the art of pumpkin carving

a walk in the woods

"for a retribution too; a torture, to be felt many an unthought of moment; a pang, a sting, an ever-recurring agony, in the midst of a troubled joy! so forcibly reminding us of that red symbol which sears her bosom"- The Scarlet Letter

theres something calming about just walking...in the woods.

the crunch of the autumn leaves beneath your feet, the crisp air beneath your head, its almost the perfect moment to forget everything you want to forget.

the broken branches and trunks, the geese honking, the beaver's dam; its all the flaws that make a wood perfect.

and then...you emerge the roads, and you wonder if the wall of trees you were in is just a wall. a tiny part of nature to hide the guilt of man.

i keep my scarlet letter in my head.

a remembrance to those who served for the greater good...and to good food

there was a fall festival today. amateur cooks and bakers enter for the chili and pie contest. chili is my favorite american food and now pecan pie has the honor of being my american favorite desert.

interestingly, afterwards i went to the cemetery tour. knowing i was a coward, i thought i was going to be spooked out. instead i got a history lesson. speakers were dresssed up as individuals who were buried here, explaining their significance in history. these are some of the interesting events i choose to lecture here.

may 1st is a worldwide labor day. it started in 1886. workers were protesting for better working conditions when an anonymous bomb killed one policeman. instantly, the other policemen opened fire on the protestors. this was called the haymarket massacre.

another tragic event was the Iroquois Theatre fire in chicago, 1903. an arc light shorted and had ignited the curtain. no one knew what was happening until flames started shooting out. 602 people died as a result.

finally, the spanish civil war. i never knew america was involved and that Ernest Hemingway was a reporter there. Hemingway hated oak park. he thought it was a place for narrowminded people, which was why he wasn't buried here.

i wonder what will become of me when i die. would i be buried? or cremated? or remembered atall?

apple, squash, autumn, fall on me

i grew up living with the seasons of rainy, hot, so hot and omfg hot. if i had a favorite season, it would be none of the above. although i am experiencing my first fall, i immediately know i am in love with it. why do leaves change color? scroll down my playlist, and somewhere there is the answer. the trees are smarter than me. they know winter isn't going to provide sufficient sunlight so instead of doing winter shopping like i do, they just take off their chlorophyll masks and expose their 'true colors.' they've always been golden, red, orange, or purple all along, and i think their true colors are even more beautiful than their masks. this just shows that we're no different. and soon, winter will come and the leaves would all fall leaving them truly naked.
fall is also apple and squash season. taffy apples are great as an excuse for convincing you're eating healthy. its an apple on a stick dipped in caramel and nuts. fat fruits.
more later, bahu bahu
ps- the psat hates me.

wined and dined + shop til you drop + randomness

one of chicago's must-see is its theaters and musicals. yesterday i went to a theater tour. here's a random fact- when the oriental theater first opened, people were skeptical about their safety because the balcony had no pillars holding it up. so the theater had the media witness hundreds of sandbags on the balcony to prove that you weren't going to get killed by a falling balcony here. after that, i went to see the musical billy elliot and i almost wished i was a little girl dancing ballet again. but then i looked at myself and thought, nope, ballet, me, nuh-uh. i missed homecoming dance but the theaters were totally worth it. personally, homecoming dances scare me. you don't want to know why.

the weather here is so random, and not an 'i love random' kind in my opinion. its 80 degrees out this weekend whereas last week it was 40 degrees. go figure. i don't know what to wear anymore.
today i went to oak brook shopping mall. it was...big, but then everything in america is big for me so, no surprise. i've never been fond of shopping much, but maybe things change when you have a debit card. i even wished i had more time there. i had starbucks for lunch, and yet starbucks never fails...

i feel fat. take that back, i am fat. i gained five pounds in two months. this i blame on chicago's deepdish pizza, donuts, cookies, chips, chocolate bars, peanut butter and honey, capri suns, and high fructose corn syrup. i hate being a girl who has to look at the calories on the packaging and then convincing herself its only 200 so what-the-hell, eats it, then regretting it in the end.

love, lust, its all so complicated. guess i'll just continue being a narcissist cause i can't imagine myself in love with a guy. and no, i am not lesbian.

i have a psat exam coming up in a week and i have no intentions of studying, although i probably should, so, more later, bahu bahu.