The Myth & The Majesty

As my 31st birthday approaches, I've found myself thinking about the things that are making me feel old this year -- or simply reminding me that life now is not what I'd expected five years ago. So here we go. I started shopping around for eye creams not so long ago. And wow, do they make me feel poor. I refuse to part my hair in one direction because the greys show too much. I got reeeeeally excited about the bathroom remodel in our main hall because it meant the showers would be new. I will actually call my parents to just hang out. This happens regularly. A nap would be awesome right now. Or most times, really. I swear, it was the day after my thirtieth when my knees started aching every time I stood up. I'm pretty sure I flat-out demanded my mother get me shoes for my birthday and nothing else. I have remarkably strong opinions about the cost of groceries. The most exciting part of my day was when I found that there's a biography...

So the last month was what I'll call a learning experience. Make that Learning Experience. (I could capitalize it all, but you get the idea.) And although things worked out here for the better ... eventually ... it also showed me how unprepared I really was.   So. Before this happens again ...   Things I Will Make Sure I Have On Hand 1. Dry shampoo. As it turns out, not so deep down I'm an incredible girly-girl. 2. Some form of breakfast bar, so at least one meal each day doesn't have to be junk food. 3. A headlamp. (Maybe I should upgrade from the tiny one I do have ... Or at least find that one.) 4. A crank radio. (Need to get one of those...) 5. Batteries. For everything. And then a few more, just in case. 6. My journal! Because wow, do I get antsy if I can't sit back and write at least a little. Also: Things I Will Do 1. LAUNDRY. 2. All of my dirty dishes. 3. Charge my phone. And probably my camera battery. 4. Park my car in the garage, w...

2013 marks the 200th anniversary of the release of Pride & Prejudice , and rather coincidentally, I've been on a bit of an Austen-athon. Compared to a lot of people, I'm a fairly recent convert. Mia Sorella first introduced me right before I took a selected authors course at Mines where we covered P&P and Persuasion (which happens to be my personal favorite of hers). In the last seven years (holy cow, it's been longer than I thought) I've read, watched, listened (I love audio books) and even visited. In 2009, I got to roam Bath during my venture to England and have tea at the Jane Austen Centre. I wandered the gravel walk, saw the Roman baths, and pondered the dreary weather.  This and other stills were Facelifted from the Jane Austen Facebook fan page.  They're all from the 1995 BBC production of Pride & Prejudice . And tonight, when I needed to get some work done around the house, I popped the 1995 BBC version of P&P into the DVD pla...

12 Thoughts Since 7AM 1. Why on earth do I have a Weird Al song stuck in my head?! 2. Online package tracking may be the best AND worst innovation of the 21st century. So far. 3. If you had told me three years ago that one day I would care about billboard locations in Tennessee, I'd have been happy to call the nearest mental hospital for you. 4. Similarly, I never thought I'd be a company's closest thing to tech support. (Stop cringing. You don't think I can see you but I can.) 5. Thank goodness for a mini-lesson from Moonie a few years back. "You do realize that if I've never done something, I just Google it to see what other people have done, right?" 6. Holy crap, it's November. 7. I need to cut back on the caffeine again. 8. Mixed up a batch of a nut brown ale yesterday. Now I keep getting distracted, wondering how it's doing. 9. I really can't wait for political ads to be done, even if I'm not fully prepared for what...

12 Things I Don't Do* (*often, if ever) 1. Pay for Internet access in public places. Really, why would I pay when I can probably go next door and find it for free? 2. Shop at Walmart. They got plenty of my money in college. They don't need it now. 3. Put bumper stickers on my car. 4. Text while driving. (It's not a moral high ground thing. It's a "not worth the fine, especially since I can only seem to text gibberish" thing.) 5. Drink light beer. That's just silly. There are too many good brews out there to drink something that tastes of stale fizzy water. (And that's the slightly more friendly description I have for it.) 6. Maintain my patience with people who drive 5+ mph under the speed limit. It's not quite road rage but it's not quite NOT road rage, either. 7. Maintain my patience with people who make me late for things. Maybe there's a pattern here... 8. Regularly drink doctored coffee. Generally speaking, I'm a...

1. My grandparents are now great-grandparents; cousin Kaci had a baby boy early Monday morning. Yay! Congratulations, Kaci and Jerrid! 2. Shorty is now officially of age ... which means that this weekend we can hit a winery or two. Because that is what our gene pool dictates. 3. I'm really tired of looking for a job. But as I don't have one yet, I guess I'll keep it up. 4. The final Packers preseason game is tomorrow night. Will I watch it? ... Absolutely. 5. It still boggles my mind that football has become a "thing" in my life. Egads. 6. On the other hand, the other autumnal things I'm looking forward to include new seasons of "Community" and "Dancing With The Stars" ... and the latter only because Maks is back. 7. Really, that's no more comforting than the football. Egads again. 8. Ooh, and "Doctor Who," which isn't "new" so much as "finally available to me again." 9. Wow, I'm a n...

1. It's been an interesting week -- we have 150 Catholic women and girls at the camp right now, which is right at capacity for us. Tonight's their banquet ... It's a lot of fun and a lot of work, so my break is abbreviated this afternoon. 2. The summer is winding down as well. Only one more mayhemic week left, followed by a pretty quiet week before the summer staffers head off in different directions. I'm still not sure where I'm going after that. 3. I still love the last Harry Potter movie. 4. I believe it is safe to assume that, if you're repeatedly having issues with the majority of the people around you (regardless of where you are), odds are good they're not the problem. 5. I also believe that this was too much hail in such a short time. 6. South Dakota's weather is a little hinky sometimes. 7. So is Seoul's . 8. I haven't been kayaking enough in the last couple of weeks. Good thing I have time next week. 9. I get to house-s...

Twelve Things That Have Changed Since I Lost My Job 1. How many hours (and which hours exactly) I sleep. 2. How much time I spend at Barnes & Noble. (More.) 3. How much coffee I drink. ( Much more.) 4. How much alcohol I drink. (Considerably less.) 5. The regularity of my meals. (Less regular, more substantial.) 6. My vocabulary. (Expanding. Slowly.) 7. The frequency with which I blog. (Quality notwithstanding.) 8. My time spent outside. (Number one time to not miss a cubicle.) 9. The level of cleanliness of my apartment. (Better, then worse, and now getting better again.) 10. The frequency at which I bake. (Daily instead of weekly.) 11. My stress level. (A bit more unpredictable, but lower on a day-to-day basis.) 12. How much attention I pay to the news. (Not enough.) The blogging downside to this job thing is that I have very little of interest to say. I've talked about the weather and I mention the things I'm doing differently -- but they're not full-...

Twelve Things On My Living Room Walls 1. A painted puzzle collage ... thing. 2. Photos I took of cathedrals in Russia, the onion domes colorized and the remainder of the pictures black-and-whited. 3. Prints of illustrations from one of the first editions of Pride & Prejudice. 4. A family photo from the continental divide in Yellowstone. 5. A shot of me in London with the Tower Bridge in the background. 6. A wine grape varietal table. 7. We-were-here shots with Tanya and Anya in St. Petersburg. 8. A picture with my sister and the Spoonbridge in Minneapolis. 9. My favorite shot of Mt. Moran in the Tetons. 10. A silver and clear clock. 11. A signed print of "xkcd Loves the Discovery Channel." 12. A small red shelf with a monkey candleholder on it. Well, I chased everybody out after some lasagna and a few games of Cribbage, and now I'm technically doing dishes. Okay, so my dishwasher is doing dishes. I'm waiting for it to finish. 2009 is nearing its end and as such, t...

Twelve Things I've Done This Weekend 1. Thoroughly enjoyed having a drink with just a few friends. 2. Contemplated becoming the Cat Lady (see previous post). 3. Load upon load of laundry. 4. Dressed up and attended the Big Brothers Big Sisters fundraiser, the Big Taste . Awesome, awesome event! 5. Purchased a cordless drill, finally. 6. Intentionally put myself into several awkward situations. 7. Acquired all the necessary ingredients for a cake walk cake. Including finally buying a cake carrier. 8. Hibernated and watched movies. ("Coraline," "The Philadelphia Story" and "The Shawshank Redemption" so far...) 9. Cleaned my living room. 10. Messed it up again. 11. Lectured myself at least once each for the following: being too messy, being lazy, being a sissy (yeah, that's a fun one), trying too hard to please people, not calling my mother when I intend to, not calling my grandparents when I intend to, putting myself in awkward situations for no real...

What a crazy weekend this is turning into ... It started with a Rubik's Cube birthday party. You wear one item of each of the six Rubik's Cube colors (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and white) and then you trade items until you're wearing all one color. The pictures that resulted are priceless. Then yesterday morning nine of us went kayaking. It was my first time out, and I have to say -- I think I might be hooked. I've already started looking for a used kayak (because, well, new ones are expensive) ... and a roof rack, because I drive a little car. I was surprised. I thought I'd probably enjoy it, but ten minutes in and I never wanted to get out of the water. I think it was a maneuverability thing, coupled with a control thing (shockingly) ... So much fun. Anyway! That's what's spurred another list. This one is One New Preference And Eleven Other Preferences I've (Re)Discovered This Weekend 1. Kayaking over canoeing. 2. Mowing the yard over shoveling...

Twelve Things Happening In May (that I intend to observe) 1. My 25th birthday. 2. Shorty's graduation [a road trip west]. 3. My parents' 33rd anniversary. 4. My dad's 54th birthday 5. Mother's Day. 6. Memorial Day. 7. Opening of kayaking tours in Wausau. 8. A work trip to New Jersey. 9. A shopping trip to Appleton. 10. The Russian National Ballet in Wausau. 11. International No Diet Day. 12. No Sock Day.

Twelve Thoughts About The Last Twenty-Four Hours 1. Yesterday was, hands down, the most interesting Super Bowl I've ever watched. Even the commercials were better. [That being said, I would like to announce my re-retirement from the sport ...] 2. My sister is a nutcase. 3. There are things I've seen that I now consider fairly commonplace -- but aren't, really. Like Mt. Rushmore. And the Sturgis Bike Rally. 4. I am not a decorator, but I do an okay job of faking it. 5. I am the very model of a modern major general. 6. "Soft" frost is a welcome change of pace over the rock solid, formed-when-the-temperature-dropped-below-zero variety we've had for the last month. 7. Sophie looks pretty darn good when she's just been washed. 8. I am one of the guys. Nothing quite brings that home like being the only girl at a Super Bowl party ... especially when you don't realize it until the second quarter. 9. I should clean my apartment much mo...

This was my most surprising list yet. I didn't think I could come up with twelve things, but sure enough -- there they were. All of them, in plain sight, at least to me. Twelve Things I Collect 1. Wine bottles. I don't honestly know how many I have, but I freqeuntly buy wine for the bottle. 2. Temporary hobbies. They serve their purpose and then melt away until I need them again. I think the next one I need to pick up is wine label removal. 3. Maps. (And, slowly but surely, globes.) 4. Shot glasses. Did you realize that almost anywhere you go, you can buy either shot glasses or coffee mugs? One of those options travels a lot better than the other. 5. "Just friends." 6. Black and white photos and posters of bridges. I blame my father. 7. Magazines. More the result of not liking to just throw things away than anything. 8. Bad habits. 9. Quotes and stories. My own and those of others. 10. Foot pictures. 11. Books Coffee table, cook, novel, text ... 12. Ticket stubs. I...

In what is quickly becoming a quest for identity in this new year, I give you ... Twelve Things I Am 1. Nerdy. 2. Fiercely independent. 3. A decent baker. 4. One of the guys. 5. In touch with my feminine side. 6. Perpetually on time. 7. Outgoing. 8. Interested in several different things at once. 9. Addicted to the written word. 10. Terminally afflicted with wanderlust. 11. Generally understanding of people's mistakes. 12. [Good at] Making people laugh ... even if it's just at me. ----- Twelve Things I Am Not 1. Patient. 2. Organized. 3. Overly open. 4. Focused. 5. A shopper. 6. A bar person. 7. Generally understanding of people's faults. 8. Good at taking compliments. 9. Good at taking criticism (particularly from certain people). 10. Content to stay in one place, physically or metaphorically. 11. Terribly romantic. 12. Comfortable in a room full of strangers and no one I know. ----- And so the quest continues ...

A nod to Pastor Ryan for this one ...   Questions No One Asked (or My Interview With Myself)   What are you hoping for in 2009? First, that I can finish planning my trip to England in February and that the trip goes well. Second, that I can make it out to the Hills at least twice. Third, that this country can take a few steps forward for once. I'm not sure how hopeful I am about that, though. There are a bunch of other things as well, resolution-related things, but I don't want to talk about those right now.   Why not? Because the Internets are very public, and I already know of at least one coworker that happens across this blog regularly.   Are you happy being single? Yes. Not that I'm opposed to NOT being single -- just that I'm not going to spend a lot of time trying to reverse it.   What is your favorite color? Red. The only reason no one asks this is because if someone's in a position to ask, they've probably ...

I was shocked to find that I could come up with twelve things for this list, but it was rather exciting, too. Just goes to show that things definitely change after college. ----- Twelve Things I Do In My Spare Time 1. Read. A lot. Books, magazines, newspapers, online stuff. I'm addicted. 2. Go hiking. When I can't go hiking, I go for long walks around town. My legs are my most reliable mode of transportation ... Well, most of the time. 3. Write. A lot. Journals, this blog, a couple of budding works of fiction. Part of the word addiction. 4. Paint. Not one of my bigger talents, but something I really enjoy doing. 5. Cook. Yay food! 6. Geocache. Fantastically fun and cheap (after the initial GPS purchase, which still makes it cheaper than most hobbies). And hey, I now know more about this town than I ever anticipated. Way cool. 7. Sew. Ever since I got my sewing machine for my last birthday, I've been oddly obsessive -- although in st...

In honor of what I hope will be a fantastic upcoming weekend ... ----- Twelve Things That Put Me In The Holiday Spirit 1. Snow. 2. Starbucks Peppermint Mochas. (I'd be ashamed, but they're so good ...) 3. Shopping. (No, really.) 4. Salvation Army bell ringers. 5. Cheesy Christmas movies. 6. Leftover turkey. 7. Decorating, especially lights! (The inflatable things don't really do anything for me.) 8. Cranberries. 9. A good bottle of Chianti. 10. The holiday book drive at the B. 11. Pumpkin pie, pumpkin bread, pumpkin cake, pepitos ... 12. Crisp, clear, starry nights. (Bonus #13: My mother's Russian black bread.)

Twelve Things About My Twelve Closest Friends 1. Half of them are men and half are women. 2. They come from all over the place. 3. They each have a pretty unusual taste in music (at least for their stereotypical "types"). 4. They're all fairly spontaneous people. 5. There is not a bad sense of humor among them. Cheesy, perhaps, but not bad. 6. Most of them have helped me play a prank on someone else -- or have helped play one on me. 7. I will nearly refuse to watch movies with at least three of them. 8. Just over half of them are engineers. The others run the gamut from an historian to a physical therapist. 9. At this point, only two of them are married. Two are engaged; several more are in serious relationships. 10. Put into one room, they probably wouldn't all like each other, although they would likely all have a certain amount of respect for each other. 11. One I have known my whole life; two I have known for about a decade. The rest have appeared in my life in th...

Now, because I've been giving my poor mail carrier a workout (since he has to do my street on foot ... yikes), I thought I'd amuse the rest of you with a new list. ---- Twelve Things I've Ordered In Recent History (going back a few weeks) 1. Russian vocabulary flash cards. 2. The book Zodiac by Robert Graysmith. 3. Parts of a costume for Velma from Scooby-Doo. 4. An appetizer/hors d'oeuvres dish from Taste of Home Entertaining. 5. Bath salts from Arbonne. 6. The book Party of One by Anneli Rufus. 7. Several Christmas presents that I shouldn't post up here because the recipients might read this thing. 8. Ten bubble pipes. 9. A fantastic red dress. 10. The movie "Hairspray." 11. A Christmas album by Ella Fitzgerald. 12. An instruction manual for a slide rule. ---- While this list is fairly extensive (kind of frightening that I hardly had to think in order to come up with twelve things I've ordered in the last six weeks or so), it's more surprising to...