Happy Anniversary!

Happy 28th Anniversary
Mom & Dad!!

Photo by: LLB
Flowers by: Design Vertigo (an awesome new store in downtown North St. Paul, MN!!)

I Love Little Surprises (the tree outside blooms!)

"Flowers have spoken to me more than I can tell in written words. They are the hieroglyphics of angels, loved for the beauty of their character, though few can decipher even fragments of their meaning."

~ Lydia M. Child

Pocket full of sunshine...

It's the weekend!! (I don't have class on Fridays, so my weekend starts early. It gets interrupted by having to teach on Saturday, but oh well) I would say that I'm probably about half-way through the list I posted last time. I have a ton to get done this weekend, but tonight I am enjoying an evening of relaxation (we bought a Christmas tree! but it won't be put up until the day after Thanksgiving).

Here's a goofy picture of myself that I took while playing with the webcam function on my new laptop.


P.S. Sorry if the post title gets that song stuck in your head. It was playing on the radio in the car and is in my head.

Tip-Toe Through the Tulips

Tulips are my favorite flower. One of my favorite things from last spring was walking through town and seeing all of the tulips as they popped out of the ground and began to bloom in various colors. My cousin, future artist/graphic artist extraordinaire, made an amazing painting of my favorite flower (in one of my favorite color schemes!) to grace the very empty and very white wall in my living room. Thanks so much, Tess! Shortly after the painting graced the wall my mom sent tulips to me. What a perfect coincidence!

Painting: Tess F., 2009

Fun Questions

I tried to post this last night, but then blogger said there were issues with the html business... so I'm going to try to post it again.

Kathleen over at "Easy for me to say" tagged me in this survey-dealy. I'm not going to tag anyone, because most of the people who read this have already been tagged by her. :) But, if you haven't been tagged, but want to continue these fun questions, go right ahead.

Here's how it works:

Respond and rework
answer questions on your blog
replace one question
tag eight other people.

1. What is your current obsession?

Planning things for the big move. Whether it's thinking about furniture arrangements, how we're actually going to get there, how transportation is going to work out once we're there, and buying random little things to put in the apartment, it's pretty much all about moving to Vegas. Today, for example, I bought measuring spoons (the measurements on my old ones rubbed off, and you can't read them), a butter dish, and an olive oil drizzler.

2. Which item of clothing do you wear most?

A black belt (not the martial arts kind, but rather the generic, hold-up-your-pants kind). I have larger hips and a smaller waist, so in order to have pants that aren't too tight on my legs/thighs, they are often too big at the waist. So, I need to wear a belt pretty much all the time, and it's usually the black one.

3. What's the funniest knock-knock joke you know?

Knock knock.
Who's there?
Cows!
Cows who?
Cows go "moo" not "who!"

4. Last thing you bought?

A hot chocolate and a French toast bagel at Panera. Mmmmmmmm... The best hot chocolate I've ever had is from Panera, so I get that a lot when I go. I usually also get a cinnamon crunch bagel, but they were all out of those, so I had to settle with a French toast bagel (still quite yummy though).

5. What are you listening to?

The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien.

6. If you were a God or Goddess, who would you be?

I've always admired Athena, Greek goddess of wisdom, war, and the arts. She's smart, can kick butt, and she's a woman. So it'd be really cool to be her. More realistically though, I'd probably be a goddess who's a bit more timid and earthy.

7. Favorite holiday spots?

As far as places to go on holidays, I'd have to say my grandma and my grandparents' houses, because it's where we've always gone on holidays. But, if this means holiday as in a vacation, I'd probably have to say anywhere with mountains, lakes, forests, or the ocean (or any combination of those).

8. Reading right now?

"Turning Japanese: Memoirs of a Sansei" by David Mura. I'm not very far into it yet, but it seems pretty good. It's written by a third-generation Japanese-American poet who won a grant to do poetic works in Japan (for a year, I think). So he's kind of reconnecting with his heritage, though that wasn't actually his goal (I think at some point in the beginning he said he'd rather have gone to Paris). Anyways, I bought it during a point in my life where I was really interested in Japanese culture and my previous "knowledge" mostly just included watching "The Last Samurai" and reading "Memoirs of a Geisha." So... I bought this book to get a more realistic and more current account.

9. Okay... what were you thinking just then?

Why does everyone have to switch to digital or cable TV? Wasn't the whole idea so that we'd get a better quality picture or something like that? Then why does the signal cut out all the time?!?! (Probably just a big conspiracy to get everyone to buy cable...)

10. List three things that are on your "Bucket List."

1) Road-trip without a super-structured plan.
2) Watch and enjoy the sunrise and sunset in the same day.
3) Read all of the books that I own (maybe excluding some textbooks, because that would be a lot).

11. First spring thing?

Tulips!!!! I love it when the tulips start to bloom! This is the first year I actually realized the tulips in Morris, because it was the first time I lived off-campus. Walking to work this spring was so enjoyable because so many of the houses had tulips planted in their front yards. So pretty!

12. Funniest thing you saw in your life?

Hm... I keep coming back to this one because I expect one moment to just pop out at me, but it's not happening yet. Since that's not looking like it'll happen, I'll just mention a couple of the funnier moments. The ducky dance during Spring Break of '08 was pretty funny, but it was made even funnier when ducks actually invaded our campground the next day. Another funny thing was watching two kittens wrestle playfully at the pet store today.

13. Favorite film?

I can't just pick one, so here are some of my favorites:
- The Original Star Wars Trilogy
- Love Actually
- Runaway Jury
- Juno
- Aladdin
- Mulan
- Identity

14. Share some wisdom.

It's not my wisdom, but here are two of my favorite quotes.

"Devote yourself to loving others, devote yourself to your community around you, and devote yourself to creating something that gives you purpose and meaning."
~ Morrie Schwartz

"Aim for success, not perfection. Never give up your right to be wrong, because then you will lose the ability to learn new things and move forward with your life."
~ Dr. David M. Burns

15. If you could be a tree, what tree would you be and why?

Weeping willow. I just think that they're really cool and pretty. But they aren't always the obvious choice. I really like that they make a sort of "shade cave" that you can just sit under and enjoy the day.

16. Fictitious character who made a lasting impression on you?

Well, I would have to say that Edward Cullen is an amazing example of an important fictitious character. What could be better than a strong, sparkling, and handsome vampire? Need I say more?

... Totally kidding on that last answer, btw. I like the Twilight books, and Edward is pretty neat in the I-know-these-books-aren't-really-good-but-I-like-to-read-them-for-fun-anyway kind of way. I really can't pick a character who's had a lasting impression on me. I'm actually kind of bad at picking role models and heroes and have never really felt the desire to assign anyone to that role in my life (which is why I replaced the hero/heroin question from above, hehe).

Fun with Flowers

"To be overcome by the fragrance of flowers is a delectable form of defeat."
~ Beverly Nichols

"Where flowers bloom so does hope."
~ Lady Bird Johnson

"You can complain because roses have thorns, or you can rejoice because thorns have roses."
~ Ziggy (single panel comic strip created by Tom Wilson)

"Each flower is a soul opening out to nature."
~ Gerald de Nerval

"Flowers always make people better, happier and more helpful; they are sunshine, food and medicine to the soul."
~ Luther Burbank

"Earth laughs in flowers."
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

A Bit Overwhelmed

"Aim for success, not perfection. Never give up your right to be wrong, because then you will lose the ability to learn new things and move forward with your life."
~ Dr. David M. Burns

I'm going to need to remember this in the next few weeks. I tend to be a perfectionist, but I also tend to be a huge procrastinator. Generally, those two don't mesh so well when it comes to getting things done.

I seem to find myself in a bit of a predicament due to my procrastinating habits. Technically, I was supposed to hand in a 9- to 11-page paper today about acid rain in terrestrial ecosystems. That didn't happen. Thankfully, my prof is a nice guy and is giving me an extension until the end of the week. Sweet! I can get that done if I really focus on being productive. But... my other problem is that my senior seminar is in two weeks and one day and I have done NOTHING! So, the longer it takes me to write this paper, the less time I have to focus on my senior seminar.

I keep hoping that next year I'll actually be able to focus on school, because it will hopefully be stuff that I care about, and it will be all that I am doing. Now, I don't really care about any of my classes, I have other things distracting me (work, grad school stuff, future planning, etc...), and I just can't seem to focus and get things done that pertain to school.

So, if I don't happen to post in the next few weeks, it is because I am trying to dig myself out of this HUGE pile of school work that I keep putting off.

Tragic Event

While checking my email this morning, this headline caught my eye:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090311/ap_on_re_eu/eu_germany_school_attack

My thoughts go out to the parents, families, and friends of those who were killed in this event.

I remember the previous shooting mentioned in the article. I was in my high school German class when we found out. Most of the people in our class, including me, had spent time as exchange students at a high school in Germany, though not the same one. Everyone was pretty rattled.

A Lake in the Italian Alps...

"I love to think of nature as an unlimited broadcasting station, through which God speaks to us every hour, if we only will tune in."
~ George Washington Carver

While I'm not entirely sure of my religious/spiritual beliefs at this point in my life, I do know that I feel the most connected to something when I surround myself with nature. I've been lucky enough in my life to see some amazing places (mostly thanks to geology), and I can't help but feel overwhelmed by the pure beauty and power of it all. The natural world is truly incredible, and I can never get enough of it.

Should have stayed in bed today...

Today was one of those days where staying in bed would have been much more pleasant than getting up. I had a terrible dream last night, and tossed and turned the rest of the time. Once I got up this morning, I went to start my day as usual with a cup of white chocolate caramel cappuccino and a bowl of frosted mini-wheats. The only thing out of the ordinary was that I poured water onto my cereal rather than milk. Oiy. I also found out today that I did not get funded for an assistantship at the one school that has accepted me so far.

On the plus side of things, Erik was there as usual for hugs and I had a pleasant evening at work. So, I shall leave you with a picture of the lovely flowers from Erik on Valentine's Day (which, by the way, was the first time any guy has ever given me flowers).