hehe), and well, you'll see once they come in from being ordered. I can hardly wait.

seconds

I just burnt a second bagel in one morning...

Ok

OK. Remember how I said "I won't bore you?" Well, because I need this college essay to be satisfactory in my mind more than anything, I'm changing it. And by changing it I mean rewriting it. I want whoever reads it to say 'Wow, I really want to know this person.' Now I just have to figure out what to write about... from scratch... that sounds like I'm baking something. Ok.

Flour Explosion

So I was writing college application short answer responses, procrastinating studying for tomorrow's SAT 2s, and went to read one of the Tufts responses to my mother who proceeded to interrupt me in order to demand Amy's closing of facebook and her help in folding the underwear, which had been sitting in our dryer for three days. Amy protested, mom did the whole 'you want a sleep over, you want this, you want that, I want this' shpeal resulting in both of us folding the laundry.

Don't ask how it happened, but when I opened the cupboard to put away a clean dish sometime later, the flour bucket had a mini explosion. 'Kate... what was that?' 'Nothing mom!' Amy came to my rescue and distracted my mom with a conversation about quarters, I don't know how she did it, but I flew between the sink and the disaster site, managing to clean the floor and then close the powdered cupboard until mom headed upstairs to put away her own laundry.

Oh the excitement that goes on in the Collins Household!

99

For nine days, tomorrow is the last, I have been wearing pink in some form or another to improve my positive chi. Stef Cotton and Talia Bitter are doing it with me, and since pink is supposed to affect relationships (positively?), they are anticipating that side of the chi's influence. I am more interested in seeing whether or not it improves my energy- even if it's psychological. I do know that whether or not it works, I'm not wearing pink after tomorrow for at least another nine days. The color can be very overwhelming :P

Today I found out I am in Jazz Choir! Yay! I turned down a nomination for officer since it's my first year in this particular choir and the veterans deserve it much more than I (they'll also do a better job).

Time to go, I have 99 paragraphs to read for english, 99 crunches to do, 99 seconds to pull on pjs after my shower, and 99 breathes to intake before I then fall asleep.

scraps of a potential song

When the daylight shines its last glance on the earth,

when the sun retreats at the edge of the world,

I still wait and watch for you.