More Ways to Waste Time

Now I may find this clip in particular REALLY funny since a) it stars my intended, and b) I have tried to get into this show but feel much like my beloved Antonio. Check out the Office clips, as well, and this one is a true classic.

Also, if you aren't playing The DaVinci Code Quest, you had better get on board.

Now I pod, too and other updates

Item 1:
Thanks to all my dear friends and family who pitched in on a birthday gift certificate, I, too, now own an iPod. I am nervous. It is sitting here in its box in front of me. I haven't even opened it. I opted for the 30GB in white. I am afraid to dive into the world of iPod users because I don't believe in subjecting myself to things I can't live without! But I do make a killer playlist, now I'll take that to go!

Item 2:
The RETURN of Never Saw Blue: After great research, shopping, comparison, and soul searching, I decided that the best automobile option for me at the moment was to have my sweet little jeep repaired, rather than retiring her to the scrap heap. I am happy. Very happy. Her brand new out-of-the-box engine purrs like Wilson the Amazing ReAppearing Cat. And I just love driving that silly blue box on wheels. So to answer those who asked why she suddenly appeared in front of RiverWoods after a 3 week absence, our time together just isn't quite over.

Item 3:
Volunteers needed. No, not as a wedding date (since the response to that was, well, non-existent), but to help me move!! I am renting a little house in Orem that I have loved for years, coveted for awhile, and now call home. So Saturday I'll provide the pizza if you'll provide the muscles... you, whoever you are. Then I will host a FABULOUS party in a few days after I unpack my creme brulee torch and fancy entertaining accoutrement which has been in boxes for, well, YEARS waiting to be used. I will post pictures as soon as I have established my residence and planted my garden.

Item 4:
I get to go to Germany in 2 1/2 weeks. I may weep, I am so excited to go to a real bakery.

On My 32nd Birthday

I am not really one to get sentimental and melancholy on birthdays. I do that enough on any given Tuesday... But the combination of early morning, recovering from sickness, and the fact that I have been given the assignment to gather pictures of my mother for (yet another) tribute, have made me a little introspective and overly dramatic. It has nothing to do with my birthday, per se, but rather with my official state of grown-upedness, adulthood, woman-ness. I find that with the passing of my mother, the resentment a girl is "supposed" to feel as she turns into her mother, has been negated, or in the very least, has been pardoned to a point. I revel in the recognition of things I do that are like my mother. I embrace all the Syd-isms that leave my lips. I love every expression and characteristic of mine which is, in its basest self, hers. I love catching a glimpse of her in the mirror when I am squinting just a bit. I love seeing her face when I see pictures of myself. I love that I will be able to say to my children "THIS is what your grandmother would say." I enjoy the fact that I remind people of my mother-- that people say to me "you look just like her!" Isn't a child supposed to hate that? I am supposed to avoid turning into my parents in any way possible. But the bittersweetness is that because she is not here, it is okay, even desirable for me, to take on the attributes that were she here, I would most likely avoid. Looking through the giant box of pictures tonight, I found many that I had never seen before. There were many more which I have seen before, have looked at with my mom, have not cared to really study. They all share something-- the light that emanates from my mother's face. Perhaps most of it is in my eyes, but it is there. She is there, she is beautiful, she is smiling. And I am part of her, she is part of me, and to today I rejoice.