I'M DONE

I am now free to clean the house, which has fallen into a state of complete and utter ickiness.

Just one example of end of school pathetic-ness includes a pile of dishes that are easily done, but also conveniently avoided through eating out.

Or garbage cans that have gone without liners, so there are makeshift garbage bags (read: grocery sacks) scattered about the house.

Oh, and maybe I'll plant the flat of pansies I purchased before Thanksgiving. Good thing it rains fairly regularly here. heh.

And though I vowed to get the Christmas music going, I haven't,  but with a clean house, I can pull out my tack silver Christmas tree, and maybe sew, and all those good things that get put off during the semester. woo.

Oh, and I'll probably resume my regular schedule of posting.

Don't be too sad. :)

i left you hanging

Okay, not really.

But I wanted to thank you all for your support during this paper writing period. I only have one more left - an 8-10 pager (read, 8 with lots of quotes) about a book I read.

About the big paper, well, that was only about ten, no 11 hours late. I think I sent it in at 10:40am.

I wish oh how I wish I was coherent enough that I had saved some of the gibberish I wrote in the wee hours this morning. I had finished the last of the sin juice, and was really having a hard time staying awake. I think I've inherited my grandma's head bob action. I'll take it, though, if it means I won't go gray. Anyhoo, I had already edited the paper (you know, with a pen and paper!), and just needed to put the edits in on the computer.

I would be working on a section, and then the next thing I new I had been asleep.

The scary thing is, I thought I had entered all my edits (this was after a short nap so I was a bit more lucid) but decided to do a quick edit scan. Oh man, I had forgotten an entire section - no, it was worse than that. I had drowsy edited an entire section. I have a memory of the word Kulliku or something - capitalized and everything. It took me a good minute or two before I realized it was a nonsense word (there were others, too) and needed to be removed. woo-eee.

So I've learned, Friends don't let friends edit drowsy.

try saying 'numb bum' five times fast

It's definitely time to change where I write from, as I have the loathed 'numb bum,' acquired from sitting in one location for too long. And my poor eyebrows have grown considerably sparser as time grows shorter.

You can tell it's paper writing time, because I've updated my blog more times in twenty-four hours than I have this entire semester.

I just thought you all would want an update.

There are approximately four hours left. It'll be rough, but I think (hope!) I can do it. There are about five more pages of writing to do. Eww. That sounds like a lot.

I've consumer 3/4 of the two liters of sin juice, half a box of hohos, an order of crazy bread, and I somehow thought I'd need two pizzas from Little Caesars. ugh. I was definitely wrong about that. Oh well, leftovers, no?

scriptural revelation!

I have found scriptural based evidence for naming children!

Verse twelve:
 12And behold, I am called ^aMormon, being called after the ^bland of Mormon, the land in which Alma did establish the church among the people, yea, the first church which was established among them after their transgression.


So there you have it, folks. Go ahead and name your children after geographic locales. Though I would recommend sticking to the name of the place you were married, or baptized or the like. For example, all my children will be named Mesa, or some variant.


And now, back to the paper. sigh.

ugh.

Nothing like a little light reading in the early morning hours.

I guess the essay does get a little easier to understand with each reading. The whole political proletariat-ness - that's still waaaay above my understanding, though.

As a complete aside: I have resorted to sin juice to help in the task of staying awake; I'm not sure if the caffeine or the need to use the little girl's room more often has been more effective.

Next article to dissect: "Schizophonic Performance: Guitar Hero, Rock Band and Virtual Virtuosity" by Kiri Miller. woo. (It actually is quite an interesting article, and much easier for the brain to digest than Benjamin.)

And all of these are being read in hopes of application to audiobooks. Twenty-three hours left, and counting.

new label

So, in my attempt to organize (aka not do homework or practice...) I have created a new label: ihateplumbing.

Why? you ask? Well, why not.

Feel free to laugh.

if only...

...it were this easy. :)

(Image taken from the new family search website.)

I thought it was funny.

ohmigoodness!

(excuse the yelling here, but....)

I CAN'T BELIEVE I HAVE NOT BEGUN LISTENING TO CHRISTMAS MUSIC YET!

AH.

This shall be rectified, stat. Silly school, making me think about homework and stuff, when really, there are much more important things in life, such as blasting Christmas music as soon as the Thanksgiving meal is et'up.

Nat King Cole, Julie Andrews, Babs, and even Kenny G (*gasp!*) here I come.

okay, not quite as cursed as i thought

But, still cursed enough to hopefully never own a house on a septic tank.

So, yes, the yard was dug up, but for now it's not as bad as I thought. For now at least.

I was told that the main pipe from the house to the septic does need to be replaced, but the blockage is cleared.

So only the shower needs to be sanitized. And there is a medium sized hole in the front yard. It could have been a lot worse. Mmmhmm.

i swear i'm cursed

The septic demons strike again.

But at least the tank was easy to locate this time.

ugh.

It all started with a clogged toilet, that backed up into the shower, which resulted in the front yard being partially dug up.

Wait, you say. Isn't it Thanksgiving?

Why yes.

So the bathroom will be out of commission for at least all day tomorrow. Maybe more.

But in the spirit of Thanksgiving, I will instead give thanks that at least the guy who came out was able to locate the tank access, so the entire yard will not have to be dug up.

And thankfully the backup occurred after I had showered for the day.

awesome.

erm...

So remember that time when Sunday was daylight savings time in most of the civilized world? Well, I somehow missed that memo.

Perhaps I just ruined the punch line for the story I am about to share, but here goes anyway.

*Beep*Beep*Beep*

Oh how I loathe the alarm clock, but I have made a goal to start getting up earlier. I obeyed the alarm clock (aka phone) yesterday. Got up, started the shower to get it warm, possibly turned the heat up a bit, to create a sauna-like bathroom, etc.

I have been accused of taking long showers, but I really was trying hard to be on time for church today, because usually I'm late. So when I was almost ready, and saw my bathroom clock reading 9:30am, I went into super duper quick mode, and made it out the door ten minutes later. This Sunday was a bit more complicated, as the Old Time ensemble was playing for the North Carolina Music Educators conference at three in Winston-Salem, which meant I would get to lug the mandolin around church (it's almost cold now! boo.) and then high-tail it out there to find the conference center in downtown Winston. Then back to the Friend's house for dinner, then the CES fireside, and then home to a starving Max the Cat. And as I've already digressed, as I was driving home at about 10pm last night, there was a little black kitten on the side of Freeman Mill. I was [this close] to stopping and saving the poor beastie. But I thought that 1) Max the Cat would loathe me even more and 2) Cousin Paul would increase his 'cat lady' commentary to my life. [His most recent was asking if I wanted another cat for Christmas. Bless his heart.]

Okay, back to the story.

I finish getting ready in record speed. Get out the door. Get to church in a decent time, though about ten minutes late. I make the last turn, slow down to enter the parking lot, and see that there are. no. cars.

See, there are three wards that meet in the building. This is up from two when I first moved here. They haven't quite learned how to share the building. It's not like its been two years or anythings. (cough. cough.) As such, the east side of the building is my ward's side. Granted, there were a few rebellious car parkers, but the normally full lot, was mostly vacant. It was then I began to suspect something. But hey, I got a pull through spot! Sweet!

I grab the mandolin, and my church bag, lock the car and rush in as quick as my heels allow.

I hide the mandolin in the foyer so I don't have to carry it in the Chapel, walk in. And find. no one.

I thought stake conference was the 20th. What the heck is going on?

And then, a little fact wiggles into the fore of my brain.

Crap.

Well, at least I was early for church once.

I wandered the halls for a full fifty minutes, in my successful attempt to avoid being asked to give a prayer (don't tell me you've never done that - okay, maybe not for fifty minutes....) and enjoyed the rest of my meetings.

fhe

Tonight for FHE I read first, President Uchtdorf's message to the YW, Your Happily Ever after. For the last bit, I listened to his most recent talk, found in the video here. As a side note, I am posting this directly from the conference webpage. How cool is that??

dream job?

Make sure watch at least through the two minute mark.

If all else fails, I'll rock out on the 'cors anglais.' (Gotta love those Brits.)

oops.

What is wrong with these pictures?

books i've read: update

Changes indicated in Bold and Strikethrough

There has been some progress, no?

Books Reviewed

Tender Morsels

Gregor the Overlander, Suzanne Collins*

Books Finished

To Kill a Mockingbird

The Red Pyramid, Rick Riordan*

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society, Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows

Chains, Laurie Halse Anderson

The Candy Shop War, Brandon Mull

Beatrice and Virgil, Yann Martel*

I am the Messenger, Markus Zusak (read during school - I remembered one!)

Gregor the Overlander, Suzanne Collins*

Gregor and the Prophecy of Bane, Suzanne Collins

Once Upon a Marigold, Jean Ferris (also during school)*

The Adventures of Sally, PG Wodehouse

Me Talk Pretty One Day, David Sedaris

Re-Reads

Book of a Thousand Days, Shannon Hale*

From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, E.L. Konisgburg*

The Indian in the Cupboard, Lynne Reid Banks*

Cater Street Hangman, Callendar Square, Anne Perry*

Books Begun, hope to finish

Me Talk Pretty One Day, David Sedaris

Flower Confidential: The Good, the Bad and the Beautiful in the Business of Flowers, Amy Stewart

A Brief History of the Smile, Angus Trumble

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, John Boyne*

44 Scotland Street, Alexander McCall Smith

Olive's Ocean, Kevin Henkes

Septimus Heap, Book 5: Syren, Angie Sage

Book to Read

Heaven to Betsy and Betsy in Spite of Herself, Maud Hart Lovelace

Olive's Ocean, Kevin Henkes

Septimus Heap, Book 5: Syren, Angie Sage

The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini

The Adventures of Sally, PG Wodehouse

The Elegance of the Hedgehog, Muriel Barbery

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, and Through the Looking Glass, Lewis Carroll

* Audio Books

find the kitty

I may have to switch to doing this feature twice a month.
I know you are all heartbroken.
It's just that Kitty isn't hiding quite so much as he used to.

book: gregor the overlander

by Suzanne Collins

While grocery shopping in the 'boro, and before I tried my best to avoid said large chain store, I would stop by the book section to see what Young Adult books were there, and were within a reasonable price. Un/fortunately, I will always give into a book for a good price.

Well, I needed a Suzanne Collins fix, as I wait patiently for the last book in the trilogy to arrive. The only problem is, school starts the 23 August. I guess homework will just have to wait a day while I read Mockingjay. The same will happen when Heroes of Olympus arrives.

But enough of that - I think I've established my desire.

Oh, one last randomness - a movie is in the works for the Hunger Games. Thankfully Collins is writing the screen play, so there's hope it turns out.

I had known that previous to Panem, Collins had written something about Gregor Overlander. I was skeptical, but this last week, I took a chance, and was glad.

Gregor and his family live in NYC. There's his mom, grandma, and two little sisters. Lizzy got to go to summer camp, but Gregor had to stay to baby sit his youngest sister, Boots. Why, you ask? Because their father disappeared two years, 13 months something something days ago.

While doing laundry, Boots and Gregor fall down, and land in the Underland. The first 'people' they meet are the crawlers, who just happen to be giant roaches.

I HATE roaches. It is not a passing, eww factor. It is a a deep loathing. It was hard to keep listening at this point.

(Random fact - Roaches are at the top, followed by crickets, you know, those disgusting black ones, that leap at you unpredictably? Then caterpillars likened to a morbid curiosity. Kinda like picking a scab. Gross, but interesting. OH, almost forgot earwigs. A childhood friend once told me that earwigs get into your ears, and eat your brains. Never got over that. They're probably equal to crickets.)

You are introduced to the colonies of underland: the people, crawlers (roaches), spinners (spiders), fliers (bats) and gnawers (rats), all of ginormous sizes. Oh, and there is this prophecy. Oh, and Gregor's dad is known to the Underlanders, and he's still alive! And they believe the rats have him.

What I liked about this book was that you cared about the protagonists, which is quite a feat for such a short book. The plot is something that rings similar to many other fantasy books, but it was well done, and thus, enjoyable. A good, just for fun, book.

Read the first chapter, here.

find the kitty

Yay for a legit picture of Max the Cat in his new surroundings.

You can also have a nice look at my sweet pack. It was very kind to me on the Grand Canyon hike, thank goodness.

books i've read

Okay, so I've read a number of books this summer, since school has been out. I would do the few I managed to read over the school year, but they are in Greensboro. So, I shall list them below, in no particular order. I hope to get them all talked about soon, but if there any that are of more interest than another, let me know, and I shall hurry up the production.



Books Finished

To Kill a Mockingbird - bought with per diem during the Old Time Ensemble's trip to the NC coast
The Red Pyramid, Rick Riordan* - Riordan's Egyptian style Percy Jackson series (I know it's more than that, but it's the easiest way to explain.)
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society, Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows
Chains, Laurie Halse Anderson
The Candy Shop War, Brandon Mull
Beatrice and Virgil, Yann Martel*
I am the Messenger, Markus Zusak (read during school - I remembered one!)
Gregor the Overlander, Suzanne Collins*
Once Upon a Marigold, Jean Ferris (also during school)*



Re-Reads

Book of a Thousand Days, Shannon Hale*
From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, E.L. Konisgburg*
The Indian in the Cupboard, Lynne Reid Banks*
Cater Street Hangman, Callendar Square, Anne Perry*



Books Begun, hope to finish

Me Talk Pretty One Day, David Sedaris
Flower Confidential: The Good, the Bad and the Beautiful in the Business of Flowers, Amy Stewart
A Brief History of the Smile, Angus Trumble
The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, John Boyne*
44 Scotland Street, Alexander McCall Smith



Book to Read

Heaven to Betsy and Betsy in Spite of Herself, Maud Hart Lovelace
Olive's Ocean, Kevin Henkes
Septimus Heap, Book 5: Syren, Angie Sage
The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini
The Adventures of Sally, PG Wodehouse
The Elegance of the Hedgehog, Muriel Barbery
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, and Through the Looking Glass, Lewis Carroll

I think that's all of them.

* Audio Books

book: tender morsels

In response to the question, "...[W]hat message would you like readers to take away after reading [your book]? The author, Margo Lanagan responds, "No message. I'd like to think that they'd look up from the last page, shake themselves, and find it hard to come back to the real world. I'd like to think for the next several days, questions that were touched off by the novel would keep being brought back to their mind...."(1)

Well, I think she accomplished that.

This book is the story of Liga, her early life that is heavily tainted by sexual violence, her two girls that come as a result, and their life in Liga's personal heaven. To keep this review from going off into tangents, I will restate what I wrote in my journal last night after finishing:

What I got from it [the book] is that sometimes, after bad things happen to us, we go to our own personal heavens to keep out the hurt. But without hurt, there is an absence of joy, as well. And as hard as it is [for Liga and her daughters] to return to the real world, it is necessary; [they were] unable to progress in [Liga's] 'personal heaven.'

I'm not sure if I would recommend the book heartily - no - I would recommend it. However, it deals very bluntly with violence agains women, mainly sexual violence. Specifically incest and rape. As the author says, the acts are never "on-screen"(2), [but] you definitely know what is going on. The author becomes/is quite adept with her euphemisms.

An interesting point is that in Australia, the book is marketed for adults, and in the USA the book is marketed to Young Adults.(3) The back contains a Q&A with the author. 

I would only add that it is the author's reaction to the Brother's Grimm, Snow-White and Red Rose. And the "super-nice"(4) women in that version "to be passively accepting and reliably amiable...." Lanagan much prefers Caroline Stahl's earlier tale, "The Ungrateful Dwarf."(5)


All quotes are from the author's interview, found in the back of the 2008 paperback version of the book.
1- 14
2- 6
3- 12
4- 10
5- 6

find the kitty

Okay, I'm a bit slow today. And since I didn't post the HIGHLY anticipated recurring post last week, I felt an extra push to follow through this week.

Well, it was this, or Fainting Goats.

Enjoy.



More here.

new member of the family

I would like to introduce the newest member of my family:

Manny, the Mandolin. 

Okay, that's really not his name, but I thought it was punny.

But look at his beeyootiful backside.

I thought he was purty, too.

I forget what the guy said the wood was, but I think the style of the back is not very common. I will say that the model is one of a kind - a prototype that will be downgraded in materials to meet a certain price point. Which of course appealed to my 'I-like-to-be-different'-ness.

But, besides all the nice aesthetic appeal, it has quite a lovely, resonant sound. Including the one I played last semester, I've only really played four mandolins in my life. There was a nice rich toned mahagony, and a super lacquered one; this was a nice balance between the two styles.

I'm currently playing scales, and working on getting the individual notes to sound. This whole string, well, let's just say I prefer holes to strings. So much more intuitive!

And for those concerned about my oboe-ing, I have a standing rule that I cannot practice mandolin till I have practiced the oboe. I only broke that rule once, when my new strap came in the mail.

find the kitty

And now for something a little different.

excuses excuses

So, its been over five weeks since I posted anything.

First, it was because I was finishing classes.
And then I said it was because I was packing. I moved out of my apartment, and into a friend's sister's house. (Yay! for a real house!)
Then, I travelled cross country with a kitty. Thankfully he was quite good, and I didn't have to go to jail for animal cruelty.
After I hiked through the Grand Canyon.
Then I did laundry because I don't like luggage-y smelling clothes.
Now, I'm slowly putting the Utah house in order post-renters. My room and bathroom and the wash area are done.
Yesterday I helped the wee-one, Alejandro, learn to like grass.
I've now started on the books and the dishes.

And that's today's status.

As I write there's a little black kitty snuggled up against me.


Later you will here about the books I've read, and the canyons I've hiked.

Until then, adieu.

find the kitty

This one could be rated 'X' for eXtra hard.

Have you found him yet?

find the kitty

This one should probably be rated 'S' for sorta-kinda difficult, but not really.

Max doesn't dislike the mandolin quite as much as he dislikes the oboe. His hiding spot isn't nearly as far away.

Oh Max.

find the kitty

This one is rated 'E' for easy.
This is for those who give me a hard time, thinking that kittymeowmeow is not in the pictures I post.

You know who you are.

Have you found him yet?

He's so happy: it's practice time with the harness. Oh, the humiliation.

class

Today, well, this evening in class, we talked of aliens. Really, we did.

One of the songers I was introduced to, I really quite enjoyed. Maybe you already have heard of him; If you have, please do enjoy. If you haven't, please meet Klaus Nomi. An operatic counter-tenor who is at home on classical and rock and roll stages.




From Dido and Aeneus: Death aka Dido's Lament






King Arthur





Nomi Song





Enjoy.

find the kitty

I would say this one deserves a 'difficult' rating.

Good Luck!

food, glorious food - the same evening

Frozen blackberries, applesauce and a little milk.
Pretty tasty.

And filling.

food, glorious food

Well, since I am going home for the summer (by the way, I'm going home for the summer. woo!) I have decided to make a concerted effort to eat my food storage I have here.

Don't be too impressed - it consists mostly of green beans (yum!) and some other random canned goods, lots of spices from the week where I was going to cook a full meal every night, dried beans, flour, sugar and brown sugar.

Here's my meal that I created last night, that I enjoyed so much I recreated again tonight.

[First, please notice the awesome skillet I received for Christmas! I love it muchly.]

Okay, admittedly, it looks a bit gross. But it is tasty. It is one can of green beans, eight potstickers from across the street, some water, and the brown thing in the middle is a chicken bouillon cube for extra flavor. I put the green beans in first, to let them warm up, added water (unfortunately not quite enough....) and the potstickers. I use a fancy lid made of tin foil, and let sit for about 8 minutes, till the 'stickers get soft. Then, remove the fancy lid to brown the potstickers.

Place them on some stylish Party ware, and enjoy.

Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of last night's - last night's were a trifle less browned, but nevertheless, still tasty.

And yes, I ate the entire skillet full. And I think I'm still hungry. hmm.... I have lots of things in the freezer I need to eat through, too....

find the kitty

Okay, so you must think that the only thing I do all day is take pictures of my cat hiding in strange places.
So what if I do??

Here's the next installment.

And, you can see actual fur in this one.

for those who like language

A recent facebook conversation that I had:

Oh, how I love the South.

find the kitty

fail

I love the internet.

I love collecting odd visuals from the internet.

Here are a few of the latest:

Dislike.

Sign Out Fail.

Ad Fail.

Okay, so this last one may not be that funny, seeing as I did not click on the 'recommended' videos, but I did love the juxtaposition of ideas.

find the kitty

So, I should be at FHE, especially as I only worked till three. But, instead I practiced. And this was the result of said practicing.

Needless to say, Max does not like it when I practice at home.

Can you find his oboe-proof hiding spot?

Good luck in this installment of Find the Kitty.

Now off to Family Home Evening.

yay

For those of you who have enjoyed the Percy Jackson books, here is a link to the first chapter of Mr. Riordan's new series, the Kane Chronicles.

From what I've read, it is about a brother and sister who find out they are descendants of Egyptian magicians. Sound familiar? But, the first chapter was engaging enough to pique my interest.

Enjoy!

arrgh.

See! I told you I was cursed!

something's wrong here

How is humanly possible that the Hi temperature for Madison, WI and Greensboro, NC* the same? I only can blame myself.

When choosing locales for graduate school, I wanted somewhere warm. I had grown tired if the snow (she writes, as she hears the sleet hit the window)so I chose Tallahassee, Vegas and Greensboro, with Greensboro winning out. People did say it snowed occasionally here. This I find out after I move. In my gut, I had a cold feeling that the winters that I would be residing in the NC would be abnormally cold.

I find solace in the fact that these five inches of snow shut down the entire city.
It's pretty amazing.

After cleaning of my car this morning, I celebrated by eating Better Cheddars an hohos and listening to Enna Burning in bed. ( No more late night grocery runs for me - the 'nojunkfood' will is weak. ) Now, it is time to do something a wee bit more productive.

Enjoy your snow day, friends!


* This according to my ipods weather bug.

here we go again

Ah, school.

After a month of only work and play (plus a visit from the Parents!) I once again get to add in the school factor.

On the plate for this semester:
Lessons
Dissertation
Old Time Ensemble
and
Seminar


Lessons - An hour lesson, once a week

Dissertation credits - Here the school guarantees it gets 12 credits of money. I don't have to do any work on my scholarly paper* yet. Just take the credits.

Old Time Ensemble - I feel way out of place, but in a manageable way. I will eventually get to learn a new instrument. This last week I played an Appalachian lap dulcimer. I could do the three chords necessary for most of the songs, but I am not quite able to follow the chord changes yet.
This next week I will probably be trying the mandolin.

Seminar: Representation of the 'Other' - It will be an interesting class. One of the readings includes the introduction from Said's, Orientalism. Weekly topics include, Orientalism and Post-Colonialism; Oriental, Primitive and Folk; The Turk; The Gypsy; Blackface; The Asian Other; Hawaiian Otherness. Along with Said's book, we are also reading a book called Mimesis and Alterity: A Particular History of the Senses, and bits of Western Music and its Others. I know one of the articles talks about the Polynesian Cultural Center. That will be interesting to discuss.

Oh ya, and my second recital. For that, I'll be playing

Fulvio Caldini's Noveletta No. 2 for English horn
Jindrich Feld's Sonata for oboe
Alyssa Morris' Four Personalities (Yay!)
and
Jean Michel Damase's Trio for Flute Oboe and Piano

And that, my friends, is my semester in a nutshell. I hope it goes as easily as my overview.




*I don't do a real dissertation. Instead, I have three recitals plus the paper

lilac

Okay, okay...let's try again.

Find the Kitty!

Can you spot him in all his camouflage?

and now....

Another installment of:

Spot the Kitty! Yay!

The housecat is an unlikely predator, blending in with his surroundings, ready to pounce in an instant.

Look carefully - the housecats camouflage can be quite deceiving.

[Removed by blog owner until further notice.]

Did you spot him?

Good work.

Until the next installment of....Spot the Kitty!

a recipe for success [hopefully]

What do you get when you add:

Preach my Gospel, chapter 8, How Do I Use Time Wisely?

My friends idea, which is based on this idea.

And a little dash of this song,

With a pinch of life lessons,

Combine with a spiffy new notebook and colored pencils,

and what do you get?

I'm hoping for a year in which the successes I experience are measurable.

Here is my plan:

The theme word for the year is happy. This year, I would like to come to a better understanding of the word. This is not to say I am unhappy, indeed, far from it. Yet, I have an inkling that there is so much more to being happy, then having a smile on one's face.

I was influenced in this 'word theme' From the Cook Shack, an overarching yearly resolution was to be summed up in one simple word. Her word is glow. I have chosen the word happy. This will be what all my little goals are leading towards: gaining a greater understanding of the word happy.

A few years ago I realized that throughout my life I inadvertently had scripture themes in my life; verses that had particular meaning to me at that time. I will pick some scripture verses that relate and expound on the yearly theme of happiness.

From Preach My Gospel (PMG), we get the idea of having monthly goals that are achieved because of the weekly goals that are achieved because of the reachable daily goal.

Missionaries are to set goals based on key indicators found in successful missionaries. I am no longer a missionary, so I had to make myself a new list of key indicators - area of life that are important to me. Enter the song. In the chorus of the song, the children state, 'At home, at school, at play.' Those are to be my key indicators.

Key Indicators explained -

Home includes both homemaking goals, and personal 'keep Heidi sane' goals.

     i.e. learn a new recipe this week, and give myself a manicure

School includes both oboe and academic goals.

     i.e. have the last movement's tempo up 10 clicks, find five more articles on my paper topic

Play includes social goals.

     i.e. say HI to five new people at school, invite people over after FHE for cookies

These are just examples, but I think you get the idea.

To further clarify:

If a weekly goal was to learn a new recipe, the daily goals would include, deciding on a recipe, buying the ingredients, etc. etc. Or, if I were to increase the tempo by the end of the week, I would need to have daily goals with more minute increases in tempo to achieve the end result satisfactorily.

Combine all these with the spiffy new notebook in which I will record said goals, and we're all set for the New Year! woo hoo.

I'll keep you updated on the process.

Oh, and ANY suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

sucker song

So, in a forthcoming post, I am to detail my brilliant plan for goal setting, that I will actually follow.

Needless to say, one includes getting more active. I have a plan. There's a YMCA with a pool not that far from my house - and it's the other way from everything, which is perfect. Why? Because I won't feel obligated to start my day directly after going to the pool. If it were, say, the same direction as school, or work, then I would feel the need to be practical, and continue in the same direction. (It makes sense in my head, okay.)

So, there is a monthly membership, but there are no contracts (Hallelujah!) so when I realize I probably won't keep this up, I just stop. Brilliant. And, there are still benefits to being a college student.

To cover the monthly membership (that I haven't officially done - remember, this is all in the planning stages), I decided to cancel my movie supplier membership, and my audio book membership. No worries, these are steps I contemplated taking anyway; currently because they've became more of an obligation - 'Thou MUST find movies/books to enjoy. NOW!' Someday that will change, and I'll begin again.

I'm waiting for my last movie of the month to come before I cancel the one before the next renewal period. No big deal. (Actually, it was. What movie is the perfect last movie? It was so hard deciding between a new installment of the Belgian Detective and his  Little Grey Cells, and Tim Burton and Danny Elfman's 9. I still fret it I made the right choice.)

Last night, as I was searching for the perfect swimsuit to replace the one that doesn't fit anymore (thus the desire for being more active), I thought, what a perfect time to cancel the audio book membership! I have absolutely no problems remembering things. My problem is remembering things when they are needed.

I digress from the thrilling narration but for a moment:

While in Rome, doing what the Romans do, we occasionally were stopped by street vendors and the like to partake of their wares. I even angered one man who gave me a 'free' rose in exchange for a donation. I gave him the rose back.

Cousin Paul taught us a song his dad had sung when attending a family wedding in Cancun. It's a very popular song among vendors: 'suuucker sucker sucker sucker suuuucccckkkker!'

Quite the lovely song, no?

Okay, back to the story.

I begin the process of stopping my membership. They ask you why you are canceling. Not needing to burden them with the reason I stated above (must enjoy books NOW) I chose the other reason of saving a few dollars.

Mmmhmm, they know a sucker when they see one.

The next page took you to an offer to accept a $20 coupon.

Ya. I caved.

Last night I fell asleep to From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler.

I can hear the strains now.... 'Suuuccker sucker suuccckkerrr....'

what do you think?