Mall Dance Baby

I used to be so much better at journaling - and I had to write all that crap out by hand! You'd think typing a blog would make it easier to update. Funny thing is, the more that happens in my day to day life, the less I blog. Not because I'm too busy, but because when I think, "But how am I going to summarize that?" my brain shuts down and I think, "I'll figure it out later," only later never comes. Lest you think that means that I've been reveling in a wildly exciting, jet-setting, adventure-having lifestyle, I just mean that I'm so wordy that if ANYTHING happens it's a chore for me to summarize it briefly. It's...part of my charm?

Last Saturday Liz and I spent a whole afternoon footling aimlessly about the mall. We'd really gone down to hit up Target for baby shower purposes and only entered to mall so I could utilize their food court. Four hours later we made it to Target. I'd forgotten how much time you can waste in a mall - seventh grade Darcy knew so well. Saturday night was dancing at a club for our friend's birthday. We had the interesting experience of going to a club with a huge line out front - only a week or so before we'd talked about how that never happened to us. Then we realized that reserved room parties got to go in the VIP (much shorter) line and we were then escorted to our room by a suit-wearing, headset-having gentleman bouncer. It was vaguely fancy (I say "vaguely" because the club itself wasn't that fancy, but the entry experience was).

Sunday we went to Liz's sister-in-law's baby shower. I suppose I'm sort of a fake Richards because Rayna introduced me as an adopted sister and often grouped me in when gesturing to "Noah's sisters", which made me feel pretty good. I'd be okay being a Richards. I blame Liz for not having more brothers, I'd totally marry into that family. Just FYI, Rayna is the best person to buy presents for. She screamed over EVERYTHING. EVERY present was "the GREATEEEEST!" which sort of makes you feel like "the GREATEEEEEST!" even though it was said so many times - her constant enthusiasm made up for any loss of meaning through repetition. Good job.

Wedded Bliss

So Sharon went and got married this weekend - weird.

SHE'S SO PRETTY!

Yes, this weekend I went down to Santa Barbara for Sharon and Zach's wedding. I've been looking forward to this for WEEKS. On Friday I got up ridiculously early, drank some coffee and landed in LAX where I was met by Kara!

The best.

Then, like grown ups, we got in our rental car and drove up to SB. Westmont's construction is CRAZY. I don't even know what to do with it - I'm excited to see the finished project. Saturday was the wedding and it was wonderful. I wore a yellow polka dot dress and hung out with some fabulous fabulous people - choir alums and otherwise. I miss all of them so much and I didn't want the day to end. I literally hung around longer than any of the other guests because I'm awkward and lonely and it was the greatest. Sharon was lovely, Zach was adorable, their first dance was super cute. Of course, I was sick all weekend and still am - full of mucus is no way to enjoy a wedding but I did my best. I think the wild dancing jarred some of the illness loose.

I love that place and those people.

There was also a bear. Do with that what you will.

Go Forth and Autumn

It looks and feels like autumn now. That makes me happy and sad. I really appreciated and enjoyed summer this year so I'm far more sad than usual to see it go. On the other hand it makes me that much more excited to greet what has always been my favorite season. Whereas bright clear summer days make me want to sprint-dance around and high five everyone while listening to "Mr. Blue Sky" by E.L.O., autumn makes me want to snuggle with the whole world and make food for people I love and write letters and appreciate life. It's a more thoughtful, cozy in-love-with-the-world-ness. What is more beautiful than a color-changing tree in the hour just before sunset?

Goals for autumn (generally domestic, mainly culinary):
-finally knit a sweater
-bake an apple pie
-cook with fresh pumpkin
-cook with turnips (I have no idea how they taste, but they look so plain and friendly)
-write more letters

Blurgh.

I worked a crossword puzzle today which had the following awesomeness:

Clue: "Madcap goings-on" Answer: "Antics"

I think I need some more madcap goings-on in my life.

Also, my co-worker's 4-year old daughter drew this picture, which I get to keep.

Oh glory.

Things of Yesterday

Things of Yesterday...

• Coming home and seeing that somehow the play of light through my window/curtains/blinds had clearly projected onto my wall the image of the house next door. Amazing and mysterious. I took pictures but can't find the cable that connects my camera to computer...
  
• Reading after work and falling asleep for two hours. Reading quietly and uninterrupted in the late summer evening has such a clear, pleasant, settled quality - there's nothing quite like it.
  
• Flailing restlessly around the apartment for two hours with roommate after waking up while having tiny existential crisis.
• Going to a house party at 11:30pm where we only knew one person.
  
• Feeling bad about myself while everyone talked about their volunteering/traveling/life dreams involving foreign locales, international justice and sustainability.
• Falling into bed after 2am but still having to read before being able to fall asleep.

Things That Will Be of Today...

• Going to the gym - the fancy downtown one that has showers so I don't have to decide between going home then going out again, or spending my day sweaty.
• Going to the Seattle Art Museum to FINALLY see Andrew Wyeth's Helga paintings. I saw them in a book two years ago while working in the Westmont Library and fell in love. So excited.
• Going to the Frye Art Museum to see The Puppet Show, where 29 artists give us their take on puppets in contemporary art. I can't even begin to imagine how creepy and awesome it will be.
• The last disc of the final season of Battlestar Galactica :(

I think today will be a good day.

Weekly Math

Waking up at 5am to run registration for a work event: -15 points
Driving 40 minutes each way to registration: -8 points
Nothing but Pumpkin Spice Latte for breakfast: -5 points for hunger, + 2 points for deliciousness.
3-day weekend/4-day work week: +15 points
Prospect of buying new issue of Empire Magazine after work: +5 points
Prospect of buying new Sondre Lerche album Heartbeat Radio after work: +67,432 points

Weekly outcome: + 67,426 points

WIN!

SANGRE POR TODOS LADOS!!!

Yesterday while chopping lettuce for my lunch I chopped out a chunk of my finger. A wee one, but a chunk nonetheless. Let me tell you - gross. I didn't know a finger could bleed that much.

"Heeeeeey!"

I could SEE the chunk missing from my finger and it wouldn't stop bleeding so I hopped over to the emergency room (about 2 minutes down the street) just to make sure I didn't need a stitch (certainly couldn't need multiple stitches). It took about 4 nurses and a doctor taking my vitals and brief medical history and all telling me "No, of course you don't need stitches," just to have the FIRST nurse came back to bandage me up and send me on my way - could this be a small part of why health care costs so danged much? But they were all lovely people ("Aw, you just need a kiss on the finger and you'll be good to go!" quoth Nurse No.1) and I was in and out before my lunch hour was even over and now I have a good story to go with my massive finger bandage.

Finger sock?