Measuring Out My Life in Labels

Eight points if you get the title reference! Because ten points would be excessive.

So, I'm packing, and it makes me think. Actually most activities makes me think, exempting sleep and watching Glee.Packing up belongings is too-perfect a chance to reflect on one's relationship to material objects. For me, this has mainly concluded with the utterance: "Man, I have a lot of crap."

I've done a lot of this sort of reflection and have considered torching my closet on several occasions; yet as I go through all my crap I find wonderful reasons to keep everything...

"What if I need a reference book on Marxist theory when I hypothetically go to graduate school?"
 "But I've had this lamp for as long as I remember, and I want my kids to have this lamp!"
"I will definitely want to read every single one of my college papers twenty years from now..."
"What if I want to make an art project out of all of these recyclables?!"

The last one is the driving force for a lot of the clutter in my life, unfortunately. 


Excuses aside,  I thought it would be fun to post some of the labels which quantify my life. Here ya go:

 

PS- The title reference is from T.S. Elliot's "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock"

...For I have known them all already, known them all:
Have known the evenings, mornings, afternoons,
I have measured out my life with coffee spoons;
I know the voices dying with a dying fall
Beneath the music from a farther room.
So how should I presume?....

View at the dog beach, where I watch other people's dogs and wish they were mine. All mine.

A Twist on a Classic

Low-carb PB&J

You'll Know Why

So, it's been a while--I know. I feel the need to justify why I haven't been posting as voraciously, a feeling which I resent since I answer to no one on this blog. Except myself. So I resent the fact that I feel the need to justify my absence to myself....Wow, did you already stop reading? Because I did, and that's kind of impossible because I'm writing this and so in order to read it I have to continue to write it....

....strike two, Small Hands, strike two.

Okay so what's been going on:

1. I may have OD-ed on blog posting while I was in Yosemite

2. I'm having issues uploading photos from my iPhone to da compy, and I'm sick of uploading straight from the iPhone since it makes it so that I have less control over the formatting

3. Family, man

4. I AM MOVING SOON and I am scared and excited and scared of being excited and excited about being scared because it builds character? So yes, I am planning my next big adventure, being a move to San Francisco, which is a city, which is scary, and exciting. My plan is to ultimately gain employment at an art organization in either a communications, education and/or outreach position. (Can you tell I've written this a million times?)

From what I've gathered from several informational interviews, the only way to get into the art world is to be an unpaid intern. And the only way to live and be an intern is to also get a job. So my plan is to get a job, and intern at an art organization as well, in hopes that a position will magically open up and POOF I will be there, waiting to be wrapped up in their delicious artsy arms. What?

 The only case I would not poof-be-wrapped-up is if the job I get in the meantime ends up being AWESOME, like the one I applied to yesterday. Its a copywriter position at www.sneakpeeq.com; check it out, its an awesome online retail store that gives awesome deals on quirky and unique items.

5. I rediscovered popcorn. I used to love popcorn. In fact, I always listed it as my "comfort food" in questionnaires at school. How could I forget my comfort food?! Probably because I replaced that title with lame adult foods like kale and lentils and ground turkey (coincidentally, exactly what I ate tonight).

Anyway, I'm back and I'm going to mediate this conflict between my iPhone and Picasa. I mean really, they gotta work this out. Then I will begin to post sentimental I'm-Leaving-Santa-Cruz-So-Here-Are-All-The-Landmarks-I-Love. If there are watermarks on the pictures, you'll know why.

Paint Bubbles

Today the kids and I did a project that we call "paint bubbles." Basically, you put food coloring (a lot of it) into a bottle of bubble solution and then you blow onto a blank sheet of paper. The end product is really neat: with little globes of color overlapping one another, and rainbow raindrops. 

 

My other favorite part of this project is what the kids end up looking like. Nothing's cuter than messy kids (except when they're your own).

 

 

"Let's Take the Long Way Home," Again

I am rereading Let's Take the Long Way Home, by Gail Caldwell, which I read and loved last month ( I am reading at least one book a month during 2012, will post more about this later). This time around I want to record the passages and ideas that touched me in this beautiful memoir about two writers, their dogs, and their lives together.



ON FRIENDSHIP

Opening line of book:
"It's an old, old story: I had a friend and we shared everything, and then she died and so we shared that, too." (pg. 3)
 

"Finding Caroline was like placing a personal ad for an imaginary friend, then having her show up at your door funnier and better than you had conceived." (pg. 13)


ON WRITERS

" If writers possess a common temperament, it's that they tend to be shy egomaniacs; publicity is the spotlight they suffer for the recognition they crave."  (pg. 17)

"I had known enough writers in my life, including myself, to recognize this trait: What made it to the page was never the whole story, but rather the writer's version of the story--a narrative with its creator in full control." (pgs. 20-21)


Get why I'm rereading it?

Oops, I Went Somewhere Beautiful Again

Seacrest Hotel, Pismo Beach

Twenty-First Century Passover

Enough about Yosemite, Let's Talk About Color!

My bossladyfriend and I did this awesome art project over our school's spring break. Easy to do (hot glue, hair dryer, crayons, canvas) and amazing results. Mine isn't on there because its a birthday present for someone who would potentially read this and then the surprise would be RUINED!

The cat picture I included because I think the contrast is striking. Love that beautiful kitty!

Tour of the Sierra Mountain Lodge Lobby

Get ready for a quaint-attack!

More Hilarity from Yosemite Weekend

Four Jews pack for a day hike. This is what they bring:

 

Our trip came with a complimentary Planet Earth-style narration:

 

Snowbaby reaches its unfortunate fate:

 

Is it just me, or are my friends hilarious?  Don't answer that unless you agree.

"Yosemite!" The Musical

My fellow Yosemites are all very musical. As such, we could be found singing in every situation possible, including:

THE CAR

(This was completely spontaneous)

THE WOODS

THE CABIN

I have talented friends, and forests are even more magical when viewed in harmony.

Mirror Lake: Where We Found Ourselves

Lower Yosemite Falls

Despite cautionary folklore, we went chasing waterfalls.

On the Road to Yosemite National Park

We found Uruguayans playing in the snow. They're the ones with the flag. Small world!

Cabin Cat Steals the Show

....but really--could he-she be any cuter? The warm ball of fur on my lap says no.