I found one! A teapot, that is. And it was just $5 from a local thrift store.
The title of this post is one of my favorite quotes from my favorite childhood book, Habibi by Naomi Shihab Nye. It alludes to the unifying power of tea across cultures. It’s a sweet sentiment, I think.
I found this photo on Tumblr and traced it back to here. I just love it. I can’t stop looking at it. It encompasses everything I’ve been trying to achieve lately.
Peace.
Serenity.
Quiet.
Calm.
Minimalism.
Introspection.
Clarity.
The tones, the colors, the setting. The mix of industrial and natural textures. The framing, how the wall is blocking part of the table and the viewer doesn’t know who or what is around the corner.
The teapot. I love that damn teapot. I’ve been indulging in a lot of tea lately and it’s seriously been helping me balance my life. And I’m not much of a New Age-y person (not that there’s anything wrong with that, I’m just much more of a skeptic) but the ritual of making, drinking and savoring tea has profoundly impacted my day-to-day life.
Places like these keep popping up in my imagination and then I find actual photos of real places and I know it’s possible to make this kind of space for myself.
I’ve never really understood the whole Tumblr and Pinterest phenomenons until recently. I didn’t really get how saving these images and GIFs from around the web were important. But both resources have been monumental in helping me see the potential for quality of life–improving it in simple ways, like putting a pretty teapot on a pretty table. It’s inspiring in a straight-forward, no-nonsense way, like, you’ll either find this beautiful or you won’t. I love going back to my profiles to find themes and connections between the images I find moving. Sometimes I don’t remember finding certain things and it’s like a nice note to myself. This image is one of those–I’d completely forgotten about it until this week. I love the internet and I love the many ways it inspires me often.
I’m not sure what compelled me to start watching Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles–I just really wanted a good quality sci-fi show to delve into and this fit the bill. And I’m so glad I gave this show a chance because I loved it. I’m also totally bummed it got cancelled so early on. Sigh. This comic I found on Tumblr sums it up pretty well.
This show, as suggested by the title, is part of the Terminator canon, although the producer notes that there are several discrepancies in the timeline. TSCC stars Lena Headey (Cersei Lannister, among other notable roles) as Sarah Connor, Thomas Dekker as John Connor and Summer Glau as Cameron, a T-800 model Terminator. There’s only two seasons but both are very well done.
The story revolves around Sarah Connor’s efforts to protect her son, John, so that he’ll eventually fulfill his role as the messiah of humanity. The two travel around through time to prevent Skynet from being built and eventually causing the apocalypse.
This show surprised me with how funny and quirky it was at times, particularly in the first season. There are some genuine laugh-out-loud moments. I am a huge sci-fi fan but it’s a genre that takes itself pretty seriously most of the time, so it was nice to have some comedic relief. It helped me really connect with the characters.
I also have a much bigger appreciation for Summer Glau. Her character, Cameron, was incredibly interesting–especially her relation to a human version of herself (you’ll have to watch the show to understand what I’m talking about). She’s also hilarious! I think she’s great at deadpan humor.
I highly recommend this show, whether or not you’re a big sci-fi fan. It’s free on Amazon Prime, and it’s also on Netflix.
Also, Summer Glau’s Terminator face might have to be my Halloween costume this year. What do you think? 
I’m not normally a crazy Christmas person but this year I wanted to get decorations up as soon as possible. I’ve been feeling like a total homebody lately, and I’m of the mind that Christmas lights make everything prettier. Last year, I felt like we didn’t have very much time to enjoy our Christmas decorations, so we got an early start this time around. As you can see, Sofie was a little overwhelmed by all of the new shiny lights everywhere.
I love the ancient and medieval history and mythology of Christmas, especially the tradition of the Christmas tree. According to this article, Medieval Christmas Traditions:
The tree was an important symbol to every Pagan culture. The oak in particular was venerated by the Druids. Evergreens, which in ancient Rome were thought to have special powers and were used for decoration, symbolized the promised return of life in the spring and came to symbolize eternal life for Christians. The Vikings hung fir and ash trees with war trophies for good luck.
In the middle ages, the Church would decorate trees with apples on Christmas Eve, which they called “Adam and Eve Day.” However, the trees remained outdoors. In sixteenth-century Germany, it was the custom for a fir tree decorated with paper flowers to be carried though the streets on Christmas Eve to the town square, where, after a great feast and celebration that included dancing around the tree, it would be ceremonially burned.
Holly, ivy, and mistletoe were all important plants to the Druids. It was believed that good spirits lived in the branches of holly. Christians believed that the berries had been white before they were turned red by Christ’s blood when he was made to wear the crown of thorns. Ivy was associated with the Roman god Bacchus and was not allowed by the Church as decoration until later in the middle ages, when a superstition that it could help recognize witches and protect against plague arose.
I love the idea of putting apples on a tree. We have a tradition of getting a new ornament every year to signify an experience we’ve shared this year but we might have to add some fruit, too.
photo via The Bohemian Collective
I know I tend to snark about fashion a lot. I only dislike fashion when it promotes cultural appropriation or negative attitudes about class status or body image. That said, I think having a personal style is important for everyone. Lately, I’ve been making more of an effort to develop my own style. Ultimately, I’m incredibly inspired by clothes in fantasy and science fiction–outfits worn to participate in rituals or battles. In that sense, my clothes are like my armor. I love clothes that are practical, uniform but organic, with feminine touches. Honestly, my style icons are Hermione Granger from Harry Potter, Daenerys Targaryen from Game of Thrones, Starbuck from Battlestar Galactica and Alice from Resident Evil. Basically, anything that will look good accompanied by a weapon like a sword, knife, bow or gun is what I like.
I also really like war paint, but, you know, there’s a time and a place for that, unfortunately.
Some trends I’m enjoying lately are cool headwear (circlets, chains, scarves), nature-inspired imagery like antlers or skulls, astrological and astronomical symbols, boots, patterned tights, beaten metal, and buckles. The fall season makes me feel like a hippie. I like having items that I can wear every day that go with everything. So I was pretty much gushing while looking at the new lookbook by the Bohemian Collective.
Click image to view lookbook:
I love that it has a mix of funky and tailored clothing, and also evokes a sense of wanderlust. It feels very Western, too. Hey, Burning Man takes place close to where I live, so I’d like to think I understand bohemian style pretty well by now. And I was born in Berkeley, so there you go.
I love the photography and outfits in this lookbook, and it’s been a big inspiration for parts of my in-progress NaNoWriMo project. Check out more at the Bohemian Collective website.
The first snow day is always exciting. It’s like the whole city takes a deep breath. It’s all quiet, calm, clean, new. To me, winter isn’t winter without snow. I’ve lived in Nevada for ten years so I guess now I’m spoiled.
Right now I have a sleeping kitty on my lap and I’m trying to catch up on my NaNoWriMo book. I’m listening to Sucre and Vanessa Carlton. Andrew got me breakfast. It’s been a nice morning. 
Happy Halloween! It’s my favorite holiday, besides my birthday and Christmas. As an October-born person, I align myself most with this season, and Halloween always feels like a special day to me.
Last night we carved pumpkins–Skyrim-themed!–and watched my favorite Halloween movie, Sleepy Hollow. While my favorite Tim Burton movie is The Nightmare Before Christmas, because I watch it every year on my birthday, Sleepy Hollow is the ultimate Halloween movie. It’s scary, romantic, magical, has beautiful music and cinematography, and is just all around a great film. When I first saw this movie, I was totally in love with Johnny Depp in this role. I guess I just really like pale dudes. And Christina Ricci’s hair and dresses are to die for (ha ha, Halloween pun!).
Alas, like most working people, I’ll be at work for most of Halloween. I do have fun spider tights to wear, though. It’s the little things, I guess. Have a safe Halloween!
At work, we have a section in the paper called “Western lit,” where my editor reviews books written by Nevada writers. This week, we covered a poetry anthology called Absentia by William Stobb. I haven’t read through a poetry book in a long time, but the poem we featured in the article really struck me so I’m reading through the rest of the book.
This book is largely inspired by the author’s time in Nevada. I can’t remember if I’ve read poetry by a Nevada author before, but I am enjoying it because I’m able to connect to the locations he writes about. His poems are funny, witty, touching, and insightful. I may have a new favorite poet.
So far, my favorite poem of his is called “At the Edge of Perfect Adequacy.”
Harsh and consoling, deeply roaming
final precincts of oblivion and trials of encounter.Neither unbounded singularity nor dread
of solitude, best known unmasked,
we emit organized sounds in the shape of X.There is no complete echo.
There is no unbounded animal.Three roads meet between Thebes and Delphi.
Conduct springs from wells deeper than
a private tongue refusing any relation.Inward eye to purchase wider than.
Peregrine towards waking
the persuasion of our fiber.Our condition is stranger.
Listen to Stobb’s recorded version of his poem here. I love hearing poets perform their own work. I’ve always been pretty bad at reading aloud my poetry.
The lines I put in bold are my favorite, but I love each part of this poem. I’m enthralled with the idea of “no unbounded animal.” I’ve been thinking of concepts of tribes, natives, primal, nomadic lifestyles and ancient rituals for the book I’ve been outlining, and those lines seem to encompass an essence of restricted wildness, which is interesting. I’m still working through the meaning of the poem but the language and references to mythology stood out to me.
I’m preparing for NaNoWriMo this week, and I find that reading great poetry inspires me and gets me in the mood to write. I find it easier to read poetry than novels before embarking on my own writing. It helps me to be more conscious about each word I choose. It helps me to make each line count.
We went to Apple Hill this weekend for the third year in a row, which I guess solidifies it as our fall tradition. We like to pick out our pumpkins to carve, as well as some of the famous apples (can’t go to Apple Hill without getting apples, right?) I also picked up some squash to bake sometime in the next few weeks, and we splurged and got some apple donuts, which are delicious! On the way home, we stopped by FiftyFifty, a brewery in Truckee, and picked up a growler of their Imperial Stout. I guess we were feeling like our Skyrim characters. We also went to dinner at the Sasquatch Tavern in Verdi, and got the Sasquatch Coffee, which was similar to Irish coffee. It was a fun and very autumn-themed day!
And now it’s my birthday, so here’s to being 24!
