Comforts in a Wet and Dreary World

This has been the wettest spring in the history of my memory. It's been raining or snowing at least once a week ever since "winter", when it was full on snowing weekly. I guess that's just Utah.

Keeping spirits up can be hard when you have such a dreary world around you, but thank goodness for the colors that help define Spring. The mountains are so green this time of year and all the flower bulbs are sprouting. All the trees have started blooming too, and, of course, those are just pure beauty right there. How ideal! Not only do we get gorgeous flowers in the flower beds or on the wild mountainsides, but we briefly get to enjoy them as little buds and blossoms, stretching out from the tree's branches.

Outside our apartment window there runs a short row of trees. We moved in August and we did not like those trees. They lead the way to the parking lot and they drop squishy little fruits that are small enough to be difficult to lean up and squishy enough to splat on the cement as they fall. What a mess. I wondered why the people who originally landscaped around the complex would have chosen them, they're just more work.


Then I woke up one morning and opened my blinds. the trees had literally transformed overnight.













They went from regular bare twigs and branches to these gorgeous fuschia blossom-branches.













How glorious. I love seeing them every morning now.














And to bring in the spirit of Spring even stronger, Joey noticed this little nest in the branches right outside. No eggs, but still...!


Oh Joy! I do love the Spring!

Who Said Formal Was a Bad Thing?

What makes something classy I wonder? So many things could be labeled with this adjective, and yet I feel there really is a strict definition required behind it.

Well anyway, I'll try and get more to the point: I've never in my life been very drawn to wearing black. It's not really my color of choice, UNLESS it's a dress. In fact, I have a hard time staying away from black dresses. They're just so classy.

I realize, however, that it probably has a lot to do with my passion for stuff like this:



And this:



and this:


This dress isn't black, I know, but I still love it.

See classy right? I love pictures like this, I love including myself in the fantasies I spin relating to this stuff. I just love everything about this genre. Isn't it gorgeous?? Doesn't it make you want to do your hair all fancy and slip into so girly heels, or something?

Am I crazy for being so passionate about this sort of stuff? I know I'll probably never really go to a party where there are gorgeous chandeliers, a band, and EVERYONE is dressed to the theme, but we can imagine.

One day, when I can afford it, I plan to throw lots of parties like this. The kind where people go out and buy a pretty dress in anticipation. I wouldn't invite anyone who wouldn't take it seriously. And people would really dance and speak politely and eat fancy finger foods...

Sigh.

Am I crazy here? Do you wish for beautiful parties like this too? Would anyone come and enjoy a party with me if I even threw one?

To go or not to go, that always seems to be the question:

For it is 45 minutes in the car down, and another 45 minutes in the car back up.
Were today a day of exams or assignments, the day would thus be more decided.
But alas, here I lie, unshowered, unfed and unmotivated.

If I go, I will finish my audiobook and move onto something exciting.
But I will also spend $15 on gas and put another 80 miles on my car.
I'm already scheduled to miss all school on Friday, do I dare miss two
classes in a row?

What will I do if I stay? I will return some movies to a friend, and borrow some more.
I will go to work and get more hours on my paycheck.
I will eat a better breakfast and actually eat a lunch.
If I have extra time I could even go to the grocery store.
Or better yet, I would clean out my fridge of all old food so as to better fit new food
that would be coming in from the grocery store.
I may even venture to work on a paper that needs work...

O the dilemma! O the decision! O the HUMANITY!

(I honestly was still considering going before I typed this up, but I convinced myself otherwise. So that's a no-go for today.)

Edith Piaf Part II

Point 1: I learned yesterday that in french her name is pronounced [eh deet] which makes it just that much cooler.

Points 2 & 3: Inception:
(First of all SO good.) It's my husband's favorite movie right now. And I love it as well. It's one I could even watch by myself, which I think is saying something. Anyway, after my last blog my friends Lindsey and Hilary came along and pointed some fun connections between Edith and Incepetion. Turns out that she's the singer we hear in Inception, when they play the warning song. And it's all slowed down and faint. I told my husband this fun fact and he said, "we should make that song our alarm.. The Dream is Collapsing"

Also, Hil pointed out that Marion Cotillard, who plays Edith in La Vie En Rose, is also Mal in Inception, and then they have he song coming through the air each time a dream is collapsing. :)

I love it!

Anyway, here's the real song if you'd like to listen to it.

Edith Piaf and Destiny

The decisions we make in life can be really funny when you think about. Yes, sometimes they really are just a flat out waste, but other times, they can be much enjoyed.

For example, I was at the grocery store with a list, (lists are very important in defining your whole grocery shopping experience), and whilst emerging from the frozen foods isle, a cute semi-older lady was at a sample table pouring water into tiny little cups. I tasted it and it really did taste just as I think water should taste. Next thing I know I'm letting her explain to me how this water is drawn from ocean waters in Hawaii 3,000 feet below the ocean's surface, and that it's got lots of good magnesium and charged electrolytes. Now I normally am not a fan buying plastic-bottled waters, but because they were on sale and it was yummy water, and the lady was so sweet and cute, (and I'd been turning down a lot of sample people lately), I bought 3 liters of it for $5.








This was all a week or so ago, and I hadn't yet cracked a bottle open. But I've had a pretty unproductive day and was feeling a need for a cheerful-pick me up. So I watched a good "life should be embraced" movie, then climbed into bed with my bottle water, and turned on Pandora. Last week my coworker told me to check out Edith Piaf, and I hadn't yet. So I typed her name into the station, and the first song that popped up was Mon Manege a Moi. She's like a french Ella Fitzgerald. (And I do love good ol' Ella.)

It was just such a happy moment. I had my special water and was sipping it to what may now be my new favorite song.

It's just funny how life's little decisions can play out.

Here's Edith singing Mon Manege a Moi... just to help you get an idea of the mood I had unintentionally created:

The Greatest Job on Earth!

I love my job.

It's great. It's the cutest bookstore in the state. I only have to work the floor twice a week, I get to arrange schedules for and meet lots of my favorite authors, I can work from school, home or wherever, and I think I'm actually pretty good at what I do (which is always a good feeling).


(The gang after a successful signing with former president Jimmy Carter... He gave me a hug just after this picture was taken.)

I've worked at this place, (I realized this on Tuesday), for EIGHT years. EIGHT!!! I know for most people in a career that's totally not an impressive number, but I never really thought of this as a career. I started working there when I was 13 years old, and somehow, with no plan or motive to do so, I've climbed my way up the book-store ladder. I went from young Harry Potter/Junie B. Jones event helper to payed holiday giftwrapper. From there I became a children's room book seller, and now here I am, Children's Marketing Manager.


(Picture book author, Jan Brett)

And I get to work with great people! A) My mom, whom I get along with really well. B) Everyone else, including my bosses Anne and Margaret, who are really wonderful people. Margaret came to my house and helped address wedding invitations, for crying out loud! And I've made so many friends in past coworkers there: John, Jan, Connie, Mary, Kelly... I'm near tears just thinking about it. I just love my job. It's one of my favorite places on earth. That's why my husband chose to propose to me there. He knew it was a really important place for me.



I know I won't be there forever, but it has such a large place in my heart that I know the feelings and friendships I've had from there will remain with me forever.

(The wedding shower they threw for me. The food was all Italian themed.)

Things To Do Today:

Learn how to calculate federal income taxes... before my test tomorrow.

Catch up on a few important e-mails for work.

Read at least 50 pages of the ARC I have sitting on my nightstand.

Watch last week's episode of Grey's Anatomy.

Try and find a good pair of cheap jeans at Nordstrom Rack.

Go to work.

And then hopefully late tonight I can go to my in-law's house and watch the last episode of White Collar, and THEN watch tonight's episode, which I believe will be the season finale.

What an exciting life it is that I lead...

The Confessions of a Denial Addict

I've realized that I live my life pretending that I'm not a student at a major university. I'm on my eighth semester of school and I have three more ahead of me. (It was going to be five more semesters but then I decided not to get my language certificate in Italian.)

But seriously, I didn't go to school today. Instead I slept until 7:15 then started doing my homework. Now you may be thinking, "well doing your homework certainly counts as student behavior", but you must understand that I've pushed all this homework to the absolute last minute. I have to drive the long drive to school tomorrow, take a very difficult test that I've only now just begun to study for, turn in two finance assignments that I haven't started or even read the relating chapters that will teach me HOW to do the assignments, and then turn in the five-page formal book review I was supposed to have drafted out for peer review a week ago, but really, I haven't even outlined the paper... I haven't even read more than 1/5 of the book! I've had ample time to prepare all these things, and yet I've instead only let myself focus on work and my social life.

I mean, yes, I did do some of it this morning, but that's because I only have three hours left before I go to work to work the late shift. And I don't know if I'm going to be up for an even later night tonight, or an early morning tomorrow before I have to go to school.

So now you're wondering how on earth I'm going to get it all done. And the answer is, I have no clue, but I sorta don't care. I'll do what I can on the assignments, then I'll try and get some more studying in before work. If I can I'll outline my paper tonight quickly before I go to bed. Then tomorrow I'll wake up, review more test notes quickly, take the test, turn in the assignments and then try and write my paper while in my first three classes.

Why am I so calm? Because I've lived my life like this for the past seven semesters, and I haven't failed a class yet. (I've had two Ds, but they still counted as a pass.)

So here I am, blogging as I give my mind a rest from the political arrangements of 335 BC in Israel. In fact, all this morning I kept thinking, maybe I should go try and do some yoga. I've never really done yoga before, but maybe this morning will be a good day to start.

Days Full of Silly Sickness

I'm sick. Stupid sickness.

There are days in your life when you wish you were sick. And there are days in your life when you actually are. And it seems to me those days never coordinate with each other. Instead we always end up sick at home on the days when we really can't afford to be ill, and stuck in our dull lives on the days we really wish we were.

May I just ask, "What is UP with the universe?" Are the forces of nature trying to teach us something? Patience? Responsibility? Punctuality?

I donno.... Whatevs.

My brain hurts to much to think about it this hard.

I'm just going to go finish my top ramen.

Another List to Share, ThisOne More Literate

Books Books Books!

I confess, I read books. In fact, my life seems to be very much dependent on them. Why, as of right now, I can honestly say that every corner of my life is adding more and more books to my list of To Be Reads.

This is not to say I don't love books. I most certainly do. I've been reading books habituouly since ever I could read. (Yes, I just said 'ever could I read'.)

So, sticking with the whole List theme of late, here are a couple of lists for you to ponder:


Books I've Greatly Enjoyed: (in no order of preference)

Book Lists Continued:

And then, here are the books I HAVE to read. Not to say I don't want to read them ever but I hate feeling like I HAVE to do anything. So even though I'm still enjoying them, I feel like some of that joy is stolen by the necessity of it all.

Last but not Least:

And then Finally here are an assortment of the books that I still really want to read but haven't yet.