The Readiness Is All

So Long, Farewell (Probably Next Week)

2012-01-09T22:39:00.001-05:00

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

2012-01-03T21:26:00.001-05:00

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

2012-01-01T21:32:00.001-05:00

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

2011-12-13T09:35:00.000-05:00

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.

2011-12-02T10:59:00.000-05:00

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

2011-11-14T17:11:00.000-05:00

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

2011-11-04T12:00:00.005-04:00

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

2011-10-28T09:11:00.001-04:00

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.

2011-10-25T14:54:00.002-04:00

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.

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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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)

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.
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.)
I currently have 2 roommates: Eric and Stickybun.
I still want to go back to England - and actually did after the first version of this list was published.
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.
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)

I still love Gregory Peck, and depressing movies.
I no longer own any toe socks. I do, however, love long argyle socks.
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.
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."
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.
Jane Eyre is still my favorite book, and I've now seen 6 movie versions.
I wish Orson Welles could narrate my life.
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.
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.)
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.
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!")
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.
I miss being one half of M&M, although now Miri is part of the Miri and Mike M&M, which is also nice.
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.
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!!!)
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.
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.
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.)
I miss the trebuchet.
I almost never listen to John Mayer anymore. I was just thinking about him this morning, and I don't know why.
I still can't pick a favorite song. I'm not even going to try.
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.
I still have a blanket with sleeves! Right now it's on my bed.
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.
I no longer have a transcendentalist corner in my room, but I kind of miss it. That was a very peaceful corner.
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.
I miss Pace's and Nielsen's.
I still have a Jane Austen action figure. Also, a librarian action figure.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.)
No more eating on campus these days, although at IU I traded in pasta for pizza and waffle fries.
I still get too involved in the books I read and feel a sense of loss when I finish them.
I have received many more bouquets of flowers in my life of late.
I still love Trivial Pursuit, and thankfully, Eric will play it with me. I've also learned to love Scrabble.
I still love Oscar Wilde. I'm also a big fan of Tom Stoppard.
I miss roommate sleepovers in the living room.
I hope that someday I have another trampoline. And another dog.
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.
I'm still good at cutting up avocados. Not so much mangoes.
I miss playing the viola. But I'm not really sorry I quit, because I miss choir more.
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.
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.
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.
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.
I still know all the words to "We Didn't Start the Fire."
I cry even more than I did when I started this blog and talked about how I had started to cry. BAH.
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.
I still love Robin Hood. I really loved the BBC Robin Hood until the end of season two, which destroyed my heart.
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.
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.
My new car's name is Stella. R.I.P. Miss Daisy.
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.
I still have that Louisa May Alcott sign on my wall! It's still true!
Since starting as a seminary teacher, I have started hitting my snooze button less. 2 times instead of 4, usually.
I still love "When Faith Endures," and I love playing through hymns that we never sing in church.
I really should learn how to doodle.
My nieces and nephews all like me now! Win!
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.
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.
I'm coming around to the idea of stuffed crust pizza, but I don't ever make it that way.
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.
I FORGOT THAT I SKEDADDLED UP THE CHAMPS ELYSEES! This list is the best!
I think it's time to go to another professional baseball game.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
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?)

I need to buy some Nutella. It's been FAR too long.
I keep trying to get Eric to wear fedoras. I think if anyone could bring them back, he could.
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.
I just bought some lemon pepper for my Macaroni and Cheese and convinced Eric that it was a good idea.
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.
I think it's funny that I mentioned eating seaweed in that original post, because now I eat it all the time with sushi.
I don't mind orange so much anymore! And for years, "Green Eyes" was my ringtone.
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.
Oh my gosh. St. Crispin's Day Speech. Still the best of all the speeches.
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.
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.
I've still only had stitches once. It would be nice to keep it that way.
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.
I am still the hottest thing since soup.

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

Confessing Again, Naturally

2011-10-21T09:09:00.001-04:00

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

2011-10-19T12:02:00.000-04:00

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!

2011-10-18T15:52:00.000-04:00

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.

Last Minute Confessions

2011-10-07T16:17:00.000-04:00

In my rush to make clean the house before my parents get here, I almost forgot to confess!

I confess that I was sure I would be scrubbing my house from top to bottom before my mom sees it, and now I'm just done. It looks fine.
I confess that I finally saw Batman and Robin last night. I didn't really believe everyone who said it was terrible - or I believed them but just didn't understand how terrible it would be. That is possibly the worst movie I have ever seen, ever. I was barely even watching it because I was doing other stuff and I was STILL horrified that someone decided to release it. Poor George Clooney.
I confess that I went just a tiny bit crazy on Pinterest this week. Whoops.
I confess that this week we painted some of those boards where you stick your head in where the face is and then it looks like you're a sheep or a goose. They are awesome. I'm very excited that they'll be part of a local pumpkin patch, and I really like painting with Eric. Also, I just realized I didn't take pictures. I'll have to get some later from my friend who asked us to do them.
I confess that I'm a little jealous of the Utah snow storm. I know this is irrational, and that I wouldn't be enjoying it as much in person, but I really, really want to wear coats and boots and drink hot chocolate. Meanwhile, it's 90 here. But I have a leaf garland outside, so there's that. And pumpkin carving is coming, which will also help.

Because I got a little teary watching a Youtube video.

2011-10-06T16:08:00.000-04:00

Dear Steve Jobs,

Thank you for my iPod. I can't believe that a few years ago I was carrying around my 100 CD envelope and my discman, followed by that time that I had a jump drive that plugged into some little player (which held 256 MB.) I watched this video today and couldn't believe how far we've come, even from the first iPod. But compared to what had come before, the iPod was a revelation. I can't believe the things he introduces in this video that I use constantly and never think about.

I know there are a lot of people who love to hate Apple, and I know what their reasons are, and they can have their opinions. But seriously. Every time I hear someone talking about how great such and such tablet or MP3 player or smart phone is I think, "Yeah . . . but would it even exist if the iPad or the iPod or the iPhone hadn't been so revolutionary And if it did, would it look as pretty? And remember how we all laughed and said the iPad was so silly and useless, but now everyone has them and everyone else is trying to make them and Apple still has 95% of the market?" I'm sure someone would have made something like them eventually - but would they have done it with the same sleek pizazz? I don't know.

The point is, I'll miss you, Steve Jobs. You were a wizard and a visionary and I'll miss waiting to see what you and your black turtleneck will come up with next. I hope your company carries on your legacy with more magical devices.

Getting My Craft On

2011-10-05T15:05:00.000-04:00

So about a week ago, I fell in love with this mirror. In. Love. So yesterday I took a trip to Hobby Lobby and picked up some paper, tiny mirrors and cork circles, plus a full-length mirror from Walmart (which I got partially because it was $5 and partially because there are no full length mirrors in our house and every Sunday I try to see my outfit plus my shoes and fail).

Here is the end result! This isn't a great picture of it, but you get the idea. I think I'm going to pick up more of the little mirrors to scatter around (also, I need to get some sticky-tack for them - right now I'm just testing with scotch tape) but I'm pretty pleased with the way it turned out for the most part. I should make things more often.

A Friday for Confessing

2011-09-30T11:22:00.000-04:00

I confess that I almost didn't bother to write confessions today, but then Lindsey posted some on her blog, saying that she looks forward to mine, and since I started writing them because I consistently look forward to Debra's . . . well. Who am I to deprive the world of part of a long string of joy in honesty?
I confess that I am always a little terrified when I leave seminary that I have casually said something that is going to give them a completely wrong impression about everything, and they'll start going around telling everyone that it's true because Sister Long said it in seminary.
I confess that it took all week, but I've finally managed to avoid spending multiple hours a day playing Angry Birds and Words With Friends on the iPad.
I confess that I hate grocery shopping, and spend much of my life trying to avoid it. I need several things right now, and I am avoiding the store this very moment.
I confess that I have been craving other kinds of shopping. I keep looking at things online, sometimes even putting them in my shopping cart, and then telling myself I don't need them. (Also, I have issues with paying shipping, even when things are on sale, and I'm also an incredibly tactile shopper, so not being able to touch things is a deterrent.) I'm hoping to hold out until my parents come to visit next week so I have money to spend on the inevitable trip my mom and I take to the outlets in Mercedes.
I confess that I often watch Gilmore Girls as it goes up on the WB's website as if I hadn't already seen the entire series multiple times. I confess that I skipped the one where Rory misses Lorelai's graduation to hang out with Jess, because it makes me too upset. I confess that maybe Gilmore Girls is too important to me.
I confess that I am already thinking about Christmas, specifically how to make fun stockings for us and what on earth I will get for Eric (who never seems to want anything except the iPad, and he has that now), and what will be easy to send to friends and family in the mail and still be awesome, and how I will cope with my first Christmas away from my family, and where/how we will celebrate our first anniversary (which is the week before Christmas and also before school gets out, but at least it's on a weekend this year). Whew. No wonder it's spilling out into October.

October To Do List

2011-09-24T23:05:00.006-04:00

My normal October plans are many and varied, including a lovely upcoming visit from my parents, and a potential trip to Houston to visit B and K and do a murder mystery party. However. This post is about the things I want to watch, eat, and read in order to celebrate pumpkin month, especially now that I have both an Ann and a Lindsey hole in my heart where Halloween celebrations ought to be. So here's an initial list, but I encourage recommendations from all corners.

To Eat:

This version of dinner in a pumpkin, recommended to me by my sister-in-law, Katie. Ann made a version of dinner in a pumpkin when I was in Indiana, and it was always delicious. I might make that one too. But I'm excited to try something new.

image source: melskitchencafe.com

Pumpkin roll. Always pumpkin roll.

Pumpkin Flan with Spiced Pumpkin Seeds from Epicurious. I might have to work to get this one past the husband, but I think it looks like it could be kind of divine.

This Autumn Trifle. Holy cow.

Ina Garten's Pumpkin Roll (thanks Matt!)

Pumpkin Pancakes (thanks Lauren!)

Pumpkin Pie White Hot Chocolate (thanks Melissa!)

To Read:

Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife by Mary Roach. What could be more fun that Mary Roach and scientists investigating ghosts?

We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson. The Haunting of Hill House was lots of fun last year, AND this is one of my friend Ann's favorite books. (Ann really is the authority on all things Halloween.) Just the title is creepy. I just ordered it from hpb.com for $2. (Such is my lack of faith in the local libraries, and I couldn't find it at the bookstore closing sale, and I don't think Shirley Jackson needs my $11, since she died in 1965.)

The Turn of the Screw by Henry James. Seems like it's about time to read that one.

The Poe Shadow by Matthew Pearl (thanks, Ben!)

All Souls by Edith Wharton (thanks, Greg!)

To Watch:

Attack of the Puppet People on Instant (because seriously, it looks ridiculous)

The Stand, which is very long, but highly recommended by my brother-in-law. It's on Instant Watch too, so I'm thinking about it.

Dream House, coming out the end of this month. I love Rachel Weisz and Daniel Craig, and the concept looks potentially neat. I'm kind of hoping it's going to be good.

The newer version of The Haunting, because I've heard it's not as good as the awesome original, but I still think it would be fun to see how it got ruined by our modern horror movie culture.

The Innocents, which is on its way here via Netflix.

CONFESS!

2011-09-23T10:49:00.003-04:00

I confess that this week when my husband got his iPad, I knew that he was going to want to play with it, but was a little hurt when it was the first night in weeks that he was willing to stay up past 10. That's right. I'm jealous of the iPad.
I confess that the return of fall TV shows, particularly Parks and Recreation is ridiculously exciting to me, as is the fact that Cowboys and Aliens finally made it to the dollar theater. It's going to be a good night, even if I'm embarrassed by how much I love movies and TV (even ridiculous movies).
I confess that a library aide job just opened up in San Benito, and I'm hoping they'll consider me for it despite my Master's degree in Library Science. I confess that those were words I never thought I would say.
I confess that our hedgehog has been hopelessly neglected since we started going to bed early. We feed her and make sure she has water, but we haven't played with her much in weeks. This makes me sad, especially since she's probably turning feral right now. (In my defense, I would play with her during the day except she's NOCTURNAL and gets grumpy when I wake her up in the middle of her REM cycle.)
I confess that while I miss fall weather, what I actually am missing the most is the ability to wear fall clothes. I hate summer clothes. I always feel better in layers and long sleeves, specifically in cardigans. This is why librarianship was such an obvious fit.
I confess that I've been working through my thank you notes for the wedding, and there are a couple I keep hesitating about because they're to people who have gotten married since I did, and I haven't sent them gifts yet. So embarrassing. My friends are much better friends than I am.

Of love and iPads

2011-09-20T12:00:00.001-04:00

Once upon a time, Eric really, really wanted an iPad.

That time was last year, when they first came out. He talked about it all the time. He was dying to have an iPad. On his phone, there is archived a list of things we wanted to do together for dates (although the list actually started before we officially started dating) and included movies to see, places to go, things to make, etc. One of the things on that list has always been, "Buy an iPad. Get the Starwalk App. Go stargazing."

Anyway, about the time Eric graduated, he actually went and bought an iPad. Gave them his money, bought a wireless keyboard. But the IU bookstore didn't have any in stock, so the idea was that they would hold one for him until it came in. And before it came in, he went back to the store and got his money back, because he was thinking that sometime in the near future he was going to buy this (and a million plane tickets to see me and to visit my parents to ask for my hand):

He picked it out all by himself.

So a couple of months later he proposed, and after flying back and forth a few times, we got married, and now we're in Texas and he's working for TFA, and so far he still doesn't have an iPad. I even tried to get him to use some of our Target giftcard money from the wedding on one (because hey, once I had my Kitchenaid I didn't care that much) but he just kept telling me that he didn't need one - and then spent his nights looking at the app store.

But then this happened, and TFA told Eric that they were giving him an iPad to use in his classroom (the jury is still our on whether he gets to keep it after we leave TFA, but we think yes). And much rejoicing ensued. And then, we found out that 3 regions get the iPad 2, and the Rio Grande Valley is one of them. So as of Wednesday night, Eric gets his iPad (2!), for free, which I am choosing to believe is a sign that being frugal and financially responsible is a good thing, and we should continue paying off our student loans as fast as we possibly can. And I'm pretty much banking on the fact that I won't see my husband without the iPad in his had for a few months.

As long as Thursday night is Starwalk night, it's cool.

Before 9am this morning

2011-09-19T12:03:00.000-04:00

My car was making a terrible noise as I drove out of the church parking lot after seminary. It was this weird scraping every time I turned right, and it was upsetting. I stopped at my mechanic's place on the way home (and by that I mean the place where I always get my oil changed, because they are nice) and after an hour in which they put the car up on lifts trying to figure out what horrible thing had happened, they found out that it was just some plastic in the wheel well that had apparently gotten pulled down and was rubbing. They tied it back out of the way and charged me $20. I could say I was annoyed at spending $20 on something I could have fixed myself, but I'm just grateful that it wasn't something serious.

Also happening as the sun rose:

Discovered that somehow we got the wrong idea about how the seminary manual is organized, so we've been covering about 4 days of material in one day. Whoops. On the bright side, planning is going to be much easier from here on out, especially when we don't have to decide between teaching about the destruction Sodom and Gomorrah and teaching about Abraham and Isaac. On the less bright side . . . sorry for that stuff we skipped, kids. I guess we'll pepper it in here and there for the next few weeks - but we are caught up after starting a week late!
Felt the need to comment on the idiotic blog post about the division of Netflix's streaming and DVD subscriptions into two companies. Worst. Idea. Ever.
Made an effort to watch the first episode of Downton Abbey's second series before we're allowed to see it in the U.S. and almost subscribed to a cell phone coupon service that would have cost $10 a month. I am really not intelligent early in the morning.

In other news, Eric and I are now back to having one calling apiece (or one calling that we're sharing between the two of us) after being released yesterday from our old jobs. We will miss them, but we've been going crazy trying to plan, go to sleep early, and wake up for seminary in addition to our other responsibilities, so it's a welcome change. Luckily, I got to stay in long enough for the Young Women pie-making seminar for the branch social this weekend, so I got to pass on the trick for making pie crust edges that I learned from MY Young Women president.

Also, I finally saw the new Jane Eyre movie, and I think I liked it, although I thought they made some strange decisions about cuts. On the other hand, it's one of the few 2-hour versions that includes St. John Rivers effectively, so I suppose that was fun. Also, Michael Fassbender is reasonably good-looking as Rochester. (I'm pretty sure they had that scene where he's digging up the thorn bush just because manual labor in shirtsleeves is hot. It certainly wasn't serving the normal thorn tree spot in the story.) It didn't top the 2006 version, but let's be honest - no version ever will.

“It’s just that everything was incredibly far away from me.”

2011-09-11T22:01:00.029-04:00

We spent part of this morning watching old videos from 9/11 online. I can't believe it's been 10 years.

I was a sophomore in high school when it happened. Normally we wouldn't have had the TV on while I was getting ready for school, but one of my parents was having some minor medical procedure that day, so my dad hadn't gone to work and was watching the news in bed.

I remember being very confused about what was going on - all we knew was that a building in New York was burning - the World Trade Center, where we'd been just a couple of months before when we visited my brother, who lived about an hour away from the city. As we watched, the second plane crashed. It was crazy. Looking back, I can't believe I went to school after that, or that my parents went ahead and went to the doctor.

I remember that all day at school there was a division between teachers who let us watch the news all through class and teachers who thought we should keep our minds off it and work. I remember sitting with a group of relatively new friends and lunch and talking about what had happened and how we were supposed to feel. I remember that my brother knew several people who worked in the city or at the Trade Center. I think all of them were okay.

I remember that my mom had a new sweatshirt she'd just bought on our trip to New York. It had an outline of the skyline, including the twin towers. She had a hard time ever wearing it after that.

It's strange to think about that day now that it's colored by everything that came after - wars and airport security and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (an awesome book about a little boy whose father dies in the towers - the quote in the title comes from that). All I knew that day was that it would be something I would remember forever - the way my parents remember the moonwalk or the Kennedy assassination. There are some things that you just can't believe when they're happening, and then you never, ever forget.

The strangest thing that happened today was that a 12 year old boy asked me if I'd seen the news - all of the old 9/11 footage. I don't think he'd ever seen it before, and he was fascinated, because when it happened, he was 2.

I love confessing.

2011-09-09T11:08:00.001-04:00

Well, on the bright side, Friday confessionals seem to get me to post on my blog at least once a week. (Also, I wrote some for Sisters-in-Long the other night, so I'm feeling good.)

I confess that this week my husband and I made a second raid on the dying mall bookstore, and bought 4 books at 70% off. (If you're interested, they were Malcolm Gladwell's What the Dog Saw, Mary Roach's Spook, John Berendt's The City of Falling Angels, and John Vaillant's The Tiger. Yes, I loved In the Heart of the Sea so much that I was as excited as Eric about 4 more non-fiction books.) Our receipt actually said, "You saved 39.53." We also confessed to each other our sadness about Borders dying (even though this closing was the less awesome Waldenbooks), because we both used to go there and just browse the books when we were sad or frustrated in college. Clearly we really were meant for each other.
I confess that one of the high point of my week was finally discovering an NPR station in the Valley. So. Much. Happiness. I listened to StoryCorps on my way home from seminary this morning and just beamed.
I confess that after my confession last week about the book I couldn't get into, I finally got into it. I finished it yesterday, and it was actually pretty good. However, there are enough books on my shelf that I am dying to read right now that I don't think I'll be accepting any loaners for a couple of months.
I confess that I don't really love lasagna. However, I love this pretend lasagna.
I confess that yesterday I walked outside and thought, "Wow, it's downright pleasant outside!" And then I saw a bank sign while I was driving that said it was 95. I'm sticking to my theory that the lack of humidity yesterday made it feel cooler than it was.
I also confess that my husband has been stalking the National Weather Service hoping that a hurricane is going to come our way so he can get a day off school. I'm hoping it will hold off for another month in case the power goes out and we lose the AC.
I confess that I'm about to make a paper countdown chain for my parents' visit to South Texas, which is happening in less than a month.
I confess that before bed last night, I found out that Jude Law and Keira Knightly are going to star in a new movie version of Anna Karenina (thanks Julie!). And then I dreamed about meeting Count Vronsky, who looked like Jude Law (even though I found out later that he's actually playing Karenin. Oh well.) (Also, just by the way, I looked at the article again, and Tom Stoppard is doing the screenplay! Now I really approve.)
I confess that this week I was trying to find something to watch while I did the dishes, and nothing with any actual merit looked appealing at all. (Oh, CW. It's a good thing your shows are starting up next week.) I realized that I really wanted some ridiculous high school drama (Buffy. Basically I wanted Buffy.), so I ended up watching a really stupid ABC Family show on Netflix. And I watched the entire season. Excuse me while I read Malcolm Gladwell and pretend that didn't just happen. (Does Malcolm Gladwell count as a writer that will restore some sense of my being a thinking person?)
From ridiculous to sublime: I confess that even though I groan when the alarm goes off every single morning, I'm starting to love teaching early-morning seminary. It brings back good memories of my own, not-early-morning experience with seminary. This morning we watched a video that included text from this amazing talk by Jeffrey R. Holland, which intensified my love for Moses 1:13, and for Elder Holland.

Another round of confessions

2011-09-02T10:30:00.001-04:00

I liked it enough before that I'm going to try it again. :)

I confess that I really look forward to watching Project Runway, despite the complete lack of psycho-crazy drama this year. It just makes me happy. I don't know when I became such a sucker for competition reality TV, but I love it.

I confess that I've been waking up to teach early morning seminary since Wednesday, and so far it has meant I've spent at least a few hours afterward being very, very lazy.

I confess that I got rejected for another job today, and every time I do it makes me wonder if it's worth it to keep applying for them, especially when I'm pretty sure that part of the problem this time was that they asked me how long I'd work for them and I had to say, "Until I leave in June." (Of course, it could have been my less-than-awesome phone interview. Sigh.)

I confess that I purposely made my appointment to have my oil change for a little later in the morning so that I can take a tiny nap before I go and sit in their waiting room - mostly because I'm afraid I will fall asleep sitting there for an hour.

I confess that I am incredibly grateful to be team teaching seminary, because I look at that room full of sleepy kids and am positive that their lack of response would make me self-conscious if I were the only teacher. As it is, once they look sleepy, Eric runs around the room to energize them and energizes me instead.

I confess that I am a serial window shopper - and by window I mean browser window. I browse all kinds of websites and covet things all day (and usually leave the window open while I'm doing other things), and by the end of the day I convince myself I don't need it, even if it's half off and awesome.

I confess that I was on a reading rampage, and then I started reading a book someone lent to me (because I'd had it for months and felt bad that I hadn't read it) and now I'm back to a snail's pace. I hope I become more invested soon.

Apartment Tour

2011-08-24T17:58:00.001-04:00

It occurs to me that I've never posted/taken pictures of our apartment before, and I just cleaned it on Monday (because Eric's back in school and I don't have a whole lot to do except wait to hear back about jobs - and also because it needed a good scrub down/ reorganization).

Anyway, here's the grand tour of our first apartment together.

Here's our front window, bookcases, Stickybun's home

Our couch and coffee table, plus the pictures on the wall

More of the couch and the bar looking into the kitchen

A closer-up looking into the kitchen (the pizza paddle is hanging where the dearly departed bacon used to be)

Our dining area, complete with a not-quite-finished Eric Long original

Our kitchen sink

Stove, fridge, microwave (fascinating, I know)

Our bathroom, with lovely shower curtain

Sink!

The closet outside our bathroom with a view of the hall vanity

The vanity with the wire hanger hooks Eric made for my hair stuff

Our room (there's a matching night stand on the other side, but there's also some laundry over there that I'm hiding)

So there you go! Ta da! It's small, but it's homey and we like it.

My First Friday Confessional

2011-08-19T10:00:00.001-04:00

So my friend Debra at Housewife Eclectic does a weekly Friday Confessional. It's by far my favorite kind of post she does (although she does have some really great recipes, craft ideas and photoshop tips as well) and I watch for them the way I watch for Postsecret each week.
Anyway, I've recently been thinking about how boring my writing has gotten lately, especially after reading this post from my friend Emily and so I'm going to experiment with the confessional and see how it goes.

I confess that I still haven't blogged about my wedding, and I feel guilt about this. I confess that my reason for not doing so is the same as the reason I haven't made a wedding book yet. The thought of sorting through and uploading all of the pictures is weirdly daunting. However, I'd probably better get a move on before I forget all of the best details.
I confess that my husband loves puns. Loves them. Last week, we were getting ready for bed and he said, "Shall I turn down the lights?" I answered, "Well, I don't know. What are their demands?" I don't think he could decide if it was the least romantic or most romantic thing I could have said.
I confess that I have still only written about a third of my thank you notes from my wedding. I had high hopes for making Eric write them with me this summer, but alas. He's back in school and I probably need to just suck it up and finish them. I have a year before I'm socially ostracized, right?
I confess I just bought Funny Face for $5 at Walmart. Every time I watch it I think, "Wow. No one in this movie can actually sing, except maybe Miss Prescott. Why is it so brilliant?" And yet.
I confess that last summer, I got hooked on America's Got Talent. And this summer I hooked Eric. Sorry, honey. But without me, you'd have never seen The Kinetic King or those people who dress like gnomes.
I confess that the only bookstore within 50 miles of me is going out of business, and although I am sad and appalled by this, it didn't stop me from going and picking up severely discounted copy of the America's Test Kitchen Cookbook, plus a book about the story that inspired Moby Dick. (It has cannibalism in it, like that Monty Python sketch, but real.) (Also, they were kind of a cruddy mall bookstore anyway, but it's still sad that no one reads in the valley, and the bookstore is a dying establishment.)

Errant Pictures

2011-08-17T18:47:00.000-04:00

These are pictures from the 4th of July and our beach trip in May, which didn't get included in my last post because I just got them from my talented friend Debra. I weeded out the ones where I look "candid" and by that I mean . . . gross. (Not Debra's fault - I'm just not photogenic 100% of the time.) Anyway. Here are some pictures that make life in the Valley look really pretty.

Our friends' kids getting all excited about their FIRST PARADE EVER!

Waiting for the parade. Look at us. So excited. So unaware of how disappointed we're about to be.

Waiting for the burgers to cook

Eric found a squirt gun

My dear friends, Jordan and Debra

The Port Isabel Lighthouse

Waiting for the sun to go down over the bay

This is our trip with our friends to South Padre in May, before summer prices hit the beach cabanas.

I think Eric's embarrassed to be seen with me.

Eric and Seth burying their feet in the sand

More sand-burying. Oh, how at the mercy of the ocean we are!

Not sure why Eric persists in looking concerned.

Working on getting a kite up in the air. That speck is Eric clear down the beach.

We succeeded! Insert gospel metaphor here.

Postdated Summer Roadtrip Playlist

2011-08-16T10:00:00.008-04:00

Here's what I've been listening to on our epic, 4000 mile road trip. Nothing too new or exciting, but certainly enjoyable.

"Conventional Wisdom," Built to Spill (thanks to Treb's girlfriend Megan Nell for this one)
"If I Can Dream," Elvis Presley (I fell in love with this song while we were painting our mural and sang it non-stop for the first half of the trip)
"Prizefighter," The Eels
"Hotel Arizona," Wilco
"Who Am I (What's My Name)?" Snoop Dogg (This is an Eric favorite. Also, we often sing "Snoop Hoggy Hog" to our hedgehog.)
"Ghost Town," Shiny Toy Guns
"You Won't See Me," The Beatles
"Dixie Dynamite," The Freddy Jones Band
"The Luckiest Guy on the Lower East Side," The Magnetic Fields (This is a perfect summer song, if I may say so. I don't know what instrument makes that squishy noise, but it's great.)
"Awake My Soul," Mumford and Sons (although actually, I've been listening to them a ton, and every song that I listen to becomes my favorite until the next song comes on.)
"Nobody," Johnny Cash (I'm not sure who did this song originally, but I laughed out loud when I heard the line,'Well one time when things was
Lookin' bright
I started to whittlin' on a stick one night
Who said "Hey! That's dynamite!"?
Nobody.'
"Let's Get Out of this Country," Camera Obscura
"Helplessness Blues," Fleet Foxes (I've mentioned this song before, and the rest of the album is also truly superb, but goodness I love this song! )
"My Boy Builds Coffins," Florence + The Machine (This song is so weird, but so catchy! Also, we've been singing "Dog Days Are Over" all summer, but the number of times that's been on reality shows this summer makes me unable to put it on my list. Also, now I've just admitted that I spent all summer watching America's Got Talent.)
"Do You Want To," Franz Ferdinand (This song is one of the most addicting songs in the world, and it's also great on the road.)

Farewell, O Summer (Part 2)

2011-08-15T15:07:00.001-04:00

And we're back for part 2 (before I forget to post it)!

From Albuquerque, we headed up to Salt Lake via Moab, which is a gorgeous way to be greeted by Utah. We got into Centerville in time to have dinner at Nielsen's Frozen Custard, which was delicious. On Sunday, we went to church with Mom and Dad and then got to see the whole family for dinner.

This is my niece Maggie, with whom I fell thoroughly in love on this trip. She turns 1 this week.
On Monday, we headed down south again, this time to go to Bryce Canyon, the Shakespeare Festival, Zion, and Tuacahn. Road tripping with my parents was fun, and I loved showing Eric around some of my favorite places in the world. I also got to check one more Shakespeare play off my list (Richard III) so I'm one step closer to my goal of seeing them all before I die.
When we got back, Eric and I went to a free Decemberists concert in Pioneer Park to celebrate our 7 month anniversary, and when we got home, Treb had arrived from New York. We also got to celebrate Pioneer Day, which meant a second chance at fireworks. We watched them from the back of my dad's truck while eating watermelon, and we played Catch Phrase while we waited for them to start. It was a much better seat than we had from Port Isabel on the 4th. The next day was my parents' 40th anniversary, so we made them breakfast (pecan pancakes shaped by Eric into bears, lighthouses, hearts, etc.) and lunch (tomato pie).
The next week we got to go to the Salt Lake temple with my parents and a couple of my brothers, and see a few friends and my aunt Helen, but the focal point was our reunion in Bear Lake. My parents went all out and rented cabins for the whole family. We bunked with Treb and his girlfriend (also Megan). There was a trip to Minnetonka Cave where I got to hold my nephew Jake's hand and hear all of his cave formation insights, a night of rock skipping, and a day at the lake with our dear friends, the Burninghams. We grew up going to their cabin every summer, and it was really great to be back. Eric also won over the hearts of my nieces and nephews, which I think made him feel good. Unfortunately, I did not personally take any pictures during this time, but I know my mom and sisters-in-law did, so I'm hoping I'll be able to steal some of theirs.
With many tears (on the part of my mom and me) we left Monday morning and headed down to Flagstaff. It was fun staying in our honeymoon city again, even though I got weirdly car sick and we ended up just watching Doctor Who instead of doing anything too exciting. From their we drove through Oak Creek Canyon and Sedona, and then on to Tucson to see Eric's grandma, dad and Aunt Dawn. We got to show off our wedding pictures, and Aunt Dawn showed us her award-winning pine needle baskets, which were actually really neat. She says she'll make us one. :)
From Tucson we drove to Carlsbad, where we arrive just in time to see the bats fly out of the Caverns. It was a low year for bats because of the drought, but they were still pretty cool. We stayed there that night so that we could go through the caverns the next morning. There's something great about caverns that are so huge, you can build a bathroom and a cafe at the bottom.
From their we drove to Roswell (while listening to Jeff Wayne's War of the Worlds musical), where we made a brief stop at the International UFO Research Center, which is every bit as awesome as it sounds. The museum is basically just full of newspaper clippings, affidavits and conjecture, plus this:
and this:

and this:
We drove from Roswell to Lubbock that night so that we could pick up our hedgehog. We ended up deciding to just hang around the next morning so we could see the rest of the family again, so we stopped in San Antonio on the way back, went to the temple on Saturday morning, helped Eric's cousin move into his new apartment, and finally got back to San Benito (which was obscenely hot after the lovely temperatures in Utah) at about 7:30 that night.
This last week has been less eventful. Eric had some trainings, the Young Women had a movie night and watched the Mormon version of Pride and Prejudice (oh MAN did I forget how great that is!) and we had some good times having a new family over to dinner, swimming with Debra and Seth and Sofie, and eating dinner at the Baileys' after Stake Conference.

Eric's back full time as of today, but it really was a great summer, so I'm trying not to be too sad about it. I'm back on the job hunt and waiting for August to end so that the weather will be a little better for going outside. (Also, only 9 more months in the Rio Grande Valley!)

If you made it to the end of this, I salute you.

Farewell, O Summer (Part 1)

2011-08-15T12:16:00.002-04:00

So I just looked at my blog and realized that my last post was two days before Eric got out of school for the summer - and today is his first day back. Hmm. No correlation there at all, is there?
It's been a lovely summer, blogging or no. I was very sad to see Eric head back to work this morning (although perhaps not as sad as he was). It went down a little something like this:

The week after school got out, Eric and I headed to Girls' Camp, me as our branch's Young Women president, Eric as our priesthood representative. It was all going very well (minus Eric locking the keys in the car and having to spend several hours trying to get the Pop a Lock guy to come out to the camp at midnight on our first night) until just after Tuesday night's snipe hunt, when I had to excuse myself to go and throw up. (Everyone was a little disconcerted by my calmly asking whether the bathroom was free so I could throw up - but I've had a weird stomach all my life, so I recognize the signs.) Turns out I had heat exhaustion, and I spent the next hour trying to drink water and not being able to keep it down. Eventually, my friend Jordan drove me down to the priesthood cabin. Eric came and gave me a blessing, and then he blew up an air mattress in the activity center and made me calm down and stop trying to drink water. I finally stopped shaking and fell asleep, but I spent most of the next day being useless, and a good part of the following day too. Other highlights: Eric and I set up an orienteering hike for the 4th year girls, complete with poetic clues fraught with portent, all guiding them to the pieces of their lunch; Jordan and realized we are THOSE leaders when we cried because our girls weren't as shy as we expected they'd be; on the last night, all of the leaders were freaking out because they thought the girls were going to pull a prank on them, so we pulled on instead . . . by pretending to be ghosts.
After camp we headed up to Houston to see Brady and Kristi, but since Brady was studying for the bar, we mostly slept there, ate their food, and chatted with Kristi. We also got to go to the temple, see Noah and the Whale at a cool little venue called Fitzgerald's (a former polish dance hall) and eat at a place called Berry Hill Baja Grill, which had excellent fish tacos. On our way back, which wasn't really on the way, we went to Six Flags with our newly acquired season pass/coupons that let me get in for free with Eric's season pass. Oh, how I love a good roller coaster.
We went to Corpus Christi for our six month anniversary, which was very nice. Then we came back and Eric said, "I'd just about kill for some french fries." Of course he couldn't settle for McDonald's, which was right there, so we went to Whataburger, where a huge truck started to back up and didn't hear our honks and screams . . . and backed up over Stella's hood. Luckily, the guy had insurance. We didn't pay a cent of the $2400 repair, and we got about 3 weeks of rental car, and it got finished right before we headed out of town.

Lovely Corpus

Eric's art shot

Stella!
On the 4th of July, we went to what is officially the saddest parade I have ever seen. It was scheduled to start at10am. It actually started at 10:15, but that was probably for the best, since it was over by 10:22. The parade consisted entirely of cars (not cool old cars - normal cars) with "Happy 4th" painted on their windows in shoe polish, three horses with colonial riders, and one firetruck. We did, however, have a nice afternoon barbeque with some friends before going out to see fireworks at Padre Island - a decision that would have been great had we not decided that we'd just watch them from across the bay at Port Isabel. The looked like they were probably great, but they were too far away to really be very cool. To console ourselves, we bought some fireworks on the way home and set them off in the mosquito-laden grass before watching The House on Haunted Hill and going to bed.
Our bacon fell off the wall and broke.
Our hedgehog remained awesome.

We did not squish her behind this. She crawled behind it and then started coming back and did this. Which is amazing.
We went on an epic road trip. In the first leg, we went from San Benito to San Antonio, where we stayed with Eric's Aunt Annie. Then we went from San Antonio to Lubbock, where we stopped for a week to help paint a mural for a lady who works with my mother-in-law. Yes, even I painted, despite my lack of ability (I'm great with a roller, and I'm good at following directions.) The mural ended up being amazing, and it's possible we'll be getting another job from it. We also got to spend some good time with Porter, Katie, sweet little Nancy Kay, and Granny and Papa. (How does one distinguish between the grandpa version of papa and the other one? They're pronounced differently, but I don't know how to spell this one.)

Nancy putting on the giraffe spots

Eric working on the wildebeest

Me putting some shadows on the mountains

The Long Family Muralists by a completed giraffe

By the tree and wildebeest

The closest I could get to capturing the whole mural in one shot.
From there, we drove to Albuquerque, where we stayed with my dear friend Jennie and her delightful husband Sean. They fed us delicious food and were great company, leaving us all wishing that we lived a little closer to each other.

On the road with my honey, unsafely taking pictures.

More to come in the next post, because this one is getting far too long.

Haircut

2011-06-01T15:32:00.002-04:00

For those of you who demanded haircut pictures, here are some I took on my phone (because my card reader is broken and I'm too lazy to wait until Eric gets home with his computer).

Before

Before I cut the bangs and couldn't stand to leave them down.


After cutting bangs - feeling slightly better but still like one side is longer than the other, and not in a cool way.

I like the lightness of it - it's already so crazy hot down here, and I know it's only going to get worse. I don't really love the cut itself, but I think I can make it work until I get to Utah in July, at which point I will probably pay a visit to Sami for some shaping that involves actually asking me where I part my hair every day and things like that.

Oh, San Benito. You are not so very blog-worthy.

2011-05-29T01:13:00.002-04:00

I don't know why it is that I never have anything to blog about these days/feel like blogging. Here's what's going on in a nutshell:

Eric has a week left of school, and my mental health is rejoicing. Having him home to take the edge of the endless days in San Benito will be glorious.
Also, I'm hoping that will mean he'll be shaving more than once a week, no matter how much he dreams of pig-beard.
That said, he is now in our branch presidency, so he's still going to be busy.
However, he does get to come with me to YW Camp the week after school gets out, so at least I'll get to see him that week.
British Fridays with my dear friend Debra are my salvation. Every Friday I go over there to do laundry and watch BBC and talk, and it's glorious.
For mutual this week, the girls sewed some little drawstring bags, and the domestic goddess place in my heart opened up. I've spent a good part of my sick day today looking at sewing machines online and scouring blogs for ideas. I am going to teach myself to sew, by golly. (Or make other people teach me. Probably both.)
I am very much looking forward to this summer's nice long trip to Utah, with its accompanying road trips, family camping, Shakespeare, and free Decemberists concert at the Gallivan Center. Yes, please.
Someday, I will fold my laundry when I wash it, and not two days later. That day might come when I actually have a washer and dryer in my house and don't have to haul it back to somewhere first. Is that just me?
When summer is over, the hunt for library jobs begins again in earnest (or perhaps when summer is part-way through. Hmm). I need to talk to people about books. Please, south Texas, give me library jobs to which I may apply. I really don't want to deliver pizzas for The Pizzeria just to get out of the house, no matter how delicious their garlic knots are.
My hedgehog is still awesome. See?
It turns out that I am a bigger grouch than I thought. Interesting feeling, grouchdom.
The other day, one of my friends posted something about how uncomfortable she is sleeping with her pregnancy (a great stored-up fear of mine, incidentally, as I am a terrible insomniac in who tosses incessantly, even in a non-pregnant state) and someone posted about their sleep pillow, the Snoogle. Does the fact that an item called "Snoogle" exists fill anyone else's heart with joy?
I cut my hair. I think I like the length (finally) but I'm not a huge fan of the cut itself (minus the bangs that I repaired myself, which I think look smashing.) I'm hoping it will either grow on me, or I can get Sami to fix it when I visit the fam this summer.
I adore the new(ish) Fleet Foxes album, Hopelessness Blues. I especially adore the title track, posted below. It has something very Simon and Garfunkel about it, both in harmony and in its kind of protest-song feel, which gives me the same feel as "Flowers Never Bend With the Rainfall" or "The Only Living Boy in New York." However, my favorite part of it is at the beginning, mostly because of Eric's reaction to it. Lyric: I was raised up believing I was somehow unique/
Like a snowflake distinct among snowflakes, unique in each way you can see/ And now after some thinking, I'd say I'd rather be/ A functioning cog in some great machinery serving something beyond me. Eric's reaction: Sir, it sounds like communism is for you!

That's basically what's going down hereabouts - or at least that's what I care to write about. Eric's field trip bus should hurry up and get home!

Why I Will Gently Coerce My Children

2011-04-26T01:58:00.000-04:00

When I was little, I was really excited to learn to play the piano. Somewhere during the second or third year of playing, that excitement waned considerably and I started to hate to practice. I remember my mom telling me - probably out of desperation -that I could quit when I could sight-read every hymn in the LDS Hymnbook. Of course, by the time I got to that point, I actually liked playing because I'd gotten into a more enjoyable period of skill wherein I could play things like Jon Schmidt and Billy Joel as well.

Then I went away to college and didn't have a lot of access to the piano for a few years, and I lost a lot of my skill. However, I could still basically sight-read most of the hymns, and at various points in my life, it's been a skill I've been really glad I have. When I was in England, I remember telling the bishop that I needed some practice before I played in sacrament meeting, and he told me that if I didn't play, they'd be singing a capella. Obviously there are worse things that could happen, but I find that people sing with greater gusto in church when they have backup, and I was happy to muddle through. (I don't play accurately, but I play with great expression.) After living in Utah where there were plenty of people who could play for any meeting, it was crazy to realize what a blessing the opportunity to learn really was.

This Sunday I was asked to play the organ for a funeral Monday morning. I had no chance to practice, and didn't even know what songs I'd be playing until I arrived at the church (and believe me, my organ skills are more neglected than my piano skills) but when I was up there playing "God Be With You 'Til We Meet Again," at the close of the meeting, I thought about how glad I was that my mom pushed me through those years when I didn't want to practice. I'll never be a concert pianist, but I will have opportunities to use what I know throughout my life, and I'm so glad.

Future children, if I manage to make you stick with it long enough, maybe you'll thank me someday too.

Easter Tradition

2011-04-25T15:34:00.000-04:00

While watching the Ten Commandments on Easter Sunday:

Charlton Heston Moses: "Sephora, your eyes are as sharp as they are beautiful."
Joshua: "MOSES!"
CH Moses to Joshua: "Welcome, Joshua."
Eric as CH Moses: "Have you met my hot wife? She smells like sheep, but her eyes are as sharp as they are beautiful."

Also, have you seen the de Mille intro to this movie? Because it definitely has some thinly-veiled anti-communist propaganda in it. Delightful. Oh, how I've missed watching this movie every year.

An Update

2011-03-29T09:16:00.000-04:00

Since my last post, lots of things have happened which might at least partially excuse my lack of posting.
Here is an abbreviated update of my activities.

My computer crashed again. This time, it wasn't the hard drive or something else easily fixable. Something just blew out and it refused to boot ever again. My computer savvy sister-in-law looked at it when they came down to visit us, and she declared it dead or else really expensive to fix. After much deliberation, Eric and I decided not to buy a new one right now, and instead figured out how to juggle all of his work computers so that I'd have something on which to do my work.
Brady and Kristi came to see San Benito, and we took them to a carnival/rodeo/livestock show in Mercedes. Unfortunately, we missed the greased pig scramble, but we did see a lot of really big rabbits. After they stayed with us, we went back to Houston with them for some spring break fun that included a trip to the Houston temple, an hour or so in Half Price Books, a Pi Day celebration at House of Pies, and a large purchase of . . .
. . . our new pet, Rita Louise Stickybun Long, a very sweet little cinnamon pinto hedgehog who is currently rooting around her cage and getting ready to go to sleep for the day. We found Miss Bun at an exotic pet shop in Houston - which also had lions and tigers in the back yard, as well as your typical snakes, giant turtles, and flying squirrels. The pet shop was right to recommend the already socialized Rita to us, but wrong to tell us to put her in pine shavings and feed her their cruddy hedgehog kibble. After we'd had her for less than a week, I switched her out of the pine shavings because she'd gotten an upper respiratory infection and wasn't eating or drinking. I took her to the vet and got her some antibiotics, and she seems to be going much better now, especially after we switched her to a tastier food. She's now eating, drinking, and running around like the happy little hoggy we brought home. I think she's even forgiven us for forcing medicine into her mouth twice a day.
Stickybun doing a little wading in the tub. See how she's the color of a cinnamon roll?
Our ward which has 600 people on the roster, was split into a ward and a branch, with us on the branch side. We went from a pretty big ward to a pretty small branch, but we think it's going to grow quickly. Eric is the Young Men's President (which was his calling in the other ward - he just has fewer young men now) and I'm over the Young Women. Last Sunday, we spent about 7 hours at the church between ward council, a ward baptism, and a stake YW Camp meeting. It's going to be busy, but it's actually pretty nice to have something to do. Plus, I got to go to the YW meeting of general conference last weekend, and it was AWESOME. Also, for mutual tonight, the Spanish-speaking ward is teaching us to make homemade tortillas.
I finally saw all of the Back to the Future movies. I don't know how I never saw the 2nd or 3rd, but certainly my life is better for having seen them now.

That's all for now - must update some other blogs that I've neglected and then get to work.

Day 28

2011-02-24T12:02:00.001-05:00

day 28- a picture of you from last year and now, how have you changed since then?

Okay . . . my computer crashed and then I forgot to finish the LAST DAY. I blame the trauma of recovering everything (but losing the running list of people to send thank you cards to that was on my desktop - if you mailed it to San Benito and I can't remember, I'm sorry! I did my best to reconstruct!) (Also, I swear I am finally going to be sending out thank you notes soon!)

Without further ado:

Last March, Chicago

December, Bountiful.

First, the short version.

Valentine's Day last year: The Godfather on AMC with Jill. Delightful, slightly bitter, eating Ann's leftover cake. Mmm.

Valentine's Day this year: Made dinner with Eric (Kristi's sage and gorgonzola steak, Sister Daniel's sweet potatoes, stuffed mushroom caps, homemade rolls which worked perfectly this time), roses + a bag of dirt and some seeds so I could start my herb garden, stop having cilantro go bad in my fridge, and emulate Ann Cox; after a long discussion about which romantic movie to watch, we both decide we'd rather watch the X-Files.

It's kind of crazy how much things have changed. That picture from Chicago was about two weeks before Eric and I started dating (in fact, the day I got back from Chicago, Eric and I went on a pre-date to see Avatar - he'd offered and I wanted to see if before the Oscars so if it won I'd have a right to be disgusted, and also I wanted to hang out with Eric). Last year I thought I still had more than a year left of grad school, I was living in Indiana with Jill and Ann, I was feeling just as single as ever, going out for sushi lunches with my friend Eric to talk about our insecurities, trying to decide whether to go home for the summer, and watching the final season of Lost. I'd fallen in love with Bloomington, my hair was shorter, Jill and I were attempting to watch all of the Best Picture winners, and every week was British Sunday.

A year later, I'm married, I've been in a long distance relationship, I graduated earlier than I expected (due to the not-so-sudden interest in a certain boy who was moving to Texas), I'm job hunting and attempting to change my name, working my way through the X-Files and Plants vs. Zombies with Eric. Instead of being four hours from Chicago, I'm four hours from San Antonio. I've gained a new family, I've swallowed most of my words about short relationships (whoops - but we HAD known each other for a year and a half by the time we got married - and so far there still haven't been any horrible surprises). I miss my friends and don't love the place where I live as much as I loved Bloomington, and I'm still trying to figure out what to do with all of my days besides continue working online and looking for library jobs, but I'm becoming a much better cook and I'm trying to grow some herbs on the balcony. I love my husband, and although I never would have expected to live here and don't know where we'll go next, I'm glad that I know with whom I'll be going, and that I kind of like him a lot.

Day 27

2011-02-16T21:18:00.000-05:00

day 27- why are you doing this 30 day challenge

I got out of the habit of blogging during grad school, and (more true) during the time I was dating Eric. I wanted something that I was committed to so that I could get back in the habit. I'm not sure it helped that much, but it got me to my blog once a day, so hopefully I'll keep getting back here a few times a week.

Day 26

2011-02-15T17:08:00.000-05:00

day 26- what do you think about your friends

I wish I could talk about every one of my friends individually here, but there are too many awesome ones to mention each. I've always been amazed by the way people come into my life when I need them. I had so many college roommates who became like sisters to me, and even though I don't live very near any of them right now, I love having frequent chats with them or just sending them songs or funny things I've seen or recommendations for good books I've read.

When I was little, I was the only girl in my neighborhood (minus a brief and wonderful period of time when Melissa lived across the street) and it was frustrating. I think my time with fantastic high school and college friends made up for it. I'm grateful for fantastic girl friends who stayed up late with me, cried with me, laughed so much that some of the stories still make me giggle. I'm grateful for guy friends through high school and college who were completely different but equally great friends, who talked me through relationship frustrations and taught me what I wanted in a relationship (and, in the case of one of them, actually became my husband).

I'm grateful for unexpected friendships with people who seemed so different at first. I'm grateful for instant friendships. I'm grateful for the people I've gradually come to understand and love in ways that I can't explain to people who haven't spent the same time with them. I'm grateful for people who drew me in and forced me to be friends with them in the best possible ways.

I think about my friends often and I miss them all.

A playlist of love songs, brain-eating, etc.

2011-02-14T12:48:00.003-05:00

As is tradition, here's a Valentine's Day playlist for all of you lovers and non-lovers out there - although it's shorter than usual because I've got work to do and also rolls to make. As a bonus, I'm including the fantastic playlist my brother made for my wedding. It's awesome.

Love at the Alamo

"Your Nervous Heart" by Rhett Miller - This song is great - he's try to talk the girl he loves into trusting him and love, but she's a little messed up.
"Conversation 16" by The National - This song is so sad and beautiful in the way it portrays a relationship falling apart - "I'll try to be more romantic, I want to believe in everything you believe. . ." "I figured out what we're missing, I tell you miserable things after you fall asleep . . ." "I was afraid I'd eat your brains 'cause I'm evil."
"Coney Island Baby" by Tom Waits - I love the sweetness of this song - "Every night she comes to take me off to dreamland, when I'm with her I'm the richest man in the town . . ." (also, I love this one because Eric sings it in a Tom Waits voice every once in awhile and it's hilarious)
"You Won't See Me" - The Beatles - It's that classic "I bet we'd be perfect for each other if you'd just give me a chance" scenario.
"Your Baby Ain't Sweet Like Mine" - Carolina Chocolate Drops
"Kick Drum Heart" - The Avett Brothers
"Avery" - Christ Merritt
"True Love Will Find You In The End" - Daniel Johnston - I love this song, all about how love will find you, but only if you're looking. It sounds old-timey but isn't. "This is a promise with a catch, only if you're looking will if find you. 'Cause true love is searching too, but how can it find you unless you step out into the light?"
"Misty" sung by Ella Fitzgerald. This is the most glorious version of this song I've ever heard, even if I secretly disapprove of the whole, "Can't you see that you're leading me on and it's just what I want you to do?" bit. It's still gorgeous.
"Why Does Love Got To Be So Sad?" Derek and the Dominoes - Such an upbeat way to sing about a breakup. I love it.
"The Luckiest Guy on the Lower East Side" - The Magnetic Fields. Poor guy is probably getting used for his car, but he doesn't mind.
"Grain of Salt" - The Morning Benders. "Take my heart with a grain of salt, it's been broken but it's nobody's fault."
"O mio babbino caro" - Puccini. Mostly because this week I watched Gianni Schicchi, and it's just so fantastic that an aria that is always used in romantic moments in movies and commercials is actually about how her dad won't let her marry the man she wants to marry, she's going to drown herself in the river. It's so dramatic, but really she's just trying to get her way with her daddy. It's awesome.
"Love of an Orchestra" - Noah and the Whale
"Be My Honeypie" - The Weepies (or if you want an alternate because you don't have a honeypie, "They're in Love, Where Am I?"
"Have I The Right?" - Vampire Weekend (originally by The Honeycombs)

Wedding Playlist, courtesy of my brother Ty (with some contributions by me and by my brother Treb)

1. Terrible Vision - Rhett Miller
2. Only You - Joshua Radin
3. All the Right Reasons - The Jayhawks
4. We Are in Love - Harry Connick, Jr.
5. The Marble in Your Eye - Sarah Harmer
6. The Book of Love - Peter Gabriel
7. My Love For You Is Real - Ryan Adams
8. This Beautiful Thing - Old 97’s
9. One and Only - Teitur
10. Sigh No More - Mumford & Sons
11. I’m the Man That Loves You - Old School Freight Train
12. I Feel Possessed - Crowded House
13. Snails - The Format
14. Please Forgive Me - David Gray
15. Sparks - Coldplay
16. Ring On the Sill - Cowboy Junkies
17. I’ve Grown Accustomed to Your Face - Don Cherry
18. Gold to Me - Ben Harper
19. After All - Sondre Lerche
20. For You - Duncan Sheik
21. Start With the Ending - David Wilcox
22. Believer - Ben Kweller
23. In These Arms - The Swell Season
24. Indiana - Dave Brubeck
25. Long Distance - Nizlopi
26. Up and Away - Dave Matthews
27. Crazy about You - Whiskeytown
28. Bold as Love - John Mayer
29. Open Window (Wedding Song) - Sarah Harmer
30. Honestly - Zwan
31. Over-rated (Stripped Version) - Gavin Degraw
32. Love and Happiness - Al Green
33. If There Was No You - Brandi Carlile
34. Love and Some Versus - Iron and Wine
35. Another One Bites the Dust - Queen

Day 25

2011-02-14T11:38:00.000-05:00

day 25- what I would find in your bag

Nothing very exciting here:

a book
my wallet
lotion
keys
lip gloss, eye drops, and hand sanitizer in a pouchy thing
a notebook and a pen
iPod

Day 24

2011-02-13T19:58:00.000-05:00

day 24- your last five facebook statuses

"Dear Wallace Stegner,
Thank you for the lovely few days I just had while reading your gorgeous book. Why didn't I discover you when I lived in a town with a library that probably would have had every single one of your novels, or when I lived with Ann Cox who had at least a couple?
Regards,
Megan"

"Made a Boston Cream Pie for Eric Long's birthday, far more successful than the toothpick-supported cake for Sarah Stankiewicz's birthday last year. Either I'm improving, or shorter cakes are the answer to everything."

"Weeding of the iTunes collection, day 1. No longer feel the need to have more than one Dashboard Confessional song in my library."

"Posted on Sisters-In-Long again - plus you should check out my sister-in-law's delicious recipes. Mmm."

"Eric's classes cancelled for tomorrow too. Still no sign of snow, just a freeze. Not complaining."

Day 23

2011-02-12T19:53:00.000-05:00

day 23- something you crave a lot (I'm sorry, I just couldn't post what this thing originally said, which was "something you crave for a lot." Am I wrong in thinking that's ridiculous grammar?)

Is it weird that the thing I probably crave most is yogurt? Also my mom's lemon chicken, frosties and french fries, and, increasingly since marrying Eric, gummy bears.

Day 22

2011-02-11T12:14:00.000-05:00

day 22- what makes you different from everyone else

I don't know how to answer this question, but at the risk of repeating myself, I'm going to go ahead and say it's the fact that I remember so many useless - and sometimes useful - things. I know song lyrics, who sang them, who wrote them; who directed and starred in movies I never saw; obscure historical facts, obscure facts about you; entire comedy riffs, etc. It's not really helpful, but occasionally it's entertaining - except when I forget something and spend an entire movie trying to figure out who someone is and what they were in and why I know their face.

Day 21

2011-02-11T11:29:00.000-05:00

day 21- a picture of something that makes you happy

Day 20

2011-02-08T20:18:00.000-05:00

day 20- someone you love

I was just going to post a picture of the handsome tall one, but I couldn't resist posting this one of all of my boys.

Day 19

2011-02-07T16:44:00.000-05:00

day 19- nicknames you have and why you have them

Most of my nicknames are just variations of my name - Megs, Meggily Moogily, Moog, Mug, Muggle (not a Harry Potter reference, strangely enough) Megster (I think this was from SNL?)

When I was little, Treb used to call me Cookie Pie. My dad called me NPC - Near Perfect Child. Lindsey calls me Megalicious, and Miri and I collectively were M&M at the Glenwood.

Day 18

2011-02-07T10:36:00.000-05:00

day 18- plans/dreams/goals you have

I kind of hate questions like this. But I'll play.

Plans: Making a caramel mousse tart today, applying for some library jobs, going to the Weslaco Onion Festival in March. (Really. Onion Festival.)

Dreams: Get back to England/Europe, live a little closer to my family, own a piano.

Goals: Pay off the student loans in a year and a half, start exercising - perhaps yoga on netflix instant. :)

Day 17

2011-02-06T00:33:00.000-05:00

day 17- someone you would want to switch lives with for one day and why

I choose anyone living with Ann Cox tomorrow so I could eat her delicious anti-superbowl food. I'll just have to make a British tart and sigh with longing for stuffed mushroom caps and scones.

Books Read in 2010

2011-02-04T16:09:00.002-05:00

I figure I should probably post this so I can start this year's list. It wasn't as long as I thought it would be. I blame dating Eric, planning a wedding, graduating from grad school, and moving to a new state. I would also like to point out that I am still in the middle of my summer Hardy, Far From the Madding Crowd. Whoops.

Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy
Julie and Julia, Julie Powell
These is My Words, Nancy E. Turner
The Long Way Home, Joss Whedon
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith
The New York Regional Mormon Singles Halloween Dance, Elna Baker
Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers, Mary Roach
The Painted Veil, W. Somerset Maugham
Peace Like A River, Leif Enger
So Brave, Young and Handsome, Leif Enger
Echo Burning, Lee Child
Far North, Marcel Theroux
The Haunting of Hill House, Shirley Jackson
Carnet de Voyage, Craig Thompson
The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Stephen Chbosky
Sarah's Quilt, Nancy E. Turner
Assassination Vacation, Sarah Vowell

Day 16

2011-02-04T15:58:00.000-05:00

day 16- another picture of yourself

Enjoying the hard core ice cream loaf Eric made for my birthday.

Day 15

2011-02-03T12:54:00.000-05:00

day 15- put your ipod on shuffle: first 10 songs that play

(I'm doing one more because I got off and want to be back on)

"Still" - Ben Folds
"Untitled" - Neko Case
"Just a Little Lovin'" - Dusty Springfield
"And the Glory of the Lord" - Mormon Tabernacle Choir
"Heard It on the X" - ZZ Top
"Moments With Oliver" - Rachael Yamagata
"Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" - Relient K
"Heaven Forbid" - The Fray
"Down in the Park" - Foo Fighters
"Tymps (Sick In the Head)" - Fiona Apple

And because that was fun, I'm going to do it one more time.

"All I Ask" - Crowded House
"Pay No Mind" - Beck
"My Unusual Friend" - Fruit Bats
"Love Itself" - Leonard Cohen
"I Guess I'll Hang My Tears Out to Dry" - Dexter Gordon
"Blue Lips" - Joseph Arthur
"Prenzlauerberg" - Beirut
"Glory Bound" - Martin Sexton (from The American, since there are two versions)
"Star of Bethlehem" - Neil Young
"The Beautiful Occupation" - Travis

Day 14

2011-02-03T12:44:00.000-05:00

day 14: a picture of you and your family

The Winegars

The Longs

Day 13

2011-02-02T12:20:00.000-05:00

day 13- a letter to someone

Dear South Texans,

The fact that it's only getting into the 40s today and will be topping off at 34 tomorrow is unusual, I admit. However, it's not really a good reason to cancel anything, and I doubt the pipes are going to freeze and break. Thanks for the warnings anyway, but you are wimps.

On the other hand, if it snows tomorrow, you are completely justified in giving Eric a snow day. Just saying.

Love,

Megan

Day 12

2011-02-01T23:17:00.000-05:00

day 12- how you found out about blogger and why you have one

This is kind of a lame one and makes me think Blogger made this thing up. I believe I got one when Clark started one and I thought it sounded like fun. I think Miri got one about the same time, but I can't remember whether she got it because I did or vice versa.

A better question would be, "Why do you have 9?"

Day 11

2011-01-31T16:21:00.001-05:00

day 11- another picture of you and your friends

Again, can't pick just one. (Just got the wedding pictures today. There will probably be a wedding post in the future.)

Friends and roommates at the temple

Bloomingtonites at the reception

Bridesmaids

Not a picture of me and my friends, but one of my favorites of my friends that the photographer got.

Day 10

2011-01-31T15:44:00.000-05:00

day 10- songs you listen to when you are happy, sad, bored, hyped, mad

Happy:

Pop-y music - Mika, Vampire Weekend, Belle and Sebastian, Panic! at the Disco, Mumford and Sons, Fleet Foxes, The Format

Sad: "Gospel" by The National, "Heaven Forbid" by The Fray, "Don't Go To Pieces" by Hope of the States, "Waitin' for a Superman" by The Flaming Lips, "Downpour" by Brandi Carlile, Simon and Garfunkel

Bored: Anything that has words that are hard to memorize (like "We Didn't Start the Fire" when I was 14), interesting covers.

Hyped: "The Fallen" by Franz Ferdinand, "Ghost" by Neutral Milk Hotel, "Highly Suspicious" by My Morning Jacket, "Starlight" by Muse

Mad: "Criminal" by Fiona Apple, "Sore Thumb" by The Format, "Pain" by Jimmy Eat World

Whoops.

2011-01-29T23:45:00.002-05:00

I didn't forget the challenge - I just went to San Antonio for the weekend and didn't want to short change one I'm really excited to think about. Challenge resumes tomorrow.

Day 9

2011-01-27T12:13:00.000-05:00

day 9- something you're proud of in the past few days

I finally made myself a schedule this week and I've been working normal hours for my work-at-home job, which is hard to do. I've been much more productive by making lists of what I need to do, even though I don't always stick to the right hours.

Also, I made a brisket, and it was delicious.

Day 8

2011-01-26T17:05:00.000-05:00

day 8- short term goals for this month

send in the rest of the stuff they need for my library job application
learn to make Boston Cream Pie (for Eric's birthday)
start thank you notes

Day 7

2011-01-25T22:23:00.001-05:00

day 7- a picture of someone/something that has the biggest impact on you

Although I miss seeing the Bountiful Temple on the hill every day, I'm very excited to be heading to the San Antonio Temple with Eric this weekend. (And to see Miri after we go!)

Day 6

2011-01-24T18:23:00.001-05:00

day 6- favorite super hero and why

I was going to say Batman because I get a kick out of both Tim Burton and Christopher Nolan, watched the old school TV show when I was little (holy sharks, Batman!) and love Eric's giant Batman painting - which prompted me to embroider the Bat Symbol on a handkerchief for him for Christmas because I'm the best wife ever. But then I remembered who my actual favorite super hero is:

It's curtains for you, Dr. Horrible. Lacy, gently wafting curtains.

I don't think I have to explain why.

Day 5

2011-01-23T14:07:00.001-05:00

day 5- a picture of somewhere you've been

Glastonbury, England.

Day 4

2011-01-22T15:39:00.001-05:00

day 4- a habit that you wish you didn’t have

I'm torn here between my habit of being unable to get up early unless I have somewhere to be (is that a habit or just an unfortunate lack of will-power?) and my habit of nail-biting. On the one hand, nail-biting is gross, but the sleeping in thing comes with so much associated guilt. SO MUCH GUILT! I know I should get up and be productive, but I have all day! Nowhere to be!

However, that one could easily be solved by my having a job. Or a baby. There's no real end in sight for my poor, nubby nails. Alas.

Day 3

2011-01-21T14:00:00.000-05:00

day 3- a picture of you and your friends

I had to pick two. And it will be even harder when I get to the second one. Although I'm hoping I'll have wedding pictures by then.

Day 2

2011-01-20T15:04:00.000-05:00

day 2- the meaning behind your blog name

I feel like I just explained this right before I got married, but I'll play anyway. My blog name comes from this scene in Hamlet.

It's always been one of my favorites (and I love Branagh's melancholy delivery here, so say what you will about him, haters), and I think I changed the name to this one day when I realized that I can't control my life - things never turn out the way I plan, and I'm not sure I would want them to. All I can do is try to be ready for whatever comes, and though Hamlet is talking about death, I've always just liked to think of it as a way of accepting and facing what you can't control with faith that it will all work out.

Day 1

2011-01-19T16:35:00.000-05:00

day 1- recent picture of you and 15 interesting facts about yourself

I made a baby bread!

Here's my attempt to think of some interesting things to tell you that I haven't already told you.

I have a favorite herb, and it is rosemary. Mmmm. I can't wait for more rosemary rolls later this week.
I miss playing the piano. Even though I'm not very good due to several years of lack of access, as soon as I have somewhere to put one, I'd like a little upright so I can plink around again. I like the idea of singing with my family around the piano, Little Women style.
I'm living in almost-Mexico, and I hate Mexican food. This is mostly because I dislike peppers (yes, even mild bell peppers - I just think they're icky), onions (at least when I have to chew on them) and beans. I do like fish tacos, but wouldn't you know it, that's more of a Baja thing and they don't really have them here.
About some things, I have a near photographic memory. It used to freak out guys I'd go on dates with, because I'd remember random, insignificant things they told me and came off like a stalker. (I'm not a stalker! I just remember things! I also know who directed a large number of movies I've never seen, several insignificant dates in history, and all of the lyrics to "We Didn't Start the Fire. Don't flatter yourself!)
I'm really good at telling twins apart - not just by looking at what they're wearing when they come in, but actually figuring out the difference and consistently getting it right. It served me well when I was teaching 7th grade twins whose teachers never knew which was which, and serves me even better with my nephews.
I love to cook, and I especially love trying out new recipes. I inevitably end up trying them out when I'm going to be feeding lots of people. I'm always terrified that it's going to be a giant disaster and they'll all go hungry or get sick, but I can't help it. I live on the edge, okay?
I love buying purses. It might be one of the girliest things about me, and that includes my excessive SLA (Sumptuous Literary Adaptation) collection, including two different versions of at least three Jane Austen books.
I am excessively attached to my favorite kitchen appliances. My electric fry pan is affectionately known as Lawrence-Marigold. I think my KitchenAid might end up being named Susannah (a name I would like to give to a future daughter, but probably won't be able to because it's more associated with "Oh Susannah!" than "The Marriage of Figaro" and that Leif Enger novel. Some of you may also remember the traumatic episode with my Egg and Muffin Toaster.
I'm a total sucker for good TV. Especially when it involves monsters and aliens.
I love to write, but I can't see myself writing a novel. Maybe some narrative non-fiction, like a memoir? Basically, I just want to write about myself.
The first incompatibility my husband and I discovered in our relationship is that I need to have the blankets tucked in at night, and he likes to untuck the blankets and wrap them around himself, which drives me crazy. Who knew that anyone disputed the need for hospital corners?? We're working through it. Mostly with the blanket tucked in halfway across and me throwing the blanket back if it isn't staying where it's supposed to stay.
I'm an occasional insomniac. In fact, I kind of want this journal because of it. It's even harder when my tossing and turning is keeping someone else awake.
I both want and don't want a dog. Mostly, I think I want to name a dog.
I hate it when things feel unfinished - the apartment, an assignment, a book . . . it's one of the reasons I decided I couldn't be a teacher. It was too much of a constant, never-ending slog. (Sorry, kiddies.)
I still think about going back to England almost every day.

Getting Back Into the Bloggy Thing

2011-01-19T15:31:00.000-05:00

Okay. In order to get back into the habit of blogging, I'm going to do this thing that Lindsey and Miri did last month, because it sounds like fun and because I want a reason to post every day. So.

Here's the list of things to do for the next 28 days (copied from Miri's blog):

day 1- recent picture of you and 15 interesting facts about yourself
day 2- the meaning behind your blog name
day 3- a picture of you and your friends
day 4- a habit that you wish you didn’t have
day 5- a picture of somewhere you've been to
day 6- favorite super hero and why
day 7- a picture of someone/something that has the biggest impact on you
day 8- short term goals for this month and why
day 9- something you're proud of in the past few days
day 10- songs you listen to when you are happy, sad, bored, hyped, mad
day 11- another picture of you and your friends
day 12- how you found out about blogger and why you have one
day 13- a letter to someone
day 14- a picture of you and your family
day 15- put your ipod on shuffle: first 10 songs that play
day 16- another picture of yourself
day 17- someone you would want to switch lives with for one day and why
day 18- plans/dreams/goals you have
day 19- nicknames you have and why you have them
day 20- someone you love
day 21- a picture of something that makes you happy
day 22- what makes you different from everyone else
day 23- something you crave for a lot
day 24- your last five facebook statuses
day 25- what I would find in your bag
day 26- what do you think about your friends
day 27- why are you doing this 30 day challenge
day 28- a picture of you from last year and now, how have you changed since then?

Back!

2011-01-11T16:00:00.000-05:00

Hey friends! I'm back in the blogosphere! I kind of want to wait to blog about the wedding until I have wedding pictures, but it was perfect as far as I'm concerned. I'm so grateful to all of you who sent good wishes or came by. There's nothing like a wedding to make you feel really loved.

We're now settled in here in the Rio Grande Valley. Our apartment is pretty much set up, and we recently welcomed a new KitchenAid mixer into our family. (What shall I name it? It's so beautiful!) Anyway, until I manage to find library work or something like unto it, I'll be continuing to do some web marketing, and I'll be having fun spending some time cooking, which I've been wishing to do for years without any time or space or supplies. Eric doesn't complain. (If you want to read about any of my cooking experiments, I've agreed to blog with my Long sisters-in-law over at Sisters-in-Long. I don't anticipate that anything I post will be a particular cooking breakthrough, but if you like that kind of thing, feel free to peruse. My sisters-in-law will probably benefit you more, but I will post pictures of my husband with gooey fingers.

Until I get wedding pictures, here are some pictures of our honeymoon to close out the post. Happy New Year!

Driving through Bearizona

Bear Cave!

Eric loves bears.

Grand Canyon!

Eric's salad has a doily. So he's raising his pinky to you.

Oak Creek Canyon.

Eric doing his best John Muir.

Pretty red rocks

Giant peach cobbler of bliss/destiny

A gigantic cow.

Happy to be back.

Grad School Retrospective

2010-12-08T10:53:00.000-05:00

I might be jumping the gun writing this, but I had some fun thoughts, and I'm trying to get my creative juices flowing before I write my final paper of grad school, and the air in the SLIS lab is making me wax nostalgic.

Things I learned during my time at SLIS:

Which web addresses require "iu" and which require "iub" (for Indiana University and Indiana University Bloomington, respectively).
On the job experience is (shockingly) far more educational than three hours of class once a week about 90% of the time.
It's easier to teach yourself CSS from a book and with the help of lovely coding friends (I'm looking at you, Matt. Also Kristi, Wesley, and my fellow sufferers in IA who were helpful and offered advice) than it is to sit through a class where the teacher thinks everyone know what they're doing and just breezes through silly concepts like page organization (in a class about information architecture) so he can talk about spiffy things like the history of our coding heroes.
For Jill: "Digitize, digitize, digitize, digiTIZE it!"
I'm still terrible at focusing while I write papers (which is why I'm blogging in the SLIS lab instead of writing a paper. So much for my master plan of being more productive on campus. But I WILL be. Soon.)
How to make this website.
Sometimes, when people say " come give a presentation," they mean "let's chat."
Public librarians are the coolest people ever. Especially the ones over here.
A library is not a porn parlor or a place to micturate. (Trust me. Just read the third paragraph. Thanks, Dean Cronin.) (Is it evil if I want to link that article to as many of those ridiculous words as possible so that it comes up in google?)
The meaning of the word micturate and its unnecessary nature.
Them newfangled computer-thingies might be here to stay - and more people than you think don't know how to use them.
When someone offers you a job out of nowhere, just because someone recommended you, take it - even if you don't think you have time because you already have two jobs. (Okay, maybe that only applies when the person who recommended you and the person who hired you are two of the nicest people you've ever met. But it was a lovely three hours of my week all semester.)
Sometimes, the library doesn't run the air conditioner for hours at a time during the summer. When this time is during your class every week and your west-facing evening class becomes a sauna of death and teaching, classroom hopping is totally acceptable, even if no one wants you in those empty, air-conditioned rooms. Stick it to the man.
Movie clips and origami may not be appropriate for every presentation, but they can make your presentation rock.
Free food from Farm + Dean Blaise Cronin in all of his Irish glory = Yes, I will come to the SLIS fancy dress reception and eat your goat cheese. Thanks for asking.
Cataloging is an art, not a science. Unless your teacher has a power trip and wants you to catalog "as we discussed in class," by which she means, "as I mentioned once for two seconds while you were nodding off."
Sometimes, doing a crossword puzzle in class actually means you get more out of class.
Books about vampires should fall into the "intellect" category, and Sir Walter Scott belongs in the lecture about romance novels.
Library school is not like real grad school - or at least it isn't in Indiana. (Greg, I think your school sounds like real grad school. And I'm envious of your Nancy Pearl connections.) And yet . . . in a week I will still have a Master's degree without writing a thesis. Take that!

One paper to finish and present and then I am out. I love you, SLIS. Thanks for the last year and a half. Also for the paperweight.

Almost there

2010-11-19T18:57:00.003-05:00

I am currently 28 days (today is, in my book practically over) away from my wedding to this man:

I know, right? (This is from Skype. He was showing me the pictures of me he printed out for his desk.)

Also, he looks great in a sweater vest.

This also means I am 5 days away from seeing my family for Thanksgiving, 3 weeks away from leaving Bloomington and grad school behind, 24 days away from seeing Lindsey and Miri and lots of my other favorite people, 25 days away from picking Eric up at the airport with the knowledge that I won't have to put him on any more planes away from me, 26 days away from going to the temple and from Treb and the future in-laws' arrival for the wedding.

I still have to write one more paper, complete one more regular assignment, build one final-project website (oh, dear), abstract about 6 more articles, give one or two more presentations, and work 21 more hours at the library. Then I'll pack up my stuff, drive across the country with my pappy, and rest assured that I will probably never go back to school again. (Oh, how I hope.)

I can't believe I'm so near the end of so many things - and the beginning of so many others. It's a happy place for me to be, but also a scary, uncomfortable one. I'm moving forward now at a very one-step-at-a-time sort of pace, so that all I'm focusing on right now (as soon as I post this) is getting my paper done this weekend and then celebrating my anniversary with Eric tomorrow - for the last time over Skype.

This is one of those times when I remember why my blog title is what it is. In case you've forgotten, it's from Hamlet, and I love it, even if it's mostly about death:

There’s a special providence in the fall of a sparrow. If it be now, ’tis not to come; if it be not to come, it will be now; if it be not now, yet it will come: the readiness is all. Since no man has aught of what he leaves, what is’t to leave betimes?

I didn't expect to be leaving Bloomington this soon, to be getting married this December, to be moving to Texas . . . ever. But if all of this be not to come, it will be now, and I'm ready.

(So very, very ready.)

Halloween Week Playlist Update

2010-10-25T13:06:00.000-04:00

Okay friends. I've been trying to decide whether I had enough to add this year. But I can't NOT tell you about the additions, so I'll go ahead and update even though it's sparse. Additions are in bold at the bottom (if you've been following along).

Goodnight Socialite" by The Brobecks. This is still my favorite creepy song and still starts off the playlist. It's just awesome.
"Shankill Butchers" by The Decemberists. I'm pretty sure this song would have absolutely terrified me when I was a child, because I still think it's pretty scary now, and I'm much less of a wimp now than I was then.
"Thriller" - Michael Jackson (you can't give it all away at the beginning, guys. You have to work up to Thriller.)
"They Are Night Zombies!! They Are Neighbors!! They Have Come Back from the Dead!! Ahhhh!" by Sufjan Stevens. I think the title explains everything you need to know about this one.
"Zombie" by The Cranberries. I just found out that was what they were singing in this song. Yeah. But the music video is totally creepy and weird, so that's good enough for me, even if they clearly have a deeper meaning going on.
"The Boogie Monster" by Gnarls Barkley. It has an evil laugh at the beginning. What else do you want?
"Zombie Jamboree" by The Kingston Trio. Oh, my childhood. It was awesome.
"My Body's a Zombie For You" from a CD they featured on NPR called Dead Man's Bones. I don't actually have this one, but it's awesome, so on it goes.
"Dead Man's Party" by Oingo Boingo.
"Wolf Like Me" by TV On the Radio. Very werewolf-y and also awesome.
"Werewolves of London" by Warren Zevron. It's ridiculous, but there's howling. You need howling.
"Moon Over Bourbon Street" by Sting. My favorite of the vampire set I'm about to post.
"Vampire" by Antsy Pants. Not scary, but still vampire-y.
"Perhaps Vampire is a Bit Strong But . . ." by the Arctic Monkeys
"The Sharpest Lives" by My Chemical Romance. More vampire references.
"Darkshines" by Muse. I don't know why this song seems creepy and Halloweenish to me, but it really works for me. Take it or leave it.
"Bodysnatchers" by Radiohead
"Mr. Raven" by MC Lars. This song is ridiculous . . .ly awesome. "Who's that? Who's that rappin' on my chamber door? Mister! Mister Raven! All up in my grill sayin' "Nevermore!" Yeah. Still good.
"Dear Songs And Daughters of Hungry Ghosts" by Wolf Parade
"Haunted" by Evanescence. You have to have at least one of their songs, right? I mean, their whole schtick is the essence of Halloween, isn't it?
"The Fear" by Travis
"Red Right Hand" by Nick Cave. Really, all of the Murder Ballads are appropriate here. Still.
"Lullaby" by The Cure. Officially the creepiest song to have the title in the entire world.
"Scary Monsters (& Super Creeps)" by David Bowie
"Pathetique" by Andrew Bird. From the weird Music of Hair CD, this song has some major creep-town sounds going on.
"John Wayne Gacy, Jr." Weird, creepy and beautiful song about a creepy creepy person.
"The Long Black Veil" by Johnny Cash. This song has always creeped me out. You know what I'm talking about.
"Ghost-Town Of My Brain" by Jim White. Very bizarre, but it totally fits the mood.
"The Ghost of You Lingers" by Spoon. This song has some creepy sounds going on even if it isn't about Halloween. And it has "ghost" in the title.
"I'm Afraid of Japan" by Final Fantasy. What's scarier than Japan!?! Seriously though, this song is SPOOKY.
"Sleep" by My Chemical Romance
"No One Lives Forever" by Oingo Boingo
"Halloween" by Matt Pond
"Shanty for the Arethusa" by The Decemberists. It starts off with creepy accordion and a scream. Trust me.
"Chasing a Ghost" by The Morning Benders (because who doesn't need The Morning Benders?)
From the new Nightmare Revisted CD: "Jack's Lament" covered by The All-American Rejects, "Sally's Song" covered by Amy Lee, and "Poor Jack" covered by The Plain White T's.
"Dead Man" by Jars of Clay. Not that creepy, but still works.
"The Other Father Song" by They Might Be Giants. It's from Coraline. Need I say more?
"Lovely Creature" by Nick Cave
"Ghostship" by Menomena
"Halloween" by Stephen Lynch (Horrible. And very funny. Just don't play this one for your small children. And I'm totally blaming Lin for this one.)
"This Is Halloween" from The Nightmare Before Christmas
"What's He Building in There?" by Tom Waits
"Dead and Lovely" by Tom Waits
"The Curse" by Josh Ritter (because it's about a mummy)
"Psycho Killer" by Talking Heads
"Genius Next Door" by Regina Spektor (so creepy!)
"I Hold Your Hand in Mine" by Tom Leher
"Attack of the Ghost Riders" by The Raveonettes
"Riders on the Storm" by The Doors (how was this not there yet?)

I also recommend the album "Dead Man's Bones," which I found last year on All Songs Considered. It's really fun and creepy. I feel like this list isn't complete when I look at it, so I may add a couple more later today, but hopefully that sates your appetite for now. Enjoy!

You want to marry him? You want to marry her? You're married.

2010-10-18T17:28:00.003-04:00

My brother Clark and I may have just planned my Joe vs. the Volcano themed wedding.

It all started with this picture becoming my profile picture on facebook, and my friend Rayla saying it needed to be photoshopped with a canyon or something in it so that Eric's face would make sense. I said it would be better if it were a picture of us jumping into a volcano, a la Joe vs. the.

Next thing I knew, this popped up on facebook, compliments of my friend Jenna.

I believe the idea for the themed reception was Jill's. She suggested grass skirts for the bridesmaids.

Then Clark offered to bring the volcano he built for his ward luau. Or build a new one.

Other ideas for my reception (which will only make sense if you've seen the movie. Or possibly if you've seen the movie a couple hundred times, the way we have):

Orange soda all around!
Luggage-shaped seating/tables
Ukulele music. Clark offered to learn.
Volcano-shaped groom's cake with a little Joe and Patricia on top being married by the chief
An Armani tux for Eric
A black Bentley with a chauffeur named Marshall to take us away from the reception
Leis - particularly those made of orange soda cans
A wedding playlist including "Sixteen Tons," "Old Man River" and "Come Go With Me."
Live octopus/fish to beat Eric with while he's getting ready
Clark: "You can borrow my volcano if you need to or, heck, I'll make a new better volcano. One big enough that you can jump into. We'll even figure out a way to have it blow you out and into an adjacent pool or something. Let's make this happen."

Clark also says if I do it this way, he'll live stream it, so those of you in other states will have it made. :)

An open letter to the Postal Service (not the band)

2010-09-27T19:51:00.001-04:00

Dear USPS:

Yes, I am annoyed that you lost the care package I sent to Texas a month ago (Priority! Why doesn't priority mail EVER work for me?) and yes, I am afraid to use your services to do some of my moving in the coming months, as was my plan. I'm not sure I want to entrust my books and DVDs to your apparently sub-par care. No, delivery confirmation doesn't make me feel better, because I am sending things to my mother and my fiance, and you said it doesn't track anything, it will just tell me when it gets there. THEY will tell me when it gets there. Yes, you are causing me stress, and yes, I'm annoyed that the only thing I can do about it is pay you more money so you'll "insure" my package. Frankly, I think if you lose it, you should just pay for it. Or, you know, find it. But I guess you're running a business. A business that loses packages.

How much more is UPS?

Love,
Megan

Meet the Family

2010-09-14T21:37:00.000-04:00

So over Labor Day, I went down to Houston to meet my family-to-be - who are delightful, wonderful people. I like them a lot, and felt completely comfortable with them. I think these were the only pictures taken during the weekend - at our murder mystery dinner where it turned out I was definitely a slut, and Brady and his mom were secret lovers. Eric (the dashing Frenchman behind me) turned out to be the killer, and Momma Long's unibrow won her the best costume prize.

So there's the family I just acquired (or will soon acquire?) and I think I'm a fan.

Engagement Pictures

2010-09-07T20:36:00.001-04:00

So at least some of my engagement pictures are up on the interwebs and some of you have seen them, but I got a CD with more, and they're awesome. I highly recommend my photographer, Karina, to any of you who are in a picture-needing way. So yeah. Here are some of them.

Beginning of the Semester Inventory

2010-08-27T14:20:00.002-04:00

I was thinking about this post from the beginning of the year, and was a little staggered by how much things have changed. Now, as I sit at the beginning of my final semester of school (I hope), I'm taking another.

Age: 24

Relationship Status: Engaged, and very happily so.

Hair: Medium long, still fading from the wash-out red dye job I gave it in May.

Current Church Calling: Gospel Principles Instructor (hopefully this one will be going away as the semester starts), IRSC President.

Current Employment: Instruction Assistant, Administration Office Receptionist, Wells Library; Marketing Assistant, OverstockDrugstore.com; Intern, Monroe County Public Library. (This is the most worrisome part of my life right now. 3 jobs + Internship + 3 classes = I might die.)

Residence: Bloomington, IN; D'CALC (plus lawyer)

Activities: Finishing my MLS, planning a wedding, working, interning, working, Skyping with Eric, working, looking for jobs.

Future plans: Meeting the in-laws; graduating; getting married on December 18th in Bountiful, UT; moving to San Benito, TX for about a year and a half (and then who knows, but hopefully a bit closer to home); looking for a job in San Benito (come on, public library!)

Currently reading: My summer Thomas Hardy, Far from the Madding Crowd; How Right You Are, Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse

Currently listening to: Tom Waits, Arcade Fire, Carolina Chocolate Drops, The Punch Brothers, The Avett Brothers, The New Pornographers

Currently watching: Battlestar Galactica, Psych, Project Runway

Currently anticipating (besides the obvious): my trip to Houston next weekend, Elder Holland at Stake Conference, The National concert (and Eric's visit in conjunction with it/conference), the new Sufjan Stevens album, my Reader's Advisory class. Secretly wishing that I will have enough money/time to see David Sedaris when he comes in October.

Recently acquired: a wedding dress, purple shoes, and an uneasy truce with mushrooms

Goals for this semester: Balance classes, work, Institute, wedding planning, and long-distance relationship and some semblance of a social life - without collapsing on myself like a dying star.

And off we go!

Sigh. Sorry blog.

2010-08-19T02:37:00.002-04:00

You know, I really do TRY to blog regularly. But the problem is that now I try to think of things to post and what I'm mostly thinking about is wedding stuff, but I don't want to just post wedding stuff so then I post nothing. (Also, I've been home for a couple of weeks and it's been crazy, so it's not just that.)

Anyway, here's what's been going on, wedding and otherwise.

Eric came to visit and meet the fam. He got a good grilling from the brothers, but I think it went quite well. We did some wedding planning and registered and took pictures and got him a suit.
Looking forward to meeting his family over Labor Day weekend in Houston. It looks like there is going to be both an opportunity to wear a costume AND an opportunity to do some cooking while I'm there. They've been very welcoming already, so I'm feeling more excited than nervous so far.
I found a wedding dress. It's beautiful. And it may have been the first one I tried on (after internet research and lots of others that I tried on afterward). I kept trying other things to see if I was crazy, but nothing was as great as that first one, I knew I was going to keep comparing everything to the first one, and it fit almost perfectly off the rack, so with very minimal alterations it will be just right
Yesterday, Spence and Julie had a beautiful baby girl. She doesn't have a name yet (at least not as far as I know) but she's so pretty. We're excited to have her.
I'm making the rounds this week and going to see 1) the people I love and 2) all of the people who take my parents' insurance. I'm mixing the friend visits in with the eye doctor, dentist, and regular doctor (and the visits to the florist, reception center, etc.) If I don't see you while I'm here, I'm sorry. It's been a much crazier trip than I thought it would be. Silly me.
I almost forgot to read my summer Thomas Hardy, but I'm now starting Far From the Madding Crowd. Hopefully a couple of plane rides will be enough to help me finish it before too long.
I am getting really excited about my fall internship at the MCPL. In addition to working the reference desk, I'll get to help with some computer classes and with a project to evaluate the movies and music collections in the library. It's everything I want to do. I just hope it will help me snag a job in South Texas after. (If there are jobs in South Texas after. Haha. Gulp.)
The new Arcade Fire is still awesome, even if it isn't $3.99 anymore. ($7.99 still good.) Also awesome - free amazon prime if you have a student email address. Rock on, Amazon. I WILL take free shipping for the next year. I will use it with the $50 gift card I got for participating in a study at SLIS.
The first sneak of our engagement pictures went up today. We took this one in the library. I'm not sure it's the one we'll send out (because I love the books, but it might be too theme-y for me for the actual announcement picture), but I'm certainly pleased with the way it turned out, and I want it at the reception and on my desk if I ever have a library office. Thanks Karina!

We've been hosting an essay contest at the lovely blog, and it has been awesome. I love getting entries from lots of different women and I've been so pleased with the response. If you haven't checked it out already, do so.
Today is my oldest brother's birthday. He's swell. :) I'm listening to Tom Waits in his honor.
I know facebook has to advertise registries and wedding photographers to me now that I'm engaged, but must if show me wedding diets? Seriously guys - it's not going to work. I just need to stay the same size so I can fit into my dress. That's it.

Okay. That's it for now. Looking forward to seeing some good friends tomorrow and trying to finish up some stuff before I head back to B-town. Mwah!

A Story

2010-07-23T21:21:00.007-04:00

So, judging by the 48 of you who have commented on my new relationship status on facebook (and the other several comments from those of you who didn't want a zillion notifications that other people had commented after you), word is getting around that I got engaged on Wednesday night. And I'm pretty excited about it. And now I'm going to tell the story with all of its gory details. If you don't want to read them all - hey, I'm engaged! The end. If you want everything . . . well, you asked.

Here is my fiance, (Clovis Merle) Eric Long (taken on my phone this morning, on Phil's couch):

I couldn't be happier.

Several people who knew that Eric is currently in living in Texas and was just here over the 4th of July responded to "I'm engaged!" with "Over Skype?"

Um, no. Not a chance with Eric Long, king of the grand romantic gesture.

So here's how it went down.

First, he was here a couple of weeks ago for the 4th of July, and he's coming to Utah in a couple of weeks to meet my family. We'd been talking pretty seriously about marriage, and I kind of thought we were going to be getting engaged in August (which was going to be a little awkward because I was expecting it, as was my family). He'd also told me that he wanted to talk to my dad before he asked me, so I knew not to expect it over the 4th of July.

A couple of weeks ago, Eric told me he had bought me a present and that he was going to send it to me. He said it was a really big present, so he hadn't figured out how to ship it yet, and he was busy with the last week of Institute (the training part of Teach for America), so he hadn't made it to the post office. Then he told me on Monday that he had sent it, but it was too big to send in one box, so he was sending it to our friend Phil, and Phil was going to set it up for me somewhere so I "didn't have to see it in pieces."

He also told me he was in the Rio Grande Valley looking at apartments for when he moves to San Benito. I'd been asking all kinds of questions about apartments he'd looked at and plans and all kinds of things - and he wasn't in the Rio Grande Valley at all. He was in the Salt Lake Valley - talking to my parents.

On Monday night, my teacher pulled me aside and asked if I could dress up on Wednesday for a workshop on professional wear. She said not very many people had dressed up last time, and she knew I wouldn't be uncomfortable being one of the examples. (This was slightly weird because several people had dressed up, and she hadn't really mentioned that she wanted us to dress up, but I didn't think much of it.) She asked if I'd wear "a swishy skirt." I even asked if I could wear slacks instead, and she said a skirt would be better. (Yeah. That's how he got me to dress up cute to get engaged. Good thing Carrie is Rayla's boss too.)

Eric and I had made plans to talk on Skype Wednesday night, and he asked if we could eat dinner together. I told him I needed to swing by and grab some food (since I threw all of mine out because of flies). When I got to my car at the Institute, there was a note on my car - a map that said I should go to the back of my house (where he has had people leave me things before) and that I should hurry and go straight there, because it wouldn't keep. I realized about halfway to Little Caesars that it might be food and maybe he'd had someone leave me dinner, but I figured a pizza would only take a minute and would keep for later too, so I picked one up anyway.

When I got to my apartment, I gathered up my stuff and went out to the back of my apartment, where there was a little orange cooler. I opened it, and it was full of sushi (which is a big thing with us - we became friends going out for sushi every couple of weeks for "dating advisory" - talking about our dating lives and our views on relationships in general and lots of other things as well). I had the cooler over my shoulder and was ready to go in the house to call Eric on Skype and thank him for the sushi, when suddenly behind me I heard Eric's voice saying, "You got a pizza too?"

I turned around and saw him in a blue button-down shirt and a tie, and I think I blurted out something like, "How are you here?!?" before I was kissing him while holding my laptop bag, a pizza, and a cooler full of sushi.

I would just like to point out a couple of things at this point. 1) Eric is, generally speaking, a terrible liar. It's one of his really nice qualities, actually, because most of the time he is an open book. However, on this particular occasion he made a break with his own nature, because 2) despite numerous hints, I had NO IDEA that he was going to be there when I got home.

He asked if I needed anything, so I ran into my apartment for a second to drop off the pizza and the laptop, and then we got in the car and drove out to Brown County State Park, a beautiful forest area with lakes and such that's about 20 minutes from Bloomington. On the way, he told me that the night before when he'd told me he was staying with a friend after a Teach for America dinner, he'd actually been staying with our friend Phil (the one who was supposed to set up my "gift," which turned out to be Eric himself). He also told me that when he said he'd found three possible places (I'd assumed he meant in San Benito) he actually meant in the park - three different picnic shelters for our sushi dinner.

When we got to the shelter (after stopping to see a beautiful sunset over the forest with fog settling into the valley) Eric pulled out several bags. We lit about 100 tea-light candles and scattered them around the shelter, and then we got out some plastic dishes for our sushi feast - which was delicious sushi from Ami, the sushi place we went to so many times while we were just friends and continued to go to after we started dating. After we finished eating, he came over and sat next to me on the bench, and then he said, "This is just about perfect, isn't it? You know what would make it better? If there were music for us to dance to." And then he whipped out his phone and pulled up a playlist called "Dancing with Meg."

So we danced for a little while - Norah Jones, Frank Sinatra, The Jayhawks, etc. We aren't very good dancers (especially me), but it was fun and very sweet. And then, after we'd sat for a little while and danced a little more, he stopped and started telling me about all of the things he loves about me and told me he wanted to take care of me and spend his life with me . . . and then he was down on his knee with an open ring box.

(I said yes.)

Here is the ring before I got it (I have a picture on my phone and there are some pictures on Eric's camera, but these are better and the ring is currently being sized, so I can't get a great one right now.)

Separate wedding band and engagement ring.

They look like this together. (I should have my ring back this weekend - although I really hope the sizing is right when they give it back. It was kind a bummer to let it go right after I got it.)

Hehehe.

We hung around the shelter for a little longer (Eric brought some sparkling peach and sparkling cider - hurray for Mormons celebrating) until park security came to tell us to clear out. The ranger looked like he felt a little bad (100 candles, remember) but we assured him we were about to leave and call our families anyway. He congratulated us and drove off while we blew out all of the candles and loaded up the car.

We spent the next couple hours calling people and talking about plans, and we've spent the last couple of days doing more of the same. (Also, lots of looking at each other and randomly shouting, "We're getting married!") I dropped him off at the airport this afternoon, but I'll get to see him again in August.

So the plan now is I'm going to finish up my degree and do an internship this fall, and then we'll get married in December and I'll move to Texas and hope they have libraries there. And fall is going to be insane between classes, my internship, my job as the IRSC president, my real job (the one that pays me) and, you know, wedding planning. I'm looking forward to it, but if you see me looking crazy, please tell me to cut it out and calm down. :)

So . . . yeah! I'm getting MARRIED!!!

The end.

An Open Letter to My Drain Fly Nemeses

2010-07-21T00:58:00.000-04:00

Dear Drain Flies (if that's your real name),

I'm tired of killing you. Really, I am. But you invaded my food and then my toaster. And even after I threw away my beloved toaster (my Egg and Muffin toaster that Miri gave me for my 21st birthday!), you continued to come out night after night, perching on the ceilings, mating on the lamp above the sink, lying in wait in my closet.

My closet? There isn't even any food in there, guys.

So that's why you are now being unceremoniously smeared all over the ceiling and walls without mercy. That is why I am no longer above killing some of you with my bare hands, even though you are disgusting. You invaded my peanut butter. I had to throw away a bag of rice I hadn't even opened yet. I'm hungry, and I don't want to buy food until you are gone because I am so tired of finding your rotten children in my bags of flour and sugar.

So let's make a deal. When the pest control guy comes tomorrow (please say he's really coming tomorrow), do the right thing and die. Show the nice man your breeding grounds so he can kill your children. My cupboards are bare, my kitchen is clean, and at this point, I am not above taking Ann's creme brulee torch to you if you don't leave my house in peace from tomorrow onward.

I will get you, flies. So let's make it quick and painless. Because otherwise I am coming after you one by one. And I will destroy you.

Sincerely,

Megan

Contest!

2010-07-20T16:58:00.002-04:00

Okay, I know I've been a slacker at blogging. Soon I will try to tell you about my weekend in Palmayra and update you on the neverending maggot story. But until then, I want YOU to enter THIS CONTEST!!

There's an awesome prize (I'm going to have to buy one for myself because I love it so) and I want to have lots of contest entries to read. Lots and lots and lots. And either way, you'll get posted on our blog - you'll just get more fame and glory if you win.

Prizes (you pick one) are awesome fabric posters from annilygreen:

Check out the contest here: http://becominglovely.blogspot.com/2010/07/lovely-contest.html. And please spread the word!

Maggot Mayhem

2010-06-23T00:20:00.001-04:00

Part of me wishes I'd taken some pictures for this post. But that's the part of me that's trying to block the memory of what those pictures were. Ew. Ew. Ew.

So for the past couple of months, we've had some issues with moth flies/drain flies. They're pretty benign little creatures, so at first it didn't seem like a big deal. We got rid of one batch back at the beginning of the spring, and we didn't think too much of it when they came back. Or maybe it was just that we weren't home much for a little while, and we didn't realize how far things had gone.

And then they tried to take our home. And it was time to take it back.

See, here's the problem. They're been ALL OVER lately, which was a problem. But then they started mating in front of us. And then they started infiltrating our food. And friends, when they laid their little maggot friends in my pre-made chocolate pie crust, it was all over.

So tonight I threw away a bag of powdered sugar, two bags of nuts (pecans and almonds - both completely full of flies), and a bag of granulated sugar that was a little questionable, although I couldn't actually find maggots in it. A couple of weeks ago I also had to throw away a bag of rice after I cooked some rice and discovered little cooked maggot bodies after. I probably could have prevented some infestation if I'd investigated then, but really - would you want to? As far as I know, my cupboard is now clean, and my roommates will be doing similar sweeps soon, but the menace lives on.

So moth flies, this is a warning. 4th of July weekend while we're all out watching fireworks and eating barbecue chicken, you will be dying slow, painful deaths with bug bombs, Raid, fly paper, and whatever else we can find. I'm also going to buy some ammonia or bleach to put down every drain in the place even though I haven't seen you coming out of drains yet. You are dead. All of you. The second you turned my innocent pie crust into an maggot farm, as soon as you wriggled under that plastic, you signed your own death certificates. From here on out, no mercy.

Finally.

2010-06-17T10:54:00.002-04:00

Don't worry. I definitely have tickets to see The National when they come to Bloomington in the fall. Thank goodness they made it to the midwest before I leave it, because they certainly aren't making it to Utah in the near future. Please enjoy the following fantastic song from their new album. (Sorry to post two music videos in a row. It may defeat my secret wish to stop having mummies covering up my About Me.)

P.S. My favorite part of this video is how awkward Matt Berninger is in it. Do you think the awkwardness is what actually draws me to this band? I think it's entirely possible.

The Curse

2010-06-14T15:54:00.004-04:00

I might be a little bit obsessed with this music video and song - Josh Ritter's "The Curse." It's awesome. Sorry that it doesn't fit on the blog correctly. You can't go wrong with a love story between a mummy and an archeologist.

Also, playing with the new blogger design options. Sorry if it changes multiple times in the next few days.

Comfort

2010-06-01T18:39:00.001-04:00

So briefly, this is what's going on in my life right now (although probably most of you who read this know anyway). I'm dating someone. It's great. He just moved to Texas. Long distance relationshipping ensues.

I tell you this only because I wanted to right a post about coping methods/comfort habits. I've been noticing what I do to comfort myself while trying to adjust, and I've determined that I like it. So briefly, here are my comfort . . . things.

Food

Ice cream is obvious, but I definitely went out and bought myself some Spumoni. It seemed more special occasion than cookies and cream, and I got twice as much for the same price as a little thing of Ben and Jerry's Chocolate Macadamia.

Peek-a-boo eggs. If you've never had these, you've missed out on one of the great joys of my life. You cut a hole in the middle of a piece of bread and stick it in a skillet, and then you crack an egg into that hole and cook it. Flip it over to cook the other side, and if you cook the whole thing in butter and add a little salt and pepper to the egg, it's much better. I always like to break the yolk too, but if you like runny yolk guts, by all means leave it. When you're done, you stick the little pieces of bread that you cut out of the middle on top of the eggs (hence the peek-a-boo aspect.) I don't know why these are better than egg sandwiches, but I love them and they're great comfort food.

Like so.

Movies

BBC miniseries movies and period dramas are the ultimate comfort food of cinema. I'm tempted to go out and get Little Dorrit and Bleak House and watch all 20 hours. (I really must own those someday. They're both so excellent.) For some reason, I never get tired of North and South or Jane Eyre or any version of anything Jane Austen. I've watched them all a dozen times and will probably watch them many more times in my life. Little Women and Anne of Green Gables never get old. It's movies like this that make me want to have daughters - just so I can introduce them to the joy of such beautiful worlds backed by full string orchestras.

I'm also having a strange hankering to watch Lawrence of Arabia that is not entirely without precedent in times of need.

Talk

Facebook chat/IM. To all of my friends who have listened to me whine over the past couple of days/weeks, I thank you. I promise to return the favor when you need it. I'm sorry that I pounce on so many of you when you get online. I've kind of been a lurking lurker.

"Real chat," as my friend Rayla calls it. I've spent a couple of nights hanging out with my friend Carly and an afternoon at Steak and Shake with Rayla. Why is it so comforting to just talk to someone about everything - especially when that someone will glory in the drama of life with you? I love it.

Work

Not yet. I'm sure eventually homework and school work will take over the comfort duties. So far avoiding them has been better. (I worked today, I promise!)

Buffy/Doctor Who

Because they make everything better.

Writing

Turns out I still like to write things down when I'm working through them. I've written more in the last few days than I've written on the blog here in the last two months (which isn't saying that much, if you think about it). Hello, old friend writing. I miss you sometimes, and I sure do love it when I have things to write about. You've always been good to me.

Playlists

This is always one of my first coping mechanisms. Life got you down? Make a playlist about it and everything will seem better. I like the preemptive playlist approach. If you know it's coming, make the playlist ahead of time so you've got something to listen to in times of crisis. After awhile you start having playlists for every occasion, but making them is still often the most therapeutic part for me.

What do you guys do to cope with life's minor kinks and kerfuffles?

Loaftastic. And stuff.

2010-05-08T11:39:00.000-04:00

The semester is over! Perhaps someday I will actually blog regularly again. Wouldn't that be nice?

So here's what's happening. Jill is graduating today, which is both lovely and a bummer. I'm going to miss her when she moves next week. Ann is also engaged these days, so by the end of the summer, D'CALC will be all new. I have one new roommate ready to go for fall, but I'm still in the market for another one, so that will be exciting.

Lindsey just came to visit, and it was great. We dyed our hair, had loaf night (meat loaf, ice cream loaf) ate sushi, watched lots of Buffy, took trips to Indy and Nashville (IN, not TN) and went on a puppy hunt. Sadly, Lindsey did not end up buying a puppy, but it was pretty fun trying to find puppies all the same. I miss her.

Can you tell that our hair is a little redder?

Eric making ice cream loaf - delicious, no matter how gross the word loaf is.

In other news, right after I finished my last project of the semester but one, my computer crashed. I took it up to the Apple Store in Indy and found out that I was still covered by Apple Care for 18 DAYS. And I'd been having problems with my cord for about a week, but I probably would have just gone to buy a new one if my computer crashed, because I didn't think I was still covered. I also had a minor crack in my case, and Seth the Genius asked if I wanted to have that fixed as well, so I ended up with a new cord, a new keybord/case, and a new hard drive - 100 gigs bigger than my old one because they don't make 150 GB hard drives for my computer anymore - and it was all free. It was a little miracle.

Finally, tomorrow is my Taco Friend Torie's wedding. I wish I could be there doing bridesmaidly duties, but instead I will just send her lots of love across the cyber channels and hope it gets there in time.

I love you, uuinni!

I won't make any promises, but I'm hoping to get back to more regular blogging soon. Brace yourselves.

Bloggy blog blog.

2010-04-05T20:52:00.000-04:00

Dear Blogosphere,

Okay. So I've had a lot to write about during the last few weeks, and I haven't written about it. This is probably because a) I have to spend all of my time when I'm working or doing homework on my computer, and when I'm not doing one of those things or having important facebook conversations, I don't feel like blogging. And when I do feel like blogging, I blog for the blogject. And b) I've been busier this semester than last for various reasons, and in my spare time I've been watching Doctor Who. (See previous post.)

So here's a run down of what happened in March.

1. Jill and I went to Chicago with our fellow branchie Wesley. We met up with Katherine while we were there, and we went to the Art Institute, explored the city, stayed in a hostel, ate deep dish pizza, and of course went to see Wait Wait Don't Tell Me.

The bean!

Dinosaur arms.

Us with Peter Sagal

We are Carl Kasell.

Also during March we had spring break, and my parents came for a visit. We went down to Louisville one day, spent several days in Ohio seeing Kirtland, the rock and roll and pro football Halls of Fame, Lake Erie, etc. I also got to show them around Bloomington a little, even though it wasn't as pretty then as it is right now.

Giant baseball glove at the Louisville Slugger bat factory

Lighthouse

Pickle Bill's.

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame/Louvre

Kirtland, Newel K. Whitney store

Made Dad buy this shirt.

Anyway, currently Bloomington is exploding into spring with all kinds of beautiful blossoms and tons of rabbits hopping around, and it's making it highly difficult to concentrate. It will be rough pushing through to the end of the semester, but at least I can do homework on the balcony during the rain storms (or, you know, blog, which is what I'm doing now.)

Happy Easter, happy spring!

A post about which you will not care unless you like Doctor Who.

2010-03-03T00:47:00.002-05:00

So . . . I was already in love with Doctor Who after the Christopher Eccleston series, because it was lovely, and Christopher Eccleston was endearingly goofy and cheesy. This is my favorite scene from the whole season.

Thanks for the memories, 9th Doctor

But I just started the second series (season) and I'm already in love with David Tennant, mostly because of this clip. The part I love happens about a minute in.

He quotes the Lion King! And it's brilliant!

So I'm officially over my mourning period and ready to embrace this Doctor. (Also, I hope the new one we're getting in the spring will be great so that I have something to look forward to when I get through the Tennant era. Yeah. I'm one episode in and I'm already thinking about that. People as obsessive as I am shouldn't watch TV.)
(Incidentally, Anthony Head, or Giles from Buffy, is going to be a villian in this series. I'm so excited.)

Great Job, Internet!

2010-02-23T22:23:00.002-05:00

Behold, my new favorite site on the internet, Unrelated Captions.

I learned about this site from a feature called "Great Job, Internet!" on the A.V. Club. I don't even know why it's funny. but it's really, really funny.

Here are some of my favorites.

There is something very wrong with the llama on the left.

Hedgehog!

And the one that sent all of D'CALC into fits of giggles:

Some Valentine's Day Moments of Zen

2010-02-14T08:00:00.001-05:00

If you're in love today, I salute you. Have fun, you don't need me.

For those of you who are not fans of today, I offer the following gifts.

First: this awesome podcast about breakup songs.

Second: my favorite Valentine's Day tradition, reading this amazing marketing copy.

Third: this awesome article by someone who is more friend of a friend than anything, but I love his new blog.

Best for last: don't you wish someone was sending you this instead of flowers? I know I don't, but this video will change your life.

The Happy SAD Playlist for 2010 (In Progress)

2010-02-13T12:15:00.010-05:00

Okay, so I've now made Valentine's playlists every year except the first (from which I think I should be excused, because the blog was less than a month old that first year) which can be found here and here (and for the major lonely hearts among you, I can also recommend this one, which is out of date on my blog but fully up-to-date in my iTunes for the rare occasions when I need it). I always try to make some kind of reasonable mix between songs for the people who are actually in happy relationships and songs for people who are bitter that they aren't and anything in between, but this year I was having a hard time thinking of a list as a whole, so I'm listing in categories. If your category gets left out, let me know and I'll try to fill it in.

Update: Coming up with categories is hard. I'm going to post what I have and continue adding through tomorrow, but please feel free to offer suggestions for categories or other songs (I know there are a lot of them I have kicking around my head that just haven't made it to the top yet.)

Wishing and Hoping Songs

"Whole Wide World" by Wreckless Eric. Thank you, Will Ferrell, for introducing this song to us.
"Vibrate" by Rufus Wainwright. "My phones on vibrate for you . . . call me any time you like." I love this. It feels exactly the way it should for this idea.
"Somebody to Love" by Queen. Some classics never die.
"Love Song For No One" by John Mayer. I haven't listened to this song in . . . . years probably, but I've always liked the idea of "staying up all night just to write a love song for no one."
"Don't Stop Believin'" by Journey. Um . . . duh.

Unrequited Love Songs

"Headsoak" by Andrew Bird. I have this on a live album that Treb got from a code Andrew gave out at a concert, so I don't know how readily available it is, but it's awesome. "There's apprehension, inhibition, contribution to my attrition!"
"We're Just Friends" by Wilco. It's probably on one or all of the other lists, but I can't think of a better song to represent some of my most poignant V-Day disappointments.
"Baby Goodbye" by Aqualung. "Love walked out a long time ago without a warning - oh, and left me here with you alone."
"I Saw A Stranger With Your Hair" by John Gorka. This was my favorite tragic post-breakup song when I was in high school. It's essentially about a guy seeing the woman he loved everywhere he looks. "I saw a stranger with your hair - tried to make her give it back so I could send if off to you, maybe Federal Express - 'cause I know you'd miss it."
"She'll Come Back To Me" by Cake. Maybe a little delusional, or maybe not. You decide.
"It's Good to Be in Love" by Frou Frou. Had a hard time placing this one, but I'm just going to say she's not over this one.
"I Thought I Saw Your Face Today" by She and Him.

Post-Breakup Songs (Sad)

"For No One" by The Beatles. I didn't really no this one until it came up on a radio show about the newly remastered Beatles collections, but it is gorgeous and simple and heartbreaking, and I love it.
"Woke Up New" by The Mountain Goats. Say what you will about this band in general, the lyrics to this song are priceless. "On the morning when I woke up without you for the first time, I felt free and I felt lonely and I felt scared. And I began to talk to myself almost immediately - not being used to being the only person there."
(I also think "End of May" by The Actual Tigers is the greatest song on this topic ever written, but can you listen to "End of May" in the middle of February? You decide.)
"Blue Skies" or "The First Days of Spring" by Noah and the Whale.
"New American Classic" by Taking Back Sunday. This is kind of a song for people who don't like Taking Back Sunday. It's not really like their other stuff. It's also beautiful (in a really depressing, emo way).
"Sleeping With the Lights On" by Teitur.
"Reason Why" by Rachael Yamagata. I wasn't going to put it because it's on so many others, but it really is on of the best post-breakup songs I've ever heard. "I will head out alone and hope for the best - we can pat ourselves on the back and say that we tried."

Good Riddance Songs/Bitter Breakup Songs

"Sore Thumb" by The Format. "So please just leave, you don't mean that much to me." Best bitter song ever.
"Hate (I Really Don't Like You)" by The Plain White T's. "Now that it's over, I don't even know what I liked about you."
"Don't Think Twice, It's All Right" by Bob Dylan. Although I find this song incredibly sad, I think in general it's kind of a "yeah, this should have worked, but it didn't and it's your fault, so bye" kind of song. It's great. "I ain't saying you treated me unkind. You should have done better, but I don't mind. You just kind of wasted my precious time, but don't think twice - it's all right."
"Landed" by Ben Folds. This is more of a good riddance song (since he's going to jump directly into another relationship) but I love the line, "The daily dramas she made from nothing - so nothing ever made them right. She liked to push me and talk me back down 'til I believed I was the crazy one - and in a way, I guess I was."
"Nothing Better" by The Postal Service. My friend Audra suggested that this song may have been the inspiration for this comic. "I've made charts and graphs that should finally make it clear - I've prepared a lecture on why I have to leave."
"The Pointless, Yet Poignant Crisis of a Co-Ed" by Dar Williams. "And he said, 'Heh-heh. Looks like our dreams went up in smoke.' And I said, 'No, our dreams went up in . . . dreams. You stupid pothead."
"Paper Bag" by Fiona Apple. "I thought he was a man but he was just a little boy." Aw yeah.

Dysfunctional Love

"Skinny Love" by Bon Iver. I love this song beyond all reason, but as I was reading the lyrics I realized that, like so many songs I love, this one is not about a really healthy relationship. Please refer to the quote under the John Cusack picture on the left side of this page.
"Beware Your Only Friend" by Bonnie Prince Billy. "I want to be your only friend - is that scary?" I think I've posted this one before, but it's properly freaky. "That's where the seed of soul-sucking grows." Yeah.
"I Remember" by Damien Rice. I had a hard time deciding where to put this song because it starts out as a very sweet love song and ends up being this raging angsty breakup song, so we're going to go ahead and stick it here.
"Damn this Foolish Heart" by stellastarr*. It's tempting to create a category of "I just met you but now I'm in love with you" songs like this one, but essentially this is a nicer version of "Hello, I Love You" with a chorus about how he's going to go insane but he doesn't know her name. (stellastarr*, by the way, is great for people who like the 80s and are underserved on my playlists. They sound like they are straight out of the 80s.)
"All the Same" by Sick Puppies. I LOVE this song. I debated for awhile about where it should go, but I'm going to pick here because I think of it as kind of damaged, bagged-toting love. "Go ahead tell me you'll leave again. You'll just come back runnin', holdin' your scarred heart in hand." It could probably go in "Starting Something (Maybe)" but it all depends on your reading of the relationship.

REALLY Dysfunctional Love

"The Rake's Song" by The Decemberists. I listened to this song many times before I realized just how disturbing it was. Oh, rock operas. How I love you.
"Young Lust" by Pink Floyd. Speaking of rock operas.
"Stacey's Mom" by Fountains of Wayne. No explanation needed, I hope.
"Chloroform the One You Love" by Flickerstick. From my "Freaky Love" playlist. "Chloroform the one, the one that you love, take her back."

Long Distance Relationships (requested category)

"So Far Away" by Dire Straits. I think this sums up everything that sucks about long distance. "I'm tired of making out on the telephone - 'cause you're so far away from me." (hehe)
"So Far Away" by Carole King. Obviously.
"Ache for You" by Ben Lee. Maybe not QUITE a long distance relationship song, but I think the feeling is right. "There's no rhyme and there's no reason - you're the secret in the back of my skull." Lovely song.
"Raining in Baltimore" by The Counting Crows. "3,500 miles away - but what would you change if you could . . . I need a phone call."
"Set Fire to the Third Bar" by Snow Patrol (with Martha Wainwright). I'm really bitter that the Dear John commercials stole this song from me, but I'm striving to not let the association ruin it. It's a wonderful song.
"Ain't No Sunshine" (any version - I have a Paul McCartney cover and used to have a Sting cover, but it's a great song and there are many versions.)
"Transatlanticism" by Death Cab for Cutie. "I need you so much closer." Yeah.
"What'll I Do" by Irving Berlin. There's a nice Allison Krauss version. I guess this could also be a post-breakup song.
"I Get Along Without You Very Well" (Chet Baker version). See above. Same deal. It's lovely.
"Wishing You Were Here" by Chicago. Because . . . you know.
"Sleeping to Dream" by Jason Mraz.
"What Can I Say?" by Brandi Carlile. "I'm so sad since you went away, time, time is ticking on me - alone is the last place I wanted to be."

Misc. Lost Love Songs

"To Lose Someone" by Taken by Trees. Part of this album was recorded in Pakistan, which you can definitely hear in this song. It's lovely and tragic.
"Hear You Me" by Jimmy Eat World
"Turn On Me" by The Shins. "You had to know that I was fond of you - fond of Y-O-U."
"Ruby Tuesday" by The Rolling Stones.

Lonely Hearts Songs

"The Mexican Border" by Chris Merritt. Mostly for this line: "When you feel that alone it's hard to tell the difference between being alone and being unwanted. When you feel that alone, just remember - I'll be waiting for you."
"The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Anymore" - Many versions, probably most famously the Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons version, but I like the Keane version.
"Alone Again Or" by Calexico. Because nothing says loneliness better than pseudo mariachi bands.
"Emotional Weather Report" by Tom Waits. Nothing's better when you're sad than hearing Tom talking about clouds forming in the southwest and south central areas of his apartment. It's a high pressure zone, "and precipitation is expected."
"Save" by The Rocket Summer. "I'm stuck all alone in the traffic lines, while couples in love in the HOV fly by." I know I've posted this before, but it's just perfect, isn't it?
"Bye Bye Blackbird" as performed by Peggy Lee. I can't even express how lovely this version is. "No one here can love or understand me . . ." If anyone else sings it I don't know if it comes off the same way, but this version is perfect here.

Starting Something (Maybe) Songs

"Take on Me" by A-ha (although I recommend the lovely A.C. Newman cover).
"Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want" by The Smiths (or there's a nice She and Him cover - both good)
"Leggy Blonde" by Flight of the Conchords.
"Train Song" by Feist and Ben Gibbard. "What will I do if there's someone there with you - maybe someone you've always known? How do I know I can come and give to you love with no warning, and find you alone?" The uncertainty and hope are just lovely.
"In These Arms" by The Swell Season. I love the ambiguity of this song. It sounds like they just haven't quite been able to get things together, and maybe now they could because maybe they're meant for each other, but maybe not. Hmm. It's gorgeous.
"Relator" by Pete Yorn (duet with Scarlett Johansson because Pete Yorn has dreams. ) I'm not sure how I feel about either one of them in general, but I do enjoy this song, which could really go into several categories, but we're going to choose to see the upbeat sound as a hopeful sign and ignore some of the "You can leave whenever you want out" stuff.
"Boat Behind" by Kings of Convenience. I know it SAYS "I could never belong to you," but that's SO not what it means.
"Modern Nature" by Sondre Lerche. "If things go right, we're meant to be." All kinds of catchy.
"Desire" by Ryan Adams. I'm not positive that this is where this song goes, but I think there's enough hope in it to end up here.

Cheesy (But still tolerable) Love

"Believer" by Ben Kweller. This song is incredibly cheesy, but it's one of the sweetest love songs I've ever heard, and I love it.
"True Love" by Angels and Airwaves (which Dain has told me should not be listened to without the instrumental preceding track, "Star of Bethlehem." Trust him, he knows.)
"All I Want Is You" by Barry Louis Polisar. Separate it from the opening credits of Juno if you must, but "If you'd be a kiss I know I'd be a hug" is cute.
"First Day Of My Life" by Bright Eyes. Still one of my favorite love songs ever. EVER.
"I'd Like That" by XTC. "I'd be your Albert if you'd be Victoria." Great stuff.
"Baby It's Fact" by Hellogoodbye. Nothing better than a good glory of love song. I would also accept "Oh, It Is Love" or "Two Weeks in Hawaii."
"To Be Alone With You" by Sufjan Stevens. "I swam across Lake Michigan . . . to be alone with you."
"There Cannot Be a Close Second" by Copeland. It's adorable.
"You Make My Dreams Come True" by Hall and Oates. Thank you, (500) Days of Summer. I love this song.

Somewhat Cheesy But Slightly More Realistic Love

"Dying Day" by Brandi Carlile. Because it's awesome.
"Poison Cup" by M. Ward. "She said if love is a poison cup, then drink it up; 'cause a sip or a spoonful won't do nothing for you, 'cept mess you up." This is a weird metaphor for love, but it works - kind of an all in or nothing approach.
"If You Find Yourself Caught In Love" by Belle and Sebastien. "Things will change - I'm not saying overnight - you've got to start somewhere." I kind of feel like all real love songs should sound like this.
"Janet" by The Format. Just listen to it.
"Time Has Told Me" by Nick Drake (or "Northern Sky" - both have been on several of my playlists over the years.)
"If It Be Your Will" by Leonard Cohen. I really like this song, but I might prefer the Antony version from the "Leonard Cohen: I'm Your Man" album.
"The Humpty Dumpty Love Song" by Travis. I know you'd think this would be up in the cheesy category, but it comes off as more of a "you can heal me" song, and I've always thought it was beautiful.
"I'm Glad There is You" sung by Sarah Vaughan.

Mmm-mmm. (You know we need this category.)

"Can't Get Enough of Your Love" by Barry White
"Let's Get It On" by Marvin Gaye
"Let's Stay Together" by Al Green
"Business Time" by Flight of the Conchords. Hahaha.

Other things that should be around here somewhere:

"Wilco: The Song" by Wilco. Because Wilco will always love you, even when you feel that no one else does.
"The Two Sides of Monsieur Valentine" by Spoon
"Valentine" by Old 97s
Any of the 5 versions of "My Funny Valentine" that I have - or any others. (I have Chet Baker, Tony Bennett, Ella Fitzgerald, Elvis Costello and The Miles Davis Quartet. Ha.)

Adventures in Library Collection Failure

2010-02-12T09:12:00.002-05:00

So yesterday I had several missions involving not one, but two libraries. I went to the Monroe County Public Library first, because I had to drop off a movie (Great Expectations starring Ioan Gruffudd, which confirmed two things for me: 1) I really love Ioan Gruffudd and 2) I really hate Great Expectations, even when Ioan Gruffudd is in it. Sad.) and I had something on hold (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Season 8 Vol. 1. This is, in fact, a comic book, so yes, my geekery levels just skyrocketed, but I was hoping to supplement this checkout with some more credible stuff.)

Anyway, I went in and headed to a computer where I could access the OPAC because I needed a copy of Cyrano de Bergerac for book club. I searched for "Cyrano de Bergerac" and got the movie, the opera, the novelization, etc. but no plays. I tried changing my limits. I searched for just "Cyrano." Nothing.

So I went to the reference desk because I believe in that sort of thing, and the librarian also looked it up and got nothing. She looked up the author, she looked it up on Amazon, she looked it up 14 different ways for 15 minutes, and still there was nothing.

I still needed some other things, so I went downstairs to look at the new children's department and find the resource room, but the resource room wasn't readily jumping out at me, and I was running out of time, so I decided to look at the resource room when my class visits next week because I was planning to grab a couple of books that my professor said she was putting on reserve for my project.

I went to the Media library to look for our next Best Picture movie, Cavalcade. Nothing.

So when I finally went to the checkout desk, it was empty handed. "I've got something on reserve," I glumly told the clerk at the desk. He went to find it with a very straight face, but when he came back he was smirking. "Is this it?"

Yes. And I'm a giant geek who was really hoping that this would be one of four things I was checking out instead of one of one thing.

And also, shut up, smirky library clerk. I'm just curious, okay? You read enough stuff about the comic when you start subscribing to a Joss Whedon blog that you just have to wonder whether it's any good and I'm just wondering, okay? And ignore that part about my subscribing to a Joss Whedon blog, because that is not helping my geek levels to even out at all, is it?

Meanwhile, the IU library had Cyrano, although I think I ended up with some weird translations (but I'm kind of excited that one of them is the Anthony Burgess version and I secretly hope that Cyrano will speak in that made up language from A Clockwork Orange - if people have to offer appy polly loggies for their baddiwad behavior to Cyrano - well, that would just be awesome) and they also had Cavalcade, but the books I thought were on reserve weren't so in the end I had things for three different non-school projects and nothing for school. Thank goodness for Google books not actually having what I needed, but at least having the table of contents from the book I needed so I can use the name of the thing I wanted to do for my program.

Go Colts! (But I won't be watching.)

2010-02-07T10:32:00.002-05:00

Every year, the Superbowl seems to fall on the same week as my birthday dinner with my family. This is annoying to me, because of course we watch it, and then there's football in the background of my birthday. Ick.
This year when I wasn't home, naturally the Superbowl is the weekend after my birthday, so there would have been no conflict. Additionally, one of my main beefs with the Superbowl is that I never care who's playing in it. Ever. We don't have a pro football team in Utah, and I don't have any connection to any other football team - but this year I'm in Indiana and the Indianapolis Colts are in it, so there's a ton of Colts fever (including some horseshoe-shaped cupcake cakes in Kroger yesterday).
All this considered though, my Superbowl Sunday evening will be spent with Ann and some of the other non-football-loving compatriots from the branch. We'll be eating snooty foods and watching British things - basically British Sunday + smoked salmon and stuffed mushrooms.
Aw yeah.

Favorite quote of the week from the AV Club's Tolerability Index under "Mildly Irritating": 'People who claim they watch the Superbowl for the commercials. That's like saying you go to the dentist for the magazines. There are easier ways.'
Also, for those of you ladies who can't get out of watching football today, Win teams!

(Don't worry everyone, my now annual Valentine's Day playlist will be up soon.)

For My Records . . .

2010-01-27T14:48:00.001-05:00

Here are the books I actually finished in 2009 (although there are a few that slopped over into 2010 that I'm leaving on the new sidebar tracker.

The Joy Luck Club, Amy Tan
The Way the Crow Flies, Ann-Marie MacDonald
Slaughterhouse-Five, Kurt Vonnegut
The Accidental Tourist, Anne Tyler
The Glass Castle, Jeannette Walls
American Lightning, Howard Blum
Coraline, Neil Gaiman
A Thousand Splendid Suns, Khaled Hosseini
Slam, Nick Hornby
The Real Inspector Hound, Tom Stoppard
After Magritte, Tom Stoppard
The Human Factor, Graham Greene
Little Brother, Cory Doctorow
Wintergirls, Laurie Halse Anderson
1984, George Orwell
The Shipping News, E. Annie Proulx
Made to Stick, Chip and Dan Heath
The Secret History, Donna Tartt
Run, Anne Patchett
The Tales of Beedle the Bard, J.K. Rowling
High Fidelity, Nick Hornby
Return of the Native, Thomas Hardy
River Secrets, Shannon Hale
Life of Pi, Yann Martel
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, Mary Ann Scffer and Annie Barrows
The Dip, Seth Godin
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, Jonathan Safran Foer
Frankenstein, Mary Shelley
Cold Comfort Farm, Stella Gibbons
4:50 from Paddington, Agatha Christie

Not a very impressive list this year now that I see it all written out, but hey - I was in grad school for part of it. Working on a new goal with Miri and Lin over at Reading Loons if you haven't seen it already, but this semester has been crazy so far, so we'll see how far I get. Either way, I just finished Anna Karenina, so I'm feeling good about myself. :)

Studies, Cookies.

2010-01-25T23:55:00.000-05:00

8 studies about library usage, users, circulation, social scientists, whale books, etc. in the last two days. I actually feel like a student again.

(Sighs, pushes aside the last 90 pages of Anna Karenina for more studies.)

Also - I am a culinary genius! (Okay, not really. My mom is and I listened. I'm a listening genius.) Did you read this post on the blogject? Well friends, problem solved. The trick to cookies that aren't flat: shortening instead of butter. Yay for a mom who taught me that sometimes you don't follow the recipe, because sometimes recipes are stupid and give you flat cookies. (I'm wondering whether this is an elevation thing or a desert thing or something. Does butter work in cookies in some areas of the world?) I'm glad it wasn't actually a cookie curse and that Melissa can now be praised for her cookie-making abilities among her many other talents. :)

In which I discard a dreary post from last week in favor of a happier post for this week.

2010-01-25T00:41:00.000-05:00

I started a post last Sunday, but I was feeling a little down then, and since I never finished it, I'm not going to post it.
Things that were happy this week:

Going to Indy to see The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus with Jill. It was crazy, but I loved it.
Institute choir is singing this gorgeous version of "The Lord is My Shepherd," which I know from the year Bryn Terfel sang at the Tabernacle Choir Christmas concert. It is seriously beautiful. I wish I could give you that version here, but it was also the theme for this show:
Ice skating in Indy this weekend - I didn't fall down and there was only minor bruising. The same cannot be said for Ann, whose first experience with skates wasn't as positive as we'd all like.
Planning my parents' trip out here for Spring Break. It's going to be awesome.
I love it when I forget about bands and then remember about them and get really excited all over. I forgot about Noah and the Whale after the flights back here and remembered when Greg asked me to recommend more of their songs, and this weekend I revisited Travis. I haven't listened to them forever. I still like them.
Branch potluck today = breakfast foods. I made buttermilk syrup, and it was awesome. I forgot how good that stuff is. Everyone else brought lots of eggs and sausages and juice - so good.

Here goes another week!

Welcome Back

2010-01-10T23:48:00.001-05:00

Flight #1: Salt Lake City to Chicago. Delayed for 55 minutes. Layover in Chicago supposed to be an hour. Ticket counter assures us that they will hold the flight for us and that we're going to land in the gate next to our connecting flight.
Flight #2: Chicago to Indianapolis: Land five minutes after connecting flight is supposed to depart, sit on runway for half an hour. Finally get to the gate around 6:40. Flight to Indy still there, we hand over tickets. Ticket guy asks if we'd be willing to stay in Chicago for the night for $200 and the price of the one-way ticket. In a moment of uncharacteristic recklessness, I agree to stay with Jill. They say they've removed our bags. We wait at the ticket counter for an hour for our hotel voucher and money voucher, and by the time we get to the baggage area, there is no sign of our luggage. Baggage claim people tell us we are crazy and that no one would ever, EVER pull luggage with an Indianapolis tag, so it's surely in Indianapolis, but if we're going to be really crazy about it we can stop by before we leave in the morning. Bright side: don't have to check luggage in the morning. Go to our hotel, eat at the TGI Friday's across the parking lot (too cold to try to explore for pizza, and Midway doesn't seem to be in a great pizza area of town) (Jill pays because she feels bad that I'm having anxiety about the whole thing and she's awesome.) Watch Dollhouse. Sleep.
Flight #3: Chicago to Denver: Become break room gossip when the customer service rep can't believe they're sending us to Indianapolis via Denver. (Indy is about a 45 minute flight from Chicago, and a three-ish hour drive.) Boarding is uneventful, minus the fact that we're going almost back to where we came from to get to a place a 45 minute flight away. Supposed to have a 10 minute window, end up with a 30 minute one. Sweet.
Flight #4: Denver to Indianapolis: Also uneventful minus a peanut allergy on the flight that meant we didn't get peanuts.
Arrive in Indianapolis: Approx. 19 hours later than expected. Pages of Anna Karenina read: 130. One of Jill's bags made it. The rest: Chicago, apparently. I commence being really grumpy about the whole thing and blaming Jill. (Sorry, Jill. You get grumpy when you're hungry - I get grumpy when I'm anxious. I don't really blame you.)
Commence cheering up with Sarah's protein pancakes (similar to crepes) and a hilarious book called Overdue. Have to stop watching the CES fireside when they make too many references to airplanes.
11 pm: Airport calls and has bags. Do we want them delivered tonight? As opposed to 3 pm tomorrow? Yes. What I don't tell the delivery man: "If you don't bring them tonight, I will have no makeup or clean underwear with which to start classes."

So - should be getting them sometime in the middle of the night. All's well that ends well. Stella even starts after a month in the cold, and some of the snow melted off before I got back. Supposed to snow tomorrow, but should be warmer later this week (and rumors of an FHE snowball fight/fort-making night are flying). Missing the fambly - glad the bags will be here to make the transition to Bloomington life easier.

Don't be that guy.

2010-01-04T01:40:00.003-05:00

xkcd strikes again.


We did not squish her behind this. She crawled behind it and then started coming back and did this. Which is amazing.