the last time I was home, I went to my very first estate sale. this, of course is a huge milestone in any 20 year old college sophomore's life. up there with being able to negotiate flea market prices with an 80 year old, convincing her to let you pay 50 cents instead of one dollar for a gold chain she is selling that has most likely been licked by a cat more than once.

sarcasm aside, i just love garage sales and other people's, especially old people, shit that they don't want. to put it bluntly. the mystical and magical idea that is an estate sale, usually means that the person/people died and their family doesn't want to deal with all of their stuff, so they sell it all. it made me have a lump in my throat to waltz through the rooms of this now deceased couple's house, looking at their life just set out before everyone's eyes with actual price tags on their memories and posessions. the husband served in wwII, they were well traveled, loved london and even walked the great wall of china! see how much you could tell from someone's stuff?

I put myself in their shoes (i literally could have for $1, but i just wasnt feelin' in the mood for tiny keds and worn in men's loafers) and imagined people rumaging through my pile of scarves, jewelry, records and even underwear. dude. they were even selling their underwear. it made me feel nervous about what will happen when i'm old & gone. what if someone finds & judges me when they find that I still saved my J.Lo jeans from 8th grade? I wonder what the price tag will be for that? It better be a good one, i'm pretty sure I got them at D.E.M.O in the mall for atleast $50.

the estate sale trip was quite successful though. i adopted some of their wonderful posessions and made them my own. i'm well aware that most of the thrift store items I buy once belonged to someone and now I'm walking around in a coat or shoes that had a previous owner with a life. for instance, the boots that i purchased for 4 dollars that disintegrated in the snow when i was drunk, leaving me looking like a hobo, once belonged to a woman that most likely smoked heavily or burned to death wearing the boots since the insides were completely covered in ash. that's another topic though i think.

that's part of the reason why i love vintage so much because you never know just what happened to that person when they were wearing it. they could have fell in love, or made a new friend, had a bad day or had tears fall on the sleeves. and now it's mine, and one day it'll be someone else's. it's a beautiful circle. however, to see someone's life literally laid out with a price tag on it, in the very rooms that they walked around in and lived in was a little odd. i must admit.

will i go to another estate sale again? uhhh absolutely. the pic above is all of the things that i bought! i can't wait to have my own apartment/house and decorate it.

anyway..here is a playlist i made on saturday. enjoy!

ps- follow me on twitter! i just made one today and if twitter had a lunch table, i'd be the one sitting alone.

Waking up on a Saturday morning, clear-headed and alive, with the entire day ahead of you is one of the best feelings. I love finding hidden gems in places where I never would have expected to find them. Mary and I took a nice little road trip to Scranton, which is not far from W-B at all, and fell in love with these tiny wonderful places. Anthology New & Used Books, Embassy Vinyl, Lavish, and GreenBeing. And during my only other trip to Scranton, I really liked Eden, which is a vegan cafe. Although, a vegan cheesesteak is nothing like the real thing, i'm just letting you know. So to the 2 people who read this blog, if you ever find yourself in this section of PA, go to those places. They're great!

Last night I attempted to watch Gummo, but stopped. Where did Harmony Korine manage to find people that look like this? It was weird and good, so I'll probably finish it another day. I liked Chloe Sevigny's lack of eyebrows, and the over all white-trashness of the entire film.

I've been listening to Band of Horses' "Cease to Begin" album all day today and yesterday. The song "No One's Gonna Love You" has become a favorite.

"and anything to make you smile,

It is a better side of you to admire"

i'm excited for tonight & tomorrow. bye!

da square

living off campus (yet still dorming. if that makes sense) has it's perks. lots of privacy and all of that. not so much pressure to be all CoLLeGeY. however, it has it's down side. especially when the weather is freezing and you have a long trek ahead of you just to attend class.

yesterday i missed the god-damn kings college shuttle and had to walk my not-prepared-for-snow ass to school with black flats on and no socks? Very Cold. anyway, as i was walking through the square i noticed some of my favorite 'locals'. the square, which is not so square-y if you ask me, is a spot where many crazy people like to hang out. it's their comfort zone, ya know?

first, there is a woman that is probably 1 foot tall and 20 lbs. she is very wrinkled, shriveled and appears to have once been a normal sized person but simply shrunk over the years. maybe she just got sick of being normal sized? so now she is Very small, with tiny clothes and is always making a sad clown face. then there is an overweight woman who jets around in her wheelchair so so fast, with a tiny little boy trailing behind her. i count on her to be in the square all the time, and she is. or the person who was touching pigeons with his hands and talking to them, and then went to his food-stand to cook food and serve it to people. with his fucking pigeon dirt hands. another favorite is a precious old man who sits in a wheel chair staring at the wall by the senior center near my dorm. he wears a hat and big glasses everyday and sometimes I have the urge to just say "how are you?". i really should one day. one time he was missing from his usual spot but i spotted him, in his chair, across town and I still wonder how the fuck he even got there.

the moral to this story is that on my way to school, freezing cold, i spotted a black man wearing a long, luxurious fur black coat. he truly knew what was up. he waltzed around like he owned the place, screamin to every person and laughing like a maniac. I couldnt stop staring. I needed to take it all in. he was an actual crazy person. but who had the last laugh? him. because he was warm and i was the frost-bitten ass hole wearing flats in 3 degree weather. he totally won. i bet he is still winning somewhere as i'm typing this..

sundayz

i love saturday and sunday afternoons to just do nothing real. i'm very aware of the fact that i need a job, but no one wants me. the weeks are getting busier and busier, and i even joined the wilkes-barre library to save some money on books/dvds. it's just nice to know that sundays are free so i can do my routine things. i explore the internet for hours, clean, make my bed although i'll just be sitting on it all day, hydrate myself/recover, find new music, eat subway, not take a shower, be alone/not be alone, sit on the balcony, make playlists, talk with abby for hours online, read, look at the mountains from my bed. it's perfect.

here is a playlist i made today if anyone wants some new music..

fly around my pretty little miss by built to spill

little bit by lykke li

skinny love by bon iver

big sur by the thrills

You Will. You? Will. You? Will. You? Will by bright eyes

june gloom by the like

crazy love by daniel johnston

the general specific by band of horses

you love me by kimya dawson

the girl by dr. dog

pitseleh by elliott smith

im not gonna teach... by black kids

last day of magic by the kills

death and all his friends by coldplay

these days by joy division

babes in wilkes-barre land

today i began volunteer work at a day care center near my college. i love babies, and figured if i was going to give back to society i might as well do it hands on with something i love/people instead of filing papers or peeling potatoes. anyway, for the entire three hours i had the biggest smile on my face the whole time. it was just a happy land filled with tiny infants and one year olds. they just climbed all over me, hugged me, kissed me, and threw their tiny toys at my head and i loved it. also, i'm confident that i will be sick with some sort of cold/runny nose within the next 2 days. they were covered in drool, snot, food, and one little girl even tried swallowing her hair clip. my kind of crowd.

my heart melts at baby outfits. nothing is cuter than a fat baby boy with a navy blue polo and tiny jeans, or a little girl in a smocked pink dress. i realize that all they want is to grab the dora the explorer figurine from their playmates' cereal covered fingers, and have no idea what they are wearing..but one day they will, and they will thank their mothers for not putting them in awful cheesy clothing.

the pics above are from Phillip Lim's kid collection.