just wondering…
are we done with halloween yet?
i’m not entirely sure why*, but it’s just not my favorite holiday. i don’t really like dressing up, i don’t need all the candy, and although little kids dressed up like animals is awfully cute, i just find myself not caring.
i’m all for festivities and holidays and senses of occasion, but this one just leaves me nonplussed.
so, are we done now? everyone good? on to thanksgiving? turkeys, pilgrims, whatnot?
*nope, i know why. but i’d rather just be nice and not say.
orange votive candle holder.
(via lifehacker)
cheap, easy, environmentally conscious, natural, glowy, holiday, warm, fragrant.
any word association i do with this DIY orange rind & clove votive candle holder ends up good. total winner.
look for this at a table near me very soon, along with good company (you, hopefully :).
oh. my…just…oh, my.
knitting in biology 101 (via etsy)
sara, dahlialing.
i’ve been on the hunt for grey earrings to go with the enormous amounts of grey in my wardrobe, because silver accessories are not cutting it. i’ve also been imagining that i had enough money to pay the stamps for shipping such items to me, let alone have the money to buy them. (i do not). these are from feisty elle, a lovely san francisco boutique that sells lovely things to lovely people. have i mentioned how lovely these are? they are. lovely. [insert wistful sigh] thanks to mighty girl for the lust link.
dahlia earrings
sluggish.
i’ve been feeling a little very sluggish lately. the last month has been incredibly busy for both the boy and i, and thus we’ve spent less time cooking and more time eating out at the last minute, which, although tasty at the time, leaves us both feeling greasily like we’re weighted down with bricks. bricks made of crap.
delightful, no?
as he and i were talking about this last night, after a healthy late night meal (at midnight) of jack quinn’s fried potatoes, i was realizing that the most exercise i had gotten in the last month was walking the three flights of stairs to my class. once a week. if that. yikes. an unfortunate occupational hazard for me is the requirements that make me spend copious amounts of time on my ass: reading, writing, typing, researching, meeting-ing, and making up new words like meeting-ing.
combine this with my tendency for naps over hikes, even when i’m not in school, and we’ve got a bad thing coming before too long.
time to change course.
i’m fighting inertia, busyness, and a long-term committed relationship with my bed, people, so i need some assistance reminding myself i’m alive and have working limbs. especially when it is starting to get cold outside, making it even less appealing to venture out. i’m going to need reinforcements. thankfully, i’ve done this before, so i knew exactly what to do first:
ipod shuffle playlist.
awwwwwww, yeah. i scoured my music and have a bitchin’ list of 54 songs that make me want to bounce about like a crazy person. i’ll refine this playlist over the next few weeks of moving my elbows and knees about, tossing out the songs i thought i’d love but regularly skip over, adding new ones i hear (or that you SUGGEST to me, hint, hint*) until i get it right. and this will work until about the end of the year, when inevitably i will want to vomit every time i hear these songs and they have to go on hiatus. but, that is months away, and i’m stoked (that’s right, 1980’s, i am STOKED) about my list.
MGMT, we have a date. the beastie boys are my new running mates. we’ll walk past all the haters, jill scott. me and my musical posse, we’re totally on it. who runs this town? jay-z. and me.
let the unslugging commence!
* this is more than a hint. do it! don’t make me call you out like ira glass on a npr membership drive. or kanye at the VMAs. cough up your badass dance/workout/party songs. YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE. 🙂
yes, please.
everything is possible again.
one of my favorite fiction writers, jonathan safran foer, is coming out with a new book called “eating animals”, which is about exactly what you would expect it to be about.
but that’s another story. or, as he would say, a different story about a different story.
however, in a new york times article he wrote that was adapted from the book, i found another reason for why i’m in education:
“Children confront us with our paradoxes and dishonesty, and we are exposed. You need to find an answer for every why — Why do we do this? Why don’t we do that? — and often there isn’t a good one.”
oh, jsf, you fantastic writer.
this, by the way, is what i love about writing, and, consequently, also about reading: buried treasure. in an article about vegetarianism a good writer can clarify, succinctly and poignantly, what i have failed to articulate amongst the cacophony of questions in my head. what is important to me in terms of education, and why do i still like it so much in spite of the sisyphian* task it appears to be?
because i need to be confronted with my own paradoxes.
because i need to continue to think and work hard at thinking.
because i need to do what i am requiring my students to do.
because there needs to be better answers to the questions, and better questions.
elsewhere in the article foer talks about a response his friend had to him when he discussed embarking on a new journey when his son was born. his friend said: “everything is possible again”. this idea that new journeys are marked with new promise, a new hope and a renewed sense of possibility around every corner must be cultivated to live, thrive.
the effort to farm this sentiment is relentless, and exhausting; i do not look good with a pitchfork.
but, i think it’s true. everything is possible again. everything. everything. a great harvest is always worth the effort.
* hands down, one of the best and most useful adjectives. use it. own it. gah, i love myth.
an invincible summer.
i am always totally unprepared for cold weather.
as summer redecorates for fall, and then cleans house for winter, i find myself in a two-week window where i am fully unaware as to what season i am in. i forget that yes, YES, ABSOLUTELY YES i need a coat each and every time i leave the house. i forget to add 15 minutes to every drive time to allot for warming up of cars and, eventually, scraping of windows and cursing of temperature.
resistance is futile, however.
as my good friend sara said to me last night, cold weather is no problem if you have really warm clothes. true story.
so you have to give in. give in to the cold weather, the biting wind, the icy roads. come prepared with salt and scrapers in the car, mittens, coat and hat (NEVER forget the hat!), and go searching now for cute winter shoes. (side note: how come all the cutest shoes are summer/fall shoes? i can’t seem to find cute winter non-heel shoes that aren’t clunky boots. help is always welcome. thanks — eds.)
this week i transition with the weather, moving from time at Unnamed High School to Unnamed Middle School. i am, at best, nonplussed at this change, as i’ve grown fairly attached and used to high school. as difficult as some of my students are, as challenging as it is to be in someone else’s classroom, as much as there are days that i go home wondering if i will ever, EVER be good at this, i know that this is precisely where i’m supposed to be; where i want to be.
i am in the center.
so, then, it’s hard for me to move literally, and figuratively, 1/2 mile away from center.
what i find with this, as it is with winter, that it takes me a little bit of time to figure out what season i’m in. but, if i just go with it, accept it with both arms and just shiver through the assault of low temperatures and new surroundings, i acclimate. and then, amidst the changes of weather, i experience the beauty of the new season.
the philosopher albert camus said that in the depths of winter is when you learn you have, inside yourself, an invincible summer.
cuddle up, it’s going to be good.
sara, darling. 