Last Few Weeks In a List of 10

In no particular order, here's some stuff I've found noteworthy in the past couple of weeks:

1. Musically speaking: Andrew Bird, Iron and Wine, and Josh Ritter. All equal love.

2. Meridian, Mississippi Habitat For Humanity ground rule: Only people who already have experience with nail guns can use one. So here, I say. Respect it, but don't be afraid of it. See the safety? Not so scary. Practice on this windowsill while the site supervisor isn't looking--so now you've used one before, haven't you? Have fun! :p

3. I really do have the same facial expressions as my mother, but we react differently to anger. My aunt and her daughter tend to repeat things that people say, for no sensible reason but to add emphasis and to have something to say--I do the same thing. I also gesture with my hands and tend to say things that are for some reason are awkward, although it's difficult to pinpoint the cause of the awkwardness.

4. When your uncle gets divorced, you will probably never see you (ex?)aunt again. Sad.

5. Northwest Treatment Center is a bad place for your mother to go if she feels something funny with her heartbeat--even if she is not in pain, even if the EKG and heart monitor don't show anything dangerous or even unusual, even if she feels otherwise perfectly fine, they will still hook her up to oxygen and an IV and transport her to the ER, because they do not have their own cardiologist. Then the cardiologist will tell her she is fine and she will be nothing bad but embarrassed and annoyed.

6. Lower Wacker Drive looks like hell but isn't haunted with anything more than sadness. Homeless people are humans, too: you do not need to approach them slowly, you do not need to stay in the car to hand lunches out the window, you do not need to be afraid of "them" at all--just use a bit of common sense and travel in groups, just like you would anywhere else. Not everyone agrees with me on this.

7. Friendships are funny sorts of boats, and I'm really bad at predicting which ones will sink and which ones will sail indefinitely.

8. Recipes work best if read thoroughly. If you want to make three batches, don't add enough butter for 6, because then when you realize it -after- you've already started adding other ingredients, you'll end up with 6 batches of peanut butter cookies.

9. Forbidden Broadway is freaking hilarious--it is essentially a series of songs/skits that make fun of pretty much every musical I've ever heard of, and a lot more that I haven't. I'd highly recommend it for the cynical and sarcastic among us.

10. I still don't know what I'm doing on New Year's Eve. Somebody invite me somewhere--you know you love me. And I'll bring cookies! (Lord knows I have enough of them :p)

Yellow Tail

I'm trying to write an essay about how capitalism is problematic, specifically for Catholics. Why Catholics, you may ask? Because Weber talks about them, and I had to narrow down my thesis somehow. And I'm supposed to be one, right? So I may as well consider how capitalism affects people like me. I have one page of notes that I might be able to turn into a thesis and a rough outline, if I actually can concentrate on it. It's not due until Monday, so I technically don't need to do it tonight, so it's hard to focus. Plus it's a Saturday night. "Home with all my doors locked up tight, I won't be thinking about you, baby." It'd be nice to have someone to think about, or even someone to try not to think about--even if he depressed me with a complete lack of interest, at least I wouldn't be bored.

I've been ill entirely too much this quarter. Colds and earaches and headaches and food poisoning all in a sickly ghastly train. Maybe it has been the shock of feeling again, manifesting itself, a counter-reaction to a reaction. Feeling is, after all, a positive reaction, even if the feelings themselves are negative. Being numb, you lose out on so many emotions. It's inhuman not to be angry, or sad, or even manic depressive, once and a while. I've realized that this quarter--even bad feelings are good in the sense that they are alive. As for my illness--it's because a good thing should always come with a bad; otherwise it wouldn't be guaranteed that a bad would always be followed by a good, and my optimism would be destroyed.

I really think that all makes a lot of sense, but then, I am writing this after a glass and a half of Katie's white wine, so it's hard not to be optimistic. My cheeks are rosy and my head doesn't hurt anymore.

Yup... back to the paper.