Category Archives: fun

Oct 4

random

Before I moved to Florida, when I was in Ohio and nowhere near the Everglades, I had dreams of being attacked by alligators. I don’t believe I had ever seen one other than on television. I remember being chased at high speed by an alligator in one of my dreams. When I lived in Mansfield, Ohio, I would go jogging on a path near my apartment, and when the path entered an area that looked swampy, I would turn around and go back. Rationally, I knew there were no alligators there, yet I couldn’t make myself go through the swampy area…it made me uneasy. So, when I moved to Florida, I joked to mom that perhaps my dreams were foreshadowing run-ins with the alligator population in the sunshine state. Fortunately for me, I’ve had no such run-ins. They still make me nervous when I’m canoeing in their waters, but they’ve left me alone and I’ve left them alone. My husband and I visited the Loxahatchee Preserve yesterday, to say goodbye to the northern most reaches of the Everglades. This was one of the first places I visited when I moved to the area eight years ago. While there, we saw the biggest alligator I’ve seen since living here. He didn’t chase me.

While DS and I sit around, waiting to move (we’re hitting the road next weekend!), I decided to take up some sort of creative hobby outside of writing and photography. My mom always used to knit, embroider, cross-stitch, and I had her in mind when I drove to Michaels to see if I could find some sort of project to work on. I went with a counted-cross stitch project designed for children (they didn’t have projects for beginners…it went from childrens projects to more complicated projects). I finished it yesterday!

See:

It was a lot of fun. I’ve already bought my next cross-stitch project: the Chinese character for Good Fortune. If I finish it in time, I hope to give it to a friend before I leave. I’ve found a couple of other projects I’m eager to start, but the designs are rather complex, so I’m trying to work my way up to them. One cross-stitch project I’d like to start on is of Buddha sitting next to a Bonsai tree. It’s really lovely, but looks difficult. I thought I’d save it for when I’m more confident in my ability.

So, these days I alternate between writing my thesis, reading, and cross-stitching. I hope to add a job to the mix once I move to Springfield.

Salon has an interesting article on the dumbing down of the GOP. This statement sums it up for me:

As Biden showed quite convincingly when he spoke about his modest background and his continuing connection with Main Street, perceptive, intelligent discourse is in no way identical with elitism. Palin’s phony populism is as insulting to working- and middle-class Americans as it is to American women. Why are basic diction and intellectual coherence presumed to be out of reach for “real people”?

Exactly.

Sep 3

funkified


This weekend I realized my taste in decor hasn’t changed since I was sixteen years old. This became apparent when DS and I were making our way through the chaos at Bed, Bath and Beyond, doing some last minute shopping for his daughter’s dorm room. We had finished most of the shopping before we went to Boston, but it was evident by the suffocating crowds that many of the students were doing their shopping that day. Anyway, we were walking around Bed, Bath and Beyond looking for light bulbs and body pillow covers, and what should I see but a bright red fleece blanket with the face of Julius the monkey printed on it. Julius is the creation of Paul Frank. I was first introduced to Paul Frank’s products when I found a pair of sky blue keds in Greenwich Village several years ago; Julius was printed on them as well. It was my immediate Oh I have to have this blanket reaction to seeing Julius that made me take note of my unsophisticated taste in decor. When my husband and I first met, I slept on a tie-dye futon and had posters of the Beatles and John Lennon decorating my apartment. This was seven years ago. He, on the other hand, had and has sophisticated taste–very clean and modern which stands in stark relief to my love for tie dye, polkadot and sock monkeys. As we pack up our house for the next move, and start looking for new houses, I’ve already told him I’d like one room to call my own in which will go my tie-dye futon, my Julius the monkey blanket, my enormous John Coltrane poster, my incense burner, and my four lava lamps. I guess my tastes have been forever cemented in retro/hippie funk.

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We spent several hours at the Met last week. I’d never been there before; it was beautiful and overwhelming. I captured this picture while I was there. I couldn’t have posed the two of them better if I wanted to:

Jun 7

to the border

I’ve made it through security and am sitting in PBIA, waiting for my plane to Dallas, and then on to El Paso. Just being in an airport pleases me–the anticipation of travel! I love it. It’s been a hectic few weeks: we’ve received bad news, good news, no news…all that stuff that makes up life. Work has been bananas but will be much calmer when I return. I’ll be helping to write a research report on invasive species in South Florida, which should be interesting (at least judging from what I’ve read so far). The research report will make up the bulk of my work this summer.

Regarding the thesis: I’m meeting with Border Patrol agents next week for an informational briefing. They wouldn’t allow me to ride along with one of the officers because of violence along the border.
While speaking with one of the workers at the center yesterday, he told me he teaches a class for workers who can’t read or write in Spanish. I’m going to start attending his classes in hopes that it will help me with my conversational Spanish (I’m kind of comfortable with reading/writing, but not with speaking). I’m thinking his class may offer another essay for the thesis…the idea of being in an English speaking country, but struggling to overcome illiteracy in the native tongue (in addition to needing/wanting to learn English). Something along those lines…it’s still percolating.

I don’t know what my internet access will be like in El Paso. I’d think the city would provide wifi, but who knows. I’ll be missing Bloomsday celebrations this year, except for the one taking place in my head. It was this time last year I was making my way to Dublin. Ahh, the memories. In case I don’t have a moment to post for Bloomsday:

May 6

ahhhh…ouch

I’m in a state of painful bliss right now. Bliss because I’m still basking in the multicolor afterglow of Radiohead’s concert last night. Painful because of my dancing for two hours on concrete in shoes with no foot support. Yes, my ankles and back are not feeling so great and my throat is a little sore from screaming. Ahhh…but the bliss, the bliss. What a terrific experience. Thom Yorke’s spastic dance moves on the stage pleased me immensely. There were many songs I hoped they would play that they didn’t, but if they had played all the songs I hoped they would play, they would have been performing for five hours instead of two.

There was a t-shirt there that I wanted desperately. On it was written one of my favorite lines from one of my favorite songs: “You’ll go to hell for what your dirty mind is thinking.” Eeep! Look at that shirt, I said to Spence as we were leaving. That’s the line I love! The damn thing cost $40. I didn’t think twice about walking on by–there was no way I could afford such an expense. Had it been $30, I would have lingered a little longer, thinking about it (tho probably wouldn’t have bought it then either), but $40 was out of the question. However, seeing the t-shirt and what it looked like (the line from the song looked like it was stencilled on an old shirt) has inspired me to create my own Radiohead t-shirt, using the line from above and the stencils I have at the house. Yay for frugality and Radiohead.

Click here for a photo gallery of Radiohead pictures from the Palm Beach Post!

And the idea of getting a tattoo has crept back into my mind. The idea comes and goes. Sometimes it lingers longer than at other times. It’s typically inspired when I see a design I like a great deal…something that encompasses a personal belief in a very unique and graphic way. Of course, there is still the issue of finances, so the idea will stay just that until I find a job.

Apr 26

woop woop

I’ve wanted to post this song for some time, but the original version (which I like better) has a video that is god awful (the predictable half naked chicks shakin’ their junk in the camera). While looking for alternative videos of the song (maybe a live performance?), I found this remix that doesn’t have a video–just a still of Natasja. This song is an earworm. You’ve been warned.