So Long, Farewell (Probably Next Week)

So Eric went back to school today and it looks like there's a very good chance that we'll be out of here by next Wednesday at the latest. Which is crazy. We've already managed to take care of our couch problem, and we've shipped 16 boxes of books to my Utah, so now I'm just praying they all get there. This weekend will be a weekend of packing and hanging out with friends, and then I guess we're gone.

Anyway, I thought it seemed like the right time to make a list of the things I will miss and not miss about the Rio Grande Valley. (I will actually miss some things! Amazing!)

Things I Will Not Miss: 

• Being nearly an hour from the nearest bookstore. Ridiculous. 
• The Mexican food. No, I didn't develop an enduring love of it while we were here. Probably because people keep trying to get me to eat intestines and stomach linings. (Although I do love those fried stuffed avocados at La Playa. Mmm.) 
• The heat, and the complete lack of seasons, and the fact that I can never wear my winter clothes here. 
• The fact that everything is at least 4 hours away - the temple, any concerts/plays/culture I might want to partake of (minus mariache), any family we have, etc. 
• The periodic freaky border stories we hear down here, even if San Benito is quiet. 
• The fact that people look at me like I'm crazy when I say I'm in a book club. ("Wait. So you all get together each month and read a book . . . and then talk about it? Why?") 
• Yes, I love working for the library, but I will not miss the fact that they never have the books I want, and there's no way to get them to order them for me except to suggest it. 
• Waking up for seminary. Nope. Not at all. 
• The taste of our the water in our apartment, and indeed in the whole Valley. It all tastes like sulfur, and we've been buying bottled water for a year. Which makes me feel bad, because there's not really a good recycling service, so we've just thrown away a million plastic bottles. Sigh. Dehydration or ruin the environment? I don't know. 
• Needing to speak Spanish every day. Feeling dumb because I don't. 
• My tiny countertops, which are insufficient for preparing any kind of baked goods. 
• The fact that independent movies never come here. Do you know how long I waited to see Jane Eyre and The King's Speech? And how many others I probably just missed because it wasn't worth the pain? 
• Valley drivers. Yes, I know I'm trading them for Utah drivers and I-15 perma-construction, but I think I'll take them over the way I feel like I take my life into my hands around here whenever I get in the car. (Also, they're unsafe drivers, but they also drive SO SLOW! How is that possible?) 
• The way humidity messes with my hair and makes it take 5 years to dry in the morning. 
• Zero good radio stations (although I did finally find NPR - it's just only good in the mornings when it's not playing crappy jazz music). 

Things I Will Miss:

• I will miss our apartment. I honestly cannot imagine a more perfect apartment for the first year of our marriage. It was roomy (except the in counter space), it was relatively bug-free (3 live cockroaches and several dead ones are numbers I can live with) it was in a quiet area with a lovely balcony and trees (not palm trees, which I don't really like for some reason) that grew tropical flowers, and we had a fantastic landlady. I will always think fondly on this apartment. Except the counters. 
• I will miss (and have missed since I've been working) British Friday with Debra. I will just miss Debra. My life in the Valley became a million times better when we became friends and discovered we were kindred spirits. I very much hope she moves north soon. I will miss my friend Jordan, who was my counselor in YW and with whom I shared some delightful heat-exhaustion times at Girl's Camp (as well as many other good times). I will miss several other friends we've made around the Valley - Sammie and Kaylee and Will from TFA, the Sparkes, the Villarinos (Mr. Villarino was the teacher in the classroom next to Eric, and then we saw him at stake conference when he was there investigating the church. We got to attend their baptism and have had them over for dinner - and they're just delightful. They will be wonderful for the church here.) and so many other people and families who have just been amazing. 
• I'll miss all of the wonderful people in our branch here - and the opportunities to serve in the church that come from being in a small branch. Although I can't say that I love getting up for seminary at 5:30 or that I didn't get overwhelmed being in charge of the Young Women sometimes, I can say that being very involved has made me love all of the following: the people in this branch, the leadership of the branch, the organization of the church in general, working with and feeding the missionaries, and the fact that my husband is a much more Christlike and service-oriented person than I am. I do believe that I have become a better person with a stronger testimony of the gospel because of the opportunities we've had here, even the ones I didn't particularly want at the time. 
• I'll miss the independence Eric and I have had here as a couple. I hate not being close to any family, but it has been really great for us to have to completely rely on each other for the last year, and I feel like it did a lot to strengthen our marriage and help us to become closer as a couple. I can't imagine anyone I would rather turn to. 
• Being five hours from Brady and Kristi. It's been nice to be able to take a weekend vacation to Houston and spend time with them whenever we want, even if it was still five hours.  
• Our easy access to South Padre Island. Being this close to the ocean is lovely.  
• Kumori sushi in McAllen. Best. Sushi. Ever. Especially for being so cheap. 

And so, Rio Grande Valley, I leave you feeling a little more fond than I thought I would when I moved here (which was not fond at all), but mostly I will miss the friends I've made and the opportunities I've had for growth here. I'm looking forward to our new adventures, but I can think of worse ways that we could have spent our first year of marriage. 

What We're Anticipating this New Year

So . . .  I've been a very half-hearted blogger for the last couple of months, and I am about to tell you why.

Mostly, it's because there are a lot of BIG THINGS going on, but they weren't things I was ready to reveal to the interwebs at large just yet. But have you ever noticed that when there are GIANT THINGS going on, you don't feel like talking about other things? Especially when you aren't talking about the big things? Maybe that's just me, and that's the kind of non-committal blogger I've become.

In any case, here are the big things going on in the Family Long at the moment (important points bolded in case you don't want to read my entire long post):

First and foremost, we found out a couple of weeks before Thanksgiving that we are expecting a baby (which puts me at 12 weeks now, just for the record.) We're very excited about this (no, it wasn't a particular surprise) and we're very much looking forward to meeting Baby Long sometime around July 17th. So far, everything seems to be going well - we saw a heartbeat at my first appointment at around week 7, and I was supposed to go again today but got bumped to next week because my doctor got stuck at the hospital. (I was going to wait and post this after my second appointment when they went ahead and told me everything was good and now I'm home free because it's week 12, but then they foiled my plans and I couldn't wait any longer.) I've been nauseated since the night before Thanksgiving and am pretty much living on breakfast foods and crackers, so that's been fun, but luckily my husband is a wonderful person who tells me to go and lie down while he does the smelly dishes and subsists on frozen corn dogs. Hopefully the nausea will go away soon and I can start liking/cooking food again. By all other accounts though, we are enjoying looking forward to this addition to our family. (And yes, basically everyone I know is pregnant right now. Am I the only one who feels that way?)

These pictures were on the card we made to tell my parents when we went home for Thanksgiving:

Our ad hoc Halloween costumes, for the record.

Yes, I washed that before we took a picture.

Second, and almost as crazy, we're moving back to Utah. Soon. As in, probably before the end of January. We'd been planning to head back that way after the school year ended so that we could house-sit for my parents while they serve a mission for our church. However, we'd also been in talks with my brother about taking over most of the day-to-day operations of his business, Mustache Power Productions when we moved up there in June. We talked to him again a couple of weeks ago, and he had started a new job and was drowning in work. It looked like he was going to either have to start turning down jobs for Mustache Power, or he'd have to turn it over to someone else in order to stay afloat, so we started asking some questions and found out that Eric's school wasn't as upset as we thought they'd be about him leaving before the end of his contract. We had to do some research to figure out what that would mean for insurance (see above concerning Baby) and figured out a reasonable solution.
So now it looks like we're going to move as soon as they can get a replacement into place for Eric, which they seemed to think wouldn't take long (we hope we hope!) I'm definitely not sad about abandoning the plan of moving during my 8th month of pregnancy or about not having to get up to teach seminary with morning sickness, or about being able to go baby shopping with my mommy, getting to work with my husband and my brother, and just generally not being out here in the middle of nowhere. I will, however, miss the dear friends I've made here (although I'm really hoping one of them is going to be joining me in Utah soon), the beach, and my short-lived but very enjoyable library job.

In side news, Eric and I made it very happily to our first wedding anniversary, which we spent at South Padre Island. We also had a lovely Christmas with his family in Houston where my sister-in-law and I generally sat around eating crackers. (She's due two weeks before I am.)

So there you have it! When there is a baby bump to show, I will post a picture of it (mostly because I genuinely stalk people's facebook profiles to see how they look pregnant, and I wouldn't deprive you all of that, just in case you feel the same way). For now, I'm just grateful that my pants continue to fit, and hope they will do so until we move, because I don't want to have to move MORE clothes than I already have. (We're already going to have to ship most of our books. We have a book-buying problem of epic proportions. But clothes I might be able to throw away to make space, as long as I don't also have to buy a bunch of new ones before we go.)

Happy New Year!

Books Read in 2011

For record-keeping purposes:

• Interview with the Vampire, Ann Rice 
• The Help, Kathryn Stockett 
• Crossing to Safety, Wallace Stegner 
• Everything is Illuminated, Jonathan Safran Foer
• The Hunger Games, Catching Fire, Mockingjay, Suzanne Collins
• The Elegance of the Hedgehog, Muriel Barbery
• No Country for Old Men, Cormac McCarthy
• I Am Not a Serial Killer, Dan Wells
• Water for Elephants, Sara Gruen
• Mr. Monster, Dan Wells
• The Distant Hours, Kate Morton
• Animal Farm, George Orwell
• Shadow of the Hedgemon, Orson Scott Card
• Confederates in the Attic, Tony Horowitz
• Shadow Puppets, Orson Scott Card
• Ender in Exile, Orson Scott Card
• The Winter Sea, Susanna Kearsley
• In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex, Nathaniel Philbrick
• Warbreaker, Brandon Sanderson
• Shakespeare: The World as Stage, Bill Bryson
• What the Dog Saw, Malcolm Gladwell
• The Forgotten Garden, Kate Morton
• We Have Always Lived in the Castle, Shirley Jackson
• Matched, Ally Condie
• Spook, Mary Roach
• Crossed, Ally Condie
• Bossypants, Tina Fey
• Before I Go to Sleep, S.J. Watson
• The House at Riverton, Kate Morton

I love how I look at this list and when I read what and can tell exactly where a book bogged me down for months, which happened multiple times. However, I read some very lovely books last year, and I have a stack on my shelf ready for this year. Yay! 

Guest post

So I've been a lazy blogger because I haven't been feeling well lately, but today I've got a guest post over at Housewife Eclectic about my favorite Christmas traditions. Check it out! (Includes awesome pictures of my brothers in tin foil hats.)

I'm back! And confessing.

After missing a couple of weeks because of Thanksgiving vacation, I am back, and here are my confessions!

• I confess that I have a lot of Christmas shopping to do. I confess that this stresses me out a tiny bit, because I am terrible at thinking of presents for people. 
• I confess that this week I realized again just how awesome my husband is. I wasn't feeling well, so we decided to watch a movie to help me get my mind off it. He asked what I wanted to watch and I said (pitifully) "Something nice." So he came back from the living room with a Gregory Peck movie, a Katherine Hepburn movie, David Tennant's Hamlet, BBC's Emma, and a Hugh Grant movie. The man is a genius. 
• I confess that there are some tiny ants or something like ants that have infested our apartment. I think they have built a home in the shower caulk. I need to get the maintenance guys to come and look at it, but then I'll have to pull everything out of the closet. Just stay in your nice little line, guys, and I'll keep spraying your migration path with Pledge. 
• I confess that I am dying to put up my Christmas tree, but I can't find the stand. Eric is going to try to make one, but so far he has had a hard time coming up with anything that's going to support the top-heaviness of the tree - and since my ornaments are almost all really heavy ones, I am anxious for it to be stable. So . . . my tree waits. 
• I confess that my desire for snow was alleviated slightly by reports from the home front  of gale force winds and no power. I heard about it while I was walking with my friends in the park, in my shorts. In December. This is a weird place. 

Late Confessions

I confess that I missed confessing last week because we were driving to Lubbock to surprise my mother-in-law for her birthday. It was amazing, especially when at first she didn't even notice that it was Eric who answered the door, and not his little brother Porter.

I confess that we went to a used book store in Lubbock and spent WAY too much money. We're going to use some of them as Christmas presents for each other to assuage our guilt about our lack of self-control. (And by "our" I mostly mean "my." Stupid trade-sized paperbacks.)

I confess that I love my job, although I did shudder slightly at the idea of storytime being DVDs of books being read and not actual people reading. However, decorating the entire place for Christmas was delightful, as is everything else. I even got to suggest a book to a patron.

I confess that I can't wait to go to Utah for Thanksgiving next weekend. I confess I am hoping for snow so I get at least a little this year.

I confess that I have been so tired lately that I find myself wondering if I'm falling asleep for microseconds with my eyes open. I confess that I wonder this because of an episode of Scientific American Frontiers that I saw as a teenager. I confess that I'm not sure why my brain chose to store that particular experiment to the long-term memory.

I confess that I have watched all of Downton Abbey season 2, which doesn't show up in America until January. I confess that it was amazing, and I will probably watch it again in all of its soap opera-y goodness when it's on Masterpiece. I am very much looking forward to the Christmas special.

I confess that I just bought tickets to the midnight showing of Breaking Dawn. I confess that this was a stupid idea, since 1) it's going to be ridiculous, 2) I have to teach seminary Friday morning and 3) we are driving to San Antonio Friday night so we can fly out early Saturday morning. I confess that I will be sneaking in a nap or two, because the hilarity of opening night is priceless.

The Confession Connection

I confess that I get really excited when the Williams-Sonoma catalog comes in the mail. It's not because I can afford anything they sell. It's because they are full of recipes and beautiful pictures of food. Food that I want to eat immediately.

I confess that another of my friends has started confessing because of my confessions, which makes me really excited. I'd say that I'm a trendsetter, but since I totally stole the idea from Debra, I think I'm more like a good-idea-recognizer, as are my friends.

I confess that I've been dancing around to Muppet covers all week. I further confess that I know all of the words to "The Rainbow Connection," and I'm pretty sure I have inadvertently acquired 3 different covers of it. I confess that when I'm singing along with it, I am fairly certain that  I will sing my future children to sleep with it.

I confess that on Halloween, we really planned on going out and celebrating in costume. But then sitting home eating roasted potatoes and watching scary movies seemed so much more appealing, and we'd already been to the trunk or treat the weekend before . . .

I confess that Eric and I are the funniest seminary teachers ever. I'm pretty sure that's just because Exodus is thoroughly amusing and incredibly tied to Charleton Heston in my mind.

I confess that I am delighted that I have reached a point where I actually enjoy reading the scriptures, and when Jacob says things like, "and I cannot write but a little of my words, because of the difficulty of engraving our words upon plates" and "hoping that our beloved brethren and our children will receive them with thankful hearts" I  read, "Man, it sure is hard to write on these dang plates! I hope you people appreciate all the work I'm putting into this so that you'll be able to read them in the future!" I know that's probably not what he meant . . . but maybe he did just a little bit. (Also, I confess that our branch is doing a Book of Mormon challenge, and I think we're supposed to be almost through Alma now. In other words, we're about 5 books behind. Whoops.)

I confess that I'm trying to figure out how to celebrate Guy Fawkes Day this weekend. I don't have anywhere to build a bonfire, and we just watched V for Vendetta not so very long ago. What else does one do to celebrate bonfire night?

I confess that I had to be drug tested yesterday for a job. I confess that being drug tested is incredibly awkward, especially the part where you have to hand back the cup. But on the bright side, it means I have a job. A job that pays very little, but is at least a job.

These are my confessions

• I confess that I love having people come over to my house because it motivates me to dust and vacuum. 
• I confess that at our book club last night, I again felt like a little bit of a nut trying to explain to the nice ladies why books about cadavers and serial killers and zombies and cannibals are fascinating to me. 
• I confess that I also always feel like I talk too much at book club. Is it my fault that I've either read their book too or read something that reminds me of their book? 
• I confess that a "cold front" came in last night, and the overcast/windy/60 degree weather outside makes me want to get hot chocolate while I can still pretend it's chilly. 
• I confess that I was try to fill the pumpkin donut holes I made last night, and I couldn't figure out why the pastry filling injector was so rotten. I was complaining about to Eric and he calmly showed me how it was put together backwards. Ah. I see. 
• I confess that I cannot get enough of Halloween activities, including pumpkin food, scary movies, and people wearing costumes. The exception to this is the creepy guy that stands outside Kinderville dressed as Mario (with a full body suit). When I see him, I feel like calling Rayla and have her talk me down from my mask fear. 
• I confess that I carved Edgar Allan Poe's face into a pumpkin this week. 
• I confess that I need to go back to that time when I actually read the recipe instead of assuming I know what they want me to do with the ingredients. 
• I confess that I need a nap. Always. 

Post the 500th.

This is my 500th post on this blog. I think it's funny that Miri and I started our blogs at the same time (I'm sure we were in the same room, I just can't remember whether we started them on the same day or not - I just know it was January of 2007) and she just hit her 1000th post. I guess that's what happens when you barely post once a month some years (like the year I was finishing grad school and planning a wedding at the same time, for example.)
In the interim, I've started or written on several other blogs, including a cooking blog, an inspirational blog for women, a travelblog, an internship journal, the virtual quote wall, and an attempt at a blog bookclub. I partially blame the glut of blogs for some writing burnout at some point, which is why I'm currently just writing on two, plus the occasional guest post, with the hope of expanding back out to three again in the future. (The Lovely Blog, for the record. I love it so, but we all just ran out of inspiration. I'm currently storing up loveliness for the future.)
I've been reading through some of my first posts this morning. I think my writing is better now, but more guarded. I think part of that was because I assumed that not very many people were reading it and I knew who they were, so I felt less like a dork when I yammered on about the books that shaped my entire being and "songs that have deeply and sincerely entered into the depths of my SOUL."

I've been enjoying my list of 100 Things that I made when I started the blog, and I thought I'd update it. I'll try to make the ones I'm directly commenting on correspond to the numbers in the original post in case I don't explain sufficiently and you want to check. (Some of the items require no updates, and those I'm going to fill in with whatever I darn well want. I'll put those in italics. I didn't say the post idea made sense, just that I wanted to do it.) I realize that there will still be many of you who get bored before the end, but I've learned over the last five years that some of you are remarkably persistent.

1. I love this blog. It has been a good friend and tool for procrastination for nearly five years now. Right now, for example, I am procrastinating the dusting. I believe the original title was Nerdier Than Thou. It has had a few others, but I finally settled on this one a couple of years ago, and I still feel that it's perfect. 
2. I still hate raisins. I still think it feels like eating bugs. However, I do like craisins and golden raisins, generally speaking, which is funny, since texture has always been the issue. I've also learned to like mushrooms since this blog began, which was also a texture thing. 
3. True confessions: I used to blog about my sad dating life a lot. Now I'm married, and I've stopped counting the boyfriends, since the most recent one never ended. It makes the blog less juicy, but the life more content. 
4. I no longer sleep with a stuffed dog named Humphrey, because now I sleep with a tall man named Eric. However, Humphrey is still around, and he sits on our makeshift dresser in a place of honor. Also, I still love Humphrey Bogart. 
5. I have a lot more than 12 days of music on my computer now. There's a lot I haven't listened to, and I feel like I'm in a bit of a music rut. I blame the fact that the computer with the music on it goes to school with Eric and I can't make playlists without the library in front of me. 
6. When I started this blog, I said, "I've seen Simon and Garfunkle, Jack Johnson, Ben Harper, Blues Traveler, U2, The Format, Death Cab for Cutie, Jason Mraz, Augustana, They Might Be Giants, The Beach Boys, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, Chicago, Chanticleer, The King's Singers, and Brian Regan in concert, and I'm going to see the Shins in February!" I've now seen . . . a lot more bands than that in concert, because I had not yet entered into my true concert obsession phase. I will try to remember as many as possible:
•  Ben Kweller (with The Brobecks)
• The Shins
• Joshua Radin
• Ingrid Michaelson
• Damien Rice
• The Arcade Fire (with LCD Soundsystem)
• Ben Folds (with Ben Lee and Chris Merritt)
• Chris Merritt (twice besides the time he opened for Ben Folds)
• Noah and the Whale (in Houston)
• The Decemberists
• The National (Indianapolis)
• Brandi Carlile (Indianapolis)
• Ben Lee (with Cary Brothers)
• Andrew Bird
• The Fray (twice)
• Straylight Run (not impressive)
• Colbie Callait (didn't even stay for the encore, but the tickets were free!) 
• Blues Traveler (in New Haven)
• Band of Horses (in London)
• Snow Patrol (with OK Go)
• Angels and Airwaves 
• Weezer
• M. Ward
• Bon Iver
• The Aquabats (twice) (with Yo Gabba Gabba the second time which was painful) 
7. I actually still stay in touch with some of my friends from high school. The first year that we didn't have our traditional New Year's Eve party with Little Smokies was last year - because I got married and drove down to Texas before the New Year. It went a whopping 8 years. 
8. I married off a total of 17 roommates before I got married (Mandi, Melanie, Cara, Star, Candice, Janice, Sam, Janie, Miri, Lili, Jennie, Marcie, Mandy, Krissie, Amanda, Whitney, Torie.) 
9. I currently have 2 roommates: Eric and Stickybun. 
10. I still want to go back to England - and actually did after the first version of this list was published. 
11. My favorite thing in my apartment now is our set of bookshelves. I love that when people come over they browse the shelves and start talking about books. This, more than any other reason, is why I will always have a hard time switching to e-books. 
12. Goal: I still want to see every Shakespeare play live. So far I've seen all but 5 comedies and 6.5 histories. I have successfully checked all of the tragedies off the list as you can see here: 
• The Tempest
• Twelfth Night (about 4 times)
• Much Ado About Nothing (3)
• Henry IV, Part 1
• The Winter's Tale
• Romeo and Juliet (twice, even though it's not one I love)
• Love's Labours Lost
• The Taming of the Shrew (twice)
• A Midsummer Night's Dream (I've lost count)
• Hamlet (4 times)
• As You Like It (twice)
• Antony and Cleopatra
• Coriolanus
• Titus Andronicus
• Macbeth
• The Merry Wives of Windsor (twice)
• The Merchant of Venice (twice)
• The Two Gentlemen of Verona
• King Lear (twice)
• Othello
• Julius Caesar
• Timon of Athens
• The Comedy of Errors
• Richard III
• Henry V
• Henry VIII (but it got rained out halfway through, so I'll probably have to see it again)
13. I still love Gregory Peck, and depressing movies. 
14. I no longer own any toe socks. I do, however, love long argyle socks. 
15. I don't know what I was smoking when I said Gregg's was my favorite place to eat in England. It was good, but Kahn's was much better. Also, the second time I was there I ate in some pubs that had delicious stuff. 
16. I still love Simon and Garfunkle. Some of my favorite songs of theirs are songs I didn't hear until a couple of years ago - "Keep the Customer Satisfied," "Flowers Never Bend With the Rainfall," "The Blues Run the Game." 
17. I no longer feel the need to practice Toaster Strudel voodoo, but I did learn to make my own. It's delicious, and still good for the soul. 
18. Jane Eyre is still my favorite book, and I've now seen 6 movie versions. 
19. I wish Orson Welles could narrate my life. 
20. Since trading in my irrational crushes for a rational one (Eric) (although I suppose some might beg to differ) I've thought less about my irrational ones, like Gilbert Blythe and Hawkeye Pierce. But I do have a crush on The Doctor now. Luckily, Eric kinds of reminds me of him. 
21. I don't read as many critical essays for fun these days. I do, however, read a lot more nonfiction than I used to. Right now, for example, I'm reading about how scientists have tried to figure out the afterlife by weighing people to see if they weigh less when their soul leaves. (Thank you, Mary Roach, for making science so funny.) 
22. Since starting this blog, I've added Sylvia Plath and Ken Kesey to the list of people who are amazing and slightly crazy to read. Reading my post made me want to reread Mrs. Dalloway though. I wonder if everyone gets to feel such warm fuzzies about that book. Probably not. 
23. Since writing about how I love Yeats and "The Second Coming," I got to sing a Yeats poem in Women's Chorus. It was a prettier poem ("The Lake Isle of Innisfree) although now I'm imagining a choral arrangement of "The Second Coming" and it is almost as hilarious as the time we sang "Fie on Sinful Fantasy" in Madrigals back in high school. ("Lust is but a bloody fire! Kindled with unchaste desire!") 
24. I got better at making comments in class after this, particularly in grad school. Now I teach seminary and try to make kids comment in class. 
25. I miss being one half of M&M, although now Miri is part of the Miri and Mike M&M, which is also nice. 
26. I still love my mom's lemon chicken, but I also love . . . so many things. Since this blog began, I have grown to absolutely love cooking, experimenting, and sharing the food I cook. However, I do believe that a post about my mom's lemon chicken will be going up on Sisters-in-Long soon. 
27. I still love to read about subjects that sound really weird and morbid when I tell people about them. For example, I just took a book to book club and told everyone how fascinating the part about cannibalism was. Some of the ladies there looked at me like I was insane. (It was the best book ever!!!) 
28. I want to reread A Tale of Two Cities. However, I've had a hard time getting into Dickens since then, unless it's a Dickens movie. 
29. I'm really grateful that for the last few months I've had lots of time to read. It's been nice to read books in a couple of days and then have Eric say, "When did you start that book??" Good times. 
30. I still blame my brothers for a lot of my musical taste. I'm grateful that I married into a family where I can sit with my in-laws and discuss music (or old movies, depending on the in-law.) 
31. I miss the trebuchet. 
32. I almost never listen to John Mayer anymore. I was just thinking about him this morning, and I don't know why. 
33. I still can't pick a favorite song. I'm not even going to try. 
34. My favorite cold cereal now is probably Quaker Oatmeal Squares or whatever Blueberry Morning knockoff I can find. However . . . I still love Cinnamon Toast Crunch. 
35. I still have a blanket with sleeves! Right now it's on my bed. 
36. I still love poetry, and having poetry books on my shelf. However, we have so many history books on our shelves now that I don't need the intellectual boost, even if most of the history books are Eric's.
37. I no longer have a transcendentalist corner in my room, but I kind of miss it. That was a very peaceful corner. 
38. I still love road trips, but luckily I married a man who also loves road trips! We did a lot of driving together when we were first dating, and now we go on frequent mini road trips to Houston and San Antonio, and we've driven 4000+ miles together on a single trip. 
39. I miss Pace's and Nielsen's. 
40. I still have a Jane Austen action figure. Also, a librarian action figure. 
41. I still love journals. I haven't done much with my giant journal lately, but I still like putting paint on things, so I offer to assist Eric whenever he paints big projects. 
42. I hadn't listened to much classical music for a little while, and suddenly Eric started wanting to listen to it while we were reading in the evenings. We just bought this gorgeous album of Yo Yo Ma playing Ennio Morricone music. It's lovely. 
43. When I was little, I wanted to be an artist when I grew up. Then I realized I couldn't draw. So I married one instead. 
44. I've gotten better at not rejecting things because they are popular. I think I can contribute at least some of this to Ann, who taught me that some things that are crazy popular and stupid are also really hilarious. 
45. This summer I broke my guitar back out after not having played it much for a little while. I learned to play "King of the Road" by Roger Miller, and "Save it for a Rainy Day" by The Jayhawks. 
46. I can no longer say that my only pets have been named after literary characters. Now I have to say they've been named after literary characters . . . and desserts. (Also, there was that time Jennie had a goldfish in our apartment and we named it Kishkumen. Sometimes we called him Fishkumen. Sometimes, Kishie the Fishie. So literary characters, desserts, and Gadianton Robbers.) 
47. No more eating on campus these days, although at IU I traded in pasta for pizza and waffle fries. 
48. I still get too involved in the books I read and feel a sense of loss when I finish them. 
49. I have received many more bouquets of flowers in my life of late. 
50. I still love Trivial Pursuit, and thankfully, Eric will play it with me. I've also learned to love Scrabble.
51. I still love Oscar Wilde. I'm also a big fan of Tom Stoppard. 
52. I miss roommate sleepovers in the living room. 
53. I hope that someday I have another trampoline. And another dog. 
54. Chicken cordon bleu is still really fun to cook. Around the same time I wrote the original post, I taught a bunch of boys how to make it. They called me for several years after that to ask about how long to cook it because they were making it for their families for Christmas or they were making it with dates. 
55. I'm still good at cutting up avocados. Not so much mangoes. 
56. I miss playing the viola. But I'm not really sorry I quit, because I miss choir more. 
57. I still see things all the time that make me think of the little reading nooks I used to try to create in my room. I just love a good nook. 
58. I don't have a window seat right now, but I do have a balcony garden. It's almost as good - except that it dies.  
59. Additions to the list of memories connected to music - realizing I really liked Eric after he sent me "Terrible Vision" by Rhett Butler, sending him "After All" by Sondre Lerche when I realized I was falling in love with him. 
60. I hadn't seen Princess Bride in years, but a few months ago I showed it to my Young Women. I forgot how much I enjoy that movie. 
61. I still know all the words to "We Didn't Start the Fire." 
62. I cry even more than I did when I started this blog and talked about how I had started to cry. BAH. 
63. I went to the midnight showing of the last Harry Potter movie with Eric and his mom, brother, and sister-in-law. His mom was sure that everyone there would be 12, but they were all our age. 
64. I still love Robin Hood. I really loved the BBC Robin Hood until the end of season two, which destroyed my heart. 
65. A few months ago, I got an invitation to the wedding of the guy who was my first date - and he definitely sent a present for mine. 
66. I still adore peanut butter. I have a friend whose child is allergic to peanuts, and I am terrified that my love of peanut butter will be stymied as hers was. 
67. My new car's name is Stella. R.I.P. Miss Daisy. 
68. I have learned to like some soups. Lindsey's cheesy cauliflower, homemade zuppa toscana, and butternut squash soup have all made soup a more bearable option. 
69. I still have that Louisa May Alcott sign on my wall! It's still true! 
70. Since starting as a seminary teacher, I have started hitting my snooze button less. 2 times instead of 4, usually. 
71. I still love "When Faith Endures," and I love playing through hymns that we never sing in church.
72. I really should learn how to doodle. 
73. My nieces and nephews all like me now! Win! 
74. One of my favorite things about my friend Debra is that we had basically the same childhood as far as dolls go. We swap ideas about what to do with dolls all the time. I still think bigger dolls are better than Barbies. 
75. I knew that Eric and I were destined to be together when I realized with both think Donatello is the best Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle. 
76. I'm coming around to the idea of stuffed crust pizza, but I don't ever make it that way. 
77. I still love making collections of music, but I don't have very many playlists in progress right now (see above, the bit about the laptop.) However, I did make a hurricane playlist. I'm disappointed that we didn't even get a tropical storm. 
78. I FORGOT THAT I SKEDADDLED UP THE CHAMPS ELYSEES! This list is the best! 
79. I think it's time to go to another professional baseball game. 
80. I've decided that I don't need to read whole Shakespeare plays. Watching them and then going back and rereading favorite parts is enough. 
81. I wrote before that I like to pronounce acronyms. I took a class in which my teacher said that acronyms are like Pinocchio: they all want to be real words. I believe this. 
82. I like scary movies and stories more than I used to. In fact, this week I'm hosting a book club, and we're going to talk about Octobery reads. 
83. I don't hate hardback books now - probably because I have more time to read at home, so I don't mind that they're heavy. And they're so pretty! 
84. I still alphabetize my movies, and I still don't alphabetize (but do categorize) my books. I also alphabetize my spices. I just met a lady who alphabetizes her canned goods. I almost hugged her. 
85. I still like window shopping, and I'm still really good at talking myself out of buying things. However, often the windows now are browser windows. 
86. I love that once people thought I wished I could be married to Shakespeare. Just yesterday, the following conversation occurred on my facebook wall: 
• Brittany: I don't know who else to ask...are you excited about the movie Anonymous? Or do you think its just a silly Shakespeare-as-a-person-was-dramatic movie? I NEED your opinion :)
• Me: Hahaha. Well, I just read a book that convincingly refuted the Edward de Vere theory for me, so I feel like it's kind of silly that they're making an entire movie about such a silly, unfounded theory. (For example - did you know Edward de Vere actually wrote plays under his own name that weren't any good? Why would he take credit for those and not the good ones?) But . . . I'll probably see it anyway, because hey! Why not?
• Brittany: I'm basically in the same boat. i say basically because I didn't know half of the information you just gave me hahaha.
• Me:Hahaha. I just read Bill Bryson's Shakespeare book, so now I'm in all out righteous indignation about Shakespeare writing Shakespeare's plays (did you know that no one questioned it until at least 200 years after his death?)
87. I need to buy some Nutella. It's been FAR too long. 
88. I keep trying to get Eric to wear fedoras. I think if anyone could bring them back, he could. 
89. I still love planting things, even though they keep dying in the insane Texas heat. I'm going to try again now that it's kind of fall-y. And by that I mean . . . in the high 80s and low 90s instead of in the 100s. 
90. I just bought some lemon pepper for my Macaroni and Cheese and convinced Eric that it was a good idea. 
91. I do not miss the smell of my Malian roommate's cooking. And just reading about how she fed me cow tongue made me remember how eating it felt like eating my own tongue. 
92. I think it's funny that I mentioned eating seaweed in that original post, because now I eat it all the time with sushi. 
93. I don't mind orange so much anymore! And for years, "Green Eyes" was my ringtone. 
94. Remember how I was on the National Academic League team in high school? Well, I married I boy who did some kind of science olympiad. Yep. 
95. Oh my gosh. St. Crispin's Day Speech. Still the best of all the speeches. 
96. I sacrifice sleep to read less now that I get up at 5:30 am, but sometimes when I can't sleep, I come out in the living room and read . . . and if it's a really good book I might not get back to bed for hours. 
97. I wish M*A*S*H were on instant watch. However, it may have been replaced as my all-time favorite show by Buffy or Doctor Who. 
98. I've still only had stitches once. It would be nice to keep it that way. 
99. My favorite kitchen utensil is no longer the salad spinner. It's now the Kitchen Aid (seriously - was I on crack?) with the electric fry pan as a close runner-up. 
100. I am still the hottest thing since soup. 

Thanks for sticking with me through 500 posts (or joining me . . . whenever.) 

Confessing Again, Naturally

• I confess that I have spent an inordinate amount of time doing my hair this week. I blame Pinterest. 
• I confess that it brings me great pride that I can now french braid my own hair without it looking like things could live in it. (Or at least not looking like things do live in it. Braids are, overall, inviting-looking as living spaces.) 
• I confess that yesterday I found a dead cockroach on the floor (they just sprayed, so anything that cropped up in the last month starts crawling out and dying) and since I was leaving and planning to be gone the rest of the day until I picked up Eric, I just left it so that he would dispose of it. 
• I confess that I was positive that the job I'd applied for had been given to someone else because they told me a week and it had been almost two, and then I got the job the day after I was crying about it to Eric. I confess I didn't even ask how much it pays, because at this point I know it's not a job that requires an MLS, but I just want something to do, and I want to be working in a library until we leave here. 
• I confess that I am pretty distressed that red tide might keep me from Sandcastle Days this weekend. How can something I didn't even know about until yesterday keep me from sandcastle joy? Oh yeah, by potentially wreaking havoc on our respiratory systems as it kills fish by PARALYZING THEIR LUNGS. 
• I confess that I dreamed about time travel last night. Too much Doctor Who before bed, apparently. 
• I confess that this week it has been in the 50s when we leave for seminary, and it completely makes my day every time. I may not be able to wear scarves and cute jackets all the time, but I can darn well wear them at 6 in the morning while turning up the heater and pretending it's fall! 

Politics Made Simple

By far my favorite picture from the protesting

Okay. I have some mixed feelings about the whole Occupy Wall Street movement, but I am certainly in favor of people's right to peaceably assemble, so overall my feelings are that Wall Street made some large mistakes that they aren't paying for, and I'm okay if people want to go and stand outside with signs for awhile.

However, I know exactly how I feel about this post by Lemony Snicket on OccupyWriters.com, "Thirteen Observations made by Lemony Snicket while watching Occupy Wall Street from a Discreet Distance." It is fantastic, and terribly enjoyable. I vote yes to Lemony Snicket writing political commentary.

Some favorites:

3. Money is like a child—rarely unaccompanied. When it disappears, look to those who were supposed to be keeping an eye on it while you were at the grocery store. You might also look for someone who has a lot of extra children sitting around, with long, suspicious explanations for how they got there.

5. There may not be a reason to share your cake. It is, after all, yours. You probably baked it yourself, in an oven of your own construction with ingredients you harvested yourself. It may be possible to keep your entire cake while explaining to any nearby hungry people just how reasonable you are.

11. Historically, a story about people inside impressive buildings ignoring or even taunting people standing outside shouting at them turns out to be a story with an unhappy ending.

Hahahaha. That man is a genius.

A Visit from the Folks!

Just had a visit from the parents, which was lovely. It's always funny seeing a place through someone else's eyes - my apartment, the valley, Texas, etc. They somehow come off better than you see them after you look at them the same way for awhile. I think we took my parents out to the Island about 4 times (because seriously, it's the best part of down here - not a whole lot of other stuff to see.) I think my mom was just relieved that the border fence wasn't in our backyard and that there weren't drug lords running around outside our apartment. (Since the fence is 3 miles from our house, perhaps that was a legitimate concern. However, marijuana bales get catapulted over in places like Arizona or Laredo, not San Benito.

We started off with a rainy day in San Antonio, followed by time on the Island, at the Palo Alto Battlefield, browsing tiny museums, shopping, and eating. Lots of eating. I mention the eating because there's no photographic proof, but trust me. It occurred (and included BBQ pizza and pesto pizza and sticky wings made by me with my mom as sou chef).

Mum and Dad at the Alamo

On a barge at the Riverwalk, Eric looking slightly drunk/high. In his defense, he was sick, which is why the scruff isn't helping. 

Not sure what Dad's excuse is. :)

At the Port Isabel Lighthouse

Sadly, Mom couldn't go up because of her recent knee surgery. 

Dad in front of Bobz World

Rescued turtles at Turtles Inc. At least one of them is missing a leg.

Taking a dolphin boat. So many dolphins. 

The Port Isabel lighthouse from the boat

Pelicans heading home for the night

A huge line of pelicans (which the tour guide called The Mexican Airforce) in front of the Padre Island skyline

In front of Dirty Al's

Eric refusing to smile for a second picture

Mom and Dad in front of Dirty Al's.