miss penny lane.

"never take it seriously.

if you never take it seriously, you never get hurt.

if you never get hurt, you always have fun, and if you ever get lonely, you just go to the record store and visit your friends."

-almost famous

words to live by.

[photo credz].

pensive tuesday.

"affection is responsible for nine-tenths of whatever solid and durable happiness there is in our lives."

-c.s. lewis

 i can't decide whether i agree with this or not.

or i did until about 2 days ago when i was walking back from the gym after watching fantastic mr. fox during my workout.

(yes, i went to the gym 3 days in a row; and yes, fantastic mr. fox was on while i was ellypticalling)

i'm heading back towards my dormitory and all the sudden a seagull lands in front of me.

now, i don't know if anyone else would've gotten the same moment of solid and durable happiness that i did, but realizing that i'm living close enough to the ocean that i can be walking back from the gym and run into a friendly seagull somehow proved mr. lewis wrong to me.

there's something about the sea that can't not bring a smile to my face. i don't even like swimming that much anymore, but you can't be on the beach and not feel just a little more glee swimming inside you.

but onto the opposing argument.

yesterday, i received many emails from the facer family updating me on jeff facer's uganda adventures. now, i can't give you direct quotes or anything, because there is a very official disclaimer at the end of the emails telling me i can't reveal the information to anyone else, but i can paraphrase how it made me feel.

jeffrey facer: i love you.

the amount of happiness that his words brought me literally made me cry.

it kind of trumped the friendly seagull.
which brings me to my next point.

it's all about perspective.

that's my cliché of the week.

maybe the "happiness" fantastic mr. fox brought me didn't count because it wasn't as strong as the kind affection brought.

what is real happiness?

do you need the complexity of relationships to provide you true joy in life?

or maybe what lewis didn't realize is that the happiness that this affection ends up taking away balances out with the huge amount it initially gives.

since love is the ultimate contradiction.

that must be why i find so much joy in the simple pleasures in life:

accidentally ending up at the santa monica pier, but responding with windows down and sheryl crow blasting.

being reminded of my love for the o.c. while buying my $5 rooney concert ticket.

living with people i love, with more people i love down the hall...all 10 minutes from the beach.
being told that i look like winona ryder in heathers. hello flattery.

making eye contact with cute boys at the book store.

finding a $4 sunshine colored bow hair comb at urban.

but most importantly, celebrating miss kate's twentieth birthday from a couple states away.

love you katiedid91.

and i'm sure joshy would love you too.

happy tuesday everyone, make it a pensive one.

xoxoxoxo.

p.s. shout out to caroline for actually keeping up with follow the sun. love you carrot. 

hey little bird.

1. alright, so, the other day i was on facebook and what seemed like every single status was about that certain song about a certain day of the week that makes me want to slap someone across the face. (no joke, literally as i was typing this, my sister turned on the song in the next room. me tuer, s'il te plaît) anyway, somehow i ended up making the transition from facebook to youtube to watch the recent japan footage. and i hate to sound so typical, but please social networking, what have you done to the world? the fact that pop culture has narrowed in on a trending youtube video for it's lack of value more than opportunities like [this] makes me want to...well, barf.

2. i got to laugh so hard last night that, at one point, i was genuinely scared i might pee my pants (go ahead and judge, but i think it's a waste of your time). and it was largely in thanks to the great rasheed JUSTIN akbarut. just thought i'd send a shout out to my fellow camus-worshiper.

3. i am absolutely enraptured by [mumford and sons]. if you haven't had the chance to listen to their album yet, i'd suggest starting with that link. that song stole my heart. (could i get any more cheesy? forgive me)

4. i'm departing for peru in almost exactly a week! goodbye la cañada, hello foreign land.

5. i'm in love with seahorses. and lucky boy bacon breakfast burritos with thousand island dressing. and floret perfume.

6. and for the sixth point, [i have no words].

why not throw in a quote too?

“i wonder if i’ve been changed in the night? let me think. was i the same when i got up this morning? i almost think i can remember feeling a little different. but if i'm not the same, the next question is ‘who in the world am i?’ ah, that’s the great puzzle! if i had a world of my own, everything would be nonsense. nothing would be what it is, because everything would be what it isn’t. and contrary wise, what is, it wouldn’t be. and what it wouldn’t be, it would. you see?”

lewis carroll

p.s. i have a crush on mark wahlberg.

just some words.

[photo credz].

[photo credz].

[photo credz].

 

[photo credz].

[photo credz].

[photo credz].

[photo credz].

happy tuesday!

dear mister warhol.

you and your insight are simply fabulous.

although i wish you were still here, at least your perceptive one-liners are.

who else could provide his definition of art in just eight words?

(other than jim padilla)

i remember learning about your campbell's soup painting in elementary school.
<3

...i'll be waiting for my signed can.

[photo credz].

où est la bibliothèque?

"somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known."

~dr. carl sagan~

p.s. t trap + sleepover with caroline this weekend...what else could i ask for?!
[new favorite]

[photo credz].

timebomb.

[this is ridiculously cool]

just thought i'd share.

p.s.

 true forgiveness is not an action after the fact, it is an attitude with which you enter each moment.

-david ridge

sighing just a little bit.

dearest world,


life is hard. in case you hadn't already figured that out yourself. today, all i want to say is this:


"every great dream begins with a dreamer. always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world."



harriet tubman


we might all want to change the world (thank you, beatles), but that doesn't take away from the fact that we all have the power to change the world. and i forget that every single day. i never fail to forget that i can do whatever i want. learning to trust yourself is the most important thing you can learn, truly. because if you lose faith in yourself, you lose faith in the world...and that just leaves you feeling empty. starting a new life is scary. so many people are excited for college, and that's great. but a lot of people aren't there yet, and for those of us who've fallen behind, we're a little more scared than excited. unavoidable change like that can be really scary if you don't feel ready. and you can't force yourself to feel ready for anything. we'll just have to take it one day at a time.


unfortunately, itunes won't open for me right now, so i'm not really on top of my music...so i don't have any music to leave you with today.


love always,


cecilia

live without thinking the world is staring at you.

"it's like admitting you ate the cookie in the cookie jar but trying to make it cute so that you dont get in trouble. like an 'aw shucks' smile":


:3
woody buck


"italian tomato and basil: 11.29. parking for one hour underneath cpk: 5:00. lolcats, lolbears, lollerskates, naw brah: priceless. there are some things money can buy, but for everything else there's a reunion."
rishi menon


"nahhh cece you're my homedroid."
jack gilbert


"hahaha jk i love you chichi. especially when i am mean to you. it makes my heart feel good."
jeff facer


"you look like you were attacked by a panther."
kate van amringe


"i made like 5 friends already.....they're all lizards."
maddy mccollum




i just thought i'd share a little bit of what makes my life bright every day.
i love you friends.


and SPEAKING OF LOVE, i have been thinking about it lately.


WHAT IS LOVE?
how can you know when you really love someone? how do i know that when i tell someone i love him or her, that i'm not lying? and this is just platonic love...i haven't even really begun to concern myself with 'in love' love. that's so foreign to me that i've decided not to even worry about it until it becomes part of my own experience. this reminds me that i really just want to interview people. i want to ask teenagers in love to describe it to me, versus adults who have had a marriage last, ones who have fallen out of love, experienced unrequited love, etc. i also want to ask an old person how it feels to have most of your life over...but first, i'll need to figure out a way to phrase the question more kindly.


"Love is the only sane and satisfactory answer to the problem of human existence."
Eric Fromm

(kate and i found this picture last night...we're obsessed, so i thought i'd share)

p.s. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eq7DGPYzAvg

oh, and i love paige riley.

[photo credz].

listen to the music of the moment.

i cried last night. i cried for the first time in a week and, embarrassingly enough, that’s a long time for me. there’s this thing about crying. everyone thinks it’s a sad thing, when really, crying is the best escape i can think of. when you start crying, there’s something there that’s making you feel sad or sentimental. but when you stop crying, there’s a reason there too. there’s this huge sense of relief when you finally realize that there’s no reason to cry anymore. catharsis- it’s kind of the only way i know how to clean my mind out. and, trust me, my mind needs a lot of cleaning (or more organization, i guess). sometimes, all you can do is cry. you can’t take on the world, because you have to take on yourself first (™ jack g.). the thing is, you are your world. the world doesn’t revolve around one person, right? but our lives are our own. the only thing that will, no matter what, always stay constant in your life is you. so finding oneself might as well be taking on the world. right now, the only thing i know to do is live for now. if i’m happy, i’m happy, not worried that tomorrow i’ll be sad. if there’s a goal i’m trying to accomplish, i’m working on that goal, not thinking about all the other ones i can’t be working on. when i was little, i would cry because my friend was being mean to me. now, when i cry, it’s because i’ve lost trust in the world, because i can’t understand what some of my friends are going through, because i don’t know how to control my own life. it’s never going to be simple again. but sometimes, all you can do is cry. learn who you are and learn to understand.

“i shall pass through this world but once.  any good, therefore, that i can do or any kindness that i can show to any human being let me do it now.  let me not defer or neglect it, for i shall not pass this way again.”

jerry lewis