nat_tha_brat's Xanga

soccer

Wed, 13 Sep 2006 11:23:52 GMT

our first women's soccer home game is tonight at 6:30 by the field house. please come yell nice things to us!

Friday, August 18, 2006

Fri, 18 Aug 2006 14:53:12 GMT

"Softly Pa's fiddle sang in the starlight. Sometimes he sang a little and sometimes the fiddle sang alone. Sweet and thin and far away, the fiddle went on singing:

"None knew thee but to love thee, Thou dear one of my heart..."

The large, bright stars hung down from the sky. Lower and lower they came, quivering with music.

Laura gasped, and Ma came quickly. "What is it, Laura?" she asked, and Laura whispered, "The stars were singing."

"You've been asleep," Ma said. "It is only the fiddle. And it's time little girls were in bed."

She undressed Laura in the firelight and put her nightgown on and tied her nightcap, and tucked her into bed. But the fiddle was still singing in the starlight. The night was full of music, and Laura was sure that part of it came from the great, bright stars swinging so low above the prairie."

--Laura Ingalls Wilder, Little House on the Prairie

"If you have built castles in the air,

Wed, 16 Aug 2006 21:16:43 GMT

your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them."

-- Henry David Thoreau, Walden

i think my friends are turning into grown-ups...

Mon, 14 Aug 2006 20:25:01 GMT

you might think that i am noticing this because of all of the weddings i've been to this summer, or because of friends getting 'real' jobs, but that's not it. these are all good indications, but the real way to tell is to put a pottery barn catalog on the table.

"oooooh! furniture!!!" is the response that you'll get from most of my friends.

i hear this exclamation more and more every day, and it sends shivers down my spine. this is how i know they've crossed over to the dark side...lol...

okay okay, there's nothing wrong with furniture. i like a house to be aesthetically pleasing as much as the next girl. but furniture shopping, to me, symbolizes everything that is wrong with the world...lol...or maybe just everything i'm afraid of.

settling down, owning things, being tied to one place, one life.

yikes!!!

so while my roomates shop for end tables at hobby lobby, i'll be walking around with an african mask and paint supplies, wondering how much time i have left before i wake up with an uncontrollable desire for a coffee table... :)

quinn house adventure #1

Sun, 13 Aug 2006 20:30:18 GMT

my brain is really cluttered today. i've started posts on about 5 subjects and erased them already.....oooh, i know:

so last night, the girls and i were sitting on the porch watching a movie. (we have 7 couches at the quinn house, so some are on the porch for now...) anyway, we're watching remember the titans and we all bust out singing "ain't no mountain" and dancing aroung the porch. the next thing we know, there is a little man walking up our steps.

he came to tell us how pretty our singin was...and he had a 6 inch cooking knife sticking out of his pants. now, i'm really calm in the middle of crisis, so as the girls start backing up, i sat still and made nervous conversation with him. he just moved here, doesn't have any money, and was walking around town looking for something to do and a lighter. he was also either high, or something was wrong with him.

laura called a guy friend who, thankfully, was a fast responder. (the guys i called were still on their way across the street 10 minutes after he left...lol...i know who not to call in an emergency...) once the other guy showed up, our new friend hightailed it out of there.

i said that i'm good in a crisis, but afterwards, i'm...not...lol... we left the house for about an hour and had security patroling around all night, had guys come check all the rooms and closets when we got back, and i still had nightmares!!! anyone know of a good self-defense class in brownwood??

gallavanting across the state

Wed, 09 Aug 2006 00:01:46 GMT

heather and i had a fun weekend! she came to beaumont on thursday and we ate at a mob-owned restaraunt, saw the world's largest fire hydrant, and tried to get free baked goods at the back door of rao's (it was midnight and closed). okay, so that part was my bad idea. heather and ray watched from the car as i knocked on the (somewhat shady) metal door. someone peeked at me through the peep-hole, then stuck their head out and said, "are you chuy's girl??" uuhhhhhh....no?! well that threw me off and i left without any cookies...lol...

friday heather and i took the ferry to galveston where we sea-kayaked with dolphins, and i almost got attacked by big nasty sea birds.... we also saw seahorses, lakers-fish, and penguins at the moody gardens aquarium. on the way home, we were randomly chosen for a homeland security search, which is the equivalent of winning the ferry lottery! since we didn't have drugs or weapons, we got to skip the forever-long ferry line. yaya! we got back to beaumont and went to rao's (through the front door this time...).

we left at 4am on saturday morning and drove to abilene for andrea's wedding. it was beautiful and so fun! we slept alot after the wedding...lol...

on sunday, we continued our trek across texas to san angelo to visit liz for her 21st birthday! we shopped all day and partied all night...lol... :)

yay for roadtrips, but i'm glad to be back home in brownwood.

Thursday, August 03, 2006

Thu, 03 Aug 2006 16:35:58 GMT

found a great used bookstore in beaumont this week, and started some of my reading for children's lit. i finished 'a separate peace' at 2am on tuesday and was so depressed that i had to start 'because of winn dixie' before i could go to bed.

has anyone read 'a separate peace'? i know it is a classic, and i couldn't put it down, but i'm not sure why. wow, it is sad. it gives me the feeling that i just read something incredibly important, but i can't stand to think about it long enough to figure out what exactly.

'winn dixie' is great! i was expecting a cutsie little brain-candy book, but i was way off. i laughed, i cried, i couldn't put it down. some great great quotes and themes in there. basically, everyone is hurting, so throw a party! it is about a 5th grade reading level, but i reccomend it for everyone.

now i'm reading 'hatchet.' it makes me want to go pick berries in the woods. ooooh and i bet i'll get to in a few months...check this out:

Travel among towering granite spires, through temperate rainforests and over glacial fields. Learn the basics of backpacking, alpine travel and mountaineering on your way to Montt Tronador where you’ll develop advanced skills and prepare for a summit attempt.

yaya! i start in argentina and end on top of a mountain. i've been needing a mountain for a while now... :)

two of my favorite movies

Wed, 02 Aug 2006 02:01:12 GMT

today i compared V (from V for Vendetta) to Gus McCrae (who I also love, from Lonesome Dove).

this was almost as amusing as the time that heater compared Anakin Skywalker to the Phantom of the Opera...lol...

(...the difference was that my comparison made sense...to me, at least)

here's the deal:

when watching V for Vendetta, my mother feels the need to explain that killing people is wrong, that V fights the government's immorality with his own immorality. however, no such speech is necessary when watching Lonesome Dove, where Gus McCrae and Woodrow Call kill indians and hang murderers. in both cases, the characters kill the bad guys. in both cases, they take justice into their own hands.

so what is the difference?

or are they both in the wrong? and if so, why do we make heroes out of Gus (who also drinks, gambles, and sleeps with prostitutes), but talk about the immorality of V?

this may be a very silly post...lol...but it has been bothering me all evening! i absolutely love gus, but i can never quite make up my mind about V. i feel very inconsistent!

V

Tue, 01 Aug 2006 18:22:58 GMT

"Remember, remember, the Fifth of November,/ The Gunpowder Treason and Plot... / I know of no reason/ Why the Gunpowder Treason should ever be forgot... But what of the man? I know his name was Guy Fawkes and I know, in 1605, he attempted to blow up the Houses of Parliament. But who was he really? What was he like? We are told to remember the idea, not the man, because a man can fail. He can be caught, he can be killed and forgotten, but 400 years later, an idea can still change the world... "

V for Vendetta came out on DVD today! I had a lapse in my self-imposed frugality and am now the proud owner of the 2-disk special edition. I think I love this movie so much because I don't really know what to think about it. I argue with myself throughout the whole thing...lol... it does have some fantastic quotes and has inspired me to read Alexandre Dumas and Shakespeare.

nonsense

Mon, 31 Jul 2006 01:48:07 GMT

Piety and conformity to them that like,

I am he who tauntingly compels men, women, nations,

Crying, Leap from your seats and contend for your lives!

Who are you that wanted only to be told what you knew before?

Who are you that wanted only a book to join you in your nonsense?

--Walt Whitman, "By Blue Ontario's Shore"

I'm going to South America over Christmas break. My nonsense requires more than books...lol...