every time someone asks me how my summer is going, my answer is always the same.
"good. I'm bored. I want to go back to school."
they say,
"well that's not something you hear very often."
and it's not, I'm sure. who wants to go back to having to do your own laundry and dishes and vacuuming and paying for your own gas and the constant pressure to do well in your classes?
me, please.
in 2013 I finally became friends with some of the most genuine people I have ever met. a group of people with good hearts and good intentions who always push themselves to be BETTER. and in return, they have made me better. it's so hard for me to put into words.
basically, they make me want to go back to the 4.0 pressure, just for me to be able to stand in the rain, holding an umbrella with little success at meets and sweat at practice and always be ready with "the good ice."
basically, these are my favorite people.

the boys too. I just don't have pictures with all of them.

Frida Kahlo to Marty McConnell.

by Marty McConnell.

leaving is not enough. you must

stay gone. train your heart like a dog. 

change the locks, even on the house he's never visited. 

you lucky, lucky girl.

you have an apartment just your size.

a bathtub full of tea. 

a heart the size of arizona,

but not nearly so arid.

don't wish away your cracked past, your crooked toes.

your problems are paper mache puppets you made or bought

because the vendor at the market was so compelling you just had to have them.

you had to have him.

and you did.

and now you pull down the bridge between your houses,

you make him call before he visits, 

you take a lover for granted,

you take a lover who looks at you

like maybe you are magic.

make the first bottle you consume in this place a relic.

place it on whatever altar you fashion with a knife and five cranberries.

don't lose too much weight.

stupid girls are always trying to disappear as revenge.

and you are not stupid. 

you loved a man

with more hands than a parade of beggars, and here you stand. 

heart

like a four poster bed.

heart like a canvas.

heart leaking something so strong,

they can smell it in the street.