Saturday, July 29, 2006

Today's Adventure

Tearing all the plaster off the wall in her bathroom. It was quite a job, I might add, but it was time spent in good company. Anne Lamott wrote in one of her books (Traveling Mercies, I think) that there are some people who could call you up and take you out to a great restaurant and a play and it would be a drag, but there are others who are so cool that they could call you up and suggest driving their garbage to the dump and it would be a great time. She is of the latter category :)

Tuesday, July 25, 2006

Mountain Biking

It was quite difficult, actually. I'd never been. I'm really skinned up from falling off my bike, but I have to admit that this did not happen while mountain biking. I fell off my bike because I got too close to the curb while riding over to meet WW for our bike ride. Whoops. We're going to try it again sometime, though. We both ended up crashed in a coffee shop after about an hour. It was exhausting. At any rate, we both have really busy weeks, so we won't see each other again until Saturday. That's kind of sad, actually. We've been spending so much time together that it will be kind of weird. At any rate, I'll have time to heal and get rested up before our next big adventure :)

Sunday, July 23, 2006

New Year's Resolutions 2006

The halfway point has come and gone. Let's see how I'm doing. There are *** by the ones I've done.

1. Spend more time with friends***
2. Tithe (hoping to be able to do this come fall when I'll finally be making more)
3. Exercise***
4. Lose 15 pounds
5. Get a college-level creative writing teaching job with benefits */2 (got a job with no benefits)
6. Join the singles group at church (joined a ministry program and the choir instead, which suit me better)
7. Read at least one prose book each month in addition to all my poetry***
8. Grade my student's papers within one class period***
9. Pay off at least half of my credit card
10. Call or email at least one out of town friend per week
11. Set aside an hour or two each week to clean my apartment
12. Keep a regular writing schedule (did this for a while, but now that my book is finished, I've been going through a dry spell writing-wise)
13. Go to the art museum more often
14. Smell the lilacs as much as possible***
15. Get a houseplant***
It's been a weekend that was all over the place emotionally. Two women I have learned a lot from have started down new roads, my pastor who had her last Sunday in my church today and my favorite graduate school professor who has taken a job in my home state. I will write more about these two women in the coming days.

My dear friend, Lori, lost her father to pancreatic cancer at the end of last week, and the memorial service is tomorrow. Please keep her and her mother in your prayers.

I have spent all weekend with the wild woman from the previous post and a couple of friends. WW and I went on a beautiful hike in the mountains on Thursday. We both ended up flinging ourselves in the river and swimming, mid-hike. My cross country coach would have been proud. We always did stuff like that when I ran with him.

On Friday, Michelle Malone performed in town. If you don't know her music, check it out. Her new album is coming out in October (I think), and it is going to have a lot of awesome bluesy songs on it. Oh, and I caught her guitar pick when she launched it into the audience. I was very pleased with myself. That's probably the only thing I've ever caught in my life, besides the flu.

Then I went camping after work yesterday with WW and two other friends. It was pretty awesome. We went out to the sand dunes and camped last night and then hiked the dunes this morning. It's amazing how many animal tracks cover those dunes. It was amazing.

Then I called in sick to work today and spent the day with the same group of women, tubing the river and then going to see Superman Returns, which I enjoyed. I'd never seen any of the Superman movies, so it was a new experience.

I'm going mountain biking on Tuesday with WW. Pray that I don't die. It's been a while...

Sunday, July 16, 2006

Mountain

So I've sort of been seeing someone. Even if it doesn't last (and who knows?), she's been really good for me. For example, last night, she dragged me out of the house and made me climb a mountain with her. It was fabulous fun, even though I can hardly walk this morning. This week, we're going hiking again and then camping this weekend. We may also go tubing at some point this week or next. She's so adventurous! I love to try new things, so it's been great to go exploring with her. On our first date, we ended up going off roading in her jeep and then going up into the hills to look over the city and listen to the coyotes. How awesome is that! I've never had such a good first date. She's always keen to show me different places she's discovered. It's awesome. We got to the top of the mountain last night and watched the sunset. It was a really nice night.

Wednesday, July 12, 2006

The Buffet

"I think I have really adapted this attitutde that my spiritual jounrney requires slices, bits and pieces of different religions, philosphies and belief systems."

Someone very wise said this to me today, and it articulated perfectly the shape my own spirituality is taking. I have been at the religious buffet for quite some time. No one religion does it for me anymore. I am perfectly comfortable at my Christian church, though. It's just the sort of place where a lot of people feed at the religious buffet and feel comfortable talking about it.

On Monday, I received news that my pastor is in the process of leaving our church. I am very saddened by this, both because I adore her and because she is the one who first showed me that it was okay to be comfortable at the religious buffet. She is always there herself. I will miss her presence at my church a great deal. She is the reason I ended up there in the first place.

Sunday, July 02, 2006

Because I don't spend nearly enough of my life doing surveys this summer...

1. How tall are you barefoot?
5'3"

2. Have you ever been unfaithful in a relationship? No

3. Do you own a gun?
No, but squirt guns are fun.

4. If you had a mental disorder, what would it be? What kind of question is this? And I do already.

5. How many letters are in your crush's name?
She has a really long name. And I'm not entirely sure.

6. What do you think of hot dogs?
eh, they're alright.

7. What's your favorite Christmas song?
O Holy Night and Hark! The Herald Angels Sing

8. What do you prefer to drink in the morning?
hot tea

9. Do you do push-ups?
I try, but it ain't pretty.

10. Have you ever done ecstasy?
no

11. Do you have a girlfriend? no

12. Do you like the rain?
not unless there's a draught

15. Do you have A.D.D?
no

16. Full initials?
VE

17. Name 4 thoughts at this exact moment.
1) I need to turn my alarm off.
2) Poor Lori.
3) Damn apartment people.
4) I need to do the laundry.

18. Name the last 3 things you have bought in the past week.
1) Wendy's chicken strips
2) iced tea
3) milk

20. What time did you wake up today?
early, thank you, Miss Fuzzy Cat

21. Can you spell?
yes

22. Current worry?
Lori and her dad :(

23. Current hate?
cancer

24. Favorite place to be?
my grandmother's house

25. Least favorite place to be?
hospital

26. Where would you like to go?
Venice

27. Do you own slippers?
yes, but I never wear them

28. Where do you think you'll be in 10 yrs?
married with kids, in a tenure track teaching position

29. Do you burn or tan?
burn, and then blister and peel, it's stunning.

30. Yellow or blue?
both

31. Would you be a pirate?
sure, why not. and I'm way too excited about the next Pirates of the Caribbean movie. I'm going to go to the midnight showing on Thursday.

32. Last time your phone rang?
don't know, it's on silent so I can ignore it

33. What songs do you sing in the shower?
ones I make up

34. What did you fear was going to get you at night as a child?
um, snakes

35. What's in your pockets right now?
laundry quarters, and the locks on the apartment laundry room have been changed and I can't get a new key until Wednesday. Grr.

36. Last thing that made you laugh?
my cat

37. Best bed sheets you had as a child?
I have no idea.

38. Worst injury you've ever had?
I got attacked by a dog. It was pulled off before it bit me, but it knocked me over and I sprained my ankle pretty badly.

40. How many TVs do you have in your house?
1

45. what is your favorite book?
Oh gosh, I have lots of favorites. New and Selected Poems by Mary Oliver, Traveling Mercies by Anne Lamott, the Harry Potter series, So Far from God by Ana Castillo, Tipping the Velvet and Fingersmith by Sarah Waters (by far the best lesbian novels I have ever read--this is me recommending them), and Jasper Fforde's Thursday Next series

46. What song did you last hear?
something from Amy Ray's CD, Prom

48. What is your favorite cereal?
Cheerios

49.What were you doing at midnight last night?
chatting on IM with a new friend

50.what was the first thing you thought of when you woke up?
If I pretend to be asleep, maybe she'll go away. Of course, the fuzzy girl knows this ploy and wasn't fooled.