Day 27 – Photo Sunday

random conversation tidbits

Me: How do you spell whiney? w-h-i-n-n-y ?

Becca: Hmm, I think that spells whinny, as in horse sound

Me: Oh, so I probably don’t mean to say “humidity makes me whinny”

Becca: Neigh

The one videotape that Becca and I actually wore out by watching and re-watching

Scene from my saturday night: Becca and Abby are sitting on the couch, laptops on each lap, Les Miserables the 10th Anniversary Concert is playing on the DVD.

Abby: “who am i, who am ”

Becca: “I’m Jean Valjean, so Javert you see it’s true…”

Both: “I’m 24601!”

Abby: “You know I am pretty sure we still have it”

Becca: “Yeah all those years of practice have payed off, I think we still have it all memorized.”

Abby: “Yep, time to take our Les Mis two person karaoke version on the road”

Posted from jonathan’s iphone

Topics of conversations with my family include:
Zombie apocalypse and how my mom is going to start a conversation with the goshen gunshop guys, just in case
Steven colbert and the werewolves congress
Where mom & dad should live post retirement
And of course a rousing game of tichu 😉

just because yesterday was not enough for you all

Here is another meme!  But this one is pretty darn cool and I have done it once before.  Basically it starts off by reading an interview on another blogger’s site in which they answer questions another blogger posted for them.  Then you chime in with your “Interview me please!” and get to continue the chain on your own blog.  So here are the details:

If you’d like to play along, just follow these instructions:
1. Leave me a comment saying, “Interview me.”
2. I will respond by emailing you five questions. I get to pick the
questions.
3. You will update your blog with the answers to the questions. Be sure
you link back to the original post.
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone
else in the same post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five
questions.

But because I don’t want to leave out people who may wish to enjoy the amazing interview experience and don’t have a blog, if interested leave a comment stating your interest in being interviewed and I will interview you right here in these very comments.

Anyways here is the amazing MLE’s 5 questions for me.

1. If you could be instantly whisked to and from anywhere in the world (free, natch), but you could only be there for 24 hours, where would you go and why?

Unlike most people in this world I don’t have a huge interest in traveling to France.  Don’t get me wrong, France sounds like a lovely country and its not like I would say no to a travel opportunity there.  But it just has never been high on my list of go to places.  That all said, I think the idea of spending 24 hours in Paris, sounds slightly magical.  Now obviously the idea of romance in Paris sounds nice, but since I don’t really have that right now, I would love to take some of favorite girl friends with me and we would have Katie as a guide.  We would wander the Louvre for an hour or so, just a quick glimpse and probably a few other wonderful things.  Then find a small cafe and have a cappuccino and talk and giggle for a few hours, probably drawing lots of strange glances from the ultra cool Parisians.  After all that we would wander the city all night long (ala Before Sunrise) and finally exhausted, hop on our free first class flight back to the US.  I think that would be a good way to experience Paris.

2. Have you ever been in love with something that wasn’t a person (idea, place, book, movie, etc.)?

Hmmm, truly in love?  I don’t know about that, but I did really absolutely love the YMCA and small town in Northern Ireland where I lived for a summer.  There is something awfully incredible about places where the mountains meet the sea.  Throw in lots of people with great accents, work that took me out of doors for 75% of the day, kids, fun folks to work with and the luxury of a 50 pound stipend a week just for pints and laughs and I think I may have feel in love just a little bit.  In fact towards the end of my summer there I strongly considered the idea of taking a leave of absence from school for a year and staying at the YMCA for the next year.  They were going to be short on staff and were encouraging of my idea to stay.  But after some more practical thinking and realizing how much I would miss finishing college with all of my friends, and how cold and rainy it got in Northern Ireland for the winter I decided against it.  Although I wouldn’t say I regret that decision, but sometimes, on occasion, I wonder how different my life would be if I had decided to stay there for the year.

3. Do you have any completely bizarre phobias (like my unreasonable fear of the scary inflatable arm waving things at used car dealerships)? (if so, share!)

I can’t think of any really bizarre phobias other than the traditional, spiders, nails on chalkboards, etc.  But I do have this incredible dislike of watching other people being embarrassed.  This mainly comes out in my movie preferences such as I have absolutely no interest in watching the supposedly hilarious Meet the Parents, due to the main theme of the movie being Ben Stiller going through horrendously embarrassing situations over and over again.  And as my former roommates can attest, on occasion while watching TV I will find something just too embarrassing to watch and so have to look away.  So I guess maybe that counts as my slightly bizarre phobia, or at least a pretty weird one.

4. If there was one thing you could change about another person (not yourself), what would you change, who would you change, and why?

Oooh, this is a pretty tricky one.  My first impulse was to read it as a question stating what annoying things would I change about people.  Which leads to a rather dicey area of pointing out what you don’t like about people in a public and totally inappropriate area to do so.  But then I thought about the question a little more and realized I could just change something about someone from neutral to positive or positive to positive.  Anywho, I think I would change my dear friend Becca from unemployed to employed.  Becca is probably one of my oldest friends and recently in a very courageous act of self-improvement quit her stressful, draining, under-appreciated job in order to strick out anew and find something better.  And I am so proud of her for doing that, because especially in today’s economy that takes a lot of guts and gumption.  So I think I would change her from “currently looking for a job” to “happily employed at a job that excites her, treats her well (we are talking good benefits here folks!), and uses her many incredible skills and gifts”.

5. What’s your favorite memory of being a teenager?

I could probably think of other different ones if I thought about it a bit more.  But what came to me right away was the image of driving around the back country roads of Goshen/Elkhart with 1 – 8 passengers in my parents old manual 1988 van; going to choir concerts, school, parties at a friends house, maybe a sleepover at Becca’s or just random things.  For much of my later high school years I ended up driving people around, often it was my younger brother and his friends, other times it was my girl friends or other random folks, but something about that whole era was just a lot of fun.  Turning up the oldies and singing a long and rather obnoxious levels or seeing just how many bikes/people/etc we could jam in, all of it sticks out in my memory as a high point in life.

Thanks MLE for those great questions, I really enjoyed them!

2009 and I have a little heart to heart

Wow, okay 2009, nice to meet you … This feels awkward like I should have made some cookies and put the tea kettle on.  But now that you are here, I guess we should just sit down and chat.  Here do you need a pillow for your back, I have found those to be lovely for improved lumbar support and also a wonderful reminder that we all are growing older and will of course die.

Hmmm, 2009, I think my current mood has been slightly effected by my rereading of the Sandman series.  You haven’t read them yet?  Oh boy you should get on that, they are full of all kinds of mythology and dreams and wonderful people and horrible tragedies and they are true in a very strange way.

So tell me 2009, what have you been up too recently?  Ah I see here you have been catching up on your mindless interneting and movie watching. Well, I am sure that is quite needed after the business of that previous year.  How do you get along with 2008, by the way, do you guys still chat or have you moved on?  You don’t really go in for that reflection stuff much do you?  Ah well I guess you are pretty young yet and I am sure 2008 had lots of things to attend too being a part of history now and all.

Oh me?  Well things are going well, I have been developing a huge travel itch recently.  It seems everyone has cool travel plans this winter/spring, but of course I am tied to the school schedule, so my next window of opportunity isn’t until April.  I actually had an incredible urge to visit Istanbul, I mean who doesn’t want to spend a week in Turkey.  Turns out tickets were only 900 bucks, but then with the hostels and the eating and the everything, I think it would be a bit out of budget.  So instead I just bought tickets to Seattle…You know Seattle, 2009, that west coast city that you keep dumping snow on … yeah that one.  I see, you thought it was a rather funny joke, did you, hmmm, I think they may be getting tired of that.

Oh, you need to be going 2009, something about needing to check up on peoples’ resolutions, okay, well thanks for stopping by, maybe we can do this again sometime.  Take care now!

conversation about crushes

I have to admit that I have spent much of this past week living inside my own head.  Sure I got up, had some form of breakfast conversation, drove to work, went to class, attended meetings, etc, etc, but most of the time my brain has been turning and turning over the same events, doubts, fears and questions.  Unfortunately much of this huge outpouring of thinking and pondering revolves around a boy.  Which always frustrates me because, well I hate falling into the stereotype of a woman whose life (or in this case brain) revolves around a man.  You see, me and crushes don’t really get along and we never really had.  Maybe its because I have had so few experiences with crushes actually leading to relationships, or maybe its because I just find them annoying.  Either way spending my precious brain time and emotional energy, trying to analyze the big question of “What does this boy think of me?” wears me out.  Plus in this type of situation I tend to have rather circular rounds of conversation with myself.  So in order to let you all in on a little bit of the crazy that has been my mental process this past week, here is a little peak at my thought process.

Fluffy pink brain: Oooh, look he is talking to you, let’s go do cartwheels in the park!

Voice of doubt/reason: Hmmm, I don’t think talking to you equates wanting to runaway with you and have lots of babies.

Fluffy pink brain: But look he is wearing a sweater and has such nice eyes, we should totally get married.

Voice of doubt/reason: You are being completely ridiculous, enough of this.  There is no way he is interested, so you should completely forget about it.

Fluffy pink brain: Whatever Ms. Negative, he definitely likes spending time with me and that has to mean something!

Voice of doubt/reason: Hey do you really want to get rejected?  You want to risk that?  Cause he probably just likes hanging out with you, as he does lots of girls, so you are definitely not anything special.

Fluffy pink brain: [hangs head] Really, you don’t think there is even a chance he might want to date or something?

Voice of doubt/reason: Well I guess there is a small chance that he might, but is it really worth talking to him and being so vulnerable and risky just to find out that there is yet another guy who isn’t interested in dating you?

Fluffy pink brain: Hey now, that’s mean, stop being so negative or you will totally end up a bitter old 25 year old, just because other guys haven’t been interested in the past doesn’t mean he won’t.  And if you keep acting so mean, I am totally gonna make you watch a chick flick!

Voice of doubt/reason: [grumbling] Fine, fine go ahead ahead and be all vulnerable and risky, just don’t make me watch the Notebook, or I am totally gonna organize a Lord of the Rings marathon!

a recent phone conversation with a nameless roommate

“Guess what I found in my underwear.”

A – “Okay, I gotta say this isn’t a guessing game that is going anywhere, I am not going to actually try to guess things here.”

“A dryer sheet!  They are sneaky little buggers.”

A – “Why yes, yes they are.”

“I found one in my sleeve once.”

A – “Okay, I am gonna go now.”

a conversation

Player 1: a kid dressed all in black, except for a large bright orange puffy vest and a scream mask.

Player 2: young woman walking towards the L-stop to get to her evening class.

Kid: Are you going trick or treating?

Me: No, I have to go to class.

Kid: What’s your costume?

Me: ummm, busy commuter

Kid: NO ONE CAN SEE MY SECRET IDENTITY!

conversation

“I’m having a baby, call me!”

-my roommate leaving a voice message for her midwife mom