pandora internet radio (www.pandora.com) & iPod touch are now compatible. hooray!
I've been waiting for this day forever. Upgrade thru the iTunes store and viola!--you can listen to pandora thru your iPod. I'm way too psyched about this, but let's just say it's been a long week...
So I just reread some journal entries from the beginning of the year, and wow. You know that feeling, when you stumble across an old picture of yourself? An old, unflattering picture? Like the time you were laughing so hard that Cheerios came out of your nose? Yeah, that's kind of how I feel. The last entry was dated 2/21/08, which, I admit, wasn't that long ago (< 3 mos, even!). But when you're surrounded by snowstorms and ice in the armpit of Indiana, things are naturally going to seem a lot bleaker and more depressing. Not that things are all peaches and lollipops now, but at least I'm not whining about cubicle life (having my own office helps immensely, haha) or writing poems about the color black anymore.
I've been home for the past week, which has been great. Sleeping in, hanging out, staying up. The beach. The bonfires. Coming home with sand in your hair and ashes on your clothes. The smell of bug spray. Running The Loop and going through every sprinkler on the way back. And I have such a fabulous group of friends here.
Not to say that I haven’t had my silver linings in Indiana (and I'm not just talking about the Splash House water park). I’ve learned:
1) that I need to be needed; that’s
probably the number one thing. It's pretty simple: I want to be so good at my future job,
that people to depend on me because I have
something to offer that no one else can.
2) I thrive on competitive stimulation/creative challenge. I have to be
intentional about writing right now, which has never been so hard. Feedback/affirmation is part of what
drives a writer to create. But this year, my
only source of validation has come from publication. And it's so hard
to get published and so easy to get
discouraged, especially b/c...
3) I'm not a very patient person. I'm the happiest when I have a lot of distractions and don't have time to think about time...
4) I'm an extroverted introvert: not especially outgoing, but I become the extrovert if I'm surrounded by introverts.
5) I love Nine West shoes. I added these to my collection this weekend:
6) I don't read for the sake of reading. I read for the sake of writing.
Meanwhile I made a paper chain to countdown until my last day of work. “Meanwhile” is a key word; a transition word. There are too
many meanwhiles going on right now. Maybe that's my problem.
oh how i miss my E. Kelso girls! @ the North Market w/ our "free" flowers. soo pretty, even if they did house the occasional ant.
pad thai is our favorite--it comes in four varieties: xtra spicy, spicy, mild, & non-spicy. warning: the mild will still make you sweat.
my lovely twinny twin twin. i love her so much that i sat in on a Nutrition seminar at OSU taught by a German prof who talked about peptides in elongins (worms). she also mentioned beer a couple of times, affirming my stereotype that all Germans must be beer snobs.
Hooray for a four day work week! I'm going home early to get my car fixed. I guess it would be pretty dumb to move all the way to Arkansas without an air conditioned veh-ic-le. My dad just had hip replacement surgery and will be getting home from the hospital on Friday, so I am also going to win mad favorite daughter pointage for being home sweet home. Yep yep yep. I will make him strawberry or orange Jell-O if he so desires. However, I will not make Jell-O salads. Those are disgusting and should be banned from human consumption. Actually, I might not have to make anything. Our congregation has one of those sign-up-for-a-casserole thingys, so most likely, there will be lasagna stacked up to the ceiling when I get home. It's amazing how appetizing lasagna sounds after living on your own for almost a whole year, subsisting mostly on baked potatoes (I hate them), tortillas, rice bowls, and bananas and wheat germ.
And I have a poem in Wicked Alice. The issue was supposed to come out in April, and then it got pushed back for a while, but it's finally here. I have 14 submissions out right now, all new poems. I am really hoping that I get one more publication this summer. That would be nifty.
P to the S:
Let me know if you find any of these cute critters (see below). I happen to collect them. I doubt they're super valuable or anything (made in Hong Kong), and they seem to be quite prolific--in thrift shops all over the Midwest. I've found a whole bunch so far, but my collection is always looking to expand....
