I don't do this very often, but my sister just sent me a link of a piece she heard on NPR, and I just had to share it. It's a Shakespearean reporting of the Super Bowl. You can read the text, but it's better if you listen to the audio. Even fake Shakespeare was meant to be performed, not read.
(Don't bother clicking on this link unless you're a nerd, like me.)
In Fair Glendale, the Bard's Super Bowl Play
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Monday, January 28, 2008
Birthday Week
So, I turned thirty this week. And I didn't really think I would care, but, man, there is something about not being "in my 20's" anymore that just feels so life redefining. Not necessarily in a bad way, I don't think. But I've definitely been introspective this week.
That didn't stop me from having fun, though. It started last Sunday with a big, family, combo birthday party for me and Jer (whose birthday was in December). We managed to convince Jeremy's extended family that, since it was a birthday party for us, they should all travel outside of their normal five-mile-radius stomping ground to have the party at our house. It was fun to have everyone down here, and it was a great motivator to get the house thoroughly cleaned. I wore myself almost completely out, but it certainly felt good to get it all done.
Wednesday was my actual birthday, as well as our regular Wednesday night gaming group. Erin made hot roast beef sandwiches (one of my all-time favorites), and Rachel made an amazingly rich chocolate-raspberry cake. Rachel also gave my character a lovely surprise birthday gift in the form of her first kiss with the non-player character she has fallen in love with. I know it's only imaginary, but it left me on cloud nine.
So, to finish off a nice, long birthday week, I decided to throw together a last-minute birthday party with my non-family and non-gamer friends for Sunday night. I shot off a quick email to a bunch of friends, and invited a few more people that I didn't have email addresses for in church on Sunday morning. The lovely thing with last-minute parties is that there isn't nearly as much pressure for everything to be perfect, and I'm not nearly as disappointed if no one ends up coming. The house was still relatively clean from last weekend, so getting ready consisted mostly of taking a nap. And thawing out frozen pizza dough. At least a dozen people ended up coming, which was really awesome considering the short notice. We had lots of fun, even if we did only end up playing a couple of games (I won at Settlers, while those with less patience for tiles firmly established that they were, indeed, smarter than the DVD-game version of a fifth grader). And everyone left fairly early, which might have disappointed a younger me, but the old lady who had to get up for work at 4:00 the next morning appreciated it.
Unfortunately, between the three parties, there were at least three cakes, and at least half of each remains. I might just need to throw another party, and call it the "Please Eat My Cake Before I Eat it All and Get Fat; My Aging Metabolism Can't Handle All This Sugar" party. You'd come to that, right?
That didn't stop me from having fun, though. It started last Sunday with a big, family, combo birthday party for me and Jer (whose birthday was in December). We managed to convince Jeremy's extended family that, since it was a birthday party for us, they should all travel outside of their normal five-mile-radius stomping ground to have the party at our house. It was fun to have everyone down here, and it was a great motivator to get the house thoroughly cleaned. I wore myself almost completely out, but it certainly felt good to get it all done.
Wednesday was my actual birthday, as well as our regular Wednesday night gaming group. Erin made hot roast beef sandwiches (one of my all-time favorites), and Rachel made an amazingly rich chocolate-raspberry cake. Rachel also gave my character a lovely surprise birthday gift in the form of her first kiss with the non-player character she has fallen in love with. I know it's only imaginary, but it left me on cloud nine.
So, to finish off a nice, long birthday week, I decided to throw together a last-minute birthday party with my non-family and non-gamer friends for Sunday night. I shot off a quick email to a bunch of friends, and invited a few more people that I didn't have email addresses for in church on Sunday morning. The lovely thing with last-minute parties is that there isn't nearly as much pressure for everything to be perfect, and I'm not nearly as disappointed if no one ends up coming. The house was still relatively clean from last weekend, so getting ready consisted mostly of taking a nap. And thawing out frozen pizza dough. At least a dozen people ended up coming, which was really awesome considering the short notice. We had lots of fun, even if we did only end up playing a couple of games (I won at Settlers, while those with less patience for tiles firmly established that they were, indeed, smarter than the DVD-game version of a fifth grader). And everyone left fairly early, which might have disappointed a younger me, but the old lady who had to get up for work at 4:00 the next morning appreciated it.
Unfortunately, between the three parties, there were at least three cakes, and at least half of each remains. I might just need to throw another party, and call it the "Please Eat My Cake Before I Eat it All and Get Fat; My Aging Metabolism Can't Handle All This Sugar" party. You'd come to that, right?
Monday, January 14, 2008
Two fun things in one weekend!
So, the trade-off for having Monday and Tuesday off was that I had to work the other five days last week. So of course, a friend of mine had a party on Saturday night that I wasn't able to make it to, and I was gearing myself up for having to miss out on all the fun again for another weekend. But then some friends from church decided to go out for Vietnamese food on Friday evening, and I had to look at my schedule seventeen times to convince myself that I really was free to go along with them. I love Vietnamese food. It was practically a staple for me when I lived in Canada, and I've been missing it since we moved. It was really yummy, too, even if they didn't have that drink with the coconut milk and beans and grass jelly that I love so much. (I asked the waitress about it, she said that used to carry it, but there just wasn't enough demand in that particular region of suburbia. So sad.) So, good food, and lots of good conversation with people that all-too-often I only get to greet for 45 seconds during "extend the right-hand of fellowship" time at church.
I really love my church. It may not be big, but it really feels like a family to us. It did from the very first day we were there. This Sunday, after church, we found ourselves talking for a really long time with two other couples (who are both fairly new to the church and, in an incredible twist of providence, are both expecting babies only two days apart in April), then we were joined by the pastor and his family and we all went out to lunch at Appleby's. There's something really nice about fellowship with Christian families/families-to-be. And I suppose I should say something witty or introspective in closing right about now, but what can I say, my blogging is rusty.
I really love my church. It may not be big, but it really feels like a family to us. It did from the very first day we were there. This Sunday, after church, we found ourselves talking for a really long time with two other couples (who are both fairly new to the church and, in an incredible twist of providence, are both expecting babies only two days apart in April), then we were joined by the pastor and his family and we all went out to lunch at Appleby's. There's something really nice about fellowship with Christian families/families-to-be. And I suppose I should say something witty or introspective in closing right about now, but what can I say, my blogging is rusty.
Tuesday, January 08, 2008
Return of the Delinquent Blogger
I keep telling myself, this is it. This is the time I go back to blogging for good. And then another month passes.
I don't have a great excuse. Chalk it up to writer's block, I guess. Or chalk it up to the fact that somehow, although we moved nine months ago, I have yet to settle into any kind of routine in the new place.
I'm an adventurous sort of person. I'm all about last-minute road trips and spontaneous parties. I've always loved taking breaks from the routine. But I guess I never really realized before how much I need a routine in order for those breaks to have value.
No New Year's Resolutions for me this year. But a general goal for 2008: Find a rhythm for my life. Find a way to work and blog and eat balanced meals and see local friends regularly and email distant friends regularly and visit family as often as possible because my little nephew and future niece will be big before I know it.
I'm blogging today because I had an unexpected two days off. We visited my family in Canada this weekend, and I had booked off a five-day weekend, but Jeremy wasn't able to get any extra days off, so I'm finishing off the last two days of my long weekend at home. Yesterday was spent in a predominantly vegetative state - I turned my brain off and watched TV and read blogs and accomplished absolutely nothing productive. I needed that so badly. The last time I had any solid days off without scheduled activities I was so sick that I just slept and felt awful and didn't get to enjoy them at all.
It's funny, because it's not as if I have been without ideas for my blog. I would say that I compose a post in my head at least three times a week, and never get around to writing it. I had one about the dreariness of November rain and James Taylor and why snow, while cold, at least makes the world bright. I had one about my new favorite non-menu drink at Starbucks - pink lemonade. I had a whole bunch about idiot drivers. I had one about a wedding, one about Thanksgiving, and a couple about Christmas. But I don't suppose any of them will ever get written now. The window is past.
I'm not going to promise that my dry spell is over, that I'm suddenly going to start posting three times a week again. But I miss blogging, and I want to come back, and it's not going to happen unless I make some effort. This is step one of that effort. And, if nothing else, it's a reminder to me of how much more I enjoy blogging than watching crap on television.
I don't have a great excuse. Chalk it up to writer's block, I guess. Or chalk it up to the fact that somehow, although we moved nine months ago, I have yet to settle into any kind of routine in the new place.
I'm an adventurous sort of person. I'm all about last-minute road trips and spontaneous parties. I've always loved taking breaks from the routine. But I guess I never really realized before how much I need a routine in order for those breaks to have value.
No New Year's Resolutions for me this year. But a general goal for 2008: Find a rhythm for my life. Find a way to work and blog and eat balanced meals and see local friends regularly and email distant friends regularly and visit family as often as possible because my little nephew and future niece will be big before I know it.
I'm blogging today because I had an unexpected two days off. We visited my family in Canada this weekend, and I had booked off a five-day weekend, but Jeremy wasn't able to get any extra days off, so I'm finishing off the last two days of my long weekend at home. Yesterday was spent in a predominantly vegetative state - I turned my brain off and watched TV and read blogs and accomplished absolutely nothing productive. I needed that so badly. The last time I had any solid days off without scheduled activities I was so sick that I just slept and felt awful and didn't get to enjoy them at all.
It's funny, because it's not as if I have been without ideas for my blog. I would say that I compose a post in my head at least three times a week, and never get around to writing it. I had one about the dreariness of November rain and James Taylor and why snow, while cold, at least makes the world bright. I had one about my new favorite non-menu drink at Starbucks - pink lemonade. I had a whole bunch about idiot drivers. I had one about a wedding, one about Thanksgiving, and a couple about Christmas. But I don't suppose any of them will ever get written now. The window is past.
I'm not going to promise that my dry spell is over, that I'm suddenly going to start posting three times a week again. But I miss blogging, and I want to come back, and it's not going to happen unless I make some effort. This is step one of that effort. And, if nothing else, it's a reminder to me of how much more I enjoy blogging than watching crap on television.
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