BEDA Vingt-Cinq...Dream Weddings, College, and Esther

Coco + James // Teaser from Americana Cinema on Vimeo.

How about a pretty video instead of a pretty picture today?  Watch it.  Seriously.  Coco Rocha (for those of you who don't obsessively read Vogue or drool over Fashion Week, she is pretty much a supermodel...also her blog is lovely, so you should check it out) recently married James Conran, and she posted both a teaser and a short film of the wedding (which was in France! in a castle!!!), and I just think it is to die for beautiful.  I can only hope that my wedding will be half that beautiful when I tie the knot with the as-yet-unknown man of my hypothetical dreams.

I've been busy, busy, busy packing and have everything in the car set to jet out of here at 7 or 7:30 in the morning (yikes...gonna be needing coffee).  Please pray for safe travels...I am not really a fan of driving on the interstate.  I literally cannot wait to get down to Bloomington and see everyone, but I had a very odd experience tonight while packing.  I realized that this may have been the last summer I spend in this house in this bedroom.  In essence, this may have been my last summer break ever. (Well, aside from summers off that most ballet dancers are granted, but even if I have that, I probably won't come back home for those.)  It was just weirdly nostalgic and kind of sad and I don't know...I just feel a little strange.  I'm sure I will forget all about that when I walk down Jordan Ave. tomorrow, but still...just a bit of an odd feeling.

I'm off to bed so I don't pass out behind the wheel tomorrow morning, but I just wanted to offer up my condolences to Esther Earl's family and friends.  For those who don't know, Esther was a passionate Harry Potter fan and Nerdfighter and she touched the lives of so many within the Nerdfighter community with her pure and open and unfailingly kind heart.  I did not know her personally, but did follow her on youtube and twitter, and she just seemed like such an amazing spirit.  She passed away early this morning after a four year long battle with cancer.  It is very sad to see someone so young be taken from us, but it's also amazing to see the strength of the community around her.  What a remarkable young woman.  You can follow her family's blog here.  Esther, rest in awesome.

Currently stuck in my head: "My Name is Lincoln" from The Island soundtrack by Steve Jablonsky...it is the music for the above video and, when I heard it, I immediately downloaded it and listened to it 15 times tonight according to iTunes...I'm thinking about it as a possibility for choreography project in the spring...stay tuned!

BEDA Vingt-Quatre...So much to do before school

Oh my goodness, I have soooooooo much to do between now and Thursday morning.  It really isn't funny at all.  I'm literally going crazy.  HELP!

Today, I worked out at the Y (thank goodness it's open again) and then came home and studied basically all afternoon.  Upon my mom's arrival home, we made sandwiches-time out...I literally just typed sammiches-and headed to our local outlet mall (and by local I mean about a 25 minute drive from us) to do some "school shopping."  Can I still call it that even though I'm a college student?  Anyway, it was a pretty productive trip, and, while we shelled out probably a bit more cash than we would have cared to, I came home with a pretty great haul.  And now I can't wait for crisp autumn air in Bloomington so I can don my cute new fall clothes.

Tomorrow I'm going to the beach with my best friend from home and her sister, so we can have a final day of hang-out time before both her sister and I head back to IU and she heads back to Arizona.  I swear, we haven't spent more than a couple weeks together at one time since I was fourteen, but she is one of my dearest friends, and I never want that to change.  And then, of course, there is the laborious process of trying to figure out how to get most of my stuff into my car (my mom is coming down to bring the rest on Saturday) tomorrow evening so I can get on the road bright and early Thursday morning.  The only way that's going to happen is with lots of help from Madre and Step-dad.  And, of course, a GIGANTIC travel mug of coffee Thursday AM.

I still don't have my hands on Mockingjay, so please keep the spoilers to yourself, thank you very much.  I'm glad that fellow collegians, Marlena and Leah don't yet have it in their possession either, so I don't feel so bad.  Alrighty, I'm off to do more homework (with one glass of pinot grigio in me, which should be interesting).  Congrats to the wonderfully talented Karen Kavett for being chosen to curate the front page of YouTube today.  On a more subdued, less spazzy note, please keep Nerdfighter Esther and her family in your prayers tonight.  She is currently in the ICU fighting for her life. You can read updates from her family here.  She is truly a remarkable person, and I'm praying that she keeps putting up a fight.  And with that, I'm over and out.  Peace.

Currently stuck in my head: "Waka Waka" by Shakira. I'm reminiscing about the World Cup...totally missing it right now.