I'm Persuaded that:

Sunrises and sunsets are the earth's heartbeat.

"Sun Hands" by Local Natives

No thanks, Band Wagon

I guess I'm reaching that age where all of my friends from high school are getting married and having kids (not necessarily in that order). Within the past month, perhaps less, no fewer than four girls from my high school class have gotten engaged, and there is nothing funnier than the post-engagement pictures they post. Please note the crazed looks in the girls' eyes.

All Quiet on the Eastern Front

I awoke this morning to an absolute stillness. The cat wasn't crying outside my door, no cars were rumbling down the road in front of my house, and my mind was quiet. It was the kind of stillness that any conscientious human being would be loath to disturb, and as I lay there burrowed under my three quilts, the point was further solidified in my mind that there is no life before coffee.

The Grossest

This past weekend I babysat the FBI agent's three boys overnight while he and his wife went to a Christmas party. The boys are 12, 10, and 5 1/2. They're all really sweet though, so I didn't think they'd be any trouble. 

However, within the hour of their parents leaving, there was a crisis. The boys were playing basketball in the back part of the house with some sort of squishy, approved-for-the-indoors-type ball, when I heard all their thumping around cease, and the wailing began.

Figuring that they'd had some sort of spat, I rolled my eyes and made my way to the back room. There was Graham, the youngest, screaming his head off and holding a tissue to his nose. Apparently, he'd gotten hit in the face with the ball.

I took him to the bathroom and tried to calm him down while the other two boys told me what had happened, but when I took the tissue away from Graham's nose to assess the damage, blood gushed out. Then he coughed, and a stream of blood came out of his mouth into the toilet--exorcist style. This freaked him out, and he resumed screaming at the top of his lungs.

At this point there was no consoling Graham, and it was all I could do just to make a few swipes at his nose with a tissue. Then the gross part happened. When Graham choked on a sob, he breathed out sharply through his nose. This splashed blood all over the bathroom toilet, on the walls, and the floor. The bathroom decor was completely white to begin with, so the color of the red droplets made an even starker contrast to the linoleum than would normally be.

At the sight of his blood all over the bathroom, Graham freaked out even more and began to vomit everywhere. He wouldn't keep his head over the toilet, so a lot of it ended up in the sink as well as on the floor. It didn't help that he had just eaten less than 20 minutes prior either. 

When I finally got Graham quieted down, his bloody nose staunched, and his clothes changed, it was time to bring out the rubber cleaning gloves and face mask. The bathroom looked like a war zone, and guess who had to clean it up? Yes, me, the babysitter. It was, I believe, the grossest thing I've ever had the misfortune of coming in contact with, and I don't know if I'll ever be able to look at a hot-dog the same way again.

Haunted Earring

This week I wrote my article for the newspaper on ghost stories in North Carolina. As such, I had to do a lot of research on the topic online. There's a lot of creepy ghost/haunting stories out there, and I admit, I started to get a wee bit scared. Then I glanced down.

I was sitting cross-legged on my bed with my laptop propped on my knees. Perfectly normal, right? Well, when I looked down, I saw something very NOT normal in the middle of my lap. A single earring. Usually an earring would not be cause for alarm, but this time it was.

The earring was a half moon with a star inside it. I'd never seen the earring before, and how the hell did it get there on the middle of my lap without me seeing it? It was like it just appeared out of nowhere. No need to panic, I thought. Maybe it was just one of my friends' earrings and had gotten mixed up in my quilt or something. Not so.

I texted a picture of said earring to all my friends whom it could possibly belong to or who had been to my house in the past three months, but none of them had ever seen it before. Then I really freaked out. Was a ghost or demon or some other kind of supernatural being (like the ones I had just been researching) haunting me? In response to this preternatural occurrence, I locked my bedroom door and sat hunched on my bed with my little black cat, Henry. (I didn't realize until later when one of my friends pointed it out to me, that I had a black cat with me--whom I thought would protect me or some such illogical hope.)

I went to work that night and shared my creepy experience with some of my coworkers. They seemed to share my trepidation about the situation, and I went to bed that night unable to fall asleep for a very long time.

When I woke up the next morning, I had a text from Hannah (my friend who's in Seattle right now working for Americorps). The text said, "Did you like the earring?" I totally forgot that I had opened a letter from her on my bed the day before when I was researching for my ghost article, and I guess the earring had fallen out of the envelope onto my lap without me seeing it. What a relief!

When I later told my father about this incident, he just rolled his eyes and passed it off as his crazy daughter's overactive imagination. Thanks, Dad.

Ghosts, Moss, and Drunken Revelry

This weekend I went to Savannah, Georgia, with some friends. Our riverfront room was haunted by a ghost named Hank who kept turning our TV off and walking around noisily while we were trying to sleep. The city was BEAUTIFUL though, with Spanish moss everywhere.

The Savannah River from outside our hotel

Lexie and I on the trolley before our tour of the city.

An example of the copious amounts of Spanish moss present in Savannah.

Statue of a woman [scaring away ghosts?]

Everything here is beautiful.

Flannery O'Connor's childhood home

Liz, Lexie, and Jenny on Forrest Gump's box-of-chocolates bench

Drinks at Kevin Barry's Irish Pub where an Irish man was singing some Irish songs.

Coffee in one of Savannah's myriads of parks on our last day in the city.

"Yes, hello. I would like the largest iced coffee you can possibly make, please."

Just Some Thoughts I Was Thinking

Sometimes when I'm bored, I like to envision what people's tombstones would read if I was in charge. For instance: 

Here lies Robert Bannerman:

Late to Class

or perhaps

Here lies Louanne Thompson:

May you in death be forever silent. Finally.

Should my parents be worried, do you think?

MUSE Concert

Last Tuesday, I went to the Muse/Metric concert in Raleigh at the RBC Center. IT WAS AWESOME!

"Supermassive Black Hole" by Muse

Reading, Signing, Drooling

I'm taking an English class this semester called The Contemporary Novel--taught by authoress Holly Goddard Jones--and tonight for said class, we were required to attend a reading by author Joshua Ferris. He read for about an hour from his newest book, The Unnamed. I don't think I moved in my chair the whole time. Not only is this man a captivating reader, he is also funny and looks like a J.Crew model.

We're going to be covering his first novel, Then We Came To The End, later in the semester. I got him to sign my copy of the book, and now I am most certainly excited to be reading it.

Wine, Whiney, Wino

I bought my first bottle of wine, and they didn't even card me. 

I'm pretty sure I look "under 40," though.

Here's What My Day Consisted Of:

Studying at The Looking Glass cafe with friends.

Mexican food and margaritas for dinner.

Pumpkin carving and watching the movie Sleepy Hollow with Pete.

Twas a good day.

Under the Weather

Today it was soooo beautiful outside, but I have a cold and felt like I was dying all day. I'm such a baby when I'm sick. Sometimes I'll even just sit there and cryyyyy. I was late for work (yes, somehow I dragged my ass there) because I had to go to the grocery store for some "under the weather necessities." Namely: tissues, cough drops, Dayquil, and ORANGE JUICE. Not just your single-person-serving of Minute Maid, either, but a huge fucking carton of this nectar from the gods. I even drove down the road drinking it straight from the bottle.

Perfect Timing

I sneezed once today and knew immediately that I was getting a cold. And I'm pissed about it.

"Spaceman" by The Killers

Yes, thank you, my birthday was fabulous

I feel really old. It happened as soon as I ordered this impossibly delicious, strawberry margarita for lunch today.

I turned 21 yesterday -- one day after what would've been John Lennon's 70th birthday. Awesome? Absolutely. I'm finally old enough to go out with the rest of my friends who're all older than me and have been able to drink in public for a while now.

However, I realize that the only birthday I have to look forward to now is my 65th when I'll be able to get senior citizen discounts at K&W.

House Hopping

I love house-sitting for people, especially if they have animals (preferably dogs). This time, I'm doing it for my favorite aunt in the whole world, Aunt Donna. However, there are a LOT of animals involved in this: one dog, one cat, one rabbit, two sheep, and about a dozen chickens. I hope I don't forget to feed one of them. . .

Also, they have a jacuzzi bathtub, a porch swing that's surrounded by a garden, a larger variety of coffee than I could ever dream of, and an amazing TV/sound system. Small problem here -- I have no idea how to work said TV/sound system. I hope she left me some directions. . . 

By the way, my 21st birthday is in two days!

Why yes, thank you

There comes a time in a girl's life when she just doesn't want to study. Despite the fact that she has 2 important tests in the next 2 days, she decides to catch up on the latest TV episodes she's missed, while petting her little black cat, Henry, instead. Perhaps a cup of tea will be involved--if it's lucky, of course--and a bit of popcorn, if it can be arranged. Above all, she will neither clean her room nor be productive, and she will go to bed early wearing a large and comfortable sweatshirt.

It's Official

Today I had my first pumpkin spiced latte of the season and saw the first "pumpkins for sale" stand. Fall is officially here, and I'm SO fucking in love with it.

a day in the life

She sighed. A smile touched the corners of her lips as she placed yet another lid on yet another perfectly filled 2 oz. cup. Yes, this is contentment, she thought. There is nothing I would like more in all the world than to fill to-go dressing cups for the rest of my life.

Oh yes, my favorite season is here

Here are things I love about fall:

1)Pumpkins

2)Pumpkin carving

3)Pumpkin bread

4)Pumpkin muffins
5)Pumpkin pie

6)Pumpkin flavored coffee creamer

7)Crisp air

8)The smell of wood burning

9)Colorful leaves

10)COLD WEATHER

11)Wearing cardigans

12)Non-frizzy hair

13)Halloween

14)My birthday (21st, bitches!)

15)Wearing Scarves

16)Not shaving my legs (just kidding)

17)Pretty much everything about it, really

"Seven Nation Army" by The White Stripes

Henry's not feeling very well.

Superpowers

I like to follow the podcast This American Life. Each week they pick a theme, and then get stories that somehow fit that theme from ordinary people like you and me. They're usually quite fascinating. An episode  from a while ago was called "Superpowers," and one segment of the show was devoted to the author John Hodgeman. 

Hodgeman talked about how he has always been interested in the question of "Flight Vs. Invisibility," and every person he meets, he asks them which one they would prefer. I liked his idea, so I decided to copy it and write my newspaper article this week on what I found out.

I ended up interviewing 30 people in all -- 17 women and 13 men (which I thought was fitting, because UNCG's student body has way more females than males). Some of the people I knew, but many of them were complete strangers. Twenty people chose flying, and only ten chose invisibility. 

My results were the same as Hodgeman's, in that all but 2 guys chose flying. However, Hodgeman said that most of the women he interviewed chose invisibility, and my results were evenly divided. It was particularly interesting to me how fast people decided which superpower they wanted--it was almost immediate--like they'd already given the question some serious thought.

When I asked each person why they chose flight, most of the answers were along the lines of: "I would only like invisibility for the the theft potential" or "Because I'm not a creeper." For those who wanted invisibility, some of the answers were: "So I could rob a bank" and "So I could hear what people say and find out what they're really like." 

Flight seemed to be the choice for those who wanted to be in the public eye, and invisibility was for people who prefered to be hidden. Which would you choose?

"Collapsing at Your Doorstep" by Air France

I May Scream

I'm so indubitably excited right now. Yes, the situation is one that calls for words like "indubitably." 

I had my interview for the Peace Corps today, and I think it went REALLY well! Now all I have to do is wait for a packet from my placement officer to come in the mail, telling me what my job description will be, and what country I'll be placed in. My recruiter said that she's going to recommend me for a position teaching English, and the areas I will most likely be placed in (in order of my preference) are 1. Eastern Europe 2. Africa 3. Central Asia. 

I'm so excited I could scream. I actually did a little dance in my car on the way home from my interview.

Re-discovering the Blues is Ohhhhh So Sweet

I'm taking a class this semester called the History of Rock'n'Roll Music (which is awesome, by the way), and in order to get to the Beatles, Rolling Stones, etc., we had to cover the origins of the music first. One of the roots that rock'n'roll comes from is the Blues, and two influential, old school blues artists are Bo Diddley and Muddy Waters. 

This revived my interest in a fabulous modern blues band known as The Black Keys.

"I Got Mine" by The Black Keys

I'm Outraged. That is What I Am.

Above all else, I would like it to be known that I hate my boss. 

The woman is about four feet tall but has a chip on her shoulder that's as big as the earth itself. She always makes loud, indirect comments like "Someone needs to stop leaving the sauces uncovered," but she never speaks to that "someone" directly. Instead, the whole restaurant has to hear her bitching, and of course, we know exactly who she's talking about. Plus, she's severly OCD, has a terrible temper, exaggerates to no end, and you can never tell if she's lying or telling the truth because she's just as likely to do one as she is the other.

To further exasperate this situation that is my job, Ashley told me something very disturbing the other day. 

First of all, I'm turning 21 next month (yay).

Secondly, I like to keep my private life and my professional life VERY separate. 

Thirdly, I hate surprises. 

HOWEVER, my boss told Ashley that she is planning to go on my facebook (which is set to private), find my friends, and throw me a surprise party for my 21st! What the fuck!? I'm so pissed.

Quirks

I used to be under the impression that I was a perfectly normal human being. 

I mean, everyone gets a rush from submerging their hand under water--right?--even if it's just in the bathroom sink. And don't you love getting in the elevator with a total stranger and asking them what they had for breakfast that morning or what kind of superpower they would like to have? How about breaking into song when you're walking down a silent hallway?

Perhaps you should try it sometime.

Senior Year, yes yes

Well, the first week of my senior year of college is over. I'm not sure how to feel about it. Mostly it's surreal. I do feel older though--more mature or something. Also, I'm a little overwhelmed from all the reading and writing I'm going to be doing this semester. My history class that meets twice a week has 100 pages to read for each class. I'm sorry, but that is just too too much. However, my journalism professor looks like Dumbledore from Harry Potter, and I'm very pleased about it. 

My first article for the paper this semester was on biking to campus, and for the first time ever I got some feedback from someone I've never met. Her name is Suzanne, and she works for the Campus Access & Transportation center on campus. She said she loved my article and thanked me for writing about the biking issue. I think my heart grew two sizes larger as it swelled with pride. People DO read my articles!

There are 2 things of note:

The first of these two things happened at the Yogurt Pump yesterday. Hannah had stayed in the car, so we wouldn't get towed, and I went in to get us both some frozen yogurt. On my way out, I crossed paths with two black men (they were very "ghetto" in the way they dressed). As I walked past the larger of the two men, he called out, "Hey girl, I wanna take you back to the crib wit me." Being the shy and prim white girl that I am, I just ignored him and speed-walked back to the car. However, I wish I had responded with something like, "Excuse me sir, but you cannot afford me."

The second thing of note I'd like to mention, happened today while I was making pancakes (blueberry, of course). My 7-year-old sister, Lacey, and my stepmother were sitting at the kitchen table working on Lacey's spelling assignment. Alice would say the sentence out loud, and Lacey was supposed to write it down on the dry-erase board. Alice said the sentence "The pigpen is swept." Lacey started out well with "The pig," but then crammed the next two words together. Unwittingly, she had written "The pig penis swept." I could not stop laughing, and Alice gave me strict instructions "not to write anything about this." Oh well.

I had nearly forgotten that I even had this blog.

I am thoroughly persuaded that I was born in the wrong time period. 

Usually I tell people that I should have grown up in the 1960s, or that I would have been perfect for the 1920s. However, I am more and more convinced that I would have loved living during the Napoleonic or the Georgian eras. I've watched a lot of movies set in those time periods ever since I was a little girl, and I'm so in love with nearly every one of them -- especially the Jane Austen ones.

Last week I went to Hyco lake with Aunt Donna (she and Uncle Bob own a house there). We made dinner together, then sat on the dock and watched the sunset while sipping wine out of long-stemmed glasses. It was so beautiful to see the sky turn different colors as the sun sank slowly behind the trees and out of sight. I don't think I could ever tire of watching the water ripple, or of hearing it gently touch the shore.

Girls' Best Friend

I have recently realized something very disturbing about myself. When I was younger I couldn't stand dark chocolate, and semi-sweet was just a back-up plan in case there wasn't any milk chocolate available. But now, I think I prefer dark chocolate the most of all. Why? Because I can eat more of it without getting sick. . . 

Milk chocolate is just too sweet.