it's a train! it's a plane! it's a comfort mountain bike!

so i asked for money for my birthday this year to pool together and get a new comfort mountain bike :) nate and i have been looking at them for months now, and i previously had my heart set on a gary fisher capitola with a step through frame-- but east coasters was being a bit of a pain. so we headed up to roanoke today to cardinal bike shop-- they had 20 times more bikes on the floor to look at. i looked at several, and tried two. the one below is exact color and frame and everything- what do you think? i've read reviews and it sounds pretty good :) and it's comfy with a nice big 'saddle' (when did we stop calling them bike seats?). it's a 2006 raleigh venture 3.0 (i wanted pink, but i'll settle for obnoxiously bright powder blue) :)

the ultimate in laziness

so nate posted pics from the wedding :) so if you just can't stand the wait for me to post some, go to his blog!

i'm boring my grandma...

...by not keeping up with my blog! so here i am again ;) school is clipping along -is this week 4 or 5? spent the weekend in PA to see laura (nate's sister) and drew get married :) lots of fun, beautiful wedding! it was a 3-day event complete with all the festivities, not complete of course without either a tube or canoe trip on the river (or both!) i'll post some pictures, and per my mother's request, they will not be "all piled up so i can't even see what her wedding dress looks like" (in ref. to anna's wedding photos). speaking of my mother, she's in hawaii -- she called me last night to inform me that her hotel room overlooks a 26,000 square foot swimming pool in the shape of a flower. you've got to be kidding me. but my time will come :) they sound as if they're having a wonderful time sunning and funning which they deserve :)
in other news, libra (extravaganda) fest is up and coming, so if you live in blacksburg or within driving distance, you shouldn't miss it :) five of us libras have birthdays within 10 days of each other, so we celebrate in style for the occasion(s).

hurricane nate!

well, i was waiting expectantly for hurricane nate to make headlines this year, as "nate" was the slated title for one of the atlantic storms to hit this year. but when i saw headlines go from katrina to ophelia, i realized nate didn't make too big of a splash ;) but here's his history and moment of glory (ending today on 9/10). in all seriousness, it's a blessing he expired at sea.

spam! and not of the mystery meat variety.

i had to add a "comment verfication thingy" (yes, that is in fact the techincal term) to prevent comment spam (which i've effectively deleted now on several occasions) sorry for the extra hassle when you leave your witty comments ;)

whoever said mondays were bad....

must never have been to free popcorn night at the lyric ;) below are some pictures i've been meaning to post from volunteering at the lyric selling concessions :)



me and nate - matching aprons - awwww.

mmmmm... popcorn.

nate, monica, marylou, me, and jamie.

last picture from that evening

don't they look spooky? :)

i'm pretty sure fictitional is not a word....

but my professor seems to think so! ah well, no point in telling her now. i'm flying through my week! only 2 more days to go, and then a 3 day weekend followed by a 1-day work week and a 5 day weekend! doesn't get any better than this :) nate's sister is getting married next friday, so we're headed to PA to celebrate. which reminds me, i have a lot of cookies to make! has anyone else (that's NOT from pennsylvania) ever heard of cookie tables at a wedding? gram? have you? curiously awaiting lots of cookie table stories, :)

i'm guilty...

of some serious blog neglect! as a result, i've given the blog a routine face lift and a new post! so let's see... there was a wedding, there was a long drive, there was a six month marker, a first day of class, second day of class, last performance, turn of a year... that might cover it! the more detailed version is that life has been a whir of activity in the past few weeks since nate and i came back from indiana. cassie and i went to see the skeleton key last week, which i definitely recommend. won't keep you up at night type scary, but definitely one i didn't figure out for myself! hollywood had to hand it to me :) work's been unbelievably demanding lately and school started this week! i'm taking two classes (last two!) which are: dynamics of organizational behavior and training system design. both seem very interesting from the initial class. i'm excited :) more later, headed to the cellar to see paul clark's last performance!

what an extra couple of dollars will get you

so yesterday, i headed to vintage cellar to purchase a bottle of wine for a friend of nate's. when i found the particular one i was looking for, it was one or two dollars more than i can buy it for at kroger, two doors down. i put it back on the shelf and was about to head to kroger when i thought, eh, no big deal, i'll just buy it since i'm already here.
turns out, they happily gift wrapped my bottle of wine in all it's glory :) so my extra two dollars was well worth the personal touch!

wedding photos

i'm too lazy to post these individually ;) but you get the idea!

everyone has a photographic memory, some just don't have film.

i'll post the wedding pics soon ;)

no really, it's friday

thank god i'm on vacation the next two days! don't think i could take anymore :) actually, i'm exaggerating-- knowing i won't be here for the grueling all weekend-long physical inventory is a comforting thought ;) thanks anna and rick for getting married this weekend so i have a reason to head out of town! :) nate and i are headed to purdue tomorrow. i'm very excited to take him to all my old haunts (read: the coffee shop). just a short 8 hour drive back to my old alma mater, and
in other news, i finally got to hold miss malayna :) very exciting ;)
counting the hours until i'm off for 4 whole wonderful days...

billy don't you lose my number!

still a bit skunky...

but getting better :) i've taken 4 or 5 showers since saturday night and i still get the occasional skunk whiff from my own skin while i'm sitting here at work! cleo is better as well, but she's in need of another bath (1 qt. of hydrogen peroxide, 1/4 c. of baking soda, 1 tsp. of liquid soap) to battle the skunkiness. aside from that, i'm working on getting back into the swing of things! nate and i went for a looong walk yesterday, from my apartment to downtown and back. still trying to live a healthier lifestyle although my attempts are intermittent at best! the poem below (if you can make it through the entire thing!) touches on the subject :)
in others news, congrats to my mom who has a new job! she'll be setting up a new home office and selling baby shoes to boutique stores :) she's very excited!
okay, better get back to work :) i'll post more siesta fiesta pics later, there were some great ones :)

Aubade by A.R. Ammons

They say, lose weight, change your lifestyle:
that's, take the life out of your style and

the style out of your life: give up fats,
give up sweets, chew rabbit greens, raw: and

how about carrots: raw: also, wear your
hipbones out walking: we were designed for

times when breakfast was not always there, and
you had to walk a mile, maybe, for your first

berry or you had to chip off a flint before
you could dig up a root: and there were

times when like going off to a weight reduction
center you had a belly full of nothing: easy

to be skinny digesting bark: but here now at
the breakfast buffet or lavish brunch you're

trapped between resistance and getting your
money's worth and the net gain from that

transaction is about one pound more: hunting
and gathering is a better lifestyle than

resisting: resisting works up your nerves
not your appetite (already substantial in the

wild) and burns up fewer calories than the
activity arising from hunger pangs: all in

all this is a praise for modern life — who
wants to pick the subrealities from his teeth

every minute — but all this is just not what
we were designed for, bad as it was: any way

I go now I feel I'm going against nature, when
I feel so free with the ways and means, the

dynamics, the essentialities honed out clearly
from millions of years: sometimes when I say

"you" in my poems and appear to be addressing
the lord above, I'm personifying the contours

of the onhigh, the ways by which the world
works, however hard to see: for the onhigh

is every time the on low, too, and in the
middle: one lifts up one's voice to the

lineations of singing and sings, in effect,
you, you are the one, the center, it is around

you that the comings and goings gather, you
are the before and after, the around and

through: in all your motions you are ever
still, constant as motion itself: there with

you we abide, abide the changes, abide the
dissolutions and recommencements of our very

selves, abide in your abiding: but, of course
I don't mean "you" as anyone in particular

but I mean the center of motions millions of
years have taught us to seek: now, with

space travel and gene therapy that "you" has
moved out of the woods and rocks and streams

and traveled on out so far in space that it
rounds the whole and is, in a way, nowhere to

be found or congratulated, and so what is out
there dwells in our heads now as a bit of

yearning, maybe vestigial, and it is a yearning
like a painful sweetness, a nearly reachable

presence that nearly feels like love, something
we can put aside as we get up to rustle up a

little breakfast or contemplate a little
weight loss, or gladden the morning by getting

off to work . . . .

a mexican, a pinata, and a skunk

so i think it's fair to say that the mexican siesta fiesta was a success! the evening is better captured in pictures, but of course i'll also add my own synopsis. the night started off with more food that you can shake a maraca at, plenty of guacamole, shredded beef, bean dip, cheese dip, and tortilla chips to eat it with. offerings of other party guests included mas guacamole, watermelon margaritas (homemade!), 7-layer dip, and more! and of course, cassie, the birthday girl of the hour who had a tiara, but it wouldn't stay on her head. after everyone had arrived, we all headed to the garage to break the pinata! but after breaking the broom handle several times over, we broke out the big guns and used an aluminum baseball bat. after it STILL didn't break and the little plastic airplane bottles inside were breaking instead, we tore it open and all went at the goods. those with loot toasted and quickly consumed their prizes. after that we all headed back upstairs and cleo, the solo canine party guest, wandered outside and found something to chase. thinking it was the racoon that had earlier been on the porch, i went out to get her but just as she ran back to the porch and i grabbed her, cries of "what is that smell??" filled the house. turns out, cleo had rustled up a skunk and had been sprayed! her eyes were watering but otherwise it was just the HORRIBLE smell that made her the least popular party guest of the evening. after nate and i secured the walking stink bomb in the garage, we headed to the grocery store to gather all the ingredients from a recipe provided on the internet. nate patiently explained and re-explained why the situation was funny and not a complete disaster that my drama queen side was making it out to be! after we had washed up the dog and most of the skunk smell, my sense of humor returned and i watched an intense game of flippy cup take place. overall, it was a wonderul evening filled with lots of laughter and all things mexican (and a little skunk)! truly one to remember!

una otra dia en mexico

so far, my favorite things are the people and the food! i've had watermelon, papaya, and pineapple juice in the last few days, all deliciously tasty! lastnight, we again to the japanese consultant out to dinner, this time for chinese. and yet again, he terrorized the wait staff -- demanded a plate of vegetables used in the cooking and then gave instructions on how they should be prepared - received them, sent them back, and finally received what was considered to be on the borderline of acceptable! i also had a michelada, dos equis in a glass with a salted rim, mixed with lemon juice and some spicy stuff - i liked it :)
tonight, it's out in tiajuana, then tomorrow morning, just a few hours at the plant before we cross the border and head to the airport. nate's picking me up tomorrow evening and he'll be a welcome sight :)
again, can't resist plugging the mexican siesta fiesta for casita, it will be muy divertido y habra mucho cerveza! (yes, my spanish is still horibble even after 4 days in mexico, but i'm learning!)

happy birthday cassie!

feliz cumpleanos a mi hermana hoy! please join us this saturday at her mexican siesta fiesta! :) see me for details...

buenos dias!

well it's been an interesting first couple of days. i love it here- the people are very warm and friendly and the city is bustling and full of life! i'm probably pretty sheltered however to the poverty and lesser sides of tiajuana, but i've enjoyed my stay here so far. lastnight we took our japanese consultant to a sushi restaurant. yes, sushi i mexico, i live on the edge! the weirdest things i tried were: salmon eggs (gross, gross, gross, don't EVER eat them), octopus (better than expected), and then just run of the mill sushi type stuff, tuna and salmon, some dumplings, california roll, tofu, etc. nate got to hear all about it when i talked his ear off for an hour or so lastnight ;) but that's all the time i have to update for now :) more later!

Afloat by Lawrence Raab

After the interesting guest at the party
declared that Giorgione's The Storm
was the strangest painting ever made,
you flew to Venice to see it. And the canals,
of course, the celebrated light
on the water, all the churches
where someone might be playing Bach
or Vivaldi while off in a shadowy corner
another masterpiece begs to be seen.
So, for a while, yours is a life
of important surprises, which is what
life should be, and usually is
only briefly. You'd like to forget
that Venice is sinking, and no one
knows how to save it. But today
walking across the flooded piazza feels
almost instructive: the mortal
just touching our need for permanence.
So much, after all, is vanishing.
And still the doomed city is afloat,
the water you don't want to fall into
glittering cheerfully as you cross the bridge
to the Accademia, where at last you will find
the enigmatic Tempesta, a picture much admired
by Byron, who in general detested painting
unless it could remind him
of something he had seen
or some day might see.

(Note: Giorgione's La Tempesta, from RAI International)

run for the border

exciting work news: i get to go to mexico to help with a week-long deal. i also get to train some of the associates there, so i'm very excited ;) seeing other faclities of ours is always interesting. even more exciting, we're flying in to san diego, so i may get to see the ocean (if only from a plane) for the first time in a long time! we used to take all our vacations to san diego since it's only a hop, skip, and a six hour drive from phoenix. in other news, nate and i finally weeded the garden and staked up our tomatoes. i sat and weeded while cleo ran up and down the fence trying to keep up with nate's nifty mowing pace.
this weekend so far, i've taken a deep sleep nap, been to the cellar, and now am at work! later today, the massive cleaning effort will begin in preparation for my mom's visit!

take a dip in the french dips you dip

we're having french dips for dinner tonight -- yum. i'm really looking forward to them. lastnight nate made salmon and cajun shrimp skewers on the grill. it was tasty. add in a little gardening (and whoa, did our tomatoes take a beating in that last rain!) and some SNES mario, and the evening was complete. tonight, we're getting a group together for the pub slam poetry reading, then headed to christine's birthday bash! should be fun :) now all i have to do is leave work... suppose i should stop blogging so that can happen!

reminiscence

hard to believe i've already been living and breathing in blacksburg for three years now. when i moved here, i knew no one. i hardly had any furniture, save a bed that was my graduation gift, and a few lawn chairs in the living room, faced toward my tv that sat directly on the floor. eventually, i decided they weren't comfortable at length, and pulled the twin mattress from my extra room in. a big night for me was stopping by kroger after work to purchase a frozen pizza and a bottle of wine. and since i didn't have cable, the guy at video update thought i had nothing better to do than rent a movie every day of the week. i did love my little windsor hills apartment, the first residence of my very own. i kept things freakishly clean, for at least two reasons (1) i had all kinds of time on my hands (2) there was no furniture to move!
i did some random things though that i enjoyed and now, would probably never find time for! i wandered blacksburg, took pictures of anything and everything: lyric, farmers' market, golf course, barns, ellet valley. i drove to pulaski one weekend and wandered around, lured by the furniture company there, but figured out it wasn't my style and ended up just kind of wandering through the sleepy downtown. i drove up to roanoke, down the parkway, went to every retail store in the county. it's funny now to think back on all that, as most times i am surrounded by great friends and keep a pleasant running pace outside of work :) it only took about six months for several things to occur: my sister moved here, we started hanging out with our neighbors, my company hired several more people my age, etcetera. all resulting in my quite happy existence now :)

if i had cake, why wouldn't i eat it?

yum. a beautiful piece of chocolate cake and a side of ice cream just arrived at my desk. so i not only have cake, but i'm eating it too :)
did anyone else realize that it's already july 18th? this is craziness! i have to go back to school in a month? booo. i'm enjoying my carefree, obligation free summer!
on the bright side, as time moves along, the time when my mom's coming to visit comes closer! she'll be here starting next tuesday, july 26. events in the running are: virginia creeper, dinner at cabo, farmers' market, dinners at home, wine, dog show, and much much more!

you can't have everything, where would you put it?

today i feel like melanie griffith in working girl. well...actually there's not many similarities at all, other than (1) i'm a girl (2) i'm at work. but, reason enough! monday morning is off to a busy start and i'm enjoying the rapid pace at which the day is passing by.

rainy days are here again!

but it's all the same when you're inside the building ;)

betelgeuse! betelgeuse! betelgeuse!

cassie found the beetlejuice dvd yesterday at walmart and was compelled to buy it. we spent a good portion of our childhood years watching this movie over and over again. ah, what a classic. i have to admit though, i forgot just how bad those sandworm graphics were, but the movie's still great :)
here's my public service announcement for the day: if you're at all skeptical about the wonders of rainX, don't be! that stuff is the best thing since sliced bread! i retreated my windshield recently and have been waiting not very patiently ever since for it to rain.
tonight, we're headed to the cellar to see maggie's wishlist, a band managed by the bass player of paul clark and the lonesome drifters (the 'honky-tonk' band that plays at the cellar every other thursday). apparently, the cellar has a monday night blues jam (new), tuesday night jazz, wednesday night i think is usually open except for this week, thursday night alternating blues and paul clark. that's a good lot of music!
while i'm plugging local events, easy chair bookstore is having two that i'm excited about. one is the harry potter launch party at 10 pm this friday, the other is the pub slam poetry reading at the underground on july 21.
products and events endorsed by this blog are in no way affiliated with this blogger ;)

the cow whisperer!

so this weekend, nate and i went on a walk down ramble road. the road passes by several cow fields and since we had the camera, i stopped to take a few photos of a distant cow through the fence.

apparently, he saw us by the fence, and ambled on over.

and then all the cows starting coming over! not just one or two, but the whole field. it started slowly and suddenly...

ALL the cows came over. the sweet looking brown cow was my favorite. anyone have any idea why all the cows came to see us? they had plenty of grass to eat... so it didn't seem like food would be a motivation. we tried walking away, and they formed a single file line and followed. when we walked, they walked; when we ran, they ran:

as soon as we'd stop, they'd all gather as if we had called a meeting. eventually, i had to give a speech to they wouldn't feel as if they'd gathered in waste ;) it was funny. but seriously though, anyone cow savvy enough to explain this phenomenon to me?

on a sidenote, we also discovered more blackberry bushes than you can shake a stick at! well...i suppose you could shake a stick at them, but most likely, you'd be too busy picking berries like we were! we gathered a handful and had them with ice cream after dinner. yum yum.

look ma, no hair!

happy birthday joey!

now you're old ;)

whoa wine...

oh cellar...why did you have bottles of wine for 1/2 price lastnight? ah well, i had fun ;) although, i think i was overly talkative if memory serves. no pictures to post of my hair yet, but will do that tonight :) i'm glad it's friday, even though it was only a 3.5 day week for me, it's felt long. oh i have a new title now, it's way fancier even though absoluting nothing about what i do has changed ;) no longer a "coordinator," i am an "area manager" - isn't that fancy? aren't you impressed? i work in a dilbert cartoon...

words from around the world

taken from cnn

If you walked through London yesterday, you would have been surrounded by screams of joy and laughter and songs of jubilation because of the surprise win of the Olympic bid. This evening as you walk through London there is an eerie silence; the only noise that can be heard is the putter of footsteps on the sidewalk as hundreds of commuters try to make their way home. Somewhere along the way the screams remain, but this time they are screams of pain; screams of sorrow, screams of anger and screams of anguish for those who have lost their lives and those who were injured when all they wanted to do was to get to work this morning.
Stella M; London, United Kingdom

We utterly condemn those atrocities. We condemn those responsible. Islam is a peaceful religion and it teaches peace. Those who are responsible must be brought to justice, no matter what religion or what country they belong to. Our thoughts and prayers are with the families and friends of those who have suffered in this atrocity. We the Scottish Muslims stand United and our prayers are with the families and friends of those who have been killed and all those injured in this atrocity. We appeal to the authorities that those who are responsible must be brought to justice.
Tahir Mohammed; Glasgow, Scotland

why i'm jealous of nate

so now we bloggers can finally post pictures without using hello or hosting them on another site. yipee! i expect that nate will soon post many pictures from his trip to italy as a result, but here's one of my favorites to the left.
expect many more pictures coming from this blogger :) including one of my new haircut!

a nod to london and england in this difficult time.

i don't really know what to say about what's happened, but wanted to acknowledge it. i remember what it felt like when our own country was terrorized.

(insert something interesting here)

much to my mother's dismay, i have again chopped off all of my hair. shortest it's ever been now i think - she even had to use that little razor thingy on my neck. sorry mom!
i haven't blogged in awhile, was keeping up a pretty good pace there the last couple of weeks and the poof! nothing for days. i spent first few days of the weekend at work, but then was freed to head to PA to spend time with nate's family and friends and their annual 4th celebration. it was a wonderful time! we spent a good portion of the day floating in the river, played an intense volleyball game, and a few other games like three-legged races and water balloon toss. overall, was a fun-filled holiday :)
this week, have been out to cabo with friends, had dinner made for me (tasty!), checked on our garden, which thanks to mark and natalie, is flourishing! if you're looking for some tasty veggies, i'll have plenty of them in a few more weeks! i'm most excited about the pear tomatoes which my mom grew years ago and i found when we were buying up all our plants to plant.
tonight? new river network get together thingy and maybe a movie at the lyric? to be seen....

everything's coming up roses

nate has safely arrived back in the usa, work is clicking along at a pleasant pace (which i hope continues since i will be here until 11 pm tonight!), and i overslept! why is that a good thing? because i still made it to work within about five minutes of when i should have, and was able to get about 30 minutes more sleep :)
other highlights - my mom will be here to visit the first week of august and cassie is headed to arizona today!

popularity and the animal kingdom

i've been using friendster for a couple of years, thought it was an interesting way to figure out that i might have friends in common with other friends of mine. granted, it's mostly lost its appeal and i hardly ever sign in, but the fact remains the same: i've been using friendster for 2 years, and claim 8 friends. cleo has been on dogster for 2 days and has 13 'pup pals' :)

downsize me?

so some woman watched super-size me and apparently was not impressed. she ate mcdonald's for a month as well, and instead of gaining twenty pounds? she lost ten. her cholesterol also dropped 40 points. isn't that crazy?

not just friendster,but dogster?

http://www.dogster.com/?161757

:)

friday friday friday friday!

let's take a vote....tomorrow is saturday. i've asked 4 people to work 6 hours and have a few more coming in to make up time. should i, or should i not come in to work? background info: i worked last saturday, and next weekend (the 4th of july) i have to be there ALL weekend. i'm thinking not so much for tomorrow...

time to re-register my car...

i was sorting through old e-mails and re-discovered the following list of "cool words for your license plate." don't say i never gave you anything ;)

fizgig (fiz'-gig) n. 1: a fishgig. 2: a giddy, flirting girl. 3: a kind of firework, made of damp powder, which gives a hissing or fizzing noise when ignited
swaly (sway'-lee) adj. shady.
hoyden (hoy'-den) n. a girl or woman of saucy, boisterous or carefree behavior.
twee (twee) adj. affectedly or excessively dainty, delicate, cute or quaint
daedal (deed'ul) adj. 1a: intricate. 1b: skillful, artistic. 2: adorned with many things.
stygian (stij'-ee-an) adj. 1: of or relating to the river Styx. 2: extremely dark, gloomy or forbidding.
duende (doo-en'-day) n. the power to attract through personal magnetism and charm [from Spanish dialect for "charm", from Spanish "ghost, goblin" from duen de casa].
inveigh (in-vay') v. to protest vehemently; rail.
lambent (lam'-bent) adj. 1: playing lightly on or over a surface: flickering. 2: softly bright or radiant. 3: marked by lightness or brilliance (esp. of an expression).
oneiric (oh-nai'-rik) adj. of or relating to dreams. {see also: oneiromancy n. divination by means of dreams}.

"i'm a salmon! i'm swimming upstream to spawn"

so the play was highly entertaining- definitely inappropriate and very funny. the line above however, does not come from the script, it comes from the man heading back to his seat as everyone was leaving for intermission ;) mill mountain theatre didn't appear to be the young, hip and trendy activity however, the average age (even with us as outliers) was probably still ~70ish. my plan for next time is to buy tickets the day of, because if the show isn't sold out at $38 per ticket, you can buy them at $16!
i also had a tasty tasty dinner at corned beef and co., which i fully intend to replicate in my own kitchen :)

ps from your friendly neighborhood version of ebert and roper

look at me was very good - 2 thumbs up from the monteverdes!

bibbidy bobbidy boo!

exciting notes from the past 24 hours:
-lastnight at the lyric, they interviewed us for The Current (NRV's section of the Roanoke Times) -- will be in print in the Sunday, July 3rd edition. the only shame about it is that nate missed it, as he has been volunteering longer than any of us (in fact, i'm really only a volunteer sidekick!) :)
-outlook 2003 has now been installed on my computer! woo-hoo! now i can sort and flag my e-mail with the best of them!
-a group of us are headed to roanoke tonight to see "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum" which I mentioned yesterday, but am becoming increasing excited about - dinner at Corned Beef and Co. to start, then off to the play which is described as "sex and the city meets the history channel." good times ;)

can i go home yet?

the weekend was just not long enough...hopefully the workday will pass by quickly and i can head back home :) tonight cassie and i are volunteering at the lyric, so stop by and see us serving up popcorn and pop for the 9:15 show ;) the movie showing is look at me.
tomorrow night we're off to see they play "A Funny Thing Happened on The Way to The Forum" - should be fun!

happy father's day dad and marty!

can't believe it's already sunday -- probably because i was at work yesterday morning ;) but not too bad, instead of going in at 7 like the normal work week, i wandered in around 8:15 so i could feel better about being in there on a saturday. i also am now completely prepared for monday and then some.
afterwards, i was being very lazy and just playing on my computer at home, so cleo and i headed to henderson lawn to read in the sun and enjoy the beautiful day.
today is errand day! of to target, except i can't remember what it is that i needed...hmmmm.
nate's now at a villa near florence for those of you keeping up with him :) he's also updating here whenever he can!

Scrabble

I pick seven letters and make the word chance:
twenty-two points, not bad for a start.
You’re not quite as a lucky, and counter with fate:
worth a mere twelve with your Double Word Score.
Fortune’s not bad, using all but my “y,”
and now we’re deep into it, as the board widens out.
Nights not of passion but of deep tendresse,
as you make the word gentle for just seven points.
Our son’s fast asleep, and I make the word heal,
a mere six points, plus a Triple Word Score.
And so, four years from fantasy, we move on this way,
lifting square letters from darkness to light.
Quietly, nastily, we’ve learned how to play,
as you wind up with family and I end with above
on this old, fated gameboard of luck and love.

*

by Michael Blumenthal

view from the virginia creeper

outside of virginia looking in...

inside of virginia looking out...

when in rome...

nate arrives in rome today. i'm jealous! but i'm living vicariously through him: i have a little paper route of his trip, i have several coffee table books of italy to page through, and my windows desktop is a lovely picture of venice. it's as if i'm there instead of in blacksburg watering his plants! :)
not that there's anything wrong with that, especially lately! it's been warm and beautiful here in southwest virginia. yesterday evening as i was driving home on main street, the sun was setting and banners for the lyric touting 75 years were waving, i thought what a wonderful oasis blacksburg is :) this surprising burst of music, organics, education, etc. lastnight i got the grand tour of a friend's new beautiful house and had a glass of wine at boudreaux's with cassie and a friend of hers. then cassie and i headed off to the grocery store. i like grocery shopping fairly late at night. not sure why, especially since by then, the bakery, deli, meat counter, etc. are all closed. may have something to do with a danielle steel novel i read once where the couple of interest meets in the grocery store ;)
tuesday night i sat on the couch to watch a movie with cassie and i don't think i even made it 10 minutes. i finally drug myself off the couch at 10 pm, stumbled into the kitchen to eat 1/2 a cold leftover enchilada, and went straight to bed! which brings me to my next subject: i am yet again on a diet. stay tuned to see if i make it this time. you know what they say, if it first you do not fricassee, fry fry again!

want to buy a house? too bad!

so i've been pre-occupied with real estate lately - seems like everyone around me is buying a house, doing the smart thing, no longer throwing their money away on rent. but oh my goodness the housing prices are ridiculous! so i have a new plan: wait until the housing market tanks, and THEN buy. good plan, eh? okay, maybe not :) but it's a nice thought for me as a lowly renter!
today, it is finally friday. it's been a long time coming. 5-day weeks are a little rough after a leisurely 4-day week like last week. the new river network dealy turned out to be a great time- glorified keg party really (with better food!). great turn out, met some fun and interesting people that actually live in blacksburg, as opposed to just passing through our lovely mountains for a bit of education.

new river network

event today for the new river network-- it's a new organization aimed at young professionals in the area. sounds like fun, $3 to get in, and then it's all the free draft beer you can drink!
in other news...i have no other news! more later.

i wish winnie the pooh was my co-worker!

for an explanation of that statement. so how are you? i always talk about my own goings-on on this blog, which makes sense, because, well, it's my blog, but just thought i'd ask :) work is busy busy today, lots of things going wrong and no time to solve everything all at once. but i'll get there ;) it's also only 45 minutes until lunchtime, always a bonus. we ate taco salad lastnight- mmmm. tonight i think nately is cooking up something on the grill after cassie and i play some tennis. and then maybe to the mall or something - who knows what the evening may hold? :)

hello from the river i can't spell!

i pride myself on spelling but yackuhganey (actually spelled Youghiogeny River) is a little too much for me! but anyway, off for a canoe ride (complete with beer cooler) this afternoon, with a pizza pot of gold at the end of our canoe-rainbow ;)
enjoy the weekend!

i want to go search for treasure!

modern day treasure! and all you have to do is read a children's book?

happy birthday mom!

it's the last day of may

that's all i really have to say.

poetry workshop! :)

so due to a recent lack of creativity, i'm revising some old old poems as opposed to writing new ones. i've already hacked the following poem to pieces, but seems like it still needs work. help! i don't like the way it ends, it's too abrupt i think...

No One Has Ever Fallen in Love with a Fish

Today my sister fell
in love. And i-
well, i bought a goldfish.
He’s a lovely goldfish really.
i brought him home in a clear plastic bag,
filled with air and water,
and one fish.

Startled at first by the transition,
he swam slowly along the bottom of the bowl.
then began to dart around, nipping
bits of food off the surface of the water.

Watching him, i think of my sister,
how she might like to hear
about the latest addition to my life,
but before i can pick up the phone, it rings,
she is on the other end of the line.

“He said I love you,” she says just
as my lips are moving
to form the word fish. Her words
spill over mine, fill in details.

Then i remember,
and tell her about my fish.
How he swims and bobs just a bit
to The Beatles.

After i’ve hung up, i turn
to see him, swimming
alone in his bowl, close
to the rocks along the bottom.

errands on my lunch break today

makes me feel like more of an adult somehow. like that (one) time i dropped off dry cleaning in the morning. funny how that is.

words of wisdom or wit

so i am supposed to submit a 'contributor's quote' to silhouette since they're publishing two of my poems in the fall (famous, personal, or otherwise). any ideas? i post them on the blog occasionally, so i might page back through a pick a favorite. here's what i've come up with so far:

"I would explain, but then you would understand my explanation, not what I said." - James Richardson
"Don’t cross this field unless you can do it in 9.9 seconds. The bull can do it in 10."- Anonymous, 1985
"If my doctor told me I had only six minutes to live, I wouldn’t brood. I’d type a little faster."- Isaac Asimov, author of 289 books, 1984
"My vigor, vitality and cheek repel me. I am the kind of woman I would run from."- Nancy, Lady Astor, 1955
"I don’t believe in dying. It’s been done. I’m working on a new exit. Besides, I can’t die now—I’m booked."- George Burns, 1987
"A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort."- Herm Albright
"The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams."- Eleanor Roosevelt
"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
"Of all the ways to avoid living, perfect discipline is the most admired."-James Richardson
"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
"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
"Do the thing you think you cannot do." - Eleanor Roosevelt

vote on one from the list or post one of your own :)

'somewhere out in america it's starting to rain'

good morning! off to a happy and hurried start this morning, work has been slow but i'm happiest when it's busy and today definitely is that! just enough time to blog too :) weekend plans? all the blacksburg best, ashlea is headed out of our dear town soon, so here's the run down: floyd friday night jamboree (hippies, farm town, bluegrass, flat footing and even a little gospel music), the cellar and a night out with the girls' (maybe a little cliff-marry-shag?), the gillie's for a yummy breakfast. in between all of the eating, hopefully the weather will cooperate for a weekend of outdoorsy type stuff ;)

American Love Story, by Mike Dockins

1. THE GIRL
Hallelujah, she knows how to shoot pool.
She sinks her eight ball, drinks me under
the table. I whimper for a date, a smooch,
a slap. She hits the jukebox, that old song.
I change taverns but she's there: pigtails
that fill me with moon silt and planet jelly,
lips that just keep on being lips, little belly
I want to ski across. At home she's on top
of the fridge, dog-earing my favorite Azorean
epic. She drives the bus I take, cleans my
teeth, cuts my hair, cashes my paychecks,
taunting me: Going out tonight, Jerry? See
you there, Doll, I say, shaking with optimism.

2. THE SCHEME
If I can carry the pigskin ten more yards,
she'll take me to the movies, an action flick
with Swiss banks and tanks and jagged Alps.
I'll miss hockey, but her swinging ponytail
is better than a puck slung on ice. Her face
becomes warm, hot, thermonuclear. God,
I love her. She has perfect teeth, a straight
spine, and thighs that make frat boys bang
petulant fists during beer pong. Lord, if I sink
this basket, she'll marry me in Lake Tahoe: my
feet in Nevada, hers in California. If I'm clever,
I'll slip into a triple-cherry slot, and I'll love her
more with each rolling coin, each lucky pull.

we are young and unimpressed by all you'd recognize

another chance at lifelong admiration if you can name the song (cassie, you're disqualified) :) so now you can e-mail the cool stuff i say to cool people you know. since i know that must be so incredibly often, now there's a cool button beneath each post you can use to do it :) oh and i added a picture- narcissistic? maybe.
"When later Narcissus discovered his image in a pool, he fell in love with himself, and not being able to find consolation, he died of sorrow by the same pool. It is said that Narcissus still keeps gazing on his image in the waters of the river Styx in the Underworld."

summer reading list

it's summertime and school's out (1 A, 1 B)! let lazy summer days begin! although, today i'm improving the following: my finances, my weight, my closet. ambitious, i know, but whenever i finish school for the semester, i run out of excuses for months of procrastination. so here we are, it's may and i have several things to accomplish before summer's end. but when i'm not working on the above, i'll be reading and relaxing! here's my summer reading list so far:
the money book for the young, fabulous and broke (suze orman) - thanks mom!
anna karenina (tolstoy)
finish the fountainhead (ayn rand)
harry potter the order of the phoenix (no! i haven't read it yet...)
any other good suggestions? i have a taste for fiction (that non-fiction book is a major anomaly for me), usually chick lit or other fluffy types, with the occasional scholarly type book (enter tolstoy and rand). i also have a few new poetry books to peruse and need to spend more time writing poetry. there's another poetry slam, this time at the underground :) they said maybe they'll be a better turnout with beer. i'm going, but don't know if i'll read...it's on the 27th if you feel like a random dose of semi-literature ;)

hickory dickory dock!

the mouse ran up the clock! is it the end of the work day yet? hmmm?
can't believe it's already thursday. marty (my stepdad) was in richmond for work, so we all met him in lynchburg lastnight at a fantastic restaurant called isabella's. i recommend both the restaurant and the wine we had, the wine is a sicilian red, with a pencil sketch of pinnochio on the front. quirky and tasty :) has also been really warm for the past two days! all kinds of sun and blue skies! hope that continues into the weekend so i can enjoy it all day long :)

ryan hanlon revisits the 'burg

put your party pants on :) (or... dinner and reading pants) because ryan hanlon's coming to visit :) yippee!

Our Generation by Carl Dennis

Whatever they'll say about our delinquencies,
They'll have to agree we managed to bridge the gap
Between those who arrived before us
And those who followed. We learned enough
At the schools available to fill the entry-level positions
At the extant sawmills our elders managed,
At banks, drug stores, freight yards, and hospitals,
Then worked our way up to positions of trust.
There we were, down on the shop floor
Or up in the manager's office, or outside the office
On scaffolds, washing the windows.
Did we work with joy? With no less joy
Than people felt in the generations before us.
And on weekends and weekday evenings
We did our best to pursue the happiness
Our founders encouraged us to pursue,
And with equal gusto. Whatever they say about us
They can't deny that we filled the concert halls,
Movie houses, malls, and late-night restaurants.
We took our bows on stage or waited on tables
Or manned the refreshment booths to earn a little extra
For the things we wanted, the very things
Pursued by the generations before us
And likely to be pursued by generations to come:
Children and lawns and cars and beach towels.
And now and then we stood back to admire
The colorful spectacle, the endless variety,
As others before us admired it, and then returned
To fill our picnic baskets, drive to the park,
And use the baseball diamonds just as their contrivers
Intended they should be used. And if we too
Crowded into the squares to cheer the officials
Who proclaimed our country as fine in fact
As it is in theory, as faithful a friend to the planet
As any country we cared to name,
A few of us confined to a side street,
Carried signs declaring a truth less fanciful.
A few unheeded, to be sure, but no more unheeded
Than a similar few in generations before us
Who hoped that the truth in generations to come,
Though just as homely, would find more followers.

no seriously...

Jesus Christ in legal battle to get license
Tuesday, May 10, 2005 Posted: 7:58 AM EDT (1158 GMT)

CHARLESTON, West Virginia (AP) -- Even Jesus Christ can't circumvent the rules for getting a driver's license in West Virginia.

Attempts to prove his name really is Christ have led the man born as Peter Robert Phillips Jr. through a lengthy legal battle and a recent victory in the District of Columbia Court of Appeals.
"This all started with him expressing his faith and his respect and love for Jesus Christ," attorney A.P. Pishevar told The Associated Press. "Now he needs to document it for legal reasons."
Described by his attorney as a white-haired businessman in his mid-50s, Christ is moving to West Virginia to enjoy a slower lifestyle. He bought property near Lost River, about 100 miles west of Washington, and has a U.S. passport, Social Security card and Washington driver's license bearing the name Jesus Christ.
But he still falls short of West Virginia title and license transfer requirements because his Florida birth certificate has his original name on it and he has been unable to obtain an official name change in Washington.
"We just need official documentation that that's his name," said Doug Stump, commissioner of the West Virginia Division of Motor Vehicles. "He will be treated no different than anybody else."
Christ applied for the legal name change in May 2003, but it was denied by District of Columbia Superior Court Judge Tim Murphy because "taking the name of Jesus Christ may provoke a violent reaction or may significantly offend people."
In his appeal, Christ's attorney argued that Phillips had changed his name to Jesus Christ 15 years earlier, and "has been using the name since then without incident."
The appeals court last month sent the name-change proposal back to the lower court, saying some required hearings in the case had not been held.
Any comment from the man in the middle of this legal tussle?
"Christ is not speaking to the press at this time," Pishevar said.

i'm done! i'm done i'm done i'm done!

woo-hoo! a summer full of nothing but fun! i took my last final of the semester at 7:45 this morning and now it's nothing but 40-hour work weeks and fun!
i'm a little excited, can you tell?
tonight's plans? hang out with nate, cassie, ashlea and mike as ashlea is leaving for georgia tech this weekend! sniff... but congrats to her on attending the #1 industrial engineering school in the nation for her phd! v. exciting. also exciting are my plans to visit her in atlanta (a city i've yet to explore).

Just Keep Quiet and No One Will Notice by Ogden Nash

There is one thing that ought to be taught in all the colleges,
Which is that people ought to be taught not to go around always making apologies.
I don't mean the kind of apologies people make when they run over you or borrow five dollars or step on your feet,
Because I think that is sort of sweet;
No, I object to one kind of apology alone,
Which is when people spend their time and yours apologizing for everything they own.
You go to their house for a meal,
And they apologize because the anchovies aren't caviar or the partridge is veal;
They apologize privately for the crudeness of the other guests,
And they apologzie publicly for their wife's housekeeping or their husband's jests;
If they give you a book by Dickens they apologize because it isn't by Scott,
And if they take you to the theater, they apologize for the acting and the dialogue and the plot;
They contain more milk of human kindness than the most capacious diary can,
But if you are from out of town they apologize for everything local and if you are a foreigner they apologize for everything American.
I dread these apologizers even as I am depicting them,
I shudder as I think of the hours that must be spend in contradicting them,
Because you are very rude if you let them emerge from an argument victorious,
And when they say something of theirs is awful, it is your duty to convince them politely that it is magnificent and glorious,
And what particularly bores me with them,
Is that half the time you have to politely contradict them when you rudely agree with them,
So I think there is one rule every host and hostess ought to keep with the comb and nail file and bicarbonate and aromatic spirits on a handy shelf,Which is don't spoil the denouement by telling the guests everything is terrible, but let them have the thrill of finding it out for themselves.

arizona

arizona. we’ve been gone
too long. lately, i hear your rain
falls day and night, are you trying to fill
the hole we’ve left you?

pizza ends hostage standoff?

Pizza delivery ends prison hostage standoff
Monday, May 9, 2005 Posted: 9:40 AM EDT (1340 GMT)

SYDNEY, Australia (AP) -- Officials bought 15 pizzas to secure the release of a guard who had been held for 42 hours by inmates at an Australian top-security prison, police said Monday.

Twenty prisoners were involved in the standoff, which began Saturday when inmates occupied part of Risdon Prison on the southern island state of Tasmania, complaining about conditions in the aging institution and taking guard Ken Hannah hostage.

Hannah finally was released late Sunday night after authorities caved in to demands for pizza.

"The final sticking point with the inmates was that they were requiring pizzas to be delivered," senior prisons official Graeme Barber said.

"We had held off in relation to that -- we obviously wanted the release of our staff member," he added. "Our staff member was negotiated out by the delivery of 15 pizzas."

The last prisoner involved in the siege gave himself up Monday. No one was injured.

The siege followed months of violence and unrest at Risdon, which holds one of Australia's most notorious convicts, Martin Bryant, who went on a shooting rampage at Tasmania's Port Arthur historic penal settlement in 1996, killing 35 people.

1-2-3-4 i don't wanna anymore!

study that is.

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!)