My Atlanta Sunrise

What I'm Listening To:
Here Comes the Sun by The Beatles

"Quiet"

I woke up at 6:45 the other morning with the (what I thought was brilliant) idea to watch the sunrise from my backyard. Sure, that paper said that sunrise was at 6:58 but what I forgot was that it would still take a while for the sun to make its way through the tall pine trees surrounding my house. But being the wonderfully stubborn person that I am, I sat outside taking pictures of a barely lit sky, waiting for a couple sun rays to greet me. That only took about half an hour. I used to think that you could only watch the sunrise at the beach but here are some pictures of the sunrise in Atlanta.

"And I Say It's All Right"

"Returning Smile"

"Golden Touch"

"Mr. Monet, If You Please"

"Sun, Sun, Sun, Here We Come"

"Here Comes The Sun: Little Darlin'"

A Lazy Friday Afternoon

"Sun in the Sidelines"

Meet Ruthie, my third Christ-Sister. She came over on Friday and we hung out on the trampoline and took some pictures. I loved the way the sun was coming over the house next door and hit her hair and face. While taking these pictures, the thought "When did my baby grow up???" passed through my head. Ruthie has always prized her tee-shirts and shorts over any other item in her closet and would definitely prefer running around outside then shopping the mall. I am incredibly proud of the way she has taken charge of her new world at a new, much bigger school. I have watched her positively explode into a gorgeous, talented, graceful - (yes, graceful! As in, not as clumsy!) - thoughtful and unique young lady of God. Ruthie has always brought joy into my life and the life of our Family. She's very good at picking out the silver lining from a big, terrifying storm cloud. Ruthie is like a golden retriever, she just wants to be happy and everyone else to be happy and come out to play!
Keep growin', Ruthie! I love you!

"Shining From the Background"

"My Personal Smilie-Face"

"Classic: PYT"

"Laughter"

"Ruthie's Eyes"

A Room With A View

"Sunset"

On my most recent trip to Naples I took 412 pictures... 307 of them were of this sunset. It was breathtaking. The Naples Pier is one of the most famous places to go see a sunset and I certainly hope that some of my pictures can convince you why. As I walked up the Pier, I saw a very old couple sitting on one of the benches. They were holding hands and looking out to the horizon. A few paces more and a woman wearing white and a man in dress clothes were leaning against the railing, watching the sun go down. A group of girl friends laughed and stuck out their tongues as they took pictures of themselves with the sunset being them. A mom held her baby daughter who was reaching out with chubby little hands towards the bright orange ball sinking into the blue blanket of water. Then the scene was totally lost 'cus I walked up on this guy who was gutting a really big fish. It smelled gross, not to mention the guts spilling everywhere. Poor Nemo... Anyway, there's something unexplainable about the mood a sunset brings. For me, it was primarily joy. I hope my spot in Heaven has a veiw like that.

"Steffi In The Sun"

"Tender Tide"

"Cotton Candy Sky"

"Pillars"

"On The Pier"

"Reflection"

"A Peephole"

Beauty and the Beast

"Encore Roses"

My high school put on a production of Beauty and the Beast this weekend. It was absolutely incredible! I took roses to some of my friends who were in it. One of my best guy friends played Lofou and was totally perfect! Several other friends were in the chorus and pieces of furniture in the Castle. Another guy friend, who is extremely talented, got picked for the Beast! It was fun to see people I actually knew play the parts. Anyway, the musical was amazing. I love performing and love watching it, too. Here are just a few of the gazillion pictures I took. (As you can see, I have a bit of an infatuation with Gaston... he was fantastic).

"Marry Me, Belle"

"Gaston and Lofou"

"Gaston and Lofou 2"

Colourful Naples

"Pink and Blue"

Here are some more shots from my trip to Naples. As you can tell, I love the colours and the architecture. I like to look at these sunny pictures on days like today when it is wet, cold and gray outside. Hope they provide you some colour in a bleary, dreary day!
Oh yeah, and happy birthday to my brother, Mac! And happy ground-hog's day for all you other people.

"Popinjay Yellow"

"Secluded Colour"

"Bungalow"

"Decoratin' the Fence"

Taking Notes

"The Art of C.L.Moore."

Some people take really great, detailed notes. Some take short, abbreviated notes. Some people colour-coordinate their notes. Me, I doodle on them. Especially math notes because they are the most detestable, (next to science). I love to doodle. Most of the time I just have doodles in the margins or the top of the page...sometimes class is just exceedingly boring.
I love how monotonous these shots are. The only colour is the dirty, orange-ish pencil and even that is not very eye-catching. Hm, what a good analogy for school. Monotonous with an occasional orange-ish pencil that provides what little colour it can.
As you can tell, school isn't exactly on my favourite things to do list. I love to learn; I relish it. But the whole "sit down, shut up and think the way I tell you to" part of school is what turns me off of it. Oddly, I'll find myself doing late-night Google searches, desparete to know more than my shelteredly biased history book miserably fails to teach. The Glorious Revolution, William of Orange. The Irish Potatoe Famine. Sigmund Freud and Karl Marx. The Bronte Sisters, Jane Austin and Charles Dickens. I know, I know, I'm a dork. My elder sister has informed me of that several times.
So, all this to say, when in doubt: dOOdLe!

"Jailbreak"
(I wish!)

"Nearest and Dearest"

Naples...Florida

"Island in Eternity"

I went to Naples, Florida over the long weekend with my mom to see my Grandpa. Naples is one of my favorite places in the whole world, especially Old Naples. It is elegantly quaint and gently sophisticated. In Old Naples the streets go north and south and the avenues to east and west. Shops and restaurants boarder the roads and the beach is about twenty-feet away. Naples competes with Atlanta and Cincinnati for my three top cities. I have no idea which is my ultimate favorite. But Naples, it definitely has the best sunsets! It's great for staring into the wild blue yonder and sailing off into the sunset on the...the, um... THAT BIG BLUE WET THING?!?

"Freedom"

"Following My Father's Footsteps"

"Barcelona? Is That You?"

"Sundown"

"Chasing the Sunset"

"Buoy in the Blue"

"Radiance"

"Captain, We Have a Problem"