|
| end of an eraSad news, today Laura told me she's leaving us come August 8th.
Every time I get close to someone, this is what happens! (mock-drama, I'm okay...)
*In this post, 'Laura' is referring to work-Laura. (I also have a sister-Laura and a friend-Laura, thus the distinctions.)
| | |
| a renga for work-lauraThis is a tribute to my co-worker, Laura Wagner, who is a really fantastic person to work with.
orange juice and aloe
for my sore throat and sunburn
tokens of kindness
Kanye and Clif bars
for long days and skipped lunches
these lighten our load
new Autocad tricks
interns, easily impressed
always offering help
and listening well
to heartbreaks on coffee breaks
and laughing with me
sharing favorites
from LOST to 'Next Top Model'
...that's my intern-friend.
(sorry Laura, I got kinda sentimental...)
| | |
| Light under a bridge/Tired eyesAlmost every Friday night for some months now I've been going to the YMCA (or now- outside) and having the best end-of-the-week workouts. For some reason Friday nights are difficult for me so it's been good to have a set plan for Friday night, and one that involves no one else, because bringing anyone else into it would only be short-changing my true appreciation for and enjoyment of that person, because they invariably aren't who I want to be with on a Friday night.*
What is it about Friday night? Relaxation setting in... the week has left me drained, and I've survived it, and I'm ready for rest, and thankful for the two-day reprieve that we call 'weekend'. But it's hard to relax. It was easy, and great, to relax with Matt. (Sorry readers, near to 5 months after-the-fact and I'm still there. And I'm sure it was already obvious where this was going, or maybe more accurately, where it originated.)
* Let me pause to add that I do enjoy spending time with people on occasion after my Friday night workout. My mind is clearer, relaxation is underway, and I've accomplished something and reaped the brain-chemical reward. And the early-evening transitional period is the harder time, anyway. My mind is over-full and opaque in transitional moments, it seems.
All this leading up to-- Last Friday night, I stayed at work til something like 8pm (ugh, I know) and finally left the office, went home, changed, and opted to run outside. (The Y closes at 9, afterall.) It was gray and a little stormy-looking out just then and I'd missed the hours of beautiful sunlight from 5pm-7ish. But still, weather suitable for a run. So I ran, hard, for two miles, walked awhile, and ran a third mile. This 'running hard' -let me explain: it's not abusive, it's not like I'm forcing hardship upon myself. It's 'hard' as in 'strong'. Running fast, I can feel my strength. And then the walk/cool down is such a nice slide into that weekend relaxation...
Always, I have these moments while running along the river or working in the garden when something in nature will speak to me, (not audibly) but with great clarity and meaning. (And of course, these things always seem blog-worthy.) Last Friday it was the light under the bridge. The sky was gray with thick dark clouds and the daylight gradually fading. I'd run the length of the trail and kept going, through Westside Park, across White River Boulevard, through the neighborhood south of St. Mary's, then looped around and retraced my path- ran back through the park to the start of the trail, and there I was surprised by something beautiful-- sunlight under the bridge. The expanse of concrete that makes up a pier supporting the Nichols Street bridge was painted with golden sunlight -from where? Low on the horizon, just below the storm cloud cover. The sun's light made it's way over and through trees and town, touching on not a thing (that I could see) other than that concrete pier under the bridge. Something so ordinary and utilitarian, tucked under a bridge, never considered much at all, much less to be considered beautiful -and there it was, this place of dark-shadows-lurking, unusually radiant with light, absorbing and reflecting it, easy on the eyes and mind. An anomaly, this bright spot under a bridge. To say what it meant to me feels inadequate, limited. If pressed, I will try, but for now I'll leave you to your own interpretations, limitless.
| | |
| I'm noticing my last two posts have been immediately following an exam, so I guess that means I'm likely to blog tomorrow. Tonight is for studying and martinis. I mean martini. (singular) After studying. My exam is late morning.
Yesterday I taught the kids at church w/ Pat and had a good time. We had a imaginary sea voyage straight out of Acts chapter 27, complete with hurricane winds and a shipwreck and having to swim to shore, or float there hanging onto a plank... oh yes, and Paul encouraging his fellow prisoners. I read the story scene-by-scene and Pat helped the kids act it out. The hurricane was fantastic, he got the kids to bump up and down in their seats on the boat in the rocky waves, then he ran around the ship like the wind, and covertly pulled out a spray bottle and spritzed the kids with water! It was great, they were so unsuspecting and shrieked! Loudly! It was fun. A lot of fun.
 | Currently Listening
American Gangster
By Jay-Z
'drinks is on the house' (wishing.) (wishing also for kanye and jay-z and the trumpets and all to be at Motini's later.)
see related |
| | |
| Another one bites the dust...I'm not a big Queen fan, but this song keeps playing in my head since finishing my 7th exam section today. (This means only 2 more left!) Two kind of sounds like a lot right now, but I am excited to be near the end..
I've been thinking lately about things I would rather be doing than studying- and then sometimes indulging those thoughts--like Sunday, I made about 3 gallons of frozen yogurt! I don't know how this happened, I guess I'm not good with calculating volume. I bought several tubs of yogurt at Aldi and a gallon of milk and added some sugar (it was plan yogurt) and vanilla, and this all grew into approximately 10 quarts, so 2 1/2 gallons, really. (It wouldn't be a good story without some exaggeration! Let's just leave it at "A LOT" - I have A LOT of frozen yogurt in my freezer, more than I need, but oh, I've been eating it!) I'd been wanting to make frozen yogurt for, well, years really, but this was prompted by both budgetary concerns and the habit of stopping at Incredible Yogurt after working out at the NW YMCA. See, I thought frozen yogurt was good for you, but now that I've physically added all that sugar I've been forced me to rethink this. Adding mint oreos doesn't bump up the "healthy" points either. :) Also, having my own freezer-ful of incredible yogurt at home, it's too easy to skip the Y part. Alas.
Something else I've been wanting to do is read, just turn off America's Next Top Model and read! (Those weekend marathons on MTV are killing me!!) I want to read things that I want to read, not study guides, not things that will make me a better person (a category Stuart recently dubbed), not even book club books! I just want to read books that I want to read. So today I bought four. (And I only meant to buy ONE, to have something to read over lunch at the Taj.) I like Half-Price Books.
Too bad I don't get paid for endorsements, this post is full of them! (Why is it that the people who do get paid for endorsements are typically already rich? Is this yet another example of the rich get richer?) And the poor, make frozen yogurt...
(But- hooray for Spring and $28 electric bills!)
| | |
|
