Spring (?)

About a month ago, I was terribly depressed because all signs pointed to spring: warmer weather, tulips and daffodils blooming, tiny green plants appearing; but the trees were still the same barren, dead-looking branches as in winter. Then, one day, magically, it seemed like a green mist appeared on the trees overnight and the tiny leaves were growing. Soon, the leaves were practically obscuring the trees and I was happy. Warm weather was here to stay and the sun-lover in me could be happy again.

Sadly, this is Colorado, and spring melted back into a snow shower (which then melted back into a 70-degree day), and we have clouds and rain again today. At least we have leaves on the trees now!

Best/Worst Movie Ever

Plan 9 From Outer Space.

We saw "Ed Wood" over the weekend and I just loved it, so we had to put the movies Ed Wood really made on our queue. I didn't think the real one could live up to the Tim Burton/Johnny Depp extravaganza of "Ed Wood," but man, does it ever!

If you haven't already seen it, I recommend seeing "Ed Wood" first, because it'll give you insight into scenes that wouldn't otherwise be terribly interesting and will also give you some background on the movie and its making.

"Plan 9" is like the epitome of every bad horror movie from that era. Crappy special effects, terrible dialog, ridiculous plot, it has it all. I love the (multiple) scenes that transition between night and day with each cut, the cop car that changes color and style every time we see it, and the tomstones that topple over when someone touches them. Awesome!

My Easter vigil

Normally I would be going to Mass tomorrow. It's at least a nod to my Catholic upbringing and faith, though I don't know if any weekly Catholics would consider me Catholic anymore. But this year, my first year away from family and married to a devout atheistic humanist, I await a different kind of celebration. This year I will be celebrating spring (and Easter) with my friends (those who aren't going to church). We're having a brunch buffet at our house tomorrow, complete with easter egg hunt and bacon--the poor grad student's Easter ham. My Easter vigil is tending to the muffins in the oven and the cheesecake I baked earlier. My communion will be sharing the food each person brings to our table. My thoughts are of spring, the rebirth, the joy and pain each birth of all kinds brings, and the hope for tomorrow's days to be better ones.

May you all have a safe and peaceful Easter.

Ruminating

Is a "thank" less than "thanks"?

Literary trivia

Am reading J.D. Salinger's Franny and Zooey for a fun bookclub my friends started. Peter and I watched The Good Girl with Jennifer Aniston which makes numerous references to Catcher in the Rye, the other Salinger book (are there any more?). Zooey Deschanel is also in the movie, and she was named for the character in the book! What are the chances of her being named Zooet (the character is a man), acting in that movie, me reading the book and watching the movie at the same time without knowing the connection? And yet, this little miracle has probably played itself out a hundred times before. Such is our world.

PS My friend actually had a conversation with Salinger, so there!

Kitchen Aid ecstacy

We used the grating/slicing attachment on the Kitchen Aid mixer for the first time tonight. It was magical grating 4 cups of cheese so quickly (we only needed 2 cups, but it was so easy! Anyone want some finely shredded swiss?). We got three identical graters for the wedding, and for some reason, I'm pretty sure we returned all of them, so we've been making do with a makeshift grater for a while.

But now, we have been reunited with our Kitchen Aid! I made a cheese souffle tonight and used the mixer not only to grate the cheese, but also to beat those egg whites into stiff peaks while washing the dishes. I'm hoping Peter noticed my amazing multitasking and put in my nomination for Wifey o' the Year ;-)

In other news, I love the time change when I hear the kids playing outside at 8 PM (memories!), but I freaking hate it when it's midnight and I'm not the tiniest bit tired. Plus, I can never remember if this will be a good thing on Tuesday when I have my 8AM class, or if I'm going to be hating life and hating the fact that I hate coffee. Clearly, math is not my strong suit. In fact, time in general perplexes me. Peter laughs at me because I used to set my clock an odd number of minutes fast (like 7), because I could never do the math fast enough to figure out what time it really was when the alarm went off. 5 or 10 minutes was too easy, so I'd just keep sleeping and defeat the purpose of setting the clock fast and thus frustrating my bedmate who likes his clocks all to have the right time. Crazy.

OK, I'm off to bed, and I'll probably sleep far too late tomorrow. Damn! That means Tuesday's going to suck. Adjust, little body, adjust!

Thousands of Miles

Well, we just got back yesterday from a fairly whirlwind tour de la southwest. Peter and I drove with our friend Andy across the Rockies, across the bottom of Utah, a corner of Arizona, and fianlly made it to Peter's family's house in Las Vegas. We spent a few days there, Andy and I went to see Avenue Q (it was awesome!), then Peter and I drove a few hundred more miles to see my parents near Bakersfield.

They are selling their house soon, so they wanted me to see it before they did (it's not the house I grew up in, I've never even lived there, so I'm not sad about it, though it is very pretty).

More importantly, though, they had brought a bunch of stuff we had forgotten in Reno when we moved. At last, we were reunited with our beloved Kitchen Aid mixer! Plus, we had a late wedding gift that had been delivered after we left, so we got to open that up. Yay Tiffany platter from family friends! The platter's great, but we're also stoked about using the giant Tiffany box for pretty much every gift we ever plan on giving one another :-) Nothing says love like a Tiffany box!

So, now it's back to the grind. I need to run a few dozen exta miles to get rid of the inevitable paunch I get when visiting Peter's family of amazing cooks, plus we had to have In-N-Out and visit Trader Joe's. Colorado is so deprived!

When we left Boulder, the snow was just melting and it was still pretty cold, but now it's an amazingly beautiful spring day and the sun is shining more than it was in Vegas. Spring flowers are peeking out around our parking lot, I'll try to take some pictures.

Speaking of pictures, sadly, we may be about to lose a member of our family. My spunky little Nikon Coolpix, which has taken probably over 10,000 pictures and traveled thousands of miles with us over these past three years, is ailing. The little spring that keeps the batteries in is no longer springy and so you kind of have to hold the little door shut so the batteries willl work.

Anyone want to buy us a new camera? Haha.

For Jena

Exciting times!

So, I officially have my own website now, and not coincidentally, I've also started my own business. Thanks to my awesome friend Jena, you can now visit the newly-launched shanbritedesigns.com! If you are looking for a new way to view old family photos, pictures from your travels or that fantabulous wedding you just had, check it out!

OK, self-promotion time over. In other news, we are supposed to be getting a huge storm tonight, up to a foot or more of snow. Too bad I don't have any classes that could potentially be canceled tomorrow. Also, my "baby" brother is here for his Spring Break. It's 1:30 PM now and he is still fast asleep on our couch. Good thing he's a heavy sleeper because Peter and I gave up the whole tiptoe-around-so-we-don't-wake-our-guest routine about four hours ago. I only hope he wakes up in time for the 2:30 appointment we have with one of my friends! We'll see!

I don't know if we can be friends if you don't like the following movies:

Pretty Woman (watching it now, forgot how awesome it is)
Taxi Driver
The Graduate
Citizen Kane
Garden State

That's all for now. I can never remember my favorite movies when it matters. I also like the sese movies, but I still like you even if you don't like them:

Adaptation
Lost in Translation
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (might be on the first list)
Memento
Magnolia
Amelie (seriously, who doesn't like this movie?)
Napolean Dynamite
All the Thin Man movies

My new motto

Fuck cancer. Sorry so explicit, but really, there are no other words that truly express that feeling. I just get so pissed off sometimes. I just found out that one of my friend's mom's cancer has been moved up to Stage 4, which is the worst level. On top of that, I've been thinking about my friend Alicia, and I just get so pissed that this is happening to her or to anyone. It's not like you can really do anything to prevent it, no matter what ads might claim, and it can target anyone of any age. And so far, there's no magic pill that can help everyone and every type, and there are just so many unknowns. Damn, I'm pissed!

Addictions

Peter and I got new cell phones over Christmas, the fancy kind they have in these here modren ages, with pretty pictures on the screen and all! From our old phone, which was a very old model when we got it two and a half years ago, to this one is like traveling light years! It even has a camera and can take video with sound, which is just too much fun. But the biggest toy is that I've downloaded Jewel Quest, a puzzle matching game, and so now I play it all the time. For some reason, I was a lot better at the free online version on Myspace. Maybe they make that version easier so you want to download it and save what you think will be awesome high scores? Or maybe the phone version is just different from the computer version. In any case, the digital age isn't necessarily a move forward. I spend time on my phone that I never did before, and time that should be spent doing homework or laundry. But Jewel Quest is just too much fun!

Back in Boulder

It's nice to be back. The weather has been wonderful; I was so dreading coming back to 20 degrees after being in Vegas where it was 70, but it's gotten to the high 60s here, so it's not too bad at all. I've been for a few walks since getting back, something I kind of take for granted when I'm here. It's so easy just to walk out the door and walk almost anywhere from our apartment. Other cities are not nearly as pedestrian-friendly and it's so easy to get back into that car-centric lifestyle when I'm there. When I had to go to the grocery store for the first time after coming back, it took a real effort to talk myself out of getting in the car and driving to Safeway. While I was walking back, I kept thinking that it would have taken far longer to drive than it would have to walk and I was so glad I managed not to get sucked into the illusion of ease the car provides. Of course, I know this isn's the case for most people and most cities, but I suppose that is one of the many reasons why Boulder so often tops the lists of best places to live. Now I just have to make sure I make the most of my time here!

The Void

I have nothing to do while I'm on break from school, so I watch movies, play on the computer and read books (I've read 5 of the 7 Narnia books in as many days). The horrile thing is, I really don't want to go back to school.

I know I'll enjoy it when I get back (at least, I hope I will!), but I'm so enjoying the luxury of being bored. I've always liked doing nothing the best of all, but unfortunately, I'm an "adult" now and you simply can't make a living at that.

It's not even so much that I like doing nothing and being bored, though. It's really that I enjoy being able to choose what I do with my time and not having any obligations or deadlines to meet. I know even that is an impossible job description, but I think I might have more flexibility as a professor in what I do with my time and the scheduling of it, but I don't know if I'll be self-motivated enough to complete what I need to. I'm such a contradiction in terms!

I heart Christmas

I put up my in-laws' Christmas tree, I guess none of them like to do it. It reminded me of all the happy times I've had with my family putting ours up and decorating it together. Yeah, we never made popcorn and strung it up, but it was pretty homespun nonetheless. I'm pretty sure our tree topped is STILL the paper plate angel my brother or I made in kindergarten, complete with pipe cleaner halo. And most of the ornaments on the tree are handmade by us or by friends, or at least have a story behind them. It will never grace the cover of Martha Stewart (school project ornaments rarely follow a consistent color scheme), but it's a happy catalog of years of Christmases together, strung up alongside each other, hodgepodge and cozy.

New Life

Very dear friends of ours just had a baby a few days ago, and we were lucky enough to be able to go see her when she was less than 24 hours old. She was a c-section baby, so she was absolutely perfect and probably one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen. I've heard so much about the "miracle of life" that it was one of those things that became a cliche to me before I ever got to see what they were talking about. Seriously? I can't think of a better way to describe it. Just walking through the maternity ward, I thought of all the little people in the rooms who weren't on this planet a day, or several hours before. Families growing larger, hopefully embracing and loving these new little beings. They are so tiny and fragile, such a tabula raza. No sin or worry wrinkling their little brows, just sleeping and eating.

And how could such a perfect little thing have formed inside my friend? It just blows my mind. I mean, we are so complex, and yet it all managed to get put together well enough in nine months that it came out as a human being? Amazing.

Mom and baby are both doing very well and got to go home only after a few days. We'll get to go see them again wehn we come back from our trip to Reno. She'll be well over two weeks old by then! Sheesh. I don't know if I'll even recognize her!

What does it say about our country...

that we are willing to kill a man nominated three times for a Nobel Prize, once for a Nobel Peace Prize? Would Arnold have spared him if he had won? Don't know how I feel about Tookie, but this whole thing makes me sick and has put me strongly in the anti-death penalty camp, whre I was on the fence before. Who else would we be willing to put to death? What if Mother Teresa had committed a terrible sin before she became who she became? A bit extreme, maybe, but really? Where do we draw the line?

Culture at Social Security

I had to go to the friendly local SS office today to help another student, and the hour and a half we sat there provided the opportunity for some amazing socio-cultural observations. First, it appeared that the more affluent/educated (and white) people made appointments, and therefore did not have to wait until their number was called. Rather, they had their names called and only had to wait a fraction of the time of we of the rabble. Of course, they still had to wait a while, but not nearly as long as the rest of us.

The exceptions, those who looked higher class but did not make an appointment, were the only ones who ever vocally expressed frustration and irritation at the process. One Lycra-legginged came in, apparently after missing her number being called, and complained rather bitterly about how she had been here twice already today and done all the errands she could do, now couldn't she just drop off her original birth certificate? Umm, lady? We've all been sitting here patiently and I'm sure we all have better things to be doing too, but we're smart enough to know that the Social Security Office is well aware that they are far more powerful than pretty much any single American, so sorry, but you're just gonna have to pull another number. Why not try actually WAITING this time!

Other observations were more cultural than economic. I was there with a female Japanese student, who is pretty in the way that most 20-ish Japanese women are. This man, who was definitely there to get his SS check, so he was no spring chicken, kept looking at her and not in a friendly way. He was downright creepy. There was a moment when I was distracted by a Spanish-speaking mother asking me for help (more on her later), and while I was looking away, Creepy Man used the chance to start a conversation with my friend. Umm, if your conversation wasn't creepy, why not talk to her when I was paying attention? Yeah, because you knew how creepy and dirty your intentions were. I could just see the thoughts going through his mind: "innocent, pure Japanese woman" and all the horrible steroeotypes/fantasies dirty old white men have around that ideal. Yuck! I'm not sure if she understood what was going on, but I'm glad I was there for her.

So the Spanish-speaking mother I mentioned was the cutest thing ever. She was MAYBE five feet tall, looked like she could have passed for a very young teenager, or less, and had two adorably chubby-cheeked little boys with her (the only reason I thought she was older than 12). She stood in a corner by the door for a while, didn't take a number or anything, and didn't make any indication of needing help. After a while, I heard her say something in Spanish about knowing Spanish (to me, closest person to her). I told her I could speak a little and told her she needed to take a number and fill out this form. She said she would go to her car and fill it out (I think), but my Spanish wasn't good enough to understand more than that.

While she was in the car, another vaguely Hispanic looking couple with a little boy came in. They were clearly more well-to-do, their little boy wearing an adorable mini shearling jacket and tiny boots. We smiled at them and the little boy, as he managed to spit out more of the apple slice that he was eating than he actually ate. They were attractive, young and middle class. When the other woman with her two boys came back in, I asked her if everything was fine, and she said "No," and then something I couldn't understand. I turned to the other Hispanic couple and asked if they spoke Spanish. They said yes, and she went over to sit next to them. What happened next, I never could have predicted.

I presume the young mother had her question answered, but I couldn't tell for sure, since I don't think they spoke more than five words to one another. Oh, the middle-class mother seemed nice enough to her, but I could sense the waves of discomfort. Could it be that these people thought they had worked hard enough to not be mistaken for one of "them"? The young mother and her boys were clean and dressed neatly, but not stylishly. Her lack of English strongly suggested a recent immigration, or at least a lack of assimilation. Or could it be old country prejudices? The middle class couple looked like they might have had more Spanish in them, lean faces and light skin. The young mother and her sons were much rounder and definitely darker. It was easy to imagine them coming from a remote village or at least being predominantly Indian or mestizo.

For the time we remained sitting across form this cultural divide, the middle-class woman either didn't meet my eye like before, or she sent me uncomfortable glances, since I was the one who put her in that position. I never meant to imply anything about them or what I thought of them; all I knew is that my Spanish wasn't going to be able to help this woman through the maze of Social Security, and if someone had a better command of the language, they would better be able to help her.

Thankfully, we got through it all, my friend got her SS card, and it only toook us an hour and a half! I can't wait for the day I have to go to change my name to my new married name. Sheesh, is it worth it?

Reduced to talking about the weather

Not really, but I am going to talk about it. It's just been pretty crazy here! So I so wasn't exaggerating the winds last time. It really was bad. I'm glad we stayed inside and that our windows didn't break, we really thought they might and other obviously did.

The day after the winds calmed down, I walked to class and thought, "Hmm, the clouds kind of look like snow." So I went into my class in the basement, and when we came out an hour later, it looked like an inch of snow on the ground! For some unknown reason, I had it in my head that it only snows in the afternoon, so I was completely unprepared for this. It kept right on snowing until nighttime, and we probably ended up with at least a few inches of snow. Yes, it was beautiful, but that was the beginning of the damn Arctic cold front that's been freezing the country this week. Yeah, a high of 10? It definintely got below zero at night, I was so thankful for a roof and walls and our warm down blanket! I never went outside unless I was forced to do so. It's warmed up to almost 40 today, so I may once again venture outside my doors. I'm such a homebody sometimes! (I'll post the pic of our view of the snow when I get it uploaded. It is pretty, I will say that. But careful what you wish for!)

Breaking Wind

Wow! OK, I thought Reno was windy, but it doesn't hold a candle to the wind coming off the mountains here. It has been blowing so hard it literally is shaking the windows, and it's been blowing this hard since 3 AM today. I didn't sleep well last night because I would get woken up by the wind regularly, and when I woke up, I would be doing my Japanese morphology project in my sleep. How restful! The craziest part about the wind is that it doesn't stop. There might be a few minute lull here and there, but it's still blowing, just not as hard.

Some poor unfortunate left their laundry on the line. I was impressed by how long it magaged to stay on the line; they had some good clothespin skillz. But nothing could withstand this wind forever. We're pretty sure some of their clothes ended up lodged against the balcony of a second story apartment across from us, the rest was at the base of a fence for a while, but has since disappeared. Only one bright pink child's shirt managed to get wrapped around one of the lines and was the lone holdout, at least it was a few hours ago. A few brave kids were out in the courtyard, trying to catch the leaves swirling around in the baby tornado we've had out there for the past 10 hours. I was honestly afraid they would get blown over.

Peter and I ventured out to get the mail. We had to push against the wind to get there. I wore flip flops (because it's not like there's snow on the ground and it's literally a five minute round trip) and a down jacket (because I'm not a complete idiot!). By the time we got back (the aforementioned five minutes), I was pretty doggone cold. I'm glad we didn't have anywhere to go today and could just hibernate in our apartment.

I bought the tickets to go to Las Vegas and Reno for Christmas tonight, so that's good. They weren't even really that expensive, even though I am well into the 2-week lead time you normally have to have for a good fare. The way it is now, we chould have a nice amount of time in both places for both families. We may even be able to meet with some of our friends! I will never begrudge Reno its wind again!