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