Friday, September 19, 2008

18 hours later

Well everyone, just wanted to send out a quick note saying that I made it to Madrid in one piece! The flights were long, but uneventful and I got to Toti's house without problems!
On a more exciting note, I found internet on Toti's patio without having to hang my laptop over the edge, so hopefully I will be in contact more frequently (though I am pretty sure that it will disappear over the weekend).

I will write in more detail later, but now I am going to lie down! I hope you are all well and send me e-mails so I can stay updated on everyone! Love to all!

-Laura (can you tell I am acting Spanish already?)

<3

Sunday, September 14, 2008

Period of Lucid Dreams


"Dreaming permits each and every one of us to be quietly and safely insane every night of our lives." -William Dement (b. 1928 one of the leading researchers in the field of sleep studies and former jazz musician)

So I have noticed lately that I have been dreaming alot more. Not in the sense that I sit and think for hours, lost in my own thought (that I try to avoid) but that while I am asleep I have ridiculously real and vivid dreams. Some will say that its because I have alot on my plate, others would say that its because I don't have enough, either way all I know is that something profound is going on in my brain and its a little scary.

Ever since I can remember, I would wake up in the morning with a vague recollection of what I had dreamt the night before, on a rare occasion I would even have a dream that would repeat for a week or so and then disappear in my head as quickly as it had appeared. Now though, I have trouble discerning whether I am in my dream or not, its almost too real to the point where I find myself struggling to wake the other parts of my brain up so I can escape from my nightly adventures. For awhile I thought maybe it was just me, maybe I am manifesting my fears, hopes, thoughts, & other mental/emotional musings unlike other people, but today as Brittany and I drove to CVS she brought up the topic of how her dreams have been surprisingly real lately as well.

So maybe its not just me? Maybe all 22 year old women go through a period where their dreams become almost too real to handle. Given Brittany and I both have been through our fair share of emotional ups & downs this summer but still...how it could it be that out of the blue both our brains have become so freakishly active? I guess that something I should probably ask the author of my opening quote, but until then all I can do is wonder...and of course, dream.

"He felt that his whole life was some kind of dream and he sometimes wondered whose it was and whether they were enjoying it." -Douglas Adams "The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy"

Tuesday, September 9, 2008

Things that inspire me

Here is a collection of a few quotes that have brought a certain amount of enlightenment to my life, may they do the same for you!


"About all you can do in life is be who you are. Some people will love you for you. Most will love you for what you can do for them, and some won't like you at all."

-Rita Mae Brown


"Only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile."

-Albert Einstein


"¿Qué es la vida? Un frenesí.
¿Qué es la vida? Una ilusión,
una sombra, una ficción;
y el mayor bien es pequeño;
que toda la vida es sueño,
y los sueños, sueños son."

-Calderon de la Barca, "La Vida es Sueño"


"We make a living by what we get, we make a life by what we give."

-Sir Winston Churchill


"I, with a deeper instinct, choose a man who compels my strength, who makes enormous demands on me, who does not doubt my courage or my toughness, who does not believe me naïve or innocent, who has the courage to treat me like a woman."

-Anaïs Nin

And the one that will always guide me:

"Everything happens for a reason"