so that's why the grocery store was so crowded...

woke up to a winter wonderland this morning. after sweeping snow off my car, was only eight minutes behind as i headed up our not-so-intimidating parking lot hill. turns out, with all this snow it becomes impassable for a corolla ;) so now i'm waiting for a 4WD ride, or until they plow, whichever comes first. so far, 4 of my 22 made it to work. or 23, counting me! they even delayed tech a few hours, which in my experience, has been rare. anyway, going to go sit on the couch, watch the snow fall, and enjoy another cup of coffee.
can this be considered march coming in as a lion?

i love my dictionary and my dictionary loves me

i had to look up two words from the poem below, so why not share?
'insouciance' is blithe unconcern and 'susurrus' is a soft whisper.
see? now don't you feel smarter? now i'm off to the grocery as we've eaten everything in the apartment. cassie even got up this morning and had a bowl of rice i had cooked for cleo (who's still sick, but getting better). happy sunday ;)

'A Life' by Michael Blumenthal

So you grew older just like everyone else
and the questions loomed
with their easy, alternating answers of yes and no
and then their reconsiderations,
promising us a false simplicity
like a flock of sparrows at dusk,
and you were there,
in the fragrant osciallating light
of the good, the noble, the daemonic,
and the simply inexplicable
that might have passed, in lesser hands,
for a kind of confusion,
but you saw it for what it really was:
the clarity of conflicting clarities,
the sorting out that led to no perfect solutions,
and so you merely contented yourself
with the here-today-gone-tomorrow certainties
you hoped would lead to the right choices
(or choices you could later define as right):
the bright, loudly proclaimed insouciance
of the jay, or the scent of lemons,
though you knew in the end
that you would always return,
like a shoe in love with its foot,
to the same luminous starting point
of mixed feelings, the susurrus
of your one body mumbling and cussing
from its nest of desires, that old tune
of the profane and the sacred,
the noble and daemonic,
the unanswerable singing.

yaaaaaaaawn.

wow i'm tired. that part of my brain that's supposed to send me home at a reasonable hour didn't kick in last night. ah well, a few more hours at work, then home to take a nap. in the meantime, i should really clean my desk- can hardly find it beneath the papers and notebooks and backlogs and various office supplies. would probably make me feel more productive, besides, i'm not setting a very good example ;)
did anyone notice it's almost march? are you kidding me? i can't believe it. now if only it would get warmer...

poetry deluge

so 5 of my latest 7 posts have been poetry. must be feeling poetic or something... at least 71% poetic anyway. apparently 29% of me is still engineering or i wouldn't have calculated percentages around this recent fact ;)

altitude

this town breathes a sigh
of relief when i’ve left
my feet too heavy
on its streets.
sometimes, when we sit
inside on sunday mornings,
the waitress comes by
with the coffee, and i pretend
i’m somewhere else. a ski chalet
where the syrup is thick
like the snow and no one
has seen me before.
let me breathe- this altitude
suffocates me.

arizona collected

11 November 2000
arizona, i feel you calling me
deep inside late nights when i am almost asleep,
i feel your breath through the window
-a raspy dust filled breeze-
drift across my cheek
and whisper past my ear.

arizona, i sleep fitfully and wake
from dreams of you only to feel disappointed
at the continued loss of your landscapes, your twilight,
the sweet scent of orange blossoms in spring,
the way palm fronds thrash in a summer monsoon,
and most of all, your skies.

arizona, there is a part of me unwilling to leave you,
no matter where i sleep, still searching for your scent
in the breeze through the window- always longing.
arizona, i feel you calling me.

15 December 2000
arizona, you left me when
i needed you most.
the grit of your deserts
nowhere to be found
when i lacked the strength.

i feel as if i’ve failed you,
in a way, i know i have.
but you’ve failed me too,
i cried alone while your night sky
stood empty.

where were you on autumn nights
when the chill froze leaves
still too green to see november?

the night i dreamt of you,
the scent of your rains lingering
even while i slept-
where were you then?

arizona, why did you do it?

9 January 2001
arizona, i’ve left you far behind,
still, your sidewalks burn my feet,
your sun still warms my skin in a way
i could never capture with words.

17 January 2001
arizona-
i felt your breeze through the window
the other day-
a hint of dust lingered,
then faded and i stood there
long after, trying to recapture the moment.

arizona-
how can we be angry with each other
when you are so much a part of me?
i left you only because i had to and
while away i have only grown to love
you more. no, that’s not true. you
felt it to, didn’t you? the last time,
when we met, you knew, just as i realized
i could live without you.

14 November 2001
arizona-
how can i leave you behind?
i can still taste your breath.
he speaks of you and i with sadness
in his voice. he knows i’ll come back
to you.
arizona, it isn’t fair. can you not hold
us both?
why do i feel as if i cannot hold on
to either of you?
arizona, i’m pleading with you.

26 August 2002
arizona,
how very far apart we are- your sun
reaches me only long after i’ve risen,
and even then, i’m not sure it reaches me at all.
arizona how could you give up on me so easily?

the 2.5 year itch?

all of the sudden i'm overcome with a desire to move.. far far away! i think i'm conditioned after all those college years of relocating every 3/9 months. the west coast is calling my name. ooh that reminds me of some arizona poems i don't think i've ever posted. always threw my poetry professor off a bit, he said they were addressed as if to a lover. i'll post them later.
anyway, findyourspot.com is a great site to check out if you're feeling that itch to see what else is out there, geographically speaking.
just don't blame me if it makes you want to pack your bags and move to a downtown loft apartment with ocean and city views ;)

a poem for this cloudy windy day

Pagan Litany by Paula Closson Buck

The sea swells over the breakwater,
careers in heavy showers
across the harbor road
where salt pines
lie broken by the wind.
It's nearly dark by four p.m.

Through open doors, small markets
like grave sites surrender
a naïve collection of supplies:
ouzo, chocolate bars,
cigarettes and toys.

If we have souls, if we dare to think so
on a day like this, we play them
close to our bodies.
What gods there might be
won't hear us above the wind
or the tarp of the sky
lashed down. Days like this,

we demonstrate the simple
economies of our need

and bury our dead
with change in their pockets.

singles awareness day

here's to all the guys that i saw at the mall and at target, frantically scouring card racks, jewlery stores, and victoria's secret for that perfect last minute gift ;) oh yeah, and they cleared out the entire red-themed gift wrap section at target too.

"On Valentine's Day, millions of men give millions of women flowers, cards and candy as a heartfelt expression of the emotion that also motivates men to observe anniversaries and birthdays: fear."
-Dave Barry

something with a little more valentine's ring to it -

The Giver by Sara Teasdale

You bound strong sandals on my feet,
You gave me bread and wine,
And sent me under sun and stars,
For all the world was mine.

Oh, take the sandals off my feet,
You know not what you do;
For all my world is in your arms,
My sun and stars are you.

Garrison, Nebraska by Ted Kooser

The north-south streets are named for poets --
Longfellow, Whittier, Bryant, Lowell --
so it's no surprise that this tiny village
is fading to gray, mildewed and dusty,
shelved at the back of the busy library
of American progress. On this winter day
all that's left of Whittier's "Snowbound"
whispers in under the nailed-shut door
of a house at the edge of a cornfield,
and slides across a red vinyl car seat
wedged in a broken tree. All but a few
stubborn families have packed up and left,
seeking a better life, following Evangeline,
leaving this island with its cars up on blocks,
its gardens of broken washing machines,
its empty rabbit hutches nailed to sheds,
cold and alone on the sea of the prairie,
to be pounded and pounded forever
by time and these whitecaps of snow.

yawn...

...i must have been worried about this kaizen because i slept horribly last night! but now i'm at work, not really bright eyed, not very bushy tailed...but i'm here! and after today when we get things rolling, i think i will relax...maybe!
(in the meantime i'm really surprising those that are calling in sick by answering my phone this early when they just expected to leave a message...mwha ha ha ha ha) ;)

aw, doesn't sound like this is true

i heard this on the radio yesterday and had to check and see if it was valid at all -- looks like not so much ;) too bad. below is from snopes.com -- they research and verify most of the stories circulating on the internet or in e-mail chains -- handy stuff!
Claim: A man freed himself from an avalanche by drinking beer and urinating on the snow to melt it.
Status: Undetermined.
Example: [news.com.au, 2005]
"A Slovak man trapped in his car under an avalanche freed himself by drinking 60 bottles of beer and urinating on the snow to melt it.
Rescue teams found Richard Kral drunk and staggering along a mountain path four days after his Audi was buried in Slovakia's Tatra mountains. He told them that after the avalanche, he had opened his car window and tried to dig his way out with his hands.
But he realised the snow was falling faster than he could dig. and would soon fill his car.
He had 60 500ml bottles of beer in his car as he was going on holiday, and after cracking one open to think about the problem he realised he could urinate on the snow to melt it.
'It was hard and now my kidneys and liver hurt,' he said later. 'But I'm glad the beer I took on holiday turned out to be useful.' "
Origins: The story about a Slovak man who was buried inside his car by an avalanche, and supposedly freed himself by drinking beer and urinating on the snow to melt it, was carried by a number of western news services in January 2005. The story has so far proved difficult to verify because its attributions have been vague (e.g., "correspondents in Bratislava"), and it evidently originated in a part of the world (the Slovak Republic) where information sources are more difficult to track down (particularly because the language is unfamiliar to most westerners).
However, a correspondent who works for a Slovak news agency informed us that not only has the avalanche story (or any news story about an avalanche) not appeared in the news media there, but the very same tale (of Czech origin, told about an unnamed man caught in the Austrian Alps) was circulating in that country as an e-mail joke even before the heavy snows described in the article occurred.

have you had your adrenaline rush today?

here's a short little story i like to call 'bri momentarily misplaced her brain and decided to take walton road to class because two inches is not that much snow"
for those of you who don't know, walton road is one of those curvy (and steep, don't forget steep) back country roads, and it's a shortcut. in my defense, the first stretches of the road were deceptively clear, but about a mile down the road, where it stays nice and shady and cold, the road was pure packed snow. i came downhill around a curve and went sliding into a ditch (small ditch). after a moment of panic and the realization i didn't have my cell phone with me, i jumped out of the car and tried bracing my feet against the dirt wall, my back against the rear end of my car, and pushed really hard. nothing (go figure...) got back in the car and rocked it back and forth and got it somewhat mobile, but not out of the ditch, and at this point, my wheels had spun down to mud. a guy drove by though and hopped out, directing me how to aim my wheels to the point where i worked myself out. now came a decision. try to turn around on the snow sheet, and head back to paved safety OR continue down the road of treachery. unknown stranger advised that i head down the road of treachery. and with not too subtle B-rated movie foreshadowing, i asked: "but what about those steep banked curves?"... "nah" he said, "you're through the worst of it right now."
okee dokee-- so i headed down the road as they shouted after me "keep it in low gear and take it slow." i was doing fine until i reached the aforementioned steep banked curves. as instructed, i was going slow, but as it turns out, when going up a snowy hill, you should in fact have one foot on the gas pedal and the other foot on top of that foot. so i made it about 40% up the hill and started sliding into the oncoming lane. luckily, not many people are stupid enough to take walton road, so this wasn't an immediate issue. it was at this point i tried the stepping on the gas option, but since i had already lost my momentum, i just kept sliding. it was then that a guy came out of the house that's right at the curve and offered some help: "you'd better turn back around and go the other way".... after i explained i'd been that route as was not going back, he tried to push me up the hill to no avail, so he headed to the house to put some boots on and really get the job done right. so i sat in the car and watched a pepsi van come up the same route i had just been on, only to get about 10 yards in front of me and start sliding...down down down...and i'm thinking...oh god, this guy is going to slide into me! but he managed to keep his foot on the gas and after 1-2 minutes of burning rubber and splassing snow and mud, he found some traction and slid on up. then my help was back- we tried the up route again, still no luck. finally he determined i needed to back down to his driveway rather than get any worse off. so, car in neutral, we slide down the hill, me at the wheel, he outside the car, giving it some pushy direction. i safely arrived in the driveway. then he shoveled off his driveway while i wandered around my car, poking the snow out of the wheel wells with a stick so i could feel mildy useful. when the driveway (and some of the road) had been cleanly shoveled, we were ready to give it another try -- he offered to drive, so i gladly accepted -- so we ascended up the snowy curves like a bat out of hell, which i definitely could not have done on my own! when we got to the top, my good samaritan hopped out of the car, wished me good luck, and walked back down toward his house.
if there's one thing i took away from this, it's the following bit of wisdom: "you ain't stuck, you just ain't going nowehere just yet." good point ;)

don't believe everything you see on ebay

D'oh! 'Duff beer' sale a hoax

BRISBANE, Australia (AP) -- A woman has pleaded guilty to selling on eBay three nonexistent cases of Duff brand beer -- the favorite of cartoon character Homer Simpson.
Tara Edith Woodford, 28, pleaded guilty Wednesday to three charges of dishonestly gaining money by false pretenses.
Prosecutor Gavin Burnett told the court Woodford was paid a total of $1,511 by three separate buyers after advertising the bogus beer on the auction site.
Buyers paid money into Woodford's bank account, but contacted police when they never received the beer. Woodford was placed on 18 months' probation, and was ordered to reimburse the money and undergo counseling.
Duff is the beer brand of choice for Homer Simpson and his barfly friends in the animated U.S. television series 'The Simpsons.' Its creators have a policy of refusing to license 'The Simpsons' merchandising for products that would be detrimental to children."

it's not easy being...pink

so i arrived home lastnight to find my sister grinning like the cheshire cat. why you ask? i figured it out soon enough as my little dog came running in, covered in bright pink dots- a watercolor canvas of the french bulldog variety. someone needs to get that girl a hobby. pretty funny though ;)
today we are experiencing a nice wintry mix- a savory blend of ice, sleet, and snow. but i made it into work okay ;)

profound coffee cup?

"1.6 million years ago a youth died in Africa. His body was swept into a swamp. In 1984 his bones were painstakingly excavated to reveal a species on the brink of becoming human. All people on earth have one thing in common. We share a single African ancestor; the same as this young boy."
--Dr. Louise Leakey, Paleontologist

the above is from my coffee cup from starbuck's. i'm conflicted actually, because i really like the quote...but it's off of a coffee cup! on the other hand, it's just as stupid to NOT like it because it's commericalized as it is to like it just because everyone else does.
anyway, to read more of this caffeinated wisdom, check out www.starbucks.com/wayiseeit.

the age of aquarius

happy birthday shannon!

if you like my poems let them by e.e. cummings

if you like my poems let them
walk in the evening,a little behind you

then people will say
"Along this road i saw a princess pass
on her way to meet her lover(it was
toward nightfall)with tall and ignorant servants."