te-he-he-he

it is late
i am tired
that's all i've got

more tomorrow! hopefully a new art project done!
if nothing else a new poem!

who can close their eyes the longest without falling asleep

Sometimes my hubs and I find ourselves in some seemingly ridiculous situations- see Greco roman wrestling blog or the one about putting my MIL’s ashes in the trunk. Now not all of these situations are of our own doing… but more often than not they are and last night was no different.

It is important for all who do not know me to understand that I ALWAYS fall asleep before EVERYONE else! If we have friends over I have been known to doze off on the couch before everyone has left…over at a friend’s house- same thing. I just have never been one to stay up all hours (except when I worked as a security guard…don’t ask) especially if a beverage or three is involved! Well, last night’s escapade involved a bet to see who could stay up the latest! If I won the hubs had to do the rest of the snow shoveling AND I would receive a twenty minute back rub. If the Hubs won I was no longer allowed to use our stairs as somewhere to store stuff that needed to be taken upstairs or I just hadn’t found a place for.

So, first thing that had to be done was hauling us out of our comfy bed. Downstairs we made coffee and sat down for a kitchen conversation (it’s hard to drift off in the kitchen). BTW at this point it is around 9:30. We have what might go down as one of our more bizarre conversations. The hubs gave me a running list of all his girls from 8^th grade to me! And I must say he was a bit of a sleaze…though I must say an honorable sleaze (you’ll have to ask him). Needless to say, I never knew he was such a lothario or that before we started dating he was “talking” to someone else and he broke it off with her; telling her “he had met someone.” Hearing this story almost six years after it happened made me think about how lucky I am to have ended up with my lovely and wonderful husband! Anyways, about this time we discovered the amaretto that I thus began adding to my coffee and we eventually decided to head up to bed. There we hunkered down in bed with books, DVDs, computers. It is well past midnight when we finish watching the second episode of HBO’s Rome (very good, very HBO) and I settle in to finish a book I have to write a review for and have been looking for an opportunity to finish. As I get ready to read I look over and notice the hubs is looking very drowsy. What else is there to do at this point in time but to hold a contest of who can close their eyes for thirty seconds and not fall asleep…alas a tie.

Anyways, I read my book…finished my book…and found the hubs asleep! When I asked if he was asleep he grunted a no…but he was. This was 3 am. Just for good measure and because I was already as awake as could be I stayed awake for another hour and a half.

All was well though, the hubs lost the bet (which I am pretty sure he was convinced he wouldn’t) woke up with the Aubs this morning while I slept in, shoveled snow this afternoon while Aubs napped, and just finished giving me my first five minute installment of my back rub (I am a very magnanimous woman, I let him break it into installments).

Are the hubs and I the only ones that find themselves in such odd circumstances?

more snow... more craftiness...just a little craftiness

Okay, so these were not made in 2006 like the time stamp said but new batteries reset the timestamp.

But anyways, the hubs and I are working on being more organized and one of our endeavors is a bulletin board/white board.
I bought plain white push pins for the cork board and decided they would be just too plain!!
So, I experimented with sharpies and this was the end result!I don't know if you can tell all the textures and designs but the green marbled and the speckled are my favorites!

What do you think? Future office presents?

no work/school = time to get crafty + #2 of 26 before 26

so not having to go to work for a week leaves me with not much to do after all the cleaning and organizing and blah blah blah...so today i got crafty!
i had seen this wreath before and saw it again on The Shabby Nest: http://shabbynest.blogspot.com/2010/02/words-and-wire.html

So i gave it a try with an old copy of Huck Finn! I think we will put it up in our guest room/book room!


Plus as promised I will post pictures of 26 before 26 #2
Yes i finally got a tattoo! After yearning for one for 9 years i finally have one!


yaya...not that bad ass but i lurvvve it!

The Story of America...at least according to me with some help from Walt and Jack

During my last semester of grad school I took a class, following a purely Whitman class the semester before, in which we studied the Children of Whitman. Basically what that means is we explored a ton of different authors that were in some way influenced by Whitman. Our professor gave us carte blanche for our final project and so I took an opportunity to be influenced by Walt and all his children and write some of my own poetry. I needed some kind of gimmick, so what I decided on was to choose a line from a “Child” and a line from Mr. W himself and use them as bookends for my own words. The following is one of the poems I wrote for that project, I will post more at some other point in time.

I don’t pretend to be an amazing poet but I really liked some of these, they gave me an opportunity to explore my own writing style and to pinpoint the writing and literary techniques that seem to characterize my writing. These poems were also neat for me because I have always been the kind of writer who wrote from a turn of phrase or a grouping of words that I really liked and was lucky enough to hear; this way I wasn’t just waiting for the next inspiration to hit!

I hope you like them or even if you don’t that they inspire you to read some Walt or just write some poems of your own!

“This is the story of America

everybody’s doing what they think they’re supposed to do.”

bowing down to the man

and screaming like rock and roll fans

Aerosmith or Bob Dylan

it doesn’t matter

screamers or wailers

as wholesome as that apple pie on the window sill

that Snoopy might steal

the tube socks and Marlboro man

and wind burned prairie neon cowboys

who ignore and disdain the surgeon generals spf warnings

and

the teenage mothers

and babies tossed in garbage cans

or dressed up in beauty pageants with patent leather Mary Jane’s

shiny shiny white

reflecting the

stage lights of Broadway and Rodeo Drive

and then the coal miners

and the Appalachians

and gang-bangers of the Bronx and inner city Philly

capping people in their asses

all for smack and weed and baby mommas

then the talented cellist who plays Bach on his drums

when he should be astonishing the masses

who crowd the streets and the gravel roads

and the farmers and reapers of old town Iowa

who plow their crops of corn and soybean

to be made into energy efficient ethyl laden gasoline

that when spilled will kill the mallard

that was brought out of the lands of a thousand lakes

to the retirement shores of sunny Florida

where wrinkly old men and yenta drink Lipton ice tea

while corporate engineers develop weapons and new forms of energy

to kill and kill and kill

the school children who we use to call our future

but we seem to have forgotten amidst standardized this’ and that’s

and the immigrants who fight for rights

are forced to stalk 7-11 street corners hoping to be picked up for a job

much like street walkers ala Pretty Woman.

That is America,

that is just a bit of: “America’s busy, teeming, intricate whirl.”

The first line is from Jack Kerouac's On the Road and the final line is Walt's of course, from Eidolons.

enjoy

hello darling

This past week has been a doozy…there have been a million things to do and just not enough time to do it all!

Last week was the end of the semester at school which meant in addition to finishing a mountain of grading, creating an exam and grading said exams, and putting in and submitting grades, I also had to prepare for the new semester that technically began yesterday and that if the weather continues as expected may not start until next Monday (longest sentence ever, I know). So with all of that work stuff to do you wouldn’t think I had time for other things but that is the farthest thing from the truth. Last week we also had to prepare for the trip to North Carolina for Cathy’s memorial service. That included packing, cleaning the house a bit, and at the last minute (well after the Hubs and I were in bed the night before anyways) remembering to put Cathy in the car to take with us. You must have the star of the show to have a show at all! So, Friday I went into work for half a day and Aubs and Sean met me there and we headed off to NC around noon-ish.

Once reached NC we discovered the North Carolinians aren’t really built for snow and the memorial services chances of happening started to look hairy. Long story short we will be visiting NC sometime in the near but warmer future to say our final goodbyes to Cathy. The weekend was not a bust though! Snow meant sledding and hot chocolate and a long Birthday nap for Mommy! It really was a nice day. The Hub’s aunt was great, upon finding out that Saturday was my birthday ( I had not mentioned for fear of overshadowing what the day was supposed to have been about) sent Aubs and her cousin up to make a b-day card for me and she managed to conjure red velvet cupcake mix (my favorite cake, and I don’t go around naming things my favorites willy nilly…more on that some other time). So, that evening we had an amazing dinner of beerbutt chicken, tatos, and butter beans (also a favorite that I only got on my birthdays because no one in my family cares for them). This delicious dinner was followed by yummy red velvet cupcakes, and an opportunity for me to spread the right way to eat cupcakes (a blog with pictures may have to be in order to educate the web world).

Well, anyways the weekend had to end, so we packed up Sunday and after allowing time for a little bit of snow to melt we turned on the four wheel drive and headed back to Virginia. Now, I could most likely write an entire blog/rant about the failures of NCDOT but I won’t… I don’t think I could do the department justice in the description of their suckiness…but enough of that. We arrived home Sunday afternoon and invited my brother and his gf to come over for dinner in payment for his shoveling our drive so that upon return we had somewhere to park. We recreated the beerbutt chicken we had the night before and a delicious dinner ensued…

Now I could continue to write away about all the things I accomplished this weekend and the last two days but I am going to switch to an annotated list format (which I originally intended to do):

1. Turned 25! And ate delicious free cheeseburger from Red Robin (sign up here if you haven’t already- http://www.redrobin.com/eclub/ )

2. Received some awesome b-day presents! Vampire Weekend’s Contra- listen here if you want to experience an eclectic sound- http://www.vampireweekend.com/ you can listen to the whole thing online! But I really suggest buying it too! Thanks Hubby! I also received a pair of earrings that I can’t wear to something literary (not sure of what kind of event could be considered literary but I am on the lookout!) I received these from my office mate from grad school who now lives in S.C. which is much too far! super cute earrings! She picked the words souse and yawp! We love Whitman! I got some other great presents from other friends wine, scarves, and more earrings! I have felt so blessed this birthday to be surrounded in my life by amazing people and friends! I do however have some fear of never being able to say I am in my early twenties! And am totally fearing having to say in three years that I will be TWENTY EIGHT! Do not even get me started on the TH-word!

3. Decided that tomorrow, weather permitting, I will be getting my first tattoo! Three stars on my right wrist. Pictures will be forth coming!

4. The hubs and I purchased our first major appliance! did you know washers can be pretty? ours is? can you paint washers?? Yay for completing #24 on my 26 before 26 list!!

5. Installed a new and longer power cord on our dryer! The words damn, I am mommy hear me roar, and hells yeah all left my mouth during this time, but the new power cord reaches the outlet and is electrically sound. This experience is not only unique because it is the first time I ever did electrical work (beyond screwing in a bulb) but also because I read the ENTIRE directions!

6. Filed every bill and piece of paperwork we have received since moving to this house (6 months worth of bills….kinda scary). Also, during filing all of my papers and comps from grad school I discovered some poetry I had composed for a class and decided to post some on here sometime soon.

7. Went to Sams Club, which was great but I have a small suggestions for Sams Club shoppers out there: If you are like us and only go once a month, DON’T SKIP A MONTH OR TWO, because the next time you go all those things you have been going without or that you have been stretching then become necessary purchases and you double your typical bill…OUCHERS!

8. Cleaned my room…and yes because Mommy ( me mommy not my mommy) said so… the Hubs and I’s room was beginning to look as though we had both reverted back to high school. Most of the issue was that both of us hate putting away clothes and that when we have to put away clothes there is usually a ton to put away because before this morning we only did laundry twice a month at the laundry mat. Now that the washer is here hopefully we will have less of a problem!

Okay, so maybe I thought I had done more…it seemed like it after our marathon errand day yesterday! But, you probably don’t need to hear about the earrings I bought or how I actually left the GAP without purchasing anything despite having a gift card that could have been used entirely guilt free!

So, I will end here and hopefully be back to blogging more routinely now that our traveling is done and it seems unlikely we will have school the rest of the week!