i guess either smoke signal or email me

august began with finally snapping a picture of the cutest old man who sits and watches the cars go by each day by work and getting my very first manicure. so glad nat had a birthday so she could get a free one and then not want it (because she does that shellac stuff) and give it to meeeee.   

i was so inspired by how girly my nails were that i french braided my hair for the first time (or anyone's hair for the first time actually hahah)! i've always been really bad at most girl things so i'm just becoming more of a girl all over the place! next on my becoming a better girl list is to get my haircut more than once a year and buy more high heels and start being an avid pinterest user. kidding. 

shakespeare in the park was really great until we remembered it was shakespeare.  

booooooooooooring 

so twenty minutes into it we left and walked over to chinatown and bnotd found this taiwan cafe!! 

i was in asian heaven with my ginormous bowl of soup and pot stickers. 

(and loved being with my favorite maren and mccall)

sometimes the rain ruins our plans for days on end but that is okay because lots of rain means lots of puddles! so maren and i had a great time jumping around in them while it just poured and poured. 

and one time gravity had a fight with my face and won. 

not pictured would be my post puddle jumping run which was actually really nice 

..until mascara rain water burned my eyes off. 

the next day we headed to six flags which is about 2 hours away from boston. we were about thirty minutes ahead of the group so i whipped out my phone to see what we could see in springfield, ma since we had some time to kill. 

AND LOOK WHAT I FOUND!

who even knew there was a dr. seuss national memorial?!? 

i sure didn't and i was so happy when i realized we were only two miles away from it. 

photo proof of how much i loved this place:

yes, i made maren take a picture of me with everything and yes i felt five years old and yes it was probably my favorite part of the day. spontaneous hang out with dr. seuss was the best.

six flags was nice. i mainly appreciated our time in the waterpark when it rained really hard so we sat outside in our bathing suits and just waited patiently for it to stop.

 so many people ran to places that were covered so they wouldn't get rained on and i wanted to yell WHY ARE YOU DOING THAT? YOU ARE ALREADY WET YOU SILLY PEOPLE!

I went to berklee's school of music to see my friend's senior show and felt so happy to have noticed this sign below:

and also to take a picture of these lamp posts that i love. such pretty pink flowers hanging from all of them all over the city. 

drummer friend just drumming his life away.
 such a good show with so many talented musicians! it was nice to be at one again, just weird to see jordan (drummer friend) play and not have ryan up there too (they were in a band together once upon a time). i kept thinking about how we met two years ago in provo at their band practice and now i was at his senior show in boston two years later..funny/random how life works out sometimes.

next i would have told you about martha's vineyard but it will definitely need it's own post (or five) so get pumped for THAT

japanese lantern festival

one time the luckiest thing happened. 

i was looking for free activities around town to tell the interns at work about and i came across some girl's blog who was talking about a japanese lantern festival. i was so nervous that it had passed but it was a week from the day i found out about it! so i put that right in my little planner so i wouldn't forget about it (i find out about cool things and then almost immediately forget about them) and made plans to attend. 

the festival was being held at forest hills cemetery which is GORGEOUS. 

These pictures don't do it justice at all!

yes, the trees have clothes on. 

now. the nicest part about this festival is that it was a festival to honor those who have passed on so everyone bought lanterns to decorate for their loved ones. 

this would be the stacks and stacks of wooden frames for the lanterns 

(that they so wisely recycle each year)

so after getting all your materials you would have one of these fine japanese ladies write on your lantern. 

i was somewhat disappointed we couldn't do the characters ourselves but i'm sure hers looked way better than if i had done it myself. 

some people like this sweet old man left theirs blank 

and others (us included) wrote notes on them

in doing this i realized quite a few people in my life have passed away in the last year and as sad as it was to write each of their names down it felt nice to think about each of them and in a small way, honor them. 

this also was a celebration of life so there was a lot of singing and dancing and music 

and then as soon as the sun started going down people were anxious to light their lanterns and let them go on the little pond in the middle of the cemetery

and as it got darker and darker it just got more and more magical.

and very tangled-esque

 (even though they weren't floating on the water rather than the sky. and maybe at one point i pulled out my phone and watched the lantern scene of that movie on my youtube app which made it even more magical)

it  was just a really beautiful thing to see all those lanterns and know what they represented. losing a loved one is something almost everyone has experienced and i think it is really nice (and therapeutic) that the community comes together once a year to celebrate/honor/remember the lives of those people. 

june : week one.

(will i forever be four weeks behind?) 

roommates last magleby's breakfast

(minus britt and suzanne)

getting new roommates has been sad but i will always miss the original

green gables gals!

 at times i think it is a good idea to fly a kite while waiting to be seated at a restaurant.

also, at times, it really isn't a good idea.

once upon a time i saw ashlie for the last time before she left again.

i just wish she would stop moving away! we shared some final

youtube videos, one of our favorite pastimes, and said goodbye. sad.

ryan and i went to the rooftop series concert with mindy gledhill and 

meaghan smith. it was really so great! and so many people! 

fun fact = ryan actually played with nik day for the very first rooftop

series concert. so it is fun to go back and see how it gets bigger and bigger

every time! (definitely took my other camera that day..not noticeable at all)

this time was really great though because it stayed light for so much longer!

ryan played back in september so it got dark really fast. 

by the time meaghan smith played we had met up with some friends on the side.

who knew this would be a nice seat? it was perfect. and free!

(and so many random reunions with people!)

and look!

this friday they will have another one so everyone come down and be my friend!

after a year and a half of not seeing this cute face i skyped with

sister tong my last companion! i don't know why i never ever skype

with anyone, i should really start utilizing it.

and three cheers for this view biking to work! everything is so green!

and lovely. and the other snow capped mountains are just as green and 

even more pretty! who knew utah could stop being brown and yellow

with just a little bit slash a lot of rain?

 (i guess everyone since we've been in a drought for years an years)