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

interesting website discoveries of late

website 1: wordspy.com wonder what new words are popping up in our pop culture society? they keep track -- they also have all kinds of crazy cool quotes about words and poetry and literature.

Neither is a dictionary a bad book to read. There is no cant in it, no excess of explanation, and it is full of suggestion, — the raw material of possible poems and histories.
—In Praise of Books, 1860

website 2: ihatefinancialplanning.com self explanatory. i love it.

website 3: homestarrunner.com/sbemails looking to waste some time? you need sound though, or it's not funny.

website 4: of course, a mention of poetry daily is required. they're fantastic.

bloggity blog blog blog

cleo-loo dog

this is by far my favorite picture of cleo -- before she was used to car traveling, i drove to indiana with her, she fell asleep watching me drive with her face all smushed in between the seat and gear shift.

the ise group :)

worth repeating

me: how are you?
virginian: well i'm as fine as frog hair split three ways.
me: that's pretty fine.

a spoonful of poetry makes the...literature go down?

this was read at a recent graduation ceremony i attended to honor what parents do for their children. good poem.

Those Winter Sundays

Sundays too my father got up early
and put his clothes on in the blueblack cold,
then with cracked hands that ached
banked fires blaze. No one ever thanked him.

I'd wake and hear the cold splintering, breaking.
When the rooms were warm, he'd call,
and slowly I would rise and dress,
fearing the chronic angers of that house,

Speaking indifferently to him,
who had driven out the cold
and polished my good shoes as well.
What did I know, what did I know
of love's austere and lonely offices?

- Robert Hayden

weird stuff for sale on e-bay

Shark Fetus: You could have been the owner of "Jaws Jr." — a shark fetus. No animal was intentionally harmed, the seller claimed. Apparently, a pregnant shark washed up on shore and the seller just knew it was destined for eBay. (Starting bid: $19.95; selling price, $32.) Found on eBay (Universe) by Mark Hartzman (Image copyright Liz Steger 2002)

Stuffed Two-Headed Calf: According to the seller, the two-headed calf was born near the family's Duck, West Va., home in 1955 and given to the family to settle a debt. It's been preserved in a glass case and comes with a letter of authenticity. (Starting bid: $20,000; no buyer.)

Taxidermied Musical Bullfrog: Does PETA know about this? Once a living creature, this bullfrog has been stuffed and posed on a wood block, playing a tiny banjo. "They do not pop up every day," the seller promises. Indeed. (Starting bid: $4.99; selling price: $27.99.)

Absolutely Nothing: Here's a great present for an existentialist — nothing. An entrepreneur from Sedalia, Mo., advertised that he was selling "Nothing! Absolutely Nothing," and giving the proceeds to a local university.
After six bids, nothing sold for $1.03 — which might be pricey, but the shipping, naturally, was free.

Hornet's Nest: It's 22 inches high, 1 foot long and "would make a great piñata," the seller promised. Hornets not included. (Starting bid: $1; selling price: $2.25.)

The Soul of One Human Being: A Kentucky man offered for sale the soul of one of his friends, an atheist. "Wouldn't it be nice to have more than just one soul?" the seller asked. "Perhaps you have previously lost or sold your soul?" Bidding reached 71 cents before eBay closed the auction.

Goat Toenail Bracelet: This bizarre piece of jewelry from Guatemala makes "an eerie noise" when shaken. (Starting bid $9.99; no buyers.)

rain drops keep falling on my head...

actually, not really. i haven't ventured outside. this morning, i took my car in for it's 30,000 mile maintenance ($270, ouch!)- even though i've waited too long and it's actually at 35,000, but who's counting? anyway, the service guy calls me this morning and says they "recommend" a few additional things that he lists off, including replacement of the air filter (listed as toyota's standard maintenance), and replacement of a fog light (should still be covered under warranty) for $210 EXTRA dollars. so i made a few sanity check phone calls to people who know much more about cars than moi, and called back and said... um... not so much.

i fed my plant coffee today

so far, it's looking pretty happy about it. i know i usually am (about receiving coffee that is). our daily afternoon thunderstorm is rolling in. i'm still enjoying being able to spend a full day at work with no school work to come home to!

i love summer.

like i said...

...attention span of a gnat.

the empty 'burg

well, the miniscule traffic that existed for the past 9 months is gone. the students have left the building! which means... we can find places to park downtown (yay!) we can always get a table at rivermill (yay!) we can spend the summer on ian's porch and our couch (yay!)

today also marks the beginning of my healthy eating and going to the gym phase. stay tuned to see how long this phase will actually last.

word!

so i can prevent you people from posting comments post by post. which means i can make ridiculous claims like...

i was a dinosaur in my previous life (stegasaurus in fact)

and you have no outlet for rebuttal. v. exciting

couldn't help it...

had to change it. but change is the only sure thing, so deal with it!

it's almost the weekend. ryan hanlon is almost a graduate of the fine institution that is virginia tech. i'm almost about to graduate.. oh wait, no i'm not. ah well, i can look forward to the weekend at least.

i'm not very witty today. will need to work on that ;)

confession

i'm already tempted to change the blog template. i have the attention span of a gnat.

last week of busy blacksburg

well, at least for the summer. everyone's headed home this weekend, graduation is friday night. normally, i'm totallly excited because blacksburg is such a great and laid back place in the summer. but this year, there are so many friends leaving! for now, i've effectively suppressed any serious thought about the implications of so many of my friends going other places, so i'm still okay. but i will miss them all terribly.

i'll focus on summer blacksburg- which means:

- friday beer tastings and concerts on the lawn (mom and gram, i am definitely talking about rootbeer...)
- caving, canoeing, hiking
- tubing on the river
- grilling and sitting on the porch
- moving to a nice new apartment (yay!)

so lots to look forward to :) tonight, is blue's night at the cellar, so if you're in town, come- and be surprised by how great they are.

wicked crazy wednesday

yep, that's pretty much all i have to say about it. back to work!

snazzy new blog template

now i change my blog with my mood!...expect lots of changes ;)

fly by lawn guy

so... i'm at work. go figure, 'cause it's monday. but the amusing part of all of that is that every 30 seconds or so, the lawn guy flys by the window on his riding lawnmower at 80 mph. i hardly need coffee with this type of excitement around.

speaking of excitement, our CEO is in town tomorrow and i get to have lunch with him! very exciting. not just me of course, there will be 5 or 6 other people there, but the opportunity to forever end my career is definitely there. we're going to make a list of things NOT to say ("so, you make a lot of money- how's that working out for you?")

in other news, my parents are back from europe starting today (welcome home mom and marty!) :) which is good, because i was near overcome with jealousy looking at the beautiful pics from their trip. tulips and castles, oh my!

good quote from prudie

so i'm an avid weekly reader of "dear prudence" on slate.msn.com and thought this quote was worth repeating (or blogging about) :)

"What women find appealing is determined by needs, neurosis, and background."
- Prudie

in other news, i've missed lots of great blogging opportunities as last weekend was extremely eventful... here's the nutshell recap:

- elizabethan period murder mystery costume party
- 80s party followed by several games of blackjack that lasted until 5 a.m.
- riding tandem bikes (in tandem) for 10 miles on the huckleberry trail
- lots and lots of school work as it's the last week of classes. bittersweet, no more homework, but so many people are leaving blacksburg :(

murder mystery success

the murder mystery party was a success! and the butler did it! no actually.. spamlet, prince of hallmarke did it, but whatever ;)

gmail by google

so google has e-mail now! how cool is that? i'm the proud new owner of a gmail address.

brrrrrrrrrr

tell me again why it's so cold in april? oh yeah, that's right. i live in virginia where the weather is confused. tonight it's supposed to FROST. but thursday is in the 70s again so i can happily return to spring wardrobe type things.

so i dropped dry cleaning off before work this morning, something i haven't done since i've lived here, but something my own mother does every week. so maybe for that reason, i felt more grown up. weird, i know.

school's wrapping up and all that good stuff, then it's SUMMER! no work! oh wait... well, no school work.

starbucks barista

so i'm applying to starbucks to work as a barista (and so is cassie!) - i could use the extra cash, and i don't even think it will feel like work. the application asks the following questions (my proposed responses are in parentheses):

-Have you ever visited a Starbucks Coffee location? Where? Describe your experience. (YUMMY!)

-What do you like about coffee? (EVERYTHING!)

-Why would you like to work for Starbucks Coffee Company? (BECAUSE THEY ROCK)

stay tuned to see if we get the jobs...

blog neglect

so my grandma told me that she used to have my blog as her homepage, but on account of my infrequent updates, i'm now only a favorite link. now i've been inspired to make a little more effort in the blog department.

it's wednesday, and it's almost may. don't even get me started on how fast this year is going by.

it was really foggy this morning- but i liked it. when i moved here, i used to get really frustrated about the thick fog when i couldn't see where to drive, but now i know the road, so it's actually kind of nice. made me forget i was even driving to work. so i listened to my john mayer cd (recently rediscovered) and thought about "the kind of mornings that seem to last all afternoon."

excerpt from "sunday morning" by wallace stevens

II
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:
Passion 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 measures destined for her soul.

quiz i shamelessly stole the link to from joey's blog

"

dollywood here we come!

so we dyed and decorated 2 dozen eggs tonight -- they're quite beautiful i think.

tomorrow, dollywood! 3.5-4 hour drive, but well worth it. should have lots of memories and pictures after tomorrow! have a great easter and wonderful weekend!

it's april 7th already?

happy birthday to billie holiday! born on this day in 1915.

it's getting warmer here in virginia. which is good, because i was getting ready to high-tail it back to arizona. this whole "snow in april" thing was getting to be just a bit too much for me.

tonight? board games and whatnot. whatnot should include paying bills, taxes, and homework... but who am i kidding?

poetry we all understand

roses are red,
violets are blue....


okay, i'm just kidding :) it's monday! let the mania begin!

i'll post "simpler" bite size poetry later --

The New Poetry Handbook

by Mark Strand

1 If a man understands a poem,
he shall have troubles.

2 If a man lives with a poem,
he shall die lonely.

3 If a man lives with two poems,
he shall be unfaithful to one.

4 If a man conceives of a poem,
he shall have one less child.

5 If a man conceives of two poems,
he shall have two children less.

6 If a man wears a crown on his head as he writes,
he shall be found out.

7 If a man wears no crown on his head as he writes,
he shall deceive no one but himself.

8 If a man gets angry at a poem,
he shall be scorned by men.

9 If a man continues to be angry at a poem,
he shall be scorned by women.

10 If a man publicly denounces poetry,
his shoes will fill with urine.

11 If a man gives up poetry for power,
he shall have lots of power.

12 If a man brags about his poems,
he shall be loved by fools.

13 If a man brags about his poems and loves fools,
he shall write no more.

14 If a man craves attention because of his poems,
he shall be like a jackass in moonlight.

15 If a man writes a poem and praises the poem of a fellow,
he shall have a beautiful mistress.

16 If a man writes a poem and praises the poem of a fellow overly,
he shall drive his mistress away.

17 If a man claims the poem of another,
his heart shall double in size.

18 If a man lets his poems go naked,
he shall fear death.

19 If a man fears death,
he shall be saved by his poems.

20 If a man does not fear death,
he may or may not be saved by his poems.

21 If a man finishes a poem,
he shall bathe in the blank wake of his passion
and be kissed by white paper.

lyrics (snippet) dose of the day

"See I'm all about them words
Over numbers, unencumbered numbered words
Hundreds of pages, pages, pages forwards
More words then I had ever heard and I feel so alive"

spring back? spring forward?

ah, i can never remember. but according to my calendar, it's spring forward, so we're losing an hour at 2 a.m. on sunday -- sorry arizona, we're three hours apart again!

today is crazy meeting day, so this will be a short post, maybe followed by a literary posting of sorts, maybe not.

today is also relay for life day! it's supposed to be 40 degrees and raining which is PERFECT for an 18 hour relay in the name of the search for a cancer cure. jules and are are walking the first 4 hour block this evening starting at 6 -- we'll be in head to toe pink -- our team is specifically supporting breast cancer, themed "think pink!"

have a wonderful weekend!

what's this about a holiday?

so i didn't even realize that i don't have to work next friday, being that it's good friday. so that's exciting. sounds like a few people will be around for easter weekend, so we're planning a possible trip to dollywood on saturday. for those of you who don't know, dollywood is dolly parton's very own amusement park in tennessee, and it's AWESOME.

the big E

so saturday was the big event. we picked up pine cones (and sticks), planted flowers, pulled weeds, and mulched and mulched and mulched. hung out with st. francis (patron saint of nature), ate a yummy lunch, enjoyed the beautiful day and scenery. our team name? sap happy. our team handshake? a high five... but then you get stuck together, 'cause of sap and stuff. we're dorks, we know. pictures to come eventually, whenever people that took them send them out (cassie has my camera in az).

went to see a streetcar named desire on friday night and it was... interesting. not the most uplifting of plays, but was good.

saturday night was girls' night out -- quite memorable :)

new culinary discovery in the new river valley (for me anyway): homeplace. had heard lots, but never been there -- all you can eat, served family style down home cookin' :)

and i washed my car. and i went to target. and i did NO SCHOOL WORK WHATSOEVER! :)

dead blog

here lies the blog, barely breathing due to infrequent updates....

:) so things have been a bit crazy, here are the highlights:

- research paper, 9 of 20 pages complete! (hold the applause please) also, the dead line was extended a few days :)

- st. patrick's was an oustanding success-- macado's was a definite repeat locale for next year, lots of green hats and a woman that let us use her table until her friends arrived. we also had a fierce competition at champs (my partner and i were the winners of the golden tee bracket)- i'm dangerous with a 7-iron.

- cassie has left the building. she's in arizona for 10 days! :(

- i'm doing all kinds of goodie two-shoes activites in the near future- relay for life and "the big event" where organizations at tech help out all around the community with various service tasks -- "Currently in its 3rd year at Virginia Tech, The Big Event is expecting over 1500 students to complete nearly 200 jobs in Blacksburg, Christiansburg, Montgomery County, and neighboring communities." i really like doing this stuff but never actually do, thanks to ashlea and julia, i'm getting invovled ;)

- it's recruiting weekend AGAIN. no comment.

- i'm addicted to bubblemint orbit gum. yummy.

lightbulb!

so.. it apparently disappears when i publish the next post.. verrrry interesting.

cranky blogger

for some reason, even if i delete a post, it continues to show up for some period of time. so even though i posted the poem below, realized i'd posted it before and deleted it, it's still happily camped on the blog page. ah well, if that's that biggest problem i have right now, i'm the luckiest person ever ;)

back to work!

performance measurement and a little whine... or wine

i took my first stab at making manicotti lastnight, and i think it turned out all right (at least, i hope that was the general consensus). tonight, was more research for the 20-page monster that currently dominates my life ;) started out at bollo's (one of my favorite coffee shops), but got bored and moved to the cellar, sat at the bar, and drank wine while reading my research articles. surprisingly productive. even more surprising, was after an hour or so of studying, i looked across the room and thought, hey, that girl looks like cassie. and upon closer inspection.. hey, that IS cassie! so i crashed her party and said hi, then went back to studying. and now, it's quite time for bed ladies and gentlemen, so get to it!

data ridiculousness

did i mention how much i hate data and everything it stands for? well no, not really, but i'm headed home now. yawn. must have food...can't go on....

oh the injustice of it all

well, not really, but it's a subject line that gets your attention, no?

noteable: after i've read a chick flick- i tend toward writing in the same style as the author. maybe that's not noteable. for that matter, maybe that's not how you spell noteable. looks wrong somehow.

weird surrealistic mood lately. it was flurrying this morning. what kind of craziness is that? i made a new cd- david grey, norah jones, john mayer, jason mraz, etc. it's my "chillin', but not so much like a villain" cd- joey, remind me to make you a copy ;)

my new favorite song? norah jones - sunrise. in fact - the low-lowercase word of the random interval in which i pick one is sunrise: (n.) 1. The event or time of the daily first appearance of the sun above the eastern horizon. 2. An outset or emergence: the sunrise of classical art and sculpture.

but for now, it's sunset, and i have lots of work to do before i go home :) so goodnight!

in like a lamb...

out like a lion! march has swept into the year so gracefully, i fear for her exit-- it's been a beautiful few days. so it's almost spring break for the hokies, but really that only means that i get to spend more time at work next week -- or i could just "forget" that it's spring break and leave early as if i have class...mwha ha ha ha...but no, that won't work- too many people that work here are connected to the university, i'd be found out.

in other news, i've lost my cell phone. so if you've been trying to call me, TOO BAD! i'm working to remedy the situation, and am considering dropping suncom like a hot potato since my contract's up anyway.

back to the quality control plan...

mid-week, mid-semester.

ahoy! so it's halfway through the week already, and amazingly, halfway through the semester too! i have a 20 page paper due march 22. so far, 0 of 20 pages have been written. but i've made much progress in the reading department. subject? performance measurement in lean manufacturing. did anyone fall asleep reading the title? hope not, in fact, i'm pretty interested in the subject (let's hope... because i chose it).

so the low-lowercase word of the random interval in which i will present one is... evanescence: noun. the act or an example of passing out of sight: disappearance, evaporation, fade-out, vanishment.

for fun and a little creativity check out www.oneword.com fun stuff

doggie-smack down week has come to a close. she's back to sleeping in my bed, but has learned the following words and/or phrases: "out of the kitchen!" and "CRATE!" in short, i consider it a success.

poetry archives return!

dredged this one up-- don't think i've ever posted it -- tell me if i have, and i'll replace it ;)

The Dog Days of Summer

“Don’t answer the door while I’m gone.” She’d say,
fastening a name tag to her uniform just before
grabbing her keys and a quick kiss from each of us,
leaving the faint scent of her perfume lingering
just in front of my face.

My sister (in all the maturity of her junior high years)
liked to watch The Young and the Restless at 10:30.
I liked the Price is Right better staying in front
of the TV just long enough to see if anyone won the showcase.

Afterwards, I would retreat to my bedroom with a book
and the dog (if she could be convinced), emerging later to find lunch.
She and I usually ate hot pockets, ham and cheese mostly.
Sometimes, I would ask her what happened on the show.
Did Victor really die? Was Cole really Victoria’s brother
after they’d been sleeping together for months?

Other days, my sister’s best friend would come over,
and they would eat lunch on the roof.
Not for any reason really, other than they weren’t allowed.
Those days, I didn’t find out what happened to Victor and the rest.

Once, I scrambled up with them, swinging scrawny summer legs
the few feet between the roof’s edge and the courtyard wall.
I didn’t stay long, quickly bored by talk of boys I’d never met,
teachers of classes I hadn’t taken yet.
On the way back down, I slithered
off the edge of the roof on my stomach, feet dangling,
searching for the cement wall to put my feet on.
I slipped before I found it, feeling nothing but air
and the glance of the wall across my back as I fell
into the flowerbed. Startled, I lay there
trying to find my breath again. I reached
back and felt the broken skin along my back, but no blood.

The fall and I must have made enough sound to draw the attention
of two seventh graders on the other side of the roof.
I rolled to my side to find they were leaning over me,
concern quickly turned to ridicule once they realized
I had missed my own footing.

Left alone when they disappeared to the roof again,
I sat up and brushed my arm where
dirt from the flowerbed and shame from the fall clung
to my t-shirt like cicada shells on the backyard fence.

is it friday yet?

thursday evening and quieting down here in the cubicle. sounds so dilbert to say "the cubicle," but that's what it is. so i saw the movie everyone's been talking about lately, and i don't really know what to blog about it really...i've never seen a movie audience more stunned or quiet as they filed out of the theatre. i've eventually decided i'm glad i saw it, but i don't ever want to see it again. thought provoking.

french dips for dinner tonight, which i've really been looking forward to, we're also supposed to get 3-6 inches of snow, so big plans to curl up with a roast beast sandwich and bottle of wine. which i will share with my seester and whoever else holds out a glass :)

tweedle's leaving us this weekend, is heading off to ol' purdue. i need to go back as well sometime soon, i'm homesick for it :)

it's doggie smack-down week yet again, except this time, we mean business. cassie and i have presented a unified parental front to our wayward bulldog who can't seem to grip the fact she is but a dog in our apartment, not princess ruler of the household. teddy is dog-sitting this weekend though, maybe cleo can confide in 'dakota' a keeshound about her tyrannical parents.

in other exciting news, cable has miraculously appeared on our tv. don't know why, or how, or for how long, but there it is.

all's quiet on the blogging front

so i've been neglecting my blog, as well as phone calls to my mother, e-mails to my friends, and i don't think i've fed cleo in weeks... hmm...

but recruiting was successful! if you can consider putting $750 on my credit card successful (and i do). don't worry mom, it's reimbursable. lots of fun. noteables? kabuki is a really cool japanese steakhouse that's both entertaining and tasty, and chateau morrissette has 2, count them, 2 new wines. 1 of which i brought home to share 'cause, mmm... it's my new favorite.

on the subject of school, i have a 20 page research paper to write, but the due date moved a week further away from me, so that's all the encouragement i need to procrastinate just a tad bit longer.

speaking of procrastinating, i'm going to finish up and head home! it's a barnes and noble kind of night.

from the bad girl rage-a-day

today's to do: stop thinking.
recent studies reported in real-life medical journals indicate that there is no such thing as a stressful life event- only stressful thoughts about life events. therefore, if something upsets you or makes you nervous, stressed, or freaked out in any way, just don't think about it. the way to elminate stress from your life is simply to stop thinking. hurray! one less thing to do.

today's to don't: stop dreaming of greatness.

toooosday

"the future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams."

- eleanor roosevelt

yawn... i'm almost out of here. exciting points for the day?

- my job is starting to make sense
- the girl scout cookies i bought showed up today (lemon creams and thin mints)
- this weekend is recruiting weekend for danaher (all expenses paid trip to blacksburg!)
- barnes and noble tonight for some crack-down studying...or relaxing reading, make up your own mind

happy valentine's day

or singles awareness day, depending on your status. cleo and i are chillin' together today, doing fun girl stuff, like painting our nails (if i can get her to hold still long enough), brushing our hair, etc.

i finally opened like two months worth of mail today- i should really keep up with that better (mom, if you're reading this... IGNORE IT! i'm lying, i read my mail and pay my bills at least one month in advance...)

okay, lunchtime :)

tee-hee

too much free time? i think so...

friday the 13th....

...is tomorrow.

advice from the 8-ball

so the 8-ball seems quite confident ("yes, definitely") that i'm capable of this job... but i have my doubts.

dance party in my new office

so my new office is so big i could have a dance party. and a plant, cause i have a window! kind of weird to have carpet... and space...feel like i should partition half of it off and slowly move it out until i get used to it. jeff lang ran a few laps in here this morning even. okay, it's not THAT big, but it's comfortable and roomy. i'm done bragging now.

i do miss inland - or the "mothership" as i've heard it referred to by others who have moved from facility to facility.

learning my new job until wednesday, then i'm on my own! skipped class today to make sure i sponge up as much knowledge as possible from amanda before she heads back across the border. in fact... i think i'll spend some quality time with all that reading she gave me to do -- adios ;)

ps: the 8-ball made the trip safely, thanks to "the cass" who graciously agreed to get up early on a sunday morning to help me move all my stuff :)

blacksburg? or thinly veiled skate park?

riiiiiiiiiight. so this morning, tweedle was picking me up for work anyway cause we're going to happy hour for work tonight for my last day at inland- sniff... sniff... :( but anyway, back to the story- lastnight the new river valley was coated in an icy glaze which is pretty to look at, but generally not cooperative when trying to drive to work. so he amazingly made it out of his neighborhood and i hiked/skated up the untreated hill of my apartment complex to where tweedle was able to make it with his car. but once we were out on main roads, it wasn't too bad. kudos to the guy driving 5 miles downhill on prices fork this morning, that was awesome.

blogworthy part ii

so ryan posed the question "where does baby corn come from? is it a mini corn patch? is it a tree?" while we were eating stir fry the other night and cassie offered the following as an explanation: "i think baby corn is like stunted reject corn that people decided to put in asian food." have a better explanation? tell me! tell me! the natives are restless and thirsty for knowledge! ... or hungry for baby corn, i'm not really sure.

blogworthy

jeff lang's fortune today at lunch read: "your emotional nature is strong and emotional." i think we can all learn something from such a deep comment. is anyone else annoyed that fortunes no longer provide fortunes, but statements that are completely and totally obvious to even a parakeet? i say parakeet, because, i figure, parakeets' heads are v. small, and by proportion, so is their brain power. if you've been the previous owner, or currently own a smart parakeet, please speak up for the species. (ps: if you correct me on my use of species, when i should have said some other scientific classification... well, then i'll be further humbled, because i have no idea what i'm talking about).

Cello Boy on a Tuesday Night

and because of a phone call from an old friend, i'm posting this poem in which he is featured (he's marc, not cello boy) :)

Cello Boy on a Tuesday Night

We walked down to Church Street one night
to see if we could find cello boy.
Marc says he’s always out on Saturday
nights. I saw them-

only once before, on a Tuesday. Cello boy
and his father. The boy dressed in a starched
white shirt, shined shoes; leaning over
his cello, face much too serious

for someone so young. It is a reflection
of his father, the man who hovers behind
his son, watching the Rubbermaid box
in front of his child fill with change.

That night, a crowd formed
around the two of them, father and son. Tonight,
there is no cello boy, perhaps his father
has relented, and cello boy has lost

his serious expression for an evening, no music
filling the street with the melancholy song
of a boy who learned the notes
too early to play them.

neglected blog

so i've been neglecting the blog lately since my computer at work is down for the count since saturday. computer down! repeat: a computer is down! ... or maybe that's only funny in a scottish accent.

so someone tell me what happened with the groundhog, i'm curious as to what the rest of winter holds in store for us.

michael - ice is some wintry mix combination of sleet and rain that forms a nice solid icy coating everywhere- as it turns out, this particular storm's bark was worse than its bite.

one of my course projects is with a local martial arts center- we're designing a performance measurement system for them- how cool is that? should be pretty exciting, maybe i'll get belt of color by the end of the semester (or maybe a certificate!).

the big move is friday/monday up to the other facility (one mile away), amazing how much my pack rat self has accumulated over the past 18 months. also amazing i've worked at danaher for 18 months - craziness!

okay, it's close to pumpkin time for me, so night night y'all :)

maniacal monday

home for lunch and then off to class- had a great time ignoring the superbowl lastnight :) and lots of great food thanks to ben -- southwest virginia is expecting 1/4 to 1/2 of an inch of ice tonight, so maybe no work or class tomorrow! if so... LOTR risk will definintely ensue.

happy february :)