my test is in 1 hour, 7 minutes and i don't want to study...la la la

second verse? same as the first! everybody now! my test is in 1 hour, 6 minutes and i don't want to study...la la la...

happy cinco de mayo!

litte known fact, cinco de mayo is NOT mexican independence day. i've got a stick of gum and lifelong admiration waiting for anyone who can tell me what it actually is ;) in other news, the life of my favorite shoes, the rocket dogs, is coming to a close. that's right, everyone's favorite pair of industrial grip platform mary jane's has entered the sunset of its life. e-bay can't console me. my only hope is to find some insoles that patch things up and extend their wear!
i also have a final today. yip yip yippee! not really though. it's on quality control. i have news for him, quality is not in control. period. that's going to be my answer to every question. okay maybe not every question. point is, i'm hightailing it out of here asap, heading home to change, starbuck's for a recharge, then to campus to study up until my test at 7.
THEN it's downtown charlie brown!

nashville carried me away ;)

which is to say i got carried away in nashville and under the slight influence of a bit of alcohol purchased a beautiful pair of cowboy (girl) boots and a hat to match!
other highlights? krystallll on the drive down, dinner at las palmas (fantastic chimis..mmmm) on friday night and some POURING rain to boot (no pun intended), some fantastic omelettes for breakfast made by none other than our host, then the parthenon (full size replica!), then some fantastic bbq at jack's, then some great honky tonk at open mic night, then home to change, then to the mall for aforementioned boots and hat, then to another fantastic dinner, and then to back to broadway for more music and entertainment :)
overall, it was a great weekend :) i think my favorite part about nashville is how many people are trying to make it as stars- made me excited for them when watching them play- at one point, even our bartender got up and sang a song :)
my only complaint is nashville apparently doesn't qualify to have a coffee mug to call their own- music city? c'mon starbucks, have a heart!

oh i'm going to be such a tourist...

Heralded as Music City, USA, and the country-music capital of the world, Tennessee's fast-growing capital city also shines as a leading center of higher education, appropriately known as the Athens of the South. Nashville has prospered from both labels, emerging as one of the South's most vibrant cities in the process. The Gaylor Entertainment Center (formerly Nashville Arena), a 20,000-seat facility spanning three blocks at 5th and Broadway, opened in 1996. Connected to the city's convention center by a tunnel, the Arena hosted the U.S. Figure Skating Championship in 1997. A successful drive to land both a National Football League and a National Hockey League franchise, coupled with a population gain that has pushed Nashville ahead of Memphis, has put Nashville into the major leagues of American cities.

wow what a crazy week!

have been busy on the border of ridiculousness (or beyond it) :) but that's only because the semester is quickly coming to a close! am on vacation tomorrow (yipee!) headed to nashville for a marathon
.
.
.
and you're thinking... what? did i read that correctly? yes you did, but i'm not the one running in it! i'm just along for the beer (cough.. root beer mom!) and country music :) it's also the best chance i have to wear my rhinestone belt buckle. which i will, proudly. i only hope that i can locate a decent cowgirl hat on the drive through tennessee.
gram - if i get time, we might stop in greene county!

relay for life!

despite popular belief, participating in relay for life does NOT mean you walk all night long. it kicks off at 6:30 pm and last until 9 am. each team participating keeps someone on the track at ALL times (hence....relay) :) so, i'll get some quality naps in tonight, but our team will always be walking for all 14 hours. i have made a personal pledge to walk at least 5 miles...at least, that's what i had to agree to for a guy at work to donate $20 for the cause :) we're under a severe thunderstorm warning with predictions of heavy rain and large hail, so this should prove to be an interesting evening! luckily we're offsetting any good doing type exercise with a grill full of beer brots. i mean really - what else would you have at a cancer benefit?
enjoy the weekend! :)

thursday means it's ALMOST the weekend

thursday is by far my longest day (class until 10 pm) but in some ways my favorite as it is the kick-off to the weekend :) am off to starbucks to work on a project, then class from 7-10, then paul clark and the lonesome drifters at the cellar :) busy busy. cleo doesn't remember what i look like anymore!
but i've made 2 lists, one of things left to do for school (and folks, it's LONG)- one of things i need to take care of outside of school/work - also long :) but some of it's fun, for example -make an appointment to cut my hair, which is getting long, and in need of cutting.
okay, i'm outta here :) anyone noticed my attempt to blog more frequently?

don't you know about the new fashion honey?

all you need are looks and a whole lot of money.

post delinquency

so i've been not posting lately due to work/school/social craziness! seems like i've only been at my apartment to sleep lately. i'm off again this time, but first, a few things of note from last weekend:

- great bike ride and picnic on the new river trail
- fun trip to chateau morrisette :) with plenty of wine to be had
- i read poetry at the 'poetry slam' at easy chair bookstore. it was so much fun - exhilerating even. did i spell that right? whatever.. i'm in a hurry ;) no time for spell check! but somehow, there is time to type several sentences about how it may be mispelled... ah well, there's no accounting for logic on this blog!
happy wednesday ;)

yawn...

i'm tired! but looking forward to a great weekend :) and i'm reading poetry tonight- not to myself at home, but out loud at a bookstore! v. exciting :) enjoy your weekend...

oh that's right

when i post poetry, you guys (and girls!) stop talking... :)

poetry dose 1!

this was written about something my mom used to tell us when we were growing up. now in her defense (i just got off the phone with her)- she says what she ACTUALLY said was "the one who is least emotionally involved is in control," so take this one with a grain of salt ;) and don't get caught up in the overdramatics: (1) it's poetry, (2) this was a long time ago.

my sister tells me we are cursed by the unattainable

no matter what happens, i know

i’ll be okay, i tell her, smoothing

the tears from my cheek

with my fingers, pausing

while the phone line falls silent,

interrupted again by the sound

of her voice. that’s another curse

of ours, she says.

six days later i am walking home

at five o’clock in the evening and i realize

what she meant. rush hour traffic is speeding

past me and my love life suddenly makes sense.

we will never completely succumb our lives

to someone else’s. suspended

in our independence- cursed in knowing

that the one

who loves

the least

is in control.

second poetry dose!

this one is (obviously) written about living on the oil rig.. lyrics in italics shamelessly stolen from Natalie Merchant's Where I Go.

Venice, But No Gondola

I: On the Way

He says out loud (not necessarily to me)

“If you want to see poverty, just go to Venice.”

Funny how they’re both water cities,

whether it’s Italy or Louisiana.

Instead of a gondola, I’m in a Chevy Suburban

traveling down a highway.

Houses on stilts line the roadside,

the smell of oil seems to hang

among the cars on blocks, dark swamps with bright

green algae on the surface. Natalie Merchant

wails from the car speakers, a borrowed CD.

I didn’t borrow it, the lyrics reach me anyway,

climbing over the old stone wall

I am bound for the riverside.

When I look out the window, the leather seats

seem wrong for the situation. I feel compelled

to respond to the poverty comment but don’t know

what to say and the awkward lapse inevitable

of a four hour car ride with a stranger

fills the car. Natalie sings anyway, unaware

there is nothing to say, find a place

on the riverbank

where the green rushes grow

see the wind

in the willow tree

in the branches hanging low

We reach the dock and I board a boat headed out

to the Gulf. I watch from the back deck as we push

through the heavy water and every now and then

my gaze lands on small houses, isolated

by the swamps , connected only by dilapidated

wooden docks. Later, I notice the water has cleared,

the houses are gone and ocean water laps the tall grass

all around us.

II: On the Rig

My shift will be midnight to noon. I learn

to love rising in the darkness, eating breakfast at 4:30 a.m.

I learn exactly what to tell “Q” in the mornings

to have my eggs cooked just right. I learn what to call

the men. Later, I even learn their names.

I find that when the metal

and the men and the mud

become too much,

I can always find the sea.

It stretches out so far that I can no longer remember

where I might find land. At night, I forget that it’s only water;

the other rigs light the skyline as if they are outskirts

of a metropolis.

One morning, as the sun rose on the water

I noticed that the blue was being overtaken by a deeper,

darker brown. It’s the Mississippi, they tell me, even

twelve miles of water between us, it still finds the way

all the silt spilling into the gulf,

staining the blue. child it's lovely

let the river take it all away

the mad pace, the hurry

the troubles, the worries

just the river take them all away

flow away.

i'm published! (well, sort of...)

Silhouette is Virginia Tech's Literary and Art Magazine:

Dear Brianna,

Congratulations! Your poems, “Venice but No Gondola” and “My sister tells me we are cursed by the unattainable” were selected for publication in the Fall 2005 edition of the Silhouette. Thank you so much for submitting! We will be contacting you later on about signing forms, etc. Thanks again and congratulations! :)

Lindsay Key

Poetry Editor of the Silhouette

coffee champions!

jason posted this a few posts down, and i wanted to make sure it wasn't overlooked. my favorite coffee house at purdue, vienna, was 'threatened' by a lesser coffee shop that charged more for coffee that wasn't even good (opened when i was a sophomore there), and it's finally gone out of business :) sad for the business owners, but yay for vienna, the reigning champion! nothing beats ridiculously tasty flavors of the day and sandwiches named after jazz musicians :)

"Jason said...

Speaking of coffee houses...some big news here in the west lafayette (remember, that town you lived in for undergrad?) well, all was normal on thursday, vienna and village coffeehouse both open for java drinks (of course one is better than the other)...come saturday morning village is closed, completely empty with "for lease" signs in the windows, and the markerboard outside says "20 unemployed on a whim..." leaving vienna the undisputed champion on campus..."

i'm in class right now

which is why i've been so post-happy. just in case you were wondering.

april is poetry month!

well we're one week in to poetry month. were you aware of this? the below is stolen from slate's tribute to it:

"Poetry Month, some say, is a promotional vulgarity that lowers a great and fundamental art to the level of Domestic Cheese or Accident Prevention. Others respond, Poetry Month is a genial, harmless way of encouraging people to read poems and buy books of poetry.

Poetry, say some, is a private and personal art, best appreciated in deep chambers of the soul, not out in the public marketplace where it can be bought and sold like a hot dog or an entertainment center. But poetry, say others, makes art from words, the very stuff of the public agora where people meet and exchange words along with ideas, feelings, and goods."

spring fling!

i flung the old blog template in favor of this pretty new green one - enjoy until i get bored and change it again!

a cookie is a sometimes food?

so cookie monster is into greener pastures this season -- a few excerpts below ;) full article here.

"My beloved blue, furry monster -- who sang "C is for cookie, that's good enough for me" -- is now advocating eating healthy. There's even a new song -- "A Cookie Is a Sometimes Food," where Cookie Monster learns there are "anytime" foods and "sometimes" foods...
...The furry one also plans to try different kinds of cookies (read: healthier cookies) rather than his just staple, chocolate chip.
But will he still scarf his food? Yes, plus the occasional object, Truglio said.
But isn't that unhealthy? Her reply: He's still Cookie Monster.
Cookie Monster appears to be happy with the new "sometimes food" song, because at the end he warbles: "Is sometimes now?"
"Yes," he's told.
So there it is. Cookie Monster still gobbles cookies, he's just a healthier version of his old self. His eyes are still googly, his fur is still scruffy and he's still messy.
Even "Sesame Street" recognizes that we all need guilty pleasures."

arizona snippets

ashlea and i in arizona...with a saguaro (suh-wauroh) for those of you not familiar ;)

but then all was resolved and we were on our way there!

ashlea and i unhappily delayed when flying to az...

this just in

so, i found during my few days in arizona that my grandma does in fact still read my blog (thanks gram!). my mom doesn't because of the lame excuse that she got a new computer and it's no longer her homepage. that's the only way i can get her to read it.. make it her default internet site. the blog even a mother couldn't love! lucky for me, my sense of worth is not closely tied to the number of comments on my blog ;)
this week is filled with homework, projects, papers, and work (of the 40-hour-a-week variety that is). but after that the fun begins! it's a paul clark week, closely followed on friday by the graduate student semi-formal gala - that's right, get out your gala clothes because there's a cocktail party, dinner, and dance to attend (isn't that festive?) can't think of a better way to kick off the warm weather that's starting to be the norm around here again.
bollo's has good coffee today, and i've now come often enough that i recall the exact change for a house mug. $1.37. today, there's not even time for my one free refill, have to rush off to a meeting on campus ;) enjoy the warm weather (hopefully wherever you are, there is some!)

damn that technology

so new google craziness. recently they released google maps - which is my new directions site of choice, but NOW they have satellite photos- want to see your house from way up high? type in your address and up it comes, most are zoomable (i found houses in phoenix i could zoom in completely, but those in blacksburg, i couldn't). http://maps.google.com/ for a little distraction ;) for a little controversy about the subject, check out cnn.

there IS an arizona!

and i'm here enjoying it :) along with miss ashlea -- have been here since thursday and am enjoying every minute of it -- am headed out now for a day of lunching and shopping and then a yummy dinner at cafe boa. it's almost 80 here! am also looking forward to getting back to virginia though :) there are things to be missed at home -- enjoy the rest of the weekend ;)
(i said enjoy no less than 3 times in this post.. and now 4!)

a little laundry, a little wine (and whine)

ahh... (breathe) my 3-day hellacious week is coming to a close! well, it wasn't all bad ;) but parts were -- it was a bit of a jolt after such a wonderful easter weekend to return to work and actually get stuff done :) but tomorrow morning ashlea and i are headed off to arizona! i can't wait...i plan on returning tan, happy, and rested :) (and with a considerably expanded wardrobe)
low lowercase word of the random interval in which i will post one is savour:
sa·vor
NOUN: 1. The taste or smell of something. 2. A specific taste or smell. See synonyms at taste. 3. A distinctive quality or sensation: enjoying the savor of victory.
VERB: Inflected forms: sa·vored, sa·vor·ing, sa·vors
INTRANSITIVE VERB: 1. To have a particular taste or smell: a dish that savors of curry. 2. To exhibit a specified quality or characteristic; smack: postures that savored of vanity.
TRANSITIVE VERB: 1. To impart flavor or scent to; season: savored the bland soup with salt. 2. To taste or smell, especially with pleasure: savored each morsel of the feast. 3. To appreciate fully; enjoy or relish: I want to savor this great moment of accomplishment.
ETYMOLOGY: Middle English savour, from Old French, from Latin sapor, from sapere, to taste.

work sucks, pass it on

just found out i have to work over the fourth of july...

blog not working?

a little birdie told me comments aren't working -- which means.... i can't post whatever i want and until the server comes back up you people can't comment. mwha ha ha ha ha.
let's take a vote. does the evil laugh begin with an m or a w?

almost forgot...

..new blog title was the one and only suggestion, but i like it :) so, yet again, ashlea, this one's for you :)

Eating Poetry, by Mark Strand

Ink runs from the corners of my mouth.
There is no happiness like mine.
I have been eating poetry.

The librarian does no believe what she sees.
Her eyes are sad
and she walks with her hands in her dress.

The poems are gone.
The light is dim.
The dogs are on the basement stairs and coming up.

Their eyeballs roll,
their blond legs burn like brush.
The poor librarian begins to stamp her feet and weep.

She does not understand.
When I get on my knees and lick her hand,
she screams.

I am a new man.
I snarl at her and bark.
I romp with joy in the bookish dark.

it's all about the blog

you people amuse me. what i thought was the most boring post garnered no less than six comments. i guess ie's can't resist a little process improvement ;) well, ie's and an english major. yay for only brushing your teeth once per year, it's much more efficient- in fact who needs teeth? we could all just suck puree through a straw. okay gross, it's too early in the morning for that.
my candy bowl at work has been filled with easter candy- happy easter early!
observation: my boss always calls me bri- except when i'm in some sort of trouble, in which case i am 'brianna' - (i.e. 'brianna, i really need those metrics i asked you about.') very similar to my mother actually :) at least i know right off when to sit up straight and pay attention!

my morning routine

one of the great things about blogging is you can post things that are of absolutely no interest whatsoever to anyone but you. now ideally of course, other people are interested and read and are entertained -- i decided to walk that oh-so-dangerous line and post something of possible little to no interest ;) you tell me. if left to my own devices, i tend to run on the exact same schedule every morning --

5:30 am: alarm 1 goes off, hit snooze, snuggle back into covers
5:38 am: alarm 1 goes off again, repeat above
5:45 am: alarm 2 goes off, get up, turn off alarm 2, turn off alarm 1, pull cleo out of bed and set her on the floor, walk to take her out, stand just inside while she runs outside
5:42 am: different clock ;) clocks in my room are 4 minutes fast. feed the dog, grind coffee, start the coffee maker-- return to my room, put toothpaste on my toothbrush and get back in bed to brush teeth, splash water on face and put contacts in
5:55ish am: take cleo out again, then back in the kitchen - pour one mug for home, one travel mug for work- back to room to shower, then dressed, then hair and makeup
6:25 am: put shoes on, cuddle dog, put dog in crate
6:33 am: grab coffee and bag and leave

typically this puts me in the car at 6:39 (where the clock is 4 minutes fast again). i find it odd (and a little disturbing) that i'm so repeatable -- but i guess it makes sense. now that i see my entire routine on paper the industrial engineer in me wants to improve the process ;)
now that i've effectively postponed doing any real work (i have homework i REALLY don't want to do right now, which is the only explanation i have for the above), i'll get back to it ;)

ashlea, this one's for you

Super swine was real, experts say, Tuesday, March 22, 2005

They also noted the super swine didn't quite live up to the 1,000-pound (450-kilogram), 12-foot (3.6-meter) hype generated when Hogzilla was caught on a farm last summer and photographed hanging from a backhoe.

Donning biohazard suits to exhume the behemoth's smelly remains, the experts estimated Hogzilla was probably only 7 1/2 to 8 feet (2.25 to 2.4 meters) long, and weighed about 800 pounds (360 kilograms).

Continue reading this amazing news...

productivity is the name of the game

i'm rather self-satisfied today as i arrived at work at 6:30 and am actually fairly organized for a tuesday ;) well, for any day really. homework is done (complete with cover sheet!), reports ran, boards updated, etcetera etcetera. i feel like i've been on a long trip or something, my day-to-day calendar says march 14. this is because, until today, about 2 weeks worth of papers were on top of it. actually.... i guess it could only really be 1 week's worth based on the date that's showing...but it's still a lot of papers! trust me on that one!

shameless plug ;)

if you're one act short of your random act of kindness for the day, give me money! no, not actually me. relay for life (to raise money for cancer research) is on april 22-23. if you're thinking 'relay for wha?' then let me explain - it's an all night vigil of sorts -- our team (virginia tech grad students) will keep someone walking all night long around the track, along with dozens of other teams from virginia tech, to support research for a cure to cancer. before the relay however, we hit up our friends and family for money :) so take a look at the website, it's very easy to donate, and if you are stuck in the 80's and putting credit card info on the internet freaks you out a bit, just let me know- there are alternate means of donation :) thanks!

i rock and want to give bri (ahem, relay for life) money!

don't think i've ever posted this one

although maybe it's cause i never quite nailed the wording -- anyway, here it is in all its rough draft glory:

My Fairy Godmother Wears Versace

I tell him twenty-one year olds are sexy
and sophisticated. He seems skeptical
of such a transformation, one that happens
while we sleep breathing the stroke
of midnight. A Versace clad
fairy godmother will wave her wand
over the length of my sleeping form,
then flit elsewhere- perhaps in pursuit
of a tall skinny café latte (no foam).

I will wake with an impeccable French twist,
cotton turned silk, wool to angora and a craving
for a lightly buttered croissant alongside a café au lait.
He won’t know me when he wakes, yawning
turning to find that I have been thieved
away in the middle of the night
by the turn of a year, leaving someone
he’s never seen before.

days like these

are perfect for lazy mornings and farmers' markets and used bookstores -- i'm off to find them :)

happy saint patrick's day

Leprechauns, castles, good luck and laughter;
Lullabies, dreams and love ever after.
Poems and songs with pipes and drums;
A thousand welcomes when anyone comes.

it IS easy being green

well, at least today anyway. i almost forgot so i've got a green rubber band on my wrist and i'm wearing pink ;) ah well, tonight i'll put on something more festive and of the green variety.
in the spirit of spring and mid-march, a few inches of snow fell lastnight...hmmm, that actually doesn't seem quite right. but it did make for a beautiful drive this morning!

my latest addiction

is the garden state soundtrack. ironically, i haven't seen the movie. favorites so far are let's go by frou frou, and eyes of blue by cary brothers.
today, i am tired! noticeably apparently because i was harrassed in my morning meeting :) oh well, after homework and studying for my midterm, i'm home free for a little while anyway, although that research paper is starting to loom overhead.

'cause blue eyes, you’re the secret i keep
'cause blue eyes, all the lights on and you are alive, but you can't point the way to your heart, so sublime, when the stars are aligned, but you don't know, you don't know the greatness you are, 'cause Blue Eyes, you are destiny's scene

rock the blog

comments pop up now! don't be alarmed by the fast-paced technological advances of this blog.

more than a spoonful of poetry (and some commentary to go with it)

"It is hard to talk concretely about Ashbery's poetry, because his subject is, so often, aesthetic consciousness—what he calls "the experience of experience." On the one hand, the poems have the dashed-off look and feel of pop culture-inflected postmodernism, inspired by the radical innovations of Dada and French Surrealism. On the other hand, at their heart is a kind of high Romantic yearning for wholeness: In a sense the poems are simply about being unable to give up that longing. At the center of an Ashbery poem isn't usually a subject (à la Philip Larkin) but a feeling (à la Jackson Pollock). That feeling is conjured up by the interplay between aesthetic conviction and amiably bland bewilderment; amid all the flotsam and jetsam of everyday life is the enduring hope that, as one speaker puts it, "at last I shall see my complete face." The best thing to do, then, is not to try to understand the poems but to try to take pleasure from their arrangement, the way you listen to music. It's only then, for most readers, that the meaning begins to leak through." (article smidgen shamelessly stolen from slate.msn.com)


Paradoxes and Oxymorons by John Ashberry

This poem is concerned with language on a very plain level.
Look at it talking to you. You look out a window
Or pretend to fidget. You have it but you don’t have it.
You miss it, it misses you. You miss each other.

The poem is sad because it wants to be yours, and cannot.
What’s a plain level? It is that and other things,
Bringing a system of them into play. Play?
Well, actually, yes, but I consider play to be

A deeper outside thing, a dreamed role-pattern,
As in the division of grace these long August days
Without proof. Open-ended. And before you know
It gets lost in the stream and chatter of typewriters.

It has been played once more. I think you exist only
To tease me into doing it, on your level, and then you aren’t there
Or have adopted a different attitude. And the poem
Has set me softly down beside you. The poem is you.

drive by post!

at the library... quick post! just saw million dollar baby. it was good. won't ruin it for anyone though -- now it's on to the cellar for some yummy dinner (weeks lately have been filled with good music and late nights at the cellar).
until tomorrow--

blog hiatus!

well after being incredibly attentive to my blog for over a week, i abandoned it for days!
but don't worry, i'm back now, after a great weekend :) highlights? margaritas, pancakes (twice), biking and spring peepers, ice cream, good books, bruschetta, dancing, lebansese food .... anyone else notice how much food shows up on this list? :) and miss ashlea got back lastnight from spring break, so we had a nice extended dinner at the cellar (more food: manicotti, cheesecake, wine) and caught up on more than a week's worth of girl talk :)
in other news, i decided i love food too much to eat less of it, so i'm going to try the exercise route ;)
back into the school swing of things, i have a midterm on thursday, conf. call today, homework due thursday... ahhhhhh! not to mention all the things i have put off that need to be done at home as well. oh well :) i'll get it all done evenutally.

friday where are you?

every day i drive by a XXX adult shop -- it's new, only been there a few months. this series of messages has been on their marquis recently:

'COMING SOON: LINGERIE! COME SEE OUR SELECTION'
...a few weeks later:
'LINGERIE 40% OFF'
...and a few more weeks:
'PLUS SIZE LINGERIE NOW AVAILABLE'

just something that tends to amuse me at 6:45 am. in other news, girls' poker night was a smash success. lots of fun to play poker with a group of girls who know very little about poker. we had a $3 buy-in, but after all was said and done, no money was exchanged ;) the hours of laughter and entertainment were payment enough :)

!

okay i couldn't take it, i deleted the u.s. map post. it will suffice to say that i've been to 58% of the states, and am missing most of the states in the middle. but according to cassie, all of those states are worthless anyway and the only reason people live there is that their wagons broke down while they were headed for the west coast and they had no other choice. food for thought!

it didn't work....

oh well!

A True Account Of Talking To The Sun At Fire Island by Frank O'Hara

i decided a long poem might fix this formatting issue my blog is having ;) so, enjoy!

The Sun woke me this morning loud
and clear, saying "Hey! I've been
trying to wake you up for fifteen
minutes. Don't be so rude, you are
only the second poet I've ever chosen
to speak to personally
so why
aren't you more attentive? If I could
burn you through the window I would
to wake you up. I can't hang around
here all day."
"Sorry, Sun, I stayed
up late last night talking to Hal."

"When I woke up Mayakovsky he was
a lot more prompt" the Sun said
petulantly. "Most people are up
already waiting to see if I'm going
to put in an appearance."
I tried
to apologize "I missed you yesterday."
"That's better" he said. "I didn't
know you'd come out." "You may be wondering why I've come so close?"
"Yes" I said beginning to feel hot
and wondering if maybe he wasn't
burning me
anyway.
"Frankly I wanted to tell you
I like your poetry. I see a lot
on my rounds and you're okay. You
may
not be the greatest thing on earth, but
you're different. Now, I've heard some
say you're crazy, they being excessively
calm themselves to my mind, and other
crazy poets think that you're a boring
reactionary. Not me.
Just keep on
like I do and pay no attention. You'll
find that some people always will
complain about the atmosphere,
either too hot
or too cold too bright or too dark, days
too short or too long.
If you don't appear
at all one day they think you're lazy
or dead. Just keep right on, I like it.

And don't worry about your lineage
poetic or natural. The Sun shines on
the jungle, you know, on the tundra
the sea, the ghetto. Wherever you
were
I knew it and saw you moving. I was
waiting
for you to get to work.

And now that you
are making your own days, so to
speak,
even if no one reads you but me
you won't be depressed. Not
everyone can look up, even at me. It
hurts their eyes."
"Oh Sun, I'm so grateful to you!"

"Thanks and remember I'm watching.
It's
easier for me to speak to you out
here. I don't have to slide down
between buildings to get your ear.
I know you love Manhattan, but
you ought to look up more often.
And
always embrace things, people earth
sky stars, as I do, freely and with
the appropriate sense of space. That
is your inclination, known in the
heavens
and you should follow it to hell, if
necessary, which I doubt.
Maybe we'll
speak again in Africa, of which I too
am specially fond. Go back to sleep
now
Frank, and I may leave a tiny poem
in that brain of yours as my farewell."

"Sun, don't go!" I was awake
at last. "No, go I must, they're calling
me."
"Who are they?"
Rising he said "Some
day you'll know. They're calling to you
too." Darkly he rose, and then I slept.

the verdict is in!

and it's ugly! the blog that is, not the verdict. so, i changed it back to something more pleasing to the eye. unfortunately my big ol' u.s. map has shoved all the posts below the top of the page, so you have to go searching for any new posts. anyway, nothing of substance to say, i'm off to sleep!

no frills blog!

so, i was bored and playing around with my blog templates and settled on this one. let's see how long i can take it being this plain. archives are at the waaaaayyyy bottom, no links to recent posts. it's the plain jane of blogs. the austere blog. the unconcealed blog! okay, i'm done, you get the picture.

from the movie i saw lastnight

"No, but I do like to think about the life of wine, how it's a living thing. I like to think about what was going on the year the grapes were growing, how the sun was shining that summer or if it rained... what the weather was like. I think about all those people who tended and picked the grapes, and if it's an old wine, how many of them must be dead by now. I love how wine continues to evolve, how every time I open a bottle its going to taste different than if I had opened it on any other day. Because a bottle of wine is actually alive - it's constantly evolving and gaining complexity. That is, until it peaks - like your '61 - and begins its steady, inevitable decline..."

spring, is that you?

it was almost warm this morning :) didn't need a coat, beautiful sunrise. aw... just checked the weather to see if this will continue and here's what i found:

... A FRONT TO HERALD MORE WINTER LIKE WEATHER...
A STRONG COLD FRONT WILL MOVE EAST ACROSS THE MOUNTAINS TONIGHT AND OFFSHORE BY TUESDAY. MUCH WARMER AIR SURGES NORTH AHEAD OF THE FRONT MONDAY... FOLLOWED BY SHOWERS AND PERHAPS A THUNDERSTORM LATE THIS AFTERNOON AND TONIGHT. MUCH COLDER AIR WILL RACE INTO THE MOUNTAINS LATE TONIGHT AS THE FRONT CROSSES EAST OF THE BLUE RIDGE MOUNTAINS. MOISTURE LINGERING BEHIND THE FRONT ACROSS THE MOUNTAINS... AND A STRONG NORTHWEST FLOW WILL RESULT IN SNOW SHOWERS. LOCATIONS SUCH AS QUINWOOD... SOUTH TO FLAT TOP... AND THE HIGH COUNTRY OF NORTHWEST NORTH CAROLINA COULD SEE 1 TO 3 INCHES OF SNOW.
IN ADDITION... VERY WINDY CONDITIONS ARE EXPECTED TO ACCOMPANY THE MUCH COLDER AIR... AS TEMPERATURES STRUGGLE TO RISE MUCH ABOVE FREEZING THROUGH TUESDAY AFTERNOON....

well that's disappointing. has anyone ever seen the old popeye cartoon with ali baba and his forty thieves? they're in some village and the phonograph horn keeps announcing news in this loud booming voice about the approaching thieves. that's how i hear the weather statement in my head. just in case you were wondering ;)

vectors, aphorisms & ten-second essays #386

During the hottest months, the sun is moving away from us, during the coldest, coming back.

the early bird gets the worm...but the second mouse gets the cheese.

name the movie?

We don't read and write poetry because it's cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion. And medicine, law, business, engineering, these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for. To quote from Whitman, "O me! O life!... of the questions of these recurring; of the endless trains of the faithless... of cities filled with the foolish; what good amid these, O me, O life? Answer. That you are here - that life exists, and identity; that the powerful play goes on and you may contribute a verse." That the powerful play goes on and you may contribute a verse. What will your verse be?

didn't you get the memo? it's friday!

so the low-lowercase word of the random interval in which i will post one is 'americana' - bet you didn't know it was a city in southeast brazil! a large one too, pop. 153,779, suburb to Sao Paulo. but technically, that's supposed to be capitalized, so here's the other definition:
A·mer·i·ca·na 1. (used with a sing. or pl. verb) Materials relating to American history, folklore, or geography or considered to be typical of American culture: Americana are featured in the exhibit. 2. (used with a sing. verb) The culture of America: “[Hip-hop is] as much of a fixture in Americana as hot dogs, apple pie, and Chevrolet” (Ken Capobianco, The Tab October 17-23, 1995).

the picture from awhile ago i said i'd post and never did :)

The Day Lady Died by Frank O'Hara

It is 12:20 in New York a Friday
three days after Bastille day, yes
it is 1959 and I go get a shoeshine
because I will get off the 4:19 in Easthampton
at 7:15 and then go straight to dinner
and I don't know the people who will feed me

I walk up the muggy street beginning to sun
and have a hamburger and a malted and buy
an ugly NEW WORLD WRITING to see what the poets
in Ghana are doing these days
in Ghana are doing these days I go on to the bank
and Miss Stillwagon (first name Linda I once heard)
doesn't even look up my balance for once in her life
and in the GOLDEN GRIFFIN I get a little Verlaine
for Patsy with drawings by Bonnard although I do
think of Hesiod, trans. Richmond Lattimore or
Brendan Behan's new play or Le Balcon or Les N'gres
of Genet, but I don't, I stick with Verlaine
after practically going to sleep with quandariness

and for Mike I just stroll into the PARK LANE
Liquor Store and ask for a bottle of Strega and
then I go back where I came from to 6th Avenue
and the tobacconist in the Ziegfeld Theatre and
casually ask for a carton of Gauloises and a carton
of Picayunes, and a NEW YORK POST with her face on it

and I am sweating a lot by now and thinking of
leaning on the john door in the 5 SPOT
while she whispered a song along the keyboard
to Mal Waldron and everyone and I stopped breathing

"each year gets late earlier."

this morning i walked outside and had a mild heart attack. here's my early morning thought process 'oh my god, why is it so light out? am i late? are my clocks an hour off??? (breathe) oh. i went to work early yesterday and that's why it was dark...'
anyway, i'm happy to realize that spring is close at hand. there's a james richardson quote about how as our days get longer, the sun is actually moving away and when they're at they're shortest, it's actually moving closer to us, but i can't find it. will search through my book later and find it :) listening to lisa loeb this morning on launchcast and filling in the daily metrics sheet... get to leave work early today for a hair appointment, cutting all my hair off! (sorry mom)...
oh, ps, title of this post is a james richardson ten-second essay ;)

i dink i'm ghedding shick.. sniffle

which i definitely don't have time for! hopefully it will magically disappear when i get a full night of sleep tonight. at least that's the plan anyway. cleo didn't even want to get up this morning. 5:15 came a little too early. well at least it wasn't snowy and windy...oh wait, yes it was! i'm done whining now :)
cassie made red beans and rice with chicken for me lastnight :) i'm spoiled. that was shortly followed by a girly conference call (long overdue!) with ashlea and jules.
tonight? homework! but i still have great hope my thursday night class will get cancelled like last week...

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

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

i love my dictionary and my dictionary loves me

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

'A Life' by Michael Blumenthal

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

yaaaaaaaawn.

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

poetry deluge

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

altitude

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

arizona collected

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

arizona, why did you do it?

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

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

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

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

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

the 2.5 year itch?

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

a poem for this cloudy windy day

Pagan Litany by Paula Closson Buck

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

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

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

we demonstrate the simple
economies of our need

and bury our dead
with change in their pockets.

singles awareness day

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

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

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

The Giver by Sara Teasdale

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

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

Garrison, Nebraska by Ted Kooser

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

yawn...

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

aw, doesn't sound like this is true

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

have you had your adrenaline rush today?

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

don't believe everything you see on ebay

D'oh! 'Duff beer' sale a hoax

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

it's not easy being...pink

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

profound coffee cup?

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

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

the age of aquarius

happy birthday shannon!

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

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

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

party like it's 1926

tagline shamelessly stolen from comment on the below post ;) so this weekend was spent in a rather relaxing manner - lots of friends over friday evening for potato cheese soup (mmmm..., if i do say so myself) and some fun books to pass around (astrology meets humor). saturday i spent at the coffee shop, then the rest of day with miss ashlea as it was snowing and as any self-respecting respecting blacksburgian would do in a snowstorm, we headed to the grocery store! we had every intention of cruising by the dairy section to laugh at people scooping up the gallons of milk, but got distracted by frozen mini cheeseburgers. yum yum.
other weekend accomplishments? just one. put together a 1,000 piece puzzle. or... (2) 500 piece puzzles - with no picture to go off of because it was a murder mystery (puzzles were the crime scene and evidence) - are you impressed yet? eh?
fine then - don't be. but later, i'll post a pic of it, and you will be impressed! you will! :)

'luck' by charles bukowski

what's bad about all
this
is watching people
drinking coffee and
waiting. I would
douse them all
with luck. they need
it. they need it
worse than I do.

I sit in cafes
and watch them
waiting. I suppose
there's not much
else to do. the
flies walk up and
down the windows
and we drink our
coffee and pretend
not to look at
each other. I
wait with them.
between the move-
ment of the flies
people walk by.

friday's on speed dial?

well, we finally made it to PA! amid numerous mishaps: meeting that ran WAY late, missing the company expedition...but the bad luck stopped there! we ended up with a fully loaded mini-van! this may not sound cool to you, but complete with one-touch sliding doors and a dvd player, it was. finally after a dinner at perkins, we arrived lastnight at 10:45, ready to sleep in our rented beds :) now it's plant tour time (after a complimentary continental breakfast of course). see you back in VA.

altoona! no, not albacore

so i'm headed to altoona tomorrow, but just for about 24 hours. we're driving up to PA to take a plant tour on wednesday. oh the excitement! actually...shhh.. don't tell anyone, but i am excited! :) should be very cool.

material dog

cleo is the only dog i've ever seen that while i'm telling her excitedly "good girl cleo! that's a good girl!" will give me a look as if to say "you want to put your money where your mouth is?" and wait for a treat.

a wintry mess?

i kid you not, that is the official weather statement. here are some excerpts:
... A WINTRY MESS LIKELY THIS WEEKEND... THE PRECIPITATION WILL LIKELY BEGIN AS SNOW OR SLEET SATURDAY MORNING... THEN CHANGE OVER TO RAIN OR FREEZING RAIN IN MOST AREAS BY SATURDAY AFTERNOON. AS THE PRECIPITATION CONTINUES INTO SATURDAY NIGHT... IT WILL CHANGE BACK TO SNOW AS IT TAPERS OFF.
ooh... sounds like all kinds of fun. at least it's moving east...

a few inches of snow...

...showed up lastnight, beautiful on the trees this morning :) i took a picture out the door from work, will post it later. first week of classes was good, looks like it will be a busy semester though, lots of projects and homework.
in other news, cleo has a new spike collar! it's awesome, red! we've started calling her spike now.
this weekend, i plan on renting movies and hibernating! they're calling for snow and sleet and the like. which is bad, because shannon is supposed to be driving to WA this weekend. so here's hoping that snowstorm is just a big fluke...
unbelievably, it's the end of january already! i can't believe it. i've also seen no sign whatsoever of my W2s. hmmm...
anyway, back to work! it's friday and we're not working this weekend :) woo-hoo!

You gotta leave me now, you got to go alone.
You gotta chase a dream, one that's all your own,
Before it slips away.
When you're flyin' high, take my heart along.
I'll be the harmony to every lonely song
That you learn to play.
-Nickel Creek, When You Come Back Down

10..8..7..back up to 9?

it's soooooo cold! i'm moving back to arizona! no, not really, but on mornings like these, the urge is even more so than usual. guess what today is? no! you guessed wrong! today is my first day of class. lean conversion here i come (my first class is a lean manufacturing and six sigma course). in fact i just checked and there is a grand total of eight, yes eight people, in my class.

believe nothing, no matter where you read it or who has said it, not even if i have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense.
-buddha

favorite quote of mine :) anyway, better get back to work, several things to clear up before our 9 am production meeting...

lucky 13 degrees

brrrr...it's cold this morning. but the sun was just breaking the horizon (that kind of blue light behind the clouds?) this morning which means the days are indeed getting longer. which is good to know, i'm already ready for spring and we haven't even had a solid snow yet.
time to start the workday! hope it's not manic :)

do your boxer shorts call 911?

Ultimately, the market for smart clothing will extend far beyond its current audience of early adapters with fetishes for gear.
Textiles are getting smarter, as companies weave tiny sensors into fabric to gather and distribute information about the human wearing it.
Philips, the Dutch multinational, has developed a line of underwear, bras and accessories containing tiny electronic devices that monitor heart rates, body temperature, insulin levels and other parameters. When some measure goes awry -- think heart attacks or strokes

your boxer shorts call an ambulance.

Philips expects the product to be widely available in Europe by the end of 2006.
Germany's Infineon Technologies offers something called a thermogenerator, which measures the difference between body temperature and the temperature of the garment. Too cold or too warm? Your shirt will be able to fix it.
Then there's the "joy dress," which has been prototyped by Alexandra Fede, an Italian designer. It massages women as they wear it, again via tiny sensors and a programmable microchip in the fabric.
The ideas are coming fast and furious. Orvis has a hit with its Buzz Off line of clothes, which emit insect-repellant scents (from $18 for socks to $170 for a jacket). Fly fishers like them, but so would people in malaria-ridden neighborhoods.
Not one to go wading through wetlands? There may still be a scent-emitting textile for you. Various companies are working on fabrics that sense when you sweat, then counteract the odor by releasing perfume.

see the whole story here

i shot a man in reno just to watch him die

no not really, but i'm listening to the greatest country hits and that was the first one that came on. so calm down!

calendar girl

i've been thinking a lot about calendars, beginning of the year, time to replace my day-to-day on my desk, my agenda, the mini-monthly calendar on my bulletin board at work, the one behind my door at home.
the other day i was working on a new '2005' spreadsheet for some data and i started thinking about days. how every year, we start over with them - these slates blank of significance. already though, they are starting to fill in. a wedding on august 13th, a a visit on february 4th, trip on january 23rd, another in march. 2004 was filled with them, dates to remember. just something to think about.

winter

yesterday was a GORGEOUS day -- left work in the sunshine and drove home with my windows down -- not bad for january.

stranger than fiction...

the story below is only topped today by the man who sold the christmas gifts he gave to his three children based on their "naughty" behavior. santa's getting tough this year! the man promised to give the $2K he raised in the auction to his church and other charities.

now check this one out:

MUSCATINE, Iowa (AP) -- A Wal-Mart greeter was sacked for apparently showing too much of his friendly side to customers.

Dean L. Wooten, 65, was accused of greeting customers with a computer-generated photo of himself in which he appeared to be naked -- except for a carefully placed Wal-Mart bag -- and of telling customers that Wal-Mart was cutting costs and the sack was the company's new uniform.

A supervisor at the Muscatine store where Wooten had worked for seven years told him to knock it off after customers complained. He was fired five days later, in September, after he displayed the photo again.

Wooten's application for unemployment compensation was rejected by an administrative law judge, who said

a reasonable person would know the act of showing a naked body wearing a Wal-Mart sack would not be good for the employer's business.

Wooten said he did not see the harm in the photo, which he said was made by a friend who spliced a picture of Wooten's head onto a shot of another man's body.

"When I first seen it, I pretty near died laughing," he said.

grandma, what gives?

gram, per your request, i have upped my post frequency -- but no comments from you! that's okay though :) you might be too busy with the great-grandbaby!
headed to the cellar tonight for some blues -- nothing beats doc's blues revue and a glass of wine. if only it was errazuriz or black dog (they stopped selling them by the glass...)

Danaher Assists in Relief Effort

Danaher associates are deeply saddened by the catastrophic events of the past week in South Asia and offer our condolences to all those affected by this disaster. Danaher Corporation will be making a contribution to the American Red Cross and is encouraging all of its associates to give what they can to the American Red Cross or any agency providing aid in this relief effort. In addition, Danaher has donated water testing and purification equipment and will continue to work with aid organizations to assess additional equipment needs.

poetry shuts you people up like nothing else

but that's okay, i still love you. so i have an official trend of 7 data points going at work -- been in every day before 6:52 am ;) ha ha! maybe i can even get back to being a morning person :) i used to be, i swear.
cleo has spent her mornings lately curled up on my bed- sometimes watching me get ready, but most times buried beneath the covers with either her head or legs sticking out. funny dog that one.
lastnight i got so far as to watching the pilates dvd from the library. doesn't look too bad, tonight, i might actually do some of it ;)

John Donne A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning

As virtuous men pass mildly away,
And whisper to their souls, to go,
Whilst some of their sad friends do say,
"The breath goes now," and some say, "No:"

So let us melt, and make no noise,
No tear-floods, nor sigh-tempests move;
'Twere profanation of our joys
To tell the laity our love.

Moving of th' earth brings harms and fears;
Men reckon what it did, and meant;
But trepidation of the spheres,
Though greater far, is innocent.

Dull sublunary lovers' love
(Whose soul is sense) cannot admit
Absence, because it doth remove
Those things which elemented it.

But we by a love so much refin'd,
That ourselves know not what it is,
Inter-assured of the mind,
Care less, eyes, lips, and hands to miss.

Our two souls therefore, which are one,
Though I must go, endure not yet
A breach, but an expansion,
Like gold to airy thinness beat.

If they be two, they are two so
As stiff twin compasses are two;
Thy soul, the fix'd foot, makes no show
To move, but doth, if the' other do.

And though it in the centre sit,
Yet when the other far doth roam,
It leans, and hearkens after it,
And grows erect, as that comes home.

Such wilt thou be to me, who must
Like th' other foot, obliquely run;
Thy firmness makes my circle just,
And makes me end, where I begun.

new year, new leaf?

i've always hated new year's resolutions. well, maybe hated is a strong word. but i don't like 'em. mostly because it's seems a little silly to base a new start on the turn of a calendar year. but maybe it just gives people a reason and a time frame to have a new start.

with that in mind, i now am the proud owner of a 2nd alarm clock. makes for a stress-free leisurely morning routine, which i'm enjoying so far. also rented all kinds of trendy exercise videos (pilates, tai chi, etc.) for fun, entertainment, oh yeah, and a little exercise too :)

back to work!

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