These days all I think about, past school, assignments, projects, tests, essays, articles, interviews, photos, etc. is sleeping and eating.

Ah, the life of a college student. Trust me, it's not glamorous in any way. Nor is it easy. 8.5 hour days at school, studying for tests til 1am, writing & re-writing, so MUCH researching, databases, reading dry textbooks twice because you can't understand them the first time through, experimenting until you come up with the perfect photo even if it takes an hour to do so, falling asleep at your desk, skipping lunch because you don't have the time, a meager diet of TEA and granola bars, stressing out because you don't have the time to do errands, falling asleep on the way to school and work and then on the way home in the car...sleep and food are our best friends these days. Hallelujah for spring break!

I am dreaming of spring, and for some reason when I think of spring, I think of "Bright Star". I know I'm in the minority of my friends who actually loves this film. I've heard it called: dark, depressing, sad, pathetic, pointless, a waste of time, boring...but that is not how I see it at all.

I remember the very first time I saw it, I was left breathless, intrigued, teary-eyed, and inspired. This movie is anything but boring, in my oh so humble opinion.

It is magical. The way it's filmed, the silence, odd soundtrack...it is poetic, colorful, dynamic, imaginative...it is memorable.

It is romantic, touching, heartbreaking...it is breathtaking...

It's a rather gray-ishly cloudy day...going to be a long day for me. A math test (one I've been studying for all week long...and the one I studied for 2 hours just last night alone), photography class, meeting with a client for my class project, and plenty of homework.

And a long, gray day like this is in need of a few things...like tea, chocolate, aspirin, and...Bobby Darin. If you're one of those people who never listens to "oldies", you need to listen to Bobby Darin and change your mind. He is marvelous.

Perfect rainy day music. And if you want to branch out from Bobby Darin, there's always Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra, Michael Buble, Nat King Cole...add Norah Jones and Jane Monheit for a good mix.

What exactly is a college student's life like? Envision this:

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Studying/working those kind of problems for 2 hours straight in preparation for a math test.

Yup. And you thought we have it easy.

Still, there is something quite satisfying about finally figuring out how a math problem works. The logical-ness of math is somewhat comforting. You know there's always a correct solution.

Thank you to God for:

- causing the car to work ALL day, enabling me to get to school

- not allowing me to succumb to the stomach bug as of yet

- giving me the time I needed to study for said math test

(Pardon the lack of quality in above photo...'twas taken with webcam because I'm far too lazy to use Booth)

Letters...you know, the good, old-fashioned pieces of paper with scribblings on them, folded up in an envelope (en-vah-lope....not on-vah-lope...), with your name addressed on the front, and stamp in the upper right-hand corner.

What is so lovely about a letter? It's a piece of magic, that's what. There's something intriguing and at the same time, exciting! about receiving an envelope with your name on it.

And yes, while texting, emails, private messages on Facebook, IM, Skyping, and all other electronic means of communicating ARE definitely much more handy and quick and easy and immediate, they just aren't as romantic and lovely as a real, written letter that travels across the states or world to get to you. (And don't try to tell me that a romantic text beats a romantic love letter. It's just not possible. Let's not even try to contemplate it.)

But, oh, darn...where to start? How does one write a GOOD letter?? I cannot speak for my own writing habits...but hey! my friends still respond to my letters! Anyhow, firstly, what are a couple things I love about receiving letters and can be used as tips to create a great letter?

- A sweet, interesting, funny, and DIFFERENT form of address.

Instead of the boring "Dear Sam," my best friend begins her letter with a "My dearest Sam". It is sweet, touching, makes me feel loved, and is not at all a boring way to begin a letter. Don't follow the formal, impersonal address of just a "Dear ". Show straight off how you feel about them...show your reader that you do care about them. (Unless, of course you're writing a hate note. Then, by all means, use the sarcasm behind a "Dear ". Or better yet, "Dear Scumbag"...that'll get the message across. Joking...)

- Personality!!

What I Love about my bestie Amy's letters is just how MUCH of her sweet, quirky, funny personality shows through her letters. She writes in LARGE letters to emphasize something, she uses smiley faces galore, she calls me by the wacky nickname of Rabbit that she gave me. She uses exclamation points, she underlines things, she uses LOL...to put it simply: her personality just BURSTS from the page. And it makes me smile. Don't restrain yourself. Don't let letters be impersonal...let them BE personal!

- Ramble. Let it all out.

Fact: rambling increases the length of letters. Long letters = WONDERFUL. Plus, rambles make for some of the best conversation starters. And even if they don't, they can be TERRIBLY amusing. The latest letter from my bestie, HannahBeth, is FULL of her rambling on and on about how much she LOVES fall, and rainy days, and cups of tea, and writing letters, and watching movies, and curling up with a book. It makes me smile, laugh, and miss her like crazy. Again, this is personality shining through, and it's like sitting down in-person with a friend and listening to her talk and talk. It is happiness. And don't try to tell me shorter letters are better than long ones. So not true. (Unless, of course, it's that hate note...)

- Questions. Ask away!

What I love about my dear, dear friend Maddie's letters are that they always have questions for me. She's always wondering what I'm up to, what I've been watching, what I've been reading, what I've been listening to, what's new, my thoughts on things, etc. It makes writing back extremely easy. And again, it's personality...just as she would be genuinely interested in person about what's going on with me, so she is in her letters.

Letter-writing was an art for such a long time and suddenly started to die away. Nowadays, so many people don't know the loveliness of receiving a real letter in the mail. Try your hand at it, you'd be surprised just how lovely and fun it can be.

"I'm gonna give all my secrets away..."

The taste of surprise, the flavor of mystery, breathless excitement, the shockingly unexpected, shiver of the unknown...elements of a mystery. All reasons why I love to write mystery...not only is the reader guessing what will happen next, but so am I as the author. Sure I start with the basic frame of the plot...I usually know whodunit, who gets murdered...all the questions: who, what, when, where, why, and how. But just the very basic information. Like a reader, I like to be surprised with where the story goes. The brilliance of mysteries is how you never know just where they'll go next. I am often more surprised than a reader when an unexpected twist appears in my stories. It's devastating when a character I've fallen in love with has to be killed off...even if the original plot doesn't include her/his death, sometimes it just happens.

The wonderfulness of mysteries is that whenever you're stuck, you can just throw in something that even you did not expect. Go all out...the majority of the time it will just work out perfectly...occasionally it takes some scene revisions to get it all to tie in, but the greatness of mysteries is that unexpectedness and strangeness and even absurdity, at times, is the norm.

Mysteries are the unpredictable.