We read this for class a couple of weeks ago. I still haven’t finished it… but I’m almost there, and I’ve loved it so far, so don’t spoil anything.

Well, hello. It’s been a while.

I would apologize, except that my silence was mostly intentional. I guess the simplest way to explain it is that I needed to be living life and not posting about it.

I came very close to deleting this blog altogether several times within the last year; and, who knows, I still may. My return here is a trial run. I’ve realized that I still have words and images crawling around in my head, that, although they may not ultimately benefit anyone else, need to find an avenue of expression for my own sanity. I want to see if this blog can continue to be that avenue.

In order for this to happen, I think that Lylium will be undergoing a tone shift—or perhaps merely continuing the one it has been undergoing for some time. Here’s what I would expect to see here from now on, if I were you: 1) Photos without explanation, 2) Cryptic musings (some new, some old) on life that may not make sense to anyone but me, and 3) Pictures of whatever other creative endeavors I might cook up (hint, hint). Also expect: some combination of the above three, or something else entirely. You’ve been warned.

What you shouldn’t expect to find here is a newsletter-type update on my life. If you know me in real life and you’d like details about what’s going on with me these days, drop me a line or call me and we can chat. I’d love to hear what’s going on with you as well.

But, to start things off, I’m going to violate what I just said and give you a nut-shelly update on my life, just because it’s been so long. Lately, life has had lots of:

These books.

I’m beginning my senior year at Gutenberg College this fall, so Kierkegaard and Camus have become (or ought to have become) my constant companions as I prepare to write my senior thesis. (I’m comparing them on “despair,” and The Sickness Unto Death and The Myth of Sisyphus are my two primary texts.)

This boy.

His name is Gil. He goes to Gutenberg. He’s tall, deep, and, like most people, completely un-sum-uppable.

The usual.

• Blessings (that sometimes feel like a warm towel and sometimes like a cold shower).
• Days when I don’t see the point.
• Days when I do.
• Family and friends who challenge me and continue to be more gracious than I could have imagined.

Okay. That’s all you get. From here on out all of my posts will be completely indirect and incomprehensible.

… Or, you know, maybe not. I suppose we’ll just have to see.

I saw this while passing by an empty room on the boy’s hall today. My brother lived in this room when he attended Gutenberg a few years back.

A wrap-up post for my sophomore year at Gutenberg is long overdue, but, like has been true of so many things lately, I am finding it difficult to write about. Not because of any particularly traumatizing event that took place during it (well, okay, there were the two year exams), but because at the end of the year, all my memories and experiences from it got packed up into a neat little box like the rest of my belongings, and I am only now starting to open that box and examine them, one by one.

So, for now, in lieu of explaining a great deal about this past year, let me share with you something I made this afternoon on a break from wedding-photo editing:

Behold: 100 photos taken on my computer during the ‘07-’08 school year. It’s amazing how much is wrapped up in each one of these silly little pictures; each one brings its own context rushing back to me. Of course, that doesn’t help you very much, but… still, it might help you get a glimpse into the up-and-down roller-coaster that was my sophomore year.

P.S. I passed all of my two year exams, by the way. And finished all of my coursework. Meaning: I am officially a junior. Unbelievable. =-o

These were the clouds outside the window of Kari’s car as she drove us to a lecture we attended the other night. I’ve been revisiting my annoying habit of taking my camera everywhere, and it’s starting to pay off.

Another night, I walked around campus, looking for light leaking out of windows in interesting ways. This is of the Blue House kitchen:

I also took my camera to a recent show by Science Heroes, a group made up of two Gutenberg students who rock way hard. They had really cool lighting:

If I keep this up, hopefully I will have more photos to share with you soon. Cheers.