6.23.2009

OK, fine. So it's not raining.


I think that I am incapable of enjoying an entire day off at home. I feel compelled to go shopping. I wish I could say that I just wanted to get out of the house, but I always have the intention of buying things- books, crafting junk, movies, or bizarre clothing. I'm fairly certain this is not a healthy (or frugal) compulsion, but Mike supports me nonetheless. I have been on a tie dying spree. I didn't get a chance to do this properly as a child or teenager, so I've been making up for lost time. Thus far, I've done 5 onesies (fivesies?), 2 toddler tees, 2 kid tees (Charlotte and Georgia's), 3 adult tees, 1 shirt for my father, 2 tank tops, 3 pairs of underwear, 2 pairs of boxers, and a pair of socks. I am by no means finished. I have been pleased with most of the results, this seems to be a hobby that you can't screw up. It's fast and easy and beautiful, and if anyone wants to do it with me, I will gladly share!

The tee shirt for my dad was a father's day present. I couldn't help not having anything better for him, but he was pretty delighted. For those of you who don't know my father (Avery of Avery's Flowers), he is a very sweet, mild mannered conservative man who gets tickled by simple things and knows every pertinent date of everyone he's ever met. You can test him on that. He will astound you. He was tickled by his shirt, "I've never had a tie dyed shirt! This is really neat! I think I'll wear it tomorrow." This made me happy. I can't wait to see him in it.

In other news, Mike and I have been re watching the Harry Potter movies. Well, Mike's been watching them and I've been falling asleep through them (work schedule's a bitch- I go in so early it's still late). As we were watching Harry Potter the third, otherwise known as The Prisoner of Azkaban, I noticed something rather out of place in The Three Broomsticks. As the camera pans around the bar, it lingers for a moment on a wizard/warlock/scrub having a cup of tea and reading a book. The book looked familiar. We backed up and paused the DVD. He was reading Stephen Hawking's A Brief History of Time. Interested in Muggle studies, perhaps?

Speaking of A Brief History of Time, Mike found the book the very next day (which was yesterday) at a lovely place called The Book Rack near Carolina Place Mall. He bought that, and I got several books on Shakespeare, The Penguin Book of Women's Humor,  Cattus Petasatus, and The History of Sex (which I promise is not a smut book). 

Also yesterday, we patronized Barnes and Noble (the beautiful store at Carolina Place). There I snagged some bargain books on clearance, and an amazing documentary on Dinosaurs narrated by Kenneth Branagh. I am fascinated by dinosaurs, and their skeletons. This documentary or series, or whatever it is, blows my mind. It's actual footage of real dinosaurs spanning millions of years. Satellites are amazing, I guess. The dinosaurs run into the camera sometimes, and have shattered a few lenses, but it's all for the sake of science. And I promise it's all real, it's on TV. Jurassic Park has nothing to this.

Finally, in the dino-doc there were these little creatures that were a "missing link" between reptiles and mammals. They were basically beaver/prairie dogs. They lived in little inland dens and mated for life. They made their nests out of lichen and other sparse and wiry scrub. They were pretty cute little things. After we decided we couldn't waste this morning in front of the TV watching about dinosaurs I told Mike we were a lot like those little prairie dog things. His reply,

     "Mmhmm. I'll lay you down on a bed of lichen."

I am indeed in love.

6.12.2009

Rain

Perhaps my commitment to this blob... oops, I mean blog ( I thought blob was pretty funny... and whoa! Not even the first sentence in and I already have a parenthetical statement!) should rely not on commitment from me, rather than a sign from God in the form of a good thunderstorm. 

Crack of lightning, tree limbs waving wildly, rain beating against window panes, 
EMILY, THIS IS YOUR HOLY FATHER- IT IS TIME FOR YOU TO RETURN TO DREADFUL SORRY CLEMENTINE AND GIVE DISCOURSE UPON THE TOPICS OF YOUR LIFE AND YOUR MIND WHICH I HAVE SO GIFTED YOU WITH... and lay off the hummus, and keep your plants watered a little more faithfully,OK?!
Water rivuleting down pavement, eyes growing heavy from the peacefulness of rain...

So, here's the news. I have written probably five blog entries which went unpublished because it wasn't raining. Ok, seriously, they were just rambles. I think of great blog entries all the time, but after the effort of thinking them I rarely have the stamina to write them. So marvel at my unblogged blog, because I promise you you'd like it. I've read about real bloggers lamenting how easy it is to post a zillion things a day through twitter, and I kind of hate twitter. It's just another way to be narcissistic, unless you have fascinating or informative posts (Neil Gaiman, anyone?). I don't really care what people are doing, or how much they hate their jobs (who doesn't?), or how cool they think they are because of X. So, I'll admit that I can't look away, but I'm making a pretty decent effort. Yet, writing this drivel I know I'll post the link in twitter for any who may be interested.

In other news, I'm learning how to decorate cakes. I think I'm a great cake decorator assistant, but I haven't the confidence for the big things like wedding cakes, and too much confidence for the boring, everyday birthday cakes. This is not a career path I want to pursue, but while I have to work at what I don't want to work at for the rest of my life, I'd like to do cakes. I'm relearning how to hula hoop, and I've been jumping rope (I really wanted to say jump roping, just so you know), but the jump rope is not a great indoor activity, especially to those living on floors above others. The others who live below me, incidentally, have returned home to Scotland for a few weeks, thus the indoor jumping of rope that took place yestereve. I'm also looking in on their cats. One is a kitten and cute, the other unfortunately grew up into a real live cat (I always hope for something different). His name is Hamish and he lives outside, which I like. 

I am planning on (re-)attending UNCC in the fall for graduate study. The classes I'm in are Multicultural children's lit (amazing reading list!!!!), Shakespearean Tragedies (whatev), and Ancient world lit (basically creation myths from 3 cultures- sweet!!!). I love dwelling in fiction and fantaticalness.


/end blog post for sudden lack of original thought