Tag: Life

Humor, Life, Linkstorm, Weekend

Friday Links XII (Extra wordy this week)

“It’s 4:58 on Friday afternoon. Do you know where your margarita is?”
― Amy Neftzger

Have my lectures really sunk in? I may have accidentially put myself out of work...

Another day, another seemingly crime free week on campus.

I’m starting to feel badly, ducklings, I used to have all sorts of tales of human silliness for you, but the well has run dry the last few months.  I don’t know if that means I’ve finally reached the point of saturation where even truly heinous examples of Darwinism at work are so commonplace that I don’t even register them…or if it’s time to find a new topic.  I suspect the latter.

We’ll make that Monday’s post, in the meantime, look at the shiny things I found for you to play with this weekend!  Don’t put them in your mouth, you don’t know where they’ve been.

J. is a huge Muppet fan (this may be the grossest understatement of the century).  I am too, but my love is as peanuts compared to his.  I have never seen him turn into a shrieking little boy but for once, in the Smithsonian Museum of American History looking at a case filled with Henson’s original creations.  But I digress.  In addition to the Muppets proper, we were both raised on Sesame Street and have fond memories of the monsters who rehearsed the ABC’s with us.  Grover was my favorite, but Elmo seems to be the universal beloved.  You’d never guess how the man behind him came to be – which is why anyone who loved the red furry beast should check out the documentary Being Elmo: A Puppeteer’s Journey.  J. and I watched it the other night and I admit my eyes watered.  (We watched it on Independent Lens, and although it’s not available on the website yet, it may be soon.  Otherwise, Netflix this sucker!)

Here, more fun and pretty baubles for you to look at.  I am particularly coveting this bag.  Minions should remember my birthday is fast approaching… ahem!

I hoarded books from a young age, and even as a kid I remember loving some books for no other reason than their illustrations.  Here are some of the most beloved children’s book illustrators according to flavorwire.    Gustave Doré,  and Ivan Bilibin are illustrators whose work I remember from my childhood, though I had no idea who they were then.  Virginia Frances Sterret is someone I need to look into more.

This is a link originally passed on to me by Peregrine, who always manages to find some of the best articles out there.  I’ve been having more than usually strong wander lust twitches lately (it’s been made exponentially worse with J. in London, I’ve planned all sorts of imaginary weekend getaways!), and I’ll add walking across Provence to the list.

The great change is…not upon me for several years yet…but lately my skin has been going through a mid-20’s change.  Suddenly blemishes have been turning up where there never were before – not even during puberty!  This has been obnoxious as I’ve always been rather fond of my good skin, it’s the pride of my dermatologist, but as always there are cures.  I’ve discovered this.  It’s fantastic.

Tumblr find of the week.  The best part?  She submitted one of her own! (Edited to add: like all good things, as soon as I find it, it goes away.  I have the same effect on certain brands and cuts of work trousers.  Alas!  Luckily Facebook is helping keep this glorious thing alive.)

Never would do it.  Gotta respect it.

Study up, ladies, miscommunication kills relationships.

Oh dear.  Oh dear.  I have a sudden, almost uncontrollable urge to take this on my next international flight.  Oh dear…

Ha!  Anything done “in the Flemish style” is going to be fun!

The weekly sheep.

Humor, Life, Sad

Not Just Your Grandmother’s War Slogan

“Most of life is routine – dull and grubby, but routine is the momentum that keeps a man going.”
– Ben Nicholas

I’ve always found post-tragedy a bit surreal.  Somehow, in spite of the calamity that has just taken place and probably changed your life forever, the world just keeps on going.  People still need to eat, sleep, work, and go about day to day tasks, you can’t just check out.  After the typhoons, the damage needs to be cleaned up.  After the earthquake, pictures need to be rehung.

Life goes on.

Weird.

It’s hopelessly British, but the stiff upper lip is a lifesaver, kittens.  There is nothing to keep you going through a tough slog, or helpful when your nearest and dearest are slogging along their own troubles, like routine.

What small things keep you going when Stuff Happens, m’dears?  Nothing is insignificant.

Family, Friends, Life, Sad

Troubles

  “No man is an island entire of itself; every man
is a piece of the continent, a part of the main;
if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe
is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as
well as a manor of thy friends or of thine
own were; any man’s death diminishes me,
because I am involved in mankind.
And therefore never send to know for whom
the bell tolls; it tolls for thee”
– John Donne

Life can get a bit overwhelming, darlings, even when you’re a few degrees removed, so please indulge.

Sav lost her brother over the Christmas holiday.

Lizzie is getting divorced.

Marie’s health is still shaky from her pancreatic attacks and other car accident health residue, plus a few family issues, and separation from her own husband for 3 months as he goes through job training.  She’s looking at another surgery soon.

Worst of all, one of Margot’s dear friends ended her life Saturday night.  We’ve tried to help as best we can, Margot in particular has been feeding people, soothing, and being a true lady of mercy, but she’s hurting too.

Troubles do not play favorites, and no one is immune.  Please keep these friends of mine, as well as your own in your thoughts, my dears, and take them time to help a friend out today.  We all know someone who’s hurting or needs just a bit of encouragement (and we very well may be that person!), so let’s do a bit extra to take care of one another.

Humor, Life, Money

Le Sigh

“I don’t have pet peeves.  I have whole kennels of irritation.”
– Whoopi Goldberg

I have been home and back at work for only two days, but I am already in the tiniest, littlest, most miniscule fight with the cosmos.  It’s a small thing really: just our car needing $600 worth of repairs.  This is the same car that required $1500 this past September.  I’ve retaliated like a grownup – dramatically glaring at my bank account and (continuing to) refuse to unpack my suitcase, but for essentials, until the weekend.

All I can say, darlings, is that it’s a bloody good thing my vacation was so relaxing because if it had not been, Aunty C. might be in a bit of a strop.  And we wouldn’t want that, would we, universe?

Family, Friends, Humor, Husband, Life, London, Weekend

Rest, Recovery, and Salt in the Wound

“Seriously.  I had to schedule a breakdown, and then I had to cut it short!”
– C.

Minions, I have neglected you.  But last Friday the world sort of stopped.  I was stressed, I was tired, I was anxious, I was overwhelmed, and I literally worried myself sick.  I went home early on Friday and spent some time in bed.

Of course, I had only a limited amount of time to recover from the vapors because I had stuff to do.  Saturday I had a wedding (in addition to Venice’s birthday) and errands to run, Sunday was dinner at my godparents’ house (a 4 hour event at least) after which I had to dash home and make appetizers for… Monday after work, Sadie and Pieter had a Honey Do couples shower.  Classic me, I made it all the way to GS’s house before I realized I’d forgotten the food in my fridge.

But health, good-humor, and cheerfulness have begun to return, and so, updates.  Margot landed a full time teaching job (no small prize in this economy), Marie’s husband also got a job back East, Hambone had her baby boy, my sister-in-law had a dry run for her future lung transplant and got an emergency plan in place (still scary, but less so now), Dad, Venice, and J. all got older, and J. is going to Les Miserables tonight, staring Alfie Boe.

You know, the one who managed to stand out among these guys:

Wait.  I’m sad again…

Humor, Life, Weekend, Work

Attempting to Rehabilitate

“Laughter and tears are both responses to frustration and exhaustion. I myself prefer to laugh, since there is less cleaning up to do afterward.”
– Kurt Vonnegut

Possums, I have abandoned you lately and I prostrate myself before you begging forgiveness.

By way of explanation, two weekends ago we went hiking in canyon country and I managed to roll one ankle, strain the opposite calf, and capped off the whole performance by blacking out – which was a peculiar experience.  Angel moved to Hawaii and therefore a last hurrah was in order.  All last week, you may recall, I was swamped with work, and this past weekend was spent with J.’s family as a sister and brother-in-law were in town and nieces and nephews must be played with!

Also, we are officially in crunch time.  J. heads off in three and a half weeks and life just got the tiniest bit hectic.  We had to get him a new suit plus fittings.  We just bought my ticket home (boo!) in addition to tickets to the East Coast (as the original plan was to drive out there, but that was scuppered pretty finally).  We have to register the car for this year (more money), store all of our books and fine china, and try to find J. a place to live in London.

In other words, I’m stressed, tired, not sleeping well, and getting obsessive compulsive about some really ridiculous things.  More on that later.  In the meantime I have a tic in my right eye, an odd twitch in my leg muscle, and apparently I’ve started grinding my teeth in my sleep.  Send something distractive my way, please?  Update me on your life and times!

Friends, Humor, Life, London, University, Work

Brief Dispatches

“I hope I didn’t bore you too much with my life story.”
– Elvis Presley

Some of my friends seem to have gone completely round the twist lately, and not one has been able to satisfactorily explain their strange, sad, pathological, or just flat out bizarre behavior.  I’m baffled, kittens.

Dear police officers who have had all year to complete 40 hours worth of training: no sympathy.  I’ve sent you quarterly updates of your training records and multiple emails this month alone reminding you that I’m turning everything in at the end of the week, your sob stories about how you never knew you were 39 hours short will not fly here.

Sweet merciful chocolate, J. starts grad school three months from tomorrow!

Sweet merciful chocolate on a stick, we still have so much to do…

I have stayed up late every night for a week now, in a unprecedented attempt to prove that I am not a dull, matronly, boring old married woman at 25.  The net result is that I’m near psychotic from sleep deprivation and have never used so much  concealer in my life.  I r adult now, k thnx bai.

We are smack in the middle of the busiest work week of the year preceding the busiest work day of the year, the 4th of July (which includes but is not limited to VIP performers, parades, marathons and 5ks, street festivals, massive firework displays, and the gradual wearing down of any and all patriotic feelings on the part of our department staff as we deal with screaming children, patrons livid with the parking situation, traffic accidents, any amount of petty crime, and 48 hour work days).

My birthday just keeps on going!  Celebrating it with various friends and family took up about a week and I milked every day of it (Can’t do the laundry, it’s my birthday!  Can’t save that baby from the pack of roaming wolves terrorizing that burning building that was started by the earthquake, it’s my birthday!).  Last night I got the probable last of my belated birthday present…just in time for my anniversary on Friday!

Seriously…I’m so tired right now…  Ladies from the parish are coming by this evening, I should probably clean the flat and not take a nap.  But…

Visa applications can be submitted starting tomorrow, but they probably won’t be completed seeing as I have to be at work until 9pm prepping for the dratted 4th of July.  Freaking colonists and their freaking independence…

Oh dear, do I have anything for dinner?

We’re really moving in just about 2 months.  Please hand me that paperbag and ignore any sounds of angst that may escape my muffled mouth.

We’re really moving in 2 months.  London!

Friends, Humor, Life

A Typical Atypical Thursday Evening
It is one of the blessings of old friends that you can afford to be stupid with them.
-Ralph Waldo Emerson
I did a weekend soundoff a while back, but even with my assortment of friends (the lot of which easily form the Who’s Who of intriguing people) this was a bit much for a weeknight.  While on the way to see a friend starring in another play, the following sentence was uttered verbatim:
“So.  Margot.  There you were in a strange city staying with a toxic couple who have gotten drunk and the wife – who is currently having an affair with a French street performer named Andre – is starting to come on to you in a desperate bid to end her marriage…what do you do now?”
Yes, there is a story behind this.  All true.  Sadly, it’s not mine to tell.  Some of my single friends wonder why I like to stay home most weekends these days, I just can’t keep up!
Humor, Life

Cat. Nap.

Sleeping is no mean art:  for its sake one must stay awake all day.  ~Friedrich Nietzsche

I unabashedly spent the three day weekend on the sofa bundled in a blanket, napping cat-like in a sunbeam, and watching PBS documentaries.  I only pried myself up to drive up north with J. to see a visiting dear friend, and yesterday to go get some much needed Indian food.  Then it was straight back to the sofa because I was worn out.  I should have cooked, cleaned, or done laundry, but I didn’t.

There is something about this time of year that makes me tired, not to say exhausted.  I feel sluggish and snappish – though, thank heaven, not depressed.  To boil it down, I feel like I need to hibernate and a nefarious someone or something is stopping me.  Jerk.

Humor, Life, Work, Working Out

A Long Winter’s Nap…Please?

“Laughter and tears are both responses to frustration and exhaustion… I myself prefer to laugh, since there is less cleaning up to do afterward.”
– Kurt Vonnegut

My doves!  My beloveds!  My fuzziest of chinchillas, and cuddliest of kittens!  I have neglected you again and I throw myself on your mercy with an account of what exactly has been going on, that you will be more inclined to forgive my hideous inattention thereby.

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Last week was the first week of the new term and I was chained to my desk hiring and firing a double handful of students, and sending off about a million reports to various people and agencies.  Wise had her baby two weeks early, throwing Hennessy, Susie, and myself into a frenzy of reassigning duties, taking on new responsibilities, and (naturally) visiting the new baby.  Susie then threw herself onto the new year’s budget and has not emerged yet.  I’ve been working on projects with the investigators on a series of bizarre cases (drug addictions, bookstore thefts, and a mother who thinks her daughter is dating a murderer.  She’s not, by the way) and helping with a few projects to prep for an upcoming VIP visit.  Also a major art exhibition took up residence in our museum requiring an unbelievable amount of work.

I started working out again – in advance of the obligatory New Year gang bang of guilt, thank you very much – and my body is punishing me.  P90X yoga is not for the faint hearted, I can barely make it through the whole session without swearing/crying/having to be physically dragged away from leftover Christmas candy by J.

This week I have been enjoying being slowly consumed alive by paperwork, a couple of work scandals that I found particularly demoralizing, and good old fashioned exhaustion.  My sense of humor took a bit of a beating yesterday, but it’s nursing it’s bruises and we hope to be a full functioning snark capacity soon.

And you, ducklings?  How has the start of the year been treating you?