Coming Home

This is how I feel when I reach the baggage claim at the airport every time I land in Austin. In a good way, of course. ;) I love my family.

Going Home

So, I'm flying home today! Granted, my flight attempt will be much more successful than this. But I thought I'd share it anyway. There's always room for more Calvin and Hobbes.

Worth the Trip, Every Time

This is why I love spending weekends with Qait:

Verbing Weirds Language

Okay, so I usually try to space out my Calvin and Hobbes references, but I stumbled on this one the other day and it's just so... me.

I regularly do this to words when my inner-thesaurus stalls and I can't think of the one I actually want.

Energizer Kiddies

Back on the topic of Christmas, since the number one question after the holidays is "How was your Christmas?" so it's pretty much always on my mind right now.

One thing I noticed about being in a houseful of kids?

This happens. All. The. Time.

Perceptive

You know, I think some guys never realize how easily we can see through them. For good or bad. And every now and then, I meet one who thinks he's got the jump on me without realizing that I'm already onto his game.

A clue to Mr. Not-so-sneaky: don't rant to me about how immature the girls in your life are, say you don't get it, and then try to flirt with me. The immaturity-dart is yours. And all it does is tell me to avoid dating you (or even getting close to you). Ever.

Duct Tape is Silver

I've gotten less carefully-filtered over the last several months, and while I appreciate openness and honesty, I've also discovered that sometimes... it's just better not to say anything. Especially if it isn't a big deal.

Oh, and I sometimes feel like Calvin, too. Because, objectively speaking, I'm happy right now. But I'd really like to be incandescently joyful more often than I am. :)

Did I Just Make That Sound?

I've been posting a lot of pop-culture-related posts recently. Maybe because, since I've gotten back from Lake Powell, a bunch of good movies have come out and I'm catching up, thus consuming a large part of my life. I'm writing this post at an obscenely late (or early) hour because I just got back from the midnight screening of Captain America.

It. Was. Amazing!

And they had a legitimate Avengers trailer at the end of the credits. Flash of Loki, Thor, Tony Stark, and others. The whole theater roared with applause. Somewhere in the midst of this roar, a small squeak reached my ears just as it hiccuped into a croak because the vocal cords making it couldn't take the stress. I was... unaware that I was emitting that sound. I don't know if I've ever involuntarily made a fangirl squeal like that. I'll be honest, most of the odd noises I make about The Hobbit are semi-voluntary. I'm at least aware that I'm making them. But Marvel just yanked it right out of my mouth, without my brain's knowledge. Hm. Well done, moviemakers. Well done. 

Though my true nerdiness prefers Tolkien (and is obviously very excited about The Hobbit), I must commend Marvel for doing such a good job of building slowly up to the Avengers movie so that even relatively uneducated fans (like me--because, let's face it, I've still never read any of the comic books) are hopping with excitement for the grand finale to come out.

And yes, I may have a crush on Captain America. Just a little one.

Oh, and since some of you may not actually care what I think about pop culture and would prefer to stalk me instead of my movie tastes, here's a brief update:

I'm graduating in just three weeks!

Which means I'm visiting home in Texas (and leaving my current job) in five weeks!

And I really should be packing and moving my stuff to Bountiful this week. Sadly, that probably won't happen. I'll be kicking my butt in gear next week (I hope). If you happen to know of people with spare cardboard boxes to give me, I just might profess undying love for you.

Other than thoughts of moving, I'm pretty much spending my days working, reading books, and (for this week at least) going to see new blockbuster movies. A brief shout-out to my dad who gave me two free movie passes for my birthday, thus enabling this trend of seeing movies in the expensive theater. (Harry Potter 7.2, you and I have a date on Saturday, just so you know.)

And now, sleep. Body needs sleep. And dreams of Captain America (I hope).

And thanks to this blog post, my parents will actually know where I am at three in the morning. :)

Downside to Being a Girl

I woke up late this morning and barely had time to exercise and get out the door. Oh if only getting clean were this simple...

New Guys and Nosy Friends

I may or may not have had a conversation with a friend recently that went remarkably like this, providing in "this" you substitute genders where necessary:

On second thought, there may have been several conversations that have gone like this. Hooray for new semesters...

...

Some of them may or may not have involved me being Calvin.

Calvin's truthfulness is subject to your interpretation.

To Summarize

Yep. This is just about how I feel about the two rough drafts due this week. And you know what? Last-minute panic isn't even working. I'm at a complete and total roadblock. Apparently the right mood just hasn't kicked in.

Hm. 

Maybe by finals? 

Sneak Attack

So once upon a time, I warned Aubry that I might sneak-attack hug her on her way down the hall. And like Hobbes, my trajectory was such that I couldn't have stopped even if I'd wanted to. I cannot guarantee that she didn't feel this way about me when I actually did sneak attack her.

High Price, High Reward

So is finishing a ginormous Shakespeare paper two weeks before it's due. Three weeks of research, four days of motivating myself (sometimes unsuccessfully) to get the writing done, and one 9 page paper later, I have conquered. I feel awesome right now. ^_^

Speaking Of...

Speaking of the joys of children, I had this thought while scrubbing up Ender's mess in the bathroom, even though he's not quite old enough to do this yet.

Love you, Ender. :) Hope you continue to bring your mom and dad plenty of joy.

Alive?

I is alive! Well... sorta.

My brain may have devolved into seeking this kind of entertainment, though. I can't promise I'll be very functional today, but that midterm is done, so I'm moving in the right direction. Now to survive the TWO presentations due tomorrow morning, and I'll be able to relax again.

Quiet Days

I'm developing a growing appreciation for quiet moments. This could be stemming from my roller-coaster-ish relationship with my social life (Stephanie is unofficially my Social Scheduler now, so that I don't have to think about it anymore).

So when President Uchtdorf talked about tree rings and reducing speed in the middle of the tempest, there was a little part of my tired soul that cried out "Glory Hallelujah!" to hear that my desire to spend quiet evenings with a book or in introspection is not entirely condemnable. True, we have to still work hard and stick it out, and that takes nerve and, to synthesize a little, character (cue memories of Calvin and Hobbes...)

 

but it's okay to not be running at warp speed all the time, even if other people are seemingly successful at doing it. Especially since my warp core is running a little low on dilithium crystals at the moment, to use a little Trekkie humor. 

What got me most about President Uchtdorf's talk is that he never once advocated a full stop or a change of course. No, he simply recommended reducing speed to the optimal turbulence-defying-and-living-to-tell-about-it velocity. But you still have forward momentum. 

Now, my current bit of turbulence is... well, let's just say that it has an end, but that end is about 10 months away. Which means I'm in for a long haul, with not a lot of promise of respite.

Whee?

More like, "Buckle up, ladies and gentlemen, you're in for a very, very bumpy ride," followed by a collective groan and an awful lot of praying to make it out alive. 

Don't get me wrong. I don't have any doubts about how my life's going to turn out in the long run. It's going to be great. I'm picking up the pieces to a happy, healthy, extremely fulfilling life. And I'm looking forward to it. In the interim, I'm on a bumpy journey that will include a lot of ups and downs. I have no illusions about that.