Highlights from Rochester

Once upon a time, a young lass by the name of Schmonnie went to visit her sister, another young lass, by the name of Bangel (pronounced "bagel," but very nasally, much like portuguese).
This visit was a fabulous visit, where much fun was had.

Some highlights:

Buying peanuts for the poor, hungry security guard at the airport

I must seem trustworthy...

Seeing Bangel

Seeing Bangel flip out when Schmonnie threw a stuffed squirrel at her (please be kind to animals)

...how I wish I had a picture....

Schmonnie got stuck in a beaver suit

They were H20 Heroes...and probably still are, but just can't reveal their dual identities so act "retired." (Yeah, right)

Sitting in a very hot car in the middle of a rain storm

Beating the other passengers on the plane on the in-flight trivia.

Might I add that I am a record holder...

Finding a street that rhymes with my name

Sitting on a plane while my brother complains he needs to vomit

What a joyous moment for he, me and the passenger who wishes she did not have the seat next to us

Maybe we don't want to be found... - A Fine Frenzy

One time I found buttons on the inside of my shirt and thought I put it on inside out. But no, there are just buttons on the inside of my shirt. I call them my "back-up buttons." 

She has back-up buttons too.

A Dose of Irony

Orthoepy is the study of correct pronunciation.

It's like riding a bike!

Sometimes I think of things that will make great blog posts and then I forget. SAD DAY for everyone.

So these comments are not the ones I forgot and am now remembering. They are other thoughts. Just FYI.

You know how people say something is like riding a bike?
Usually this is referring to not forgetting how to ride it, right?
Well first off, I don't ride bikes much, but when I get on one I still feel confident and comfortable.
So today, when I say something is like riding a bike, I mean it in the sense that when you don't do that thing for awhile, you still feel confident and comfortable when you do pick it up again. Maybe it's the same thing.
That said, this, unfortunately does NOT occur for me when I

1) speak in front of people
2) confront spiders

Situation 1:
When I lived in Germany I had a lot of experience speaking in front of people. I had to relatively often at church, and I had to very often at school. We had oral presentations in a good chunk of my classes (TOK, German, English, are the ones that stand out), plus, I took Drama, so was in front of people, out of my comfort zone, a lot. And for the IB in English, part of our final exam was an oral commentary so we would practice that to death. Speaking became a pretty regular thing for me.
Now, in Utah, I don't have to speak in church too often, I sometimes have to give presentations in classes, but it is all far less often. Now, in Utah, whenever I have to speak/present again I get SO NERVOUS. It's ridiculous. It's not like riding a bike.

Situation 2:
Confronting spiders (or any creepy, crawly, nasty, better-off-dead creature). There was a summer when I stayed at home with my parents in our recently completed basement bedroom. Somehow, that room came with all kinds of bugs. It got to the point where I was killing at least one a day. They really like my company, I guess. But I killed them so often that I eventually skipped the screaming step and just grabbed whatever and smashed the critter. I moved to a third-floor apartment, where the presence of bugs was far less prevalent. Unfortunately, I recently confronted a spider and realized, I include the screaming stage again.

NOT like riding a bike.

More childhood...

I must add another tidbit to my childhood reminiscing post. I just recently rediscovered "Faerie Tale Theater." I used to watch it when I was little, and have memories of going to the library to get the videos. It is cheesy, full of famous people, jokes I didn't get as a kid, and awesome costumes.

New words!!

They are adding new words to the dictionary. Oh what fun.

Things I miss most about my childhood

1. This little gem.

I'm convinced that those kids on the box are my brother and I. And this precious candid moment was stolen to advertise the best toy ever. I'm ok with that.

2. Peter and Jane books

My brother and I played Indians too. That's probably us again, actually.

3. Making forts

This was not created by my brother or me. Ours were far better thanks to his architecture skills, though I didn't know what that meant at the time. At the time I just thought ours were better because he was cool.

4. Playing Dress-Up

This is REAL dress-up guys. None of that princess junk (well, I did that too, and I liked it...)

5. Polly Pocket

Not to brag, but I had a pretty impressive collection. Then they came out with the bigger Polly with the rubber clothes. I think I played with those until the 7th grade.

6. Playmobil

If you didn't get the impression that I played with my brother a lot, you...are probably hopeless when it comes to all things educational. Very well. I did. Seeing as he would rather eat slugs than play Polly Pockets, I spent a good deal of time playing with Playmobil and Legos. More Playmobil because they had princesses and stuff. And it's just cooler, and it's headquartered in Germany.
PS You see that house-looking bit? It has a trap door :)

PPS I really do think I look a lot like Jane.

The Latest of My Poetic Brilliance

Because I like to show off how extremely gifted I am with words, here is a poem I sent to my friend Dani:

Dear dani, nice fanny
but I shouldn't say that.
I meant to say, you have a nice hat.
That man over there, he is quite fat.
Unfortunately he just sat on a cat.
And it went ker-splat.
well first it meowed,
quite loud.
I apologize for my violence,
here, lets have a moment of silence.
...
...
...
well that's that.

dear dani,
the granny,
well, not yet.
I hope the length of this letter
won't make you upset.
Does my poem remind you
of my cleverness?

that part doesn't rhyme.
oh mime.

You're going to Jamaica.
Please bring me a salt shaka.
For when I like to bake-a
even down by the lake-a.
Because they have great lakes
in Wisconsin, in the United States.
Where I will be soon, for goodness sakes!
The thought makes ma knees quakes.

So in Jamaica, mahn,
please play in the sahnd,
and get it in your hahnd,
and throw it to my lahnd.
I zank you.

When you are in Jamaica,
I will thank ya,
because I hate ya.
And that is a lie.
Truth is, I'll cry.
In the blink of an eye.
Again, a lie.
Because the blink 
will leave my eyes dry.
And kiss the tears goodbye.
Justin Bieber can borrow that line,
if he'll pay me in apple pie.
Well before this poem gets too dry,
I will have to say goodbye.

Goodbye.

Why I love my job.

Our office window overlooks the courtyard. It's a beautiful view and we see all kinds of things including interpretive dance classes, bridal photo shoots, kids running around, older kids getting too cozy on the grass..., grounds crew workers, etc.

Today my boss's 12/13-year-old son was visiting work and we were potting plants. His task? Go get some dirt.

5 minutes later we looked out the window and saw him crouched on the curb, digging up some dirt with a spoon and patting it down in a cup.

I love my job.

It's a cup with dirt in it. I call it cup of dirt.

Just because I feel like I should say something

Well life is pretty busy right now so the blogging has been sitting on the back-burner. Not much has changed:

• I'm still leaving (and soon! yay!)

• I still love reading, and am doing so. I recently read Armageddon in Retrospect - Kurt Vonnegut, and am currently reading lots of things, including Nine Stories - J.D. Salinger, and Dave Barry Talks Back - Dave Barry. It's grand.

• Otherwise I'm just spending time with the ones I love, bonding and stuff.  

• I'm considering teaching as a profession. What do you think? I think I will wait til I am home in 18 months to continue figuring this out. But it's an idea. A pretty good idea.

• I have a really ridiculously good looking family. That's not what I initially intended to say. I just wanted to say they are awesome. But both statements are true. Quite true, if I may say so.

What a man!

http://www.walkingtheamazon.com/

This is crazy but very very cool. Now there's a blog worth reading!

This makes me crave an adventure...although one slightly different.... ;)

PS I especially recommend some of those videos...

Deja Vu

I've been experiencing some crazy deja vu this morning.
In this instance, it is associated with dreams I've had.

In a word that I will forever associate with my Utah friends: trippy.

Bliss

Lately I have been feeling extremely happy and I know exactly why.

PS I leave soon. I can't believe it, and am always a mix of emotions over it, but the primary one is excitement :)

PPS La la la la la la life is wonderful - Jason Mraz

PPPS HAPPY BIRTHDAY ANGEL. You are amazing and I love your stinkin guts.

still a little bit delirious - a fine frenzy

I am a very scatter-brained feller (fellera, since I'm female, not to be confused with fella). I forget things more often than not. Things that probably should not be forgot.

I just laugh it off.

It only matters when it scatters my limbic system.
A place where I wish for low-impact, maybe no impact.
But it scatters.
"A little bit delirious,"
yeah, no impact is the most preferable.

So it goes.

One more time, with feeling

- Regina Spektor

I Love

the end.

The Eighth Confession

My grammar pretty much stinks for an English major.

Alas, I, the English major, still mostly base my writing on instinct rather than rules. I just can't remember all the rules. I hear the word "rule" and this little switch in my brain shifts to "ignore." Ok not entirely...but my grammar stinks and that's the truth.
I am eager to take grammar courses so I know what I am doing, so it's not a lost cause.

And for the record, eighth is an awkward word to spell. I always have to sit and think about it for a minute first.

I will only date people who speak good.

Bustin Jieber

"Spoonerism"

Please read the above definition. It is so nice to know the explanation for such an embarrassing slip, one I often make.

I have Jieber Fever.

While we're on the topic...

Confession #7 I'm responsible for three of my siblings' scars

I'm hesitant to admit to this one...but it's true. Christian, Katherine, Kaleigh, I am so sorry, for scarring you the way I have, literally.

Story 1: Christian. (we'll say he was 7 and I was 5...ish)

Once upon a time, not tooooo long ago, seeing as I'm still quite young, Christian was getting a lovely "bowl" cut from my mother. An important detail, seeing as to give an adequate "bowl" cut, one must use scissors, and not just a razor. Also, it's fun to point out that yes, Christian sported this fashionable hairdo. He also had thick glasses...anyways...tangents, tangents.
At the time he was receiving the cut, I was in the bathtub, playing, and possibly bathing, though I was known to merely toss in half the bottle of bubble bath (fabulous invention, by the way), or simply let the entire bottle float around in the tub, while I continued splashing, and it's contents continued frothing, and my bubbly beard continued growing...ahh the life of a 5-year old! Anyways...tangents, tangents.
For unknown reasons, at approximately the same time my mother was cutting around Christian's ears, my jolly self decided to scream, probably because I was out of bubbles. So, naturally, mother jumped, cut Christian's ear, Christian screamed, I screamed, mother screamed.
Oops.

Story 2: Katherine. (we'll say she was 8 and I was 12...ish)

Once upon a time, even less long ago, because I am still quite young, Katherine and I were playing the "put the blanket over your head and try to catch me" game. We were very creative. It was her turn to have the blanket over her head, and conveniently enough, she was facing the opposite direction. Well somewhere in the depths of that mushy thing in my skull, I decided it would be a good idea to "trick her" (note: the word "trip" did not cross my mind at this point) and hold down the blanket. I did, she tripped, cut her lip on the chair, cried. I won...
Oops.

Story 3: Kaleigh.(we'll say she was 5 months...and I was 6-7 ish...)

Iaccidentalydroppedherwhenshewasababyandshecutherliponthetableandhadtohavestitches.

Oops.

All I can say is I got distracted when she was on my lap and I let go...and gravity is my enemy...hers too...and I had to practice holding babies with dolls until I was allowed to hold her again....

Like I said, oops.

DANI GIRL

Yesterday was Dani's farewell! I can't believe she's leaving so soon. She's going to be a missionary in Jamaica! Which will be the complete opposite climate and culture of where I am. But we are pretty opposite in some ways :)

I am gonna miss this girl! We've been best friends since our freshman year at college and I think the longest we've gone without seeing each other since then is about 2 months. So just add another 16 to that...

She'll be amazing though!
JAMAICA!!

Memory loss at such a young age?

There's this book I read in the 7th grade...can't remember the name, author, and most of the plot. But I remember loving it.
I do remember the title was something kind of strange, and it had something to do with slowing down time when in this certain chamber or something...
Now I want to hunt it down to see if it's as good as my memory is making it out to be...so far I've got nothing. I've googled "7th grade reading lists" to see if the name would ring a bell, I've searched through young adult book lists on goodreads...
Oh the frustrations evoked by a silly book.

If anyone has any idea of what I might be talking about...please share!

Also, it frustrates me how slow dictionary.com is. Since I'm venting, might as well throw that out there.

Inverting a recent green foliage of plant

If you can't tell, reading is quite the hobby of mine. I read a lot, whenever I can, really (which is not enough, in my opinion). But a part of me feels like it is a bit of a selfish hobby.
I read to learn, I read for pleasure, but all of it is for me. I often tell people what I learn about, or recommend they read something I have read, but it's not quite enough.
So I have an idea (which was planted by something I read...) to take it to the next level.
When I read something that I enjoy, I am going to give a copy of it to someone who I think would also enjoy it (friends, family, acquaintances, ex-lovers, etc.). It will be theirs to keep, a gift, if you will.
However, because I operate on a tight budget, it will have to be limited to a monthly activity (assuming I read more than one book a month).
As I am soon leaving, this plan will mostly have to commence upon my return.

I am very excited to begin.

Don't you wish we were friends? ;)

"Ain dat duh troof" - The Brothers K

Originally uploaded by EK Captures

I'm a little bit of a dreamer.

Originally uploaded by Parker Fitzgerald

Words

The word for "heart" in French is "le coeur." I like that.

Smoky Heart - قلب الدخان
Originally uploaded by Hawee Ta3kees {In UK/On-Often Off}

Why I should be diagnosed clinically insane

I have been working with formatting some documents and they don't want to look the way I tell them to. It is part of the cause of my potential insanity, I tell you. I don't know how many times I've raised my fist only to realize punching the computer screen is the dumbest possible solution.

So I sit here in my chair, keeping it cool.

Here's the other reason I'm insane:
I only have a month and a half-ish before I leave.
Part of me wants to run another marathon before then (frankly, the other part of me wishes I could just lie in bed all day, reading, of course).

That leaves me about a month to train.
My knee is ready to give out on me.

We'll see what Mr. Doc says.
I'm crazy.

How I feel

interpret as you wish

Someday...

I'll go back.
(PS That's Scotland)

Someday...

I will have a wrap around porch.

Someday...

I will have a library.

Woke up this morning with a terrific urge to lie in bed all day and read.

~Raymond Carver

That just about sums it up.

Just ordered some creative juice. Until then, I have nothing to report.

18 months...

Fave Fails

I got a kick out of these. Enjoy!

A First

Now this might sound crazy, but last night was my first EVER real all-nighter.

The funny thing is I'm not in school right now.

I think back to all those nights where I stayed up late working on papers, studying for exams, reading Harry Potter, etc. but there is not one where I didn't sleep the entire night. I always took naps. Well, I didn't this time. I am proud to say it was a legitimate all-nighter.

Sometimes I wish we didn't have to sleep so I have more time to do all the things I want to do.

I stayed with Dani until about 3-4 a.m. then drove back to P-town and did not go to bed. I organized my room (still in progress....)

Needless to say, I got things done.

bliggity blogger wriggity writer's blockity block.

What do you do when you have absolutely nothing to talk about? I feel like I haven't touched my blog in ages, so should write, yet I have nothing to say. Blogger's block? I think so.

I'm tired.

I dig shoe art

Think you'd be safe in this baby?