Here's To Many More!

My Instagram Birthday was this past Wednesday!

This is how I celebrated:

I joined at the insistence of Caroline Clonts and since then. Well. 

It is the first thing that I check when I wake up every morning. Without fail. 

Instagram has opened my eyes to the beauty of everyday life, the importance of everyday things, and the feelings and thoughts attached to everything we see and do. Needless to say [apparently I am obsessed with using that phrase. Which means I enjoy stating the obvious?] Instagram is a beautiful community connecting peoples of all ages, places, and ability. Using filters [and other editing apps that swallow Itunes giftcards whole] IG users are called to make everything feel vintage, modern, abstract, or colorful, and best of all Square. One day, Walgreens is going to realize that I don't want to print in 3x4 anymore!  With my IG birthday falling towards the end of the year, it is in accordance with the classic time of retrospect. Below. I have selected 10 (or more) of my favorite pictures and words from a year with IG. However, due to my unorganized organizational style, they are scrambled and not posted in any specific order such as alphabetical, by date, or by preference.

People will tell you that it's a bad idea. And chances are. It is.

I'll float away if you aren't careful. I'll float away and I'll never be back. 

I don't have control of the wonder after all.. . ..

I didn't know if I was running away from the day or into the day. . . 

She waits. Even though she doesn't have to. They will flock to her. 

Everyone will. . .She waits though.

We're just three girls in a car. Going places. 

And there is nothing simple about that.

And she is off on grand adventure #1,393,027,738,207,379,302. . . 

Blink of the lights. Blink of the talent.

Today there is so much to read with so little time. I'm wishing I could soak everything in. Today.

I waited in the dark. You waited in the dark. It was only after meeting together in a pool of light, with roses as our backdrop that I realized I didn't have to wait in the dark alone. . . that the waiting was finally over.

A cautionary tale for all. One day, for it happens for everyone, a quick crawling something will make itself known. It will be odd and you might ask others to take a look. They will and they will sigh and tell you it is nothing to worry about. That is. Until it sets a fire alarm off. For you aren't the only one that it is creeping in on. It will make you mad, You will tip toe around it. Sometimes you are just too tired and you walk right through. But is it love?. . . Or is it hate? Well. It's both. It happens to everyone. 

Caution is advised.

If you aren't going forward. But you aren't moving back. But you aren't standing still. 

Well. Then. You might could possibly be a real live human.

If a father looks close enough he an see her growing up. . .

She didn't really know what was ahead. But someone told her that the bright moments were hardly few and far between but rather one right after another.

 And she sighed a sigh of relief.

Waiting for my prince to come and the gloom to go.

And they all came tumbling down...

I look into the future. And all I can see is my head popping off. . . 

Enough said. Actually. A lot said <3

When the silence of the snow turns to laughter in the snow

And Last but not least: My very first IG post: Entitled:

Neglect

Here is to many more years of posting on Instagram! And a Happy New Year!

Until Later,

Elf Antics

It is true. An Elf on The Shelf only cost 10$ when split three ways. And that is exactly what happened. Suzanne Thornton Clonts: Functioning member of society, Mother, Wife, Aunt, Daughter, and all around Wonderful Friend, was watched all last week by an Elf On The Shelf.

 Why? 

You ask. 

Connecting with something she missed out on in her childhood? 

No. Not really. 

Mostly because she thinks the concept is of the most absurd nature. 

Our elf truly showed up last Tuesday. 

Sent by Santa on his secret mission...only a tad bit  month late.

He served in a most interesting manor. 

The following includes his short lived antics.

The holidays bring a lot of time in the kitchen. Parties, making party goodies, dinners, hanging out, and behaving like kittens and getting up under Mom's feet while she works. This break, she has deemed a 'Royal Decree': 'No one shall be in her Triangle ('Sink-Fridge-Stove') when she wants to be." She found an ally in Royal as he saw the perfect opportunity to mark and claim her triangle with Sharpie and Masking tape on his first night as a Clonts.

A Drunk Elf is a happy Naughty Elf. Needless to say he couldn't get the top off.

  Cookie decorating looked like fun to Royal. And of Course he had to decorate 3 to get his message across. Santa gave detailed orders for this chatty Naughty Elf not to spend his time with us gabbing away. So he took up the written word. 

Christmas Eve saw a LOT of wrapping paper and Royal saw Christmas Eve as the perfect opportunity to be a Helpful Naughty Elf. Needless to say, "Elves just wanna have fun!" [and make messes]

Master Minds behind the Operation: Good ole' Saint Nick, Caroline Clonts, Elizabeth Clonts, and 

What did your Elf on The Shelf get up to?

Until Later.

Getting There.

Only a couple of posts in and I have big news to share. I had expectations that I would fulfill the first half of this space's namesake: Being Here. For a while at least I would post about my daily life and what I am doing and believe me, I have some really funny and interesting things planned because my life keeps churning the stuff out. But today, yesterday actually, I was given some very exciting news that fulfills the second half of my purpose in the blogsphere: To share the far off. The anticipation I have for my future. To share with you my hopes and my dreams and how I am working SO hard to make them happen (with the help of many key figures ((they know who they are))) and well today. I was accepted into the college of my choice: Marymount Manhattan College. 

Let me share with you a little bit from that day. 

I toured the school nestled between promising high rises in Upper East Manhattan! and the entire time we were with the guide I kept glancing at my mom. I felt this electric energy and all of a sudden missing out on exploring THE metropolitan museum of art with my Dad and Elizabeth didn't seems so terrible. Below is a picture that Suzca snapped as we finished the tour. We left to meet our two companions in the park (only a few blocks away <3)and we stood at the corner of the block waiting for the go sign. I bounced on the balls of my feet and I projected myself in the environment I had just explored. As we walked through each department, through the library, past the cafeteria, through the coffee shop, and around the rooftop garden, I could see slightly older versions of myself lounging and laughing and studying. and living in New York City. Today. The projections are in the making. 

Care to see the video that had all 5 of the Clonts family crowded around the computer? We screamed. It was that exciting. 

Until Later,

In Her Mind

I recently stumbled upon Gwyneth Paltrow's Sylvia (a bio-pic about the life of Sylvia Plath). I have been a collector of Sylvia Plath poems for quiet sometime. Her inner demons on paper and her surroundings flowing from the pen have always been of great fascination to me. There is something so precious about how she is able to express inner-most feelings with such ease. Although this is a contradiction, for her inner-most feelings tore her apart. I have great respect and admiration for the words she placed on woman-hood. The connotations surrounding her are often negative due to her suicide. But I think also because she touched the dirty of human emotion. She wrote with darkness as her muse. It came to my attention that she is a common name but a dear friend explained she didn't really know about her. I plan to remedy that. Be sure to off-set your time with her words with happy thoughts! Below, if you care to start your exposure, is a 'profile' I whipped up, one of my favorites of her earlier poems and some quotes... 

Born: 1932. Boston, Massachusetts

Married: Ted Hughes in 1956

Graduated: Newham College, Cambridge in 1957

1957-9: Worked at Smith College in United States for 1 year. Left Academia and devoted to writing

1959: Moved to London

1960: Daughter Freida was born 

1962: The Collosus was published

1962: Son Nicholas was born. Separated from Hughes after his affair with Assia Wevill

1963: The Bell Jar published under a pseudonym

February 11, 1963: Committed Suicide

1982: Awarded first posthumous Pulitzer Prize for her Collected Poems

__________________________________________________

 Mad Girl's Love Song 

I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead;

I lift my lids and all is born again.

(I think I made you up inside my head.)

The stars go waltzing out in blue and red,

And arbitrary blackness gallops in:

I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead.

I dreamed that you bewitched me into bed

And sung me moon-struck, kissed me quite insane.

(I think I made you up inside my head.)

God topples from the sky, hell's fires fade:

Exit seraphim and Satan's men:

I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead.

I fancied you'd return the way you said,

But I grow old and I forget your name.

(I think I made you up inside my head.)

I should have loved a thunderbird instead;

At least when spring comes they roar back again.

I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead.

(I think I made you up inside my head.)     

 - Sylvia Plath 

{Pubished in 1953}


________________

 "If neurotic is wanting two mutually exclusive things at one and the same time, then I'm neurotic as hell."

"I like people too much or not at all. I've got to go down deep, 
to fall into people, to really know them."

"Some things are hard to write about -either you over dramatize it 
or underplay it. At any rate you never write it quite like you want."

"I shall be useful when I lie down finally: then the trees may 
touch me for once, and the flowers have time for me."

"I didn't know why I was going to cry, but I knew that if anybody 
spoke to me or looked at me too closely I'd cry for a week."

"So much working, reading, thinking, living to do! 
A lifetime is not long enough."

-I hope you enjoyed the roller-coaster that is her mind! She was a fantastic woman. It's tragic that she never made it past the darkness. Please, read more about her! I haven't come close to explaining her complexity!

Until Next Time, 

Excitement in the mail?

Hello There!

Came home after a busy day just now to this envelope. Unmarked. Thick paper. Very official looking. When waiting on big answers from colleges I think it is perfectly understandable to be crazy about the mail. 

SO official looking!

Early-Christmas-Early-Decision-Persent?

Just a kind Happy Holidays!

That was sweet.

Hopefully the next letter will hold more excitement in my heart. 

Until later, 

My Theatrical Weekend

My Theatrical weekend in 10 photos (or less) was as follows:

I started Saturday Morning off with a lovely rehearsal. Imagine this: Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol: Radio version. 7 rehearsals. No costumes. No memorization. No blocking. Pure characters. Visit romelittletheatre.com if you are interested in hearing/seeing this and you are in the Rome area!

I kicked off Friday night with some popcorn at previously mentioned theatre. Outdated countertops and Really salty popcorn [popped by a foreign exchange student volunteer] were the orders of the day. 

Santa Clause was there. And if you weren't there. then you missed him. But that's okay. 

You can send a letter:

1001 North Pole Blvd

Christmastown, Artic

-00001

I didn't clean any floors.

But I sold tickets! A lot of them! It's a Wonderful Life is currently showing. Box office is the thrill of the rush, the rude customers, and the phone ringing just as you are close to counting up to a large number.

The weekend was beautiful with minimal rain and a lot of sunshine. The above is my favorite capture from this weekend. It completely embodies all of the positive things about our beloved Historic DeSoto Theatre.

The best of all is that every evening when it is time for me to go home, this is what I pull up to. The christmas elves visited the house and the windows positively glow!

Until Later,