Next Summer

This summer thusfar has taught me many things: most of all it has taught me what I want next summer to be.

Next summer I want to do whatever I want to do. I want "work" to be what I do when I'm not playing. I want to pay my rent and maybe buy some food and then buy art supplies. I want to go to Bonnaroo and Lollapalooza and every other show and make a million friends. I want to spend more time in my friends' houses than in my own. I want to sell my art. I want to learn guitar and ukulele and maybe electric violin. I want to lose weight before then. I want to disover over and over not only my own beauty, but also the undeniable beauty of those around me. I want to go to parties and stay out too late. I want to take pictures of everything. I want to go out on a date or two or twenty. I want to go to the drive-in. I want to get a tattoo (though I'll probably chicken out). I want to live my life, not the life anyone else wants me to live. Next summer I want to make as many memories as I can, travel as much as I can, and live and love as big and bold as I can. And do you want to know the best part? I want to do all of it with you...

She's a Word Nerd

     ...And by "she" I mean me. I love words, almost as much as I love art and music. Words like saccharine, audacious, ambiguous, emphatically, triskaidekaphobia, and antidisestablishmentarianism. Even made-up words like skrumphulogophas (That's a Larra and Ashley Original). I love how they sound, how the work, and how they make us feel. Sometimes I'll learn a word so great that I'll have to text my friend Ashley, fellow Word Nerd and verbal enthusiast, and tell her about this great word that I have just learned.

     Many people have asked me how I did so well in school for my whole life without ever having to put forth more effort than I wanted to. The truth is: I read. I taught myself to read at the young age of three. I have loved books ever since I learned to read them. Now you (or your kid) may not love to read, but well, tough it out. Having such an above-average reading level put me years ahead of my peers when it comes to comprehension: the part of reading that means you remember and understand what you have read. This helped me in everything from Chemistry text books to Advanced Lit novels to Choir sheet music to toothpaste tubes and soda bottles. To put it as simply as I know how: knowing how to read means knowing how to understand.

     So, get out there and grab a book! Learn to love words! I promise (Why, yes, that is italicized, bold, and underlined. This is serious stuff.) that there is at least one book in this world for each and every person. Look at Borders, look on Amazon, look at a used book store, look at a flea market. Find out what you love to read about and then keep reading!

Go find a book!

Love, kisses, and vintage pages,

Larra