First Day of Winter...Maybe?

There are many many things I  love about Texas. Just to name a few, there's the cowboy boots, the southern hospitality, and, of course, the Texans themselves. However, the weather here is insane. And I mean that quite literally. Texas is known for it's unpredictable and fickle weather. On top of that, there's the lack of seasons, specifically winter. Tomorrow is the first day of winter, and the forecasted weather is a high of 78 degrees. 78 degrees! In what world is winter defined by 78 degrees? I often take pride in enduring many Texas summers, but i will admit, snowy winters would sure be nice.

Chesnuts and Fire

December, oh how I love it. As it is officially December, I have let Christmas music, Christmas decorations, and Christmas shopping swarm into my life. I live for the holiday season. It's one month of pure magic. Being away at college and living in a dorm room I can't exactly cuddle up next to the fire and read a book by the light of the Christmas tree. So, to make up for that, during the majority of my study time, I listen to fauxfire.com.

And as a wonderful introduction to the most wonderful month of the year, we experienced our first snow of the season yesterday! It started coming down at about noon, with surprisingly large flakes and impressive quantities. By 1:30 pm everything except for the roads and some of the pathways were covered in a pure blanket of white. I LOVED it. Being from Texas, I have seen snow on occasion. Last year we even had a white Christmas! (And let me say that no, this was not a pathetic white Christmas with a bit of slush on the ground and 50% of the grass still showing. This was a white Christmas where you couldn't see anything but snow. G-O-R-G-E-O-U-S.) So, i've seen snow, but it typically is slush. So this was a special treat to have powdery snow, and to even have the first snow so early and have it stick! Sadly, my afternoon and evening were spent in the top floor of the library watching the snow through the window. But all the same, it was rather nice.

Finally, I want to give you a taste of my Christmas season. Every year, my inaugural Christmas song is "Come On! Let's Boogey to the Elf Dance!" by Sufjan Stevens due to a special Christmas morning memory that it holds. It's one of those songs that just makes me undeniably happy. It's quirky but really fun. Have a listen!
"Come On! Let's Boogey to the Elf Dance!"

Irresistible

Today has been absolutely packed with good things. I'm currently in the library (good), eating cold pomegranate seeds (good), watching the rain (good), and drinking a hot cup of coffee (REALLY good). This is the type of day that simply inspires writing.

There are few things I enjoy more than walking through the rain and the wind with fresh coffee in my hands. One of those few things is sitting curled up on a porch swing, watching the rain, holding the coffee, and cracking open a good book. Sadly, there aren't a plethora of porch swings on campus, however I did just check out the first Harry Potter book. After seeing the latest movie, I've decided to re-read the series over Christmas break....which means I'll probably finish the last book come May.

Anyway, if you've read this far, you deserve a little nugget of thought. I follow the C.S. Lewis page on Twitter and love all the quotes. One that came up recently was

"How little people know who think that holiness is dull. When one meets the real thing, it is irresistible."

It simply makes me smile to read this. Irresistibility is such a wonderful thing. The fact that something could be so wonderful, so awesome that you have no choice but to draw near to it...well, that's lovely.

Round One

So....I've mulled over doing a blog for quite some time, and quite honestly, it's not a big deal to me how many of ya'll out there on the web follow me, or even show any interest in me. I hope this blog will become a way for me to simply write and share my thoughts. I'm an English major, and sometimes writing all those papers will just get me really wound up and I wish I had a place to just write for the beauty of it. So I guess that's what this is.

Speaking of papers, it's the last week of classes right now and I have a big English paper due in 4 days that I haven't started yet. Oops. It's over home and exile (actually the whole course was over home and exile), but it's planted some interesting ideas in my head. Does anyone out there think it's as unbelievable as I do that each and every one of us has a place we call home, and in our minds, that's the center of it all? I mean, there are 6 billion people on this earth and we each think our little home is smack dab in the middle. As much as I'd like to think everyone agrees with me that Texas is the best place in the world, I doubt they would. It just absolutely incredible how much our origins warp our perspectives. Crazy.

Anywho, that's my thought for the day.