The Myth & The Majesty

Okay. This is the last post today, I swear. I haven't posted any pictures of my apartment, and I suddenly had the urge. So ... here's my wine wall ... Some pictures, my awesome rocking chair ... A window to the kitchen ... Um ... yeah. There you go. Oh. And before anybody wonders, I bought those flowers for myself. My apartment is very beige. Obsessively so. The walls are beige, the counters are beige, the carpet is "light brown" ... Egads. I mean, it's better than being surrounded by white (nothing like feeling like you live in an asylum), but it doesn't give you much to work with. Maybe I'm just too colorful. Ha. Ha. Ha. Now, this next picture is just to prove a point. Those of you who don't know me are probably thinking, "Wow, that's an ugly couch." The people who do know me aren't say ing anything because they're unconscious. That's right! It's clean! At least, clean enough to invite people over. I still need to repla...

Yargh! Okay, so the previous post took well over an hour to put together because the picture loading thingy (only technical terms used here, folks) kept dying. And after I got them all in, they all disappeared. After I finally got the stupid thing to post ... the font shrank. That didn't even make sense. I don't usually get this frustrated with Blogger, but holy crap! (I feel better now.)

Okay. Before I get into my actual post -- woot for random readers! (And if that little bit of nerdiness didn't scare you off, thanks for stopping by, Paul!) I've discovered one thing that I truly love about Wisconsin: actual fall colors. SoDak's great, but when September and October come around, you get two colors: yellow and brown. Not terribly exciting. At some point, I observed to myself that Wisconsin is one big forest, which must mean that fall was pretty cool. And wow. I was right. (Give me a break -- it hasn't happened often lately. I miss being right.) It doesn't just turn colors -- it turns Technicolor. Seriously. Think "The Wizard of Oz." (If you're picturing the parts in Kansas, you're seriously missing the point -- and frustrating me, for that matter.) The first picture is an example of the Wisconsin forestedness. Wausau, like most cities around here, is heavily wooded throughout town. Including in and around the parking lot of the Texa...

I took a trip north last weekend and it almost didn't happen. It started on Thursday, when I realized that I really wanted to get out of the apartment (if only for a day) and take a mini-vacation. I was going to leave Friday after work, crash at a motel somewhere, and spend Saturday sightseeing. After getting suggestions from Kristi & JD, I decided that a trip up to the Apostle Islands was in order. On Friday, I got thwarted by work and weather. It's moderately rare to put in extra time on a Friday (I mean, who wants to be there later than absolutely necessary?) but due to a project that kind of stunk and my new-ness, I was there till after I intended to be on the road -- which meant I hadn't packed or eaten supper yet. When a nasty thunderstorm blew in as well, I decided to leave early Saturday and make the trip. When my alarm clock went off shortly after four, I shut it off and tried to talk myself into staying in bed. Or going. I couldn't figure out what I really...

Lunch break! Chance to blog ... This post is halfway to see if the post-from-an-email thing works. (I tried it a long time ago, but to no avail. Maybe this time I’ll have better luck.) I have two other blogs in the works but I can’t work on them here. So here I am. Hi! How are you? My week hasn’t been great. It hasn’t been bad, either, really ... Work has been moderately uneventful. I was sick on Tuesday and actually stayed home (this is an extremely rare occasion) ... Apparently the cold I had last week went dormant for about three days to gather strength and coordinate an attack. Luckily, my system won, and by yesterday I was fine, albeit a little tired. Aside from my weekend, I have no stories to tell. And that will all be in a separate blog. Let’s see ... I may have a few weekends away coming up ... One to Minneapolis for sure, one to Milwaukee most likely, and two possible trips to Chicago and Green Bay. Could be an exciting pre-holiday season...

I love nighttime. [I'm also a fan of simplistic sentences, but that's not the point of this post. Wouldn't that be dull?] It hasn't always been like this. I remember a point in time when I was scared of the dark. We all go through that phase when we're little. I mean, the dark is scary. Anything could be out there and we wouldn't know it. When we get older we realize it's just a pair of pants draped over a chair or a jacket hanging up, just a broom behind the door or the vacuum in the corner. The dark doesn't seem so scary anymore -- just inconvenient. You stub your toe on a table and instead of being relieved that it was a table and not something mean and furry, you're frustrated because you knew it was there and weren't conscious enough to avoid it and now your toe hurts. Here's the thing. I'm a jumpy person. (Half my readers just said, "Um -- duh.") Dark didn't necessarily go well with me. I'd freak out a little bit e...

Okay. So I'm way behind. LifeLight was pretty amazing. Actually, the whole weekend was pretty amazing. The weather was perfect. After last year's rain, everybody was bracing for the worst, but Friday and Saturday in particular were picture-perfect. A small contingent of Techies showed up to camp out at the Family Hotel and my sister caught a ride back to catch Jars on Friday. Which basically means Friday was a pretty full house ... Not quite as full as last year, but hey, everybody actually got enough space to sleep and it only took about an hour to make and eat breakfast. Jars rocked. Period. Admittedly, it helped that I knew every word to every song ... except one. Shorty and I were equally stumped on that one. I felt better then. Saturday my sister and the parents headed back to Minneapolis (thanks to my sister's frustrating landlord) to get her moved into her new apartment. The rest of us (all of us Techies and my equally nerdy brother) were left to our own devices to ...

I mean, I knew it was true. I don't think I ever realized just how true it was. All the time. "Odds are good, whatever you're looking for is right in front of you." Scary.

They say scent is one of the strongest memory triggers. I believe it if only because it's always been extremely true for me. In the last couple of days there have been some random trips down memory lane, chiefly about things I haven't thought about in years. For instance, yesterday at work I got my usual Friday popcorn. (We have popcorn every Friday at the office -- carnival-style bags.) And suddenly I was at a football game my senior year of high school. I don't do much thinking about high school anymore, but that memory was a happy one. My senior year was my one truly good year in Lennox ... I even went so far as to go to almost every football game (something I had never done before and didn't do in college). Maybe it was because it was my last year; maybe it was because my friends were going. I think a lot of it had to do with a feeling of independence that started when I realized I could go to the away games. This morning, I stepped out onto my deck to put out a pla...

I should definitely write about this past weekend. LifeLight took place in Sioux Falls and a handful of Techies made the trip to Sioux Falls, myself included. Jars of Clay played Friday night, something my whole family made it to. I should definitely write about this past weekend, but I just don't have the attention span right at the moment. Perhaps in a couple of days I'll have plenty to say (and maybe a few more pictures to post as well) but for now I just want to veg. So instead I'll leave you with some lyrics that have had me thinking the past couple of days. Shoot a dream in your arm and sleep away It's not the stuff that kills you, that keeps your life at bay Every crash pulls you in reach Of a watershed of signal flares that cover your beach These are just placebos to make us feel all right Illusions in our pockets make our feather float us high For a second I thought I saw your eyelids rise A moment, something restless caught you by surprise, Surprise, surprise ...