the native is restless

so a four-day weekend, although relaxing, has made me a bit restless. so on the fourth day, bri decided to leave the house! just kidding, i've left the house- just not often. and isn't it annoying when i refer to myself in third person? today i have great ambitions for all kinds of stuff - we'll see!

overheard and worth repeating:

everytime i watch gangs of new york, my inner monologue has an accent for a few days afterward.

tomorrow it's back to work, and i know i'll later think i'm crazy for saying this, but i'm actually looking forward to it!

happy 2005!

the new year is here :) make the most of it

a new year and the days get longer

'stay or leave..i want you not to go..isn't it strange how it changes everything we did?' (loosely quoting) ah dave matthews, enjoying my acoustic version of the heart wrenching 'stay or leave' this morning :)
work is so quiet this week. today, among other things, my plan is to clean and organize my desk (maybe a little rearrangement?) and make sure we ship everything we're supposed to ship (that last one might take a good portion of my day).

i want every instant to be as lovely as crayons*

now listening to a little federico aubele, definite recommend if you like music that almost makes you want to sashay (a: WALK, GLIDE, GO b : to strut or move about in an ostentatious or conspicuous manner c : to proceed or move in a diagonal or sideways manner ), now if only sashay was low lowercase...
*another steal, gu cheng, from headstrong boy

my flight is what?

that's right. it's cancelled- but we've recovered, it's been rescheduled for tomrrow - and we're flying FIRST CLASS! damn roanoke weather...

merry christmas eve eve!

today is a wonderful day ;) got in to work at 5:56 am, am headed out on a flight at 3 for phoenix!

one person can make the same mistake at least 3 times

in case you were wondering... on the bright side, i had a mystery gift on my desk this morning that turned out to be from none than joey card! :) i'll have to test my trivia on how well i know the 90s ;)

long blogs long gone?

it's been awhile since i typed up a nice lengthy blog. seems as if my attention is scattered all over the place lately!
even now, i got caught up doing other things for a few hours and abandoned this post.
so it's the shortest day of the year, which reminds me of a james richardson quote:
...which i can't find. but i will later! and i will post it!

punctuation for sarcasm?

so i read an article on slate today about the sarcasm point. preceded by legendary greats such as the exclamation point and question mark, the sarcasm point makes its debut on slate.com. it's the best thing since sliced breadi

look ma! my lotion's froze!

so i keep a bottle of lotion in car for when i forget to put it on my hands in the morning, and this morning, i went to use it, and it was frozen solid. i'm moving to a warmer state!

stick a fork in me...

...i'm done! done i tell you! done! down down down, go go go, mine mine mine...oh, sorry, wrong rant :) point is, no more school until january! :)

above thy deep and dreamless sleep...

let's take a vote...

is it okay, or not okay to eat a gravy biscuit while on a diet? i suppose i already know the answer to that.

if i close my eyes, do you think they'll all go away?

that may be too much to hope for this morning. i'm flying it solo. typically, my office is shared with 2 other people (the other supervisor, and our boss), but they're both in training tuesday-thursday this week so it's just me and the soap opera that is our workplace.
today is the last day of class for me, then only 2 finals stand between me and the couch, sex and the city, and wine! sister soiree here i come.
in other news, my boyfriend has taken to calling me "briannica" as in britannica due to my almost compulsive need to look everything up. but i've been called worse ;)
counting the days until i get one off...

random lisa loeb lyrics

I was restless,
I was restless,
I was restless,
I was restless.
I just want this to be good,
I just want this to be good.
but you don't understand,
you don't understand me, and I want to be understood.

But if it doesn't brush my shoulder,
and it doesn't beat my heart,
that's not what I want - no, that's not where I will start.
I never kissed somebody so that they would break my heart,
that's not what I want.

happy birthday michael :)

foresight

i can't remember where i read it, but a long time ago, i read a story about a guy who when he was 17, sat down and wrote a list of everything he wanted to accomplish in life. i mean, a huge list. it was like hundreds of items long. and crazy stuff too, like...see such and such river in africa, or climb whatever mountain. at the time the story was published, he had worked through the list to a substantial degree (he was maybe in his 60's by that point?), so...i guess the point is, i was just thinking about how incredible that is since sometimes i don't even know what i'm doing next week.

merry christmas from cleo.

how many times can one person make the same mistake?

i woke up this morning at 7:20 to the sound of my phone ringing. what time do i start work? 7.

the search for horace

'who's horace?' you might be asking yourself...horace is our thanksgiving turkey. this year, due to my mother's recent avid pursuit of all things organic and soy, a fresh organic turkey was requested. after a sequence of events involving a requisite pre-order of said turkey and a family characteristic of procrastination, no turkey was found. a few frantic monday morning phone calls and we found horace. not organic, not fresh, but a frozen natural turkey...company motto? our turkey's don't do drugs. that's right, no 12-step program for this turkey, horace is antibiotic free and free range. all 17 pounds of him now resides in our fridge, defrosting away.

it's tough to lose at monopoly

not that it's easy to win, but if your aim is to actually go bankrupt, it can be difficult. i spent part of my weekend at a cabin just off of the appalachian trail in front royal, va (3.5 hours north of here). the cabin was a 2 mile hike from the parking lot (which puts a whole new twist on packing for us city girls), and had no running water or electricity. it did however have a huge fireplace, mattresses for 12, a cast iron wood burning stove/oven, and a beautiful front porch complete with swing.
back to the monopoly game, i got tired after a two dinners (frito pie and spaghetti) and wine. so i wanted out! but i'm no quitter, so i thought i'd actually lose before heading off to bed. i was unsucessful at failing it turns out. i didn't win, but i didn't lose. just somewhere in the grey middle.
in other news, i also got to play tour guide sunday evening yet again to danaher hopefuls and spent some time at work on saturday morning. and while i'm being chronologically backwards, friday night was spent at the basketball game and watching 'eternal sunshine of the spotless mind.' which i got into trouble for sleeping through. so i woke up and watched it. it was a good movie, but odd. interesting plot.
only 1.5 more days of work! yippee! and then the parents show up wednesday night, hopefully they'll go easy on those they're meeting ;)
happy (organic) turkey day!

i love my dictionary

"There are times when I think that the ideal library is composed solely of reference books. They are like understanding friends- always ready to meet your mood, always ready to change the subject when you have had enough of this or that."
- J. Donald Adams

flaws

"Do not be too quick to pull out your flaws. They endure dry seasons, thrive uncared for. They have deeper roots than you. They hold the slope in place."
-James Richardson

nice to see you again larry

ryan, for your benefit, i'll throw in as many japanese words as i can come up with :) so it's day four of the kaizen, and we're knee deep in poka yokes, searching for opportunities for jidoka and implementing kanbans for inventory :) that being said, i am TIRED! we worked from 7 am until 10 pm lastnight, luckily, they bring in food since it's my aim in life to never miss a meal. except breakfast, i'm happy with coffee for breakfast. tonight, my hope is that we will leave here in time to go to a nice dinner, but i have a feeling that's an empty hope... ah well :) i'm still having fun and that's what counts.

off to a place that's colder than here!

got back from unc lastnight after a fantastic win by the hokies (note, the hokies - not my hokies - the boilers are the only ones i claim). had tons of fun doing the hokie pokie with ash and jules in the middle of unc's student section and getting pelted with what they could find to throw ;) i also think it's possible i missed my calling as a yuppie intellectual who went to unc and hung out in wine bars, but ah well, we can't do it all, right?

today it's off to michigan for a shingijutsu kaizen event in saginaw. should be pretty crazy, our CEO is participating in the event. i'll be tired and full of good by next friday when i make it back to blacksburg :)

Halloween :)

Happy Halloween from Cleo and I!

And the pumpkin too!

From the left, a Tornado, a Runaway Bride, Cruella de Ville (sp?), and Hugh Hefner. Happy Halloween!

oracle, not the one from the matrix

yawn. just another day at work on a saturday (yes, i'm whining). our plant is in the middle of migration to a new MRP system, and it's quite the undertaking.
but it's a lot of "hurry up and wait," so currently, i'm waiting. on the bright side, there's enough food around here to provide for a small village for a week or so. and coffee of course. caffeine - the productivity tool of champions.
tomorrow is st. hallow's eve, if you haven't gotten the memo. tonight, we're all headed to downtown blacksburg for a night of fun in costume. still haven't come to a final decision on what to wear though.
in the meantime, i'm going to go grab another cup of coffee....

happy birthday ryan hanlon!

In Which Autumn Attends a Beach Party

so this one is super old -- dredged up from September 2000 -- but i think most are aware of my long running obsession with all things fall:


In which Autumn attends a beach party

There’s a chill in the air tonight that I had long forgotten,
as if Autumn had suddenly strolled into a beach party
draped in a cloak of fiery leaves-
(just yesterday, I could have sworn they were green)
but now here she is, surrounded by them,
with her auburn hair tumbling over bare shoulders.

How could anyone have forgotten her beauty?
Her presence is striking, and suddenly the Sun
seems too harsh for the setting.
Knowingly, he fades into the sky and the light becomes softer.

Unsure now if she plans to stay, we glance wistfully at the trees,
then the calendar. How did the months slip by
when only minutes ago the Sun burned so intensely?

Autumn seems to sense our reluctance-
with a soft smile and a nod of reprieve,
she slips through the crowd and disappears.
A single flame-colored leaf floats to the ground where she stood,
a reminder that Autumn is close by and Summer grows distant.

Fog by Carl Sandburg

The fog comes
on little cat feet.

It sits looking
over harbor and city
on silent haunches
and then moves on.

arizona here i come!

sampling of purdue pics as promised

the engineering fountain (without water!)

University Hall...

the early bird gets the...audits done?

was here at 6:30 am this morning :) which is pretty good considering my goal was 6.

in other news, i have no hair! it's all gone. seriously, i had it cut on wednesday, and she straightened it, so it seemed longer, but today, it's one big ball of curls :)

back to work! :) and then class, and then work, and then party! :)

vicarious is low-lower case

but vicariously isn't. either way, i still like the word. my time in west lafayette was well spent :) i'll post pictures from home, don't have them with me right now. got to see jason, anna, tweedle's friends, my grandparents, and a lot of other family members ;)

now i'm back to blacksburg usual, but am leaving next friday (not THIS friday, but NEXT) for arizona! three cheers for arizona! hurrah hurrah hurrah. as it is, i feel as if i'm NEVER at work, but ah well, i didn't take any vacation in the first 8 months of this year, so i had it comin'.

off to lunch ;)

feed a cold, feed a fever?

mmmm...enjoying a southern gravy biscuit before i head up north.

james richardson vectors, aphorisms, and ten-second essays

just cherry picked a few of my favorites ;)

"his lie doesn't bother me as much as the truth he thinks he knows."

"billions of years, the dust hasn't settled. water's still seeking its own level."

"ax built the house but sleeps in the shed."

"useful to see how you could love every person, every job, for an hour. necessary to realize how short an hour is."

"the despair of the blank page: it is so full."

slackety slack, and don't come back

ah september. how i love it.
noteables:
a. hurricane ivan, scheduled to strike virginia later this week. also scheduled to submerse new orleans in 12-18 feet of water. scary stuff.
b. cleo's halloween costume, a pumpkin. so far, she refuses to wear it without biting and clawing at it. negotiations are scheduled to continue until late october.
c. purdue, next week! will be haunting my old haunts (aka vienna and harry's) and hanging out with jason and anna. oh, and trying to recruit a few people to work at danaher while i'm there.
d. moonlight stomp, this weekend. big plans to stomp grapes like lucy and roast marshmallows in the moonlight next to the winery.

that's all for now ;)

happy birthday austin!

my brother is 13 today -- my my how time does fly.

...yawn...

wow. 3 a.m. comes quickly sometimes. as does 6 a.m. when you've only been in bed since 3 a.m. even the dog was like: are you kidding me? i just laid down! but luckily, it's friday, which means i can happily recover sleep this evening.

amhrein winery - roanoke county

sophisticated wine tasting at this weekend's festival...from the left, jules, zack, stacie, and ashlea

and what's a wine festival without a beret?

stolen poetry from "before sunrise"

(untitled)

Daydream, delusion, limousine, eyelash
Oh baby with your pretty face
Drop a tear in my wineglass
Look at those big eyes
See what you mean to me
Sweet-cakes and milkshakes
I'm delusion angel
I'm fantasy parade
I want you to know what I think
Don't want you to guess anymore
You have no idea where I came from
We have no idea where we're going
Latched in life
Like branches in a river
Flowing downstream
Caught in the current
I'll carry you
You'll carry me
That's how it could be
Don't you know me?
Don't you know me by now?

loo-dog.

new top five movies ;)

so as a result of seeing the current movie at the lyric this week, before sunset, i have changed my top five favorites. in no particular order, here is the revised list:

• before sunset

  music from another room

  something's gotta give

  love actually

  when harry met sally

counting sheep...

the hopefully LAST day of physical inventory is tomorrow, then it's off to the game! it always annoys me when people say "the game" as if the world is aware and will be in attendance. so to clarify, "the game" in question is the virginia tech vs. usc game in none other than fed ex field in d.c. but first, a party, hosted by my good friend demay :) it's even being webcast...which i may post a link to tomorrow if i think of it, but right now, i'm going to bed.

congrats to legatto on his new baby girl :)

Flash Cards by Rita Dove

In math I was the whiz kid, keeper
of oranges and apples. What you don't understand,
master, my father said: the faster
I answered, the faster they came.
I could see one bud on the teacher's geranium,
one clear bee sputtering at the wet pane.
The tulip trees always dragged after heavy rain
so I tucked my head as my boots slapped home.
My father put up his feet after work
and relaxed with a highball and The Life of Lincoln.
After supper we drilled and I climbed the dark
before sleep, before a thin voice hissed
numbers as I spun on a wheel. I had to guess.
Ten, I kept saying, I'm only ten.

autumn

this morning when i drove in, the sun was still trying to burn off the fog. the temperature was in the 50's and it felt like fall. fall is such a bittersweet season (and my favorite one at that), i love those evening when the air has that crispness to it. ending of summer, beginnings of winter, makes it hard to present a unified front to autumn on how i feel about it. come september, i'll drag out all the pumpkin and carmel apple scented candles out and fill our apartment with fall. until then...

a looooooooong poem...

...but one of my favorites, this is in my top 5. i may have even posted it before.

Sunday Morning
Wallace Stevens

1
Complacencies of the peignoir, and late
Coffee and oranges in a sunny chair,
And the green freedom of a cockatoo
Upon a rug mingle to dissipate
The holy hush of ancient sacrifice.
She dreams a little, and she feels the dark
Encroachment of that old catastrophe,
As a calm darkens among water-lights.
The pungent oranges and bright, green wings
Seem things in some procession of the dead,
Winding across wide water, without sound.
The day is like wide water, without sound.
Stilled for the passing of her dreaming feet
Over the seas, to silent Palestine,
Dominion of the blood and sepulchre.
2
Why should she give her bounty to the dead?
What is divinity if it can come
Only in silent shadows and in dreams?
Shall she not find in comforts of the sun,
In pungent fruit and bright green wings, or else
In any balm or beauty of the earth,
Things to be cherished like the thought of heaven?
Divinity must live within herself:
Passions of rain, or moods in falling snow;
Grievings in loneliness, or unsubdued
Elations when the forest blooms; gusty
Emotions on wet roads on autumn nights;
All pleasures and all pains, remembering
The bough of summer and the winter branch.
These are the measure destined for her soul.
3
Jove in the clouds had his inhuman birth.
No mother suckled him, no sweet land gave
Large-mannered motions to his mythy mind.
He moved among us, as a muttering king,
Magnificent, would move among his hinds,
Until our blood, commingling, virginal,
With heaven, brought such requital to desire
The very hinds discerned it, in a star.
Shall our blood fail? Or shall it come to be
The blood of paradise? And shall the earth
Seem all of paradise that we shall know?
The sky will be much friendlier then than now,
A part of labor and a part of pain,
And next in glory to enduring love,
Not this dividing and indifferent blue.
4
She says, "I am content when wakened birds,
Before they fly, test the reality
Of misty fields, by their sweet questionings;
But when the birds are gone, and their warm fields
Return no more, where, then, is paradise?"
There is not any haunt of prophecy,
Nor any old chimera of the grave,
Neither the golden underground, nor isle
Melodious, where spirits gat them home,
Nor visionary south, nor cloudy palm
Remote on heaven's hill, that has endured
As April's green endures; or will endure
Like her remembrance of awakened birds,
Or her desire for June and evening, tipped
By the consummation of the swallow's wings.
5
She says, "But in contentment I still feel
The need of some imperishable bliss."
Death is the mother of beauty; hence from her,
Alone, shall come fulfillment to our dreams
And our desires. Although she strews the leaves
Of sure obliteration on our paths,
The path sick sorrow took, the many paths
Where triumph rang its brassy phrase, or love
Whispered a little out of tenderness,
She makes the willow shiver in the sun
For maidens who were wont to sit and gaze
Upon the grass, relinquished to their feet.
She causes boys to pile new plums and pears
On disregarded plate. The maidens taste
And stray impassioned in the littering leaves.
6
Is there no change of death in paradise?
Does ripe fruit never fall? Or do the boughs
Hang always heavy in that perfect sky,
Unchanging, yet so like our perishing earth,
With rivers like our own that seek for seas
They never find, the same receding shores
That never touch with inarticulate pang?
Why set pear upon those river-banks
Or spice the shores with odors of the plum?
Alas, that they should wear our colors there,
The silken weavings of our afternoons,
And pick the strings of our insipid lutes!
Death is the mother of beauty, mystical,
Within whose burning bosom we devise
Our earthly mothers waiting, sleeplessly.
7
Supple and turbulent, a ring of men
Shall chant in orgy on a summer morn
Their boisterous devotion to the sun,
Not as a god, but as a god might be,
Naked among them, like a savage source.
Their chant shall be a chant of paradise,
Out of their blood, returning to the sky;
And in their chant shall enter, voice by voice,
The windy lake wherein their lord delights,
The trees, like serafin, and echoing hills,
That choir among themselves long afterward.
They shall know well the heavenly fellowship
Of men that perish and of summer morn.
And whence they came and whither they shall go
The dew upon their feet shall manifest.
8
She hears, upon that water without sound,
A voice that cries, "The tomb in Palestine
Is not the porch of spirits lingering.
It is the grave of Jesus, where he lay."
We live in an old chaos of the sun,
Or old dependency of day and night,
Or island solitude, unsponsored, free,
Of that wide water, inescapable.
Deer walk upon our mountains, and the quail
Whistle about us their spontaneous cries;
Sweet berries ripen in the wilderness;
And, in the isolation of the sky,
At evening, casual flocks of pigeons make
Ambiguous undulations as they sink,
Downward to darkness, on extended wings.

the internet drought has ended!

we finally have the internet at home! yippee! :)

on a brighter note...

tonight, i'm headed to the fiddler's convention in galax, virginia. it's every august and a big deal 'round these parts :) i've always wanted to go, so i'm excited :)

tomorrow evening is leo extravaganda, a celebration of all things leo. our favorite roaring lions will be gathered to eat, drink, and be merry. good stuff.

freaky friday the 13th

can someone remind me why i like my job????

i'm walking on sunshine - whoaaaa

took a quiz once, and this song is apparently my theme song. and now, it's on my streaming yahoo radio at work. which is fitting, i've had a great day. nothing in particular, but depending on the day, i really enjoy my job ;) today is one of the enjoyable days. this is the closest i've been to a rewarding "helping people" type job since receiving my engineering degree.

a few website plugs:

ryanhanlon.blogspot.com - your newest link to the genius that is r-dawg's blog

www.colorquiz.com - scarily accurate for a simple choice of color palette

it's all fun and games...

...until some point, at which point, you're REALLY glad it's friday.

bloggability...

...has decreased since i've moved and don't have the ethernet working yet ;) and work's been a bit crazy. i even missed a "happy birthday cassie!" shout out from august 3rd as a result :) we all headed to the cellar (where else?) and had a good time eating copious amounts of italian food and exchanging witty banter. ian hovey also made a FANTASTIC harvest spice cake which we all very much enjoyed.

the new apartment? wonderful. brand new and beautiful and much preferable to our previous locale. my mom spent the week helping us pack up, move, unpack, and then clean out the old place. she and i even painted over the deep purple walls (which took awhile!) it's a good thing she loves us unconditionally :)

this weekend, ryan hanlon's coming to visit (yay!), and it's steppin' out in blacksburg (according to amanda, our very own local holiday). they shut down downtown, have live music all weekend, and tons of local food and craft merchants turn out. should be a great time :)

tonight, long overdue ice cream with rex :)

the return of monica seles

so cassie always called me monica in highschool when we were both on the tennis team on account of my loud exhaling as i attempt to hit the ball. needless information i know, but slightly relevant as cassie and i have started playing tennis everyday after work. good stuff :) my forearm is KILLING me, but hopefully after a week or so, i'll get used to it.

cassie's also a danaher employee now, working out the kinks in our physical inventory. she can often be seen running about with a clipboard and calculator.

my mom will be here this weekend! v. exciting. and i've even semi-prepared by setting up all our utilities for the new place, and renting a u-haul for the move. we haven't packed a thing yet though. next week is a 2-day work week for me :) yay for hoarding vacation all year long so i can take lots for the second half of the year.

after that, august! cassie's birthday, r-dawg coming to visit (on the 7th), then everyone comes back into town, then classes start again!

life is never boring ;)

know anyone who needs a job?

we desperately need warm bodies to pre-count for our physical inventory :) full time from now until the end of august -- 7-4:30 but all of the above is negotiable. let me know if you're interested :)

happy anniversay to me!

as of today, i've been with danaher for 2 happy years :) someone should take me out to lunch!

lastnight, i went home ate dinner, and sat on the couch to watch school of rock. i think i might have been awake for 10% of it, woke up after 2.5 hours of napping, then pretty much got up and went to bed. but at least today i feel rested finally!

my new office, albeit distracting, is very entertaining so far :) stay tuned for when the honeymoon is over and being a supervisor becomes tough.

pack 'em up and move 'em out

so we're moving! 2 weeks from today. even more exciting? my mom's coming to help us move! she'll be here for a week, and cassie and i are counting on her to do her organization thing and kick us into gear on packing. last year, we moved approximately 500 feet to a new apartment- this year- across town. which in blacksburg, can't be that far, but still. i'm just looking forward to having my very own bathroom and walk-in closet. and washer and dryer! and now i'm rambling about topics that aren't that interesting.

new job is great so far- have been building printed circuit board assemblies and cables- will start training on the actual supervisor piece the rest of this week.

tonight? i'm going to get some much needed sleep!

"Of all the ways to avoid living, perfect discipline is the most admired."
-James Richardson

striking resemblance?

noteable quoteable

To be fair, English is full of booby traps for the unwary foreigner. Any language where the unassuming word fly signifies an annoying insect, a means of travel, and a critical part of a gentleman's apparel is clearly asking to be mangled.

- Billy Bryson in The Mother Tongue

happy birthday jason lawton!

happy birthday grandma!

or... "magaw" as my sister used to say when "grandma" was beyond her pronunciation capabilities ;)

happy birthday joey card!

celia's visit

the second of july? already?

i couldn't think of a more interesting title. but a little slack please, it's 7 in the morning and my creativity isn't exactly at its high point.

celia's here! that's right, one of my very best friends from home is here in virginia for the weekend! she and my sister arrived from the airport at 5 a.m. this morning. i'm sure we'll get into plenty of trouble this weekend (if all goes as planned).

touristy things in the area? we almost always take people to chateau morrisette, only 40 minutes or so away from here, on the blue ridge parkway. for $4, you can taste every wine they have and tour the winery too! the only thing missing is the vines...they are grown all over virginia.

and of course, we never miss taking people to both the cellar, and gillie's. blacksburg has such lovable local places. the requisite tour of tech is also probably in order, maybe a quick trip to the roanoke farmer's market some time on saturday (if the weather's nice). and a little downtown blacksburg scandalousness (no, i do not care that that's probably not a word) ;)

happy friday!

change is the only sure thing.

so i'm now "Cardline Production Coordinator for Electronics." in english? responsible for the team that produces printed circuit board assemblies. so that's exciting- lots of new challenges to be had i'm sure. i've been reading all kinds of books to try to prepare, although i've been told i'll never feel ready, so i'm not sure where that leaves me ;)

As easy as 3.1415926535897932384626433

rough rough draft...

...but what is a blog for if not raw poetry?

(as yet untitled)

it seems those nights my head was full
of poetry that my fingers can no longer
find. was it so very fleeting? even now
you are further and further from me- or is it
farther? i find myself in a unyielding plastic
chair, a sheet of notebook paper in front
of me. the pen i used- too much ink, has bled
to the other side, the answers i number and fill
intermingling in the fibers.

by now, you’ve extended past my reach, rubber
gripping pavement, headlights flashing over bridges
and trees, back to where you began. where i falter
to begin.

truth

although i do like the quotes and whatnot that i often post, my motivations are sometimes not feeling creative enough to type a bri-original post ;)

but while i'm on the subject, the random quote below (on june 25) came from www.fontgarden.com - a great site full of fun fonts, all of them displayed by the use of quotes like the one i posted- some saucy, some thought provoking. and you can also have your very own handwriting made into a font, something i've been meaning to do.

do you like your own handwriting?

Coffee Maker by Cecily Parks

"Alone, one can but toy with imagery."
-James Merrill, 'Hourglass

Sobriety kicks me out of half-slept sleep
again. Unbound and starved for a routine
that favors day, I'm drawn toward this machine --
the twin-globed, bubbling keep
of caffeine grants plastic-coated access to
achievement, ritual, speed. Which is all I need
these days -- to watch the water, bead by bead
unyield itself and be drawn up into

each elementally alien ground, to give in.
It's almost selfless, brave (to me, at least,
it seems) as I mull over last night's pieced-
together bourbon-driven
dream, which concludes the process nuanced nightly:
we leave the bar, I take you (in my head)
to my near-empty apartment and empty bed.
Reversing cause and effect, I hold you tightly

and wait for bliss, for anything but regret.
Meanwhile, within my plastic odalisque
the water is disturbed enough to whisk
uptube and be beset
by the grounds, or is it the other way around --
the valence fluxes between subduer and
subdued, undoer and undone. I stand,
also propped on the counter, as things compound

without me and within. The torrid brew
ceases to bob and seethe, and with gravity's grace
(and changed) descends into the lower vase --
the final follow-through.
In vicarious absorption and half-awake,
I can only hover here and try not
to think of you, and grasp the steaming pot
from the maker that never makes mistakes.

Age is a very high price to pay for maturity.

love is a battlefield

and so is work! meeting marathon today (annoyance from 2 hour meetings has much subsided due to the arrival of norman, the laptop). despite good intentions to get to work at 8 a.m. this morning, i woke up late and didn't even make it by 8:30 (although to be fair, i barely missed that cut off).

today's soundtrack is "for the road" courtesy of joey card (thanks joey!) i've actually had this cd for some time now, but is one that can be played end to end to end to... bottom line, i'd take it to a desert island with me.

random target plug: their sparkling water (market pantry) white grape flavor is tasty tasty- no calories, no sugar, nothing! mmm mmm good.

happy friday ;)

i love my new laptop and my new laptop loves me

i'm taking suggestions for names- any bright ideas?

so i have a car pool partner for at least the next two months. ian hovey can't drive his car with his left leg permanently extended by a bright red cast. go figure.

work's pretty quiet lately, i've trained the two new hires to do my job, and i don't have my new one yet, so mainly i read up on how to do my new job, without actually doing it. in fact, i think i'll get back to that now.

lob-stah

so we spent yesterday on claytor lake- and i am now a bonafide lobster. head to toe. it's making me quite sleepy at work today actually. but i did really enjoy the lake, unfortunately, ian hurt his knee pretty badly in a wakeboarding incident and is now on crutches for an as yet unspecified period of time.

today's work soundtrack? abbey road. good stuff, nothing like "oh darling" playing with the copy machine as back-up percussion.

up to the minute update: apparently ian's leg is broken. how is it the hospital missed that the first time around? ah the wonders of modern medicine.

it seems as if they mow the lawn everyday. and the grass is still ridiculously tall most of the time. must be that virginia rain that we get EVERY day. makes me appreciate living in an apartment where i don't have to worry about the grass.

happy monday ;)

happy father's day!

that is one pouty looking dog.

Solstice

I. Summer

Such timid beginnings. He counted
every brick on the face of a building
while she looked up, searching
for words. He had wanted
to hold her hand, trace her jaw line
with his finger from earlobe
to chin. She knows the darkness
here is like nowhere else, satellites float above
them like slow-moving stars. Solitude lingers
in the darkness and then fades.

II. Autumn

He tells her rain is falling against his window.
When she looks through her own she finds
only dry leaves, already full
with autumn. Still, she tells him
if she closes her eyes, it begins to sound
like rain, begins to sound like his window.
Suddenly for a breath of a moment,
rain wind leaves swirl together
on windows. She almost feels him there.

III. Winter

The leaves have gone- snow falls
soundlessly past her window, whispering
to the trees- never speaking to her.
She walks close to midnight,
searching the darkness for satellites.
She cannot recall the curve
of his shoulder, the sound
of hello through a phone line.

IV. Spring

Suddenly she finds the ground
uncovered from months of snowfall.
Hundreds of tiny buds pushing
through the soil towards
the sky. At night she breathes spring
as she walks away
from satellites,
towards solstice.

happy birthday ryan!

my dear little brother was born 14 years ago today, on father's day actually.

ever danced with the devil in the pale moonlight?

i haven't. but it sounds like it could be fun. well, maybe not dancing with the devil, i can think of at least 2 or 3 people who would probably be more pleasant ;)

i have an aversion to shoes lately at work. i think it's because i've been wearing the type that are easily to slip on/off. i've been wandering cubicle city in none other than my socks. yes that's right, i'm a rebel. don't be jealous.

in other news, it's been raining in virginia for the past 3000 years. this very moment i'm sitting inside at work waiting for a break in the deluge so i can run to my car. soon enough, i will give up and be entirely soaked the second i step outside. in the meantime though, i'm typing a long overdue blog update.

exciting? my mom, sister, and i are taking a week vacation to san francisco and napa & sonoma valley. three tickets for the wine train, and we'll be set. i also plan on eating rice-a-roni while i'm there. and some sourdough bread.

sleep deprivation is not for the weak at heart

or so i'd like to think. too many nights lately i've been up until 3. makes for a rough workday! ironically, the one night i slept a full 8-9 hours, i put on one brown shoe, and one black shoe, and headed off to work. didn't notice until i was walking into the building.

not going to type much, because i want to get out of here! :)

noteable quoteable

"Life is about not knowing, having to change, taking the moment and making the best of it, without knowing what's going to happen next. Delicious ambiguity."
- Gilda Radner

at last...

...my friday has come alooooooong :) yay! it's the end of the week! and it's pouring outside! oh wait, that's not so great i guess...but makes it less torturous (sp?) to be inside, so maybe it is a good thing.

will post some poetry later, i bought a new poetry book while in d.c. at a little bookshop. james tate -- i've read his essays on poetry, but never his poetry, so i'm excited to explore it.

have been staying out too late lately for one reason or another, so cassie and i made it an early night lastnight, which resulted in exactly one fantastic night of good sleep :)

happy friday!

happy birthday mom!

d.c. - in a nutshell!

so... we went to d.c. last weekend to visit ryan (who so recently left blacksburg). our first touristy stop? georgetown- to feed my obsession with doors.

exhibit a.

oh THERE's the museum.

cassie and i with a rather frightening bunny... while on our way to the national art museum. or museum of art... which sounds more sophisticated somehow.

and now in the museum...i took a picture of this painting and the museum (curator?) told me this is apparently the first geranium brought to america. good trivia.

ryan's favorite: rothko.

i love modern art.

after that, off to chinatown for some long awaited lunch. we stopped at chinatown express, where they make the noodles fresh- and in the window!

so we had to go in and have some for ourselves. aren't cass and ryan authentic? complete with chopsticks and everything.


after lunch, we headed to the international spy museum (v. cool), but it's just a shame you can't take pictures there, or i'd introduce you all to some seroius espionage memorabilia

after that, we hopped on back on the metro and had a run-in with the metro driver who is vehemently opposed to the drinking of starbuck's when no drinking is allowed on the train. so, we arrived back in herndon (ryan's locale) decaffeinated but happy. then it was blacksburg bound! cleo spent the entire car ride (there and back) perched on the door, watching the scenery go by. we got home late sunday night (or early monday morning for those of you who are just that literal).

so that's it! the trip in a nutshell :)

stranger than fiction.

i kid you not.

extreme ironing n. A pastime in which participants iron a few items of laundry while engaged in an extreme sport or some other dangerous activity.
You read right: extreme ironing, part sport, part spectacle. Press garments while kayaking, rock climbing, mountain biking or doing any other outdoor activity you like. (Since extreme ironers must wait for the invention of solar- and battery-charged irons, they heat their irons with portable gas burners, campfires and generators.)
-Bryan Rourke, 'Pressing concerns,' The Providence Journal (Rhode Island), May 22, 2004

ps: i stole this from wordspy.com