a stroll in the park

It's finally autumn! I am very happy about this because honestly, I was getting tired of my summer wardrobe choices. Plus the fall colors are really just much more flattering for my hair color. But that is not the point. The point is it feels awesome outside because I am not basking in my own sweat. To celebrate this momentous occassion of it looking like summer (the leaves aren't fun colors yet) but feeling like fall, Christina (a.k.a. "Tian") and I decided to take a little trip to this park by our house. It's called Woodland Park, and we are a bit obsessed with it.

It has all the best amenities such as a swing-set, playground for kids 12 and under (we may or may not break that rule) skate park, tennis courts, a pool, and grassy areas where you can lay on a blanket and have intense life discussions about boys- or maybe get preached to and told you are going to hell by a local minister who insults the Catholic church and tells you that when you go to mass all you do is recite Latin and get "sprinkled". Maybe that doesn't happen to everyone when they relax at the park, but that is just my personal experience... Tian and I frequently walk around this park and admire all the old Victorian homes, but that day I decided to use my "good camera" for a photo-shoot. It was like senior pictures, only better. We used to do this all the time back when I was in photo class, so it was a return to those good old days of awkwardly photographing someone in public and getting odd looks. I decided to take one of Tian's portraits in front of this very awesome blue painted house, and while doing so we got to enjoy the sounds of a random homeless man reading a book out loud at a very high volume. The quote: "she looked exquisite. Exquisite I say!" is probably the excerpt that stands out to me the most. Also I decided that wherever I live in the future, it MUST have a balcony with the following design (upper right hand corner)->

So, all in all, that was a fun little trip. We went back to the park today and the same man was there, in a different location, reading again. Maybe next time we should sit down and listen because now I am curious as to what was so "exquisite".

On a different note, last night I stayed up until 3:30am with my roommates Kristine and Sarah because of a scary incident that went down. Sarah's room is on the first floor and faces our back porch. She heard footsteps on the porch and someone moving around our lounge chair. It unnerved her a bit I'm guessing, so she called Kristine into her room. They heard more movement underneath Sarah's window, and so they guessed it was probably a local homeless man who wanted to sleep on our lounge chair but, upon realizing it was too cold, decided to try for our cellar. He was probably trying to kick through the window on the ground to get in, but was unsuccessful. The noises stopped for a while but then started up again. I heard the words "man/backyard" and so came downstairs to see what the deal was. We were a little freaked out, and since you never know if the creeper on your back porch is normal or deranged, violent, and on acid, we decided to call the non-emergency number of the UK Police Department. We went into the foyer to wait for the officer, and during this point I heard a weird scraping sound and then a knock or something on our front family room window. The three of us were freaked out and all ducked down because we were paranoid there was a person on our front porch. It was a scary moment, I think I was shaking a little bit. Probably just my imagination running wild, but still. The cops arrived about 2 minutes later. It still is confusing to me what that was on our front porch if not the creeper though... Anyways, the cops "scanned the perimeter" and told us all was clear. We then double bolted all our doors. Then we ate some chocolate chip cookies to feel better, and it worked. Also we watched a youtube video about a puppy: (click this to watch it, it is both hilarious and sad at the same time) and went to bed. Also today I discovered that when the 3 roommates who slept through this ordeal heard that cops came to our house, 2/3 of them instantly asked "were they hot?" before asking any other possibly more important questions. Wow. I will keep my readers updated about any more back porch creepin!

PS, Sarah a.k.a. Stalbs gets to have a picture in this blog because she is the hero of the week for noticing the porch creeper's presence. And for living in the room that the other roommates would be unable to handle due to their low tolerance of scary-ness versus Stalbs' high tolerance and bat wielding skills:

scenic drive on a sunday evening

After the storm that had been annoying everyone all day Sunday finally decided to leave, my friends Danielle, Christina and I decided to go on a "scenic drive". It was a spur of the moment decision, but I am glad it was made. We drove out to this road that I had never seen nor heard of before called Old Frankfort Pike, "one of America's best scenic byways" and one of the "top 10 great but obscure drives" (according to USA Today).

I can't believe I've lived in Lexington for 4.5 years and had never heard of it until yesterday. It's really close to our house too, took only about 15 minutes to get to it. It was a very pleasant surprise and I plan on going back. (I didn't take the first picture, it's from the spring, but it shows the general view of it so you can get a good understanding for it)

When the three of us got to the road we rolled down the windows, turned on some necessary country music for the ambiance, and enjoyed the view. It was almost sunset so the colors and the sky made everything that much more scenic. It was a view full of rolling hills, rows of fences, cows and horses, corn fields, and old stone walls. There weren't any ugly billboards, graffiti, or gas stations around to ruin it, and so the view was uninterrupted and of course, beautiful. It was the cliche image you'd expect of Kentucky if you'd never been to it before. It reminds me a bit of Versailles road out by Keeneland, but a lot narrower, less crowded, and more relaxing. I brought my camera along and took the above photo, as well as the next few.

We ended up pulling over by one of the giant horse farm entrances to pet a few horses that had wandered over close to the fences. We drove by some massive and expensive horse farms that are probably the farms owned by the people responsible for the Keeneland and Derby racing horses. We even saw the one farm owned by the crazy rich oil sheik from the United Arab Emirates. It made us all jealous we couldn't live out there. So, if you live in Lexington and have a spare hour some day, I highly recommend you take a drive out there. It's worth it.

ode to the grove

Since nothing very exciting happened today I have decided to dedicate this post to my house. The one I live in while in Lexington, Kentucky. It is 108 years old and is occupied by six very intelligent and attractive girls.. not that I am biased by any means. In addition to the fact that several poems have been inspired by our home, it has many other desirable qualities.

Our house boasts a tiny door in the back of the laundry room that leads to a scary room full of asbestos and mattresses and a lone teddy-bear, and it has been dubbed "the murder room". Sometimes when I'm in the shower I think about that room, and how it leads into the shower room, and it scares me. In addition, there is an outdoor access only dirt-floor cellar which contains graffiti, dead cat bones, and a random unhinged door covered in dirt. Sounds exciting right? You have no idea...
Now that you know some of the finer points of living at the "Grove", which we so lovingly named it (the street is called "Grosvenor"), I guess I can share some of the perks. Everyone has a giant room. I have painted glass windows in my room (that wish they were stained glass) and many of us have an old fire place with antique covers over the hearth. The floors creak, so we don't have to worry about getting robbed, and there is an unused door that connects my room to Julia's! Since there is no door knob we can look through the hole and talk to each other! Not that it's creepy or anything. Also we have yet to see any ghosts. That is also a plus.

Our house looks lovely in the winter as you can see, even the gigantic 7 feet tall and 17 feet wide bush in our front yard doesn't look so bad with a light dusting of snow! The giant bush in the front yard is a whole new issue entirely. We e-mailed our land lord about getting it taken out, but we were rejected because it has grown to such epic proportions that a bulldozer would be necessary to kill it. It blocks off our front porch, is a place for predators to hide, houses colonies of stray cats, bugs, fleas etc. and once a pet python that escaped a neighboring home was found living in it. No joke. Due to these lovely qualities, it is not the best part of living at the Grove. Yet we have learned to deal with it because we are strong and resilient people. Obviously.

Some of the Grove ladies attempted to smash it into the ground during the ice storm in Lexington last March, but when the snow melted it bounced back up to its original proportions. Hmm.
Our house also rocks because we can walk to Q'Doba in 4 minutes flat (I once timed this), can be on campus in about 15 minutes by foot, have a wide array of nearby boutiques and cute little shops, and can easily go downtown (bars!! no cab fees!) and to Woodland park. Parking cars on the street (I can't parallel park very well) and rogue trash cans that like to bust up my car door are some of the downfalls of the area. But besides that, it's a perfectly acceptable place to live while in college. Hating the overgrown shrubbery and getting our bikes stolen from our backyard are simple shortcomings when you keep in mind that we get to have roomie dance parties whenever we want, and that there is usually free chocolate laying around somewhere.

I hope you enjoyed my description of the Grove. If you haven't been blessed with the opportunity of seeing it yet I suggest you contact someone stat, because you are really missing out.

I guess I will finish this, my first blog, with a picture of my amazing room. I am obsessed with it, as you have probably guessed: