happy father's day!

that is one pouty looking dog.

Solstice

I. Summer

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

II. Autumn

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

III. Winter

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

IV. Spring

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

happy birthday ryan!

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

ever danced with the devil in the pale moonlight?

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

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

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

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

sleep deprivation is not for the weak at heart

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

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

noteable quoteable

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

at last...

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

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

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

happy friday!

happy birthday mom!

d.c. - in a nutshell!

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

exhibit a.

oh THERE's the museum.

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

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

ryan's favorite: rothko.

i love modern art.

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

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


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

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

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

stranger than fiction.

i kid you not.

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

ps: i stole this from wordspy.com