Okay guys,
I smell like gasoline, there are two cats haunting me outside my house, I've lost my voice, my Droid is not functional, my garage door is hanging slanted in front of my house, I haven't had wheat or sugar in two weeks, and tomorrow I start a multi-vitamin regiment that includes 10 different pills at nearly every meal... Oi.
What else could go wrong?
Goodnight, dear void.
Tuesday, May 3, 2011
Saturday, April 9, 2011
My Hair
Have you ever had those days when your hair just demands to be done?
When you step out of the shower and look in the mirror and you just can't do anything else BUT blow dry, straighten, and style your hair?
And then, once you're styled and looking gorgeous, you look back into the mirror and your hair demands that you wear something rockin'- probably with a heel - because you're just too brilliantly beautiful to go out in a boring 'everyday' outfit?
If you haven't you need a new hair cut, hair style, or hair color... perhaps all three.
If you read this, look in the mirror and expect your hair to speak verbally to you... you may want to seek professional help... this is a figurative "speaking" of your hair to your soul. And more than your hair it's mostly your beauty demanding to be exposed and shown off because it's tired of being hidden beneath your less-than-optimistic attitude.
My beauty 'speaks' (again figurative) to me via my hair because my hair is best friends with both my beauty and my soul, so it has the easiest time reminding my soul of my beauty.
It is possible that your beauty may 'speak' (figuratively) to you through different means - not everyone's beauty is best friends with their hair. Therefore it behooves you to spend a moment discovering what it is that is best friends with your soul and your beauty so as to be able to better understand it when it begins to 'speak' to you.
I find it necessary as well to point out that it is not requisite for every person in the world to put on a heel. For instance, there have been times when I have looked in the mirror and my beauty has demanded that I go to the gym to remind my soul that it is indeed friends with the gym. And in that case, the heel turned into a tennis shoe, so please don't get too hung up on high heels.
As well, men, you can still achieve this moment of dashing handsomeness - have no fear! This experience is by no means only important for women. Men of the world also need to be reminded that they are ruggedly handsome. In your case, don't be afraid to look in the mirror and say, "Yup. I still go 'it'."
That being said, every once in a while I find it important to spend some extra time on my hair and subsequently on my outfit for the day so when I step outside my beauty and my soul have rekindled their best friendship and every step I take is a strikingly beautiful one.
I firmly believe that everyone deserves to revel in this experience at least once.
Once a month that is.
If you find yourself struggling with hearing your beauty or struggling to see beauty at all - drop me a line. You ARE beautiful and/or dashing, as the case may be.
Next time you look in mirror, you may want to put your - figurative - listening ears on and take a good long listen to your beauty, it's probably time for a little showcasing.
I have a strange feeling that 'you still got it'.
I know I do.
Goodnight, dear void.
As a p.s.
I would just like to add here:
More often than not the days when my hair demands to be done and my beauty demands a showcasing are the very same days when it is gloomy, rainy, or snowy outside.
There have been several times that I have taken one strikingly beautiful step outside only to have my hair and outfit laughed at by the weather.
It is important to not be defeated by the weather's mocking chortle. While your beauty has expressed itself on that particular occasion through your hair and clothes, if either or both are to be tested by the wind and precipitation, remember that the showcase is nothing but a showcase - your beauty is ever present and even more tangible when you've been rained on and blown to bits.
The showcase is more for your than for anyone of the outsiders you may see surrounding you. Don't give in. Keep that glorious feeling - your 'I've still got it' feeling - with you with every step of the way. Who you are and the beauty you portray and bring to the table has not been destroyed even if your hair has gone flat and your wispies have gone wild. Your steps still show that stunning human being you saw earlier in the mirror. Keep that image with you and forget what the day may bring to your hair or other aspects of your ensemble. The confidence gained from your exercise in bridging the gap between your soul and your beauty will make all the difference.
Trust me.
I do this all the time.
Beauty is not defined ultimately by clothes or hair.
It may be hard to remind myself of this at times, but I nonetheless believe that it is true. I am beautiful beyond my hair and colorful wardrobe. And so are you.
As was once wisely expressed, "You're never fully dressed without a smile".
Take your smile to heart and remember that if your smile is the only thing that has lasted the whole day through, so your true beauty has too.
When you step out of the shower and look in the mirror and you just can't do anything else BUT blow dry, straighten, and style your hair?
And then, once you're styled and looking gorgeous, you look back into the mirror and your hair demands that you wear something rockin'- probably with a heel - because you're just too brilliantly beautiful to go out in a boring 'everyday' outfit?
If you haven't you need a new hair cut, hair style, or hair color... perhaps all three.
If you read this, look in the mirror and expect your hair to speak verbally to you... you may want to seek professional help... this is a figurative "speaking" of your hair to your soul. And more than your hair it's mostly your beauty demanding to be exposed and shown off because it's tired of being hidden beneath your less-than-optimistic attitude.
My beauty 'speaks' (again figurative) to me via my hair because my hair is best friends with both my beauty and my soul, so it has the easiest time reminding my soul of my beauty.
It is possible that your beauty may 'speak' (figuratively) to you through different means - not everyone's beauty is best friends with their hair. Therefore it behooves you to spend a moment discovering what it is that is best friends with your soul and your beauty so as to be able to better understand it when it begins to 'speak' to you.
I find it necessary as well to point out that it is not requisite for every person in the world to put on a heel. For instance, there have been times when I have looked in the mirror and my beauty has demanded that I go to the gym to remind my soul that it is indeed friends with the gym. And in that case, the heel turned into a tennis shoe, so please don't get too hung up on high heels.
As well, men, you can still achieve this moment of dashing handsomeness - have no fear! This experience is by no means only important for women. Men of the world also need to be reminded that they are ruggedly handsome. In your case, don't be afraid to look in the mirror and say, "Yup. I still go 'it'."
That being said, every once in a while I find it important to spend some extra time on my hair and subsequently on my outfit for the day so when I step outside my beauty and my soul have rekindled their best friendship and every step I take is a strikingly beautiful one.
I firmly believe that everyone deserves to revel in this experience at least once.
Once a month that is.
If you find yourself struggling with hearing your beauty or struggling to see beauty at all - drop me a line. You ARE beautiful and/or dashing, as the case may be.
Next time you look in mirror, you may want to put your - figurative - listening ears on and take a good long listen to your beauty, it's probably time for a little showcasing.
I have a strange feeling that 'you still got it'.
I know I do.
Goodnight, dear void.
As a p.s.
I would just like to add here:
More often than not the days when my hair demands to be done and my beauty demands a showcasing are the very same days when it is gloomy, rainy, or snowy outside.
There have been several times that I have taken one strikingly beautiful step outside only to have my hair and outfit laughed at by the weather.
It is important to not be defeated by the weather's mocking chortle. While your beauty has expressed itself on that particular occasion through your hair and clothes, if either or both are to be tested by the wind and precipitation, remember that the showcase is nothing but a showcase - your beauty is ever present and even more tangible when you've been rained on and blown to bits.
The showcase is more for your than for anyone of the outsiders you may see surrounding you. Don't give in. Keep that glorious feeling - your 'I've still got it' feeling - with you with every step of the way. Who you are and the beauty you portray and bring to the table has not been destroyed even if your hair has gone flat and your wispies have gone wild. Your steps still show that stunning human being you saw earlier in the mirror. Keep that image with you and forget what the day may bring to your hair or other aspects of your ensemble. The confidence gained from your exercise in bridging the gap between your soul and your beauty will make all the difference.
Trust me.
I do this all the time.
Beauty is not defined ultimately by clothes or hair.
It may be hard to remind myself of this at times, but I nonetheless believe that it is true. I am beautiful beyond my hair and colorful wardrobe. And so are you.
As was once wisely expressed, "You're never fully dressed without a smile".
Take your smile to heart and remember that if your smile is the only thing that has lasted the whole day through, so your true beauty has too.
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Oh My Goodness! THE PIES!
I FORGOT ABOUT THE PIES!
Whoosh! Splat! Squish! Laughter!!!!!!
The hardest part about doing 19 before 19 or 20 before 20 and this year's 21 before 21 is that I'm intrinsically such an overachiever that I inevitably do more than just 19 or 20 or 21 new and different things in one year.
And this year I did something so fun and so cool that it blew all the lists out of the water so I suppose I'm putting on a different list - an epic list. As Jenni said afterwards, "This is the best idea [I've] ever had!!!!"
What did we do you may be asking? What was so colossal, so monumental, so epic that I gave it its own blog post???
We
Had
A
PIE FIGHT!
AND IT WAS AWESOME!
One night I was watching television with Mari (I'm pretty sure it was a Mari night at least) and saw someone squish a pie in another person's face and a light when on in my mind. A light that went off in a part of my brain that has not been lit so brightly in quite some time. And I thought, "Why have I not done that?" So it had to be done.
With Jenni leaving for the MTC any day and me turning 21 at the end of the month we all understood the urgency of such an epiphany - so we acted... fast.
Monday 10 January 2011:Pie Fight Day
On my way home from school I stopped and bought 1 Oreo Creme Pie, 1 Banana Creme Pie, and 1 Lemon Meringue Pie. I smiled in my soul the whole way home.
We decided that we would squish the pies in each other's faces first to be sure that we did in fact hit our intended targets. So we all chose a pie and lined up to be splattered.
First up the Banana Creme pie, Me to be splattered, Ryan to do the splattering, and Jenni to record all things splatter.
I don't know if you've ever had a pie splattered in your face, but it's a little nerve wracking the first time around. Standing there waiting for the release is so intense and exhilarating because you have absolutely no concept of what to expect. Will it hurt? Will she miss? Will it be cold? Will it be lame? So many questions being hurled around in your mind as you stand waiting for the pie to be hurled having no idea what to think about or if you should duck because you've never just stood still while a giant object is chucked at your face before so you don't know what the standard protocol is but then again its a pie so therefore WHOOSH! SPLAT! SQUISH! LAUGHTER!!!!!!!!!
And it was done.
You laugh first because you don't know what else to do because honestly your mind hasn't fully had time to process what just happened. Then you laugh because your nose is filled to the brim with banana creme pie and you can't smell anything but pie and you certainly can't breathe properly at all. I couldn't see either because my glasses had been squished into the pie so tightly that when Ryan took the pie off my face, my glasses stayed with the pie. Haha. I spent the next several minutes pretending my fingers were glass shield wipers. Note to self and all other pie throwers alike, take off all glasses, jewelery, and any other removable items that may be affected by pie saturation - I may or may not have found left over pie on my glasses for the better part of that next week...
Next up the Oreo Creme Pie, Jenni to be splattered, Me to do the splattering, and Ryan to record all things splatter. WHOOSH! SPLAT! SQUISH! LAUGHTER!
I slammed Jenni's pie into her face... hard. I remember being pretty worried about missing her face - even if it was right in front of me. Nope, I was spot on!
And then the Lemon Meringue Pie, Ryan to be splattered, Jenni to do the splattering, and Me to record all things splatter. WOOSH! SPLat?....laughter....??
It didn't work. We were all laughing but there was hardly any meringue on Ryan's face and there certainly wasn't any pie to be found anywhere like the other pies. So we tried again. Jenni splattered the pie and gave it a good squish on Ryan's face to try to produce the desired effects - nothing. So disappointing. Note to future pie throwers - Meringue pies are not throwing or splattering pies - avoid at all costs.
So we sat down to have a bit of the pies we'd just conquered only to realize that they were the grossest pies I'd ever eaten. Disgusting. Good thing we hadn't wasted anything delicious. If anything we took those pies from awful to epic in one WHOOSH and completely fulfilled and succeed the little potential they had - they should say thank you.
Off to Macy's (without a star) to buy more pie and buy whipped creme to refill and reuse the other pies. This time we bought really delicious pies and didn't eat them... hmmm we'll work on that next time around.
On our way through the check out line the checker took one look at us (as if we'd taken time to clean up all the pie on us...mine was mostly concentrated in my hair) and asked, slightly concerned, if "that" had happened in the store. We laughed and assured him that we'd thrown no pies in his store and that he did not need to send Bob to clean up isle 6. Relief was visible on his face.
Back home we HAHA! Oh my gosh I forgot about this part! SO FUNNY! Sorry, back home we got geared up for Pieing Ryan take two. The pies we'd bought were in a freezer of sorts but we didn't think they could be too frozen...
We were wrong. Haha! And when Jenni went to splatter our friend, Ryan, you could hear it smack his nose!And I'm pretty sure he was laughing out of shock and possibly out of a little pain. We all thought that his nose might bleed. Turns out Macy's means business when they put there pies in a freezer of sorts... Haha! SO FUNNY!
What did we do next?!
To the oven we went to hopefully melt some of the frozen out of the pies so we could throw them. By this point we could see that pie splattering was quite the messy business so we decided for space and for mess that throwing pies was the business of the back porch.
If you could imagine the nerves involved in having someone right in front of you squish a pie in your face, you might be able to imagine the infinitely more abundant nerves involved in having someone stand several feet away from you and launching a pie at your face while you stand stationary. (If you couldn't imagine the first set of nerves, please don't try to imagine this second set - we don't need anyone getting hurt)
It was terrifying. I had no idea if it would hurt or maul me or eat me on contact or miss me completely. Plus, it was freezing outside so I was shaking already. WHOOSH! SPLAT! SQUISH!...
LAUGHTER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
If you have ever thought that maybe, just maybe, you should buy some pies and do some splattering - DO IT!
If you regret it, you didn't do it right. Come find me and I'll show you how it's done!
Goodnight, dear void.
Whoosh! Splat! Squish! Laughter!!!!!!
The hardest part about doing 19 before 19 or 20 before 20 and this year's 21 before 21 is that I'm intrinsically such an overachiever that I inevitably do more than just 19 or 20 or 21 new and different things in one year.
And this year I did something so fun and so cool that it blew all the lists out of the water so I suppose I'm putting on a different list - an epic list. As Jenni said afterwards, "This is the best idea [I've] ever had!!!!"
What did we do you may be asking? What was so colossal, so monumental, so epic that I gave it its own blog post???
We
Had
A
PIE FIGHT!
AND IT WAS AWESOME!
One night I was watching television with Mari (I'm pretty sure it was a Mari night at least) and saw someone squish a pie in another person's face and a light when on in my mind. A light that went off in a part of my brain that has not been lit so brightly in quite some time. And I thought, "Why have I not done that?" So it had to be done.
With Jenni leaving for the MTC any day and me turning 21 at the end of the month we all understood the urgency of such an epiphany - so we acted... fast.
Monday 10 January 2011:Pie Fight Day
On my way home from school I stopped and bought 1 Oreo Creme Pie, 1 Banana Creme Pie, and 1 Lemon Meringue Pie. I smiled in my soul the whole way home.
We decided that we would squish the pies in each other's faces first to be sure that we did in fact hit our intended targets. So we all chose a pie and lined up to be splattered.
First up the Banana Creme pie, Me to be splattered, Ryan to do the splattering, and Jenni to record all things splatter.
I don't know if you've ever had a pie splattered in your face, but it's a little nerve wracking the first time around. Standing there waiting for the release is so intense and exhilarating because you have absolutely no concept of what to expect. Will it hurt? Will she miss? Will it be cold? Will it be lame? So many questions being hurled around in your mind as you stand waiting for the pie to be hurled having no idea what to think about or if you should duck because you've never just stood still while a giant object is chucked at your face before so you don't know what the standard protocol is but then again its a pie so therefore WHOOSH! SPLAT! SQUISH! LAUGHTER!!!!!!!!!
And it was done.
You laugh first because you don't know what else to do because honestly your mind hasn't fully had time to process what just happened. Then you laugh because your nose is filled to the brim with banana creme pie and you can't smell anything but pie and you certainly can't breathe properly at all. I couldn't see either because my glasses had been squished into the pie so tightly that when Ryan took the pie off my face, my glasses stayed with the pie. Haha. I spent the next several minutes pretending my fingers were glass shield wipers. Note to self and all other pie throwers alike, take off all glasses, jewelery, and any other removable items that may be affected by pie saturation - I may or may not have found left over pie on my glasses for the better part of that next week...
Next up the Oreo Creme Pie, Jenni to be splattered, Me to do the splattering, and Ryan to record all things splatter. WHOOSH! SPLAT! SQUISH! LAUGHTER!
I slammed Jenni's pie into her face... hard. I remember being pretty worried about missing her face - even if it was right in front of me. Nope, I was spot on!
And then the Lemon Meringue Pie, Ryan to be splattered, Jenni to do the splattering, and Me to record all things splatter. WOOSH! SPLat?....laughter....??
It didn't work. We were all laughing but there was hardly any meringue on Ryan's face and there certainly wasn't any pie to be found anywhere like the other pies. So we tried again. Jenni splattered the pie and gave it a good squish on Ryan's face to try to produce the desired effects - nothing. So disappointing. Note to future pie throwers - Meringue pies are not throwing or splattering pies - avoid at all costs.
So we sat down to have a bit of the pies we'd just conquered only to realize that they were the grossest pies I'd ever eaten. Disgusting. Good thing we hadn't wasted anything delicious. If anything we took those pies from awful to epic in one WHOOSH and completely fulfilled and succeed the little potential they had - they should say thank you.
Off to Macy's (without a star) to buy more pie and buy whipped creme to refill and reuse the other pies. This time we bought really delicious pies and didn't eat them... hmmm we'll work on that next time around.
On our way through the check out line the checker took one look at us (as if we'd taken time to clean up all the pie on us...mine was mostly concentrated in my hair) and asked, slightly concerned, if "that" had happened in the store. We laughed and assured him that we'd thrown no pies in his store and that he did not need to send Bob to clean up isle 6. Relief was visible on his face.
Back home we HAHA! Oh my gosh I forgot about this part! SO FUNNY! Sorry, back home we got geared up for Pieing Ryan take two. The pies we'd bought were in a freezer of sorts but we didn't think they could be too frozen...
We were wrong. Haha! And when Jenni went to splatter our friend, Ryan, you could hear it smack his nose!And I'm pretty sure he was laughing out of shock and possibly out of a little pain. We all thought that his nose might bleed. Turns out Macy's means business when they put there pies in a freezer of sorts... Haha! SO FUNNY!
What did we do next?!
To the oven we went to hopefully melt some of the frozen out of the pies so we could throw them. By this point we could see that pie splattering was quite the messy business so we decided for space and for mess that throwing pies was the business of the back porch.
If you could imagine the nerves involved in having someone right in front of you squish a pie in your face, you might be able to imagine the infinitely more abundant nerves involved in having someone stand several feet away from you and launching a pie at your face while you stand stationary. (If you couldn't imagine the first set of nerves, please don't try to imagine this second set - we don't need anyone getting hurt)
It was terrifying. I had no idea if it would hurt or maul me or eat me on contact or miss me completely. Plus, it was freezing outside so I was shaking already. WHOOSH! SPLAT! SQUISH!...
LAUGHTER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
If you have ever thought that maybe, just maybe, you should buy some pies and do some splattering - DO IT!
If you regret it, you didn't do it right. Come find me and I'll show you how it's done!
Goodnight, dear void.
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
She was
A spy. He was a spy. How could she have missed that? Had he mentioned it and she'd just forgotten that little piece of information? How was that possible? If he was a Russian spy... what did that make her?
The police sirens were all around her now. She thought she was just being paranoid after her first two subways trains had been swarming with police. She'd gotten off and chosen others. He'd told her to meet him at 7:00 on their normal street corner.
How had she gotten here in the first place? She was in love with not only a Russian spy but a married Russian spy. So many compromises she'd made in the moment when they hadn't seemed to matter now came rushing to the forefront of her mind.
It seemed like every corner she turned now had at least one police officer waiting. Why were they there? Did they know what she was carrying? Were they looking for her and her Russian spy?
When he had first started calling her Trixie she had thought it a cute pet name. When the instructions in the manilla envelope were addressed to Trixie she finally started putting the pieces together. She was a Russian spy... and an American working for the Criminal Justice Department. Again she wondered how she had arrived at such a place. How did she get tangled in all of this? A year ago such a fantastic scenario would only have had a place in the movie cinemas on in one of her books from the library and yet now she was the one carrying the manilla folder with documents in it and she was the one dodging police every chance she could.
Finally. He saw her out of the corner of his eye. What had taken her so long? Two policemen were crossing the street looking like they had a purpose. Play it cool. Trixie was here and she had the folder. And besides cops always look like they have a purpose when they know nothing. After all Trixie had been passing him information for almost a year now and no one suspected in the least.
When he'd first been asked to get to know her he hadn't expected her to fall in love with him and for him to have feelings in return. It had made it that much harder to rope her into all of this. That was his job so that was what was done.
As she approached he could see the panic and the fear coursing through her body. She wasn't the spy type- which is exactly what made her the perfect spy.
He was relieved to know that this was the last thing they would ask from her. After tonight she could decide what she wanted to do-she could call the shots for once.
Was it just him or did there seem to be more police on this corner than normal? Strange. There must be a drug bust going on somewhere down the street.
He turned and reached his arm out to her...
The police sirens were all around her now. She thought she was just being paranoid after her first two subways trains had been swarming with police. She'd gotten off and chosen others. He'd told her to meet him at 7:00 on their normal street corner.
How had she gotten here in the first place? She was in love with not only a Russian spy but a married Russian spy. So many compromises she'd made in the moment when they hadn't seemed to matter now came rushing to the forefront of her mind.
It seemed like every corner she turned now had at least one police officer waiting. Why were they there? Did they know what she was carrying? Were they looking for her and her Russian spy?
When he had first started calling her Trixie she had thought it a cute pet name. When the instructions in the manilla envelope were addressed to Trixie she finally started putting the pieces together. She was a Russian spy... and an American working for the Criminal Justice Department. Again she wondered how she had arrived at such a place. How did she get tangled in all of this? A year ago such a fantastic scenario would only have had a place in the movie cinemas on in one of her books from the library and yet now she was the one carrying the manilla folder with documents in it and she was the one dodging police every chance she could.
Finally. He saw her out of the corner of his eye. What had taken her so long? Two policemen were crossing the street looking like they had a purpose. Play it cool. Trixie was here and she had the folder. And besides cops always look like they have a purpose when they know nothing. After all Trixie had been passing him information for almost a year now and no one suspected in the least.
When he'd first been asked to get to know her he hadn't expected her to fall in love with him and for him to have feelings in return. It had made it that much harder to rope her into all of this. That was his job so that was what was done.
As she approached he could see the panic and the fear coursing through her body. She wasn't the spy type- which is exactly what made her the perfect spy.
He was relieved to know that this was the last thing they would ask from her. After tonight she could decide what she wanted to do-she could call the shots for once.
Was it just him or did there seem to be more police on this corner than normal? Strange. There must be a drug bust going on somewhere down the street.
He turned and reached his arm out to her...
Monday, March 21, 2011
If I Should Have A Daughter
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I love this.
On a Bus Adventure
I had a friend once.
He opened my eyes to a world I'd never seen
or felt or experienced before.
To a world of words that were saved
for rainy days and sunny days-
Words that could change the moment you were in
and create an entirely different moment in an instant.
He showed me that for every season
there is a poem-
That for every memory there are lines
that can be recited from memory which
solidify and enhance that memory.
He showed me that if you didn't know the way back home,
there was a poem that could take you there.
I remember one day on a bus adventure,
he recited poetry the whole way to and the whole way from.
And those poems stuck with me.
So did his world.
Goodnight, dear void.
I love this.
On a Bus Adventure
I had a friend once.
He opened my eyes to a world I'd never seen
or felt or experienced before.
To a world of words that were saved
for rainy days and sunny days-
Words that could change the moment you were in
and create an entirely different moment in an instant.
He showed me that for every season
there is a poem-
That for every memory there are lines
that can be recited from memory which
solidify and enhance that memory.
He showed me that if you didn't know the way back home,
there was a poem that could take you there.
I remember one day on a bus adventure,
he recited poetry the whole way to and the whole way from.
And those poems stuck with me.
So did his world.
Goodnight, dear void.
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Let the Blogger inside you out!
Woof!
It has been entirely too long since I invested some loving in the void space that is my blog.
I just found some posts I printed out for one of my missionaries from back in August and was sad that I have neglected sharing my thoughts as of late. I have been so caught up in my own life and in feeling sorry for myself that I have committed a grievous sin-blog neglect.
My dear friend, Sarah, once warned me of this sin and admonished me never commit such a crime by losing sight of my blogging duties. I'm sorry to say that I have not heeded her advice and in doing so have let my thoughts go to the wayside and my soul to go unexpressed. What a waste!
I am here to rectify this situation and to repent!!
I moved into my parent's summer condo this past fall and just barely got around to decorating my room yesterday - a bit pathetic to have let it go so long but hey a much need up-do is a much needed up-do no matter how long it's been needed...
As I began making a giant collage on my wall I noticed myself dividing my life into several pieces and clumping memories from those pieces together to form definitive phases or sections in my life.
For instance, there was a section for Illinois and memories and people from that time in my life, a section for Hong Kong, a section for the Corner House and associated years, and a section for my boys and different walls for my family and Jenni.
My boys are in the middle taking up a large portion of space. They are a giant part of my life as I write to at least one of them (if not more or all of them) once a week and have written them fairly consistently for almost 2 years now. Hong Kong to their left and Illinois to their right. Which leaves the far right for the Corner House.
On an entirely different wall (next to my bed) is the space for my family and the wall across from my bed for Jenni.
As I thought about it I wondered what Freud would say. Laughing at this thought and chucking at the overlap between my personal and academic lives these days I realized that the collage I had made absentmindedly was actually an almost perfect representation of me. I seldom enjoy when my lives overlap or mix. For the most part I enjoy their separateness-me being the only link between them all.
However, as in real life, there are a few overlaps which strangely enough are represented in the collage.
All of my boys are from Hong Kong (represented by their space following the space for Hong Kong) except one - Jordan Johnson who is from my Illinois life which flows and overlaps slightly with my boys' section.
Jenni existed in the Corner House from time to time and consequently has a few pieces in that section. Along with Kaylee who was there for a year with me as well. That section is almost entirely separate from anything else. Hardly touching Illinois if it touches at all. True enough in reality as the Corner House world has no significant overlap into other parts of my life- people sometimes overlapped into it but not the other way around.
Jenni and my family are the most important parts of my life at this moment and clearly show themselves to be so as they demanded in my subconscious to have their own walls-allowing them to overlap somewhat in the overall collage but also allowing for the space they truly hold in my life.
It will be interesting to see how this collage continues to grow and take shape. I wonder if it will continue to show the inner workings of me and my life in a practical manner.
If not, it was at least an interesting exercise in Freudian theory.
Goodnight, dear void.
It has been entirely too long since I invested some loving in the void space that is my blog.
I just found some posts I printed out for one of my missionaries from back in August and was sad that I have neglected sharing my thoughts as of late. I have been so caught up in my own life and in feeling sorry for myself that I have committed a grievous sin-blog neglect.
My dear friend, Sarah, once warned me of this sin and admonished me never commit such a crime by losing sight of my blogging duties. I'm sorry to say that I have not heeded her advice and in doing so have let my thoughts go to the wayside and my soul to go unexpressed. What a waste!
I am here to rectify this situation and to repent!!
I moved into my parent's summer condo this past fall and just barely got around to decorating my room yesterday - a bit pathetic to have let it go so long but hey a much need up-do is a much needed up-do no matter how long it's been needed...
As I began making a giant collage on my wall I noticed myself dividing my life into several pieces and clumping memories from those pieces together to form definitive phases or sections in my life.
For instance, there was a section for Illinois and memories and people from that time in my life, a section for Hong Kong, a section for the Corner House and associated years, and a section for my boys and different walls for my family and Jenni.
My boys are in the middle taking up a large portion of space. They are a giant part of my life as I write to at least one of them (if not more or all of them) once a week and have written them fairly consistently for almost 2 years now. Hong Kong to their left and Illinois to their right. Which leaves the far right for the Corner House.
On an entirely different wall (next to my bed) is the space for my family and the wall across from my bed for Jenni.
As I thought about it I wondered what Freud would say. Laughing at this thought and chucking at the overlap between my personal and academic lives these days I realized that the collage I had made absentmindedly was actually an almost perfect representation of me. I seldom enjoy when my lives overlap or mix. For the most part I enjoy their separateness-me being the only link between them all.
However, as in real life, there are a few overlaps which strangely enough are represented in the collage.
All of my boys are from Hong Kong (represented by their space following the space for Hong Kong) except one - Jordan Johnson who is from my Illinois life which flows and overlaps slightly with my boys' section.
Jenni existed in the Corner House from time to time and consequently has a few pieces in that section. Along with Kaylee who was there for a year with me as well. That section is almost entirely separate from anything else. Hardly touching Illinois if it touches at all. True enough in reality as the Corner House world has no significant overlap into other parts of my life- people sometimes overlapped into it but not the other way around.
Jenni and my family are the most important parts of my life at this moment and clearly show themselves to be so as they demanded in my subconscious to have their own walls-allowing them to overlap somewhat in the overall collage but also allowing for the space they truly hold in my life.
It will be interesting to see how this collage continues to grow and take shape. I wonder if it will continue to show the inner workings of me and my life in a practical manner.
If not, it was at least an interesting exercise in Freudian theory.
Goodnight, dear void.
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Seasons of Love
Five hundred twenty-five thousand
Six hundred minutes,
Five hundred twenty-five thousand
Moments so dear.
Five hundred twenty-five thousand
Six hundred minutes
How do you measure, measure a year?
In daylights, in sunsets, in midnights
In cups of coffee
In inches, in miles, in laughter, in strife.
In five hundred twenty-five thousand
Six hundred minutes
How do you measure
A year in the life?
Seasons of love.
Five hundred twenty-five thousand
Six hundred minutes!
Five hundred twenty-five thousand
Journeys to plan.
Five hundred twenty-five thousand
Six hundred minutes
How do you measure the life
Of a woman or a man?
In truths that she learned,
Or in times that he cried.
In bridges he burned,
Or the way that she died.
It's time now to sing out,
Tho' the story never ends
Let's celebrate
Remember a year in the life of a friend.
It's that time of year again to think about the year gone by and to report on the adventures takes and experiences had.
This year there was much less anxiety about getting older-although the anxiety is ever present in one form or another-mostly because this year felt like an eternity. So much has happened in the last 365 days that it felt time to move on to bigger and better 21 things. This whole month it has very much been a Lion King "it's time" atmosphere. Life is always about moving on. There is a beautiful song called Move On written by Stephen Sondhiem for Sunday in the Park with George which expresses this sentiment in exactness. If you don't move on, what do you have? Life is empty without growth and development.
I feel like I've learned a lot this year about life-about me. Life isn't always a walk in the park. Sometimes it's hard and there are many times you feel like giving up and throwing in the towel. But then where would you be? It's the hard times that make the easy times easy. If it was all cake there would be no one to eat the brownies or the ice cream? We need a well-balanced diet of chaos and peace-of happiness and sorrow.
Enough chatter, here's what you all came for.... the crazies...
21 before 21
1. Snuck cake into the theater and frosted it during the previews
2. Visited Starbucks headquarters
3. Climbed the bluff by the Larsen residence
4. Went shopping at Pike Place Market
5. Bleached my hair
6. Had my "energy" (palm) read
7. Shattered my rear view mirror on Mexico's garbage can
8. French prayers
9. Owed the IRS
10. Took Latin
11. Climbed Dixie Rock and ripped my pants
12. Read a trashy dollar store novel - Lust's Betrayal
13. Had my car booted twice in one week
14. Obtained red Wrap-around Toms boots
15. Bought a fun flask
16. Went skeet shooting
17. Beat Angry Birds
18. Built a snowman in St. George
19. Ate kiwi with the skin on
20. Dyed my hair "black"
21. Ate pizza with M&Ms (sick)
Along with so many more fun and exciting things accomplished and shared this past year.
I did a bang up job being 20 and feel fully ready to tackle being 21.
Words of new found wisdom:
Life is short.
Make each day worthwhile in whatever way possible.
Have fun now.
Laugh while you work.
Love with all your heart.
Tell people what they mean to you.
Make family a priority.
Goodnight, dear void.
Six hundred minutes,
Five hundred twenty-five thousand
Moments so dear.
Five hundred twenty-five thousand
Six hundred minutes
How do you measure, measure a year?
In daylights, in sunsets, in midnights
In cups of coffee
In inches, in miles, in laughter, in strife.
In five hundred twenty-five thousand
Six hundred minutes
How do you measure
A year in the life?
Seasons of love.
Five hundred twenty-five thousand
Six hundred minutes!
Five hundred twenty-five thousand
Journeys to plan.
Five hundred twenty-five thousand
Six hundred minutes
How do you measure the life
Of a woman or a man?
In truths that she learned,
Or in times that he cried.
In bridges he burned,
Or the way that she died.
It's time now to sing out,
Tho' the story never ends
Let's celebrate
Remember a year in the life of a friend.
It's that time of year again to think about the year gone by and to report on the adventures takes and experiences had.
This year there was much less anxiety about getting older-although the anxiety is ever present in one form or another-mostly because this year felt like an eternity. So much has happened in the last 365 days that it felt time to move on to bigger and better 21 things. This whole month it has very much been a Lion King "it's time" atmosphere. Life is always about moving on. There is a beautiful song called Move On written by Stephen Sondhiem for Sunday in the Park with George which expresses this sentiment in exactness. If you don't move on, what do you have? Life is empty without growth and development.
I feel like I've learned a lot this year about life-about me. Life isn't always a walk in the park. Sometimes it's hard and there are many times you feel like giving up and throwing in the towel. But then where would you be? It's the hard times that make the easy times easy. If it was all cake there would be no one to eat the brownies or the ice cream? We need a well-balanced diet of chaos and peace-of happiness and sorrow.
Enough chatter, here's what you all came for.... the crazies...
21 before 21
1. Snuck cake into the theater and frosted it during the previews
2. Visited Starbucks headquarters
3. Climbed the bluff by the Larsen residence
4. Went shopping at Pike Place Market
5. Bleached my hair
6. Had my "energy" (palm) read
7. Shattered my rear view mirror on Mexico's garbage can
8. French prayers
9. Owed the IRS
10. Took Latin
11. Climbed Dixie Rock and ripped my pants
12. Read a trashy dollar store novel - Lust's Betrayal
13. Had my car booted twice in one week
14. Obtained red Wrap-around Toms boots
15. Bought a fun flask
16. Went skeet shooting
17. Beat Angry Birds
18. Built a snowman in St. George
19. Ate kiwi with the skin on
20. Dyed my hair "black"
21. Ate pizza with M&Ms (sick)
Along with so many more fun and exciting things accomplished and shared this past year.
I did a bang up job being 20 and feel fully ready to tackle being 21.
Words of new found wisdom:
Life is short.
Make each day worthwhile in whatever way possible.
Have fun now.
Laugh while you work.
Love with all your heart.
Tell people what they mean to you.
Make family a priority.
Goodnight, dear void.
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