High Five Me

Apparently I just post animated gifs on my blog now.

I have more to share, but not ready to be totally public about it yet! So you just get Tina Fey being awesome.

Today, a grasshopper

Today, a grasshopper landed on me while I was riding home. It was cute, and it kind of tickled. I was about to flick it off then I realized it would probably land in the road, get run over and smushed if I did that. So I let it ride home with me on my arm. As we rode our short journey together, I began to grow attached to it, or at least to feel some sort of affinity. Found myself glancing down to my arm, checking to make sure it was still safely clinging, hadn't jumped out into traffic of its own accord or anything, even though I could feel its tiny feet gripping - a little prickly almost.

(Thank you JessicaNarelle for the image)

I got home, hopped off my bike, leaned down next to a bush in front of my apartment, and off it climbed. Little hitchhiker... haha... nice knowing you, that short trip.

"Ships that pass in the night, and speak each other in passing, only a signal shown, and a distant voice in the darkness..."

Like a Boss

I like this meme.

ps I just realized the cat one actually doesn't say "Like a Boss" but that cat is definitely lying there like a boss.

Pure Conventional

For some reason I was thinking about another student intern I worked with at my first internship. He lived in the same city where I went to school (and also attended that same school). The office was about 20 minutes away so we drove together, had a lot of conversations.

One, I recall, about a woman he had been dating. He told me they had broken up. He found out her dad was gay. This was not acceptable to him for his partner. He could not agree with her family lifestyle. I couldn't even explain how baffling I found this. It is not like SHE was gay even. I could understand that. I can't date you, because you are gay. That makes sense to me. But her father? Not like she can change who or what her dad is. He was just very, very conservative.

Another time, more toward the end of the summer. I was talking about how I was going to miss everyone, asked him if he thought it would be more appropriate to give everyone hugs or shake their hand to say goodbye. "Well," he said. "That depends how you would like to be remembered. Do you want to be remembered in a professional manner or more like a little kid?" That also baffled me somewhat. Is the world really so black and white? I remember thinking. Ultimately I ended up staying on to work part time during the fall semester, so it wasn't even an issue, but still. A glaring contrast in perspective, I suppose.

Somehow, even though you wouldn't think he would be any fun at all, he got quite into things like survey of the week which we (okay let's be serious here: I) would post on the little counter by our intern workstations. Which is your favorite Muppet? What is the most food you have ever eaten at one time? Red Sox or Yankees? Or, the time we snuck into a polo match which was supposed to be some sort of posh business development thing, but I guess we had misunderstood that part of it. We ate the fancy exotic horderves too with wild rice and capers and chit-chatted with ladies and gents.

So I guess it goes to show, nobody is pure conventional or pure fun. I wonder if he would still be opposed to a gay dad now...?

NBPM: Life Flashing Before My Eyes

Did one from October for today's: If your life flashed before your eyes, what are 5 moments you know would be included?

Things that have taken up a somewhat depressingly large portion of my life and therefore would be more of an honest representation of how I have spent my days:

• Studying or attending class, daydreaming or doodling
• Sleeping, trying to avoid waking up
• Cleaning, cooking, eating, pooping, showering, etc
• Riding on a train/bus/bike or in a car
• Sitting in my office cube, working on the computer

Things I'd actually want to remember:

1. I'm small. My hair in a long braid down my back. My grandpa, my mom's father, drives me and my brothers and sisters in the back of his rusty pickup truck up a dirt road in the mountains. The air is breezy, whipping strands of hair as we bump over potholes. He pulls over finally to a place with thick green beneath the trees. Gives us each a tin coffee can with a loop of string to hang around our neck. We pick blackberries - hundreds of them. So sweet. So fat. Careful of the thorns! Fill the cans up. Dump them into a big plastic bucket. Pick more. Empty the cans again. Almost as many going into my mouth as into the coffee can. Come home. Make blackberry crisp and jam and pie.
2. At my parents' house. It's dinner time, maybe thanksgiving, maybe a birthday, maybe a relative has died and we are telling our favorite stories in rememberence. Piles of food, all types. Maybe there is a debate. Maybe there are some passions flying. Maybe we are laughing. Loosening our belt buckles or changing into sweat pants to make room for more food.
3. I'm scrambling up a rocky mountain, half graceful, half totally out of control. There's a bit of wind rustling the leaves and there is some moss but not too slippery, and I'm feeling my way up and over and around boulders. Breathing slightly heavy from the intensity. Get to a clearing. The sun bursts out over the valleys. The view is extraordinary. I almost want to die from how awesome I feel.
4. Sitting with friends or family around a campfire, possibly on the beach. Wearing a cosy sweatshirt. Breathe in. Smokey on the breeze. A tiny bit chilly on the backside, warm on the side facing the flame. Crunchy pine needles or damp cool sand underfoot. Sky getting dark. Stars coming out. Some mosquitoes coming out too but we swat em. Maybe we are lucky, see some fireflies.
5. Probably if anything important or life-changing ever happened to me, like meeting the person I was going to spend my life with or seeing my son or daughter for the first time, that would be the fifth thing.

Great