Stripe-a-licious

Ok, I know I'm not supposed to be posting now, but I couldn't resist some fun photos...

I guess you could say we're a beat generation...

I just want everyone to know that there's a reason that my posts have been and will be sparse for a few days--I'm working on a paper. When I'm not immersing myself in the era of the beatniks, I'm at one meeting or another.

I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked, dragging themselves through the negro streets at dawn looking for an angry fix.

-Allen Ginsberg, opening lines of "Howl"

Walls

I have a little alcove in my room. I sit at my desk, a bed to my front, Joyce's desk to my left, and a wall to my right and back. These walls are important. Or rather, what's on them is important. I just keep smacking things up there, but everything is significant in some way, even if the significance is merely beauty.

The city of Florence is a key contributor to my walls. To my back, the statue of David, a placemat with the Duomo. To my right, a map of the city and a piece of marbleized paper that I watched the man at Il Papiro make. Io l'amo.

To my right, a tree motif has somehow developed. Three posters I made with the following poems: Arbole, Arbole by Garcia Lorca, i thank you God for most this amazing by e.e. cummings, and Birches by Robert Frost. Tree images in all the poems. A tree on all the posters. Not to mention a tree-themed thank-you from Paul and Laura, a beautiful autumn leaf, and a random tree I made with torn paper.

What else? Various Mary Engelbreit posters. Postcards with the words HOPE, LOVE, and SMILE. Cards from people I love. A quote from C.S. Lewis. A poster about being a girl. Pictures from the anthropologie catalog. An ad for Moonlit Rose body spray, which I've never tried, but the description is me to a T. A Dove chocolate wrapper proclaiming, "Naughty can be nice." a save the date card for Jon and Rachel's wedding. An invitation to the mixed company meeting of the Men's High Life Society. A picture of me and Jeff looking like hippies. That is all. But more is being added all the time.

Not to mention the quotes in caligraphy hanging from my bed. The picture of Audrey Hepburn. The picture of prayers in Jerusalem's Western Wall. The pictures of my family and two old friends. Sundry craft supplies strewn across my desk and the surrounding floor. A box of Hello Kitty sandwich bags. A honey bear. A Bible. Rice cakes. Nailclippers. A pink pashmina. An origami flower. Argyle socks. Books about beat poetry.

It's good to live in an alcove.