30 day challenge: Five items you lust after

Day 19: Five items you lust after

1. Fancy SLR camera

2. Puppy (this exact one, please)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/geoffmyers/156920686/

3. Ceiling-to-floor wooden bookcases

http://pinterest.com/pin/7444797/

4. Expensive shoes (this is a new development)

5. Treehouse big enough for grown-ups

http://pinterest.com/pin/7240385/

I should be on my final leg of travel!  Another day or so and I'll be here again. Life is good.

30 day challenge: Something you're proud of

Day 17: Something[s] you're proud of

I'm proud of my friends because they're fun, interesting, and devoted and we're friends even though we live far apart. 

I'm proud of my parents for not just letting me do interesting things but being positive and supportive too. And I'm proud of myself for getting through college and doing interesting things. 

Oh, and I'm proud of the fact that I'm a decent driver now. Four years ago, getting behind the wheel scared the crap out of me.  And now I'm driving thousands of miles cross country.  Fears can be conquered!

On that note, I'm selling my car in a couple of months. Let me know if you're interested in a 2006 Honda Civic with around 50,000 miles.

30 day challenge: Something you think "what if" about

Day 16: Something you think "what if" about

I'm pretty anti-dwelling on the past in a regrets-focused or otherwise negative way. But every once in awhile I wonder how things would be different if I had gone to NYU or Emory or Vanderbilt instead of Auburn. 

I think it's safe to say I wouldn't have spent a year in Australia. I might've studied something besides English and history. I think I would've had a more conventional post-graduation experience --- maybe a job or grad school right away. That being said, if I had studied at one of those schools, I probably wouldn't have met my Australian friends or spent two months in Guatemala. I wouldn't be working a second summer in Wyoming or moving back to England.

I wish we had a hundred lives to play with some of the possibilities. 

On the road again!

Exhausted from packing for my week road trip, packing for Wyoming, packing for England, for shipping to Europe, for temporary storing, and for long term storing... AGH. However!  I've managed to write some short 30 day challenge posts to keep things alive while I'm traveling north and west. Here's the first one:

Day 9: How important you think education is

If you're well-educated, you'll probably: have more money, have more choices, be left of center politically, get married later (decreasing your chances of divorce), and other good things I can't remember off the top of my head. Education is good, important, and something I've taken for granted. We need good schools if we want productive, well-rounded, and most importantly, happy and healthy citizens. 

On the other hand, "too much" education can mess with your mind. Too many choices can freak you out. I really love this saying (anyone know where it's from?):

"Intelligence [or, lots of education] is like four-wheel drive. It only allows you to get stuck in more remote places." 

I had a great week hanging out with family --- hopefully I'll get a chance to write about that soon. Right now it's time for breakfast and hastily throwing random unpacked items in my car. I'm headed to St. Louis tonight, Minneosota tomorrow, and I should roll into the Tetons sometime next Thursday.

Hope everyone has a good week! 

30 day challenge: what you ate today

Day 8: what you ate today

How about yesterday?

For breakfast I had oatmeal. Then I ate various kinds of sandwiches while I was at work. Then around midnight, I couldn't sleep and the only food I had was some apple-smoked cheese and cinnamon rolls with a 2008 expiration date. When I opened the canister, some of the cinnamon cracked (cinnamon can crack?  apparently so.) and fell off the rolls and the frosting was hard. I cooked them anyway. They burned. I ate them anyway... after an appetizer of cheese. It may sound gross, but old cinnamon rolls and expensive cheese cure insomnia, I promise.

Tonight?  Thai food.

30 day challenge: music & pet peeves

Day 6: your views on mainstream music

I just wrote three paragraphs on my views on mainstream music. For your convenience, I'll delete the mini treatise and summarize:

It's really hard to be original these days. (I guess it's always been hard to be original, but now we have the internet, so we can't even kid ourselves.) Sometimes I drop an obscure band name, sometimes I sheepishly turn down my volume at stop lights if I'm rocking out to Britney's Baby One More Time. But whatever, you know?  If you like a song or a band, great.  Enjoy it. Life is short.

Day 7: five pet peeves

1. Wet paper of any kind, especially on restaurant tables or in bathrooms.

2. Blowing your nose at the table.
3. Calling your significant other "babe."
4. Flight attendants telling me to open my window for take off or landing. WHY?
5. Cats roaming freely wherever I'm sleeping.

The world is a weird place.

Here are three things I like.

[edited on Tuesday, May 3 to correct the MLK quote]

Quote by Martin Luther King Jr. 

"Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that."

"Prince Harry, in a suit, holding a puppy."

(For aesthetically-pleasing comic relief during these serious times.)

via my sister's Facebook, via Pinterest

Day 5: A book you love.

John Irving's "A Prayer For Owen Meany" 

If you haven't read it, do. I recommend it to everyone. It's both weird and conventional. The characters are real, it makes me laugh out loud, and it says meaningful stuff about growing up, family, faith, friendship, war, and the supernatural.

30 day challenge: bullet your whole day

Day 4: bullet your whole day 

Yesterday

• 09:00:: shower.
• 09:30:: watch videos of the monster tornado; read news and Facebook posts about Tuscaloosa.
• 10:00:: embark with Shelley on a mission to spend ALL of my accumulated gift cards, no excuses.
• 10:36:: spend $35 gift card at World Market; coffee mug, wine stopper (I don't know if that's what it's called --- that's what I call it), and picnic rug.
• 11:32:: find out I have exactly thirty cents on my two Books-A-Million cards; I am sad.
• 12:00:: try on expensive clothes at The Loft; we wish we could afford them.
• 12:20:: use four Chik-Fil-A coupons courtesy of Shelley's mom; eat a yummy free lunch. 
• 12:45:: spend $8 gift card at Aeropastale; card was at least six years old.
• 13:00:: spend $25 gift card at Dillard's; laugh; try on grown up heels.
• 13:00:: buy milk and Magnum ice creams; ooh fancy, imported from England.
• 14:00:: waste time online.
• 15:00:: eat a fancy Magnum ice cream by the pool; listen to a nineteen-year-old boy brag about drinking and failing his golf exam; go inside.
• 16:30:: talk to Dave on Skype; FYI, "I can think of literally --- LIT- trally --- NOTHING that I care less about than this wedding"; congrats, Will and Kate.
• 19:00:: think about cooking dinner; get Chinese take-out instead; it is mediocre.
• 20:00:: watch Michael's last episode on The Office; it's anticlimactic and kinda sad and awkward, like real good-byes.
• 21:00:: think about getting The King's Speech from Redbox; decide not to.
• 22:00:: clean room.
• 23:00:: go to bed. 

That wasn't very interesting, was it?  

Now that I've had a little break, I've gotta work hard until my last exam on Thursday. Headed to the lakehouse after work to baby-sit Lyra and do some writing.

30 day challenge: Something I feel strongly about

Day 2: Something I feel strongly about

Can I have three somethings?

1. Today a professor mentioned the new NCAA rule about taking the touchdown away if a player engages in inappropriate celebratory behavior, and I immediately exclaimed, "Are you KIDDING?" Everyone in the room kind of jumped and my professor looked surprised. "I didn't know you cared so much about football, Mary Beth."  I don't. And I don't know anything about NCAA rules. But this new rule rubbed me the wrong way, and for a moment I felt strongly about it.

2. Over air conditioning. I feel strongly that it wastes energy and money and simply doesn't make sense. The temperature doesn't need to drop twenty degrees when we walk inside. Shorts and a t-shirt should be enough clothing for the park and the library. As it is I have to carry a sweatshirt and socks wherever I go. 

3. Craftsmanship. I feel strongly that it is an important and overlooked value... mastering a craft, doing something well for its own sake. Nowadays, to be "successful," we have to be multi-taskers who can do lots of things pretty well, but we never have or make the time to become experts and masters. I'd like to discipline myself and truly devote myself to a craft. Possible?

In the words of Juno:
WHOA, DREAM BIG!

PS, If I were a painter developing my craft, this is what my ideal studio would look like. 

Art studio photo found here.

30 day challenge: Five ways to win my heart

Happy Easter!

A 30 day blog challenge is circulating Tumblr and I've decided to participate! I'll answer a question or address a topic every day for thirty days --- and I'll try my best not to skip the silly and embarrassing ones. On that note:

Day 1: Five ways to win my heart

1. Witty banter. 

Favorite quote from this week's Office episode: 

"I love banter... I hate witty banter." 

Classic Kevin Malone.

2. Snail mail.

3. Buy me a nerf gun for Valentine's Day.

4. Care about something.

5. Get (act) excited about watching The Lion King.

Such an amazing movie. And soundtrack. Oh, the circle of life.