A Blog in Reflection

One year ago today, I left on the adventure of my life.

I packed all of my bags, said "Ciao!" to my friends and family, and high tailed it out of the country. That got me to thinking about all of the amazing places I've been in 365 days and holy crap, there are a lot of them.

You are more than welcome to peruse my adventures as they have happened to me here in this blog, but here's a little (geo)graphical explanation of my adventures: Map o da world. Or if you don't want to see the names of the places, here's just a picture.

But the link should show you all of the names of places too. Granted, I probably forgot some a long the way (like Assissi.... I loved Assissi. St. Francis is awesome)(And Duluth. I was for sure in Duluth this summer), got them out of order, or didn't list every time I was back in KC this year. But the main point is here are the 25 (more like 27 with the ones I forgot because I'm a dumb ass and Google Maps won't let me add more than A-Y) cities that I've considered part of my journey this year. 

I don't know if this year will hold as many cities, or as many "adventures" but I'm glad this one was so thrilling. 

Boxes of Things

So basically every thing is packed. The little nitty gritty shitty stuff is left to pack, and I guess most of that is just handfuls of uh, dump that in that sort of not quite full bag over there. There is not so much method to the madness, but rather this method is a byproduct of the madness.  Don't judge me.

None the less, tomorrow I travel north to the great land called Gustavus where I will officially embark on my third year of college (this is the parenthetical where I say something like, "holy shit is that real? third year? Uh.... I'm almost certain they shouldn't have passed me in the first two. I'm likely still a freshman or at the ver least a sophomore.) That being said, I should probably not blink, otherwise I'll be graduating and won't have any idea what I'm supposed to do with my life. Classic.

In other news, I've finished my scrapbook! I think I will bring it with me to the hill where I will allow it to collect dust and I will occasionally force it upon my friends who are sick and tired of listening to me babble about Italy this, and Rome public transportation that. Oh well, it's pretty and I'm fat and sassy. (that one was for you Molly).

Bag-Ception

So here's the skinny. I like crafts. I craft all the time. I'm not so secretly crafty. And thus is my life while I am home. I have been attempting to work on my scrapbook from Rome (you know, the reason why I started the blog thing in the first place) and it's been an adventure. But there's a point when I can't do no mo pictures. So I decided to pick up something a little more mindless, albeit conscious.  Let me explain.

Michelle (you know that girl) said that she was going to knit some plastic bags together to make a super bag. And I'm thinking, "Huh? I couldn't have heard that right." But then she just looked at me like, "Did I stutter? I'm knitting plastic bags to make a super bag."

Wait for it... Wait for it. Yup. Mind blown.

The goal is to take all of the grocery bags that you annoyingly stuff into corners and then plan to reuse, but usually forget because no one looks in corners for bags every time you decide to go to the store. So you just end up having these mounds of should be reused, sculpted, or donated bags that look lonely and unloved and dingy in the corners.

The process works like this. You cut these unloved crinkle-wads into long strips of super thin plastic and then ball them up as you would yarn. Then once you amass enough of a ball (and/or clean out those corners) (That's where I put that!) (Yum, Halloween candy), you knit. That simple. You know, except for that part where you spend awkward mindless hours cutting apart bags to the strange looks of your friends (or those friends you would have if you didn't spend your Friday nights cutting apart plastic bags).

But here's what I've learned: This could be really cool. So far (and I only have a portion of the base of the bag) it looks sort of legit, and could end up the envy of every Environment conscious pseudo hippie I pass on the street (see, I told you that would make sense later).  I'll be sure to post pictures here when I do finish it, but I'm pleasantly pleased with the reactions I've heard so far (I knit a lot in public.... Hence my single, only child status).

Resounding Message: Go green! Knit more!

Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds

Is it too late to declare that the Olympics have encouraged me to once again obsessively listen to the Beatles? Probably, but I feel no shame. Other things I'm not ashamed of: starting my scrapbook of Italy. Well, I should be more specific, I'm currently in process of picking out the pictures that will eventually make their way into my Italy scrapbook. Don't make fun of me, this is a long process. Here's to hoping I get it done before I go back to school.

Nothing else new to report here, I think that Grace K is a super star, and that's not opinion, that's fact.