Hair.

Can we just take a moment to look at this picture.

Despite what some people think, this is not a wig.

It is my brother's actual hair, in all its 70's style glory.

Wishful Thinking

I Made It!

Well considering the events of the past 3 days and the rest of my history with airplanes and airports, I probably should never get on a plane again. Seriously. Whether I am flying halfway across the world or just up and down the east coast, I will always, inevitably, have some kind of delay or cancellation, caused by a mechanical problem, weather, or just my own stupidity.

It all started when I flew to New Zealand the summer before my junior year for a study abroad program. It was the first time that I had ever flown by myself and I was freaking out a little bit. I started freaking out a little bit more when massive thunderstorms over Dallas forced my plane to make a pit stop in Oklahoma City for 45 minutes... Needless to say that by the time I finally made it to Dallas both my sanity and my connection to LA were hopelessly gone. About eight hours later I finally made it to LA, three hours after my 9pm flight to NZ had left... One free hotel stay later, I finally made it to NZ on the next plane out of LA (another 9pm-er). And did I mention that in the process I lost a piece of luggage and did not get it back until I flew to Australia 2.5 weeks later... and the process of getting it back almost made me miss that plane too? Good times.

After an experience like that you'd think that I would try to steer clear of those huge metal birds that caused me so much emotional wear and tear, but since then I've sort of caught the flying bug. Seriously, I love it!

Of course, almost every time I fly something weird happens that makes me think that maybe my plane karma isn't up to par...

One spring break, my friend and I flew to London and Paris. The flight there was ok, but then when we were flying home, I was informed that the final leg of my flight had been cancelled, but I was rebooked. Then weather in JFK delayed my flight by about two hours. Then weather in Richmond caused them to load up on extra fuel on my teeny 48ish seater plane, in case we'd have to taxi in the air a little before landing. So, they gave us an ultimatum, five people had to get off the plane, or we wouldn't (couldn't) take off. Great. I did finally make it home although, when I did I thought that I had lost a piece of luggage... but it turned out that some idiot had just left it out on the tarmac and forgotten to put it on the luggage return belt thinger.

Over the summer I flew to Denver for a publishing program. It was right after Delta and Northwest merged. Without realizing it, I booked my Delta flight through Northwest's website, so when I went to print my boarding pass at the airport through the Delta kiosk, it wouldn't work. Through a lot of unfortunate circumstances and miscommunication, I missed my flight, even though I was at the airport over an hour and a half before it took off. That one really sucked.

My most recent airplane dilemmas occurred on Sunday and then again on Tuesday. I was supposed to fly to Vermont from FL on Sunday morning at 11. When I checked into my flight on Saturday everything was normal. When I checked the status of my flights before I left for the airport, everything was normal. When I checked in at the airport, I was informed that my flights had been delayed... until Tuesday. The result... two extra days in Florida! Woo-hoo! It was tough, but I managed. My only qualm was that on my rebooked flights, I only had a 45 minute layover... in my mind, that's just a recipe for disaster. And, surprise surprise, it almost was! Thanks to my plane's mechanical distress my flight out of FL was delayed by about 35 min, cutting my layover time to about 20 min. Since I had to switch terminals, lots of running was involved, but I made it!

Thanks to all the aforementioned experiences and many many more, I am now completely paranoid of missing my flight/any connections, so I always try to get to the airport between 2 and 2 and a half hours before my flight is supposed to leave (unless its god awful early one, then I just get there asap!) and I try to schedule my flights with super long layovers... anything less than 90 minutes starts to make my tummy rumble and my adrenaline pump, because (again) I am paranoid that I will miss my connection because of some delay or issue. Consequently I have learned to really love airports. I love exploring them and checking out the shops and then when I'm finished with all that I will curl up on one of those 'super comfy' airport chairs and read a book, while sipping tea or eating a croissant.

I love it! Unless, of course, my plane has been delayed... which it usually has.

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow!

While I was warm in Florida, it snowed 23 inches at my house. That 1. is unheard of and 2. makes me a little sad.

Disney!

In less than 12 hours I will be on my way to the land of sun, warmth, and happiness. My dad is angry because tomorrow the temperature at home isn't supposed to make it out of the 30's. :) Yay for college roomies with timeshares in Florida!! Jenny, Mik, and Mickey... here I come!

Maybe all the heat and humidity will make my cough go away...

It's Australia's Favorite Cookie!

Today while I was walking through Target when I saw the most amazing site in the world.

Tim Tams!

I was first introduced to this delicious cookie when I was studying abroad in Australia a couple summers ago. They are made of two chocolate biscuits with a layer of chocolate creme in between and then covered with chocolate. Think glorified oreos. Mmmmm!

Anyway, thanks to the people at Pepperidge Farms, we Americans can finally enjoy this delicious treat without taking a trip down under.

The best way to eat a Tim Tam is by doing the "Tim Tam Slam." Basically, you use the cookie as a straw to soak up a hot beverage of your choice. Then you eat the soggy, chocolaty mess. It's very easy and tastes amazing, even though it may sound a little gross...

The Tim Tam Slam

1. Heat up a cup of water, tea, coffee, or milk... it needs to be pretty hot, but not necessarily boiling

2. Bite off two opposite corners of the cookie

3. Hold one corner (the part you bit off) of the cookie in your mouth and put the other end into the hot beverage

4. Use the cookie as a straw to suck up the hot beverage

5. As soon as you feel the liquid hit your lips flip your head back and let the cookie fall into your mouth

6. Enjoy the amazing taste of melted cookie and chocolate mixture!

Great Advice From Good Ol' Abe

True story Abe! I don't know what I am trying to be yet... editor?, but right now I'm trying to be good at trying!

I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas...

Today mother nature finally gave us a taste of winter! It was our first snow of the season and I basically died of happiness. Not only did it snow all day, but as a result, we now have somewhere between 6.5 and 7 inches accumulation on our deck. I hope it does this again in 20 days in Vermont!

Snow on the deck in the morning

Soooo pretty!

Snow on the trees around my house

For When You Need To Smile

Through a little bit of blog stalking today I discovered this amazing website, Gives Me Hope. Apparently the guys who started it did it in response to the FML website which, while funny, can also be kinda depressing sometimes.

GMH is filled with happy and uplifting stories that often (thanks to my newly discovered lack of emotional stability) make my eyes feel a little moister then usual and give my arm hairs a standupish sort of feeling. Although lots of things seem to do that lately, songs on the radio, TV commercials, books, you name it... I think I'm becoming my mom.

Here's a few of my favorites...

Today, my grandmother died. I took a walk to try and calm down but ended up sitting on a park bench crying. Someone tapped me on the shoulder and a man handed me a beautiful bouquet of flowers. He said, "I walked past here earlier and you were crying, so I got you these flowers", and walked away. Kind strangers like him GMH.

****

I work in a little local shop and we don't make a lot of money. Recently I had a lady come in and hand me $15. She then told me that she placed an order about a week ago and when she was rung up, they undercharged her and being a small business she wanted us to have the money. Her honesty GMH!

****

My aunt had terminal brain cancer and the doctors told my uncle that he should buy a hospital bed to put in their home. His reply?

"I've never seen a hospital bed made for two."

He was completely serious and that GMH.

****

One night, my dad told my family we should all pray for my cousin who is serving in Afghanistan. We later found out that around the same time, he ran over a bomb in his vehicle with 4 other soldiers. All five of them survived with only scratches. Prayer GMH.

<3

Weekly Wisdom

In light of recent events (turkey day!) it seems fitting that this week's quote is an American proverb. Thanksgiving is the quintessential American holiday. It transcends race, religion, and anything else that gets in the way of us getting together to celebrate. Some American dude (or dudette) said this way back in the day and it is something I firmly believe in. My life certainly hasn't gone according to plan recently but so far, everything I've done, planned or unplanned, positive or negative, has resulted in something positive. That's something I can be thankful for!

This is Your Birthday Song, it isn't Very Long... (I'll give thanks to that)

Happy Birthday Little Bro!

Despite the fact that his b-day is really today (Turkey Day), we celebrated yesterday so that we could feast on delicious roast beef, roasted potatoes, and supper yummy (pirate) cake.

Today we're feasting again (Thanksgiving style) on turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, creamed onions, peas, pumpkin pie, and of course leftover cake :)

Thanksgiving is a day for being thankful. These are three things about my dear old brother I'm thankful for...

1. This picture... Mitch gave us all a huge helping of "awkward sauce," as he so wonderfully put it, when he entertained the whole fam by modeling the union suit he got for Christmas.

2. Good times wayyyy back in the day... playing vet with milla, moo moo, and moo cow, building forts with all the loft furniture and every blanket we owned, and of course all those times he let me dress him up in my ballet costumes... I'm sure he loved that :)

3. Just being my brother ♥

Adventures in the Land of the Presidents

Over the weekend "my super cool roommate" (as she is listed in my phone) and I drove to DC to visit her boyfriend. By that I mean, we came to chill with each other, while also visiting her bf who conveniently lives 3 hours north of me and 3 hours south of her.

A high point of the trip (for me)

occurred on my drive up when I passed a car with a large gutted deer attached to the back of it. Being the creeper I am, I immediately slowed down and waited for the car to pass me so that I could immortalize it in film... notice the deer's tongue sticking out

Because Jenny's an uber health and medicine junkie (I mean that in the nicest way possible...) we went to the National Museum of Health and Medicine which is in a part of the Walter Reed Military Hospital complex. That in itself was pretty cool because we had to get our picture taken when we entered the museum and then give it back when we left or else the feds would have come after us! A highlight of the museum... seeing good ol' Abe's blood on some dude's sleeve and the envelope the sleeve was sent in. Also reading about how they basically removed his entire brain in an attempt to find the bullet was pretty cool.

Since there isn't much else to do in the WRMH area we took the metro into the city and headed down to the International Spy Museum. That place was pretty cool, although it kinda makes you paranoid after you've been through it to know about all the various inconspicuous objects that you can hide a gun, or a video camera, or a tape recorder.... A highlight of the museum... I always knew they used pigeons for letter and message carrying, but did you know that they also worked as super secret picture takers? Yup! They sure did. In WWII they strapped cameras onto the chests of pigeons and sent them off to do the work that stealth planes do today!

A dinner of Mongolian BBQ followed our acquisition of new identities a the spy museum (I was Maria Falcone?). It was something I'd never had before and I must say it was a pretty neat and delicious experience.

We finished off the evening by walking from the Smithsonian down to the Lincoln memorial via the Washington and WWII. It was beautiful!

Together again :)

Sooo amazing!

They just wouldn't stop being adorable...

Pretty arches in the WWII Memorial

Walking in the (empty) Reflecting Pool

We're cool...

Well hey there Abe! We saw your blood earlier!

Weekly Wisdom

-Winston Churchill

This one's for you Lisa! Not because you're going through hell or anything (although some people may think that given your current academic endeavors...) but because I know that you knew that I was going to use this one today!

This is a great quote to live by... I was constantly referring to this one in the form of my magnet while I was struggling through Advanced Cell and Physics... if those two classes weren't hell in an earthly form I don't know what is.

So thanks Winston! You're a savior to many just for uttering those seven words, in fact baring leading Great Britain through WWII, it may have just been the most important thing you ever did.

Best. Blog. Ever.

I recently discovered the blog Wonders Never Cease and it has quickly become one of my favorite ones ever. The blog belongs to a store called Proper Topper, which is in DC and I've never been to, however they do sell quote cards so they are real up there in my opinion. They also sell cool jewelry, hats, clothing, and fun gifts. Their blog is an eclectic collection of fashion advice and other neat things. Monday they profiled the Tweed Ride in DC, an event where people dress from head to toe in tweed and ride bikes. Last week they talked about Virgin Atlantic's VTravelled. However, my favorite feature of their blog is the weekly Wednesday play list.

Every Wednesday they create a "play list" with a theme. This week's theme was "fashion's a stranger." It was dedicated to artists who were known for their uniquely amazing fashion sense... and occasionally their music. They picked two songs from each decade from the 1930's to the 2000's. My favorite entries...

1. “Besame Mucho” – Josephine Baker (1930)

Born into poverty in St. Louis, Baker quickly rose to international fame for her incredible stage presence. She wasn’t known for her singing, but one can surely forgive musical flaws when the performer is dancing in a skirt made of bananas.

Iconic style: sequins, feathers, fruit, African-inspired costumes, a pet cheetah.

4. “Night and Day” – Frank Sinatra (1942)

Fred Astaire first performed this Cole Porter hit, but Sinatra’s velvet vocals and signature phrasing make his recording the better-known. And no one can resist Ol’ Blue Eyes.

Iconic style: fedoras, tailored suits, pocket squares, gin.

14. “Wannabe” – Spice Girls (1996)

These spunky Brits inspired their fans to be sporty, ginger-y, posh, scary, or baby-like, and their “girl-power”-inspired anthems are still guilty pleasures on many an iPod. And their fashion-dynamic informs the style of girl-groups to this day.

Iconic style: see the adjectives listed above, and add a good helping of pigtails and high-heels and hemlines.

And my all time favorite... (particularly the Iconic style part.)

16. “Fashion” – Lady Gaga (2009)

Whatever your opinion of Lady Gaga’s talent, you cannot deny recognizing her, um, creative fashion sense. (Grace Coddington used her in this month’s Vogue, after all.) What will she wear next? Bubbles? A falcon? Silly Putty? She might just have to be on the list for the ’10s, if she keeps this up.

Iconic style: We’re not quite sure, but it definitely does not involve pants.

Soft times :)

In Honor of Fall

This year's fall was basically one of the most brilliantly colored, beautiful falls in recent history... here are just a few pictures to remember it by.

Yesterday while I was at work I saw someone using a leaf blower to blow the pretty yellow leaves off the trees... what a shame.

Quotables

Most people who know me know that I have two major obsessions... scarves and greeting cards, or more specifically, fresh ink and quote cards. This obsession is pretty ridiculous but I can usually manage it by exerting superhuman amounts of will-power upon entering a Hallmark store. Unfortunately, it usually doesn't work. I'll often go into Hallmark expecting to purchase a single card and come out with three. Once I even walked into Hallmark (on autopilot), only to remember once I was inside that I didn't need any cards and had, in fact, intended to go to the store next door. I bought 4 Fresh Ink cards that day... In fact, one of the reasons that I hate the whole super early Christmas bonanza, is because Fresh Ink cards are often the first to go when Hallmark has to create shelf space for Christmas cards.

My little problem gets even worse if I'm in a store that carries Quotables cards. Since they're harder to find, I have been known to buy four or even five at a time, especially if I've never seen them before. Luckily for my bank account, that isn't too often. But hey, at least the greeting cards I compulsively buy cost under $3, as opposed to shoes or designer bags that cost hundreds!

Anyway, I've decided to share my large collection of quote cards with the world (or at least the 5 people who actually read this blog). It will be my gift to you each week.... or so.

This week's quote (seen above) is my all time favorite quote. Read it, remember it, live it.

Amazing Images of the Day

My dad decided to use the cat as his computer cushion... typical.

Dear Weather,

Please make up your mind.

I don't know whats up with the wacky weather we've been having recently. Last week it was sunny and warmish, this week started out mild and turned ugly. It rained all day on Wednesday and Thursday and most of Friday. It was mildly cold on Wednesday (60s), absolutely freezing on Thursday (30-40s there were freezing rain alerts), less freezing on Friday (40-50s) and now its warm again (I have on a T-shirt and I'm a little hot).

As it is now November and all the Christmas decorations are out and Christmas music is on the radio (all things I disagree with but that was another post) I think that the weather should cooperate. November should be cold, so far it's not really at all. And why, I may ask, was so much of September and October freezing?

Ahhh Fall in Virginia.... shorts and T-shirt weather one day, Eskimo weather the next <3

It's Friday the 13th...

How was your luck today?

I celebrated this day of unlucky by sleeping through my alarm. Then, when I got into my car to go to school, it wouldn't start. Good times. Needless to say I was very late to class.

I don't really know why people think that Friday the 13th is such a bad luck sorta day. It happens all the time and its not like more people die or the world ends. Did you know that we will experience around 150 Friday the 13th before we die? That's a whole lot of bad luck. I for one, refuse to believe that the combination of a numerical date and day of the week are enough to cause bad luck across the globe. Although that new movie 2012, you know the one that talks about how the world is going to end, was released today (Friday 13), so maybe that's our bad luck for the year...

On the positive side, I finally made some progress on the articles I have to finish by Monday and it sort of stopped raining by the end of the day. Oh and all that was wrong with my car was a loose cable.

Maybe Friday the 13th isn't so bad after all.... or maybe I just have a really lucky horse shoe...

Where Have all the Turkeys Gone?

Dear America,

Over a week ago you decided to start celebrating Christmas. Today is November 10, am I the only one who sees a problem with this?

It's disconcerting to go into Target on a quest for fun Halloween things to send to my friends and hear Christmas music in the background while I'm searching through isles of stuffed monsters, funky socks, and Halloween candy. When did we decide that it would be ok to start putting up the Christmas displays before October 31? Don't get me wrong, I love Christmas just as much as the next guy... it just makes me wonder, what happened to Thanksgiving?

Now that it's November, I guess most other stores are going to start trying to force us all to feel like its that Christmasy time of year about a month early...

Over the weekend I went to Kohl's with my mom and I was appalled to hear Christmas music sprinkled in with the normal music. A little later we stopped into Michaels to get some yarn and the same thing happened. Since then, I've had similar experiences in other stores. Then I go to ballet on Monday and guess what I am forced to deal with? Christmas Music! Apparently from now until the end of term we will be doing "Christmas Barre" every day.... great. Is everyone going crazy? I mean seriously, won't we get sick of Christmas if we start celebrating it a month early? The world only has so much Christmas Cheer.

Don't you remember when, back in the day, we waited with baited breath for midnight on November 30th for the Christmas music to start playing 24/7 on the radio stations? That was back when Santa heralded in the Christmas season by ending the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. Now, Christmas music is polluting our radio stations before Thanksgiving, Christmas displays are polluting our stores before Halloween, and ABC Family has a countdown to the 25 Days of Christmas. This is crazy! Who wants to watch Christmas movies on November 10? Well, you can watch Snow and Snow 2 if you tune into channel 311 at 8pm.

As for me... I think I'll leave November to the turkeys and save Christmas for December.

Weekly Wisdom

"Breath Deeply and Often"

(Anonymous)

Just Stop Slinging Mud Already.

I have a beef to pick with the politicians of America.

It has nothing to do with the economy, taxes, health care, or even what they are wearing or how they do their hair. I have a problem with the way they campaign.

Why, oh why, do they (or their campaign dudes) insist on playing and replaying television ads that attack their opponents? Don't get me wrong, I have no problem when one guy's campaign ad shows the bad things that his opponent has done politically, but only if he also says how he could do better.

What I have no tolerance for are ads that completely pummel the opponent for something that does not in any way reflect the his political decisions. As a voter, I don't care if your opponent has had an affair or written a book or accidentally broken the leg of his best friend from Kindergarten. That's his problem, not mine.

I've lived in Virginia my whole life, but until last year, it was never really a big state for political competition. We are a republican state... or were...

But that changed when statistics maniacs and political gurus decided that VA would be a swing state in the presidential elections, perhaps even one of the most important. The result? A wave of political ads and endorsements for Obama and McCain. Obama ran a pretty clean campaign, while McCain played a little dirtier... as a result (combined with his politics of course) I liked Obama better. So did Virginia.

This year we chose a new governor. Because Virginia has some crazy law that a governor can not serve a second term, we had to choose between two new guys, McDonnell (R) and Deeds (D). The onslaught of TV ads began around May. Apparently this was a very important election. It was going to be Virginia's way of either supporting or denouncing their decision to vote Obama into the white house last November. If Deeds won, then we were affirming our love of the Democrats and everything Obama, vice versa for McDonnell.

Over the course of the campaign trail, Deeds was consistently on the attack. He used negative ads, twisted McDonnell's political records, and even dug up some thesis McDonnell wrote about how women are basically baby makers and that's it... maybe you heard about that? I know I sure did... daily.

McDonnell's campaign was more positive. I guess it was mostly because he was constantly being attacked and had to keep showing that he didn't actually suck at life. But, he campaigned effectively and as a result, was usually ahead in the polls. He used his ads to show that he was a good guy, to outline his politics, and to say that he was the better candidate, not because of how bad the other guy was, but because he had plans and a vision for our state and our failing economy. Even when his ads highlighted the bad things Deeds had done in his career, it was sort of positive and McDonnell used that to show what he would either fix or do better.

Personally I think that a different message was sent on November 3. Virginians elected McDonnell, not because we hate Obama, many exit polls across the state showed continuing support for him. And not because we think that McDonnell is the guy who will fix all our problems.

I think we just hate negative ad campaigns.

It's Football Night in America!

It's week 8 of regular season football and as we (my family) sit here watching the Giants/Eagles football game and my mom dives deeper and deeper into depression as the seconds slowly tick by and the Giants continue to be dominated by the Eagles, I can't help but think... what drives our unabashed loyalty to one team over another?

People go crazy over their sports teams and personally I think that football brings out the most devoted sports fan in a person. I have friends who would sacrifice their brand new puppy if it would help the Eagles win. In her excitement, my mom knocked over, and consequently broke, a lamp when the Giants won the super bowl. I know people who believe that the stock market is influenced by whether one team wins over another.

So, why do we like the teams we like? Well, most people have one team that they just can't live without... for my mom that would be the Giants, for a bunch of my friends at school that would be the Eagles, for my cousins, the Patriots. I guess a lot of it has to do with where you're from. Being from near Philly, most of my school friends are expected to support a Philadelphia team. The same goes for my cousins, in New England you pretty much have to like the Pats or you will be lynched... or worse. My mom grew up in Jersey, thus her deep bouts of depression when the Giants lose...

Of course, there are also those teams that you just have to hate, loath, and despise out of loyalty to the team that you like. A prime example is the Eagles/Steelers feud. A true fan of either of these teams will hate the other. It's the classic cross-state rivalry. Consequently a "Pennsylvania Super Bowl" would be awesome.

So once we get over that initial can't live without 'em team, how do we decide who else to root for?

Well at least for me, it's completely arbitrary, sort of...

The Good Guys...

The Eagles - With PA home to both family and my college, how can I not like those green and white clad guys? I personally think that most philly fans take McNabb completely for granted but that's just me

The Giants - I know, they are in the same division or whatever so they compete for standings but I like 'em because I like my mom.

The Bengals - These guys are easy to root for... they woulda made it to the super bowl about 3 years ago, except that some guy on the Steelers broke Palmer's knee... bummer. Now they are back and rocking a pretty good record. Plus, they are my bro's team

I also like the Cowboys, Steelers, Broncos, and Colts because either I have ties to their respective cities or because I have friends who do.

The Badies...

The Rams/Cardinals - Hands down. Now I don't really hate the teams, but I hate them for their association with their quarterback, Kurt Warner. I've hated him ever since that one time when the Rams beat the Titans in the super bowl by tackling that guy right before he made it to the end zone. I was so mad that the Titans had lost and that stupid Kurt Warner's team had won, especially with all that Cinderella talk. I've never forgiven him for that.

The Dolphins/Redskins/Cowboys - I associate these teams with those starter jackets that were super popular back in the early 90s. As a result, I don't really like these teams very much, although I've gotten over this to some respect with the Cowboys. I don't know why those jackets bothered me so much but they really did. Maybe it was because our old cleaning lady wore one and I didn't like her. But, whatever the reason, these teams had the misfortune to be popular when I was in elementary school, soo there you have it.

The Patriots - They are overrated and I don't like Tom Brady. I'm glad the Giants ruined their perfect season. Sorry to the masses of fans that they have.

Isn't football fun?

Weekly Wisdom

“You are what you do. Not what you think. Not what you want. Not what you dream. Not even what you believe. You are what you do.”

(Anonymous)

Good Times in Gettysburg

Over the weekend, my mom and I drove up to Gettysburg for my

bro's family weekend shindig. Despite the fact that it rained all day Saturday, we had fun anyway. I got a sweet Gettysburg Family Weekend button, we took a quick trip to Maryland to get some fun drinks, and my mom got to watch the Penn State football game. We also met up with my aunt, uncle, cousin and her friend for "cocktail hour" in our hotel room.

Anyway, Sunday turned out to be beautiful so my mom, bro, and I decided to take a drive through the battlefields. With all the fall colors in full swing, the battlefields were spectacular. I had a lot of fun taking pictures of them with the special color filters on my camera. These pictures are of the monument dedicated to the soldiers from Virginia that fought in the

Civil War. I guess the soldiers deserve its hugeness, although I think that the fact that General Lee was also from Virginia could have a little something to do with it. He was kind of a big deal to the Confederacy. That's him on the horse at the top of the monument.

We also found the Pennsylvania monument which was pretty cool because the name of one of our ancestors is written on the wall.

While I was taking this picture (below right), I overheard a convo that was both funny and sad. You see, this statue is on a large rock and there is a sign under it that says "please don't touch the rock." This is because the rock and statue are part of the memorial to the troops of New York who held down the fort at Little Roundtop. Anyway this girl climbed up on the rock, I guess it was so that she could get a better picture of

Devil's Den, which is in the ravine below. Her dad yelled at her to get down, to which she responded with something to the effect of "It's ok, I'm only going to be up here for a second." When she took her picture and got down off the rock, her dad pulled her aside and said, "You know, I don't know which is worse. The number of people who died here, or your attitude. But, I'm thinking that it's your attitude."

Harsh. I hope her picture was good.

Virtue is a Virtue

We got Chinese food the other night and my fortune was pretty interesting.

"Wisdom is knowing what to do next, skill is knowing how to do it, and virtue is doing it."

This is such a great saying, even if it did come from a fortune cookie. We often know what we have to do and how to do it, but that doesn't always mean that we actually do whatever it is that we should.

Take me for instance, over the past year I got fat. Not super fat, just fat enough that my middle sort of spills over the top of several pairs of my pants, just a little, but enough to make me feel very self-conscious. Oh, and I'm pretty sure that I look about 3 months along when I wear a dress.

Now, wisdom tells me that the obvious solution to my not-so-little problem would be to eat better, snack less, and get some hard-core exercising done.

The skill part would mostly involve me, good shoes, and a treadmill hanging out together for about 4 miles a day.

But virtue has been failing me for about 2 months, which is about how long it's been since I decided to implement my new eating and exercising regimen. In September, I decided to go to the gym every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday after class. I even put my sneakers and gym clothes in my car so that I would have them after class and not have to go home. Unfortunately, my shoes and clothes are still sitting, neatly folded, on the back seat in my car. They still smell like laundry. I'm still fat.


I guess I need to work on my virtue.

A Journey into the Wilds of my Dad's Office

I was feeling a little crummy after my class this morning so I decided to journey over to my dad's office to see if he had any tea that I could make. Fortunately he did, unfortunately he only had Celestial Seasoning's Peach Apricot Honeybush and Wild Cherry Blackberry, both very weird flavors. He also didn't have any honey or sugar, both essential ingredients for the perfect cup of tea. I decided that Peach Apricot Honeybush was better than nothing and maybe the honeybush part would make up for the lack of any actual honey in his office. It didn't.

My dad's office is a mess and that's putting it lightly. But it's also full of character (and pictures of me and the bro when we were little and super cute). He says that the chaos in his office represents his life... take from that what you will. But the coolest part of his office is the mini-research lab in the back. Now, no research has taken place back there since before I was born and my dad occupied this office, unless you count documenting how much stuff one man can manage to squish into a space the size of a large elevator. But it still has all the fixings of a research lab, complete with a safety shower and test tube drying racks attached to the wall over the industrial sink. It was to the test tube rack that I forced my way through the wreckage to to get my coffee mug. Among the millions of mugs hanging on the rack (well it was like 15) I found this little gem. It has a picture of a woman in a bathrobe and slippers sitting at a computer desk with the caption...

"If the computer gets a virus, can I take a sick day?"

Classic.

Sing a Happy Song!

Everyone should have a playlist called "Seriously, Laughter is the Best Medicine" or "For When You Just Have to Scream... Sing These Instead" or something to that effect.

These playlists should be filled with music that not only makes you happy, but makes you so happy that you just can't help but laugh out loud. Failing that, it should at least make you smile. Your playlist should be filled with songs that you know all the lyrics to, and preferably sound even better when turned up really loud.

These songs don't have to be "typical" songs like those you regularly hear on the radio. My ultimate "happy" song is I Swear by All-4-One. Random? Yes. I don't know why, but something about that song just makes me smile and want to start belting it out... even when I'm so angry I can't even think straight (yes, that does happen to me occasionally... hard to believe I know). There were several occasions last year when this song came up on my iPod while I was walking across campus and I literally had to restrain myself from doing a full on, eyes closed, crouching down, belting out rendition of "I Swear" in the middle of Brinser field... with people around. Crazy, I know. To illustrate how impressive that is, for those of you that don't know me, I never sing in public. Ever. Unless I am in a crowd large enough to drown out my voice... or under the influence of "liquid courage"... Also, I generally don't dance in public either, unless I'm on a stage and the dance is choreographed by someone other than me and I have been practicing for at least a couple days first... or I'm wearing my party pants :)

Fireflies by Owl City is another great addition to either of the aforementioned song lists. There is just something about this song that's captivating. I don't know what it is about this song but I listen to it and it just makes me happy. Yesterday it came on right as I was about to turn onto my road and I drove around the block twice just so that I could hear the entire song. I mean seriously, who couldn't love a playfully electronic song about fireflies?

Of course, to anyone who's never heard Chinese Children by Devendra Banhart, well you should. The sooner the better. This is a song that not only will make you smile after about the first 5 seconds, but it will make you start to giggle after about 20 seconds, laugh after about a minute, and then keep laughing for the duration of the 5 minute song. It is unquestionably one of the single weirdest songs I have ever heard in my entire life and it will forever be a solid member of my "Seriously, Laughter is the Best Medicine" playlist.

So the next time that you are just piping mad and hate the world and everyone in it, don't reach for your Remington 22-shot gun, don't reach for your car keys, don't reach out to the nearest window or mirror with a clenched fist, instead reach for your iPod (or equivalent) and save yourself from jail, a potential wreck or speeding ticket, or a lot of pain and either bad luck or a costly home improvement project, with your perfect laugh/smile inducing playlist.

I'm Sorry

I've recently been informed that I am an apologetic person. Perhaps too apologetic.

I guess I could see how people get that impression. I do tend to end a lot of sentences with the phrase, "I'm sorry!" or "I'm sorry?" or even "I'm sorry..." I do tend to just say sorry/apologize to people, often for almost no apparent reason. And, "I'm sorry" is often the response you will get from me if you say anything from, "You just punched me in the face" to "I lost my puppy" to "We're out of milk."

But, I ask you, what's so wrong with that? I guess if I just punched you in the face, that's an understandable "I'm sorry." Obviously I should say I'm sorry, because that's what I've been taught to do since pre-school when I learned all my morals. If you tell me that you lost your puppy, I say I'm sorry because I feel bad about the fact that you lost your puppy. So, I say I'm sorry, not because I think that it's my fault that you lost your puppy, not because I stole your puppy and I am apologizing for taking it. Instead, I'm sorry because I have pets of my own and I know that I would be upset if I lost Kitty or Frisk or even Sam, so I feel bad that you lost your pet and am empathizing. When we're out of milk, the sorry refers to the fact that I also use the milk and I should have noticed that we were running low and picked some up from the store on the way home.... See it makes sense, right?

I guess it doesn't always though because half the time that I say "I'm sorry," I get the response, "It's not your fault." Well duh. Of course I know it's not my fault when you fall and scrape your knee or you get into a car accident or you accidentally (drunkenly) spill cranberry juice (mixed with something else) all over the front of your brand new, bright white party dress. But I'm sorry doesn't always have to mean I did something and now I am sorry for the fact that I did it. Can't it also mean, "I feel really bad for what just happened to you and I wish I could do something to help you even though I know I can't"? Can't it mean "it shouldn't have happened to you and it sucks that it did"?

And then there were those times in college when I would, 1. apologize to the class when I took 10 minutes longer than anyone else to finish my molecular lab practical and 2. apologize to Dr. Yorty for turning in a test that I knew was not going to be an A, possibly be a B, and most likely going to be a C? In this case, the sorry to the class was for the fact that I was keeping them from going home early. The apology to the teacher was because I was sorry that despite all her attempts to pound the information about PCR and DNA sequencing into my brain, I had still forgotten a significant amount of the information and had therefore probably failed.

All in all, I guess what I'm trying to say here is that saying "I'm sorry" is not always cause for the response "that's ok, it's not your fault." Nor is it a phrase that can be overused. In fact, I personally believe that most people don't say it enough. So, the next time you're in a spot where you see someone who needs a little empathy and comfort, try using the phrase, "I'm sorry" and see if it doesn't make you feel a little better too.

I'm taking the plunge...

Well after months and months of procrastination... I've taken the plunge. I've finally started a blog of my own.

But I never realized how hard it would be to start. Seriously. First, you have to come up with a catchy title. I literally agonized over this one for several weeks. I was constantly running possible titles through my head... in the car, in the shower, in ballet, wherever... but nothing seemed good enough. It was awful. I really wanted to start a blog, but I didn't have a title. Then. Inspiration. I found my title. I think it represents me pretty well. It doesn't quite make sense but at the same time it totally does. Some people see the glass as half full and other people just wear glasses... I do both. Usually.

So now you have a catchy title. Are you finished? No way! Now, you have to come up with a URL name that works with your title without being crazy long. But you can't just come up with any old URL because inevitably someone else has already used it. I wanted glasshalffull, but that was already taken. One of my suggestions was somepeopleseetheglassashalffull but that's soooo long, and looks kinda funny too. So then you have to pick a new URL or add some numbers or in my case leave out a letter... I promise I know that full has two L's.

Then, of course, you have to deal with the layout. Which template do you choose? How do you customize it so that it doesn't look like a cookie-cutter copy of everyone else on blogger? That's the fun part.

I would suggest to anyone who wants to start your own blog that you can't over-think this whole start-up process. It's totally not worth all the frustration and agony that I went through (well not really agony, but you know what I mean).

Of course, once you have the title and the URL and you've made your layout pretty and picked all the colors, you have to write your actual posts. In my case, I'm not really sure what I will write about. This blog doesn't have a theme like architecture, fashion, or cooking. I don't have anything profound to offer to society at large. I don't have any strong opinions on politics that I feel the need to expound upon. I just have me and my ramblings that probably no one will care about. All I can hope is that the three people that end up reading this won't think that what I'm writing is crap, both idea-wise and writing wise. If it is, I'm sorry!