|
marymaria
|
read my profile
sign my guestbook
Name: Mary
Country: United States
State: Missouri
Metro: Columbia
Birthday: 1/9/1984
Gender: Female
Interests: music industry, television production and documentary filmmaking, drawing, writing, reading, pushing buttons, making stuff, the great outdoors, old book stores, philosophy, social and environmental issues, people, theology, geology, seal-dancing on command for Ashley Moore.
Expertise: Television, Music, Art, Writing
Occupation: Advertising
Industry: Media
Message: message meEmail: email me
Website: visit my website
AIM:  Jewel1536
Member Since:
5/13/2005
|
|
| Soooo....
what an incredibly strange moment. you may know what i'm talking about. it has been an enormously long time since i have visited the world of xanga. except that i really had absolutely no idea it had been so long. the events i last wrote about seem like yesterday. and the reality is that it has been a while. a good while. there's sort of this odd sensation of impermanence that comes over you when you realize that a year has passed like a day.
of course a lot has changed since then. love had, love lost, friends come and gone, graduation, new city, new church, new career... maybe too much has changed too fast?
i miss columbia like crazy. the beauty, the culture, the people...the coffee...the wealth of experiences and memories. columbia was my muse. columbia inspired me to no end.
it's different here. there's a different dynamic. it's been over three months now, and i still haven't really clicked with this city. or it's people. perhaps it will come with time. i prayed like crazy that He would just open one door, and close all the ones i wasn't to walk through. and this is the one door he left open. i keep reminding myself about that.
on another note, i bought plumb's new album, "blink," which is absolutely intoxicating. it's a reflective, ethereal combination of electronica, piano, violin, and soft vocals, reminiscent of dido, enya, imogen heap... it's one of those albums that you listen to in the dark while lying in the middle of your carpet...if you do that sort of thing. and if you don't, try it. i highly recommend it.
| | |
| AAAAGGHHHHH!!!! MY BROTHER DONE GOT HITCHED Y'ALL! (hehehe)... 26 combined hours of travel and one flat tire later, I’m back from an exhausting 5-day trip to Dallas where I was a bridesmaid in my bro's wedding. The wedding weekend went of without a hitch, and tears of joy abounded. It's so weird to think that I have in-laws now. And a sister named Christine Stanwood :) Her family's great. Big and loud and Mediterranean, but great nonetheless. And now I'm related to them. That's just sounds weird. One thing I've found is that her family likes to find any excuse to celebrate. Her relatives came in from everywhere including Canada, the Caymans, and Malta (small island nation off the coast of Italy) There were 5 consecutive nights (five!) of celerbation for this wedding. Festivities included bachelor/bachelorette parties, cocktail night at an outdoor grill, bridal luncheon, rehearsal, rehearsal dinner, spa day for the bridesmaids, wedding, reception, and a post-wedding family reunion brunch. All in five days. Some of the Stanwoods came in from Pennsylvania and it was quite humorous to see the ultra-conservative Stanwoods interacting with Christine's rather rambunctious family. I will say that I've never seen my parents and grandparents laugh as hard as they did this weekend. Highlights of the weekend: - “Redneck Yacht Club Bar and Grill” - Seeing my mom accidentally lock herself in the hotel bathroom—we had to call maintenance. - Christine’s relatives dancing with the mariachi musician at the rehearsal supper - Watching a seagull fly smack into our hotel window. - Teaching my Dad the Electric Slide and Mom the Macarena. - Watching Nanu and Nana (Maltese grandparents) really cut the rug - Waltzing with my brother at the reception - Spa Day complete with Big, Curly, Hurricane-Proof Texas Hair and red lipstick - Nearly running over a four year old boy with the luggage rack (oops). - And, of course, watching my brother and the love of his life walk down the aisle together. I suffered my fair share of embarrassment this weekend as well. My relatives took the opportunity to point out my singleness on more than one occasion early on in the weekend, thus alerting ALL the new relatives that I’m up for grabs. The new relatives pounced on this and decided to spend the remainder of the weekend attempting to play matchmaker between me, the one single bridesmaid, and the one single groomsman. At the reception, said groomsman asked me to dance and I will never forget the winks, and beams and goofy grins I received from a number of my new relatives, namely the bride’s mother. Of course, my cheeks began to burn with embarrassment which, of course, appeared as if said groomsman was the reason for my blush. I mean, not to say he was a bad match or anything. rather attractive with a sense of humor, actually. But nonetheless, it was quite the scene. The next morning at breakfast, New Relatives come over. New relative pats my grandmother on the back and says: “Well, Myra, one down and one to go, huh.” All new relatives look at me. Then my grandmother says “ Yeah, Mary, where’s your fiancée?” Me: Uhhhh…” My grandmother: “Well you need to start shopping!” Me (in jest): “Point me to a good mall and maybe I will” New Relative (Aunt Gene): “What about -----, that groomsman. He’s nice…” Other New relative: “Yeah, I saw you two dancing last night.” Turns to other new relative. “Don’t you think they would make a cute couple?” Winks and nudges follow. I blush. “Oh geeeeez, not again…..” Joel and Christine are off on a 21-day honeymoon to Thailand, Australia, and Figi. It is cold and rainy here and I am jealous. = P | | |
| i'm feeling windy :)it's a good night: rain falling, wind howling, sipping on Celestial Seasoning's new "Sweet Coconut Chai" tea while froufrou croons in the background, writing for LEISURE for a change...i'm always forced to write for creative writing courses i'm taking for my minor, which i love, but have little time to actually write because i want to. xanga included. i was telling a friend the other day that i don't like to write when i have to. tonight, however, i have escaped the business of life in CoMo for the subtle simplicities of Nixa, MO for a brief visit with my parents. yes friends, you heard right. I am currently enjoying the subtle simplicities of jason bournes hometown. Nixa, MO. Besides that really, it's not too exciting. which is why it's a great place for me to be right now. i just need to chill for a while. and then warm up with some more of that sweet coconut chai tea, which truly is a celestial seasoning, i might add. absolutely heavenly.  so this past week was crazy. art project due monday, 10 page paper due Tues, 12+ page fiction manuscript due wed., and art history final on thurs. plus, mon, wed and thurs i had night classes, which resulted in two consecutive all-nighters. by thursday i was in a state of loopiness, as a couple friends can attest to (and have, i might add). next week will be equally nuts. I have another art project due on monday, i need to have a novel (featured above) read by wednesday, and then wednesday night i leave for Tejas for 5 days. today i had the day off from work. woke up around 7 to take my truck into the mechanic (yes, again--4th time this semester!) and then met leah for coffee at the artisan. leah left around 11, and i had lunch with Tobias Wolff. Around 2:30 my truck was done. only $100 for repairs this time around , not bad. decided to wait a couple hours until streets dried up before i left town--my front and rear shocks are about shot, which can cause you to lose control in wet weather, i learned today from Sam the Mechanic . so i left around 4:30 bound for nixa. the drive was incredibly relaxing. the leaves are in peak season right now and it was beautiful...those bright colors pitted against the dark gray of the clouds. it's really cool how the darkness of the sky made the vibrancy of the trees stand out all the more. i love fall.  long drives put you in a reflective mood and you tend to think long and hard about things you haven't had the time to think long and hard about before. i was forced to confront some of my own issues, more of which i'll go into in a later blog. maybe. anyway, so i was thinking about this thing i really didn't want to be thinking out, and that oh-so-familiar knot started to form in my stomach--you know, the kind you get when you're thinking about something you've been avoiding for so long and it suddenly seems harder to breathe--well i was having one of those kick-in-the-butt moments. i tell myself that i'm just too busy to deal with this stuff, when the truth is that i'm intentionally distracted so that i don't have to face it. i started to realize that i need to stop ignoring these weeds in my life, and, though laborious, begin the work of uprooting them, which isn't easy. Weeds can grow uncontrollably until they eventually begin to choke out the beautiful flowers. i see, for the first time in a long time, that this is starting to happen, and by golly, i need to do something about it, before it gets so big that i have to wear flippin' blinders to continue ignoring it. these types of revelations, i've discovered, are quite scary because you realize that there will be pain involved in uprooting something. round about the time of this unwelcome revelation, i was listening to a cd by Rend the Heavens on my handy dandy CD Walkman (because the radio cd player is broken in my truck), when a song with these lyrics came on: Endlessly seeking, furious hunger. Watching You bleeding, God interceding. Feeding on wonder. Why have You done this? Glorious Martyr. You who are perfect, You who are blameless, waits for the slaughter. I stare at this picture, wake from my slumber. Jesus i see You, Jesus i need You. Pull me back under! Your presence surrounds me. I'm breathing Your breath now. Your sweetness runs through me, Oh Lord you renew me. I can't get enough now. I can't get enough now. I can't get enough now. I can't get enough now. Still I'll keep knocking , still I want more. Jesus i love you, Spirit i bless You. Father, i'm yours. I am yours.
and as that song was playing, the weirdest/coolest thing happened. Suddenly I looked to my left and the dark sky was parted in two sections and these two parts of sky were lit so bright that you could see all the tiny little sun rays.  i don't know about you, but when i was little, i had Golden Books of Bible stories. and in these books, whenever there were sun rays like that it meant that God was talking to someone. I remember, as a little girl, getting extremely excited when i saw this and would point and shout "Look Mom, God's talking to someone!" Arms flailing, the works. i'd forgotten about that until this point. like a little token, a little reminder from God that He's here and real and active. and then i'm reminded of how this must be what childlike faith looks like. i need to work on that. more like i need to allow God to work on that in my life. And rest. Louis Giglio makes a point that God works while we rest. Which may be why "Observe the Sabbath and keep it Holy" earns more word space in Scripture than any of the other commandments. He wants us to rest, not only so we can spend time with Him, but so He can have space to move and and be active. It's also interesting to note that in Genesis, on Day 6, God created Adam and Eve. On day 7, their first full day on earth, what does he have them do? Take a Sabbath. How's that for priorities... well this was long and now i am sleepy. so i shall go rest. so God can work in my life. :) More to come later. Night, all. | | |
| deliberate distractionsBecause I'm so dead set on procrastinating the writing of a 10 page paper due in 9 hours....here are a few more pics from my phone for your enjoyment!  An apple for Leah.
 Ashley and me if we were midgets. hypothetically.
 Those glass beads you find in vases. I think they're pretty.
 Dress up at the preschool. Yes--this was his own choosing.
 My babies! I wish I had ten. Well, someday. Maybe.
 This is Sparky. As in Sparky from Sparky's ice cream. Yes, he's a real dog.
 This is Leah's game face.
 Yep, those are definitely some of those cheap Plastic glasses circa 1983 that say Walt Disney World on the side. Dang, I think I could actually pull those off.
 Timmy, one of my 4-year-old seregate kiddos, gazes up at Memorial Union. Or the Castle, as he likes to call it. I haven't told him otherwise. Somehow or other, he believes there's a witch living in the bell tower.
 Because I love sunsets.... I took this from Shooting Star Bluff right here in CoMo. Holla back if you ever want to check it out. That place is amazing. Just wear bug spray (ASHLEY).
As a side note, did anyone notice the 5 Semi's and multiple tour buses outside Jesse today? Yeah, Rent's in town. Back to my paper! (someone come slap me. please.) Love y'all. | | |
| I had a relatively unproductive weekend. I did take this one-day-only-pass/fail course in photoshop on Saturday. And received a credit. After just one day! :) Here was my final project--quick mock-up of a mag cover:  Check him out--he's fantabulous!
And here's what I was doing when i should have been paying attention...  Bon voyage Leah! (She's moving to Kenya)
After class, I went to Wal-mart to bluetooth some of the 253 photos off my phone and onto a picture CD so I could PHOTOSHOP them. Yes, I know many of you have been waiting a good 7 months for me to do this...  Michal sang a beautiful rendition of "broken" at the Rock on Saturday to a really cool video background that Moses made. It's fuzzy, I know...
 Ashley trying to be sexy, I think.
 This was sort of a freak camera error--my camera went off as I was leaning over a candle flame--but it turned out really cool.
 Sunset at Stephen's lake a couple of weekends ago. Really amazing.
 I decided to try on Ashley sunglasses one night--they look better on her!
 One day last spring I went to watch the sun set at my favorite spot on Table Rock Lake. I really lucked out on this one. There's this point that juts out into the lake where this flat rocky platform has formed and the water has eroded these circular holes and water current lines into the limestone. From this point, the lake curves around you and you get a full 240 degrees of beautiful view.
 Of course it was the best photo lighting ever!
 The sunset was truly heavenly. God really is a great artist; I could stand to learn a thing or two from Him.
 My favorite pic. Although my toes look like tiny sausages. :)
yeah, I kinda wish I were there. Anyway, enough distraction! I have a portfolio for art due tomorrow...Toodles! | | |
|
