best of siddathornton.

Today, for the Blog Every Day In May challenge, Jenni prompted us to write out a list of links for our favorite posts in our archives - a Best of Siddathornton, if you will. Thus, I give you: my favorite posts, to date. Oh, & for the sake of brevity, I will be choosing from the last couple of months. Not the entire archive.

what i want to blog about | a post hastily tapped out in a deliciously, inspiringly over-caffeinated state.

sidda just loves books | a post that explains my blog name.

on time | one of my most honest posts, about how the passage of time stresses me out at times

choosing our snapshots | a post about how we choose what we share.

a little look at pinehurst | some thoughts about our visit to pinehurst, north carolina.

friday's letters, to myself | an edition of friday's letters in which i write to myself.

glimpses of spring | one of the charleston snapshot series - lots of beautiful flowers & color.

the kind of person | a list of attributes i hope to one day rock.

waving goodbye to 2012 | the year in review. and trust me, there was a LOT to review.

and, of course, all of the sunday currently posts.

What are your favorite blog posts you've written? Go share on Jenni's blog.

the struggle.

Today - for the challenge - I'm going to talk about something I bet every who has moved away from their hometown has dealt with. Of course, there are those badasses out there who listen to their call to adventure, who can still feel connected even when they're thousands of miles from that place they for so long called home. You may have already guessed this, but I am not one of those people.

 

While Justin was in PA school, we talked about moving away from our hometown, to get out & see more of the country. To have an adventure. To go make a new place our own.

 

And when he did his preceptorship, which is basically a three-month internship at the end of PA school, he went twelve hours away to Greenville, South Carolina. I went & visited twice, & we fell in love with that little city & its picturesque downtown. In those summer days spent seeing patients, playing golf, & exploring a new state, we both fell in love with the idea of living in the Carolinas, he from up-close, myself from far-away & by proxy.

 

Needless to say, in the space of time after PA school graduation & now, we got engaged, moved to North Carolina, got married, & settled into Wilmington. And I love Wilmington. I love its beaches, I love its beauty, & I love it's riverfront downtown, with restaurants and ice cream right there on the water. I love being in a different place, forging my own way, & relying on Justin for partnership & companionship.

 

But, it's hard to be so far removed from our families, from our friends, & from familiarity.

 

So, I guess that's what I'm struggling with lately: just the duality of loving Wilmington & feeling so safe & secure in Shreveport, surrounded by people who love us. The duality of adventure, excitement, newness, in stark contrast to familiarity, comfort, & normalcy. During my last trip to Shreveport, which I am just now arriving home to Wilmington from today, this struggle was really brought to the forefront of my mind.

 

But, I am excited to see what the future holds for us in Wilmington. There is still so much to be explored, so many people to meet, & so many things to get involved in. And I'm glad that Justin will be alongside me throughout it all, experiencing it at the same time. To me, that is the ultimate comfort.
 

the sunday currently, volume 35.

Well! This has been a whirlwind weekend! Normally, I would have a photo from Lindsey's wedding festivities up there above this text, but by the time you are reading this, I will be powering through my fifteen-and-a-half hour drive from Shreveport to Wilmington. Since I am writing this way in advance, it seems my words concerning the wedding may not hold as much meaning, but I really am sure that everything will have gone lovely. But, I'll write more about that after the fact!

 

I'm not going to lie to you: I've really, really struggled with blogging the past month. Being in Shreveport with a lot of things to do, rather than all the free time I have in Wilmington to get creative, has put a major damper on almost all things blogging related. I think my one saving grace has been Jenni's Challenge, which has forced me to sit at the computer & tap some words out each day. And while I haven't used her prompts each day, I've enjoyed reading others' spins on them [even though I've virtually commented on zero blogs since I've been home].

 

I want to say a little thank you to all those of you who have continued to visit this space, read the hastily-typed-out words, & have graced me with some very thoughtful comments. I appreciate you, & I hope we can catch up more thoroughly once I've arrived back in Wilmington & to my daily routine. I'll be beginning school soon, so I'm sure I'll have to re-configure my days, but I know I'll block off a little space of time for all-things-blog each day. I'm looking forward to finding another rhythm - will I ever find one that just effortlessly sticks? I certainly do hope so.

 

reading street signs, speed limit signs, & license plates. An admittedly smartass answer, but it's the truth, since I'm on the road.

writing preliminary schedules & itineraries in my head, preparing for a new Wilmington daily routine. Also, blog posts in my head.

listening to either Sirius XM or my iPod playlist, which has millions & millions [well, not quite that many] songs on it. I'm so glad Justin put all my music on there before I embarked on my trip a month ago.

thinking about arriving safely in Wilmington tomorrow.

smelling my car's air freshener. It's some kind of vanilla scent from Bath & Body Works. My sister got a cupcake-scented one while I was in town, & I'm thinking that needs to be my next purchase. Her car smells like a bakery. And I'm down with that.

wishing this car ride took about six hours, instead of way more than that.

hoping Lindsey & Tison enjoyed their wedding day!

wearing what I'm sure is just precious road trip attire.

loving that I get to see Justin tomorrow! A month apart is just far too long.

wanting gas station coffee, unless I've already treated myself to that delicacy. It's highly likely.

needing peace of mind & a safe trip to Wilmington.

feeling blessed to have my big tank of a car. It makes me feel safe, which makes driving long distances a lot easier.

clicking this old familiar favorite in the past week, which is pretty much the most hilarious thing on YouTube. I know, that's saying something, right? But seriously, watch them & tell me you didn't laugh at least once.

 

photo: from arriving in shreveport one month ago. doesn't feel like it's already been that long.

 

 

lindsey's getting married!

Happy Wedding Day to my dear friends, Lindsey Hudson & Justin Tison! May today be a day when time can slow down a little bit, so we can all take snapshots in our mind of this exciting occasion.

 

lindsey's engaged | engagement party | bachelorette party

 

see all hudson-tison wedding posts here

 

friday's fancies #70: wedding prep.

tote | top | ihome | shorts

 

Today is a day of festivities: Lindsey's wedding weekend* has finally arrived! On the one hand, I feel like I've been waiting for this weekend for years, & on the other hand, I can't believe it's actually arrived. Since this morning is the Bridesmaids' Luncheon, & the Rehearsal & Rehearsal Dinner is tonight, I obviously wouldn't be thinking of wearing the above. And if I did... well, that might be a little bit awkward. I've centered this week's Friday's Fancies look around getting ready for the main event: the wedding day! The theme this week is stripes, so that Michael Kors tote presented itself in all its glory, & I couldn't say no. If I owned it, I'd pack it to the brim with necessities & call it a day.

 

I'm so excited for Lindsey & Tison's big day. Let the party begin!

this week's posts:
roadtrippin' to jackson
family heirlooms
the sunday currently
a public apology to life itself
one of my first draft posts
what i want to blog about
the girlies

*wanna see what we did for her bachelorette party? go here.

 

linked up for friday's fancies on {long distance loving} 

 

shreveport snapshot: the girlies.

Today, these two girlies are getting a haircut. Kara & I piled them into the car this morning, & they both shook the entire way to the groomer's. We kept telling them, you're going to look & feel so much better after this, but I don't really think they cared or believed us.  I can't wait to see how cute they are when we pick them up later this afternoon.

 

As my visit in Shreveport draws to a close, I am trying to savor every single little moment. Even the simple act of dropping the dogs off to be groomed. 

 

what i want to blog about.

there are so many things that i want to blog about... 

... about the exhilaration of flying down the freeways of dallas, chasing after chinese food, cheesecake factory, & nights out on the town with outdoor bars with heaters, all to the tune of human, by the killers.

... about the true & untouched sweetness & simplicity that can be found in the warmth of a photograph.

... about the marriage of personalities that friends sometimes experience on an unexpected day, when they realize they both have never seen a cult classic movie, or they both think a missing lettuce leaf is the funniest thing on the planet.

... about the invigorating moment when you realize that being an adult isn't all work & no play, when you're surrounded by a group of girls who think it's just as fun as you do, to read books, to eat lots of food, & to discuss your mutual nerdiness.

... about the unfamiliarity of marriage, even if you have been dating someone for such a long time that it feels like you've always been married. and the thrill of settling in together, of depending on one another, on having weeks where all you do is laugh at the other's silliness.

... about the duality of the gnawing pain of homesickness, paired with the love of adventure & the love of your new surroundings. 

... about the love of the written word, of its power of transformation & transportation.

... about the somewhat contradictory love of the medical field, about finally coming into my own & discovering a way to fuse that medical love with that literary love, & about creating a life & career for myself that is truly indicative of the person that i am.

... about living with the pain of those bothersome feelings of anxiety that have a way of creeping in silently.

... about the joy that can be found in the simple activities of daily life.

... and about the healing power of music, words, & shows/movies... how they transform the mundane aspects of life & infuse feeling, meaning, & remembrance into them.

i just want this space to be a chronicle of living, really living. not rose-colored shadows of what's really going on - no, not that - but rather putting the beauty of life under a microscope. honing in on the reality that life can be wonderful, if you'll only put in enough thought & effort. enough heart. 

i will put in enough heart. and i will share it with you, along the way. along the journey.

one of my first draft posts.

always be the best you can be.

 

Tonight, as I returned home from helping Lindsey with some of the week-of wedding details, I realized I hadn't put up my post for the day yet. Normally, I'd just skip the day, thinking well, if I haven't put up a blog post yet, & it's almost the next day already, that means it just wasn't meant to be for today to have a post. But since I committed to Blog Every Day In May, I knew I had to get something up in this space for May 14, 2013. So here I am, just rambling on about nothing, in order to say I've posted something for the day. In some ways, that's exactly what I never wanted my blog to become. But in some ways, it's exactly what I wanted my blog to become. Blogs are funny in that way: you think you want them to be a certain thing, but then they surprise you, show you that maybe every once in a while, they're meant to be something completely different than what you ever envisioned.

 

I was searching through my drafts, & I found the first one I ever wrote. It's from when I was still blogging here, but planning to switch over to this clean, untouched space. And here we are, more than two years later, & this poor little draft has not yet seen the light of day. I figured, today, or rather, tonight, is the perfect time for its debut. All I think of, when I see the above, is the hope I had when I started blogging here. The hope that, no matter where I went in life, no matter what I was doing, there would always be a place to come, a home of sorts... this little blog.

 

a public apology to life itself.

Dear Life,

 

I'm sorry for sometimes not letting simplicity be enough. Because, really, it is. I think sometimes that I think - for things to be complete - they have to be replete. But yesterday evening, when sitting around the bonfire with my family, glass of wine in hand, I realized something. The slowing-down of oneself, the allowing oneself the realization that this is all I need - well, that is the greatest gift it is possible to give. We are constantly pushing forward, we are constantly thinking what next? And, to be honest, that is absolutely no way to live. We should be constantly holding still, constantly thinking this is where I am now, I will savor it. Life, I apologize for not being in the correct mindset more often. Because when I am, I feel like we get along so much better. This is my pledge: to slow down, to look around, to live, to let simplicity be enough. More than enough.

 

Love,

Lauren

 

photo: instagram

 

the sunday currently, volume 34.

Happy Mother's Day, everyone! Today will be spent relaxing at home with my mom, dad, & sister. If only Justin were in town to celebrate with us! Today's list of currentlies will be short & sweet - it's a family day.

 

reading The Casual Vacancy, by J.K. Rowling. I already love it. Oh yeah, and Little Women. Which hopefully I'll finish before the end of this year.

writing out schedules for when I return to Wilmington - next goal: get a summer job!

listening to Pandora like crazy lately. And my main station? Mates of State, just like last week.

thinking this will be a nice, relaxing week. And then, Lindsey's wedding this weekend!

smelling like Pink Chiffon from Bath & Body Works this morning. Not my usual, but I like it.

wishing I had written this post in advance. Things have really been catching up with me lately. I need to get ahead again.

hoping that, like I mentioned above, I can get ahead with everything this week.

wearing some slouchy gray Polo pants & a black sweater. Cozy pajamas.

loving being with my Mom for Mother's Day today.

wanting endless cups of coffee this morning.

needing the same thing I said in the previous answer.

feeling happy. Not only am I here with my Mom on Mother's Day, but Justin & I are Face-Timing while I write this post.

clicking The Sunday Secrets.

 

photo: mom reading her mother's day card this morning