i have my morning routine. it's not terribly unusual - shower, put the tea kettle on, move my computer to the kitchen table and turn on npr, steep the tea, find some cereal/granola, consume all together while catching up on news/blogs. rita's not generally here when i get up, or she's still asleep. it's lovely.
is it strange that the messing up of this schedule in my dream last night upset me so much? that i found myself sitting on the curb outside because it didn't work? the dream was odd enough as it was - rita and i were sharing two apartments in arcata, one that only had one bedroom, so i was sleeping at another apartment where we only had use of the bedroom. that was what messed up the morning schedule. all my things were at the shared apartment on the hsu side of the freeway, but waking up at the other, which was near the plaza, sent me for a loop. and then nancy diamond showed up to ask me about dorae's harp lessons and jody showed up to get me to help corral the children in teh back yard to avoid the floating surfboards and keep them away from the giant strawberries. overall, terribly disconcerting. and, throughout the dream, i kept thinking that had i had my tea, granola, and npr, it would have all been fine.
speaking of npr, i still listen to my hometown station rather than the chicago station, whenever possible. obviously, morning edition happens two hours later there than here, meaning when i wake up at 9, i can still catch most of the show. it's perfect. i also get to hear the community calendar and long for my small town joys... annual plant sale, concerts, craft fairs... somehow i'll find that community sense wherever i end up. i hope.
Happy Spring!
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Monday, March 17, 2008
consuming
well, if insomnia does one thing, it is let me read more. let's review the highlights of the past few months...
a wonderful twist on the boarding school bildungsroman/mystery. Blue's father is a wandering professor who agrees that for her final year of high school, perhaps they should stay in one town for the entire year. Blue finds herself in the sway of the film teacher, Hannah Schnieder, and the clique of startling misfits she has gathered around her... only to have Hannah mysteriously commit suicide, opening up a whole new perspective on Blue's life. Liberally sprinkled with quotations for authors real and fictional, illustrated by Blue, and deliciously quirky and twisted.
A very pretty webpage for the book...
A few things by Ann Patchett
An attempt to kidnap the president of a poor, unnamed Andean country from a birthday party for a prospective Japanese investor goes awry when the president is not in attendance, home instead with his soap opera. Forced into quick decisions, the rebels/terrorists take the entire party, including the opera star who drew them all there, hostage. Romance blooms across languages and backgrounds as they all tumble into a prolonged period of suspended animation. I had read this before and been disappointed by the ending... still was, to a degree, but less so. Maybe it just required knowing the characters a little better.
and
this time we're in boston, following the lives of an ex-mayor, his run-away biological son and the two brothers he later adopted, and the family they never knew they had. wound through with politics, science, history, and poetry - father had wanted them all to be president and had them memorize important speeches as children - Run is about race and passions and responsibility. it's also a wonderful portrait of boston, which i miss.
Ann Patchett's writing leaves me breathless. occasionally crossing into magical realism, she is poignant and fast paced, and i can never put her books down. She has such an obvious love of the world around her and an amazing eye/ear/touch for sensory and emotional detail...
also, this, which i enjoyed so much more than the movie
various children's books (robin mckinley, harry potter)
and
which i did not like so much, though i pushed through and finished it... her V.I. Warshawski mysteries are fun, but this was just a little too strange, polarized and upsetting... there were no shades of gray in this book, which i always find unsettling. despite taking me to parts of chicago i have yet to explore, i was not terribly fond of it...
now reading
which i'm enjoying tremendously, though i don't know that it will be the best pre-bedtime book....
and looking forward to spring break when i can spend much time curled up in my aunt's home/on the plane/in my bed with new ones... recommendations welcome!
a wonderful twist on the boarding school bildungsroman/mystery. Blue's father is a wandering professor who agrees that for her final year of high school, perhaps they should stay in one town for the entire year. Blue finds herself in the sway of the film teacher, Hannah Schnieder, and the clique of startling misfits she has gathered around her... only to have Hannah mysteriously commit suicide, opening up a whole new perspective on Blue's life. Liberally sprinkled with quotations for authors real and fictional, illustrated by Blue, and deliciously quirky and twisted.
A very pretty webpage for the book...
A few things by Ann Patchett
An attempt to kidnap the president of a poor, unnamed Andean country from a birthday party for a prospective Japanese investor goes awry when the president is not in attendance, home instead with his soap opera. Forced into quick decisions, the rebels/terrorists take the entire party, including the opera star who drew them all there, hostage. Romance blooms across languages and backgrounds as they all tumble into a prolonged period of suspended animation. I had read this before and been disappointed by the ending... still was, to a degree, but less so. Maybe it just required knowing the characters a little better.
and
this time we're in boston, following the lives of an ex-mayor, his run-away biological son and the two brothers he later adopted, and the family they never knew they had. wound through with politics, science, history, and poetry - father had wanted them all to be president and had them memorize important speeches as children - Run is about race and passions and responsibility. it's also a wonderful portrait of boston, which i miss.
Ann Patchett's writing leaves me breathless. occasionally crossing into magical realism, she is poignant and fast paced, and i can never put her books down. She has such an obvious love of the world around her and an amazing eye/ear/touch for sensory and emotional detail...
also, this, which i enjoyed so much more than the movie
various children's books (robin mckinley, harry potter)
and
which i did not like so much, though i pushed through and finished it... her V.I. Warshawski mysteries are fun, but this was just a little too strange, polarized and upsetting... there were no shades of gray in this book, which i always find unsettling. despite taking me to parts of chicago i have yet to explore, i was not terribly fond of it...
now reading
which i'm enjoying tremendously, though i don't know that it will be the best pre-bedtime book....and looking forward to spring break when i can spend much time curled up in my aunt's home/on the plane/in my bed with new ones... recommendations welcome!
Friday, March 14, 2008
Happy 20th Annual Pi Day!
I just love that it happens to coincide with Albert Einstein's birthday.... how convenient! For a very silly way to calculate pi: hotdogs!
Magnetic Fields tonight!
Thursday, March 13, 2008
up and down, round and round
the bag finally showed up yesterday!
it is wonderfully pocketful and sturdy and covered in birds. large enough that this morning i piled all my gym stuff (shoes included) into one of the side zip pockets, my computer in the center pocket, all my normal stuff in teh other side pocket, and still had room for a yogurt, a book, and my water bottle. then decided it looked very much like a diaper bag with all that crap in it and that i'd want to come home and eat something before going to the gym, so dumped gym goodies on the couch, went to the library, and filled it with books instead. hurrah! twill be perfect for planes. less than two weeks til new orleans!
horrendous dream last night... it's one i've had before involving demon rollercoaster thing combined with threatening/mocking/occasionally sympathetic banshees and life and death decisions that require immense amounts of energy and soul sucking/body decay when the wrong choice is made/not enough umph is put into the choice. really, that's the best i can describe it. my life and the lives of my friends are in my hands and i have to get a rollercoaster through the some sort of hell pit with sheer willpower. it's an incredibly draining dream and probably at least partially responsible for exhaustion today.
it is wonderfully pocketful and sturdy and covered in birds. large enough that this morning i piled all my gym stuff (shoes included) into one of the side zip pockets, my computer in the center pocket, all my normal stuff in teh other side pocket, and still had room for a yogurt, a book, and my water bottle. then decided it looked very much like a diaper bag with all that crap in it and that i'd want to come home and eat something before going to the gym, so dumped gym goodies on the couch, went to the library, and filled it with books instead. hurrah! twill be perfect for planes. less than two weeks til new orleans!
horrendous dream last night... it's one i've had before involving demon rollercoaster thing combined with threatening/mocking/occasionally sympathetic banshees and life and death decisions that require immense amounts of energy and soul sucking/body decay when the wrong choice is made/not enough umph is put into the choice. really, that's the best i can describe it. my life and the lives of my friends are in my hands and i have to get a rollercoaster through the some sort of hell pit with sheer willpower. it's an incredibly draining dream and probably at least partially responsible for exhaustion today.
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
you my love, you my friend
totally late on this one but still must mention.... lily allen. big fan. being the soundtrack to the paper that is eating my life.
so the first one's a little creepy....
and just skip the intro bit... i do like the music more than the videos... anyways, adorable quirky upbeat and snarky enough to keep me sane
want to know how cool and important my paper is? tarzan went to guatemala in the 1930s. my thesis is totally legitimate. if tarzan did it, everyone did it.
and dain said i'm on my way to "a very fine paper." only comments were that my conclusion was a bit weak and that i might consider looking at this other angle on things in the future... because i might find it interesting but no need to put it here. i am cool and very relieved, though i would have appreciated a bit more guidance.
if i had a boyfriend like jackie's i would be ginormously overweight. incredible chowder tonight pre-top chef accompanied by half a bottle of red wine. jackie drank the other half. i'm glad she's here. otherwise, i would be a sad chickadee.
so the first one's a little creepy....
and just skip the intro bit... i do like the music more than the videos... anyways, adorable quirky upbeat and snarky enough to keep me sane
want to know how cool and important my paper is? tarzan went to guatemala in the 1930s. my thesis is totally legitimate. if tarzan did it, everyone did it.
and dain said i'm on my way to "a very fine paper." only comments were that my conclusion was a bit weak and that i might consider looking at this other angle on things in the future... because i might find it interesting but no need to put it here. i am cool and very relieved, though i would have appreciated a bit more guidance.
if i had a boyfriend like jackie's i would be ginormously overweight. incredible chowder tonight pre-top chef accompanied by half a bottle of red wine. jackie drank the other half. i'm glad she's here. otherwise, i would be a sad chickadee.
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
giggles and struggles
can't quite remember where i found these, probably at agirlandaboy though things have been popping up simultaneously on the blogs i read and in my inbox these past few days (most recently garfieldminusgarfield.tumblr.com)
barack obama is your new bicycle
and
hillary is mom jeans
just brilliant.
aside from that, insomnia continues, followed by unintentional napping. today the napping was so necessary that after inadvertently falling asleep on my couch, i had a dream about inadvertently falling asleep on my couch. go subconscious. we're so in sync.
mauricio was not quite as terrifying this morning as expected. i was better prepared, he gave me a ton of stuff, but i was able to sort out what was relevant and what was not and thus come out less depressed than last time. i feel bad ignoring half of what he said, especially as he's one of my graders, but he hasn't read anything i have and doesn't totally get my project. so hopefully it'll be fine.
rooting for obama on this end of things. come on texas. msnbc makes good background noise while i finish up some of my reading. gobama. obamanation. obamaniac. its just so much more fun to pun with!
barack obama is your new bicycle
and
hillary is mom jeans
just brilliant.
aside from that, insomnia continues, followed by unintentional napping. today the napping was so necessary that after inadvertently falling asleep on my couch, i had a dream about inadvertently falling asleep on my couch. go subconscious. we're so in sync.
mauricio was not quite as terrifying this morning as expected. i was better prepared, he gave me a ton of stuff, but i was able to sort out what was relevant and what was not and thus come out less depressed than last time. i feel bad ignoring half of what he said, especially as he's one of my graders, but he hasn't read anything i have and doesn't totally get my project. so hopefully it'll be fine.
rooting for obama on this end of things. come on texas. msnbc makes good background noise while i finish up some of my reading. gobama. obamanation. obamaniac. its just so much more fun to pun with!
Monday, March 3, 2008
recapalooza
to steal from bloggingprojectrungay's terminology.... figuring i should probably commemorate my move into what one of my friends termed "my real twenties" last thursday.
23! wahoo! marks me a probably out of college, might have a real job, no questions about still being excited to be 21... i don't know, i'd been accidentally telling people i was 23 for a couple months now, wishfully trying to push myself beyond the feelings of inexperience and unpreparedness that were overwhelming me. actually turning 23 has only helped marginally.
to celebrate we went to aria, a delicious, mod, american fusion restaurant right downtown with wonderful drinks, decent service, and a lovely naan starter. despite some bill confusion that we're still trying to work out - we all came home to an additional 20% deducted from our accounts - it was all in all an incredibly pleasing evening out, which we will repeat soon, if perhaps somewhere a little less expensive. we are grad students.
see all that modishness?
beautiful beet and goat cheese salad and a cucumber pomegranate mojito
the frenchest arroz con pollo any of us had ever seen
and the best birthday present ever:
from my college friends, an edible arrangement! rp and i reveled in the strawberries and pineapple kookiness all weekend before finally admitting it wasn't all going to be consumed before it died and sticking the remaining fruit in the freezer for another day. mid-winter strawberries. amazing.
23! wahoo! marks me a probably out of college, might have a real job, no questions about still being excited to be 21... i don't know, i'd been accidentally telling people i was 23 for a couple months now, wishfully trying to push myself beyond the feelings of inexperience and unpreparedness that were overwhelming me. actually turning 23 has only helped marginally.
to celebrate we went to aria, a delicious, mod, american fusion restaurant right downtown with wonderful drinks, decent service, and a lovely naan starter. despite some bill confusion that we're still trying to work out - we all came home to an additional 20% deducted from our accounts - it was all in all an incredibly pleasing evening out, which we will repeat soon, if perhaps somewhere a little less expensive. we are grad students.
see all that modishness?
beautiful beet and goat cheese salad and a cucumber pomegranate mojito
the frenchest arroz con pollo any of us had ever seen
and the best birthday present ever:
from my college friends, an edible arrangement! rp and i reveled in the strawberries and pineapple kookiness all weekend before finally admitting it wasn't all going to be consumed before it died and sticking the remaining fruit in the freezer for another day. mid-winter strawberries. amazing.
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