It's been an interesting last 8 months. It's unusual of me to become such good friends with someone in such a short amount of time. It's weirder still that I'm that good of friends with a guy. And frankly it sucks to watch him leave.
I went to his open house last night. First person there, last one to leave. Provided about a third of the food for it, and helped prepare the house beforehand and clean up afterward. I'm not really ready to have him leave. Not prepared to not wake up to his phone calls, or practically fall asleep talking to him. There is more I want to learn about cars before he goes. More I want to laugh about. More movies I want to quote with him.
A goodbye is not complete without a hug. I was surprised, and felt very special that he invited me to be there when they set him apart as a missionary. I went knowing that I wouldn't be able to give him a hug when I left his house, and knowing it would be the last time I saw him for two years. It was a bit prolonged. I expected to leave shortly afterward, knowing that lingering would make it harder, but his family invited me to stay for dinner.
I said goodbye and shook his hand. See you in two years. I said goodbye to his family, and he followed me outside saying he needed to tell me something.
"Thanks for being my best friend."
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
Monday, April 20, 2009
Blind
Eyesight is overrated. I've occasionally had the thought that if I had to choose between losing my hearing and my eyesight I would rather lose my eyesight. This stems from the fact that I would probably die if I couldn't listen to music. The very thought sends shivers down my spine.
After this crossed my mind I thought for a moment that being blind would prevent me from enjoying another pastime, reading. But even as this thought crossed my mind, I remembered books on tape, and even the possibility of learning how to read in braille. Which, you have to admit would be awesome to be able to do. Half of the enjoyment of a book comes from the way it smells anyway.
I don't think I would trade the taste of chocolate for the ability to see either. I mean really, the idea is preposterous. And touch? well I wouldn't give that one up either. I mean, I can even pretty well find my way through familiar spaces without seeing, so even as a means of navigation it is somewhat expendable.
When it comes right down to it, if I had to give up one of the five senses, I would give up eyesight . . .
Except for one thing.
I would trade sound, smell, taste, and touch just to look into your eyes.
After this crossed my mind I thought for a moment that being blind would prevent me from enjoying another pastime, reading. But even as this thought crossed my mind, I remembered books on tape, and even the possibility of learning how to read in braille. Which, you have to admit would be awesome to be able to do. Half of the enjoyment of a book comes from the way it smells anyway.
I don't think I would trade the taste of chocolate for the ability to see either. I mean really, the idea is preposterous. And touch? well I wouldn't give that one up either. I mean, I can even pretty well find my way through familiar spaces without seeing, so even as a means of navigation it is somewhat expendable.
When it comes right down to it, if I had to give up one of the five senses, I would give up eyesight . . .
Except for one thing.
I would trade sound, smell, taste, and touch just to look into your eyes.
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Poems
Here are some poems I wrote for my poetry class. Enjoy and please leave me comments! All comments are welcome!
Being Serious
It’s hard to talk when I hear these things from
you. My throat gets too tight to breathe, and I
can’t think of the words that will make you come
back to me again. I don’t want to cry
in front of you, but I can’t stop the tears
that are already tracing down my cheek.
I can see that it hurts, those crazy fears
that you aren’t strong enough. When you speak
of knowing what it is I want; a guy
to hug and whisper in my ear, someone
I can trust, I want to know why
that can’t be you. You want to be the one.
So hold me close and keep me safe. I know
you and I want the same thing. Please don’t go.
Passive
faces become painted masks
and eyes are broken window glass
words bubble up
trapped behind immovable lips
leaving words to dissolve
unspoken, unexplained
leaving unshed tears
to trace new drops of paint
alone in silence
Amputee
Like shadowed, phantom limbs
I feel you there.
Still there, still there
But when I look there remains only a void.
I can’t get up from this wheelchair
You’ve left me in.
You’re gone, you’re gone,
A missing piece of who I’m supposed to be.
This hand, this foot, arm, leg,
Leaving me a soul-lost cripple,
No heart, no heart,
And yet, I feel it beating.
No hope now, but prosthetic parts,
A shattered breathless shadow
Of me, of you,
The pain exquisite in its sweet torture.
Being Serious
It’s hard to talk when I hear these things from
you. My throat gets too tight to breathe, and I
can’t think of the words that will make you come
back to me again. I don’t want to cry
in front of you, but I can’t stop the tears
that are already tracing down my cheek.
I can see that it hurts, those crazy fears
that you aren’t strong enough. When you speak
of knowing what it is I want; a guy
to hug and whisper in my ear, someone
I can trust, I want to know why
that can’t be you. You want to be the one.
So hold me close and keep me safe. I know
you and I want the same thing. Please don’t go.
Passive
faces become painted masks
and eyes are broken window glass
words bubble up
trapped behind immovable lips
leaving words to dissolve
unspoken, unexplained
leaving unshed tears
to trace new drops of paint
alone in silence
Amputee
Like shadowed, phantom limbs
I feel you there.
Still there, still there
But when I look there remains only a void.
I can’t get up from this wheelchair
You’ve left me in.
You’re gone, you’re gone,
A missing piece of who I’m supposed to be.
This hand, this foot, arm, leg,
Leaving me a soul-lost cripple,
No heart, no heart,
And yet, I feel it beating.
No hope now, but prosthetic parts,
A shattered breathless shadow
Of me, of you,
The pain exquisite in its sweet torture.
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
What Really Matters
This is part of Jen's Self-Esteem Carnival. Check it out.
The past year has been a crazy mess. I came home from school in January not really knowing what I would do. I worked for a while as a temp hating it the whole way, forced myself to go to church with people I believed I had no interest in knowing, and felt like a huge loser the whole time because the situation was entirely my fault.
What is it about people that makes it so much easier for us to see the amazingness in other people but not in ourselves? I look at each of my friends and I can give a list of reasons I like being around them for each and everyone of them, but when I think about myself I always shake my head and wonder, "why do they like hanging out with me?" It always boggled my mind.
With the media pushing all the physical expectations of women, we are to be gorgeous, skinny, with perfect hair, and clear skin, it's no wonder I see people falling into the trap of believing that they are only worth what their bodies can get them. I find myself talking to some of my girl friends, telling them that they deserve better that some guy that's just after some action, they deserve to be loved for who they really are. I've never believed myself to be the drop-dead gorgeous person that society expects all women to be, but I don't need to believe that to feel good about myself.
Over the last year I've found some things about myself that I hope I will remember for the rest of my life. I don't need a boy to be happy. I don't have to hate my job, I just had to find something that I enjoy doing. I can survive without one of my best friends being close by. People telling me I'm beautiful has never made me feel better about myself, but someone telling me I have "an awesome personality" does. Ditto for hearing that I have the biggest smile they've ever seen, and for people asking me if I'm ever afraid my "funny will break" because I laugh so much.
I think I used to be a crazy outgoing person, and I don't really know where this quiet person I've seen lately came from. I remember those share-something-about-your-neighbor games in Sunday School, and I remember people saying I was the person always smiling, or laughing or whatever. I think I lost that person for a while. But guess what? I think she's back.
After all, what really matters isn't what other people see when they look at us, it's what we see when we look inside ourselves. I'm happy because I've finally been able to start seeing in myself what other people have been seeing all along. And I am AWESOME.
The past year has been a crazy mess. I came home from school in January not really knowing what I would do. I worked for a while as a temp hating it the whole way, forced myself to go to church with people I believed I had no interest in knowing, and felt like a huge loser the whole time because the situation was entirely my fault.
What is it about people that makes it so much easier for us to see the amazingness in other people but not in ourselves? I look at each of my friends and I can give a list of reasons I like being around them for each and everyone of them, but when I think about myself I always shake my head and wonder, "why do they like hanging out with me?" It always boggled my mind.
With the media pushing all the physical expectations of women, we are to be gorgeous, skinny, with perfect hair, and clear skin, it's no wonder I see people falling into the trap of believing that they are only worth what their bodies can get them. I find myself talking to some of my girl friends, telling them that they deserve better that some guy that's just after some action, they deserve to be loved for who they really are. I've never believed myself to be the drop-dead gorgeous person that society expects all women to be, but I don't need to believe that to feel good about myself.
Over the last year I've found some things about myself that I hope I will remember for the rest of my life. I don't need a boy to be happy. I don't have to hate my job, I just had to find something that I enjoy doing. I can survive without one of my best friends being close by. People telling me I'm beautiful has never made me feel better about myself, but someone telling me I have "an awesome personality" does. Ditto for hearing that I have the biggest smile they've ever seen, and for people asking me if I'm ever afraid my "funny will break" because I laugh so much.
I think I used to be a crazy outgoing person, and I don't really know where this quiet person I've seen lately came from. I remember those share-something-about-your-neighbor games in Sunday School, and I remember people saying I was the person always smiling, or laughing or whatever. I think I lost that person for a while. But guess what? I think she's back.
After all, what really matters isn't what other people see when they look at us, it's what we see when we look inside ourselves. I'm happy because I've finally been able to start seeing in myself what other people have been seeing all along. And I am AWESOME.
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
I'm it!
My sis-in-law tagged me here, and I figured I should probably do it because I don't get tagged very often (because I'm a slacker of a blogger). So here goes.
8 things I'm passionate about:
1. My friends -- basically a huge priority in my life. I don't think a day goes by without me talking to at least 3 of my friends.
2. Music -- I have enough music I could listen to it for at least a week without repeating any songs.
3. Reading -- After I started my job I rediscovered the library. I constantly have several books checked out and at least 3 on hold at any given time.
4. Movies
5. Scotland -- I will go there. I love, love, love Scotland.
6. Rain -- I stood outside in the rain today. Best feeling ever.
7. Pool -- lately I just wanna play all the time.
8. Dancing -- this kind of just goes hand in hand with music.
8 words or phrases I say often:
1. Freakin' A! (yes, exactly like that)
2. What the ?! (when startled)
3. You are my hero (said anytime anyone does some cool/silly or when they do something that just makes me happy)
4. Your face
5. Congratufreakin'lations
6. Boys are stupid! (to which Nate always replies "yeah they are!")
7. No really, who says that??
8. It tickles my fancy (OK, only recently, and this one kind of bugs me 'cause it just sounds so odd).
8 things I want to accomplish in the coming year:
1. Finish pharmacy tech program
2. Move out
3.Have a rockin' time with Kim.
4. Take at least one photography class.
5. Decide what I want to major in.
6. Save lots of money.
7. Actually take one of my brilliant ideas and make a music video already.
8. Cure cancer, lol, no really that would be awesome.
8 places I would love to go or visit:
1. Scotland (!!!!!)
2. England
3. Germany
4. The Louvre
5. New York
6. New Zealand "I WILL go to New Zealand and I walk the Mordor trail."
7. Mexico
8. The Moon
8 things I need or want: (I only get 8???)
1. My brakes need to be checked.
2. The entire cast to Phantom of the Opera, then I can just watch the play whenever. People will come to hang out and I'll be like "you guys wanna watch Phantom? sweet, I'll go make sure they are ready."
3. A wolf.
4. An all expense paid life in Scotland.
5. More hours at work.
6. Better sound system in my car.
7. I need to know how to break dance.
8. More sleep.
I tag Mauri, Carly, and Charlotte. You know who you are. You read this and you'd better . . .
8 things I'm passionate about:
1. My friends -- basically a huge priority in my life. I don't think a day goes by without me talking to at least 3 of my friends.
2. Music -- I have enough music I could listen to it for at least a week without repeating any songs.
3. Reading -- After I started my job I rediscovered the library. I constantly have several books checked out and at least 3 on hold at any given time.
4. Movies
5. Scotland -- I will go there. I love, love, love Scotland.
6. Rain -- I stood outside in the rain today. Best feeling ever.
7. Pool -- lately I just wanna play all the time.
8. Dancing -- this kind of just goes hand in hand with music.
8 words or phrases I say often:
1. Freakin' A! (yes, exactly like that)
2. What the ?! (when startled)
3. You are my hero (said anytime anyone does some cool/silly or when they do something that just makes me happy)
4. Your face
5. Congratufreakin'lations
6. Boys are stupid! (to which Nate always replies "yeah they are!")
7. No really, who says that??
8. It tickles my fancy (OK, only recently, and this one kind of bugs me 'cause it just sounds so odd).
8 things I want to accomplish in the coming year:
1. Finish pharmacy tech program
2. Move out
3.Have a rockin' time with Kim.
4. Take at least one photography class.
5. Decide what I want to major in.
6. Save lots of money.
7. Actually take one of my brilliant ideas and make a music video already.
8. Cure cancer, lol, no really that would be awesome.
8 places I would love to go or visit:
1. Scotland (!!!!!)
2. England
3. Germany
4. The Louvre
5. New York
6. New Zealand "I WILL go to New Zealand and I walk the Mordor trail."
7. Mexico
8. The Moon
8 things I need or want: (I only get 8???)
1. My brakes need to be checked.
2. The entire cast to Phantom of the Opera, then I can just watch the play whenever. People will come to hang out and I'll be like "you guys wanna watch Phantom? sweet, I'll go make sure they are ready."
3. A wolf.
4. An all expense paid life in Scotland.
5. More hours at work.
6. Better sound system in my car.
7. I need to know how to break dance.
8. More sleep.
I tag Mauri, Carly, and Charlotte. You know who you are. You read this and you'd better . . .
Monday, October 6, 2008
Boy Problems
I thought I would shed a little light on my previous post. I believe I have the market cornered on boy related awkwardness lately. Every story starts I tell lately starts out:
So there's this guy . . .
I've known him for a couple years now, and I've generally held the opinion that he is one strange cookie. Granted he has some legitimate issues he has to deal with that contribute to that but I don't think that excuses some of the odd misconceptions he has. I made the mistake of chatting on Facebook with him one day and somehow found myself agreeing to go see a movie with him. It was fun, the movie was good, and whatnot, but I'm still so far from being interested it's crazy. The main problem for me is that I'm a very private person for the most part. Granted I have no qualms with sharing facts and stories about myself, but when it comes to what I think about stuff or my reasons for doing things I'd rather people just not know. This guy is so far on the other end of the spectrum. It worries me when people share that much about themselves on such a casual encounter. Partly because it freaks me out that they will expect the same level of openness from me (and they aren't gonna get it) and partly because I worry that they'll think I actually have been that open with them and they'll think they actually know something about me ( which generally they don't).
Anyway, after that one casual date I realized that I probably should never have agreed to it. I found myself being called and invited to go to various activities with him. Even after completely avoiding him when we happen to be at the same place at the same time.
Yesterday, I was again on Facebook, and he started chatting with me. Here is what followed (with mental commentary in italics on the side):
Boy: Hey
nice lady what the weird??
how are you?
Me: Good
Boy: Would you hate me if I moved to Seattle? no, oh my gosh I would love you to move to Seattle
Me: No, Seattle is awesome!
If you want to go you should go
Boy: But you would miss the ham and eggs out of me wouldn't you? no, but what the heck . . .
Me: what does that even mean?
Basically, I have no idea where he's gotten the impression that I would "miss the ham and eggs out of him," but it's all very strange. I don't know if he's confused and thinks that my general avoidance of him is me playing hard-to-get, but it's not. I'm playing a completely different game. One I like to call don't-catch-me.
This has kind of has me thinking that I really hate the dating game. At least I hate the initial stages. I don't know what's wrong with two people hanging out and having fun just being together. I figure that eventually it will become clear that one or both parties are interested in it becoming something more (or neither will and you'll just continue being friends). If both parties are interested well then "hurray!" if only one is interested, hopefully you'll be good enough friends that you'll be able to work through it in a rational manner without hating each other in the end.
So there's this guy . . .
I've known him for a couple years now, and I've generally held the opinion that he is one strange cookie. Granted he has some legitimate issues he has to deal with that contribute to that but I don't think that excuses some of the odd misconceptions he has. I made the mistake of chatting on Facebook with him one day and somehow found myself agreeing to go see a movie with him. It was fun, the movie was good, and whatnot, but I'm still so far from being interested it's crazy. The main problem for me is that I'm a very private person for the most part. Granted I have no qualms with sharing facts and stories about myself, but when it comes to what I think about stuff or my reasons for doing things I'd rather people just not know. This guy is so far on the other end of the spectrum. It worries me when people share that much about themselves on such a casual encounter. Partly because it freaks me out that they will expect the same level of openness from me (and they aren't gonna get it) and partly because I worry that they'll think I actually have been that open with them and they'll think they actually know something about me ( which generally they don't).
Anyway, after that one casual date I realized that I probably should never have agreed to it. I found myself being called and invited to go to various activities with him. Even after completely avoiding him when we happen to be at the same place at the same time.
Yesterday, I was again on Facebook, and he started chatting with me. Here is what followed (with mental commentary in italics on the side):
Boy: Hey
nice lady what the weird??
how are you?
Me: Good
Boy: Would you hate me if I moved to Seattle? no, oh my gosh I would love you to move to Seattle
Me: No, Seattle is awesome!
If you want to go you should go
Boy: But you would miss the ham and eggs out of me wouldn't you? no, but what the heck . . .
Me: what does that even mean?
Basically, I have no idea where he's gotten the impression that I would "miss the ham and eggs out of him," but it's all very strange. I don't know if he's confused and thinks that my general avoidance of him is me playing hard-to-get, but it's not. I'm playing a completely different game. One I like to call don't-catch-me.
This has kind of has me thinking that I really hate the dating game. At least I hate the initial stages. I don't know what's wrong with two people hanging out and having fun just being together. I figure that eventually it will become clear that one or both parties are interested in it becoming something more (or neither will and you'll just continue being friends). If both parties are interested well then "hurray!" if only one is interested, hopefully you'll be good enough friends that you'll be able to work through it in a rational manner without hating each other in the end.
Sunday, October 5, 2008
Quote of the Day
"I think your boy problems and my girl problems should get together and make some baby problems."
Ain't that the truth?
Ain't that the truth?
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