It's Hard To Believe That December Starts In 5 Hours

Weird, huh?

In some random wanderings I came across this blog by a woman who rescued a 10-day-old coyote and posts photos of him growing up every day. It's really interesting, and he is super cute. I recommend scrolling all the way to the end and working backwards.

Then I looked to find out more about the author and she has this other blog about a trip across the U.S. on a Vespa. How awesome is that?

I really liked this paragraph that she wrote:

Where The Lessons Are
Adversity is a teenager with studded lips and lobes and a sullen expression. If you turn your back or say cruel things, it will glare at you in return and be none the worse off; it expected such behaviour, anyway. It comes to you on the defensive, but comes to you nonetheless. And if you are not intimidated or disapproving; if you are not judgmental of an exterior you may consider harsh, and instead, relate to it in respect, you’ll find a liveliness and a brilliance, a purity, a revelation, a gift.

Mama Always Said...

Words of wisdom from my mom, guest contributer:
"Yesterday I attended the birth of a 1 lb. 3 oz. baby. Today I attended the birth of an 11 lb. 5 oz. baby. Expectant mothers, I encourage you to shoot for something in between those two extremes."

And, bonus round:
"When your ex-girlfriend comes to your house to hang out with your roommate, and then tells you that you're not allowed to register for a class that you need because she is going to be in it and doesn't want to see you, something is wrong."

Almost like a Jack Handey quote, but unfortunately tragically true to life.

Two More Days...

...left in this rocky roller-coaster of a month.

A death that has been looming in my boss's family finally came last night.

It was a chaotic day at work, in many ways, for many reasons. Extremely rude clients, miscommunication on many levels, chefs and staff members dropping like flies, and the arctic climate in the office didn't help much.

No, I'm not talking about cold shoulders and icy stares. I'm talking about literally wearing a winter coat ALL DAY because it was so outrageously cold. It's been pretty cold for the last month or so, and we called the landlord to come help us figure out the thermostat. Today some guys finally came and confirmed that it was all jacked up, and said they readjusted everything and would be back in a week to make sure it worked. Hours later we realized the one room in the building that used to be warm was cold, and that frozen air was blasting into the kitchen. I called again and the lady assured me she'd send them back again, hopefully today. They never came. Instead we sat there type-type-typing away with frigid fingers and rage in our hearts.

More stuff happened but I have to get up at 5:30 tomorrow so I'm going to bed.

***Also, a word to the wise:***

I DO NOT recommend ever watching the television program titled 'Inside the Brookhaven Obesity Clinic.' Especially while eating dinner.

***End Cautionary Public Service Announcement***

Not Quite Up To Speed

I am tired...of feeling tired. Sometimes it feels warranted, but so often it doesn't. Ever since I got back home from Croatia I've felt pretty low-energy, although I've had to push through it at times, and it's starting to get old. Part of it is probably due to a fundamental time-zone shift (which actually takes a while to fully get used to); then there's general life transition fatigue; and also working full time takes kind of a lot out of me. Maybe because the nature of what I do for work now is so different than the last two years.

Basically, I'm just frustrated. There are so many things I want to do. People I want to see. Emails and letters to write, and places to go, and drawers/suitcases/boxes to sort through, and job opportunities to explore, and phone calls to make. Right now I honestly feel like I could get up, go to work, get home, and basically read or watch tv and go straight to bed at around 8:00. And that's all. OR, I could not work, and just spend my days doing all that other stuff that I think about wanting to do while I am at work. But for some reason I think I can do both.

Maybe this is just part of being grown up: there's never enough time for all the things you want to do.

Both this week and last week I figured out transportation to get to my weekly bible study/church hangout group (it's a bit of a long trek) and got all ready, then at the last minute felt exhausted, gave up, and stayed home. That's not a pattern I want to get into. I mean, my mom and my cat are great company and all, but...seriously.

I'll definitely alert all of you at the very first hint of a sudden burst of energy. Right now I am going to sleep. Because I am so tired.

Those Pajamas I Mentioned Earlier...

Grace, Athleticism, Wit.

A few years ago my sister and I went rollerblading together. It was a beautiful late spring/early summer afternoon - perfect for getting out there on the trail. We were not strangers to the wheeled boots, but neither were (are) we particularly agile or confident when attempting more challenging terrain or maneuvers. This actually worked out fairly well for both us and our fellow trail-goers. We weren't speed demons terrorizing the masses, and it really didn't take much for us to get a real thrill - you know, that adventurous, living-on-the-edge feeling.

During our outing, we happened upon a small hill. It sloped gently, and at length, and eventually evened out to flatter ground without any significant obstacles. We decided to give it a go. I honestly can't remember whether I rode the whole thing out, or bailed partway and skidded out on the grass. My sister, however, built up some strong speed and momentum, and determined that her only chance for survival rested in a trailside lamppost a few yards ahead. She lunged for the iron column and grasped it firmly with her hands. The velocity of her body, combined with the centripetal force created by her arms, caused her to spin around the pole with a surprising beauty and fury. After this spectacular show of acrobatic ability, she slowly melted to the ground. Both of us were still speechless when, seconds later, a passing jogger called out, "The Russian judge gives you a 6!" It could not have been more perfect.

What This Weekend Has Had To Offer So Far

• An... interesting family breakfast.
• A football game that started well, and ended horrifically.
• A third full Thanksgiving meal.
• The discovery that I cannot write blog posts with ease while under close and direct observation by my sister.
• The following quote, "Call me a narcissist, but I love it when you write about me."
• The realization that our family dog is probably dying.
• The chance to witness, in action, a mother-daughter relationship being healed by the power of crafts.
• A pair of $4.66 sweatpants from Target.

And one offer I declined:

• An open audition to perform at/participate in(?) Hugh Hefner's New Year's Eve Extravaganza in Las Vegas.

Ham & Cheese Sandwiches

Today started early when I dropped my mom off at work at 6:45 am. Then I stopped by the house again to pick up my sister so we could go run a few errands while taking advantage of most stores' special shopping hours today. We didn't really 'shop' (i.e. get anything new), we just made a few exchanges, and mainly took my computer and ipod in for consultation/repair. They fixed the ipod in about 5 minutes free of charge, which I was pretty excited about since it is close to 3 years old, and that's pretty old in electronics years.

Our cousin Kelsey met up with us and we walked around looking at things for a while before we decided we were done. During this time there was also some tomfoolery in the J. Crew dressing room as her and Kerri tried on matching full-body pajama onesies - complete with butt flap for easy bathroom access - and had me take pictures. Then we called my grandparents:
"What are you guys doing for lunch?"
"Ham and cheese sandwiches. Wanna come over?"
"Yeah!"

So we did. Meals there are always 1) fun and 2) unpredictable. We had a solid conversation that basically revolved entirely around farting, which, to be honest, is a little odd to be laughing raucously about with your grandparents. After that, Kerri, Kelsey, and I helped Grandma set up this Christmas snow village diorama thing on the kitchen counter (it has really evolved over the years, and is now kind of a production to put together). We broke a few things, so I was on glue/repair duty. The afternoon ended with a rousing game of Rummikub, then we headed home even though Grandma wanted us to stay for dinner.

While we were hanging out there I remembered something completely unrelated that happened a few years ago. My mom was going to a Christmas party for people she worked with, and it was held at this quaint little country-themed shopping center that apparently also had some rooms available to rent for events/parties. She saw a group of people through a window and assumed it was her work group, so she walked in the door with snacks and bottle of wine in hand. But it wasn't her friends from work, it was an AA meeting. Oops. She left and went to the next room over.

Thanksgiving

What an original title.

Today was awesome! We woke up kind of late to a beautiful sunny morning. My brother's friend came over and he and my brother and sister and I sat around and ate cereal (and baklava I brought home from work last night...) and caught up on life. Then we decided to go out for a quick cup of coffee/tea before getting ready for the festivities of the day.

In the afternoon my siblings and I ate with my dad and his wife and his side of the extended family, then we went over to my uncle's house to celebrate with my mom's side of the family. I ate enough to kill a small horse, but it was worth it. After dinner we went down to my uncle's movie room and watched a documentary - I think it was maybe called The Endurance - about the Arctic expedition led by Ernest Shackleton. We had a good time.

A few weeks ago I was having dinner with some friends and the topic of holidays overseas came up. Someone asked me where we got our turkey last year and as I told them I realized it was kind of unusual. Our boss in Zagreb has some kind of underground turkey connection so he got this enormous bird and sent it to us (frozen, I think?) in a huge duffel bag via bus - unaccompanied by a human. It actually did not fit in our oven, so we went to the bakery down the street and tried to explain in very broken Croatian that there was this holiday and this big bird, and could we use their oven? Amazingly, they agreed. We stuffed and prepared it, then lugged it to it's fiery destiny, where it cooked in about 2 hours flat. The cooking time was probably sped up due to the fact that they had to kind of smash it/lay it open for it to fit in the narrow-but-wide bread oven, and we were just grateful that it worked. Carrying it back with all the juices threatening to pour out of the pan was quite a challenge, but definitely worth it.

I guess I am just grateful for two great (though drastically different) years of Thanksgiving in a row.

More From Last Night...

Kerri was telling us at dinner that her and her roommate were in class together and were learning about some graph called a leptokurtz (I don't think that spelling is right, this unhelpful definition of leptokurtic didn't get me too far). Anna, her roommate, passed her a note that said it sounded like a really bad STD which sent them both into giggling fits. As she relayed the story, we toyed around with it a little and assigned various meanings:

"Oh, you lecherous leptokurtz!"
"What is lecherous, again? Alexis, definition please."
"Lecher = dirty old man."

More conversation followed, but the high point was definitely when Tobin exclaimed, as Kerri slurped a spoonful of soup, "She's eating her leptokurds and whey!"

Sputtering followed.

Reunion

This afternoon my brother met me at work after taking a bus down from Bellingham, where he goes to school. We rode a different bus back home after I finished my duties for the day, and my sister Kerri picked us up at the closest 7-11 convenience store. The Josh Groban Christmas album was blasting at a volume prohibitive to conversation, but we tried anyway. Her hair was piled high in a messy bun/ponytail on the very top of her head, and I can't really describe her outfit, other than to say it was quite casual. She looked radiant and invigorated, so we asked, "Have you been cleaning or working out or something?"
"Oh no, I've been resting." And she said it all long and drawn out, relishing every phoneme. "Isn't this album just heavenly?!"

Our dog Sunny - whom Kerri had brought back with her from Spokane - was waiting at home to greet us, and mom was making soup in the kitchen. We got plates, utensils, etc. set out and began a nice family dinner. Things took an interesting(?) turn when my brother announced a new way he'd found to make money, which he is apparently considering (awkward): sperm donation. Apparently it's $200 a visit. "And you know how often you can go? Every 2 days!" Please, just stop talking. Now.

On an entirely different note, I saw that Francine (who is, incidentally, an excellent writer) had an essay published. I am at once quite jealous and very happy for her. Congratulations!

Confession

I went to bed about 20 minutes ago. It was good because I want to get up early tomorrow. But then, just moments before drifting off I remembered that I hadn't posted anything yet today. And for some reason, I made a stupid commitment (basically just to myself) to write something every day this month. Even if it's boring, even if it's pointless.

So here I am, wasting your time, just to get something up here so as not to let today be the day I fail to make it happen.

What to write, what to write... I had tomato soup for dinner. This morning I cleaned up cat barf for the 539th time - our cat has a lot of issues. Work was kind of lame today.

A little while ago I was on the phone and had to face my failures as a conversationalist, and now I feel the same way again. I am literally boring myself to the point of annoyance, so that must be a sign that it is time to stop. Very sorry you had to endure this. Let's hope I do better tomorrow.

Feeling Lazy

Today's post will take the form of a bullet-point list:

• My cousin Maria is pretty awesome. I attended her birthday dinner tonight and she had us all laughing pretty hard. She’s really into Hannah Montana these days. Which leads me to…
• Hannah Montana. What is up with all of that (show, CDs, movies, books, dress-up kits, etc.)?
• I went to my first Husky football game on Saturday. It was fun and I learned a lot about the game – plus they played well and won (only the 4th win of the season…).
• Arcade Fire puts on a very energetic live show. I saw them at the Sasquatch festival about 2.5 years ago – it was pure craziness. Then I watched them on Austin City Limits last night and was once again impressed by their general vigor. I think the quality/precision of the music suffered a little, but that’s what studio-recorded CDs are for, I guess.
• Thanksgiving is only days away! Where has the time gone? I am excited because I’ve been away for Thanksgiving and Christmas the past two years, and they are pretty important times to be together in my family, so it will be really nice to be here this time around.
• I’ve tried to learn how to play the guitar about 5 different times and keep neglecting it and having to re-learn everything. This week I am once again re-doubling my efforts and diving in full (or at least ½-¾) force.
• Our house smells like mildew and mustiness because of the wet carpets downstairs. Does this kind of thing go away, or are the carpets doomed?

Back To Our Regularly Scheduled Programming

So basically, on Thursday night as I was getting ready to go get the garbage and recycle cans, my mom remembered something of great import. I could tell because she suddenly ran back to her room shouting, "OH NO OH NO OH NO!!!" every step of the way.

In an effort to take a nice, leisurely bath, she had inadvertently left the water running and this had flooded her bathroom. She called for stacks of towels, which I dutifully brought, but the fun was only just beginning. The water had seeped - nay, streamed - down into the basement and flooded the kitchen, bathroom, and several other areas down there. Water damage = extensive. We spent the next few hours soaking, mopping, and vacuuming up water. A large tub of things from my room was drenched, this included photos, books, letters, papers. My brother's high school graduation pictures. My college diploma. Things like that. As we emptied buckets of water into the bathtub/sink/toilet, we were a little shocked to discover the condition of the toilet, since we never use the bathroom downstairs. Probably the sickest thing I've seen in I don't know how long. To the last person who used that bathroom: I offer my most sincere apologies. I am actually surprised that it hasn't biologically evolved enough to sprout legs, trudge upstairs, and eat us in our sleep. Pretty close, though.

Anyway, it was a not-fun night (let's just say there was a lot of freedom in the language/volume used to express our feelings) and currently the rented space heaters and fans are still hard at work trying to dry things out.

Experimental Guest Blogger Collaborative Effort

Once upon a time there was a girl named Alexis who lived her life under a single star. What the heck? Why would a girl focus all her attention on a single star? Well, it wasn't really about the star. It was more about the constellation it was in. Location, location, location. This particular constellation had a name which brought tears to her eyes. Hubert. Well that wasn't really the name of the constellation, but that was the name of the man who first showed it to her. Confused? Yeah, me too. But if you focus your attention on the stream of consciousness flowing from this blog you may discover truths which mankind has not yet appreciated.

Bear in mind that, though Hubert was not physically beautiful, his story was remarkable. He had one glass eye, a crooked nose, and amazingly silky blond hair. He had lost most of his motor skills - both gross and fine - in a freak fishing pole accident. Once Hubert realized that he could no longer engage in his favorite hobbies (model train building and playing jacks) he turned his attention to the heavens. As time progressed he made up his own names for all the stars and he began to see constellations which no one else had ever thought of. By the time he had become an old man he developed several stories based on the creatures in his constellations and the hero of these stories was a little girl which he named after his five year old neighbor, Alexis. He used to show Alexis his constellations every night and he promised her that someday they would come to life and reveal her destiny. The old man eventually died and Alexis was left with only his story to remember him by. As she grew up she suffered many of the hardships typical for a girl in her day and she often would stare at the constellation which the man had named after her, waiting for the day that it would stand up and reveal to her the purpose in life she longed to fulfill.

Then one day...

Shock and Awe.

Alternate titles:
-When It Rains, It Pours
-%#@$!&#%@!!!

So, you know how I wrote at the end of yesterday's post to come back and see what happened today? Shouldn't have done that.

The power was out when I woke up (a little late) this morning. Getting ready for the day by candlelight was a bit more fun than I expected, actually. Probably because it brought me back to my 'pioneer days' - the several years of my childhood that I spent desperately wishing I'd been born in a different century.

My mom very kindly and generously offered to drive me to work because it would be significantly faster than taking the bus in. Except that traffic was backed up for miles in all directions because of the traffic lights being out. Literally miles.

I brought my office-mates coffee so they didn't mind the tardiness as much, and my time at work personally was not too bad. Although the guy who put in his notice yesterday was rather swiftly fired this morning, which made things....more exciting around the office.
In the afternoon I had to do a drop-off/set-up kind of job, which is not something I normally do, so I was a little nervous. I've only done this twice before, and one was a total disaster - I'll really have to write about it sometime. But anyway, I was on track for success this afternoon when I walked over to get a truck and the craziest downpour ever started right then. It seriously looked like Armageddon. The wet version. And, no, I didn't wear a raincoat today.

15 minutes later I was in the loading dock and ready to get to my final destination to complete the mission. The security person told me that the freight elevator was out and I'd have to take the normal elevators. Not a problem, but I wasn't allowed to take the cart, and without the cart I would need to make 4 trips. Not good, but I could possibly make it if I hurried. Unfortunately, the floor I was going to is a secure floor and they needed to get access/permission/confirmation before sending me up. I tried to expedite things by calling my contact, but once she was on the line she couldn't hear me because cell phones don't work so well in concrete dungeons. Who knew? After consulting a few others, she decided to send me up in the mail elevator. Someone showed her the right key combo and secret handshake to unlock the mysteries of this magical gravity-defying box, but it just wouldn't work. Minutes ticked by, and it wouldn't open. She went to get more help and some random dude in a baseball cap walked by pushing a few boxes and said,
"You waiting for that one?"
Silent nod.
"Oh, that's not gonna work. It's in Perkins mode and there's no way it'll come down here."
"Okay, thanks."

What the heck is Perkins mode? For the love. Thankfully, not long after, another guy came and took me to a 4th bank of elevators that took me where I needed to go. The people upstairs were very nice and I even got everything done on time. Driving back to the office I heard a few songs on the radio that I really like, and I was pretty happy. I'd made it through the day with a few adventures, but no catastrophes.

I was getting ready to head out of the office for the day when I got a frantic call that so-and-so needed coat check tags NOW at the jewelry store downtown, so I agreed to run them over. I parked the big white truck in the alley between buildings and when I went back out to leave I faced a dilemma - the alley was too narrow to drive all the way through without hitting other vehicles parked along the side. But backing up into rush hour traffic in the dark, in the rain, in a large vehicle with severely limited visibility, with high pedestrian traffic was going to be dicey. And dicey it was, but it was the only option. Nobody was maimed or killed, and no property was damaged, so I think it counts as an outrageous success.

What was not an outrageous success was navigating the bus system from downtown Seattle to downtown Bellevue. After a long, wet, and frantic search for the correct bus stop and a slow, standing-room-only sweaty ride, I arrived about 45 minutes late to meet my friend Matt (in town from Portland) for dinner. We ended up going to this random, swanky pool bar in the shiny part of town. The place was huge, and there were a lot of private events going on but we eventually found a table. It was really more of a nook, or a station, but anyway... We had a good time talking, etc. and eventually it was time for me to go home and him to drive back to Oregon.

My mom and I talked a little about the day and then realized we were 15 minutes late for Grey's Anatomy. We watched for a few minutes and at the next commercial break jumped up to do a few quick chores. I was getting shoes on to go down and retrieve the garbage and recycle bins from the big road down the driveway when...

Unfortunately I'll have to finish telling you about the rest of tonight tomorrow. Sorry. More later.

Another Long-ish Day

It seems like each day is a new (and usually taxing) adventure. Today was definitely better than yesterday, although not without its share of drama. Someone fairly important at work turned in his resignation today, and it will be interesting to see how that plays out over the next few weeks.

I also said goodbye to my friend Ashley and her family as they are heading back to Russia tomorrow morning for an indefinite period of time. I will definitely miss them, but we're actually pretty good at saying goodbye and living far away from one another because it has been the norm for so much of our friendship.

It is impossible to predict what might happen tomorrow - tune in next time to find out!

Casual Bloggers Find Inspiration in the Dysfunctional Components of Daily Life

Alternate title: Everything Is Broken! Including the link that made up the entirety of yesterday's post!! Thanks for the heads up, Matt, it's fixed now.

But back to the matter at hand. Basically, I’ve found that the material I can glean for a great blog entry tends to be inversely proportional to how great things go on any given day. Like today.

When I got up this morning, I discovered that my iPod was dead. I thought it was charging all night, but instead it gave me the Mr. Yuck face picture and it refused to cooperate. So I decided to take a cd player along for the bus ride. It didn’t work for the first 10 minutes or so of trying, but eventually pulled together all its wits and agreed to spin the disc around and start playing music for a very grateful me.

When I got to work, I was reprimanded somewhat unexpectedly for going into overtime in recent weeks. I understand they’re on a tight budget these days, but the way it came out was kind of frustrating and I felt scolded and underappreciated. And I still wonder how I’m supposed to do 3 jobs in under 40 hours a week. My boss wasn't there today, though, so I'll have to talk it through another time.

Later in the morning, I headed out to jumpstart one of the vans because one of the employees accidentally left the lights on over the weekend and the battery was dead. I rallied Pablo (not his real name) to come help me out. At about 5’2” and somewhere between the ages of 24.5 and 38, he is one of the most reliable and all around good people I’ve ever worked with. So we got the van started and I got a few other chores done. About 15 minutes later I went out to put gas in the van and discovered it hadn’t held the charge. So we went through the whole thing again and re-jumped it. (Kind of a pain, since the parking lot is a few blocks from the office and we needed multiple sets of keys, including a key to a coworker’s trunk to borrow jumper cables.) As we were riding in a truck back to the office, Pablo looked deep into my soul, and as he told me how much he loved my blue-green eyes, the cab of the truck filled with the pungent aroma of dog poop. Yes, the dog poop that I had stepped in. The dog poop that was left at the base of the one and only tree in the parking lot, which happened to be growing directly in front of the hood of the van that we had just jump-started.

When we arrived at the office I proceeded to stomp and skid around in the grass trying to clean my shoe, then it was time to put gas in the third company vehicle: a nice, new, white truck. I drove to the station, and pumped the gas. I had a nice conversation with the attendant that I see there every week, and wondered silently at the news crew interviewing the driver of a milk delivery truck at the convenience store there. Slow day in regional news, I guess. As I got in the truck to pull away from the pump, I was pretty focused on the milk truck and interview participants stationed mere feet from my front right bumper (whom I did not want to run over), and failed to notice the concrete post to my left, which rose to a height several inches below what was readily visible in my left side mirror. The concrete post which was painted bright red – freshly painted 2 weeks ago. The post that dug deep into the side of the truck and left a screeching red gash in the white paint as I turned and pulled forward. Because I hit it. Hard.

I called my boss to tell him but he didn’t answer. Not the kind of thing you really want to leave a message about. But I called 3 more times over the course of the day and he still never answered. He’s going out of town this week to go hunting. Maybe he’s already gone? I don’t know. Wish me luck with that conversation, whenever it happens.

When I got home, I found my iPod still unresponsive after one last vain attempt at leave-it-plugged-in-all-day therapy.

To cap it all off, this morning, as I was leaving my room, on my way to leaving my house to go to work to begin this glorious day, I tripped over my computer charger cord, knocking my laptop off the table and onto the ground. Thankfully, it’s a Mac, so no big deal. [I realize that the brand is pretty much irrelevant here. I just like to think it means it’s better and more durable.] It’s happened before, and it was a low table with carpeted floor. Unfortunately, what I didn’t discover until tonight was that a piece from the end of the charger broke off and is in my computer, and the end of the charger is somewhat mangled and can’t be plugged back in. So I am writing this on literally the last remaining drops of battery energy before I have to take it somewhere at some point this week to hopefully get it fixed.

Show, Don't Tell: You purchased matching fursuits so that you could renew your vows as foxes.

How to Say I Love You by Paul Ford.

Bless You!

Tonight I had the privilege of seeing a friend from Rijeka who is in town. Sunny and I met up with Andrej and a couple he met earlier today. Andrej is a dreamer, a revolutionary with a lot of vision, passion, and perseverance, and he's also a very talented musician. It would have been so nice to see his wife and kids as well, but they didn't join him on this trip. We ate Mexican food and talked about missions and ideas and The State of Things in Croatia.

The wife of the couple sneezed a few times over the course of the evening, and after the second or third time, Andrej declared (clearly referring to her sneeze), "A hiccup [sic] is like a guitar solo: you can feel it coming on but you cannot do anything about it!!" This was accompanied by a vivid pantomime of a seemingly inevitable and irresistible guitar solo overtaking him.

From Now On Saturdays Will Be Special

I find it hard to believe that I never really knew what Austin City Limits was all about, or that I never watched it on TV. But now I know, and Saturday nights will never be the same. Tonight was supposed to be Arcade Fire (which would have been the most awesome) but instead it was Wilco, and I was not disappointed. Viva la Austin!

In The Upper Room

I went to the ballet tonight for the first time in quite awhile. The first piece, Agon, was okay, but not amazing. It has always seemed kind of sterile to me. I remain convinced that both Stravinsky and Balanchine were geniuses, and I appreciate the work on an intellectual level, but it didn't really move me.

The second section of the evening contained Kiss and Caught. The former involved two dancers in street clothing rigged up in harnesses hanging from the ceiling. It was unique in that sense, but seemed to play out its potential within its several-minute length. And I know those harnesses had to be painful. The best part of Caught was Olivier Wevers. He is beautiful, and can perform even the simplest movements in an exquisite manner.

The highlight of the evening, though, was most definitely Twyla Tharp's In the Upper Room, set to music by Philip Glass. I adored the music, and the choreography felt fresh, original, and engaging even though it was created over 20 years ago. In short, it reminded me of what I like about ballet.

Friends in Venezuela

If you have time/feel led to, please pray for Venezuela. I have some friends there right now, and there are some slightly-crazier-than-normal riots going on these days. More info here.

While I definitely am primarily concerned about the team's safety and the well being of the students there, I have to say that if the Merida team beats out the Rijeka STINT record of drama, I'm going to be pretty upset.

Fam Fest 2007

Tonight Ashley and I drove up to Fairhaven/Bellingham, along with her wee lad, to uphold an old tradition of ours. We visited her grandma, and had juice and a donut with my brother at a gas station. It was a good time, though we're pretty exhausted now. I used to think I was good with children, but the wailing papoose nearly did me in. Pictures to come later!

It Left A Bruise

Last night I was talking on the phone and was also, as is often the case when I am on the phone, puttering around the house doing random stuff. My winter coat was out and it takes up a lot of space, so I decided to put it in the hall closet instead of in my room, because my closet is about 3'X3' and only the bare essentials will fit. As I reached to place the hanger on the rod, something went awry and I experienced - simultaneously - a loud clattering, a sharp blow to the top of my head, and a peculiar darkness. A large-ish, oblong bucket had fallen off the upper shelf (along with a few other items) and landed upside-down on top of me. I think the not being able to see was the thing that threw me off the most, right at first.

This particular container is made of metal, and painted in the style of an American flag. It was given to me as part of a truly amazing good-bye gift (it came FILLED with cds, notes, postcards, gift certificates, and other treats) from my friends when I moved away from my home of 3 years in Richmond, VA. Aptly named the 'Keep-America-Rolling* Bin', it was a prime companion on the road trip back up to the Northwest.

*This was less than one year post-9/11 and everything from cell phone covers to toilet paper seemed to have a patriotic theme, encouraging you, personally, to play your part in healing the nation's wounds by fueling the economy and maintaining a Soaring Eagle Spirit, with an optional side of yellow ribbon fever.

Family Ties

My sister has taken a keen interest in genealogy over the last week (in addition to the whole real estate thing). In the name of research, she’s called a few family members to gather some info, and has come up with some pretty interesting stuff. On one side of the family, the family (last) name was changed a few generations back when a man married a divorced woman and took her name instead of keeping his. On the other side, we come from Tennessee – a wild clan of gangsters with a taste for moonshine. One of her friends recently found out that she was 1/32 African-American. We could be too! Or Asian. Who knows what we’ll find out.

Because of the whole Tennessee thing, Kerri made me look up Tennessee Williams on the internet. But the fact that his first name is Tennessee has very little to do with the actual state, so that was pretty much a dead end. I’ll keep you posted, though.

Things that have been said...

“Can you be sure to take my picture at some point today? As long as I’m looking decent for this funeral, I’d like to get something I can use for online dating.”

“As a father, I don’t think I could support my son becoming a professional figure skater.”

"...But before I can start my rock band, I really need to read some Nietzsche.”

“I don’t think I could marry a woman who looked like an ugly man.”

“When he whipped out the chapstick, I knew he was gonna go in for the kiss. I didn’t really like him all that much, but, I mean, we were on the ferris wheel looking out over Paris, and you can’t beat that for a first kiss, so I was okay with it.”

All but the last of these were said directly to me or to a group I was part of...

Majoring in Communication

It has been a pretty good and interesting day, and I had other things in mind to write about, but then this whole sequence unfolded before me, and it just made me laugh how much my family tends to get intertwined in one another's business - sometimes to disastrous result, but not this time.

Kerri: “Did mom turn her phone on yet?”
Me: “Um, I don’t know, it’s been weird today.”
Kerri: “What are you guys doing tomorrow?”
Me: “Well, mom and Parker are going out of town.”
Kerri: “What, like to a cabin or the woods or something?”
Me: “I don’t know, but they’re going to be gone for a few days.”
Kerri [sputtering]: “WHAT? Days!? So she doesn’t talk to me all day, and then disappears for days on end until I’m worried sick ”
Me: “Well, that’s why I’m here, to let you know what’s going on.”
Me [to Mom]: “She said she would’ve been worried sick.”
Mom: “Are you talking to Grandma?”
Me: “Kerri.”
Mom: Rolls eyes and walks away, picking up the phone to call Grandma.

Kerri: “Define ‘soliloquy’ for me.”
Me: “Okay, uh...(faltering definition given)…why do you ask?”
Kerri: “Oh, that word’s just been stuck in my head all day.”

Kerri: “Did mom get my text yet?”
Me: “Not sure, hey Mom, did you get Kerri’s text yet?”
Mom: “I don't think so, let me check… (long pause, checking, reading). Huh. I can’t answer that right now.”
Me: “What did you write?”
Kerri: “I asked her what she thought about me becoming a real estate agent.”
Me: “Oh.”
Kerri: “When I was texting Tobin today I asked him, and he replied with a long pause, so I wrote, ‘What the heck does that mean?’ and he wrote back, ‘We support all of your neuroses, Kerri’ What's that supposed to mean? But anyway, Anna and I are going to move to L.A. with Mike and we’ll built some capital, then start flipping houses and Kelsey (cousin) will be in on it because she’s majoring in construction management, and Mike will do all the interior design.”
Me: “Sounds like a great plan.” Because, really, what else is there to say?

Mom walks by, talking to my brother on the phone. Kerri overhears a bit and says, “I feel like I’m there!”

I hang up with Kerri, Mom tells Tobin he can talk to me now:

We sort through a few short matters of business.
Tobin: “Hey, what do you think about me moving back to Seattle and us living together?”
Me: “I could support that, wait, do you mean you and I or you and Annie [his sometimes-girlfriend].”
Tobin: “You.”
Me: “Oh, yeah, that would be great.”
Tobin: “Wait, when does Kerri graduate?”
Me: “Yeah, we could all live together!”
Tobin: “Not at mom’s, of course.”
Me: “Well, unless she hasn’t sold the house yet.”
Tobin: “Why don’t we all just move into Seattle together?”
Me: “Yeah, let’s do it. And Kerri can find us a deal since she’ll be in real estate.”
Tobin: “Ok, sure. But did you ever think about why they call them real estate ‘agents’ and not real estate ‘workers’?”

I know there's no real point to any of this, but sometimes the simplicity and immediacy of just recording reality appeals to me, so I went with it.

Obsession

So my sister gave me this puzzle to solve today:

send
+ more
money

The letters should line up evenly so it looks like the sum of two 4-digit numbers. Each letter corresponds with a numerical digit, and letters that are the same indicate numbers that are the same. Can you find the numbers that correspond with the letters? Good luck. Oh yeah, one hint: m = 1.

As soon as she gave it to me, I hesitantly tried a few combinations and before I knew it I was completely sucked in. I nearly destroyed the baby shower invitation I found lying on my bedside table and quickly appropriated as scratch paper. Once I solved it, though, the relief and satisfaction was worth it all.

My sister's roommate's dad made this up and has apparently come up with a whole book of them. I say, please, no more! Have mercy.

New beginning? We'll see.

I don't have a lot to say today, other than that I hope to be doing more writing and posting than I have been recently. A lot is happening, but it's hard to find time to write it all out.

Work and life in general are going a bit more smoothly than they were. The silence you've endured since my last dramatic post a few weeks back was not (surprisingly enough) an indication that I'd reached my limit and thrown myself into the proverbial abyss. Rather, I just needed some more time to focus on the basics.

At this point I wouldn't say I've gotten myself together and my life in order, but at least things are headed in that direction.

And now, for something completely different: This makes me laugh so, so hard every time I read it.* And this isn't half bad, either.

*Warning for the faint of heart: These are admittedly a tad harsh.