Happy

I am super excited about the fall, mostly because I get to teach a super cool awesome class. It's going to be awesome. That's all I'll say for now.

I am so ready for it to get warmer again. It's not supposed to be so cold mid-April. Though, B: look! It snowed the day after your birthday! Some things never change.

As the green blade riseth [...and the frost killeth thy bloom...]

Happy Easter yesterday.

I had a delightful weekend visiting family for Easter (I like this family tradition quite a bit...) My parents, siblings, and I all descended on an obliging uncle's home, played with and perhaps spoiled a bit their children, and remembered what it is like to have time to spend with family. It was really very nice. Unfortunately, it was also very cold, and some people were suffering from various respiratory issues, be they due to flowering trees or elementary school colds.

When I think about Easter church, it is always kind of odd - I am always away from my "home" parish for Easter and Christmas, because I am with my family. This year was even more different from those of the past - only my mother, brother, and I went to church on Easter morning. We found a small Episcopal church near my uncle's house, and I really enjoyed it. Despite the lack of giant hats, it brought back memories from going to church in the South when I was younger. Even though they did "Hail thee festival day" as the processional as opposed to "Jesus Christ is risen today" (which is what I have been more used to), I always get tears in my eyes. I also love that the entire congregation sang the Hallelujah Chorus. In four part harmony. And didn't sing during the rests. It was a very good experience. My brother commented (he's been going to Catholic masses) that it was neat to come back and know all the music. The only thing that we sang that I hadn't sung before (but that I knew anyways, what with playing organ and going through my hymnal and all) was As the green blade riseth... oh, Easter and your spring connotations.

That said, I feel like Lent wasn't really very Lent-y for me this year. I was so preoccupied with school and stress about that and my husband living so very far away that I feel like February and March were quite, um, non-spiritual for me. So one of my goals for next year is to not let school take over my life quite so much - even though I've spent a lot of time alone, it hasn't been "me" time very much. With any luck, next year I can have more "me" time as well as more "we" time. :-)

And my two younger cousins are ADORABLE. I've said it before and I'll say it again, they are some of my favorite kids around.

gendered speech

This is kinda random but... so I was listening to a Harry Potter podcast earlier in the week (I know, I'm a huge dork) and I was really surprised at what I heard. Of all of the people participating, one was a woman, and she got interrupted all the time! I remember a few years back reading about female and male conversation patterns and something to the effect that women are more passive in conversation on the whole. Let me just say that this woman fit that mold... she allowed herself to be interrupted almost continually and usually only had the chance to speak when someone asked her a pointed question. This irritated me no end.

I know one of my faults is a tendency to interrupt people, and every time I hear myself doing it I wince because I feel like it's not very polite or a good thing to do. However, especially in male dominated groups, if I don't interrupt or "step on" the back of someone else's sentence, I'll never have a chance to say anything. And anyone who knows me knows that I have lots to say about just about everything. But why do I then feel badly when I realize I am interrupting, when I hear podcasts like this one where all the guys kept interrupting eachother to expound their favorite theories, and the one female participant hardly got a word in edgewise? Maybe my guilt about it is also gendered. But if I have to choose between being good and feminine and not interrupting OR saying what I want to say and being heard, my choice isn't particularly difficult.

Palm Sunday

I finished the Harry Potter series again... I can't wait for the seventh one in July. I actually arranged for a reserve copy today. Until then, I'm sure I'll be reading lots of other fun things. I have a lot of interesting and disparate bits and pieces lying around that I want to get to... I just have to figure out how, when, etc.

I'm feeling very good on the schoolwork front, it's exciting to dive back into the topics I am most interested in again.

Next Sunday is Easter! I am very, very excited. I love Easter. It is my most favorite holiday of the year, even better than Christmas. And Easter gets even better because I always get to see my family.

exhausted, excited, life is tough.

This is kinda of ridiculous, but I am exhausted. Totally exhausted.

At the same time I am super excited about a new research area that I am looking into. It's so cool!

Plus I just want to keep reading the Harry Potters.

Life can be tough when there are so many cool things you can be doing.

Perhaps overcoming my fear of drastically short hair

I have read in the past few days a book that I swear is the oddest novel I have ever read. Seriously. I can't make heads or tails of it.

In more light news... I am considering cutting my hair. Seriously. For those of you not familiar with my hair saga... I had beautiful normal hair as a child and begged my mother to let me cut it in 2nd grade, which was a disaster. I have a lot of hair, so the volume made my hair go mushroom head. Not at all attractive. In fact, it scarred me in terms of haircuts and I did not cut my hair again until right before high school graduation - and then it went from waist length to shoulder length, and in the past 5 or 6 years has varied between shoulder length and mid back. However, I'm feeling like the longer hair makes me look younger than I am, and am considering cutting it to look like this:


Now, keep in mind that my hair isn't nearly that blonde, though the sun is out more so it'll get lighter again - though never that light. I also haven't had bangs since that desastrosa 2nd grade mushroom cap. I mean, that's short hair! But I think it could look good on me, if the person cuts it the right way. So, I ask the world: what do you all think?

lazing around

I have gotten through the first three Harry Potter books. They have been fun. I've also done food shopping, cleaning, and general lazing around. It is kind of boring, to be honest.

I woke up with a splitting headache this morning. Painkillers aren't really helping it. I'm wondering if higher humidity levels may be behind it? Or having the window open and a psycho neighbor (some of them really are "characters" to use a charitable word) smoking a cigarette and shouting into a cell phone while I am trying to be relaxed in bed reading? Who knows.

I successfully made an Ave Pimenton sandwich yesterday. I am so proud.

Part of me wants to link the title of this post to something insightful about Neruda's Walking around poem, but I am, again, being lazy. So there.

Good news!

So I passed my exams.

It was both worse and better than I expected, in terms of the experience.

In the end, I was just myself and that worked out just fine. And I looked gosh darn good in my suit.

I don't know what to do with myself! I can read something else! And now that the time has come, I'm almost afraid to leave the obsessive reviewing behind and do something else. Wow. I need to work on this.

big day

Today's the big day. In fact, in less than 3 hours comes the big moment.

I'm nervous.

It's crappy out so I skipped the relaxing organ recital - instead, I stayed in bed until noon and had pancakes to help me feel better. My tummy is acting up a bit, but that's to be expected, right?

Let's all hope I don't mess this up.

Hoy te busqué en la rima que duerme con todas las palabras

Ever since I finished my written exams last week I have had some concentration problems. Given that I have to teach and go to class tomorrow, I am finally studying about now. This isn't wise on my part, but my brain needed a break.

I went to a sorority event over the weekend that was quite nice. It was fun to get out my pin again, that I haven't worn since I graduated. Plus I met some more nice ladies.

Near the end of last week I made an order on Amazon for the MLA Handbook (and I am dorkily excited about it) because I am sick of having to go places to consult it. So now I have my own! And of course I had to get up to the free shipping limit, so I ordered some CD's, too. Guess who? Gustavo Cerati! He is supposed to be in Santiago while I'm down there and I'm super excited! I only had Soda Stereo CDs but from what I heard of his solo stuff at Viña del Mar, I was intrigued and interested. So 2 new CDs for me! Though I usually find his lyrics interesting but impossible to figure out, here is one that I actually enjoy quite a bit and maybe even understand. At least it's not talking about being a plant. The lyrics are from the Bocanada CD, and the translation is my own.

PUENTE
Hoy te busqué en la rima que duerme
con todas las palabras
si algo callé es porque entendí todo
menos la distancia
desordené átomos tuyos
para hacerte aparecer
(un día más, un día más…)
arriba el sol abajo el reflejo
de cómo estalla mi alma
ya estás aquí y el paso que dimos
es causa y es efecto
cruza el amor yo cruzaré los dedos
y gracias por venir gracias por venir
adorable puente
se ha creado entre los dos.
cruza el amor
yo cruzaré los dedos y
gracias por venir
gracias porvenir
adorable puente…
cruza el amor
cruza el amor por el puente
usa el amor, usa el amor como un puente

BRIDGE
Today I looked for you in the rhyme that sleeps
with all the words
if I kept something quiet it is because I understood everything
but the distance
I disordered your atoms
to make you appear
(one more day, one more day…)
above the sun, below the reflection
of how my soul explodes
now you are here and the step we took
is cause and effect
love crosses I will cross my fingers
thank you for coming thank you for coming
adorable bridge
has been created between us.
love crosses
I will cross my fingers and
thank you for coming
thank you future
adorable bridge
love crosses
love crosses the bridge
use love, use love as a bridge