Omen

The foam on my hot chocolate tonight briefly formed a rabbit in full flight.

This either means that I will get a raise shortly or I will lose all of my belongings in a house fire. Perhaps it simply means, "tomorrow you will go out for lunch and get some delicious tacos."

I'm pretty sure it's that last one.

I Finally Watched It.

How is it that I never heard about the one redeeming virtue of the Pirates of the Caribbean 3, that Keith Richards is Johnny Depp's brother?

I'm kind of disappointed that 3 was even more terrible than 2. Really, how can that be? My time is valuable, people! Don't make three movies badly when you can simply make one well!

As the ninja says, just as there is no honor among pirates, there is apparently no honor among filmmakers.

There's also this really patriotic song about 9/11

So I'm sitting there at work. I'm cut-and-pasting stuff from excel tables into a giant database. I've been doing this for four days straight, and the end is almost in sight. I'm tired.

And my officemate has the radio on.

During the past month I've become intimately acquainted with country music, or rather, COUNTRY'S BIGGEST HITS! From what I've observed, country has about 15 hits, which they play through every two hours or so, with some non-hits mixed in for flavor. After that, they repeat the process. I've counted, and on some days I have heard the same song four times.

The point of this post is not to bash country music, because all in all, it's not that bad. There are catchy songs, and even the bad ones are somehow better than the bad songs on rock or alternative stations. Bad rock is just bad, you want to turn it off. Bad country is kind of entertaining, like MST3K- somehow, it's so bad that it's good.

The point of this post is that, I've thought about this for pretty much all day today, so I think I'm right about this, 90% of "daddy-daughter wedding dance" songs are country. Think about it, recall the various wedding receptions you've been to, and you will see that I am right. In fact, the only non-country ones I can think of would be "Sunrise, Sunset" (which would be harder for most people to do, since it's a waltz) and "Father & Daughter" by Paul Simon (which isn't really easy to dance to, either).

Here is one kind of awful one that fits the genre. This one was probably written with the express intent of it being a wedding song. They are both, from what I can gather, COUNTRY'S BIGGEST HITS!

And this is a song that is not country at all, but is fantastic, just in case you need to get the country taste out of your mouth after that. Cleanse your palate, if you will.

Not Sure if This Was a Dream or a Nightmare

After waking from a nearly 20-year coma, I find that my parents have cleaned my room, a homeless man is stalking me, and my true love leaps out of the woodwork with a bouquet made of toilet paper. Oh yeah, and my grandma takes me out for a chocolate shake. Sweet!

Life vs. Meta-life

I have some friends that are very self-aware. They know what's going on in their lives, they analyze themselves and their relationships with others, they contemplate things.

Is there something I'm not getting? Is this a personality difference? I never think about things! Is this a characteristic that everyone needs to develop for themselves, or is it just something that some people naturally do and others don't and that's ok?

I feel like I'm a good person, like I try to do the right things for the right reasons, but I don't know that I have some overarching plan or understanding I have for my life. What if I wake up one morning to find that I'm 40 and I still don't know what I'm doing with myself? I have this vague fear that this will happen and I will not even notice because I don't think about that kind of thing. Because really, on a day to day basis, all I really think about is what to eat, going to work, coming home and what I'll do with my evening.

Any ideas on how to begin thinking about oneself?

Also No Portals to Parallel Dimensions

There's this great website that has equipment information and pictures of every classroom on campus. On the info page there are various choices of things you might want in a room: stage, computer connectivity, wheelchair access, one way mirror. One way mirror? I excitedly click through the entire database, one room at a time. There are no classrooms on campus with a one way mirror.

Novel Concept

You know the interesting thing about frost? Frost is beautiful, when you ride your bike in the morning and see the grass all sparkly and white, the palm fronds all sparkly and white, windows all sparkly and white. But you know what else is sparkly and white? The crappy bus stop bench is beautiful. The decaying banana that's been on the side of the road for two weeks is all white. And the mysterious wing of some bird, all gory and mangled, has a little sparkle to it. I can't really reconcile simultaneous attraction and revulsion that these objects inspire: rather than cancel each other out, the beauty and nastiness seem to simply make each other more pronounced.

The Honeymoon Isn't Quite Over Yet

I seem to have neglected the internet of late, both in reading and writing, for which I am more sorry than I can say. I have been rather busy of late, trying to figure out this life that grown-ups have, where you get up at six and go to work at eight and then come back home after five. It's pretty tiring, huh?

While I do not miss having homework and stress and exams to worry about, I kind of miss the student life, where if you really don't want to go to class, that's cool, it's your choice and no one notices. This new stress is different: it's the stress of knowing that no matter how much sleep you got the night before, no matter how messy your apartment is, no matter how much you just want to stay home and have a mental health day, you're expected to be at work. There is work to do, and if you don't do it, there will be double the work the next day.

All complaining about the situation aside, I really do like my job. It's detail oriented and consistent, which are things that I like, and the people are friendly and fairly laid-back, which helps when I don't know everything I need to know yet. A non-student, full-time paycheck sweetens the deal, and although I'm told that what I'm making isn't very much at all, it's still about three to four times what I'm used to living on. This "small" paycheck should be able to stretch a long way, as long as I don't start acting like I'm making more money. I should be able to build up a pretty sizable (for me) savings, and maybe take a vacation (with Vacation Days!) in a year or two.

Heart Guy, Finally Right Side Up

Twice in the past two weeks I have been woken up by people knocking on my front door. The first occasion I will be ever grateful for. It went a little like this:

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK (ten minutes later) KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK

Me, opening the door: "Hi male neighbor 1. Why are you waking me up at the ungodly hour of nine in the morning?"

Him: "My roommate, male neighbor 2, told me his boss wants a second interview with you this morning, and suggested I come to wake you up since you didn't seem to be answering your phone."

Me, already planning the quickest route to the shower: "My phone didn't ring, but thanks for the info. Goodbye."

An hour and a half later I walked out of the interview that got me my first job out of college. Huzzah for that persistent knocker, male neighbor 1!


The second occasion was a little more bizarre. During a well-earned nap on Saturday, I was surprised to notice that the bottoms of my feet were very cold. Then I realized that I was standing on the tile at the front door, with my friend Tyler the chef standing there, trying to talk to me. I had apparently responded to his knocking by getting off the couch and opening the door without actually waking up enough to hold a conversation. I think he told me something about a football game that we'd won, and then graciously left me when he realized he was talking to a sleepwalker. I'm still not sure why he came in the first place.

Musical Commands

Ones I've Ignored:

• Bust a move
• Don't stop till you get enough
• Do the hustle
• Everybody say heyyyy
• Pump, pump it up

Ones I Wish I Hadn't:

• Rock the Casbah
• Shine on you crazy diamond
• Fly me to the moon
  

Weird?

I had a dream about "drowning" a dolphin last night by blowing into its airhole. I felt really bad about it, though.

Sightings

Yesterday while cleaning out my car, I saw a hood running down the alleyway, glancing behind him a couple of times, then darting down another alley. Wow!

Today while riding my bike down the river, I passed a woman in her late forties, in some sort of black-with-patches-of-tie-dye, long-sleeved, shortish dress thing with black leggings and a light green beret/turban thing, rollerblading along the path in a stylish manner.



Oh! And I have one of the coolest friends ever! She's only a freshman, but she's leaps and bounds beyond me. She has style! She has this amazing yellow jacket that she wears with cute grey skirts and tights! Purple tights! Yellow tights! Red shoes! Carrie is too cool for words, and I got to have a cupcake with her today.

If money was no issue

I would move out of my apartment into a house again. I would take my roommates with me, but we would each have our own room.

I would spend one weekend per month, and then one month in the summer, somewhere else. Somewhere pleasant, like Ireland or Mexico City or the Adriatic.

I would always have Oreo cookies in the house, and I would buy high-quality peanut butter, shampoo, and sour cream.

I would decorate my house with vinyl wall stickers and brightly colored paint, matching endtables, fancy ottomans and couches without rips in the fabric.

Bookshelves. The pottery barn kind that's like a wall of cubes, and the kind that's like leany shelves. The house would never be cluttered because there would always be an empty space to put things.

I imagine that if I were immensely rich, I would end up buying many pairs of nice jeans, and many shirts of the same kind in a rainbow of colors. I would always wear the same outfit, in varying hues.

I would buy a puppy. An expensive puppy from the puppy store in the mall, where they're all cute and furry. I would hire someone else to take care of the messes the puppy would inevitably make.

Mmm, swirly glass blobs

Just so I don't have something depressing up at the top all week long.

Party Time!

I have good friends. They seem to like me, and they talk to me in the hallway, etc. They even invite me to parties! This seems like a friendly sort of thing to do, to invite people you like to your home and feed them things along with all the other people that you like. Somehow, though, it just doesn't end up being fun for me. I really appreciate that people think of me, but I'm beginning to wish that they'd just stop inviting me. The stress of being around that many people that I don't know, and being expected to talk to them when I really don't care to, kind of tires me out. Then I feel guilty for not standing in the middle of the room or talking to anyone, because that makes other people uncomfortable. Because, see, they think that standing next to the wall is not good for me, that it means I'm not having fun. But really, leaning on the wall is more fun for me than partaking in the conversation. Some people just aren't meant for this kind of socializing. I suppose that what I am trying to say is, you need to go read this article, because I am an introvert.

Recipe!

The spanish tortilla is the best of all omelets, or so boasts this article. Here you can see my delicious, but not completely circular, attempt at being spanish.

The beginning was questionable and a little scary. Visions of runny egg and potato dripping onto the floor danced through my head as I prepared for the flip.


After the surprisingly easy flip, during which nothing dripped anywhere it wasn't supposed to, things began to look up. Except I had already slightly overcooked side one in fear of insufficient coagulation.


The second side went so much faster than the first, a mere 4 minutes compared to the previous... nearly 15. The second side was therefore not burnt. The end result was very tasty and kind of pretty, with lovely little surprise caramelized onions at the surface every once in a while.


This dish is definately a repeat, as it tastes incredible and costs next to nothing to make (it comes out to about a dollar per person). Things I would do differently next time: get a sous chef, or a mandoline. The potatoes take forever to slice by yourself. Also try not to get fresh garlic under my fingernails, that kind of sucks later on when drinking smoothies for dessert. I think maybe next time I'll try not peeling the potatoes, that seemed to take a long time and I don't see any problem with leaving the skins on. While it didn't call for it in the recipe, my roommate who has experience with authentic tortillas questioned whether there should be cheese. It wouldn't hurt to try next time, authentic or not.

Completion

1. In 2007 I graduated with a bachelor's degree, taking several tough, upper-level courses, my first community college course, and a few courses that were just for me. I took my first self-planned vacation with my roommate, and went through the work of moving into and creating a space in a new home, again. I taught myself to floss, and did so with great consistency. If I can use that same motivation to create new daily habits this year, I can become wonderful. I watched as many friends around me found love and got married, but in general I have not been down about that the way I could have been. 2007 was a year of endings and beginnings, a year of change.

2. What is there to grieve about 2007? I grieve my time as a student, the fact that I no longer have the title and purpose that I've had for so much of my life. It was hard to get myself motivated to prepare for what was around the corner. I forgive myself for allowing fear to paralyze me, that rather than either enjoying my final months or working at finding a job before graduation, I simply worried and did nothing. Worrying did nothing but stress me out and give me this twitch in my left eye, even though this current time of unemployment is giving me the opportunity to organize my life, decide what is truly important to me, and make my home a place of peace and cleanliness.

3. The year taught me that it is possible for me to form good habits as well as to break less desirable ones, that it is alright to get rid of things to make my life more streamlined, whether those things be old clothes, extraneous activities, or unnecessary relationships.

I declare 2007 complete!

My primary focus for 2008 will be to continue to purge my life of clutter, be it of a physical, temporal, or mental nature. I intend to strip my life down to the essentials, to take care of the necessary parts of life and let the other things fall to the side. To begin fresh, and gradually build up the good in my life, to have quiet time each day and to know there is time to spare. 2008 is my year of priority.

(Thanks to Andrea of Superhero Designs and her wonderful prompt found here.)

Spring cleaning, the two-week-long version

Today we had our first experience with craigslist. Within ten minutes of posting this bad picture, with the same problem of it being sideways (an unfortunate side effect of my new computer- I haven't figured out how to get pictures rotated yet), I'd had an email, and within a half hour of that email, the shelves were gone from our life forever. We decided we didn't want them about two hours ago now, and the shelves are probably being set up in their new home as we speak. Hooray for recycling!

New Year's Resolution, or something

I resolve never ever to have a party with married couple friends and single friends at the same time. Why? Because married people suck, that's why. Or maybe just newlyweds suck. All I know is, if I have to sit through another evening of watching five couples vie for attention by loudly and playfully arguing with each other about some inside joke, I'm just going to have to rip the skin off of my face. People! Get a hold of yourselves! No one cares (really, NO ONE) whether you think your husband is weird because he knows what religion Madonna practices. "Kabbalah? How did you even know that? You're a real freak. I don't even know why I married you. Hey everybody, isn't he weird? Everybody?"

Now Joining the Year Already in Progress

Not to feel like slackers for the entirety of 2008, we got up early on New Year's Day to see the first sunrise. From the top of a mountain. Unfortunately for us, we didn't leave early enough, and were instead forced to watch the sunrise from the middle of a mountain, which turned out to be a windy, yet beautiful, affair. After a over-the-fire breakfast of eggs, hash, bacon and english muffins that tasted like lighter fluid, we drove back down the mountain and spent the rest of the day in a more reasonable fashion, with the tv on to a continuous stream of "Dirty Jobs" as we drifted in and out of sleep until the afternoon, then off to pick up some pizza for dinner.

As yet I haven't made any new year's resolutions, except for one with my roommate that has nothing to do with keeping our kitchen organized and clean. I can't remember the specifics of the ones I made last year, but since I can't remember them, I like to believe that it's because I completed them so well that they are no longer things that need improvement in my life.

Here's a toast to you in the new year, to health and happiness and clean kitchens.