Heck, yeahhh!

Guess what everybody?  Statistics = Done.  Financial Accounting = Done.  Managerial Accounting = Done.  This gal is finished with the semester!!!  So classic 80s & 90s dance moves are being BUSTED to the song above playing in my head.  Ohh, yeaaah

Feel free to click play and dance around in celebration with me!

(hopefully I'll still be dancing when grades are posted........eep)

Sing it, girl!

Working on my homework and listening to Patty.  This is my favorite song of hers, from my favorite album of hers, Living with Ghosts.  Get it if you don't have it!  It's awesome stuff.

"V"

This dude gets it.  He's a favorite.


V  by Matthew Dickman

The skinny girl walking arm-in-arm
with her little sister
is wearing a shirt that says
TALK NERDY TO ME
and I want to,
I want to put my bag of groceries down
beside the fire hydrant
and whisper something in her ear about long division.
I want to stand behind her and run
a single finger down her spine
while she tells me about all her correlatives.

(Continue - NSFW)

Awesomeness

Good Stuff

I have a lot to be thankful for but the one I want to talk about here is the end of this semester.  By the time I finish my degree, I'm guessing you all will be thinking Thank God, she'll shut up about it now!  But until then.....

You may ask...What is so bad about the program I am in?  Well, there is this one crazy professor.  By crazy, I mean legitimately off her rocker.  If you're thinking it's not good to make fun of mental illness, I'm with you.  I have down periods, I understand fully.  ..But this lady is mean.  The guys in my group and I have decided that she has voodoo dolls of every one in the class and for funsies she sits around poking pins at random and laughing.  Bad stuff.

Good stuff = this semester ends November 29!   So I'm making a list of all the things I will do from November 30 through the end of December that I haven't been able to do since my classes started.  I'm getting my hobbies back with reckless abandon!

Fun, exciting things to do over the 
next month that I'm thankful for

• Reading, reading, and more reading!!  All I've really been able to read for awhile have been textbooks, so I have stacks of books just waiting for me.  I also have some that I've been dying to read that I don't have yet.  I'm excited!
• Music.  I listen to music all the time, but I like to be more interactive.  I grew up playing piano, but haven't had one in eons...and am afraid I don't remember crap.  Actually, I know I don't.  I wonder how cheaply you can buy a piano.  I'm a bit of a snob when it comes to keyboards (for me personally).  They don't have the same tone and definitely not the same key feel as the real deal to me.  (Nerd alert!)  Awhile ago, I bought a cheap acoustic guitar to teach  myself how to play, but I haven't had the time.  I don't seem to feel the same connection to it that I have with the piano, though...but the acoustic guitar does sound beautiful.  Hey, I already have it and it's more portable so it's somewhere to start!  It would be a good outlet for stress when classes resume...
• Redecorating.  I have a good friend (Hey, CoCo!!) that is a master, a maestro, of interior design and creativity in general.  She and I are going to be doing some magic at my place.  Wheeee!  I bought some beautiful prints from a very talented illustrator named Ekaterina Koroleva, and I'm excited to be getting them in the mail soon.  She does such gorgeous work, especially her female portraits.  One of the portraits I bought is the image at the top of this post.  If you're interested, check out her website.  She's a sweetie, too!
• Socializing.  Hey, guys, I can have a life again! Let's do something!! So some fun events, parties, and what have you are coming up.  Crazy, story-making kind of stuff!  Do you have some sparkly heels ready to be worn? 'Cause this girl does!  I don't have them with me to get a picture, so I'm just including a pic of a pair that I'd love to own!  Rowr 

Have a lovely Thanksgiving, all!

Crabby

If someone ever tells you can always go home, just say no.  The anti-drug movement can't hog the phrase.  Just. Say. No.  I'm not talking for a couple of days, that's doable.  But a week, nay-nay.  Is it Thanksgiving yetttt???

This makes me and/or my family sound horrible...but it's just that family dynamic that always comes out.  I'm sure it happens to almost all of us.  I'm an independent, freedom-loving, strong-willed girlie, and I don't like being smooshed into a box of any sort. I love 'em to death, but I'm reaching my limit, guys.

Yes, we're talking about the state of crabbiness tonight.  Because that's what I am.  Crabby.  C-R-A-B-B-Y.  (and redundant seems applicable as well)  To be fair to myself, I'm still recovering from surgery, not smoking, wrapping up assignments for classes (will that hell ever end???), and have a few other things going on. 

There is a bright side -- I found a picture of a crab (see above) that seems befitting of my present state.  He seems a little lost or confused perhaps, but in a comical way.  Anywhoo, I'm sure he could pinch the hell out of you if he felt the need.  Maybe that's what I need...yesssss....some pinchers!!!  That will make everything better.

ps - no pain medicine was involved in this entry.  sometimes being weird is good for the soul  =)

Glimpses

Finally got my new phone, so I'm checking out the camera possibilities.

Here's my day in random bits and pieces 

 In case you were wondering...the closest Trader Joe's is in Nashville.  Heart 'em.

I can't be a true, crazy cat lady without two pics in one week, right?

See below for the remainder of the shots...

Looking Up

Doing better today!  Yay!  Still on the drugs but less of them.

Trying to be productive while on break. A good list makes my heart sing, so let's add one of those bad boys --

Things to do (or not) today

• Keep not smoking.  Yes, I quit smoking at the same time I got my wisdom teeth out.  You can't smoke anyway for fear of the dreaded dry socket, so why not kill two birds with one stone, right?  Hmmm.  Note to self:  look up masochist in the dictionary again
• Get at least two assignments done today, aim for three
• Wander around in the country...exercise/meditation (2 birds, 1 stone!!) 
• Practice taking pics with my new phone (wheeee!)
• Drink more water
• Organize car (not feeling this one any more as I type it out...uh oh, lol)

Sweetie

Best. Nurse. Evaaa.

Break

I'm leaving tomorrow after work to drive to south MS to be with my family for the holidays. I have my phone loaded with music & podcasts for the trip, so I'm ready!!  ...Okay, well...have I packed though? Of course not.

On Friday, I'll be getting my wisdom teeth taken out in Hburg.  Thought I'd start off my holiday break with a bang, you know?  Sooo *hopefully*, I won't be posting any time soon.  Aleve is about the hardest drug I take..so I'm sure I won't be used to whatever they're going to hook me up with.  Some people need a phone block for drunk dialing.  Me?  No real problem with that....Youtube, Pinterest, and other online lovelies will likely lure me back online early though.  If I do end up posting some cracked out entries, I'll make sure to leave them up so you guys can giggle at me (or snicker, if you prefer).

Girls Are Funny

Too true  (NSFW, btw)

Love this series!

Poetry by She Was

 

Mid-February

I wish you could hear how quiet it is here. The last of summer’s nights. The shh shh shh of the wind in the eucalyptus leaves. The snap of dry grass and twigs under the dog’s paws. Cicadas. It’s another kind of song. I wish you could see how dark the night sky is. Here. The stars. The sky full and rich, hangs velvet curtain low. After the rush of stories and words and sorrow and music and a thumping beat. This is all I want. I don’t seek the grit, the dirt, the tarnish of before. More than anything this stillness. This alive. This quiet. This solitude. This alone. I think sadness stains skin and teeth and bones and tongue and eyelids and fingertips. I think it soaks and seeps and bleaches strong.  There are so many descriptions, dark and bruised and melancholy. I think of cherries and blueberries and the tart sweetness of my tongue. My purple blue stained fingers. And always we must do something to clean the stain, to cleanse and to make fresh and bright and shiny. Like happiness is an imperative. I can listen to the song without singing, I’ll take the imperfect sweet, I’ll wear the stain. More than anything this alone. This dark heavy with stars. To make my own.

Beautiful prose-poetry from SheWas, anonymous poet blogger

De-stressing

Jumping around to this in my apartment like a weirdo.  Music makes everything better.

Whirring Down

Beep. Beepity. Beep. Beep.  I've been doing stats and accounting assignments all day, and I still have work left to do!  I feel like a robot.  I'm so sick of ANOVAS, formulas, and reports that I'm adding them to my curse word list.  I'm talking the really bad words like Voldemort, those that you dare not speak of. Mind you, this comes from a woman that can curse like a m***** f****** sailor when so inclined.  So my list is short, people --

Mel's Official Bad Curse Word List

• any slur word
• t-test
• ANOVA
• (insert word here) formula
• EAA
• a certain c-word (not class related, just can't stand it)

I'm usually a pretty perky person, but I'm sorry this is what you're getting tonight, folks!  Actually, now that I've written this out, I'm feeling a bit less "off with their heads!"  heh!  Ehh, geez...

Sleep, here I comeeee

Robert Bly

More talk of poetry today.

One of Robert Bly's poems is a favorite of mine for a simple reason - it conveys how I feel during snowy, winter nights...

The crunch of snow beneath your boots.  The smell of it in the air.  The flush on your cheeks.  The blanket of white.  The stillness and quietness it brings to everything around you.  Those nights have a beautiful, otherworldly quality to them.

So maybe I romanticize snow.  Maybe it's because I live in the South and hence, don't see much of it. But for whatever reason, I love it. (As you can glean from an earlier post, I love rain too!)  What is it with me and precipitation?

Onto the good stuff...

Driving to Town Late to Mail a Letter

It is a cold and snowy night. The main street is deserted.

The only things moving are swirls of snow.

As I lift the mailbox door, I feel its cold iron.

There is a privacy I love in this snowy night.

Driving around, I will waste more time.

In my mind when I read it, I'm walking from my home to the mailbox.  Why take out the fun part of experiencing your surroundings first hand, not in a car through metal and glass?  Is it sacrilegious to take only parts of a poem that I like?  lol  I tend to do that with all kinds of things though.  Take only what feels right/true and disregard the rest. ..I guess Robert Bly not only wants to be separated from people in this poem, but also from the world in a sense.  Otherwise, why the car?

Since I included the whole poem, I'll link to where you can buy his book Silence in the Snowy Fields. It's a great read.

Umm...yeah

I can now be lumped into a group with pre-teens and soccer moms.  I've fought it for awhile now.   I didn't want to like him.  I've heard about those misogynistic ways of his.  But that voice.  Geez... I was driving back from lunch today when Hold On came on the radio.  I couldn't help but enjoy it.  

Now, where did I leave my glass of wine?

A Poetic Frame of Mind

Rainy days are the perfect environment for poetry to me.  In honor of a beloved drizzly, cool day in the Delta...

I used to write poetry all the time.  Now, not so much.  It seems to come in cycles really.  Dreams are like that for me also.  I'll remember my dreams almost every night for months on end, then *poof*, nothing. Odd, huh?

I was in south MS for a wedding recently and got to visit my great aunt. (Shout out to Aunt Re!  Love her!) She and I are close and talk about the oddest, most random things.  Anyway, she reminded me of some poems of mine that I had given her eons ago.  I have most of my poems in a journal of some sort, but I don't remember these two.  Ahhh, how old poetry can make you simultaneously giggle, groan, and smile!  haha

I know it's a cop out not to include them here after mentioning them, but I don't think I'm brave enough. heh  Maybe in the future...

I've been feeling the urge to write poetry again actually.  We'll see.  It's never light going.

Have a happy, rainy night, all!

Organizing

Posting two days in a row - am I rocking it or what?!  Want to know my inspiration?  It's cleaning and organizing my apartment.  God, I hate cleaning, and procrastinating is so much more fun!

Searching the web for organizational tips counts though, right?  Real Simple seems to have the best information if you're curious, but I think I need the kind of help only an Idiot's Guide can provide.  lol  So that's on my to-buy list...

It's moments like this when I want to become a minimalist. . . .

Okay, enough blathering about...I'm off to be a functioning, cleaning adult now

ps - Drawing above is from Hyperbole and a Half.  That woman makes me laugh like no one else.  Check out her blog!

Autumnal

I've deleted my old posts to start fresh.  Things change, you change...so TADA!  A new first post

Now, onto said theme of this post...fall.  How I adore autumn!  It'd be the perfect time of year to travel the US to see nature, if it weren't for having to work.  Drat!!   (Kidding, karmic gods...I love having a job and my awesome coworkers.  Man, I can get off a train of thought with lightning speed.  ..But there is something beautiful and happy about going with the flow.  You never know where you'll end up, and that excites me.)

Anywhoo, a list of things to love about autumn

• The changing colors of the leaves
• The smell in the wind.  It's uniquely fall..rain, chimney smoke, decaying leaves.  It makes me smile.
• Cooler weather - which in the South is always a good thing
• Which leads to wearing sweaters, scarfs, and other such coziness
• Drinking hot tea and apple cider -- I dig being warm & fuzzy (see above)
• Looking forward to long breaks off from work for Thanksgiving & Christmas
• The process of selecting just the right gifts for family and friends for Christmas