This week I learned how to inject crack safely. I've been thinking about truth and learning and how learning should change who you are/who you become.... I've learned more in one week than a bloody long time. Exciting and scary, but good.

Also, here is a song I'm working on:

Still
The street-side fruit stands and equally bright coloured mountains of shirts and
knickknacks without end.
We skirt round edges, opening doors
Trying on hats
Fat snowflakes blurrrrrr, it turns into
A vivid pillowfight, difficult to forget
And time will move on,
Perhaps nothing will change,
But that’s ok, that’s ok

Fishing for the best treat in the midst of chaos, messy,
with no answers, lots of questions.
We skirt round edges, opening doors
Avoiding eyes
Apologetic, peering into crinkly faces, then the ground
Brown slush stirred up by speedy cars
Being on the brink of a place a step and a thousand away
In the same time, same space
Perhaps everything will change
And that’s ok, that’s ok

Empty Box Thoughts

First, I cut a window. You need a window or twenty because you need light and this house doesn't have electricity. Next, a spiral staircase, iron, curls its way up to the bedroom balcony a stone's throw away from Romeo and Juliet. The stairs mean you won't have to throw any stones unless I am asleep, in which case a boulder will suffice. By August the rails will be dressed bottom to top in deep blue and purple Morning Glories. In the back yard there will be a brick oven for baking bread and perhaps a pizza on occasion. This is important: there will be those mugs that look like jam jars in the kitchen. Or simply jam jars. I'm not picky. On the third floor - hardwood - a small room near the back will be home to my cello and a chair and stand I guess. This place will be decorated by dresses on sewing mannequins. Grandma's wedding gown, bought in 50's New York. High school prom in a 1960's party dress that ripped as I leaped.... Literally...
There WILL be a library - books of all sorts - well thumbed (hopefully well read). I can make these using blank paper and a pencil. Mini toothbrushes.. still trying to think that through.
My house will be primary
A pale blue kitchen, red study, yellow and green bedrooms. I will however, try out a golden living room facing southwest because of Terabithia. Boardgames, puzzles, cards of all sorts, everything in an old traveling trunk behind the couch.

Things I am looking forward to:

karate class

potentially being in a gospel choir again

finishing second-year biology (so much bloody memory work)

Things I am not looking forward to:

so much bloody memory work

searching for a job

not being around kids much

Hello there,
It's been a while, mostly because I've been busy and life has actually been interesting (I tend to write when I'm bored/have time to think). I wanted to give an update, but I'm not really allowed to talk much about work on here. Suffice to say, I am learning a lot about leading people.. The kids arrive on Monday - we have about 17-18 signed up. I am TIRED already! Ahhhhhh! I think I'm gonna look for a less crazy job in September.

Been taking bio - I love my one course - ecology/anatomy. Not so much into cell biology (it is really complicated). Today I have to write up my two major assignments.

I got myself published :) It is just a fairly straightforward little article about someone in one of our programs. I'm still working on my short story.. actually not very actively working, but I showed it to a great friend and got some advice about it.

That's about it. I haven't completed much else on my bucket list. I might learn how to juggle next.

music, writing, waxing, animal murder

I bought Dark Side of the Moon a week ago and listened to it with my Dad. He told me that my Uncle Steve has the original album on record! Crazy, eh? This is something I probably never would have known if I hadn't bought the album myself, and is confirmation to me that I am doing the right thing with this whole "project." I enjoyed the album itself. It got me thinking about Abbey Road and all the conceptual stuff that has come out of there. I've been there - it is such a normal place, but it has significantly changed the paths of music time and time again. I wonder if this is a British thing - or something unique to Abbey Road.. or both. I think I can tell from the music that Pink Floyd was using drugs that speed up the mind (rather than the slow stuff the Beatles were on). I wondered while listening: is it possible to come up with crazy things without being on anything? :)

This week I am working on a short story to submit to a contest. I need help with editing it - I haven't really done this sort of creative writing since high school, and I want to make sure I avoid cliches or amature mistakes. Would anyone be interested in reading it?
This week I am also going to wax my legs for the first time. Bought the stuff already - the instructions have instilled in me a great fear! But it must be done.

Finally, I have added a new thing to my list. People always ask me if I am vegetarian (I think because of my hippie vibe thing). I am not, and I always say that my belief is that if you are going to eat meat you have to be willing to kill and prepare it yourself. I've never done this before. I've never even gone fishing. So this summer I want to see if I am capable of this. I'm not sure how to go about this. I think I would like to start with a chicken because it is small and I eat it the most. Does anyone know of a chicken farm where I could do this? I think this would be a really challenging and important addition to my list.

Tall, Dark and Mongolian

Today: finished Pride and Prejudice and had Mongolian Hot Pot :D

I've had an aversion to Jane Austen for many years due to my love of Russian Lit. Tolstoy has always seemed superior to Austen and I never tried to get past the first chapter or two of P&P. Two things about Austen:
I was surprised to find that I really liked it - enough that I think I'll read the rest of her stuff. She is good at explaining how people are feeling. And I like her sense of humour.
Secondly, Darcy is really overrated. Not that he isn't a good guy, but I'm pretty certain most girls in reality would find this kind of guy boring and awkward. All my life I've heard fellow ladies rattle on and on about how they want to find their Darcy. They don't. They want charisma. They want Wickham. I think I want a cross between the two. Someone who's willing to throw caution to the winds and run away, but who decides to get married first.

Mongolian Hot Pot! Wow! Great stuff. Kind of like Korean Hot Pot. If you've never had either, I will take you out for it :D
In short, everyone is given their own pot of soup stock and there is an all you can eat buffet of stuff (vegetables, fish, tofu, noodles, dumplings etc) to put in your soup (which is boiling on a mini cooker in front of you). And they give you plates of thinly sliced uncooked meat which goes in as well. Amazing! Dinner takes the whole evening and you kind of make it up as you go along... Made me realize I know very little about Mongolia and so Wikipedia, here I come...

This whole experiencing new things has truly inspired me and made me all happy and excited about life. I am currently perfecting my list - everyone I talk to gives me suggestions, so it is getting longer. I just found out today that this is called a Bucket List. Somehow never heard that term before.

First ever visit to burger king today.
First ever real heart palpatations this evening.