29. 05. 08

So today's the 29th of May. Who knew.
And this auspicious day finds me, once again, far from all the people I know and love except for the three that are always with me.
The supreme irony? We're finally Stateside, and where does my birthday find me? With good friends from school or conference? With extended family? With little munchkins or peers? No. With the family that has traveled the world with me. This insular little speck of a people group.
Don't get me wrong, I love them. A lot. I just wish that some of the other people I have shared time and laughs with were around me- especially as there was the chance. But no, like the previous five years (and more before that), it'll be just me and them.
Ah, but why be morose? What's a birthday anyway? Just a passing from one year of life to another. Goodness knows that in the end when you count them all up there'll be too many to remember properly. What's one day?
Don't pay any attention to me, it's late and I'm sulky.
Goodnight all. I wish you the happiest of happy 29th of Mays.

Sand, Sea & Sky

So today was a... well, let's leave it at "a day". Today I got to sit on the beach and think.

All alone on the sand. There are reeds blowing in the wind, a beige and green sort of color. The sand is cool and soft under your heels. The blanket around your middle warms you from the chill of the sea breeze. The sun is setting- giving yellow-orange light that hasn't got much warmth left. The reeds make shadows on the sands and blow in the breeze, as waves, far off, swish up and down some meters away. The sky is blue, and little cotton-ball clouds in the sky are faintly illuminated by the sun's fading light. Looking down the shore you see short apartment houses, edged by dunes overgrown with tough green beach plants.

There is a calming power to being alone with scenery and nature like that.
But is calming power enough to fill up an entire week?

Lifebond

Long car rides definitely lend themselves to thought. On the way down to the beach, I got to thinking about the movie Love Actually and all the different types of love in it. And it struck me that my parents have been married for 20 years. 20 years of such close proximity that they have only spent more than a month apart once, and that was this year. They were dating before that too, so maybe 22 or 23 years. Whew! That is an awfully long time. What sort of bond would make that length and amount of proximity desirable? (No, I'm not really asking that question... more like wondering about the nature of it) I mean, I've known my sister pretty much our whole life, and we don't have to be in eachother's lives even half as much as my parents seem to want to be. You always hear about love, and how it's so strong... in fact, it's so strong that in several ways it's taken over our culture's imagination. But... well, I don't think that pop culture covers the half of it. When Harry says to Sally that "when you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with someone, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible", you (or at least, I) don't really think about the strength of bond (for lack of a better word) that must go with that desire. Watching things like The Swan Princess as kids or The Bachelorette, for some of you reality TV fans, you don't think twice about the commitment that these people/characters are making without really knowing what they're getting into. I know that if I spend too much time with a lot of people, we end up fighting; getting "sick of eachother" as it were. Is that, maybe, why old couples and married couples quarrel? Because they know so much about one another and spend so much time in eachother's company that they learn intricately one another's foibles?
I do know one thing. I can't imagine myself having that sort of bond. I can't even imagine... I will say this: thanks Deece, for getting me started thinking about my parents as an example of love. You posted in some post or other that you were amazed at and thankful for your parent's example- so I looked at mine to see how they got along.

Sharks

So it's summer... many things have been happening lately- just when I was hoping life would finally slow down! There's graduation announcements to send out, scads of tests to finish, forgotten tests to all-of-a-sudden take, driving skills to acquire, a basement to be cleaned out and readied for the next tenant (who shares my first name, oddly enough), and, to top it all off, I've joined the neighborhood swim team. The Sharks.
We started practice a week ago Monday. Let me explain. I have not "exercised" (regularly at least) in all of 9 months. Before that, the only exercise I got was walking around my city/town in Catalunya. I have not been on a sports team since I was 8. For all of these reasons, this week has been a very interesting challenge.
Day 1: learn how to freestyle. Oh, and nevermind that everyone else (mostly ppl 3-4 years younger than me) are already experts and the coach literally says "Everyone knows how to freestyle!" Add to that the fact that I had no goggles and couldn't tell where I was going half the time. Let's just say, I got a little... scraped up. We were also told to be doing flip turns. I had no idea what this was.
Day 2: This time I came armed: I had goggles. Keep swimming for dear life. On day 2 I finally came to understand the panic some people get when they start to drown. You feel like you just CAN'T move your arms any more, no matter what anyone says, and if you swallow any more water well.... Still, it was a good day- I mean, no one really DID drown or anything. Still no hint as to how to perform the mysterious flip turn...
Day 3: More freestyle. I discovered that rhythm is the key to swimming. If you have rhythm, things go smoothly. You can move faster, slower, focus on your stroke. No rhythm equals swallowing lots of water, floundering, stopping, re-starting, and generally not knowing up from down. Finally learned how to execute a flip turn.
Day 4:--
well, but I will not bore you with the day-to-dayness of freezing waters, rainy skies, cramping legs, cute guys, fun girls, and chlorinated water. After all, it's just a normal part of life, right?
Gotta run!
I'll try to post a more thoughtful something later. When things calm down... (if.)

What if I'm Right? by Sandi Thom

"...You'll always keep the magic
the tender love and care,
And when you need to change the lightbulb,
you won't hand me the chair.
And when we're tired of the city
and we find a country home,
you'll sell your vinyl records
and go get us a loan.

You'll be my sympathetic lover
and you won't steal the covers
but I've got my doubts, and what if I'm right?
You won't forsake me,
your mother won't hate me
but I've got my doubts, and what if I'm right?
You'll be strong
and you'll turn me on
but I've got my doubts, and what if I'm right?
You'll be true
and be faithful too,
but I've got my doubts, and what if I'm right?
What if I'm right?"

Sung by: Tabby and myself as the finale to the Chorus concert. :)

Mason Murer, Black and White affair

America has this fascinating little tradition where all of the Junior and Senior students of a high school get all dressed up, go out to dinner, and then attend a dance. This tradition is called prom. I have a hunch that prom has changed a LOT from the time it was instituted to the present day. For one thing, people probably danced much more, er... formally than they do now. :P Still and all, it's an interesting event.
I attended prom last night, with a group of several friends. Some had dates, some did not. Kerry, Keri and I formed the "Old Maids' Committee" as I like to call it- people who's dates got sick, canceled, or never realized that they were supposed to take these three amazingly beautiful and witty girls to prom. Oh well, tough luck for them I suppose. ;)
First Anna and I went over to the house of a good friend of mine. Her best friend is a sort of make-up, stylist person, and the two of them really enjoy making people beautiful and fashion designing. They had offered to do my makeup (thank goodness, because I would have made a royal mess, never having worn makeup before in my life... :P) and hair. So after a session of intense pampering, laughter, good music, and some rather painful plucking of the eyebrows,
we took a few pictures, said goodbye and thank you, and headed off for the place that our prom group had arranged to meet. Where the parents indulged in more pictures. A LOT more pictures, lol.
Then we all piled into the cars and went off to the little mall, home to a nice-ish restaurant that serves delicious Thai food. That bit was the most fun. We ordered our food, feeling all spiffy and proper; we talked, we laughed. The people who didn't know eachother got to know each other. :) It was a lot of fun. Then at 8:15, realizing we were fashionably late, we paid our bills, left the restaurant, and went outside to... take more pictures. :P Once again we all piled into cars and finally drove off to the actual dance. On the drive there, my two seatmates kept talking about America's Next Top Model- all seasons (ahem, cycles) included. They discussed the comparative merits of each contestant, made bets on who would win, who would be voted out this week, etc. I tried to join in as best I could, but couldn't help wondering why they cared. They were gossiping about these girls their own age, saying things they'd never dare to say to anyone's face. Maybe that's what draws people to these shows. They can say just exactly what they think without fear of reprisal. At any rate, we drove into the city until we arrived at this neighborhood that seemed to be made entirely up of warehouses. Turns out our location itself was actually a warehouse that had been turned into a museum.
It had some really fun art. The statues in particular were fascinating. There was one that was the giant head of a man with ram's antlers; another was the sparse outline of a horse made with wire as thick as a person's forearm; another (my favorite) was a giant foot. It had wings set at the ankle and covering the foot, pressed against it, were ridges as of cloth that was being pressed against the foot by wind... but they were almost ridges set into the foot's skin, too. It was amazing. I had to just stand and look at it for a bit. Then there were black-and-white photographs that had been made purposefully blurry. They were mostly of things like chairs and tables. My other favorite piece was a picture of the city with the highway in the foreground. It was done in sepia colors, but the really cool thing about it was that it had been painted onto a huge square of tiles. :) Ok, last piece, I promise! There were these two little ponies, maybe 3/4 of a meter high and a meter long. They were brown, covered in sack-cloth and with bridles and everything. Very cute.
So we got into the dance, and we registered. The rest of our time there consisted mostly of standing around talking or walking around greeting people and looking for others that we'd somehow lost. That and asking eachother if we were having fun yet. Which, despite the lack of actual things happening, I did. It was a very cool atmosphere. There were a lot of people dancing in a huge clump in the middle of the museum and the DJ was throwing glow-sticks. And of course, everyone was absolutely beautiful. There were some of the most amazing and funny and beautiful dresses there that I have ever seen all together in one spot outside of a movie. =) After standing around for about an hour, I came to my senses and realized that the funnest part of being there were going to be the memories of having been there. So what else could I do but go and get my trusty camera and get snapshots of as many glamorous, beautiful and bizarre scenes I could find! :D
About 15 minutes after I had discovered the Purpose of Prom, we had to leave. We drove home and for an after-party watched this bizarre movie called The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. On top of the fact that we were all practically falling asleep (two people actually were asleep), it was a surreal movie about a man who's memories of his girlfriend are being erased while he sleeps. Can you say recipe for confusion? For a while there I had absolutely NO idea what was going on in that movie. Then we found a couple of centipedes, that was interesting. At any rate, after that I got a ride home, did my durndest to get all the makeup off my face (hah. Waterproof mascara is one stubborn bit of makeup!)
So yeah. It was a great experience. Congratulations if you got through all of that. :)
Hope you had a wonderful weekend!
over'n'out.