Ten Things

I like memes. Especially when they're stolen from other people. Thanks, Linny Jane!

Ten things that make me laugh:
1. My sister's bad sci-fi stories
2. Lame musical puns
3. Other people laughing
4. My silly, strange friends
5. Witty writing
6. Little children
7. Surprises
8. Animals doing strange things
9. Lame verbal puns
10. Clever people

Ten things that make me cry:
1. Seeing other people upset
2. Crappy, slow databases
3. Disappointing someone I love
4. Not doing something as well as I know I could have
5. Frustration
6. Really amazing music (but they're happy tears)
7. Loneliness
8. Fear
9. Anger
10. Not knowing what to do next


Ten things that bring me joy:
1. Watching my students grasp a new concept
2. Words
3. Sewing with Linny Jane
4. Flute
5. Guitar
6. Collaborative music and writing
7. Dancing
8. Yarn--actually, fiber in general
9. A good conversation
10. Flowers


Ten things that inspire me:
1. Really awesome symphonic music
2. Gorgeous fabric or yarn
3. Fall weather
4. Open spaces
5. Bodies of water--the bigger the better
6. Tea
7. Art
8. Wildflowers
9. A good Irish band
10. Guinness--usually drunk with an Irish band :)

Ten things that confuse me:
1. Passive-aggressive behavior
2. Circular breathing on flute
3. Self-destructive behavior
4. Knitting socks
5. Corporate redundancies
6. The Baltimore mass transit system
7. The D.C. metro
8. My hair
9. Hypocrisy
10. Microsoft

Guitar hero

My guitar teacher is my hero.

When I told him that I couldn't study regularly with him anymore after this week (Saturday is my last lesson), his first action was to see if there was a way that we could still meet periodically to work through music. So we are on the "catch-as-catch-can" lesson schedule, and I am so happy that I don't have to give up studying completely.

New adventure

I saw it coming. I was partly prepared for it, but like most things in life, it's still taking me a while to adapt.

I am joining the ranks of the carless.

That's right, ladies and gentlemen! This road warrior queen is giving up her crown in favor of a bike and mass transit. Why, you may ask? Interesting story.

There are a variety of reasons. The most pressing one is that I just got a call from the state inspection station today telling me that my car needs more money put into it than I am willing in order to pass inspection. That seems to make the solution pretty clear. Get rid of the car.

There is also the financial aspect. Freed from the responsibility of owning and maintaining an automobile, I can get a better handle on other aspects of my money. Pay down some debts. Buy a really awesome stereo. Buy some really sweet yarn. Get a new computer so I am not limited to beg/borrow/stealing whatever I can when I have things I need to do. And then, in true vicious cycle fashion, save for a down payment on a new car. Start the whole thing over again. Only this time, hopefully, with a better handle on things than the first time around.

There are a few snags in this fantastic plan. One of them is that I will have to discontinue guitar lessons until I have a way of getting to them again. There is no human way I can bike to Hagerstown. Think about this for a moment. The new guitarist is about to be separated from her cherished lessons. I think I might have to go cry. I am really upset about it, but I see no way around it right now. This just gives me extra incentive to get my stuff pulled together quickly so I can go back to them!

There's another snag. Many of my dearest friends live far away. As in, not within bus/bike/walking distance. In a stroke of good luck, Linny Jane and I happen to share many of the same friends, but we do not always share a common schedule.

I'm really kind of nervous about this, but I know that it is ultimately the smart thing to do.

At least, I really hope so.

A little materialistic, and a little bit earthy

There have been a few things on my brain lately that I would like to get if circumstances and finances would conspire to allow, but at least some of them (like number 2) are still a ways off.

1. A bike for city travel/weekend adventures on the NCR.
2. A dog.
   
3. A MacBook.
4. A spinning wheel.
5. Really good walking shoes.
6. Leather boots for winter.
7. Awesome socks.
   

I've also been itching to get a few knitting projects on the needles (a long, wrap-around sweater-coat type thing and a shrug) and get a few skirts under the needle (a six-gore in some kind of cranberry microfibre and something in a lovely dark grey wool). Mind you that I haven't actually begun any of these yet. I'm just spending significant amounts of time daydreaming about them. Maybe I'll take my lunch break and wander over to the yarn shop that's supposedly near my office--or at least hit it up after work...

I am so glad that fall is here. Summer in the city was unpleasant at best and unbearable at worst. I really just wanted to crawl into a freezer and stay there for the duration. The past couple of weeks, though, the air has been less thick and much cooler. The breeze in the morning (and after dark) requires a jacket, wrap, or sweatshirt, and I am more than ready to pull these things back out of the closet!

Fall is always an interesting time for me. I feel very alive and awake in the fall in a way I don't in the summer--very creative, very restless (blame the Hungarian gypsy blood for that one!), very eager and aware. At the same time, the decrease in daylight depresses me, and fall can also be a bit of a struggle. Maybe if I give in unquestionably to the muses of creation and wandering, they'll help combat that. ;)

Right now, I'm getting particularly musically excited for Ash & Rowan's October 7th concert at my alma mater. I am flattered that they would invite us to come play and am curious to find out what it will be like to play in a setting so familiar but as something of an "outsider" now. I am really eager to go back home and perform.

Catholic Pop Quiz

Stolen from a link off Art Smuggler's blog.

1.) Favorite devotion to Jesus:
Stations of the Cross

2.) Favorite Marian prayer:
The Ave Maria

3.) Do you wear a scapular or medal?
Brown Scapular of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, and sometimes either a Miraculous Medal or a St. Benedict that my friend bought me at Monte Casino

4.) Do you have holy water in your home?
On the bookcase

5.) Do you offer up your sufferings?
Sometimes.

6.) Do you go to Adoration?
Pretty much only when I'm really stressed out and need sacred space to just think.

7.) Are you a Vigil Mass person or a Sunday morning person?
Sunday morning, unless significant schedule conflicts demand otherwise.

8.) Do you say prayers at mealtime?
Yes.

9.) Favorite Saints:
Augustine, Catherine of Siena, Clare, Dominic.

10.) Do you observe First Fridays or First Saturdays?
No.

11.) Can you recite the Apostles' Creed by heart?
Yes.

12.) Do you say short prayers during the course of the day?
Sometimes.

13.) When you pass a car wreck or hear a siren, do you say a short prayer?
Sometimes.

Loss

Requiescat in Pacem, Luciano...

Song of the Moment

Oh I dream a highway back to you love
A winding ribbon with a band of gold
A silver vision come and rest my soul
I dream a highway back to you

John he's kicking out the footlights
The Grand Ole Opry's got a brand new band
Lord, let me die with a hammer in my hand
I dream a highway back to you.

I think I'll move down into Memphis
And thank the hatchet man who forked my tongue
I lie and wait until the wagons come
And dream a highway back to you.

The getaway kicking up cinders
An empty wagon full of rattling bones
Moon in the mirror on a three-hour jones,
I dream a highway back to you.

Oh I dream a highway back to you love
A winding ribbon with a band of gold
A silver vision come and rest my soul
I dream a highway back to you.

Which lover are you, Jack of Diamonds?
Now you be Emmylou and I'll be Gram
I send a letter, don't know who I am
I dream a highway back to you.

I'm an indisguisable shade of twilight
Any second now I'm gonna turn myself on
In the blue display of the cool cathode ray
I dream a highway back to you.

I wish you knew me, Jack of Diamonds
Fire-riding, wheeling when I lead em up
Drank whisky with my water, sugar in my tea
My sails in rags with the staggers and the jags
I dream a highway back to you.

Oh I dream a highway back to you love
A winding ribbon with a band of gold
A silver vision come molest my soul
I dream a highway back to you.

Now give me some of what you're having
I'll take you as a viper into my head
A knife into my bed, arsenic when I'm fed
I dream a highway back to you.

Hang overhead from all directions
Radiation from the porcelain light
Blind and blistered by the morning white
I dream a highway back to you.

Sunday morning at the diner
Hollywood trembles on the verge of tears
I watched the waitress for a thousand years
Saw a wheel within a wheel, heard a call within a call
I dreamed a highway back to you.

Oh I dream a highway back to you love
A winding ribbon with a band of gold
A silver vision come molest my soul
I dream a highway back to you.

Step into the light, poor Lazarus
Don't lie alone behind the window shade
Let me see the mark death made
I dream a highway back to you.
I dream a highway back to you.

What will sustain us through the winter?
Where did last years lessons go?
Walk me out into the rain and snow
I dream a highway back to you.

Oh I dream a highway back to you love
A winding ribbon with a band of gold
A silver vision come and bless my soul
I dream a highway back to you

I dream a highway back to you
Oh I dream a highway back to you love
A winding ribbon with a band of gold
A silver vision come and bless my soul
I dream a highway back to you.

I Dream a Highway Back to You, by Gillian Welch