Introspection, hearing loss, and everyday life.
This was front page news in the Williston Observer today. I don’t think I’ve ever laughed so hard while reading a newspaper. I’m going to miss this town. (For those of you who do not know, the sign in the first picture is referring to an actual Vermont Lt. Governor whose last name really is Dubie.)
Mar 31st 2005Uncategorized
Steve is recovering from some kind of bug. It hit unexpectedly on Easter Sunday. After puking into the toilet (Happy Easter to you too!), there was one very specific course of action. There is only one thing for a sick man to do when he is shivering from chills, fever, body aches and waves of nausea. These specific steps are not to be questioned.
The sick man shuffles over to the TV, and retrieves Star Wars and wordlessly hands it to his wife. He crawls under the bed covers as his wife puts it into the DVD and the sick man watches The Empire Strikes Back. The wife is to watch it with him and stroke his head. I also made chicken soup and jello. Then my body killed the bug dead so that I don’t even get sick. I haven’t been sick in so long I almost WISH I could be sick.
We have accepted an offer on our place! The catch is that we have to wait for their place to sell. So there is still waiting involved and I can’t flip out with excitement about going to live in our new house yet, but we’re a step closer.
We haven’t had to clean for two days and our place has instantly morphed into piles of clutter in every room. I don’t know how we do it, it’s a talent. I’m personally a little proud of it and will leave my dirty dishes in the sink with a feeling of satisfaction. That’s right, can’t make me clean it anytime soon. I don’t have to hide the junk mail under the couch anymore either and it is allowed to spread across countertops with a low sinister chuckle.
I have been running again and as I pass through the village it is the only time I think I will miss this place. While training for the marathon and then the half marathon, I have pounded these roads and hills countless times. I thought hard and ran hard, and pushed my limits. This ties me to this piece of earth in a way more powerful and intimate than any other way. I would not know this area like I do if I had merely driven or walked through it.
Now when I run, I feel the impending move and how it will pull me away from here. I will be in an entirely new community, halfway between Burlington and Saint Albans. When we move, I can’t wait to run these new perimeters of home.
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Mar 29th 2005Uncategorized
The moon is amazing tonight, and looked immense as it came up behind the hill out back. Of course my camera could not capture a decent shot. I photoshopped it with the watercolor feature.
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Mar 25th 2005Uncategorized
I don’t know why, but the commercialism of Easter is particularly obnoxious and sickening this year. Bunnies and sugary candy and pastel colored eggs. Ugh.
One of the best natural mood enhancers on this earth has to be spring in Vermont. I see and feel with the appreciation of someone experiencing the warmth of sunlight and blue sky and ice-free pavement for the first time. My body is flooded with joy. The smell of earth makes me weak in the knees. I love this time. By the end of May, I will be taking it all for granted again. We must first be deprived before we can truly appreciate with wonder. This is authentic Easter to me.
The sun is also rising earlier and when I drive to work there is a brightness in the sky that was not there before. I can see the fields and trees when it was pitch blackness before. After 8 months of getting up before the sun 5 days a week, this feels like a vindication, a sign that says you survived. For the rest of my life I will look back and shake my head in disbelief (like everyone else does now when they ask if I’m still working there) at how I did this. I will see it through to the end.
I’m kinda proud of myself.
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Mar 24th 2005Uncategorized
Dear Michael Vaughn,
I cried when you were drowning at the end of Season 1 on DVD and Sydney couldn’t break the door down. I might have had two glasses of wine at that point, but is that relevant? I shed real tears. I just want to say that you can be my ‘handler’ ANYTIME.
Sincerely, Sarah
PS- Steve doesn’t like you as much.
We are waiting with bated breath while a couple think about making an offer on our place. In the meantime people continue to come look at it and we have to CLEAN EVERY DAMN DAY. I am wondering what more I can do to make this place appeal to people. I wonder if I should take this sign off our bathroom door… I don’t think I will just yet.
It’s another beautiful day. This time I really WILL go for a run.
Mar 22nd 2005Uncategorized
The Mist Grill in Waterbury is my favorite place in the whole world for brunch. There were three showings on our place between 11 and 2, so we went to kill some time. Not that I ever really need an excuse to go eat at the Mist Grill. The restaurant is a converted 19th century mill and the waterfall still roars out back. I really cannot adequately describe the atmosphere. There are wooden beams and posts and stone walls and old tea kettles and diningware.
My favorite part about the Mist Grill is that none of the tables or chairs match. Your food is brought out to you on a plate that is completely different from the person next to you and you eat with a jumbled collection of silverware. I never get the same kind of coffee cup when I’m there. This morning my coffee mug had alligators on it and it said “Florida”. Steve’s coffee mug had an artistic design on it.
I ordered an omelete with apples, red onion, and cheddar, which was fantastic. Steve ordered a seemingly ordinary brunch item- french toast. When the french toast arrived, I was amazed how they managed to make even french toast look artistic and out of this world. It was sliced baguettes with maple brulee on top. Watching Steve enjoy his meal and then bask in the afterglow of delectable ecstasy was perhaps the funniest thing I’ve ever seen.
“We could make that,” I said. “A baguette, eggs, butter…”
“And maple brulee,” Steve moaned.
“Yeah, we can figure out how to make that.”
“No, we couldn’t make it as good,” Steve said. “They grind the booties of 17-year-old pop stars and mix it in to make it this sweet here.”
We snicker into our coffee. I wonder if the people at the next table heard us.
“This should have been your last meal.”
Steve nods in agreement and pretends to stab himself with his spoon and says with a british accent, “Because it’s dull, you twit. It’ll hurt more.”
He sits back in contentment. “I can feel it basking in my stomach, a golden maply glow.”
“Just wait until it comes out.”
He nods, “It will be a golden poop. There will be negotiable currency in there.”
We snicker some more. I notice that the dining area is getting rather empty.
After that we went and saw The Ring 2. Eh. Why not make it pretty much like the first one, except have it make no sense and throw in a bunch of stags? Oh and a stereotype of psychiatrists who are pompous and insensitive? I still appreciate though, this new genre of horror movies where there is no blood and it is not a gorefest. It’s just creepy, not gross.
Another sunny day here where the temperatures in the mid-40s feels incredibly warm. Maybe I’ll go for a run.
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Mar 20th 2005Uncategorized
Armed and fabulous.
Armed… and fabulous.
I’m afraid I may have to go see that movie. I am also feeling piqued about going to see The Ring 2 in the same manner that I feel about skydiving or getting a tattoo on my ass. It just has to be done. The Ring was by far the scariest movie I have ever seen and thrilled my senses in the way that I like, even though it means I have a bad post-scary movie hangover and lie in bed imagining the horrible girl from the well standing at the bedroom door. I will also memorize certain lines and facial expressions from the movie and use them on Steve when he least expects it.
He likes that.
Yesterday I developed a very specific craving. I wanted those biscuits that have one side dipped in chocolate. When I lived in Wales, I used to eat them by the sleeve. They were called Hob Nobs I think. I went to the “culture aisle” at Shaw’s and found a sleeve of biscuits with one side covered in chocolate on the “British” shelf, next to the “Mexican” shelf. They were called “Chocolate Digestives”. How lovely, I’ll have some chocolate digestives. Right, then. Pick up those digestive crumbs you’re dropping everywhere, you cow, I haven’t got a hoover.
Happily, it is Friday night and I also have next week off from the internship site. Maybe we’ll get an offer on our place this weekend, cross your fingers for me.
Mar 18th 2005Uncategorized
I can’t get the title to the movie “Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous” out of my head. Armed and fabulous.
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Mar 17th 2005I Peeved When
Note to self: never buy cheap cat litter. Never buy a 40 pound bag for $6.99. Always get the quality cat litter.
Mimi smartypants is one of my favorite blogs. Her writing is phenomenal and I love her sense of humor. I discovered it fairly recently, so sometimes I go back and read old entries, one after another. But then, gradually, as I sit there taken by all the brilliance and quirkiness, a yucky feeling begins to creep over me. I have to stop and go upstairs and change my outfit or something. From now on I just have to read Mimi in small doses.
This is the same feeling I have when someone brings up in conversation their superior SAT score that they obtained while hungover. I don’t want to talk about the SATs, ever. MATH IS NOT MY STRONG SUIT OK? I get this same feeling when someone says with contempt “Who actually studied in high school?” because they breezed through without cracking a book. Then I feel really lame about my 97 average and getting a “5″ on my AP Biology and Literature exams because yes, I actually studied in high school. The same goes to people who talk about how much money they make. I only tolerate that conversation with family members. Anyone else can SAVE IT for the other couples who are on the same luxury vacation as they are.
I get a strong feeling that if I ever hung out with the likes of Mimi smartypants (maybe I already do!), I would be the worst kind of idiot. The kind who is so uncultured and uneducated that SHE DOESN’T EVEN KNOW IT, meanwhile the others around her are secretly contemptuous and patronizing. I do not have quick wit and banter. I am entertained by television and movies and do not read real literature. I really do want to read real literature, if I can just find it. I wish Mimi smartypants would compile a Must Read book list. Mimi is rather contemptuous of her own blog and often makes the point that despite the fact that it has been published as a book, it is merely like old discarded grocery lists to her. Old grocery lists!
I know that these are my own insecurities, and it usually says more about me than anyone else when I am reactive to something. I also have to agree that people who are that smart are entitled to a certain smugness because everyone else under the bell curve generally is unbelievably ignorant, annoying, and easily manipulated. If you are really smart, however, I can easily pick that up without it being brought up in conversation in subtle ways while using “that” tone, thanks!
I need to go put on a different top.
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Mar 17th 2005Uncategorized