I met one of favorite photographers today. When I started shooting, I found her Facebook and Instagram right away and knew her style was kick ass. And she is so talented and lives a life of adventure surrounded by other awesome photographers, models, actors, and musicians. And today, I spent some time with her walking the streets of Seattle and talking over dinner. We talked Instagram, past loves, adventure, and unpredictable futures. Both of us are teetering on the edge of deciding to jump to something new or turn around and head in another direction. It was an amazing opportunity to get to know her and then talk life with her. So so cool. I love Instagram and the connections it has offered. Already  L O V I N G  this summer!!

Well, after Looking For Alaska, that was a tall order to stand up to. Seriously, go read that book. Amazing. 

Anyway, I finished Paper Towns within the same day of starting it. And I hated it. I hated the characters, I hated what the author was trying to say about who people were. And the end?! Are you kidding me?! I immediately wrote off the whole book as a failure and took a shower to wash it off. 

However, the book didn't wash off. I was less concerned with the books quality and more concerned with why this book remained in my thoughts. It's about a boy who is in love with his seemingly perfect, popular neighbor. They go on an adventure and then she disappears. The whole book is about his NEED to find her and rescue her and bring her to safety. Only, she isn't this perfect girl and she hates being this perfect girl, so she purposefully lives this second life in solitude to escape the expectations of her name. 

She had become a phenomenon. She was the girl every guy wanted to be with and girls wanted to hate, but also be best friends with. She wasn't human - but this extraordinary phenomenon. 

The girl also claimed everyone was living a lie - living how they were expected to live. Do good in school, make friends, be liked, find love, have a family, be successful, die. She made it all seem so shallow and worthless, like in the end none of it would matter. The whole idea made me sick and seemed stupid. There are no "paper" people or "paper" towns. Everyone had a story. Everyone has hurt, and it was offensive to dismiss a whole city (in her case) and what meaning they had found in it all. 

My thoughts rested on the idea of people becoming phenomenons. There are those people in my life I have lifted to more phenomenon status than human status. You'd think that'd be a complement, but it's lonely there. It's stripping a person from their right to have flaws and normal human failures. You're restricting a person to a box you've constructed around who you think they are, drawing a direct correlation between what it is you think they are and how they should act. (*And in this whole paragraph while I'm saying "you", I really mean me.)  

In the sense that Paper Towns continued to make me think and reasses relationships in my life, the book was remarkably revolutionary. Give it a read if you want to hate yourself for reading it once your done then feel compelled to reassess how much you hate it after you see how much it affects your life. 

1. We made it to Friday!

2. We had no bosses at work today and didn't burn the place down!

3. We had no bosses today! Seriously, what a crazy job. 

4. We got our first paychecks (that can't be deposited till tomorrow, but still. It's in our hands!)

Do we need more than four reasons? Nope. But we came up with enough anyway to constitute a $3.33 pizza, a couple 6-packs of beer, sour cream & onion chips, and milk duds. Also pictured, toilet paper. Because, we're humans. 

We also picked up a couple movies at the redbox to enjoy. All in all, we conquered Thursday. 

I've now missed two fathers days in a row. It makes me feel like a huge failure as a kid, only made worse by the fact that when I gave him a call, he was spending the day devoted to his sacrifices as a parent at work. Nooooooooooooooooo!

So, my day didn't go great. Dragged myself out of bed to walk across the parking lot to church. Went to church, but the whole time was thinking about my church back home and how this was the first Sunday my church family got to experience a service in the new building. The moment I've been looking forward to for 5 years - missed. Huge bummer. But I will be there to celebrate later this month!!

Then, I went back to my room and watched the rest of season three of House. Once I finished the season, I pulled out the disks for season four, only to find that I was missing disk one. Fail. 

After a two hour nap (because there was absolutely nothing else to do), I ventured out to find the nearest Anytime Fitness. I got in a fight with the tanning bed, resulting in no tanning time for me, and then practically crawled 4 miles. Definitely needed more than a bowl of cinnamon toast crunch to fuel myself. 

After passing the fifth 7-Eleven on my drive home, I fell into the temptation and stopped for a (super big) gulp of diet coke. I'm weak. But the diet coke was delicious. 

But still. I miss my dad. And the day wasn't the same without him. Love you, daddy!

Myself and the other two Claro interns are living in a retirement home here in Tacoma practically attached to a church. So, our daily routine consists of meeting a unique collection of prime-timers and stealing wifi from the church next door. We're working out of the Claro offices, which are located on the 5th floor of a furniture warehouse. If you subtract the trendy furniture from Ikea, party tea lights, and the smell of a hundred different candles burning at once, it'd be the prime location for a horror movie. Actually, just subtract sunshine and it fits the bill as is. Super trendy, though, and they have recliners. I do my work from a recliner. I don't think this could get better.

Except... it does!! I'm the production and operations intern, which finally allows me to apply all my university knowledge I paid big bucks for! I'm also stretching my creativity leg a bit, which has been interesting. My first presentation is Monday. We'll see if the rest of the gang is ready to hop on my crazy train.

Love seattle. Love rain. Love candles. Gonna be a fast two months.