Thursday, December 21, 2006

i heard a record and it opened my eyes

do you know what today is?
today is the winter solstice. it is also a new moon. now, you might be saying, "what in the hoo-ha is happy about so much darkness and coldness?" and you'd be absolutely right. it is difficult to be happy at times like these, and that is why we have Christmas in the winter: to make us happy.
but children, you must look at the bigger picture.
today is happy because it is the shortest day of the year. that means from now until june the days just get longer and more sunny and eventually warmer. the moon is now waxing instead of waning and all hope returns.

plus. i got to go to lunch AND shopping with rennie and we made the totally awesomest EVER rhinestone rat.
(ask, but not now.)

and ice cream. chocolate ice cream is always a happy thing. mmmmm. i'm happy just remembering the ice cream.

goodnight!!!

Wednesday, December 20, 2006

she sticks up for you when you get aggravation from the snobs

that's right, i have frequent conversations with fashion.

Wednesday, December 13, 2006

this is not a love song

today might be the best day ever. (and by today i mean the 24 hour period from 3pm yesterday to 3pm today)

it didn't start out great, it never does. i was about to go to work. i was talking to scott and being mad at myself for not having used the day productively to write my final paper due the next day. i told him that all i really wanted in my life was some warm, baked, tasty treats.

(no lie. look:


ichat says it looked like this: )

but it was almost time to go to work.
i picked up shannon at her house. and guess what shannon was carrying! a tray FULL of baked goods. she had cream cheese bars, and delicious pumpkin bread and brownies (even though she's off chocolate til christmas) AND she had a christmas mug of holiday funness just for me!!

so teaching ended up not being so bad.

i came home, and i still had to write that paper. so i sat down in front of my computer. and did nothing. finally i started re-reading my books. i wasn't feeling great, and i decided i needed to be pulled out of my funk.
i didn't really sleep all night. i finally took out my contacts, but i was reading intermittently until my alarm went off at 6:30. you can't argue with that so i got up and started writing my paper. by 11:15 i had 5/7 pages done and more to say.
rennie is like the best ever and even though i was supposed to take her out to eat she brought me veggie pizza from the pie. we ate and chatted and she read my paper and then i got back to work. i finished before 3. i took it up to straley's office, (linds' was on the top of the pile. i love roommate/classmates!!!!), waved to katie register, and got back to my car before i got a ticket. i was home and ready to go before shannon called.
when she did call it was to say she was running late and would that be ok? ok? it was great. i got to finish snacking and bask in my completedness for like a whole 'nother 10 minutes. AND i found this little piece of awesomeness. (wait a minute... no. it can't be! wait... it is!! rednama flowers is singing christmas carols!)
then we went to work and here i am.

why was this the best day ever? not a clue. but that's how i feel. plus, even if the paper ain't that great, at least it's done, long enough and moderately coherent. not bad for no sleep and one day.

3 down, 2 to go.

yes. i suppose i do keep track of my life based on my random chats with whomever i can sucker into listening to me. do you have a problem with that?

Wednesday, December 06, 2006

happy days for happy people

in an international survey of happy people, happy moments this week most often occurred within the family.
happiness also included gingerbread, teasing, portuguese praise, rock climbing, chocolate and free tickets.

i had some happy fun times of my own at the birthday party for my "mommola". lots of good treats and old fashioned late night homeworking with the sibs.

and i taught my first cello lesson in a long time. that always makes me happy.

today angel, who came to inquire about english classes, asked if i was from spain.

i like being asked that question.
the obvious reason is that somehow, somewhere there is a native speaker of spanish mistaking me for a native speaker of spanish. but more than that, i like being asked that question because it reminds me that i did, in fact, go to spain.

going to spain is not the kind of thing you should forget. and, really, i don't forget. (keren ann, anyone?) it's just always been such a surreal thing. i can't really explain it, but sometimes, especially right after i got home and nothing was different, i found myself wondering if i hadn't gone and i had just been making it up in my head.
strange, but true.

anyway, when people ask where i learned spanish, i always say, "here." then they ask if i've ever lived anywhere else and i force myself to remember that i lived in spain for six weeks. "but," i say as a disclaimer for my poor spanish, "i didn't really learn anything there. i was always with americans."

well, i guess i did learn something after all: just the tiniest bit of an accent.

Sunday, December 03, 2006

"your hair is very nineteen-thirties today."

that's what my british next-door neighbor said to me at church today. she said it just like that. as if it were written out. i was rather flattered.

Wednesday, November 29, 2006

waxing gibbous 68% of full

hi.
it's pretty outside.
i saw rennie this morning and got invited to a pajama party. but not by rennie. rennie and i are going to lunch on friday. after i turn in my paper. and then i'm going to a chocolate party.
doesn't that sound heavenly?


snow is mostly fun for staying inside and sleeping with lots of blankets and hot chocolate.

kel says: http://cheeseonrye.blogspot.com/2006/11/its-marshmallow-world.html

and i say, goodnight.
(72% of full)

Sunday, November 26, 2006

you are invited.



guess what! on Vimeo
i love parties!

and my sister. thanks for guesting on the invite, jen.

Thursday, November 16, 2006

, but what if they like it?

today i was happy cause my hair was in a ponytail for the first time in well over a year. and it didn't fall out.
(of course, it was the ugliest stub of a thing as you've ever seen and it took 8-10 bobbypins to even make it look like my hair was pulled back much less actually keep it in place.)

i made it to school, which meant i got to hang out with the lovely linds moff. i don't think i failed the quiz afterall and i took a nice little nap to planet of the apes.

i got to talk to joey, which is always a bright spot in my day.

i carpooled with shannon to work, which means i didn't have to be alone at all.
my classes were fine but the best part was that right at the end of class rennie came in to pick up a check and answer some questions for shannon and GIVE ME A $1 SUNDAE!!! so that was fun.

rennie and j.j. and shannon and i just sat outside the classroom chatting for way too long and it was great fun. it's nice to work with nice people.

Friday, November 10, 2006

the death of a beautiful woman

i keep staying up too late.
today was happy because i got my exam back and she said it was "perfect".
i went to all my classes and ate lunch with the jen.
this might sound like a bad thing to those who aren't in the know, but jenny gave herself a new nickname: a little sack of reject. i promise you it's funny.

then i got to see scott. it's such a rare occasion that i thought i shouldn't go to bed without documenting it.
we talked to shannon for a bit and then made our way to the alumni house for the walter benn michaels lecture.
it was very interesting. i liked it lots.
and scott got to improve his friendship with bess, which is very important.
scott also probably secured his future of becoming walter benn michaels...if a little better dressed.

goodnight!!

Wednesday, November 08, 2006

moondance

i'm sorry, i can't help myself.
i think this month is one of the moon's best. i love the moon. i always have, i always will. but you know how sometimes when he gets old he kind of just fades aways quietly? and other times he gets a little crotchety? and other times he just seems to disappear in a flash and not come back again til he's practically full again and you miss both waxing and waning?

this month i keep being amazed.
tonight he was playing in the clouds again. not so much out of timidity as out of a cleverness. every time i looked at him he was just peeking out from behind a cloud so that i could hardly tell if he wasn't full. it was artfully done.

on the way to greenland

three words:

watermelon in november.

Tuesday, November 07, 2006

what we know as buildings

first of all, if the moon was shy on sunday night, he made up for it last night.
he shed all his clouds and inhibitions, let go of the mountains and stood shining, unashamed in all his glory as the sky went from dusky blue to deep black. it's true, as val said, he wasn't as beautiful as he had been, but he made up for it with his confidence. he used the gauzy clouds to his advantage and wore his age well.

second of all, the sunshine is still hot enough to warp a wayward cd case in my car. and to make the dandelions blossom. i like dandelions. i think they're adorable. and they're so free with granting wishes.

third of all, today was not really the best day for happy times, but in other ways it was excellent for happy times. i took the day off. i shouldn't have, but i did. i got up at 7, got to school by 8:30 and had my paper done by 11:30. too bad classes started at 9:10 and the paper was due at 10:45. oh well. just to even things up i skipped my last class and wrote the test for work. it paid off, the students are now taking the test and i have at least started planet of the apes. i mention this little lapse in judgment because it occasioned a number of unusual events. 1- i studied on the first floor of the lib. 2- i used the mac lab in the mbh and it actually printed when i asked it to. 3- i hung out in the lnco (it didn't used to be unusual, but it is lately) 4- i sat in on a class about propaganda. 4- i saw michael colson. 6- i saw katie register and walked her to class. and 5- i got busted by the professor of my first class. "at least now i know you're alive today." oops. but she smiled as she walked away.

fourth of all, i got to eat lunch in tandem with linds. she came home flaunting her thai food so i just had to call in an order of my own.

fifth of all, i got to skip out of work early to vote. that's just the kind of responsible citizen i am.

sixth of all, i got free frosty coupons from my mum. very fun.

and now i'm going to bed.

Monday, November 06, 2006

phone'll jingle, door'll knock: open the latch...

do you like fall?
i like fall.
i always find myself arguing the seasons with people who love fall. i agree with them and tell them that fall is good, but spring is better because while fall just gets colder and colder until it gets swallowed up by winter, spring gets warmer and warmer until it bursts into summer.

they keep arguing, thinking i've said i hate fall. but i don't hate fall. in fact, i love fall.

sometimes i add that i almost hate fall in utah because winter is such a bully. the snow doesn't like to wait it's turn and just pushes the less assertive seasons (spring and fall) around. but the very unassuming nature of the transitional seasons is what makes them great. so much more exciting, you never know what you're going to get each day. spring is hopeful and fall is anticipatory. i love the smokey smell and the crunkly leaves. it's like right before a thunderstorm and you know something's coming soon. it's great for walking. and also for scarves. you always feel like you're walking in a movie. which is terribly allison romantic.

on friday i watched the two most grown up people i know run through an enormous pile of leaves kicking up their feet like irish dancers.
and i thought to myself, thank goodness it's november and it's still fall.

now, winter has it's moments and one of those is Christmas. i like a good heavy snowfall that begins just as we walk out of our thanksgiving movie. snow is romantic until january. after that it just gets old. you need snow. i don't think i'd like a southern hemisphere Christmas. and you need opposition so you can really appreciate warmth and life when it comes back in spring, but once you hit february, things really need to start warming up. i grew up with st. patrick's day being an outside shorts and picnic kind of holiday. but i'm getting off topic so i'll leave my seasonal moralizing for a more appropriate place.

the moon has been beautiful. have you noticed? saturday was amazing. simply amazing. it literally took my breath away. and last night he was coyly climbing up behind the mountains and then played hide-and-seek in the clouds, but came out to walk me to my door.

today was a beautiful fall day. the morning was just crisp enough to make my scarf no longer frivolous, but not too cold for living. the clouds over the mountains as the sun rose were beautiful and as i closed my eyes and waited for the train, i could almost feel warm.
the walk home was equally comfortable temperature-wise and i'm sitting by the front door of my office without even a jacket watching the sun set.

as usual, i find myself without a proper conclusion. but then, maybe it's only just out of reach...

(you can't tell, but i'm singing.)

Sunday, November 05, 2006

it's a great idea

my friend suggested to me that thinking positively was a good thing.
i like lists. i make them lots.
i like to make lists of things that make me laugh throughout the week.

and, if we're lucky, we may hear from said friend every now and again.

today:
bagels in the morning. (even though we didn't actually go, it was nice.)
my mom bought a personal library kit and matching "rock on" t-shirts
$2 t-shirts
mintnight snack at coldstone
my dad and i winterized the garden, but mostly my dad
my mom wore a rockin-awesome, hip-out-your-mind outfit to the birthday dinner (coordinated by me: cold-turkey t-shirt, jeans, jen's gola shoes and my orange corduroy jacket.)
i got to see al and esther and emma
i got to see the paul taylor dance company (rather fun, to say the least)
i got to see vivian and becky and erin. i got to meet ben.
i got to see joanna newsom live. AMAZING!
i got to make new friends with an old acquaintance. (or at least try)
i saw jen suflita!!! (it has been ages since i slept in her bed in my sister's dorm room while she was off hiking in the mountains)
i got to talk to my brothers-in-law on the internet
i got to eat my third meal from lunch with the ever enchanting rennie (but that was yesterday... yesterday was fun too.)

goodnight, children.

Friday, September 29, 2006

something like a phenomenon

today was a day for nice people.
my list says "email chica (over an hour)" i can't for the life of me remember what that means, but i'm sure it was WAY nice since it inspired starting the list.
rennie called me out of the blue. her nannying got cancelled so she sweetly offered to come with me to ppfh and help work on the URAED. so i decided to be nice in return and drive her to her farewell work dinner.
as i was leaving the library such a nice lady was so helpful and door holding for everyone. i was tickled pink and smiled like anything.
as i walked down the stairs by the dance building, an old man was walking up with a younger man helping him. the old man was saying, "the white knight is passing me by..." i don't know what it meant, but i enjoyed hearing at least that snippet.
then as i walked past the field house two girls smiled at me. and then one of them, looking a little sheepish, said, "you are so classy looking." i wholeheartedly returned the compliment as i had been eyeing her shoes for quite some time. i don't think my feet touched the ground again for at least an hour.
then in the tunnel i heard "what kind of magician needs two assistants?" again, i think sans context is the meat and drink of carefree happy laughing.
then as i waited for the train to come...to a complete stop, the friendly driver waved and smiled to all of us on the platform. this niceness seemed quite contagious as the nice man next to me broke the barrier of train riding silence to tell me he thought it was neat that the driver would wave.
our work dinner was wonderful-o-rama (live music on the weekends at el paisa grill. plus the gas out there is the super cheap!) and j.j. almost danced for us in the parking lot.
then to finish off such a lovely day we didn't watch the movie cause we were having too much fun camera dancing.

suerte, all.