autumn please come

Listening to: Moonlight Sonata

Quote love: "I don't like standard beauty. There is no beauty without strangeness." -Karl Lagerfeld

Autumn is the best time of year.

It's when the boots (with fuzz in them) and denim jackets get unburied from the closet. When the trees fling away their leaves and the sky pulls on a gray blanket. When the air smells like cinnamon and there's a pumpkin in the middle of the table. It's the time of hot chocolate with marshmallows, whirlwinds of leaves, and Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. The air is sharp and a plaid scarf is worn. I like that.

because of sharp air,

strings of lights,

and apples

wearing

candy.

and books and stories

and characters lit

by candle light.

and music plays

and a war

is won.

Autumn, please come soon.

In His love,
Suzanne

and it ran down the road yelling.

Listening to: Beauty Will Rise by Steven Curtis Chapman

An unbelievable piece of information: I learned to drive a standard vehicle last year. You know how everyone says, "It's not something you can forget. It'll come back to you."

***THE REALITY OF SUZANNE RODRIGUEZ***

I forgot. And no, it didn't come back to me. In fact, it ran down the road yelling.

My dad is an amazing teacher. Amazing. I honestly can't give him enough credit. Two days ago, I drove my dad's work truck. Had someone stopped on the highway and looked inside the blue pickup, they would have seen a wide-eyed seventeen year old girl gripping the wheel, muttering in French (with the occasional shriek). They also would have seen a relaxed man sitting in the passenger seat with a calm, slightly amused expression on his face, as if he were watching an interesting movie. 

While I tripped, climbed, and walked on the fence between sanity and hysteria, he calmly gave instructions. He's the best, guys. 

In the driveway back at home, I slowly emerged from the truck. My hair was pointing at something in the sky, my makeup-less face was flushed and damp (said truck lacks air conditioning, and the afternoons are still in the hundreds). I had a Dr. Pepper and gummi worms. Comfort food.

That night I was sitting on the hood of the truck talking to Justin on the phone and looking at the stars. They looked like little shards of glass that had been thrown at the sky and tied there. One of them fell, though, and went shooting across the dark speckled ocean.

"Maybe someone cut the string holding it up."

-Justin

The stars are so pretty; have you seen them lately?

In His love,

Suzanne

summer's almost gone...

Listening to: You Are More by Tenth Avenue North

Today was very, very uneventful. My dad and I went to a convenience store, and it wasn't until I was doing sixty on the shimmering highway that I realized I shouldn't be driving (I'm still on medication from said surgery). So I turned off the highway and cruised along a back road. The Texas kind of back road. The kind of road that's lined with barbed wire fences, winds through the fields, and is splattered with potholes. And a crazy number of cattle guards. Oh my goodness, we literally can't forget the cattle guards. If you happen to forget about them, drive over one and you'll be reminded. Cattle should just stay put.

Cattle guards or not, we drove along in hazy sunlight with the windows down and listened to a man on the radio remind us of the heat index (113 Fahrenheit).

It's hot.

A tumbleweed rolled across the road, which added to the effect.

The content of my awesome Sunday:

A really amazing friend of mine, Justin, came home after being in Alaska on a mission trip for six weeks. Praise the Lord for his opportunity to serve Him, and that he's back safely! :)

We took the elective's exam. I'm confident that I did well. That makes me doubtful. It was really easy, so either I did great or I just bombed the whole thing. The last time I was confident I would get an A, I got a B. And the questions I answered were: True, true, true, true, true, true, true, false, true, true, true. GAH!!

I spent the time between services hanging out with two families from church; that was fun and such a blessing! That was a pretty wonderful day. :)

In His love and light,
Suzanne

of wisdom teeth (or the lack thereof) and exams

Listening to: Holy by Nichole Nordeman

I plan on doing absolutely nothing today. Except study for the Elective's exam, which is....tomorrow. That class was epic. Creationism vs. Evolutionism & Uniformitarianism. Epicness.

I've a good reason for my planning on doing absolutely nothing today, and it has to do with my new nickname "Chipmunk Cheeks". The reason for my planning on doing absolutely nothing today: I got all four of my wisdom teeth out yesterday. The whole thing turned out to be very interesting. Apparently I had a conversation with the oral surgeon about Creationism and Uniformitarianism. I don't remember that. At all. Then I got dragged to the car, woke up at Burger King to the words over the speaker "You want fries with that?", and then I passed out/fell asleep on the floor of the ladies room in Walgreens. Ew. I'm pretty glad there was no one else in the room; I doubt someone would have reacted calmly to a teenage girl with a mouthful of gauze sprawled on the floor. 

But then I got a text from my un-biological sister: G'morning, Chipmunk Cheeks!!!!!

I love that girl.

Turns out I forgot that our icepack broke, so I'm been walking around with a bag of frozen blueberries against my face. Muahaha. How have y'all been lately? :)

xoxo,

Suzanne