Red sky at night, sailor's delight. Red sky in the morning, sailor's take warning.

sublime Adjective describing a concept, thing, or state of high spiritual, moral, or intellectual value; or something awe-inspiring. The sublime was a goal to which many nineteenth-century artists aspired in their artworks. (Stokstad Art History)

I have mixed feelings about storms. For the most part I love them. There is something fascinating about them. I think it's the attraction of the sublime. Storms make you feel how little control you have over nature, they make you realize how tiny and insignificant you are in comparison with the rest of the world. There is something awe inspiring about that realization. And in a way I find that comforting. I can't control everything, and as much as I hate that, it is good to know that it's normal and that no one else can control everything either. We are all on equal footing when it comes to that. However, there is still something about storms that terrrifies me. I think it is just the knowledge of their destructive power. Being confronted with something that you know could kill you...I think fear is a healthy response to that. The sublime fascinates me though. It is so prevalent in art and literature. In particular, Canadian artists are fascinated with the sublimity of nature. The fact that we are completely at the mercy of an unforgiving climate has captivated this country's artists and writers since the first explorers arrived here. Our complicated relationship with nature is part of what defines us as Canadians. Margaret Atwood talks about the bush myth and how Canadians live in fear of nature so we group together and build cities, walls to keep nature out. And yet we are also people who go camping and backpacking. Extreme survival skills are something Canadians pride themselves on. Even those of us who live in cities brag about how we have lived through winters of -40C. I have friends who love winter camping, and part of the thrill is the survival aspect. We both fear and revere nature. We hide inside our houses and we attempt to convey the wildness of nature in art. I know this is true in my life and it is a pattern that is seen again and again in various forms of Canadian art. 

It is that point in the Alberta summer where the thunderstorms roll in, the severe storm watches are issued and tonadoes touch down. There was a storm tonight (lots of wind, but short lived) and it ended just as the sun was setting. I love when that happens because crazy weather creates awesome sunsets. Tonight was certainly no exception. Here's a peak at the reddish sky with the trees out back of the house silhouetted against it. So pretty.

Bright Lights of Summer

The past couple of days have been busy, but in a very good way. Monday I spent most of the day with two of my friends wandering around Capital EX. For those of you who are not from Edmonton, Capital EX is basically Edmonton's town fair. Think midway games, rides, deep fried everything...it's a good time and definitely a summer staple. I love amusement parks and rides a lot, so I always have a good time. Plus, I adore all of the lights. I think this is what makes the strongest impression on me. Whenever I think about Capital EX I think about the way I feel standing in line for rides in the evening; the sun is just starting to set, it is getting cool and windy, and all of the lights are blazing on the rides, games, and concession stands. It's just such an awesome moment in time. I think that's why I like this picture so much. It evokes the exact moment in time. I actually took this one a couple years ago at Captial EX. I did take pictures on Monday, but I haven't had a moment to go through and edit them up yet. Some of them will probably make their way onto the blog in the future though.

The Road Less Traveled By

The Road Not Taken

Robert Frost

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that, the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I -
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

This poem is the all time favorite of two of my dearest friends. So this post is kind of for them. I took this picture a few days ago in our backyard. This is the path that runs down beside the garage to the back gate. I loved how it looked in the sunlight. As soon as I saw it this was the poem that popped into my head (By the way, is it weird that poems pop into my head when I see certain images? Or is that merely an indication of how suited I am to studying literature?) and I knew I would post the two of them together. I realize that this is not a leaf strewn path in a yellow wood, nor is there a second path, but it certainly is the path less traveled. The weeds are growing through the cracks in the sidewalk and the lighting makes it look old, worn, and neglected. And really, it is the less taken path off of our property since the back gate has been broken for a while and you can't actually open it.

So shall we take the occasion, from one bitter root, to raise perhaps many flowers. - Leigh Hunt

 

So, this week was supposed to be awesome. Seriously. I was super pumped for it. Instead of being awesome and doing a happy dance on a daily basis, by Wednesday night I just wanted to scream until I lost my voice. Fortunately, over the past few days my beautiful and amazing friends have been incredible. There are four lovely ladies in particular who have been absolutely crucial to my survival lately. You know who you are. Thank you for saving my sanity. Thank you for putting up with my rants. Thank you for letting me vent even when I have already vented about the same thing to you. Thanks to you, my week started to turn around. There was definitely a bit of wreckage, but thanks to you I walked away from it without any life threatening injuries. No things aren't sensational yet, but in the past few days circumstances have slowly started to look up. I don't want to get too hyped up about things yet, because nothing is certain, but there are definitely some good things going on right now. I can handle the stressful and the downright awful and worrying as long as there is something positive to hang on to. So thank you to my friends who have been my anchors until those positive things turned up and who are now rejoicing with me over these things.

It's the quirks that make the person

I love my quirks. I am a profoundly strange person at times, but it is those little things that make me who I am and I have come to love my absurdities. Like the fact that my socks have to match my outfit. Or the fact that I always put my right shoe on first. Or that I keep my movies in alphabetical order and it drives me insane if they are put out of order. Or that I chew the scar on the inside of my lip when I'm thinking. I also love finding these things out about other people. I just think it is the little things like that that make a person who they are. And that is fun to discover.

I took this picture in our backyard. We have this little shale patch where my mom scattered some wildflower seeds and they are starting to come up. I love how different the leaves on this one plant are. So cool.

Wanderlust

I spent most of today with one of my dear friends. One of the things we talked about for quite a while was travel. I haven't been anywhere in quite a long time. Actually, it's been just over a year since I went to Victoria and that was the last trip I took. Talking about traveling and places that we want to go has really given me a case of wanderlust. Sadly I really am not in a place in my life right now where travel is an option. But hey, it's nice to dream a little.

I've mentioned my 1934 Webster's Dictionary on here before, but I don't think I have ever shared any pictures of it. This is really a shame, but I am correcting it today. Oddly enough, the first pictures I'm showing you from a dictionary are maps and not words. Oh well. I'm odd, so this is just par for the course. One of the appendicies in the back of the dictionary is "A Reference History of the World from the Earliest Times to the Present" which has a bunch of different maps from different time periods. I love maps, especially old ones, so I was quite excited when I discovered them and simply had to take some pictures. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.

The Cracks, They Start to Show

I went to Shakespeare in the Park tonight with my parents to see Macbeth. I've talked about how much I love Lady Macbeth on here before, but in case you missed it the first time, she is one of my favorite characters in all of Shakespeare. Fearsome, chilling, strong, ambitious, haunted. She fascinates me. I think one of the reasons I enjoy Macbeth so much is the psychological aspect to the play. I think it's interesting how Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are so haunted by their guilt, how it manifests itself in thier minds. The hallucinations, the sleepwalking, they are truly tormented. Lady Macbeth's much quoted "out damn'd spot" speech is the very embodiment of this breakdown. The cracks in her normally impenetrable armour begin to show. They appear slowly and without her knowledge, but the ultimately rip her apart.

The past little while I feel like some cracks in my armour have begun to show. I pride myself on being strong and independent, but sometimes it gets exhausting. Life has been getting to me. Needling me. Slowly wearing me down. This week was supposed to be really great, but yesterday was kind of disasterous and today (with the exception of the play) was only slightly better. I've been constantly frustrated lately. I really wish I had access to a sound proof room so I could just scream as loud as I can until my voice is gone. Obviously I'm not Lady Macbeth. I haven't abetted any murders lately, nor am I expecting any of this to lead to a complete mental breakdown, but the sentiment is similar.

I took this picture at Hatley Castle on Vancouver Island last summer. A very beautiful building. The carvings are what first captured my attention and led me to take a picture. It wasn't until I was home and editing pictures that I noticed the cracks running through the facade. It's interesting how true that is of most things. At first glance almost everything and everyone looks perfect. It isn't until you get a bit closer, until you get to know them, that you find the imperfections.

Hello Yellow

One of my new color obsessions is yellow. I'm not typically a big fan of yellow, but it has slowly been making its way into my wardrobe. Suddenly, I have enough of it in shades that I actually adore that I find myself wanting more and more. I've even been using it a lot in some of the art I've been working on lately. I find it interesting how I go through color phases. I'm not usually a color person. Seriously. I think if I really had to choose my favorite color I would choose charcoal grey. For some reason though I tend to go through periods of time where I become obsessed with a certain color. When I was in junior high I loved purple. Everything was purple. I remember this one dress and sweater that I wore for the Valentine's Day dance, the dress was lilac and the sweater was dark purple. I also, for some reason, decided to call it "poiple" instead of "purple". Yeah. I was a weird kid. Who am I kidding? I'm still weird. When I was a little kid I had a really hard time pronouncing "yellow" so I called it "lellow". I think that's kind of cute. But, you know, I was a little kid. It becomes less cute when you are a 13 year old who decides to mispronounce a color. Anyway, yellow is my thing right now so I bring you a picture of yellow lilies from my mom's garden several years ago.

The Relationships of Time

January has issues with her mother, February is always talking about things he wants to do while March does them, April eats sweets and May pays for them, June is the oldest but not the wisest and July always has an opinion on everything. August never stops trying do the right thing, even if he doesn't always know what that is. September once saw something so sad, she never stopped crying. October holds the lift for anyone, vice-presidents and street-sweepers alike (for his memory, not for theirs) and November makes fun of him for this. December is tired but always hopeful. He has never once stopped believing.

Monday's obviously a bastard, quite literally as dad can't remember what or who he was doing. Tuesday's temperamental but ok as long as you stay on her good side. Wednesday doesn't say much and Thursday sometimes hums just to break the silence. They're in love. Friday's always wasted and she and Saturday hold each other tightly until their delirium fades.

But Sunday, Sunday knows she's the end. But she closes her eyes, and she pretends with all the strength in her tiny heart that really, she's the dawn.

(via I Wrote This For You)

In the past I have tried to avoid directly quoting other blogs, I am not exactly sure why, but I am breaking that habit today. I was reading little chief honeybee today and she had reposted a positively beautiful bit of writing from I Wrote This For You. I had never heard of this blog before, but loved the repost so much that I decided to check it out. I immediately fell in love. It combines strikingly beautiful photography with exquisite writing that is sometimes deeply melancholy, sometimes beautifully hopeful. I am enthralled. I think I have found my new source of inspiration for blog posts, and you may see many more reposts from there in the future. This post seemed appropriate given that it is Sunday today. I think the final lines really capture the paradox of Sundays; they are filled with both hope and dread for the coming week, they are filled with sorrow for the past week and the end of a weekend, and yet they have a glimmer of joy and promise as a new week begins. I also liked this post because apparently it isn't just me who gives character traits to months and days. I often feel like I must be crazy because I personify inanimate objects all the time. At least now I know that if I am crazy I am not alone in that craziness.

I just want to DANCE

The sun decided to show itself today. The day actually turned out to be quite lovely. And, aside from a couple hours this evening, I wasn't bored all day, which was a refreshing change and means that I am currently way less frustrated than I have been as of late. However I have all this pent up energy that I'm not quite sure what to do with. I actually really want to have a dance party. In first year there used to be spontaneous dance parties in various rooms on our floor. It is just such a great way to blow off steam. They are way less fun by yourself though. I have been known to indulge in individual dance parties although they are more of the "imagine you're a rockstar" variety than the dance around like a maniac variety. Unless I have the house to myself. Then I will sometimes crank the tunes and dance around. Anyway. I really want to have a dance party right now. Or jump on the bed. Or something else exuberant and ridiculous.

I have posted a picture of these flowers before. They are one of my favorite flowers ever to photography because of how they are oriented. Because they hang towards the ground you have to shoot them against the sky and the brilliant orange against a clear blue sky is just perfect. I took this particular picture on Canada Day this year. Fort Edmonton is the only place I have ever encountered the particular flowers, which I think is a shame because they are very lovely. I like that the brightness captures the ridiculous energy thing I've got going on right now.

Playing Games

Have you ever been told that everything in life is a game? I hate this sentiment. I realize that in many ways it is true, but I hate it nonetheless. I think this is part of what is frustrating me this summer. I feel like if you make the right moves then you get the summer job, or the scholarship. If you don't make the right moves, if you role and eight instead of a twelve, you are stuck. It's like that board game, Trouble, where you had to role a 1 or a 6 to be able to move your little piece out onto the playing field and even then someone else could bump you back to the starting point. I had mixed feelings about that game as a kid. When I did well I loved it, but when I was doing poorly I loathed it. I was like that with all games. Still am. I'm a really competitive person, so I tend to be a poor loser. Anyway. I feel like my life has been one giant game of Trouble and this summer I just got sent back to the start and haven't roled the right number yet. No matter how hard I try I can't seem to get unstuck. Sorry that the posts the past couple days have been so frustrated and angry sounding. Do not worry. I've just become profoundly frustrated with several things in my life and that frustration has been compounded by boredom. This is a recipie for musing that aren't exactly cheerful in nature. Plus the weather has been gray and rainy which always makes me more prone to introspection and contemplation, which often takes a serious bent.

I took these pictures at Fort Edmonton on Canada Day. One of the rooms in the big house in the old fort had this chess board set up on a table. I thought it was cool so I took pictures of it.

[insert clever title here]

Today was a very blah day. Just boring. I finished reading my latest book, The Cellist of Sarajevo. Truly beautiful. Challenging to read because of the subject matter, but incredibly moving and poignant. It really is a testament both to the resilience of the human spirit and to the power of art, specifically music. I highly recommend it. Aside from that I didn't have much to do. Normally a whole day of drinking tea and reading is a wonderful thing for me, but after having a somewhat productive day yesterday I just couldn't quite stomach it. I kept feeling like I should be out doing something. Plus I was waiting for someone to call me. I think that is one of the worst feelings in the world. I hate just staring at the phone. And to top it off they never did call. That just makes it worse because now I feel like an idiot for wasting my day staring at the phone. End of rant. By the time I sat down to do this post I really wasn't feeling very inspired. Cue the flower photos! This is the same tulip that I featured in my very first post on this blog. I like how much the purple pops in this image. I also really like the arc that is made by the stem and the flower. That's about all I have today. Sorry. Hopefully you enjoy the picture, if not my uninspired ramblings.

Literary Aspirations

I spent my afternoon holed up in Steeps writing away. It was actually an incredibly productive afternoon. I finished a scholarship application essay (which, in case you were wondering, are not fun to write) and got first drafts of a couple of other pieces finished. I'm staying fairly quiet about what these other pieces are for though, so if you are not one of the select few I have already explained this endeavour to then, I'm sorry, but you will just have to wait it out. If things pan out as I hope then I will enlighten all of you. Right now I don't want to jinx anything by getting my hopes up too much.

Steeps is one of my favorite places in the city. Tasty tea, a great atmosphere, local art on the walls, open mic nights and showcases for local musicians...what more could you ask for? I find that I'm almost always productive there too, which is a big change from sitting in my room at home or in the dorm. Unfortunately it is a bit of a hike from either the house or the apartment (since it's about halfway between the two) and so I have to motivate myself to get down there. I never regret it when I do though. It's a great place for everything from hanging out with friends to paper writing to cram sessions. If you live in Edmonton and haven't yet checked out this gem then you definitely should. And you should tell me when you're going. I'll come. I'll even pay.

This picture isn't from today. This was not the type of writing I was doing today. This stuff here is songwriting. Most people don't know that I write songs because I never ever share them with people (in fact, I think Lisa and Vicki may be the only two people I've ever intentionally played for), but I do. And when I write and the words don't conform to a melody I often turn them into a poem. Again, something I usually don't share. Anyway, that is why today was different. Today was essays and articles, so it didn't look like this. Wow, ramble much? I took this picture while I was in Toronto about a year and a half ago. I had a day to myself that I spent wandering around downtown Toronto and one of the stops I made was for lunch at The Rex. I had gone there the night before with Erin and one of her friends and absolutely adored it so I decided to hit it up for lunch the next day. Since I was out by myself I stopped at a stationary story and picked up a notebook and some pens so that I could spend some time writing. It was a rather enjoyable lunch stop actually.

Happy Half Birthday to Me!

Today is my half birthday! Well, it is almost over now since it is 11:20 pm and by the time most people read this it won't be any more, but it was my half birthday. Now, this is not really a big deal for most people (unless you are 4, and then your half birthday is probably a very exciting event), but I personally love half birthdays. When I was a kid I remember getting a present for my half birthday. Now that I live in dorms during school, we celebrate half birthdays for two of my roommates because their birthdays don't fall during the school year. I think I just like half birthdays because they bring out a bit of the little kid in me. Even though I didn't officially do anything to celebrate today, I did go clothing shopping and found a whack of stuff that fit (yay!) and was on sale (double yay!). Plus my mommy bought me a hat. =)

This is not my half birthday cake or anything. In fact, it wasn't even my birthday cake. I took this picture at my friend's 20th birthday a couple of years ago as she was blowing out the candles. Since I'm fascinated by light, candles are one of my favorite things to photograph. Just like everyone looks good in candlelight, I'm pretty sure that any photograph of candles looks good. Okay, I take that back. I've taken some horrid photos of candles in my time. Regardless, I like this particular picture.

A Blanket of Creativity

The weather has turned from blazing hot to cool and rainy. And when I say rainy, I mean "build the ark now" rainy. I know I talk about the weather a lot, but it has such a profound effect on my mood and on what I feel like sharing here that it is kind of an inevitable topic. I hope you all don't mind too much. Anyway, I have mentioned before that grey skies and rainy days make me think of Nova Scotia. So, today's picture is from the Halifax harbour. I thought these rocks looked kind of cool all piled up next to the red wall. I also love the lighting in this picture, the sky was quite cloudy that day so the sunlight was filtering through all these dense clouds and that combined with the reflection off the water created this almost mystical quality to the light. I think this is part of why I actually kind of like rainy days. In a way it is like all the magical bits of the world only wake up when it's raining. There is just a different feeling to the world somehow and it leaves me feeling like a blanket of creativity is being settled around my shoulders. I often feel tired and sluggish at times like this, but I am simultaneously driven to create things. The sensation that this image evokes for me embodies the feeling of today perfectly for me. Am I the only one who finds that pictures can evoke specific feelings, not just emotions, but actual physical sensations?

Well, there ain't no strangers when you're swinging a hammer side by side

I am quite possibly one of the worst bloggers at the moment. Sorry about the lack of posts in the last little while, it seems that summer is actually harder to stay regular post-wise than the school year. Who would have thought? Anyway, I've spent the past few days painting my bedroom. I don't know that it was actually as long a process as it feels like it was, but the whole not being able to sleep in my bedroom and staying on the sofa bed downstairs thing made it feel like it took a long time. I was going from bright yellow walls with pink, blue, and purple stripes to white. In the end, 3 coats of primer and 3 coats of paint and I love love love the results. The color is called "Moon Rise", and it is basically white but has a bit of a silver tinge to it. It is perfect. I feel like I'm living in a blank canvas. It just has that same feeling to it that a new canvas or sheet of paper does: potential, endless potential and promise. It's fan-freaking-tastic. As fascinated as I'm sure you all are by my decorating endeavours, you are probably wondering what any of this has to do with a picture of a barn door. Well, I was scrolling through potential pictures and this one caught my eye. Immediately the phrase "barn raising" popped into my head (once again, it is a weird, weird place in there) and that whole working hard to make something seemed to fit with painting. Maybe? Am I stretching it too far? Maybe I'm just crazy. Regardless. Thinking about barn raising made me think of the Keith Urban song "Raise the Barn", thus the title (which, in case you are not a country music person, is the first two lines of the song). This barn is probably one of my favorite buildings in Fort Edmonton. I took this particular shot of it on Canada Day, but that certainly wasn't the first time it has made an appearance in a photo of mine. In fact, I used it as a background for some of Carly and Stuart's engagement photos. Now, despite being a city girl I am from Alberta and come from farming stock on one side of the family, so I have an inherent love of barns. Seriously. When I'm in a car driving along Alberta highways I always wish I could stop and take pictures of all the different barns we pass, all of which are in different states of dilapidation I know this barn isn't falling apart, so it doesn't have that particular appeal, but there is something about the color of the wood and that quality it takes on in the sunlight...I could take a lot of pictures of this barn.

The Importance of Hydration

We are on the verge of a heat wave here in Edmonton. It is supposed to be 29 degrees tomorrow. Of course, just as the weather gets ridiculously warm, I am starting to paint my room. I have a feeling that physical labor, paint fumes, and ridiculous temperatures aren't going to make for a particularly comfortable couple of days. Oh well, there really isn't too much I can do about it now. Anyway, heading into this ridiculous heat wave has me thinking about drinking lots of water. I am going to have to make sure that I keep a bottle with me at all times because even though I am inside (thankfully) there is no airconditioning or anything so it is still going to be hot as blazes in here. Frankly the idea of passing out in a half painted room just isn't all that appealing, so in order to prevent this fate a constant intake of liquids will be necessary. And that is the thought process that led me to selcet this particular image today. Weird I know, but if you know me or read this blog at all then you should expect nothing less from me. I took this picture at the Hard Rock Cafe in London, England. Not the greatest meal ever, I have to admit, but a pretty solidly good time with friends. I have a fondness for the lone lemon in the bottom lefthand glass. I don't know why. Perhaps it is just because it is a spot of brightness in an otherwise dark image.

Juxtapose

juxtapose
verb [with obj.]
place or deal with close together for contrasting effect
ORIGIN: mid 19th cent. (earlier (Middle English) as juxtaposition): from French juxtaposer, from Latin juxta 'next' + French poser 'to place'.

I don't actually have that much to say today, so I decided to fall back on posting a picture from my Europe trip in grade 12. That trip produced some of my all time favorite photos that I have taken. Those images are actually the reason I started getting into photography in the first place. I love the juxtoposition in this picture of Picadilly Circus in London. The new and the old somehow just work together in that setting even though they are totally incongruent. I guess things don't always have to seem logical or like they will work together in order to compliment each other.

It is worth our while just to be living when the pulses of nature are stirred

In Lilac Time

Lucy Maud Montgomery

When the hills in the distance are misty

With the hazes of shimmering blue,

When the birds sing with rapture at dawning

And the pastures are silver with dew,

When the skies are of sapphire radiance

And the apple tree boughs are ablow,

Then the lilacs hang out in the garden

Their clusters of purple and snow.

When a new moon shines after the sunset

In the heart of the mellow southwest,

And the winds astray in the meadows

Are bent on their summertime quest,

When the cherry trees down in the orchard

Are white as the robe of a bride,

The lilac trees here at my window

Are decked in their splendor and pride.

In the odorous hush of the twilight

The evening breeze steals their perfume,

Till the rain-freshened nooks of the garden

Are sweet with the breath of their bloom,

And at morning a bluebird a-tilting

On the tip of a tremulous spray

Pipes out in their thicket of sweetness

A madrigal buoyant and gay.

Oh! our hearts are atune with the music

Of summer and blossom and bird!

It is worth our while just to be livign

When the pulses of nature are stirred.

There's nothing so sweet as the joyance

That comes when the June breezes blow

And the lilac trees out in the garden

Are crowned with their purple and snow.

Sorry I've been so awful about keeping up the blog this week. I started this week thinking that I really didn't have all that much to do, and ended up going out or hanging out with someone here every single day until yesterday. Throw in some computer problems and presto, you have a week where Breanna never blogs. One of the things I did this week was celebrate Canada Day with some friends. It was actually a pretty fantastic day. Four of us went to Cora's for breakfast and then spent a few hours wandering around Fort Edmonton in the afternoon. Then, a bunch of us met up to watch the fireworks downtown and to hang out at Denny's afterwards. Anyway, this picture is from Fort Edmonton. I went through a period of time where I really didn't like Fort Edmonton. I think it had to do with the fact that I am not really a history buff (although I am coming to appreciate it more) and the fact that I associate it with childhood memories of really hot days that ended in major sunburns. Well, since I have come to actually enjoy some aspects of history more recently, and because one of my friends really wanted to go to the Fort, I agreed to spend some time there. Outside the telephone office (which is pretty cool) there were some lilac bushes that were still blooming, so naturally I had to snap a few shots. I've been wanting to pair some photos with Lucy Maud Montgomery's poetry for a while now. She wrote such beautiful and simple poems praising the beauty of nature in every season. It just seemed like the small, simple, beautiful flowers in the picture were complimented and enhanced by this poem. I love the final stanza, about being in tune with the music of summer. That is how I felt this week. Glorious.