signs of spring

for some people it is the blooming flowers that signal spring. for others, it is the shining sun and warmer temperatures that herald the change of the seasons. for others, the onset of spring is marked by the onset of seasonal allergies.

For me, while yes, I appreciate those flowers, I love the sun and slightly warmer temperatures, and I am ready to gouge my eyes out to make them stop itching, the real sign that spring is here to stay is the great shave.

all year Nick's hair grows from the furry summer head to the fall's scruffy-ness to the flowing locks of winter, and each spring, as relaibly as the changing seasons, the start of spring begins with the great shave and the beginning of the spring buzz.

This year's cut was especially monumental, since the spring buzz has been accompiened by the half marathon mohawk. As it turns out, the half-marathon mohawk is a time marker itself. tall and straight at mile 0 and slightly reminiscent of Free Willy by mile 13.1.

Thank You Lake Michigan

work today was stiflingly hot.

so hot it made me love my normally frigidly cold classroom.

so hot you could feel the wall of hot as you exited my room into the non air conditioned hallway

so hot my car claimed it was 88 degrees when I left work.

and then I drove home.

and i watched the temperature drop

every half mile another degree

as i parked on my street the car read 73

and it was a delightful spring day

but we had bike class.

i don't often dream. or at least I don't often remember my dreams. (i didn't even have the promised vivid dreams when on antimalaria meds while in costa rica)

but saturday night I dreamt. Saturday night I dreamt and remembered. today I shared this dream with my students and they laughed. so now I share it with you.

Nick, claires and I are all loaded into the car going to Notre Dame. A frequent occurrence, but this time we were going to pick up a couch, from a graduating student that we didnt know. and this graduation coincided with freshman orientation weekend. We were also going to a bike class held on campus that same weekend.

we drove to campus, parked, ate in the dining hall, and were all ready to go to bike class. Nick and claires made it out. I got stuck by some guy who wouldnt let me by. when I finally got out nick and claires were no where to be found. I didnt have my phone since I had left it in the car, which apparently wasnt my car since I couldnt just go and get it.

so I walked around campus for 2 hours SEARCHING for them and realizing that I also forgot to print out the couch guys info, though apparently i had it stored on that phone that I couldnt get to. I finally went to the car, which had been moved, and went into panic, but finally rememberd that there were computers in la fortune for public use, and there probably was a pay phone somewhere and I did know nick's number.

so I walked back to la fortune via the dining hall and found nick and claires standing outside, acting all 'where have you been?'

my response 'walking around campus looking for YOU. you left with out me.'

nick: 'oh yeah I saw you get stuck by some guy who was being all mean to you.'

me: 'and so you left'

nick: 'yeah, we had bike class.'

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if you were one who analyzed dreams perhaps you could make something of this. my take away: make sure you always know where bike class is at, because your friends will leave you when its time for bike class.

Book Club: Little Women edition

I recently decided that I needed something more in my life than work and being a lump at home (though there is nothing wrong with lumpdom I support it 100%) and so Claires invited me to join her book club. She told me the book for next month. and then said "but you've read little women...you can join this month too."

and though yes I have read Little women (EONS ago) and though yes I do have a mind like a steel trap and though yes I do own the movie and watch it with some regularity I thought I can read this book in 5 days (even though I normally average a book a month if I'm lucky) and so I picked up a copy.

and then nickface decided that he wanted to be in book club too. and so we began our weekend. noses stuck in our books attempting to get through the 450 page book. and then gave up because we got antsy. and so downloaded the audiobook and began our weekend of silent working while listening to Little Women.

now let it be known that I love books on tape. this was how I got through the Hardy I had to read and despised in high school. and so my discovery of LibriVox a public domain audiobook library was magnificent. or so I thought.

as it turns out people volunteer to read these great literary classics for the enjoyment of others. but the problem with volunteers is you can't say no. so our weekend consisted of hours 11 hours of alternating voices reading chapter after chapter of our book of choice, some voices good, some voices leaving us diving for our books to read out loud ourselves so as to not have to bear yet another sentence of from the mumbly computer-reader-y voice, and longing for the opportunity to hear our own voices for the first time in hours.

this sets the stage for our monday afternoon as we were settling in for our required 3.5 hours of listening we had to get in that afternoon, when claires announces happily that she has finished the whole book during her bus ride back from cleveland, ready to inform us that in this book, (spoiler alert!) BETH DOESNT DIE! in fact all that stuff besides the first year isnt in this book...and so we decided that the movie must be combing several books.

but then I got to thinking...wait? WHAT? BETH DOESNT DIE? this book only has the first year? but then why have we fast forwarded for years, why has Meg had her babies, Amy gone to Europe, and Jo headed off to New York? all that has happened in part II of the book.

and then I got to mocking...summoning Claires back to video chat. to deliver the "good" news the the voracious reader on the other side. YOU ONLY READ PART 1! Beth does die. and Laurie settles for Amy after the rest of the March girls turn him down. all is right in the world. it just takes another 200 pages to get there.

when is a vault not a vault?

I am 26.

I have no kids.

I have no plans for kids in the relatively near future.

I have the diamond edition dvd/blu-ray combo pack Bambi.

we all are susceptible to marketing.

Nick sees the big dipper and Pizza Hut immediately goes on the dinner menu.

for me apparently it's the Disney Vault.

the thoughts went something like this:

• oh look bambi is coming out on dvd. I have bambi on VHS whatevs.
• for the first time on blu- ray, well that makes sense, blu-rays havent been out for very long
• but wait it's only out for a limited time, and then it could be gone for like 10 years once disney locks it away in the vault again.
• BUT in 10 years i'll be 36! maybe I'll have kids by the time I'm 36. I'll want them to see Bambi. my VHS tape and VCR probably wont be working in 10 years.
• I HAVE TO BUY BAMBI NOW OR MY FUTURE CURRENTLY NON-EXISTANT KIDS WONT GET TO EVER SEE BAMBI

so when is a vault not a vault? when it's the emotionally disturbing Disney vault where they lock up the movies of our childhoods.

blog neglect

I neglect my blog more often and not. and should probably have a label entitled blog neglect because I blog so often about my inabilities to find time to blog, or at least to find time in a timely fashion when something blog-worthy happens.

but I have this friend who has this blog which I read. and this blog has a list of blogs she reads. which is cool, share the b-log love. but the thing about this list, is you move down the list when you don't post.

every time I read her blog I check the list. what's my position on the cool kids club. have I been blog shamed enough in to blogging? even immediately following a post I have no hopes of staying at the top for long. these are unreal expectations. but I keep telling myself top half is TOTALLY doable. right?

wrong. current position: 4th from last.

current position till I hit "publish post"

happy valentine's day