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So - it turns out that pretty much ever since June I've been looking for someone to replace my brother.
But since coming home for Christmas I realize that he is just irreplaceable.
He is my favorite audience. Nobody gets my jokes like he does, and I love to make him laugh. There is no one more fun to have an inside joke with in the entire world.
I've rekindled my love for British comedy over the past two weeks too. I've been watching episodes of this old sitcom "Fawlty Towers" each night by myself before I go to bed. I remember the last time I really fell in love with a guy it's because we both loved John Cleese.
That, by the way, is a stupid reason to fall in love with someone.
Although, I can't really think of a good reason.
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| The way I see it, if you are stranded on a deserted island you have two options: build a raft, build a hut.
For the sake of making a point, let's say there are two types of people. Everyone can be divided into one of two camps: raft builders or hut builders. Although, in fairness, most probably try their hand at both at various times in their life. I know for a fact that there is a hut builder and a raft builder warring inside of me constantly.
Raft builders are adventurous but flighty. They are creative and curious but perpetually discontent. No matter how much they have it's never enough. In their DNA, in their bones, they are predisposed to always want more. They can be either extremely brave or oblivious and imprudent. Identifiably independent, they are self-reliant and self-aware but can also be non-committal and unwilling to give up their independence for anything. They feel a strong sense of their own power and control over their situation and have the vision and faith to make their own reality. Historically, they are explorers and pioneers and inventors alongside of men like Luke Jackson.
Hut builders are often accused of being simple and unoriginal. Sometimes people turn into hut builders because they don't comprehend that it is within their power to do anything else, it just never occurred to them. They accurately assess their surroundings and make due with the lot they are given. On the other hand, sometimes their decision to start building a hut isn't a manifestation of defeat but of will. Finding themselves content they have no reason to abandon what they have and look for something better. They are easy to please. Which is either a sign of a grateful orientation toward life, or just poor taste. A hut builder is devoted and committed but also puts themselves at great risk. By settling they are throwing their lot in with the hut, and grow more and more dependent on it.
There you have it, inconclusive observation. | | |
| Symptoms of swine flu:
general creepiness
loss of chest/arm hair
translucency
permanently pursed lips
For what it's worth I would like everyone to know that I had no gastric or intestinal symptoms,
but the Doctor insisted that I have the good old conspiracy virus.
There is no cause for alarm - as of 9 o'clock tonight I will no longer be contagious.
How do you GET swine flu you ask? Well there are a couple ways...
or
or
you could just have your best friend and EVERY single one of your roommates get sick all about the same time. Whatever works for you. | | |
| This entire past week I've been day dreaming about how I would celebrate the holiday this weekend. Here was my plan:
stay at home alone
pass out candy
watch one of my favorite Halloween movies:
-Arsenic and Old Lace (with Cary Grant)
-Adams Family (not the movie, the old tv series, and this isn't one of my favorites but I had a craving for it)
I couldn't find Arsenic and Old Lace anywhere, and I only found Adam's Family available to purchase, but I couldn't justify spending $30 to indulge myself. My third option was Young Frankenstein which my roommate has on VHS but I didn't want to bother hooking up our VCR. (Didn't want to bother, or was scared I'd fail to figure out how...same difference)
So here's what ACTUALLY happened:
I went, by myself, to my Aunt and Uncle's house (who are gone for the weekend).
passed out candy
Put on "The Witches" in the background
and finding myself alone with a baby grand I pulled out my Aunt's Jekyll and Hyde sheet music and practiced my best Linda Eder. Also found some of my grandmother's old sheet music (love songs from the 40's and 50's) and made up the French pronunciation of "Somewhere Beyond the Sea" (Still stuck in my head).
I was surprised at how much fun it was to pass out candy. As a rule, if the kids told me they liked my costume I let them take two pieces of candy.
As the intervals between visits lengthened I fed the cat and dogs and packed up my things. I could have called it a night, but I opted to push my luck and go to a party instead.
Parties depress me.
There is something ironic about being dressed up as mickey mouse and sitting on a couch trying to find something across the room to look at instead of the drunk guy who keeps saying stupid things and touching your knee.
In other news, Friday I went to Science Unwrapped. WHY HASN'T ANYONE EVER TOLD ME ABOUT THIS?!? It was the last one of the year and I'm so glad I made it. It was about gravitational waves and astronomy. It was fascinating. I was scared of looking like a dork but I took out a pen and paper to take notes on what I wanted to look up later. Did you know that Carl Sagan was of Russian Jewish decent?
One interesting thing that was discussed was the formation of atoms 400,000 years after the Big Bang. (Since when did we stop referring to it as a theory?). One of the braniac kids in the audience asked the guy doing the presentation where the atoms came from, after a long, wordy, complicated answer the kid responded, "So you're saying they were all mushed up together?"
...
"Yeah like a soup."
They raffled off a few books one of which I'm already the proud owner of.
So I guess you could say I learned a lot this weekend.
I think next weekend I'll try making my own torsion balance if anyone is interested.
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| The Blue Bird is a magical place.
I don't care how pathetic our side salads are.
This Friday I had an incredible experience that involves me a series of coincidences, a good kiss (you have to read to find out about it) and another coincidence.
I had three tables all night. The first a family of four, the second a woman and two Sister Missionaries and the third a birthday party for a woman turning 80-something (it was a table of 17).
I was asking the sisters about where they were from and mentioned I had just returned from a mission (I use the word 'just' liberally). I immediately regretted bringing it up because I always feel like I'm being pretentious or insensitive. They naturally asked where I served and when I said Russia, the woman gasped slightly and asked where in Russia. When I told her Rostov she started to choke up and told me that her son just got called to that mission.
Cool huh? Of all the places she could have gone, the nights I wasn't working the sections she could have been sat in. She had just randomly seen these sisters, thought they might be having a tough day and invited them to have dinner on her tab. She said it meant that God does in fact know and love us.
Well, the story does not end there. You might want to sit down for this.
No sooner had we established this connection when the mother from the family of four interrupted, "Did I hear you say Rostov Russia?" As it so happens their son and daughter were adopted from Rostov Russia. Shakti to be exact. Now every person in the entire room was somehow connected to one of the most important places in the world to me.
Well, the story does not end there.
Not long after this discovery the party of 17 showed up. The first two tables insisted on taking a picture with me and had to steal me away while I was taking orders. The party demanded to know why their waitress was being taken from them and the woman whose son is going to Rostov told them all the story. In retrospect I love how quickly what was significant to a few of us quickly became appreciated by all and became the grounds for the most sentimental, "gag me with a spoon and bury me alive in hallmark cards" bonding I've witnessed in 23 years of breathing.
The first two tables left. The cooks overcooked the steak of one of the party members. His name was Cleon, I worked with him at Macy's. He is 80% deaf and one of my favorite senior citizens. I brought him a bloodier steak and he asked me if I wanted a kiss. "What the hell?" I thought. I could use a good kiss. And he planted a big fat one. Right on my cheek.
But this story isn't about kisses or steak or Cleon even. The title was just an attempt to generate some interest.
I like to write "Thanks!" at the top of the receipts. I don't know what I'm thanking people for, I might as well just write, "please tip me well. Pretty please?" it means essentially the same thing. Anyway, sometimes I interchange it with Gracias or спасибо if the customer has found out I went to Russia. So I did a good mix of all three when I passed out the checks to the birthday party.
Then I went to roll silverware. The end.
Psyche! Not the end. Not just yet.
So - I'm rolling silverware when one man from the party approaches me and says, "Hey, you know that the girl you work with is Russian right?" I just looked at him confused. The girl who was training to be the new cashier got one of those receipts with спасибо on it, and turns out she's from Russia.
Not only is Julia from Russia, she's from Stavrapol. Which, as you've probably guessed is a city in my mission.
This is a miracle to me, a native speaker who I feel really comfortable talking to. It's exactly what I've needed.
I'm going to write a book about how people who complain about working in the food industry are bogus. I love my job. It's kind of a like a good friendship, I had no idea how much joy I was missing out on before I got it.
and a Jason Mraz quote:
"If I can leave you with anything new to learn from this rampaged random page of randomness, it’s that I beg you to pay attention to coincidences. People who appear in your life for the simplest of reasons usually offer us the best clues on what to do with our lives. Those connections make up the music of today, remind us of our youth, and keep us believing that the truth is out there and that happiness may be just around the next corner of the roller rink."
and an "Abraham Lincoln" quote:
"whether or not it is clear to you, the universe is unfolding as it should" | | |
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