5 things I've learned in the last week

1. I have to my 100 hours of observations done before I student teach in the fall. Ack! (Hellooooo, Summer school!)

2. Joe Cocker used to be normal in the absence of music. That and he's awesomer than I previously suspected. Kudos to Julie Taymor for choosing his rendition of "A Little Help from my Friends" for Across the Universe.

3. One should never, ever tighten the string's of one's hoodie while one is wearing glasses. The resulting trauma to the nose is so not worth the extra warmth.

4. School district boundary maps are difficult to follow. If we continue to live here, I have no idea what school Preston would go to. I hope it's Orenco--they're the Orcas, and he digs Orcas.

5. I am, apparently, a Democratic Party Neighborhood Leader. I have no idea what that means. I think I'll learn on Sunday, if I can drag myself to the orientation.

Bonus--always check which blog you're blogging in before beginning blogging to make sure your blogging in the blog you wish to be blogging in.

the thing about being pregnant

The thing about being pregnant is that the tears just come easy for good and for bad. saturday night i was more or less bawling at the funeral scene in Across the Universe. Today, i misted a bit at this idea. The simplicity makes for the beauty and the beauty makes me cry. Take an hour. Turn out the lights. Save the world.

I like it when people are good. It helps shake loose my crusty misanthropy.

won't there inevitably be a conflict someday between America's commitment to democracy and it's commitment to secularism and the separation of church and state?

I found this statistic in a poll from last summer: 58% of Americans would favor creationism being taught in school alongside scientific theories of evolution at public schools. (a whole range of evolution/creation polls can also be found here

58%!!

Do these people know that what they're favoring is tantamount to the complete undoing of the first amendment? Particularly if the 51% of the people who said this is an issue that should be decided on a national level get their way?

But, whether or not they know it, this view of education does challenge to the first amendment and it begs the question of what value Americans hold more dear: democracy or religious freedom. Does religious freedom need to bow the the will of the majority? Can it? Should it?

Rain!

Part of the joy of the new place is that you can't hear the weather with the same nerve-rattling intensity of our previous home/glorified shack. The winds that howled around town a couple of weeks ago were barely noticeable to me and most of the rain thus far has been but a distant tinkling.

I can only imagine that it sounds something like the Normandy invasion over there now because I feel like I'm on Noah's freakin' ark over here.

Truth be told, though, I kind of dig it. Weather noises are a lot less scary when you can be reasonably assured that the outside won't force its way in.

there has to be something

there has to be something worth blogging every day. clearly my standards must be lowered accordingly (and my initiative or drive or something uppered (upped, i know, but then you miss out on the groovy parallel thing that happened)).

nesting parentheticals! i'm already off to an auspicious start.

brandon is out procuring for us a football-themed dessert. nobody is coming over. we will not be watching the game.

why, out of the blue, do i so desperately want to see rush this summer?

Schmap

Schmap is a groovy little travel website full of easy to read info and lots and lots of pictures. About a month ago, they included this one of Brandon's in the Seattle Schmap.

This morning, we got an email letting us know that our picture of Place Dauphin in Paris is being put to good use on their Paris page. If we want to get technical about credit, this picture is actually mine. I'm cool with his name in the credits as long as the people who count know it was really me.

It's cool when people like your stuff!

I got nothing

I'm blogging here completely out of a sense that I should blog. I haven't been very successful at making it a habit in a long time, which is weird since I've had a blog (more or less) since December, 2000

10 years and 11 days...well, that's something. Pay no mind to the fact that some years I barely touched the thing and that lately I've just been using my account as a glorified RSS reader--I've been blogging for 7 years. Check me out!

Okay, it being the new year--just about--and this being a blog of lists--kinda--I think I'll make a nice list of 10 things I'll do more of in 2008:

1. Blog. That was easy.
2. Observations. Like, several hours a week. I totally slacked last year and I shall suffer for it. The moral of this story: don't slack!
3. Be positive about other people. I'm a nice and generous kind of person when face to face, but I loves me some trash talk. Since I'm about to become a mother of 2 (holy crap!), I think it's time to cut back.
4. Play musical instruments. Seriously, I now have a piano, a bass guitar and a flute. Not to mention free access to 2 guitars. In the past week I've played about 30 minutes of Christmas music on the flute (because it's new). I could do more.
5. Play with Preston. I play with Preston quite a bit already, but I could do more...and a commitment now before new baby seems like a good plan.
6. Cook. I used to cook every night...now we order in, and it sucks. I miss my food. I should start cooking it again.
7. Clean. I've never been much of a cleaner. Including this almost feels like a joke...but what the heck; I'll give it i a shot.
8. Play games or otherwise use the weeknights. Let's try to limit the dueling laptops, shall we?
9. Stuff from my 101 list. Lately it's kind of been "hey I did a thing from my list!" Which is nice, but a more purposeful approach couldn't hurt.
10. Take some tests. I don't think this technically qualifies as a "more" activity, but I needed to throw in a reminder to myself that I've got 4 praxis tests to take sometime in the near future (like, March), and I should maybe do something about that.

Hey, look at that! I found something to blog about after all. Let's all just take a moment to acknowledge that. It's a big damn deal.

cbgb

Originally uploaded by RIP CITY GINGERBLAZE 2007

wow!

gingerbread punk. it's worth going and looking through all of these amazing food creations, but this, i think is my favorite (though far from the most astounding, technically).

learning guitar and other random bits of progress

okay, so i learned one of my 5 songs. except that i actually kinda learned 2 songs today.

i completely suck at both. but that's kinda the point, isn't it?

maybe if i quit smoking for real, i'll take the acoustic to school for something to do during the breaks that still gets me out of the room.

even if i don't quite smoking, i'm totally going to quit smoking at school.

but--even if i fail at quitting, i get to cross something off the list!

i've been smoke-free since sunday afteroon! in just 2 short hours i will have accomplished the "smoke free for 5 days" item. yay!

this just in: we're thinking pretty hard about a trip to spain (where the rain, it is told...oh nevermind). it's actually kind of a trip to france that begins in spain and might or might not involve renting a car.

i'm like 87% sure we're going to bilbao and it's quite likely we'll spend christmas day in paris this year.

there are worse places to turn 33 (just ask jesus).

#80

Okay, I haven't actually taken any steps toward learning these things, but I have picked out my 5 songs for acoustic guitar:

1. "Ball and Chain" by Social Distortion. So's to make myself cry while I sing it.
2. "Gloria" by Them. I have this miguided notion that it'll be easy. Plus you don't hear it a lot.
3. "It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)" by REM. Because I already know the words, and who doesn't want to show that off? Oh, it's just me, then. Okay.
   
4. "Don't Look Back in Anger" by Oasis. I don't know if this song will work as an acoustic song, but I don't care. It's got singalong cheesy goodness.
5. "I Fought the Law and the Law Won." I'm punk rock, just like Buddy Holly. I'm hesitant, though because I think this one will be really hard. Who am I kidding? They're all going to be really hard!