Saturday

I seem to report on my life via photo essays these days. There will be a day very soon that I write things besides chapter edits and dissertation outlines. You, Internet world, will be the first to know when that happens. In the meantime, here's a weekend morning recommendation: fill a pie crust with eggs, milk, red onions, tomatoes, squash, garlic, and shredded broccoli. Quiche is so lovely. Happy Saturday!

My niece is the cutest person ever. Hands down, ever.

Texas feel

I have very recently learned that what people say in cliched tones about home your whole life is true... It's where your family is, not where your things once were. I was born and raised in Shreveport, Louisiana. There are a lot of pieces of me there. And people I love. But my most beloved, my clan so to speak, has migrated here to Austin. Before six years ago I had never set foot in this town. Somehow now it feels so much like home. The Texmex place down the street from my sister's house? I've been there dozens of times. And their salsa is perhaps my favorite ever. Which is a big deal because I love salsa so much some accuse me of drinking it. Anyway. It's weird. Two days here, and I feel comforted by those waves of home and food and laughter that only family can give you. Also frustration, but that's a whole other story. I also feel that's renewed sense of Georgia as a place of my own. If Austin is the homeland now, Athens is the place I made for myself.

My epic weekend of relaxation begins

I flew into Austin yesterday. I am hunkering down with my family and indulging in some insane levels of relaxation. Back to work Tuesday.

Over two months and counting

I have been off of the world's most pervasive social media site for well over two months now. I don't mean to brag, but I've seen others leave but go back since. It has a sickening pull on people, and that is the reason Mark Zuckerberg has about a zillion dollars.

So actually, I do mean to brag. That I have been able to successfully resist at least one of the mainstream media's capitalistic endeavors makes me proud. It was very much like a drug that I had to quit cold turkey. But once I did, I never looked back. I recommend it to anyone. Imagine a world in which you don't know what your ex boyfriend is up to or what attractive women are cyber flirting with him. Imagine a world in which you don't get confronted with your friends' passive aggressive intellectual arguments. Imagine a world in which someone has to call you to talk to you.

That is the world I live in now. And while it's far from perfect, I have to say that I worry a lot less these days about what others are doing, or what they think of me.

Happy Sunday.

Saturday at the cemetery

I spent the majority of today at Oconee Hill Cemetery here in Athens. Part of the time on an official tour, part of the time chaperoning two very lovable, wonderful five year olds who found great wonder in these grounds on a chilly February morning. There is something haunting but also something joyful in a place so peaceful and untouched by time. The kids claimed they saw a ghost. For a split second I ached to get back just a bit of that childlike innocence.

A porcelain photo attached to one of the graves (circa 1943) is what touched me the most today--a man's face, obviously worn down by hard work and harder times, part of this place forever because his family chose to invest in a material that could withstand time and weather.  In a cemetery, anything is possible--because it is a field full of so many unfulfilled dreams.

Life in a booth

When you are two months out from a (fingers crossed!) dissertation defense, you mostly watch the world move around you. You no longer really feel a part of it. I have been sitting in the same booth at Walker's Coffee and Pub for what feels like years now. I count my hours in cups of coffee. Kind of like that song from Rent. I digress. My point? It is a unique position to observe people like this. I am thankful for the little moments right now, and should be always. The smiles, the nods, the way a song hits me as I write and it seems like a soundtrack.

Caught ya

Technology is a beautiful thing. To whoever is Google searching my name in Atlanta as "Leslie Anne Reed"...if you check my blog, please first know how to spell my name properly?!

Insta-photo jam:

To: you know who you are

I told you that was Dwight's baby ;)

A forgotten album

This was, by far, the best album of 2010: Ellie Goulding's "Lights."  Now, now, that's just one opinion--mine.  But I think she's been under-appreciated in the U.S.  In the U.K, she's gold.

Imagine Adele but less serious.  Still singing about lost love, but with more a smirk.  Also, imagine it danceable.  These songs have stuck with me for almost two years now.  Goulding's got the combination of pop goddess wannabe and serious songstress down to an artform that ends up working.  I had to go back and give this album another endorsement.  Just listen--you will fall in love with her voice, I promise.