around here lately.

Hello. Happy two thousand fifteen! It's been quite a while since my last around here lately post, so I thought I would share some images from the last month or so with you all today. It's been a whirlwind holiday season, and I feel nostalgic poring over these particular images. Enjoy!

my family, arriving in raleigh for christmas at RDU

festive decorations in downtown greenville

the road from smithfield to new bern

shopping in raleigh

breakfast at big ed's city market restaurant in raleigh

roaming duke's campus

lounging at the starbucks in chapel hill

our christmas tree stays up until the new year

two thousand fifteen: the year of lipstick and bangs

christmas at the ontario house

drinks at bird cafe in sundance square in fort worth with justin, jesse, & brian

slumber party with austen jane and jordan in frisco

january's book: a moveable feast, by ernest hemingway

a west shreveport sunset

remembering justin's grandma with this north monroe sunset

we started friends from the beginning

lunch at dawg house in ruston with justin's mom

the obligatory travel strawberry cream tea latte while on layover at ATL

Today marks the beginning of spring semester, and with that new beginning, I will also be launching into my new years resolutions/goals for the year. I hope to share them soon! What are your resolutions and goals for this year?

photos via my instagram

i choose the light.

Peach House in Kinston, North Carolina

Over Memorial Day weekend, Justin & I managed to marathon-watch the entire Harry Potter series on film. Every time I watch the series as a whole, I'm struck deeply, emotionally, by the epic battle of good & evil, of right & wrong, of light & darkness. The stark contrast of the two always takes me by surprise, & I am always, always subject to what feels like an emotional cleansing of sorts. I am always renewed & refreshed & restored. 

It's easy to remember who has wronged us in this life. It is easy to tether ourselves to firmly-rooted grudges. It is easy to look upon a memory with rolled eyes & a seething, muttered word. It is easy to avoid places that garner feelings of inadequacy, places that remind us of the wrongs that have befallen us at the hand of another. 

But, imagine returning to those places & choosing to see only the light. To see the solid wood frame of a house, peach-hued in color, with a creaking porch & a screened-in swinging door. To pour yourself a styrofoam cup of sweet tea, awaiting the arrival of your not-really-that-good quiche & better-than-you-expected spread of fruit. To sit at a back corner table alone, soaking in only the delightful & painted pastels of your time in this rural, archaic town. To remember only the wondrous routine of rising early, dressing to the nines, & shivering in your office while clutching a steaming cup of black coffee from the kitchen. To call to mind the nervous stomach that preceded adventurous trips home. To remember with a pang of sadness the night you spent distraught in front of the baggage claim, & crying all the way to Kinston from Raleigh. To remember that there can be joy in sadness, because it means you are alive, you are feeling, you are attuned to the importance of every little other life that happens to overlap with yours.

There is comfort in knowing that we, as humans, have a choice. We can choose to be bogged down & loathsome. We can choose to stew in our miseries, to cast blame & proclaim doubt. Or we can choose the other side: we can choose the light. We can choose to brighten another's day, whether or not we feel it necessary. We can lighten another's load, we can smile & that be enough. We can be kind & good & helpful & vivacious. We can choose to be a beacon for others lost at gloomy sea. 

I have the emotional wherewithal to choose the light, & choose the light I will. Every time.

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Want to join me in blogging every day in June? The more the merrier. I even made a button to celebrate the occasion. Feel free to use it in your blog sidebar or in the body of your posts. Let's encourage one another to get back to our blogging roots. Happy blogging!

the sunday currently, volume 50.

the first pumpkin spice latte of the season happened on friday. hello, fall.

Hello everyone! It feels funny to be posting the day that my blogging sabbatical begins, but The Sunday Currently stops for no one [not even me]. It also feels funny to be writing this edition of The Sunday Currently right now, because it's actually Saturday morning... very early morning, as in 12:53 a.m. Justin & I will be driving back from Raleigh by the time this post will need to go up, so that's why I'm having to write it & schedule it in advance. I've spent the evening up until this point getting the house cleaned up, packing for my little road trip, & watching My House Wife Life videos. It's been a productive day, & I'm thankful for that. 

Since I'm basically writing this with the future in mind, I'm guessing on these... but I have a feeling they may be accurate.

C  U  R  R  E  N  T  L  Y  .  .  .  

R E A D I N G road signs & license plates between Raleigh & Wilmington. We are driving home today, after having attended the Louisiana Tech/NC State game, & I'm sure that we are exhausted. Justin has played what I think has added up to four... or five... rounds of golf between Wednesday & now, & I haven't been sleeping well, being in the house by myself since Wednesday night. 

W R I T I N G to-do lists in my head, but deciding they can wait to be put on paper until tomorrow night. It's the Labor Day holiday, which means a three-day weekend! Justin & I are looking forward to a day of relaxation.

L I S T E N I N G to some great road trip tunes. Unfortunately, Justin & I will be traveling in two different cars, since he took one up for the golf part of his trip, & I will be driving up just for the football game. 

T H I N K I N G that I'm really proud of the strides I've made with stress over the past week. I'm starting to get all of my school things under control, & it feels great. I think things are going to go even better than I previously thought. Now, let's just keep that feeling going with lots of proactive practices.

S M E L L I N G ... who knows? Who nose? Ha...

W I S H I N G for a smooth transition into the school & work week after our three-day weekend. Sometimes a longer holiday makes getting back to the grind harder. 

H O P I N G to continue eating healthily & working out consistently. I'm proud of the strides I've made in the past week, especially with meal-planning & even cooking!

W E A R I N G ... well, if I'm wearing what I packed, it'll be orange shorts, a gray slouchy v-neck top, & the scarf Kara brought back for me from Paris last summer.

L O V I  N G finally being back with Justin! I don't know how he stayed here at the house by himself for such extended periods of time, when I was back in Shreveport. I understand now how lonely he must have been. I'm grateful for his selflessness & patience. 

W A N T I N G a black & white cookie. I've been wanting one since Thursday. Maybe since Sunday is Diet Cheat Day, this can be arranged?

N E E D I N G to feel proud of myself for the strides I've made with stress management, routine implementation, & just self control in general. I really have made a lot of progress over the past few weeks, & I'm so happy about that. 

F E E L I N G blessed & loved & thankful. 

C L I C K I N G nothing around the Internets today. It's time to hang out with Justin.

What have you been up to lately? Link up & share below! 

out on the road again.

tomorrow i am hopping a plane & will be reunited with my fiance after a day of travel.

i have greatly enjoyed my visit here in shreveport, but i am so ready to see justin!

i've gotten a lot accomplished on this visit, & i can't wait to divulge the details of my shower.

today will be spent soaking up every last little bit of my hometown vacation with family & friends.

here's to safe travels!

currents: raleigh + a bit of the mundane.

currently...

reading fifty shades of grey. scan.da.lous. beyond that, i have compiled quite a large list of books i'd like to read in the coming months, which i plan to share soon. i'm thinking of reviving the book list & wrap-up posts over here on siddathornton.

writing notes in my little notebook. items include a june shreveport playlist, a very important reminder, gift brainstorming, & currently, a currents list.

listening to traffic whiz by on the street in front of our building. there are a lot of big trucks on the road today. i wonder where they're going & what they're transporting?

thinking i should have practiced a bit more restraint when indulging in the raleigh delicacies yesterday. hitting the gym hard this afternoon.

smelling a weird combination of two scents: hot chocolate & sunflowers by elizabeth arden (a signature scent from high school, which i still sometimes wear & still always adore).

wishing for all future things to fall into place. i realize that is one layer-cake of an answer. i will reveal more as it all becomes concrete.

hoping hollie & phillip stay on idol tonight. hollie has come SUCH a long way, & phillip is already someone i know will be showing up on my future playlists. his rendition of volcano, by damien rice, was very, very good last night.

wearing a cropped eggplant blouse, a flared, black, high-waisted skirt, & sensible, black, well-worn-in flats. ready for a day at the office, no doubt.

loving both my maybelline mineral power powder foundation, as well as my neutrogena pink grapefruit cream cleanser. they are working wonders on my skin.

wanting a venti nonfat caramel macchiato. or green tea latte. or white chocolate mocha. or caramel apple cider. let's just make this simple & say 'starbucks.'

needing a very long, very hot shower, a very long sleep-in tomorrow morning, & a day spent reading & catching up on blogs. is it 5 o'clock yet? somewhere?

feeling spent. exhausted. but grateful. yesterday, i road-tripped it west over to raleigh to visit some dear friends from texas, jordan & jim! we toured the north carolina historic state capitol building, the north carolina museum of natural sciences, & the north carolina museum of art. we lunched at 518 west, enjoying brick oven pizzas, pasta, & fluffy bread with balsamic vinegar. our afternoon pick-me-up was acquired at reverie: a coffee den. justin joined us just in time for dinner at the pit, a local barbecue favorite. it rained on us almost the entire time - luckily, i wore my boat shoes! hanging out with those two really was a breath of fresh air & therapy for the soul. i laughed almost the entire day & really enjoyed getting to know raleigh.

tomorrow is the weekend. that alone is cause to celebrate!

ps - photos from my raleigh adventure coming soon!

carolina new year: the arrival.

i set out in the wee hours of the morning

on new years eve, a saturday,

bound for raleigh, north carolina.

& as the wheels touched down, i realized -

this place will be my new home.

as i passed through the arrival gate

of the serene, modern - beautiful - RDU,

i was happy to see justin waiting for me

at the airport starbucks.

we chose our lattes - our fraps,

and departed for lunch.

woody's at city market was our

restaurant of choice - burritos & sandwiches.

then, it was finally time to head to kinston -

finally time to see where justin had been

living & working all this time without me.

i was so excited to see what kinston

simply felt like.

and i have to say - i'm happy with what i found.

photos: iphone