it was such an unbelievably beautiful, sunny day today. so i decided to take my trusty new polaroid camera with me out on my walk. (thank you again, micah!)
i thought i would share what was captured.
i love alfred hitchcock movies. i even loved lifeboat.
i've seen bits and pieces of vertigo, but had never seen the entire thing, so when i saw it coming up on AMC, i set my DVR to record. yesterday i sat down to watch it, and before it was over, the recording ended.
needless to say, i shouted a few choice expletives at my television.
i feel robbed.
so here's my question - can someone tell me what i missed? i don't even know how much i missed. (for those of you who haven't yet seen it, please stop reading now. i don't want to be responsible for spoiling.) it had just gotten to the point where scottie and judy went up to the top of the belltower and the nun came up and scared judy and she fell off the ledge.
i would wait for it to come on AMC again, but it isn't scheduled until the 6th, and netflix would take entirely too long.
someone please enlighten me.
thank you.
on my august 2005 trip to oxford, i was poking around in 'alice's shop' across the street from christ church, and found the planning calendar to shame all other planning calendars.
it is called the 'dodo pad', and in it's miniature form embodies all things useful, portable and endlessly humorous.
i was so in love with my 2006 dodo pad that i ordered my 2007 version from their website, and ended up paying so much on shipping that it may have just been cheaper to just go there and get it myself. (well, not really) so needless to say, i was ecstatic when my parents went to oxford again this past summer. the only thing i wanted them to bring back for me was the 2008 dodo pad. i carry this little lifesaver with me everywhere i go. it is my "combined memo-doodle-engage-diary-message-ment book" and i would be lost without it. but even more importantly, opposite each week's calendar is some sort of drawing-puzzle-saying something-or-other which is guaranteed to make me chuckle.
example:
HEAVEN
is where the police are English, the cooks French, mechanics German, lovers Italian, and all is organised by the Swiss.
HELL
is where the chefs are English, the police German, the mechanics French, the lovers Swiss, and all is organised by the Italians.
i'm still laughing
(if you find the above example completely non-humorous, please contact me and we will have an involved discussion over coffee.)
this morning i was spending some time looking at the calendar for the next few months and looking at the craziness that's in store.
i was remembering how micah and i went to the irish fair and music festival last year and had a great time and that i really want to go again this year.
then i remembered that it happened the weekend before saint patrick's day.
then i remembered that saint patrick's day is the 17th of March.
and then i remembered that i will be on a plane headed for mexico city on the 15th of march.
then i was sad.
then i went to the website for the festival and saw that it is going to be on the 8th and 9th of march this year.
then i was happy.
so i will be spending the day at the la fairgrounds either the 8th or 9th of march.
you are all invited to join me.
i have a very on-again, off-again relationship with exercising, and with running in particular. i love to run. i love how i feel while i'm running. i love how i feel when i'm done running. i just have a tendency to love it so much that i ignore it when my knees start to tell me that it's time to stop. i can be stubborn that way.
so the relationship always starts out well, with me running my little heart out and feeling great. then i forget that i'm no longer 20 years old and i go too far, too fast.
then the relationship starts to go downhill. after a week, sometimes more, i push myself a little too hard and my knees reward me with the most exquisite pain imaginable.
so of course running and i have to take a break from one another.
i pretend that i am angry at running for betraying me so badly and causing me so much pain, and i give running the cold shoulder for a length of time which is disproportionate to the severity of the injury.
but i am still in love with running.
so i always end up going back.
and the relationship cycle begins anew.
this evening i walked approximately 5k on the path that goes around my neighborhood. (i use kilometers because it looks so much more impressive.)
i have not abandoned my first love for a new one. i have just decided that i want to break my dysfunctional relationship cycle. so i am forcing myself to go slowly.
i think we can make it work this time.
i've had this idea for probably over a year now for a series. i wanted to combine a few techniques i enjoy into a new style and at the same time explore the subject of memory. or sometimes lack thereof.
but that pesky little critical voice in my head always seemed to get in the way.
then a couple months ago i had a conversation with bill catling that was short and simple, but ended up being a huge epiphany.
he said something to the point of - "you will never get that voice to go away, no matter how hard you try. what you need to do is tell it that you would really like to hear what it has to say, but you just don't have time at the moment. could we talk about it later?"
so that's exactly what i said to my voice.
and we just never got back to the conversation.
it still tries, but i keep putting it off. and i'm much happier when i don't listen to it.
so this afternoon i finished the first in what i hope is a long series.
this is the first time in several years that i've made something not because i was trying to put together a portfolio for grad school applications and not because i had a show coming up, but purely because i wanted to make it.
and it felt really good.
here's a not-so-great photo of my newest creation.
i just finished making the dessert for tonight's life group.
i thought it might be a good idea for me to take a picture of it and show everyone, because the likelihood that my mom will let me out the door with this monument to all things delicious is quite low. and i'm kind of scared of how the drive down the hill with this thing in my passenger seat is going to go.
so for now i'm going to bask in the pound-cakey, whipped-creamy, berry-licious splendor.
see you all in a few hours.
wish me luck!
i just got home from my first meeting with the students i am leading down to mexico this spring break. it was a fairly short meeting where we went over a lot of 'housekeeping' and handing out papers and other necessary tasks.
part of the time was also spent telling them a quick version of my 'story'.
"my mom is from the midwest and my dad is from englad...blah blah blah....makes for interesting family gatherings....blah blah blah...went to a christian university...blah blah blah...majored in art...blah blah blah...once got stuck by myself in moscow for two days...blah blah blah." all basic facts that they will probably never remember.
and eventually it will be each of their turns to tell the group some facts about what has shaped them into the person they are right now. and that's what i'm excited about. not about the little facts but about getting to know these 8 young adults and how they have been shaped and where they are in their lives right now. and how i know that i am going to make at least some small impact on their lives and be a part of their journey. just knowing that some years down the road each and every one of them will most likely look back on the semester they spent with me and the week they will spend building houses in mexico and know that the experience had some influence on shaping them into the people that they have become is exciting to me.
when i stopped teaching the main reason i was reluctant to leave was because i thought i was no longer going to be able to have that sort of positive impact in young peoples' lives. but i guess God knows what he's doing. i know i'm where i'm supposed to be right now.
(if this post contains several instances of questionable grammar, which i'm pretty sure it does, i offer my sincerest apologies. i attribute it to a wicked sinus headache.)
this past semester micah and i took an intro to black and white photo class at RCC. i've never been one to take many photos, but this class changed everything. i now own 6 cameras and i can't stop myself.
for class i had to borrow my mom's nikon SLR, since i didn't have one of my own. i mentioned getting a cannon AE-1 program from ebay, and my bro-in-law said that his parents had one that they never used any more. i jumped on that one and in december became the proud owner of an awesome old camera.
yesterday i got back my first three rolls of film from my trusty AE-1 and i was not disappointed in the results.
here's just a few...
the rest are on my flickr page.
i was reading through an article about why humans accumulate that timmy linked on his blog, and ran across what i think is the most fantastic quote i've read in a while...
“I have reached an elegant sufficiency and anything additional would be superfluous.”
i MUST find a way to use it.
watch out. you may get pummelled by this edwardian saying when you least expect it.
you know how you'll watch a movie, and then a few days later you've almost forgetten about it? but then sometimes you watch a movie and it's still on your mind weeks later? well, the movie once was the latter for me. i just can't stop thinking about it. there was just something about the honesty of the story and the acting that resonated with me.
and then there is the music...i know that glen hansard has been making music for a while, so i'm not discovering anything new here, but the music from this movie was so beautiful. i bought the soundtrack less than a week ago, and i think i've listened to it about 30 times.
no hyperbole.
seriously.
30 times.
by the time i get to the last track, 'say it to me now', i'm almost in tears. it's not just something you listen to, but something you feel.
i'm not trying to say that everyone needs to go out and rent this movie because you'll love it. you may not. i just wanted to let you all know that i do.
i was inspired by many people over the past two weeks to make a variety of changes to my habits, so i decided today that the first one on the list would be to buy less and borrow more. step one...this afternoon i trekked over to the riverside main library and got me a shiny new library card.
i'm not so sure how much i'll use it, since a quick parusal of their online catalog seems to be sorely lacking in some of the things that i'm most interested in. example - what self-respecting library carries only one moby album? seriously?
but at least this is a step in the right direction.
micah and i stumbled out of bed (well, couch and floor if you want to be technical) bright and early the morning of the 31st and hit the amazingly foggy road south. it was a chilly 30 degrees out, so we had to scrape the windows first, but it made the morning's cup of coffee all the more enjoyable. once the fog burned off, it was an incredibly beautiful drive, and it really didn't feel very long at all.
at 7:42 pm we rolled into the risinger's house in salinas. we had sandwiches with heather and sat around and talked until bill and patti came home from a party. then we sat and watched the new year's show on television, toasted the new year, peeked outside at all the fireworks, and then went off to bed. i'm actually surprised i made it that late after the long day.
the next morning we got up late and watched the rose parade on the replay and did some more sitting around. (we like to do that on vacation) then at around 2 we decided to go on a walk. at one point we were something resembling lost, but then happily stumbled across this woodland path that goes between the houses and street and had a wonderful walk through the trees. we stopped for coffee and enjoyed sitting out in the warm sun. and then i noticed the most enormous leaf i think i've ever seen. i think it escaped from the jurassic period.
then bill and patti came by and picked us up and took us on a driving tour of the salinas area. we saw watsonville and gilroy and other little towns. it is just so beautiful there. we stopped at a vista point right at sunset and saw the most spectacular view of monterey bay.
then it was back to the house and homemade tamales and fudge cake (wow) and a few lively rounds of catch phrase (tip - always have heather on your team). it was a lovely and relaxing beginning to the new year.
so this morning we reluctantly left the risingers with heather back in the car and had an uneventful drive home. i've unpacked and it is starting to sink in that vacation is over and i have to go back to work tomorrow.
poop
thus ends the 'pacific northwest roadtrip extraveganza 2007'.
