it's officially summer

Well readers, good news: it's officially SUMMER!!!

it's about time--this year flew by but this particular week dragged on miserably slowly.

I'm thrilled that it's summer! Now I can read whatever I want whenever I want! Yes!

Right now though my brain is totally fried. I just cleaned my whole apartment--the bathroom is spick and span, the kitchen is shining, and the carpets are freshly vacuumed (a real rarity around here) so everything is feeling nice and clean. What a great feeling to the end of a stressful and educational school year =)

Since everything's been so crazy this week, I don't really have photos.

Well that's not true. You see, Geoff and I are good at procrastinating together.

Luckily now I don't have to procrastinate because it's summer!!! Wahoooo!!!

The Buckeye Grove

I'm proud to be a Buckeye.

There are a lot of reasons why, but the point is, I'm proud to be a Buckeye.

Here at THE Ohio State University, we have something called "The Buckeye Grove," and it's a unique college football tradition. Every tree planted in the grove was planted to honor football players from our amazing university who have gone on to be football All-Americans.

There's something new this year on the Ohio State website (osu.edu) called "image of the day". This is really cool, because it's a place where students, staff, and alumni can upload images of their favorite spots on campus, or any cool Ohio State events...basically if it's somehow OSU-related, it can be posted.

Throughout this year, I've submitted several images, and they've been posted for the whole Buckeye community to enjoy.

Last night, I ventured to Buckeye Grove. I say ventured because it's by Ohio Stadium, which is kind of a trek. I can't believe I used to live on West Campus.

Anyway, so I was at Buckeye Grove, because I had been over at the Olentangy trying to capture some of the beautiful sunset that was happening.

One of my favorite sunset pictures from my time at the Olentangy

I never expected to get anything like this picture, but I guess I was just in the right place (Buckeye Grove) at the right time (sunset).

Buckeye Grove for the win:

Procrastination!

It's just after midnight Saturday night before finals week, and so naturally I'm not studying like I should be. Instead, I'm sitting at my kitchen table with two of my best friends, just jamming to some awesome tunes (what's up Elton John? Elephant Love Medley anyone? Maybe a little of Glee's Vogue?) and procrastinating. Tomorrow the roomsicle, Sam, is leaving for camp, which is sad. But to celebrate a pretty awesome year (and quarter and month and week and day) we made havdallah tonight. Havdallah helps us separate shabbat from the rest of the week, and tonight we kind of used it for that, and to symbolically separate the school year from summer (even though I've still got finals and such to take care of, classes are officially over, so it still counts). It was lovely! Havdallah is one of my absolutely favorite parts about being Jewish. I think it really helps to refresh me for what's coming up, and to help make what's already happened a special memory.

As I'm writing this the playlist just keeps getting better and better. Wow, the singalong is just out of control.

I've been spending a considerable amount of time at Thompson and the Ohio Union getting

work done and meeting up with people for a few more minutes of fun before we part for the summer. Sometimes, though, it's important to get off campus for a hot second. Today we visited Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams, one of my favorite favorite favorite places.

Also, despite the random storming and horrific humidity, the sky has been pretty ridiculously beautiful lately.

The other day, I got to hear an incredible story about one of my favorite people, Kasa. She's got an incredible personal history, and I feel so blessed to know her--sadly, she's

leaving after the summer to go home to Israel, but I know I'll see her soon anyway =) Here's her grandfather's bible, written in the Ethiopic language Ge'ez (SO COOL). This book is so old; it literally feels like holding a piece of ancient history. I love it. What a cool experience!

If anyone is looking for a particularly epic way to procrastinate, we watched King of Kong last night. Holy guacamole, that movie is so incredibly epic. You should watch it. Right now. No, seriously, go watch it.

In fact, to encourage you to watch that movie, that's how I'm ending this post.

Good luck on finals everyone!

May the Countdown to Summer Begin!

There's this band I used to listen to all the time called Brand New. I love their lyrics. They have this great song called "i will play my game beneath the spin light" full of great little quips, and one popped into my head this evening.

"i need the smell of summer; i need its noises in my ears"

It seems particularly appropriate. Right now, standing between me at a few months of sunshine and endless reading [for fun! the best kind] are the following notches on my to-do list:

1. turn in finalized art education paper
2. linguistics quiz and class
3. history presentation
4. linguistics final
5. hebrew final
6. history final

While it's still a lot to do, it's only six items. Lately I've been feeling like the list is 32857329821 items long, so it's nice to see that it's been condensed to six major things to do. Sure, there are other things to get done, like going away gatherings, tours to give, the apartment to clean, clothes to pack....whatever, that stuff will be fun. I can't believe it's already June first! I feel like it was just a few short weeks ago that I was getting ready to move into the apt and prepare for the high holy days...and here we are again! Almost summer!

Now, some of you might not know this (the blog is new, I haven't really actually shared much about myself just yet) but I am a HUGE Harry Potter fan. My friend sent me the link to this video earlier; it's of the stars of the movie getting a sneak peak of the theme park! I absolutely cannot wait to visit the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. Bah!!!

Quickly before I go finish up some work before bed, here are some snapshots into the last couple of days.

The Meshuganotes gathered for an end-of-the-year bbq at Jaclyn's gorgeous home

I got to see Conan O'Brien (realized I never put up pictures from that, fail)

I did some exploring of North Campus

OKAY! That's it for now! Hasta la vista.