1 Year Anniversary

Today was my 1 year anniversary. 1 year ago, I was in the happiest place on earth, on the happiest day of my life. I was marrying my best friend and (now constant) companion. When I think back about the engagement, I remember the excitement and I'm glad to say that I am still that excited (if not more so) to continue our life together. So much has changed in one year: I am graduated college, Josh has a great job that gives him fulfillment and friends, I went from knowing nothing about TED to being engrossed in it, my sister-in-law is having a baby girl, we are now cat people, just moved into a great apartment...I could go on! But instead, I'm going to tell you through a few pictures I have taken this year!



Married Josh in Disney World!

Gained 3 sisters (left)

Had great looking wedding party

Went on a 7 night Disney Cruise to the Virgin Islands

Got a job at UNF where I made great friends and was first exposed to TEDxJacksonville

Joined TEDxJacksonville

Maris & Daphne

 

Baby Ellie

Blueberry Festival

Explored- panoramic style

Discovered a pottery junkyard 

Made our own pancakes

Traveled to Disney

I just noticed, I didn't take nearly enough photos this year! This year was packed with fun adventures and mishaps worth snapping pictures of. I won't make that mistake twice! Just wait until my 2 year post!

The Best of Indian Cinema on Netflix

I really enjoy foreign films and a recent favorite is the Indian genre. I have created a list of my 6 favorite Indian films on Netflix (I know that lists usually consist of 5 or 10, but these are my favorites and I absolutely could not kick one off the list). Anyway, these are great films and I hope you enjoy them. Those of you familiar with Indian cinema will probably notice that 3 of the 6 films star India's leading man, Shahrukh Khan, and 2 others star Hrithik Roshan because they are my favorite leading men. 


1) Jodhaa Akbar: The film centres around the romance between the Muslim Mughal Emperor Akbar and the Hindu Rajput Princess Jodhabai who becomes his wife. My favorite. There is also fantastic music.

2) Mujhse Dosti Karoge!: The choice between friendship and love. Very Bollywood. 

3) Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi: A young, plain Indian man marries a woman he barely knows. But as is typical in all romances, he instantly falls in love with her. However, she does not love him (if she did, the movie would last only 30 minutes as opposed to 3 hours). He uses dance to try and make his wife fall in love with him. Love this leading man!

4) Veer- Zaara: Set against the backdrop of conflict between India and Pakistan, this star-crossed romance follows the unfortunate love story of an Indian Air Force pilot, Squadron Leader Veer Pratap Singh, and a Pakistani woman hailing from a rich political family of Lahore, Zaara Haayat Khan, who are separated for 22 years. Have some tissues on hand! 

5) Baabul: Millie meets the perfect man, marries and has a son. But this is only the beginning of her journey. After her husbands death, Millie's father-in-law attempts to put love back in her life. You're going to need those tissues again! 

6) Don: A great thriller from Indian cinema! A drug  lord is taken into custody and replaced with a kind, gentle body double. The good guy learns things and reports back to the police, but things quickly get out of hand. Excellent!

A Great TEDTalk

As a member of the social media team of TEDxJacksonville, I spend a lot of time watching TEDTalk videos to promote on our pages. Well, as a result, I have accumulated a very long list of "favorite" TED moments. But this TEDTalk by Jerri Arrington, Wearing Nothing New, particularly sticks out to me because the speaker and I have a lot in common. 

I am a shopaholic obsessed with great finds and this is the TED Talk for me! It's a meditation on conscious consumption -- wrapped in a rainbow of color and creativity. Jessi Arrington discusses the environmental reasons for thrifting (that and the fact that it is a blast). Ms.Arringon describes thrifting as her "treasure hunt."

Jessi Arrington delivered a TEDTalk in June 2011. This is a fantastic TEDTalk and without a doubt my favorite. Jessi Arrington is an engaging speaker with a quirky personality. I had never considered clothing to be environmentally friendly/unfriendly.

To iterate her Talk, Jessi tells the audience about her travel habits. She goes into detail about her suitcase and what it contains: 7 pairs of underwear and nothing else! She set out for the TED event with no outfits planned. Instead, she went to thrift stores, purchased items, created outfits, wore them, and then re-donated before she left for her journey home! 

This TEDTalk makes a good point, that our wardrobe can be somewhat unkind to mother nature. I looked into this a bit more and found that she is not the only individual to consider the ramifications of their wardrobe, Helen Mirren also shops at thrift stores and than re-donates.

Jessi Arrington also has a blog that I now follow! Lucky So and So: Observations of a color-loving Brooklyn Designer.  

Highlights from this Year's Reading List.

A few of this year's best reads:

For the Collage I used images of my personal copies (with the exception of Lord Peter Whimsy).

• Frankenstein by Mary Shelley: my annual reading of my favorite book.
• Persuasion by Jane Austen: my favorite work by Jane Austen.
• Under the Greenwood Tree by Thomas Hardy: Just a sweet story.
• Lord Peter Whimsy by Dorothy L. Sayers: Mystery!
• The Awakening by Kate Chopin: an old favorite that shows me different themes and conflicts every time it's read.
• Death Comes to Pemberly by P.D.James: The only continuation of Jane Austen's writings worth reading.
• Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte: I read this whenever there is a lull in my reading list.
• Irish Autumn by Margaret Evans Porter: an easy read with a cute love story.
• A Room With  a View by  E.M.Forester: Classic story of love and questions.
• Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte: My favorite Bronte work.
• Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen: the worlds favorite love story.
• Harry Potter by J.K.Rowling: life, lessons, and friendship. 
• The Turn of the Screw by Henry James: as close as I will ever get to horror fiction.
• Mary Barton by Elizabeth Gaskell: I love North and South and wanted to read more of her works.
• Mrs.Dalloway by Virginia Woolf: days of a bored housewife.

What I'm Reading Right Now

My "Just Graduated" Reading List

I'm currently reading through the Lord Peter Wimsey Mystery Series by Dorothy L. Sayers. This has been more of an adventurous read, as I had never read mystery novels. I've stuck within the classic genre. But this has opened up a whole new world of options for me. I love Lord Peter Wimsey: a more stylish sleuth than the much loved Sherlock Holmes. Lord Peter is a fellow of wealth, who never leaves without his monocle and a wonderful outfit. He solves murders in style!

Elizabeth Gaskell, author of North and South, writes a story of Mary Barton. The story is set in the English city of Manchester between 1839 and 1842, and deals with the difficulties faced by the Victorian lower class

Blueberry Festival '13

The Blueberry Festival is probably one of the cutest events in North Florida. It takes place in a tiny town, Bostwick, about 1 hour out of Jacksonville. For one day a year, Bostwick is filled with people on the hunt for delicious blueberries. And if you get there early enough you might be lucky enough to enjoy the fresh, homemade blueberry pancakes with blueberry syrup, a sausage, and orange juice. If you don't get there within the first few hours of the festival they will run out and that is why we left at 6:30am!

My parents, along with myself and Josh loaded into the car and were among the first cars to be parked in an open field, where the wet grass came to your calf. But we weren't worried about our shoes because we could taste the blueberry pancakes! Luckily, we were at the front of the line, only waiting 5 minutes for a blueberry pancake breakfast.

In addition to the pancakes, they offered freshly baked blueberry pies, blueberry icecream, preserves, jams, and jellies. In addition to the already made goods, you could purchase 5lb bags of blueberries to do with whatever your tummy can handle!

What is Inside of a Book?

A book is a constantly aging enclosure of a story. The pages of a book will wither with time, yellow with age, and tear through use: but with every opening the story is reborn. This wonderful contradiction has guided me through my education and provided my life with fulfillment and passion.