boulder birthday for becky

Not quite a full two years ago, I took the most wonderful birthday (24!) trip with Sadie. Lindsey and Kara had planned a 10-day 'xcursion to Hawaii and had not invited us and - insult to injury - had planned it over my birthday, so we planned our own soiree. It took about 10 minutes of careful research on some Southwest flights, and a phone call to a friend asking for a place to stay, and we were Colorado bound! Corbin and Hank graciously welcomed us into their home in Boulder, and we set about planning our long weekend: beer tours, skiing, hot tubbing, ice skating, tacos, and a drive up to Wyoming. It was such a satisfying trip and I'd go back in a snowflake. Below are some pics, then I'll get to the scarfy part.

Fun in the brewery

A summary of our day on the slopes

Winter wonderland!

So the scarfy part - As you know, this was a birthday trip. Or a trip that started on my birthday. Either way, I was celebrating my birthday with only a few friends, which meant my other friends had a grand opportunity to celebrate me in creative ways! Sweet Allison came over early the morning we left (before work!) with Krispy Kreme donuts and a little gift. KK = most surely the way to my heart and the most foolproof to confirm one's love for me. Inside the little gift was a soft heather wool scarf, very purposefully to take to CO! Now, here's the thing about Allison. She's a sweetheart, no doubt, but she's the kind of sweet where you know she puts some sweat into her sweetness, because she knows what you love. (Exhibit A: Once for Valentine's Day, she was going to miss our annual party and brought over a dozen heart shaped and sprinkled Krispy Kreme. Talk about a track record!) This scarf was 1) a scarf 2) wool = warm 3) easily smooshed into my suitcase the day of go-time. All in all, it was perfect. And I snapped the perfect pic to show my appreciation for it.

Got all my textures in! Wool, rabbit, hidden denim, and a field jacket to fight the wind. A very meaningful thank you note was written to express how meaningful the scarf had been to me, and still is. 

adulthood

Darling, I've missed you.

My sister-in-law has two beautiful children whom she so invites me into their lives through her blog, and the more I enjoy hers, the more guilt I feel about neglecting mine. So I'll add a few posts from the past year and try really hard at keeping up with it.

Last fall I got an email from Southwest and had some inspiration about taking a trip by myself, and took the cheapest flights to Norfolk, VA. Booked a hotel in Virginia beach, and tagged it #adultvacay. Approaching the weekend, I was excited about getting away, and to a place I'd never been before, and a little apprehensive about not having any company with me. A lot of people questioned going to a "northern" beach in October, but that only means I got to walk along the beach barefoot in a SCARF! (don't miss the arm reflection in that selfie!)

This scarf belongs to my roommate Lindsey (see: adorable blonde in second post) and was her first Clemson orange gear after being raised a gamecock fan, and getting her acceptance letter to the only University in South Carolina that matters. Beaches in the fall are hopefully sunny, and terribly windy, so this chunk of a scarf was perfect for my weekend on the coast. I think I took it off once to eat shrimp & grits, only to save it from the possibility of taking some unwanted grits home with me.

The weekend in VA Beach was perfect - I ate well (s&g / coastal sushi / duck foie gras/ Whole Foods lunch x3), drank well (martini dry, clean, with 2 olives / manhattans on manhattans / bottle of wine, hold the glass), stumbled across the show of a Nashville friend, ate dinner with a former Nashville friend, climbed a lighthouse, drove through a underwater bridge...check out the instagram, and read 2 books, cover to cover. I also rented a Tahoe, which is the way to my heart. But I was really lonely. I've always thought of myself as an outgoing introvert - that I get my kicks from being alone, but love to entertain people, as long as I got my kicks. Three days of real aloneness showed me that I'm probably wrong about myself. I think I'm still going to use the phrase outgoing introvert, because it sounds right, but I need people. And after I got back, I realized that people need me.

C'est la vie!

I know I've been gone a long time...sorry. But I've renamed myself a celebrator of scarves, so you gotta wait for a good one to come around.

Life update: I'm surviving the real adult world. They threw me out to be a big girl and I'm making it. Current city? Nashville. Current occupation? Retail. Current favorite thing? The gals I live with.

Scarves update: the cold weather is right around the corner! Which means scarves will be CALLING OUT to me and my fellow necks across the country!

Before I get crazy all about cable knits and wools though, I wanted to share a really special summer memory that involved a lot of things I love. On June 15, I flew to Paris, France to visit a friend from college. Keller Anne happens to be my closest sister--we were pledge sisters in Sigma Kappa and haven't looked back since! She is more cultured than I am and spent six weeks in Paris studying and eating and culturing, and as a graduation present to myself, I showed up on her doorstep. Don't ask about my time zone horrors, it's really embarrassing.

I had a few objectives for my trip since I'd never been to Paris, much less Europe, and it was a huge life goal being accomplished. They were:

1. Picnic under the Eiffel Tower.

2. Eat a long breakfast at an outdoor cafe.

3. Smoke a French cigarette.

4. Talk to some local(men)s.

5. Buy a scarf and have a decent picture of it in Paris for the blog.

I accomplished all my objectives, except number 5. I only had a few days in the City, and I was having a hard time trying to find a scarf that impressed me and caught my attention over all the other wonderful fashions I saw. I decided to buy one from a corner market stand, since it would be affordable, and I thought kinda local to do. Did I mention my utmost objective was to be mistaken for a Parisienne?? Did I mention it happened more than a few times?? Too bad my French killed the fun..

One beautiful sunny afternoon I met Keller Anne at the Hotel d'Ville for some shopping. I had started the morning with an awkward and language-barrierred interaction with the cleaning lady, so I treated myself to a croissant, Cafe Americano, and Atlas Shrugged (also the company of an older Frenchmen who was very intrigued by my kindle). My heart overflowed with love for the weather, the city, and the belief in what days like those bring. As I walked up and greeted Keller Anne with little cheek kisses, she handed me a green plastic bag*. Inside was a cute navy scarf with white polka dots. A scarf! She decided to buy one for me on her way to class because I couldn't make up my mind about one to buy! That 5 euro piece of fabric was one of the kindest, most precious, most meaningful things that has ever been done for me or given to me. I immediately threw it around my neck and couldn't take it off the rest of the day. Unfortunately the fashion requirements (Parisienne, remember) of my week didn't allow me to wear it again, but I wore it all the rest of the summer once I got home. We snapped a picture while eating some Amorino gelatto later that day and although you can hardly see the scarf, you get a great glimpse of how b.e.a.u.t.i.f.u.l. Keller Anne is. Her outward beauty is only a testament to the beauty that flows from inside of her. We've more than once been referred to as sisters, and I don't mind one bit.

Told ya so. I will love her for the rest of my life. And that darling scarf :) Which I will now call Félicite which means bliss in French. That word best describes everything about that trip!

*Disclaimer and funny side-note: My first thought was that she was handing me a bag of dog poop! As if I've ever picked up dog poop with one of those green bags you see in parks...strange what a brain does!

"can i ask you a question?" "do you go to clemson?"

if there is one thing that i am absolutely sure of, it is this: God is so awesome, and He really does care about things i care about. one thing i absolutely love is meeting random people and finding something in common with them. sometimes it's a bit of a stretch, but today was absolutely one of the more fun times of meeting someone random. and God set it up for me, to plug a little fountain of joy into my morning.

first shameless plug: you absolutely must go to Passion 2012. it will most absolutely change your life. and you can meet people like tyler and anna, who are absolutely so kind and fun. a second thing i absolutely love is people watching, and if i can overhear a conversation, slap me silly, i'm having a great time. i overheard tyler today while waiting for our last session at Passion talking about his scarf, and it's absolutely awesome. but the story is more awesome.

so i gathered all the courage i needed, and this convo ensued:
Rebecca: "excuse me, can i ask you a question?"
Tyler: "do you go to clemson?"

WHOA! ok Jesus.

Rebecca: "dsajhoauebf avhau lfbadvaliudh jds!! yes!! how did you know??"
Tyler: "mutual friends...fca...blah blah..."
Rebecca: (tripping out, must keep cool) "gosh. where did you get that scarf?"

tyler got his scarf from his family group leader, who got it from kabul, which is absolutely unreal, because kabul is in afghanistan. tyler also just graduated from clemson and is moving to charleston to work for water missions international, which provides water and The Living Water to people who are absolutely dying for it. his friend, anna, goes to auburn and has that absolutely psychedelic scarf. her sister, katherine, goes to clemson and we have mutual friends. huh!

morals of the story:
1. shameless plug #2: go to Passion 2012.
2. meet people. especially when Jesus is leading you.
3. if you own neat things, give them to people, bc you might just get blogged about.
4. make much of Jesus.

this scarf i'm going to name سر چشمې which means "fountain" in pashto, the most common language in afghanistan. please refer to someone smarter than i for a pronunciation.

word of the day: absolute. what is absolute in your life besides the things that concern who God is and what He has done?

here we go!

SO! here is my first post about a scarf. this is my newest purchased scarf (the one i'm wearing, not lindsey's), from a new fave store, Madewell. it's called the Moroccan scarf, mainly because of the brilliant colors and pattern. it feels very tapestry-y, and is huge (which i love!) so i just triangle wrap it once, tie it like a bandana, and let it fall where it may. so far, we've experienced a few things together: an intramural football game, a bonfire, a dinner party at a lake house (which turned into a first kiss ha!), founder's day, finals week (ref: exhibit A), and the list is sure to become much longer.

i've never been to Morocco, but i can safely say one thing about their scarves, or scarves that are named after their country: they are beautiful and warm and add a hint of brilliance (fiest perhaps) to any outfit. something you can wear with pumps or a t-shirt? got a little genius in it...

so here's to this scarf! it's name shall be Hasan, which in arabic means "beautiful"
-R

Why scarves?

I've been called many names in my life. To name just a few:
Dr. Woo, Hubey, Goofball, Re, Rebeck, RAKM, Raks, Becky, Reba, Rebanator, Rebie, Rebsie-Biebsie (have you got the fever?), Rita (the newest one, maybe a personal fave?), Ritard (not personal fave..), etc.

I've also been called many things in my life...
weird, abnormal, ridiculous, ridiculously-good-looking, crazy, funny, super hott, etc.

One thing I've never been called, though, is eccentric. I saw this word one day last week while reading a textbook (you're welcome parents, I studied one day last week) and was informed that a certain printing process was eccentric. My first thought was--how can a printing process be a collector? and if it can be a collector, what does it collect?

I googled eccentric, and discovered it doesn't only mean a collector of things. But for the purpose of this blog, it does.

In order to become eccentric, I am going to start collecting scarves. Why?
1. I like them.
2. I wear them.
3. They are fashionable.
4. They can be multi-seasonal.
5. In the future when I close down this blog, I can look back and say "I got that scarf when I was a senior in college. Here look! This is a picture of me wearing it that night we saw Meryl Streep in Jackson Hole. Oh and that one is from Nan--she is a good person. I wore it with her to the Knicks' game."

How neat is that?!