mixtape | senior slum

This is the playlist I'm listening to in the middle of the semester.

It's the perfect mix of sound for school stress and homework.

Enjoy!

Songs:

1. Bilgewater || Brown Bird
2. Play It Right || Sylvan Esso
3. Oats In the Water || Ben Howard
4. Every Other Freckle || alt-j
5. My Silver Lining || First Aid Kit
6. How || The Neighbourhood
7. Filthy Dirty South || Rising Appalachia
8. Breezeblocks || alt-j
9. Hey Mami || Sylvan Esso
10. Stay Gold || First Aid Kit
11. The Wolves || Ben Howard
12. Sweater Weather || The Neighbourhood
13. Down To the River || Brown Bird
14. Wolf || First Aid Kit
15. Occupy || Rising Appalachia
16. Fitzpleasure || alt-j

Dear Nathan,

Dear Nathan,

I talked to you on the phone the other day and it was great.  I still laugh when I think of the tandem bike you and your roommate bought, whom you have chosen to call Sheila. I laugh at your story of telling your teach' that you had Sheila chained up outside. You are proof that a funny bone that doesn't hurt exists.  I'm still getting on Frank to write his letter to you; he's already eaten the Buffalo jerky we got for you, but I'll get you some more.  And truth be told, I ate the dried mangoes we got for you. But every time I get a Reese's peanut butter cup, I only eat half of it so that I can give the other half to you ;)

Other than that, we have both been ready for me to be done with school. It looks like I will be in school, technically, until next August. Bleh. But on the A-side, Frank and I are happily playing with the diea of taking a few years off before we go back to school. So that's pretty nice.

The other evening I was thinking of you when I pulled out my French-English dictionary that you gave me many years ago.  I was looking up a word or two from a phrase I heard in a song, and I couldn't help but remember when you gave this to me. You got it for me, so selflessly, from your school's book fair, despite everything going on in your life at that time.  You got it for me because you knew I was taking French in high school and thought I'd like it to keep my French up once I graduated.  You are the sweetest brother ever, no matter what. And I love you no matter what.

Dear sweet brother, I hope you have an excellent week, and Frank and I can't wait to see you for Thanksgiving.

Love,
Jessica

purposeful: activity

One of the classes I'm taking this semester is a health science class.  It's not quite what I've expected it to be, but it's not bad.  Something I've learned to be more mindful of is purposeful activity. At first we discussed that purposeful activity [in our minds] was activity that included multi-tasking. For instance: walking while talking to a friend. These kinds of multi-activities are not bad. They're very good. But what she was implying was that there's activity that we have a chance to do daily that we pass up regularly due to our society of efficiency.  In grasping this mindset, I've been more mindful of the activity I choose to do daily.  This looks like: opening the automatic door with my hand instead of the handicapped button; walking the quarter mile through the woods to get to class rather than driving a mile around to get there; and not taking shortcuts to get chores done. All these opportunities to use the muscles and ligaments, perfectly put into place, are often passed by in our very lazy society.

On another side of the coin, there can be purpose in every action done. As I've mentioned already, Adlerian therapists have this idea that every action has a purpose; if you file a paper in the wrong folder, there was a purpose for it.  It's a little outlandish, honestly.  But I can agree with the principle that you can give purpose to what you do.  When you are mindful of where you are going, of how you are stepping, of what you think about while you're going there, of who you are speaking to, of how you are speaking to them, of your body language while you are speaking and listening - you can really absorb every moment you live.  You can give a purpose to the way you are around others; you can give a purpose to the way you choose to carry yourself.  Purpose can be found in or given to any action or word that departs your body; be mindful of that purpose.

fair weather.

Saturday was our designated date night for the week.

It was the Saturday of my desperately needed Fall break, and this was our chance to relax and have fun (because when you're a student with 19 credit hours, 15 hours of work, Senate rep, and a wife, even fun can be exhausting).

We:

ate chocolate dipped ice cream

ate a Chicago-style Polish sausage and veggie gyro

viewed the beautiful hand-made crafts

looked at all the art work

oogled over the homemade wine selection winners

pet cows {Frank actually pet one this year!}

spent lots of time with the bunnies - that was our favorite part

I got to pet a bunny

braved a chairlift

{we thought that would be the least scariest thing to ride, but it was not...}

viewed the beautiful world at night from the lift

and enjoyed being South Carolinians on the fair 70-degree, clear night at the fair.

Can't wait 'til next year!

left hand free || alt-j

In [late] honor of their new album completely coming to Spotify, I give you alt-j at their newest.

This album is all I've been listening to this week.

word of the month: purposeful.

The word to focus on for the month of October is "purposeful."

To have purpose is to recognize the importance of your very being; it is also to see the importance of what and who is around you.  As the Adlerian counselors say, "Everything you do has purpose." While I don't fall in line entirely with their way of thinking, I can agree that we can give purpose to whatever we do.  So here's to the beautiful month of October - the only time of the year that it's fun to be a South Carolinian.  And here's to being purposeful.

the fall and the need to be free || river city extension

today's song of the day

This is a good song for the month of October.

Love it.

Happy October peeps!