Oops.

So, i'm messing around with my look again. but i've already wasted a lot of time on it so i'm gonna come back to it later. mostly i really need to fix the colors, but what do you think about the picture? too busy? too awkward? don't worry, it'll get better, at least that's what i'm telling myself.

Autumn Update

Much has changed since my last entry…

It is glorious fall! There’s that crispness that spikes the air (even on warmer days) and makes me want to watch soccer or go on a meandering walk. There’s that crystal clearness in the air that makes me want to use my mind, to shake of the dust and stickiness of summer and at least listen to an intellectual discussion, even if i don’t partake. it makes me miss college and the opportunity to both do, and to sit back and enjoy the doing of these things. Although i suppose i now have the time to fully explore whatever i want without the drudge of homework…as long as i can figure out what to explore…

Like my new home! my head hurts much less than it did last time i wrote. Etta is one of the reasons. we found a delightful little house to rent and we characterize her as an older, mostly proper, British lady with a fascination in India, who plays badminton in her Victorian dress, barefoot. She is also characterized by the hardwood floors, arched doorways, gas fireplace, and somewhat wild backyard. and i’m surprising myself by enjoying living in a city and exploring it.

i have a new job i’m getting used to as well, the one i referred to in the last post that i took a skills test for. i started in july. it’s only part time, but it’s busy enough that i’m ok with that. It’s very different from the small academic Tabor library, but most of the time i enjoy it, and there’s plenty of quirky and strange characters to observe.

rachel’s enjoying her job as ER nurse and being nocturnal. i’m adjusting to having a nocturnal roommate. you would think it would work well with the insomnia, but instead i just stay up way too late sometimes…good thing i work in the afternoon. i’m also adjusting to living in the same town as brian and getting to see him more than just on the weekend, hooray! which i must say is a delightful adjustment.

and so. that’s the brief update. life is good. different, but good.

Random:

Six-word stories and memoirs coming soon!

and this is why my head hurts.

moving.
moving sucks, even if you know when and where you are moving to. if you're still in the deciding stages of such, it's worse.
job hunting.
i've applied for 2 library jobs. i have a skills test for one of them on saturday. i plan to case the joint for the second one. and scope out a house.
work stressed that shall not be named.
work party that will be fun, but i have to do stuff for.
work stress about the fact that i'll probably be leaving, and what will happen then? who will train all the new students we need?
that thing called Commencement Day where i get to run around like crazy trying to go to everything i possibly can, and seeing and hugging as many people as i possibly can. but is still a week away.
that thing called all of graduation weekend were there are a million people running out your ears. but also a week away.
and of course the usual:
allergies.
not sleeping.

Hooray for the fact that this weekend should be really good. busy, but good.

so now, instead of listing any more of such pesky headaches, i will go scope out some library-ness. or maybe go to bed.

random thought:
taffy is good. i need to try some homemade stuff.

why did i decide to post Right Now...shouldn't i be sleeping?!

dang. it's been a long time. again.
hmmm, what to write about? the craziness of life? the craziness of spring weather? the craziness of my house? yes, yes i think that's it.

mostly because we had another funeral. yep. killin' 'em off left and right over here at Myra (beware!). Now, it's been awhile, so this will be to the best of my memory. please, correct me if the details are a bit hazy.

It was a lovely March evening. Spring Break for some people, so we had company staying over (shocking, i know). It was one of those weird late evening dinners. Huzzah, Pizza! Again, we were lingering far too long over our meal when Sharon looks up and says, "I think he's dead."

"Huh?" "No way!" "Who?!" "Is he faking it again?" the chorus of responses....But no. Rachel jumps up to give Oscar a closer inspection. The poor guy has looked a little listless before, even green around the gills, but this, this was definitely dead. We have a floater.

But are we really sure? i mean, we don't want to flush him and then find out he's alive when he hits the bowl. So Rachel grabs some sort of (formerly) clean utensil and nudges him a bit. and then stirs the water a bit. (we'd already done this frequently when he was living, because he wasn't really the kind of fish to live without an air pump. except he did a pretty good job of it for 5 months.) Then Erin decided to give it a good little whirl. which would almost make you think he was alive, except for the swimming backwards. which of course is easily remedied by stirring the other way.

well. after deciding that he really was dead we made the funeral preparations. We had to scrounge up a few more hats for the guests. Make a nice little cloth funeral pyre for the poor little guy. find the right text. come up with a song. make sure we have the roles properly assigned.
ok, we're ready. Rachel is the primary mourning this time. i held the lad and was secondary mourner. Sharon read the text, Ecclesiastes 3, again, so appropriate. Lisa graced us with the song "Baby Beluga," a melancholy little ditty that was fitting for our finned friend. Erin led the funeral procession to the almost-final resting place, while we all hummed "Taps". Rachel said her final goodbye and dropped dear Oscar in with a 'plop' and there he went, on that final swim to that Great Fish Bowl in the Sky.

So goes another adventure in Myra. And the rest of the week proceeded along quite nicely, with lots of food, some of it even fried, although it wasn't the pizza. and none of it named, sadly enough.
and the adventures have gone on, and on, and will keep going on...huzzah!
(just beware, if you are ever a birthday present to someone in Myra...your life may not be as long as you would like....dun, dun, duuun)

Random:
if you want something more random than this entire post is, including the fact that it's a month late, and midnight, you'd better look somewhere else....
(ugh, that's really lame...maybe i'll think of something better after i sleep...look somewhere else??!)

Plant Funeral

(the neighbors are home!!!)

we do a lot of somewhat strange things in our house, in case you hadn’t noticed. we’re practicing for when we’re eccentric old ladies, but that’s another story. this is a story that took place longer ago than i would have liked to have recorded it, but, alas, we’ve been without the kindly internet of the neighbors, so this post is a bit behind. Anywho…on to the dirge.

We here at Myra were having a lazy Saturday morning. We slept late, had pie and cake for breakfast, planned our parties for the next semester, and pretty much didn’t move from the table till noon. Ah, but when we did move, that’s when tragedy struck. Sharon comes back to kitchen very mournfully. The mere bump of a leaf brought Chahia to her death. Or rather made the rotted center apparent. And so, such a member of the family cannot just be dropped in the trash can, oh no. We donned proper attire, top hat for Rachel, fedora for Sharon, and bowler for me…along with our bathrobes. May i just say that Ecclesiastes 3 is the perfect text for almost anytime. You can’t get any better than a time to tear, a time to ruin, and best of all a time to uproot. And a multitude of laughter can be covered by fake sobs. So, with a chorus of Amazing Grace, Hope found its way to the wastebasket with a dash of dust to dust.

Yup, just another day at Myra.

Random Thought: I'm sick of my nose getting cold INSIDE my house!

Inappropriate Thursday

it's thursday and i haven't been inappropriate yet, at least not on purpose....so i'll share a dream i had the other night that could be classified as inappropriate.

there i was, leaving one dream, walking out of a door, and into another. i was dressed in these hideous orange hawaiian gaucho pants and a shirt that was some awful contrast. apparently i was dreaming in color (also people's hair kept changing colors, sometimes it was that horrendous orange-ish yellow that was high school bleaching). And i was standing on the top of a mountain ridge. there was a shallow valley area that had large patches of snow that people were playing in, making mounds of snowballs and such. i saw some random friends and waved. i saw some other friends and darted behind a tree (i didn't want to be seen in my weird clothes). i guess when i turned around one of my college friends, briana was sitting on a rock and we started talking. then other college friends started showing up. and other random people. i knew all of them, although some were people i hadn't seen in a while. all except one. some Random Guy that had apparently shown up with someone else was there. we were all sitting around on rocks and joking around and such, and then Random Guy pipes up (something along the lines of) "Supreme Pizza will take a woman places a man never could!"
umm... uhh... awkward shifting gazing as everyone thinks "who is this guy?" And then i woke up.

so, i guess, the moral of this dream is to beware of orange hawaiian gauchos....


Random...well, actually Random Guy has been random enough for this post.

Good Morning!

i'm in denial that it's been since October that i posted. yes. it was only like a month ago... i'm sure of it.

ok, so i did realize that it's been a long time when i decided to remind myself what my new year's resolutions were last year. At the beginning of 2008 the only one i could remember was the goal to read 1 non-fiction book a month. i failed. but i did do a lot of reading and a lot more of it was non-fiction. maybe i'll compile a list of what i read...if i can remember... maybe.
i completely forgot about the posture one. although i did work on it off and on throughout the year. like when we happened to meet up with Uncle Emery one evening. and right now because i'm thinking about it. i never did go back to the homeless shelter, although it did cross my mind. maybe this year?

This year my only solid resolution is to tithe. cause i pretty much don't. so that's what i'm gonna do.
Maybe now that i've reminded myself of last year's i can kind of work on them as well. i've never felt that these resolutions were very concrete. They're more like goals to work toward, but if i don't quite achieve them, well, i can keep working on them.

perhaps i should also make a resolution to post more often, but that seems a little unrealistic. who knows, maybe this will just become a record of my new year's resolutions. which would be ok with me.

Random: We must be swift as a coursing river, with all the force of a great typhoon, with all the strength of a raging fire, mysterious as the dark side of the moon!
(guess what i'm listening to...)

whiteboard conversations

we have a whiteboard in our house. we generally use it to let each other know where we are and what's going on. lately we've been using a little 'artistic license'. here's a little example of our current dialogue:

&

S~ I'm being stalked by an ampersand! It's leering over my shoulder.

R~ Do you suppose he's like... the bully of symbols... you know the kid who spent some time in Ju-V and never adjusted to normal society?

A~ I don't know, maybe he's just sadly misunderstood. I mean, now one knows how to write him correctly, they always make up their own symbol or write out 'and'. really he just wants to be seen [and (fake symbol used here)] understood. That's my analysis.

S~ I think Amy must be right. I mean both of you wrote ['and' fake symbol] when the appropriate symbol would have sufficed. He's just neglected :(

A~ Of course I'm right, I was a psych major.

R~ So is a wrong psych major like a blue moon? Or maybe a snowball in hell? Or just really unlikely like cake R doesn't like.....

&

This conversation isn't over. i don't think. i'll let you know how it ends. maybe.


Random?
FYI- my bike's name is Sally. it fits well.

ahem, yes, it's random.

I like helping people. I'm glad i get to help people in my job. it makes me smile. i like it best when i actually know the answer and it really is helpful. which doesn't always really happen. but i do know where the caf and the admissions building are.




On another note, i'm trying to figure out what to name my bike. Any suggestions??



Random Observation:
My hands look extra freckle-y today.

Salads, Mustangs, and Earthquakes, Oh My!

Today i rode around in a '68 Mustang. i saw a movie. i went shopping. i had lunch. i took a nap. soon i'm going to eat some fabulous beef stew. This is the life. having other people pay for my food, cook me food, pay for my clothes, my movies...it's been great.
They say, "So, have you ever thought about living in California? You could get a job and live with us till you get on your feet. it'd be great!" i honestly never thought about it. seriously. i've imagined living in so many places, but this was not one of them. dangit. something else to add to the list. although something about almost always perfect weather and almost always crowded streets doesn't quite suit me.

well, i've got another week to hopefully experience my earthquake. That, i believe would make the California experience complete. However, i could be wrong. if you know of something else i should do to complete this experience, please, let me know!

Random Observation:
Californians are weird. (Big surprise) They devote entire restaurants to salads. (i've been to two such places.) at least that's what you would think. you walk in and immediately you have a tray that you start create your perfect salad. They want you to have the perfect perception that they are all health nuts. however, once you've paid for your salad you can then load your tray with other foods such as a variety of breads, pastas, soups, fruit, pudding, and yes, even ice cream!

Salad anyone? oh yes, and i'll top it off with a soda and some ice cream!

I'm not dead. i'm just tired. i'll post again someday. i promise.

Random Thought: there is only one The Land Before Time. nothing else that tries to have that name is legit. ...in my own opion...

My Almost Entire Week of Live Music. (pt. 1)

umm, this is mostly just a list so i can kind of remember some of what i did this last week. it may not really be that interesting.

So, i’ve done more than my fair share of grumbling, complaining, wretching, sighing, whatever, about how no one plays (live) music in our living room anymore.
(see, people used to hang out at our house and just pick up that guitar in the corner and play…sometimes there would suddenly be more guitars and various percussion. Or (nor really in the living room) when Becky and Jen would sit on the balcony and play, play, play, and people would sometimes come by and sing. then of course it moved to the back porch and the djembe was added.)

i think i’ll have to shut up for awhile.

Let’s see….(shimmery, wavey filmstrip color wash fade to flashback like the old movies)

Last Thursday i got to hear landon play and sing and elise sing, and Sharon play to practice for The Foote’s wedding. it was great and vaguely reminiscent of years past. this was followed by Friday and the Actual Wedding which was Mauve-elous (actually it was coral-ish, but ya know). so this was more of the same music as the day before plus landon playing at the reception.
we drove back Friday night so we could enjoy an Entire Day of music.

Saturday! Taborstock! “Did you know that Tabor was copying Woodstock? I could hear the drums all day…boom, boom, boom.” said the little old lady at church Sunday. hmm, yes, something like that. we heard more Landon Tucker, Radiant Effect, i268, Chasing Eleanor, Abandon Kansas, SP&D, and Stephen Speaks (i may have forgotten someone, eh). Pretty sweet, and only my leg got sunburned.

Sunday i listened to “Gospel Hill and Friends” practice. aka Dr. Ressler, jen, norm, laura, josh, and Bethany, and a banjo player. i watched the practice so i could go to the Tabor Band concert. It was awesome! Angie totally rocked the Rhapsody for Flute. and they did a great suite from Pirates of the Carribean.

OK, so this feel pretty stinkin’ long since i filled this piece of paper at Guitar Recital. so Monday-Thursday will appear in part 2.

Whew, that's outa the way!

Oh goody. i got the Depressing Post of the Year (or at least a while). Up next.... My Almost Entire Week of LIVE Music..... tomorrow. cause even though i wrote part of it tonight at the latest live event, i'm too tired to type it up.

hasta manana.
ciao.

Blue\Funk

*WARNING* This is fairly long, and not quite as well thought out as i would like. Read at your own Risk.

So, there’s this mood-swing-type-thing that happens to me in the Spring. It’s something that i always kind of associated with having too much homework and procrastinating because of spring fever. Apparently that’s not the problem, cause i have a case of what i like to call the Blue\Funk.

What it is:
Blue\Funk is what i call it, because i go from being Blue to being in a just plain Funky mood like the swing of a pendulum, sometimes in the matter of minutes. Now, you must understand what i mean by Blue. This not quite a “woe is me” or “in the depths of despair,” obviously, otherwise it would be called that, and i might need professional help. this is just Blue. kind of like the sky after dusk. or the sky when it’s thunderstormy, and it all looks tossed about…that feeling. Blue is kind of a melancholy contentedness. i’m not sure if i can explain that. i’m content not in a HaPpY *big cheesy grin* kind of way, but a completely content, but in a bittersweet sort of way. (I also tend to contemplate my life a whole lot more.)

This of course leads me to explain my definition of Funk. This is not like “whoa, what’s that funky smell?!” and not the state of fear (as Merriam-webster mentions). Nor is it the common Mennonite name of Funk. This is more like the musical kind of Funk. like Thirstborne’s Funk Song, or maybe moreso their AcoustiFunk Song version. It just makes you want to dance, you can’t help but moving. Generally when i swing toward Funk i get kinda hyper. this is also interesting because i’m more likely to be Funky when others are around.

What it has caused me to do:
I’ve frequently stood on random pieces of furniture. Normally chairs, but sometimes desks…i haven’t met a table quite sturdy enough yet. i generally like using furniture incorrectly, which i think i have mentioned before, but this time i’m generally much more hyper. i think i’ve scared my roommate. or maybe just been a form of amusement for her.

I guess i felt like sharing, because this is a ‘neurosis theory’ i’m trying to work out, and i needed to put it into words. cause sometimes i have a hard time figuring myself out and putting it into words. And, i really wasn’t expecting to have to deal with it this year, since i’m not it school. Maybe it’s because in the Spring there’s always change on the wind. and while i like the wind, it can make me a little restless.

Random Thought:
I think that bimonthly get-togethers, or at least phone calls should be manditory for friends after college graduation. (i'm sick of having people fade out of my life!)

Read my VisualDNA™ Get your own VisualDNA™

so, i guess i sorta stole this. i'm pretty much a fan of personality tests. maybe that's why i was a psych major...?

Green Confetti Dots!

I love spring.

my walk home was a feast for the senses. I smelled rainforest, Ireland, wood smoke, fresh laundry. I heard happy twittering birds, someone whistling Ode to Joy, a mourning dove.

I'm glad God loves spring too. why else would he shower confetti all over the place. the white petals drifting over campus are beautiful to watch (from the safety of the library where i don't have to smell them...eww). I think my favorite is the vibrant green confetti falling around our house. dotting the mud and the naked yard, making it feel like, well, not really like a party. more like royalty or a bride is coming. ooh, that's cool! lent is almost over.

in many ways i'm getting tired of not seeing the sun, or at least not for very long. i'm tired of the smell of moist wood in our house, and all the other odd smells it gives off in the dampness. the stuffiness in my head from allergies? but, i can't get over how alive green things look right now. how the air feels like it is offering something nurturing to the earth, to me.

it's sprinkling again. what a beautiful sound. refreshing and renewing. just what i need.


Random Thought: actually it's not random...it's surprisingly 'coincidental'. yesterday i glanced at some notes i had taken out of my c.s. lewis folder. i had written "LOTR, I want to be an elf -they provide rest in chaos". Late last night i was flipping through a journal i like to make lists in and saw "Elves provide rest in chaos. -I want to be an elf. LOTR". I would imagine i copied the second note from the first, but i sure was surprised to see them on the same day!
it made me wonder, What would Faber have done if i had made my mission statement "My mission is to be an Elf."?!

(sorry the post and random thought were so long, i couldn't decide which one i wanted to be the thought and which the post, till i walked home)

fried pizza

so. i've been meaning to write something on here for a long time. but i had nothing to write about. no exciting stories, except sitting around. no deep thoughts. but now...i have something to write.
we. fried. pizza. yes, that's right.... we deep-fat fried pizza. pretty amazing. and surprisingly tasty. kinda like a pizza roll and a mozzerella stick, just like the one website said. of course it sat very, veryheavy in the stomach for quite some time.
see, when rachel's former roommate erin comes to visit they like to make new and/or exciting foods.

we also went and saw the Bridge to Terabithia, which was very good. i cried. i knew it would be sad. i read the book. i think i liked to movie better. or at least the same, it was well done. it made you feel more connected to Terabithia. they did a good job of communicating things that are often hard to tranfer from a book to the screen. things such as the longing for a relationship with his father, and the desire and struggle to find true creativity. however they did have a little problem setting up the reason for the kid running at the beginning.
we also ate lobster. i hadn't ever had it, so i wasn't sure if i would like it. but i sure did. seafood is pretty amazing when it's done right.
now i'm gonna go back to being lazy and enjoy my brief 'spring break'.

Missing the Blanket

I miss the Blanket.

Today is Friday. Friday means Blanket Day. True, it's a bit chilly and quite blustery. We probably wouldn't have made it out today,but perhaps.

I miss those warm summery-fall or summery-spring days spent lougeing in the sun. I miss those philosophical and theological debates, that i normally just listened to, occasionally putting in a comment probably only worth two cents. i miss the drawing of fake tatoos, mimicking strange noises and shadow puppets, napping, frisbee-ing, staring at the clouds, listening to music, simply enjoying the silent sounds of the trees, wind, and birds with and among friends. Oh, that circle of friends! oh, my dear friends.
The circle ever changing. As the bells tolled, calling people to class, work, video games,life. but for a brief time we sat together. and they would come back, later, or the next week. and new people wouldcome. The circle was a fluid, changing thing. It was at it's best when it was so.
truthfully there were times when it wasn't as good. when it was viewed as, and perhaps became, cliqueish. sadly enough.Oh, those golden early days though!

It would not be the same now. but i have those glorious memories. and it felt like home.


I sit in the Library these afternoons of sudden spring. I look longingly out the windows wishing i could be sitting inthe black hole, or on a blanket, or a balcony with friends playing guitar. Times change. I also look with a ridiculous amount of pride at all the people who are actually enjoying the fine weather, as if i had something to do with it. one day i observed people avoiding chapel and sitting on a blanket...and then, playing Red Rover! how glorious! i'm sure i was grinning ridiculously, just glad that there are people with that childlike abandon i hope i can always keep.

Someday something like the Blanket will return. because people always came back. we will come back. we have to.

Random Thought: i got nothin'. sorry.

My Bedroom Window is Frost-covered

"Whoah! she posted twice in one week!!"


This is what i'm gonna do with my blog. keep writing and posting the same way i always have.

I worry too much about what other people think. in every area of my life. when i started this, for the most part i didn't care what people thought, partly cause i knew no one knew about it. then i just kept posting cause i enjoyed it and i knew a few other people read it, and at least felt connected to me.

i went back the other day after my last post and reread my entire blog. before my post i had only looked at a few dates. after reading the whole thing i realized that those select dates were just that...a part of the whole thing. sure, there are shallow, poorly written entries. sure, there are ones that i put more thought into...that still didn't end up being all that much. but they are still interesting, at least to me. 'cause sometimes it helps me rememberwhat else was going on at that point of my life. or because it's interesting to see the types of thoughts i was having...so, i'm not gonna change the way i post. at least not make a deliberate change. it's gonna just be how it comes. and probablya lot of sentences will start with 'So'.

i discovered some things in going back. I was really bogged down with homework and i used this as an escape...to procrastinate-my middle name. This isn't necessarily an escape right now (except maybe from dishes) so i got to over-thinking it. I had forgotten that i had an anonymous commenter last year. if i had read itbefore i had forgotten that after our JTT bday party last year my friend beth told me about being in class with him! And wonder of wonders, after my july post about Lord Peter What's-His-Bucket a lady named Anne found me when googling one of his quotes...amazing. So, even though i may have been feeling sorry for myself and the fact that no one reads this...i'm wrong. sometimes people read it. and it doesn't really matter if they do or not. as long as it's fun, i'll post.

Oo, oo, and i think my facebook status is going to sometimes be one of those "Amy is..." google things that i posted sometime last year. teehee.

Oh, and it'll still be somewhat random. i hope. (since i changed the name and all.)

Random Thought: I like to get roses...bush.

Past the 2 year mark...now what?

I started this thing over two years ago. crazy. it doesn't seem like there's much here for as long as i've had it. probably cause there's not much here. a post sometimes barely once a month.

shortly after starting, i quit. for lent. i wonder what or if i should do something for lent this year?

i'm trying to decide what i want to do with it.

i finally started a blog after my roommate had to get one for class. i had been an avid reader of blogs for quite some time prior to this. by reader i suppose i mean stalker, since i didn't actually know many of the people i was reading.

I wrote this last week, but didn't post it, maybe it makes sense, since it's on this same subject::

I have a blog.
I read other people's blogs. Sometimes i feel like i know the people who write them. most of the time i don't know the people at all...i mean at all. i'm a really good lurker. (if i were stalking them i would find their real names and google them and find pictures and home addresses and all that.. but i don't, i just read the stuff they write, that i find through someone i actually know's link...
this makes me wonder if people read mine randomly. and if they are at all intrigued with who i really am. or have any thoughts i have about the people i lurk around. sometimes i come across someone who is probably very nice and cool and i could be friends with, but their blog is... well... boring. i read a bit, but it's kinda stale, so i leave.
i think that's probably what my blog is like. but what do i really want it to be like? do i want to pour out my thoughts here like other people do? because of this i have felt connected with them. that takes vulnerability. do i want to spend the time constructing a well written entry. one that is both grammatically correct and witty (or pithy...a great word)? do i want a little log of what i'm currently doing with my life...a day by day of my journey (it'd either be prettyboring, or i would have to be creative with it.) That's just it..it would have to be creative. that's what catches people... do i want to catch people? is my blog creative? oy...i'm thinking way too much. (especially about what other people think) 02.08.07

If you actually read all that, Good for You!! Gold Star!
Please tell me what YOU think i should do with this blog....

Random thought: Snow comes up, Charlie Brown! Snow comes up!