Virginia Davises

Escapism

2012-01-24T07:58:00.000-08:00

Remember that time we drove up into the hills outside your hometown? I wanted to get out of the house and see the countryside. We drove and drove and the houses got sparser and we both knew our goal was the field of windmills that peeked above the edge of the yellow hill like the Great Birnam Wood coming toward us.

Remember how it got dark and we turned around? And we were home for dinner and you sat and talked and ate the potatoes and I flew across the yellow grass between the dust of the hills and the dust of the stars singing a wild song of sage and freedom.

Remember that time? I want to get out of the house and see the countryside. Will you join me, Sancho, in my great quest? Will you sit in the driver's seat and smile bemusedly and turn obediently and patiently facilitate the logistics of my impossible dream? Will you temper my whimsy with your incorrigible reason and thoroughly enjoy yourself? I will conquer the world for you.

"We got gas, we got rugs, we got crazy asian food" or, Best Saturday Ever

2012-01-14T21:13:00.001-08:00

Today we left the house intending to go to the bank and the grocery store.

The bank was closed.

Then the gas light came on.

We stopped for gas.

While we sat there, we watched a man standing on top of a truck, waving a sign advertising the closeout sale of a home goods/rug store that was going out of business.

We've been needing some rugs.

We went in.

We came out approximately 1.5 hours later with two (2) rugs. Two gorgeous, wool, oriental rugs. Two gorgeous wool oriental rugs for 85% off. Mmmmm.

Thinking the day had already reached it's pinnacle, we went grocery shopping.

We were wrong.

The day got better.

The new grocery store we tried was
1) tiny
2) kind of dirty
3) extremely crowded
4) extremely crowded predominantly with Asian people
5) also Mexicans
6) also way too many shopping carts
7) also Asian and Mexican foods
8) also REALLY CHEAP REALLY CHEAP meat and produce
9) also live lobsters
10) also durian. It was frozen. If you don't know why it is better for durian to be frozen, keep it that way.
11) also Indian food brands that brought back memories for one of us.

Then we went home.

Then tonight we got Nielsen's Frozen Custard.

It's going to be hard to beat this next week. Especially because next week probably involves cleaning out the storage room I mean second bedroom.

Today is the best day anyway

2011-12-14T06:44:00.001-08:00

I have a paper to write and a test to study for, but I'm EATING HALF AND HALF ON MY CHEERIOS. Oh, yum.

You should be studying

2011-12-08T12:53:00.000-08:00

You know what my problem with community college is? There's no finals week and no testing center. Geez, next I'll be missing the centipedes in our last apartment. That's nostalgia for you.

Anyway, having no testing center means I can't go take my test whenever I feel ready. It means I have to wait. And put off studying until the day before, so I can remember any of it. It means my tests hang over me and hang over me and hang over me until I want to run away, except, oh yeah, I can't run very far.

And lately, this feeling has led to the urge to sing. Christmas songs? I should be so classy. Nope, drinking songs.

I don't drink.

And not any classic Gaudeamus Igitur, either. Country drinking songs.

But just try this for me: channel all the rebellion you didn't use in college, and pump your fist in the air while singing "after... THREE ROUNDS with Jose Cuervo..." along with Tracy Byrd.

Don't you feel better?

If not, you will after you watch this:

So true. I'm dying.

When you have to let go of your ideals in order to not be a fatty

2011-12-08T12:33:00.000-08:00

I'm not a raw-food dieter (not even organic). I don't intend to someday give birth with a hypnosis and a doula. I shave my legs.

But that doesn't mean I don't have ideals, and I DO think that, to a point, the more natural something is, the better.

FOR EXAMPLE: fresh veggies over french fries, gardens and chickens and open space over inner city food deserts, used paperbacks over kindles, road runs over gyms.

Recently, my kindle has won me over with its handiness. I concede on that one count.

HOWEVER. I just got back from a road run, and I'm sorry to say I'm conceding there, too. It's time to sign the armistice, general. I'm done. Done done done. Because compared to finding myself on a strange street on a freezing cold afternoon when my stomach hurts and I'm about a million sluggish, jolting strides from home, a kindle plus a treadmill is magic. Magic, I tell you.

Reading "The Happiness Project" must be rubbing off on me.

2011-11-19T09:19:00.001-08:00

I was reminiscing just now about some things that ordinarily make me feel nostalgic, but today? They didn't. I'm glad my life went the way it did. I'm glad it's going the way it's going. There are things that I used to be and do and people I used to know that I miss, but overall?

I LIKE studying microbiology all day on a Saturday. Because I LIKE microbiology. It's interesting.

I LIKE sitting at the kitchen table listening to Chris LeDoux radio on Pandora (why does country always say what I'm feeling when I can't? This feeling I'm having right now is being echoed by Jamey Johnson and Blue County), eating cold pizza and staring out the window at the bright red tree across the street.

I LIKE looking at our living room and imagining what it would look like if we had curtains and a rug and pictures on the walls. When we have those things, the imagining fun will be over.

I LIKE living with Colby in this tiny apartment outside the huge capital of this huge country.

I LIKE getting up early to work out, I LIKE reading on the treadmill, I LIKE planning Christmas presents for the whole family.

I LIKE where I am and I LIKE what's coming. Whatever it is.

I just finished reading some intense fantasy books, and you know? I couldn't wait to be done. Real life is so wonderful that I can't see why you need to add anything to make an interesting story.

Turns out we do stuff

2011-11-07T07:00:00.001-08:00

Quelle surprise!

I mean, besides watching (and apparently becoming obsessed with) movies based on absurd Gothic novels.

We did a mud run. We feel very pleased with ourselves. It was the number one coldest day of my life to date, a record I hope never to surpass (let it be known that we swam across a lake). We are covered with bruises, and have between us one skinned knee and one skinned hand. Our muscles hurt all over. We think ourselves to be VERY HARDCORE. Observe:

Before.

See that cargo net we are about to climb over?

Almost done.

There was a mud pit at the end.

In the process of skinning my knee.

Running it in.

Crossing the finish line!

We also got extremely cool t-shirts. I am now canceling out all the coolness by wearing mine today, when I obviously just got it and am too proud of myself not to show it off. I don't care. RESPECT ME.

The Davis family is growing!

2011-11-07T07:00:00.000-08:00

Haha, not THAT way. Geez.

We bought another car! Now all we need is 2.5 children and a dog, and we're the average American household! One step closer.

We also moved.

2011-11-07T06:59:00.000-08:00

Pictures pending. But, big deal, right??

Teaches me to watch Masterpiece Theater

2011-09-01T21:10:00.000-07:00

I watched Wuthering Heights last night. It was a bit longer than I expected. I watched it far into the night.

Colby is out of town this week. These things are related.

I've never actually read the book, and now I can't stop thinking about the movie. I can't decide if I liked it or not.

It was way creepier than I expected.

It was a WAY better love story than I expected.

I'm a bit confused as to why it didn't totally disgust me, not being one for gothic romances (Bella Swan, eat your heart out).

I love the fact that something drew me into the love story so that even though it was dark and creepy, and even though they were kind of perfectly awful people, I didn't realize it and I didn't think about it, I just wanted them to be together. (It's possible that this has nothing to do with the movie and everything to do with PMSing-while-apart-from-husband, but I'm not sure.)

Why was their love so moving?

Why can't I stop thinking about it?

Why was Heathcliff's final demise so fitting? It gave the whole thing a really haunting grace and beauty.

Anyway, I kind of loved it. I think I need to read the book.

2011-07-24T07:57:00.001-07:00

I wasn't sure which was more demeaning - that the neighbor woman I'd never met came BACK to the house to ask me Do you babysit, or that while I reluctantly scribbled my phone number on a piece of scratch paper that I hoped she'd lose on the way home she thought she'd start a polite conversation with So, are you in high school.

There was a pause. Deciding an angry outburst wouldn't be justified, I went with

Um, no ma'am.

(look of disgust)

I'm starting a POST-GRADUATE PROGRAM in the fall.

My HUSBAND AND I moved here last year.

(further look of disgust)

All I want is to be recognized as a legitimate adult. So far, my four years of university training, my bachelor's degree, my address on the East Coast and my wedding ring don't seem to be enough. Do you think it would help if I wore a sign?

I'll never be your peer if you see me as the high schooler who is always available to babysit your kids. Principally because I'm not in high school.

And also?

I hate babystting.

One woman show

2011-06-04T18:07:00.000-07:00

Do you ever have a sudden vision, while in a public place (usually a store of some kind) of yourself in a musical that takes place in that store? And actually you are the only person in the musical? And you are singing at the top of your lungs, really belting it out, and dancing and spinning down the aisles? And then that vision turns into an uncontrollable urge? This has happened to me 3 times this week. So far.

What do you do when this happens?

Oh, this never happens to you?

Never mind.

Working in a bookstore

2011-06-02T08:05:00.000-07:00

For a reader, working in a bookstore can be a little overwhelming. I can't tell you how many times I've made a mental note to "come back and look at that" on my break, and then built up so many they all blend together into a vague fog of Books I Should Read.

I found this quote in a book I've been enjoying recently, and it describes my feelings perfectly.

In the shop window you have promptly identified the cover with the title you were looking for. Following this visual trail, you have forced your way through the shop past the thick barricade of Books You Haven't Read, which were frowning at you from the tables and shelves, trying to cow you. But you know you must never allow yourself to be awed, that among them there extend for acres the Books You Needn't Read, the Books Made For Purposes Other Than Reading, Books Read Even Before You Open Them Since They Belong To The Category Of Books Read Before Being Written. And thus you pass the outer girdle of ramparts, but then you are attacked by the infantry of the Books That If You Had More Than One Life You Would Certainly Also Read But Unfortunately Your Days Are Numbered. With a rapid maneuver you bypass them and move into the phalanxes of the Books You Mean To Read But There Are Others You Must Read First, then Books Too Expensive Now And You'll Wait Till They're Remaindered, the Books ditto When They Come Out In Paperback, Books You Can Borrow From Somebody, Books That Everybody's Read So It's As If You Had Read Them, Too. Eluding these assaults, you come up beneath the towers of the fortress, where other troops are holding out:

the Books You've Been Planning To Read For Ages,

the Books You've Been Hunting For Years Without Success,

the Books Dealing With Something You're Working On At The Moment,

the Books You Want To Own So They'll Be Handy Just In Case,

the Books You Could Put Aside Maybe To Read This Summer,

the Books You Need To Go With Other Books On Your Shelves,

the Books That Fill You With Sudden, Inexplicable Curiosity, Not Easily Justified.

Now you have been able to reduce the countless embattled troops to an array that is, to be sure, very large but still calculable in a finite number, but this relative relief is then undermined by the ambush of the Books Read Long Ago Which It's Now Time To Reread and the Books You've Always Pretended To Have Read And Now It's Time To Sit Down And Really Read Them.

With a zigzag dash you shake them of and leap straight into the citadel of the New Books Whose Author Or Subject Appeals To You. Even inside this stronghold you can make some breaches in the ranks of the defenders dividing them into New Books By Authors Or On Subjects Now New (for you or in general) and New Books By Authors Or On Subjects Completely Unknown (at least to you), and defining the attraction they have for you on the basis of your desires and needs for the new and and the not new (for the new you seek in the not new and for the not new you seek in the new).

All this simply means that, having rapidly glanced over the titles of the volumes displayed in the bookshop, you have turned toward a stack of If on a winter's night a traveller fresh off the press, you have grasped a copy, and you have carried it to the cashier so that your right to own it can be established.

You cast another bewildered look at the books around you (or rather: it was the books that looked at you, with the bewildered gaze of dogs who, from their cages in the city pound, see a former companion go off on the leash of his master, come to rescue him), and out you went."

(If on a Winter's Night a Traveller, by Italo Calvino, p.4-6)

Story of the week

2011-05-23T09:39:00.000-07:00

Possibly the best story of my life. Note: I live in suburbia, and previous to this story, I had believed - in the innocent, naive way most kids believe in Santa - in zoning laws.

Last Monday I went for a run and (do you like how I snuck that in there? I’m so fit, and stuff. No actually, it’s part of the story) I ran past this house and there was a lady sitting on the porch, in a patio chair. And there was also this large animal with her. I thought it was a big dog. It wasn’t a dog. When I got closer I saw that it was actually a huge PIG. A HUGE PIG. It wasn't this big, but it was big. I wanted so desperately to stop and just stare at it for a while, but I was running and the lady was sitting right there and it would have been just super obvious and awkward. Okay, I’ve heard of people having pigs for house pets, but little black ones, not fatty spotted pink ones. And somehow having a little black pig was weird, but still okay. This one was – think Wilbur. All he needed was a spider to weave a web over him that said “Some Pig!” and he for sure could have taken first place in the Fairfax county 4H competition at the county fair. Just huge, and fleshy, and pink.

THE END.

Things that are great about Mothers' Day

2011-05-08T15:58:00.000-07:00

1. It is a wonderful time to be grateful for our mothers, and the mother figures in our lives.

2. And for maybe-someday-mothers, like me, to freeload on all the gratitude, plus all the free gifts in Relief Society. Best day ever.

3. Also, small children always sing in church and I cry and wish I was their mother, which brings me to

4. I conveniently forget how much I hate babysitting and the fact that I can't even keep plants alive.

5. Surly teenage boys give really sincere talks about their mothers in church.

6. There's nothing like hearing 12 year old deacons use the phrase "the anchor in my life" and this rarely happens apart from today.

6. Also, Colby is doing the dishes. Thanks! (See #2).

p.s. I love you, Mom!!

Hurrah for the life of the farmer!

2011-04-15T16:28:00.000-07:00

Today I planted a garden. It is housed in one sterilite box, two window boxes, a cleaning bucket, a plastic pot and a sawed-off milk jug. It will (hopefully) grow green beans, beets, lettuce, spinach, basil, rosemary, cilantro and potatoes (?) maybe. As far as flowers: cosmos, alyssum, and lavender (?) maybe. (Can you tell from the maybes that this is an experiment? The lavender is a maybe because it turns out it's a perennial and usually doesn't bloom until the second year. So it's maybe the lavender will still be alive next year. And the potatoes are a maybe because we weren't really planning on growing them, and I don't really know how beyond just googling it, but then I discovered that we had several shriveled up, sprouted potatoes which turned out to be at the perfect stage to plant, so I put them in the dirt. We'll see.)

Also, I'm growing a ton of wheatgrass! When I told my sister, she said, "Ew, you're not going to eat it, are you?" Answer: no. Don't worry. But it's super easy to grow, and cute and decorative for spring (some examples here.) The young women had an activity in which they planted wheatgrass, and (bonus of being assistant beehive advisor!!) that's where I learned about it. I'm so excited. I have one teeny pot and five little tin cans growing wheatgrass now, and if nothing else, it'll make a cute Easter centerpiece.

The thing I always forget is that while it's super exciting to plant a garden at the beginning, it ends up mostly just being an exercise in patience. So I'm off to the waiting place. (Where, as it turns out, I am ALSO waiting for my hair to grow!)

Childcare

2011-03-26T11:10:00.000-07:00

I spend a lot of my time these days babysitting. This is sometimes good, and sometimes not. Anyone who knew me in high school, or college, or actually now, knows my feelings toward babysitting - and the extensive list of things I'd rather do or have done to me. But the babysitting I'm doing now isn't so bad. Most of the time, I really enjoy it. Here are some reasons why:

-I go by "Ria" or "Berina," depending on the day. Who knew "Maria" was such a difficult word for little kids to say?

-I am a regular at McDonalds. I've always wanted to be a regular somewhere, but I have to say McDonalds didn't really top my list. The lady who works afternoons at the drive through smiled at me knowingly a couple of weeks ago and asked me how I was. If that's not a sign, I don't know what is.

I also have the greatest conversations with the kids.

Him: "You can't fly?" Me: "Nope." Him: "You need some pixie dust." Me: "So true."

Me: "What's your favorite animal?" Her: "A panda bear. You know where you can hug one? China. It helps them fall asleep." I wasn't sure if I should warn her against actually attempting to hug a panda, or just let it go.

We recently spent a whole week of babysitting 3 kids, and fortunately (and contrary to my fears at the outset) we finished up feeling like we could still have children someday. Hooray!

An Open Letter to my Dentist

2011-03-09T05:25:00.000-08:00

Dear Dr. I,

I am very sorry that I cry at every appointment, causing you and all your staff eye me warily the minute I come in like I'm some kind of fierce wild animal trapped in a dentist chair. I'm sorry that I roll my eyes at you, grimace, and talk back to you. It's how I handle fear. I'm sorry I keep my ipod in at all times and don't listen when you tell me to open my mouth wider. I need something to distract me from the ordeal; I hope you understand. Also, I just can't open my mouth that wide. I'm sorry I got mad at you for hurting me when you were just trying to clean my teeth. I am, however, still mad at you for giving me a shot in the roof of my mouth without warning. That hurt BAD and I don't regret trying to paw it out of your hand before I realized what was going on. I'm also still mad at you for not finishing what you started. Stuffing my cavity with what feels like already-chewed gum and telling me to come back in two weeks is not what I pay you for. Also, you might try believing me when I tell you things. It's my mouth, after all.

I'm sorry I keep changing my mind about orthodontia; but don't worry, I'll stop changing my mind as soon as you stop changing the price. I'm sorry I am usually rude to the very kind ladies that work in your office. I'm sorry I hate you so much -- I hope it's not too obvious. It's just that there's something about the powder from my own enamel filling the air that makes me want to bite your hand.

So I guess I'm trying to say thanks for fixing my teeth. I just wanted to you know that I don't think you're the devil anymore.

Love,

Maria

What you've missed

2011-03-02T08:56:00.001-08:00

Pardon the blog hiatus. I'd like to tell you I've been busy, but rationalizing that complete untruth would take me a few more weeks.

The only thing out of the ordinary that even happened was a weekend trip to Provo, which was completely wonderful and entirely too short to see everyone I've been missing. I love Provo. I sometimes catch myself feeling like it's my hometown, and it makes me sad to think that after this year most of my ties to it will be cut. We had a great trip, though, visiting Christy and Jared and tiny, adorably sweet baby Joshua, who has huge hands and feet and dark hair and so much potential. The other highlight of the trip was being in the temple with my brother Nate. What a stellar kid. He's going to be a fantastic missionary, and I take turns loving that he's going and hating that he'll be so far away.

I recently (read: Sunday in between Sacrament Meeting and Primary) took a new "job" babysitting for another family. Every Tuesday, through the middle of the day. I went this week and it was delightful. Besides the fact that I might have endangered both children through my utter inability to buckle their carseats into my car. That is a tricky business, and don't let anyone tell you otherwise. Other than that, things went beautifully. Excuse me tooting my own horn, here, but the little boy did cry when I had to leave. Score one for the babysitter. That made up for the little girl asking me what the "spots on my face" were, and did I have them when I was little and would she have them when she got bigger. I told myself she was talking about my freckles. Nope. "Um, that's called acne, kid. Brace yourself for high school." The cutest moment of the day was when the little boy discovered a toy dog and dinosaur under his bed, and asked me, "What do you think they were doing?" Remember being little, when you thought all your toys had interesting lives when you weren't looking?

The flowers on our coffee table are wilting. Wilted? They're most of the way there.

We cut our grocery budget down $10 per month and it's amazing the triumph I feel from meeting that goal. It's like a game! It's my favorite game. It's the only game Colby doesn't beat me at. Because he doesn't play. If he did, no guarantees.

Oh, it was also my birthday. I got a lot of chocolate, and a big surprise from Colby which was the best part. And lipstick, and a football (well, a gift card for a football), and lotion, and a book about embroidery, and a kindle, and I feel like a fifth-grader telling you about everything I got. Except fifth-graders don't wear lipstick and fifth-grade girls don't ask for footballs for their birthdays and kindles weren't invented yet when I was in fifth-grade. I was so happy that my birthday was on Wednesday, because I work on Wednesdays, and this meant that I got to hang out with J, who, I decided, is the person (with the exception of Colby and maybe a few others) who I would pick to hang out with on my birthday. We laughed really hard and sang along with Neil Diamond and Guns and Roses in the car and were silly in public and got french fries at McDonalds. It was a good birthday and I was happy all day.

It is almost Spring. It is getting warmer and I am the most weather-impatient person in the world, so it is not getting warmer fast enough for me. But I'm still glad it's getting warmer. Maybe I will go to Sports Authority and redeem my gift card for that football and then Colby and I can play.

I am housebound today--no car. It's kind of fun, but unfortunately I took that to mean that today is a holiday and I don't have to do anything. This is not true. But it feels like it.

I just finished a sweet little book called The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, of which the only downfall was having to spend all that breath telling people the title when they asked what I was reading, and then enjoying their blank stare as they processed what I said. Which, in retrospect, happened a lot this week. It was just a nice little book, and that is the best way I can describe it. I appreciated what I understood to be the theme, which was that literature can carry people through hard times, because you know how I love literature.

Speaking of literature, my own literary society (consisting of myself and my mom, and which I have recently decided needs a name) has just finished reading The Sound and the Fury. That's if Mom has finished it. These other books I have been reading have just been entertainment and time-filling. Next we will read My Antonia. I am excited.

And speaking of books you ought to read, the book we read before The Sound and the Fury (proving that Mom always ought to pick the books) was Gilead. It was just a deep, ruminating and personal essay on mortality, in the form of a novel. A quote, for example:

“I feel sometimes as if I were a child who opens its eyes on the world once and sees amazing things it will never know any names for and then has to close its eyes again. I know this is all mere apparition compared to what awaits us, but it is only lovelier for that. There is a human beauty in it. And I can’t believe that, when we have all been changed and put on incorruptibility, we will forget our fantastic condition of mortality and impermanence, the great bright dream of procreating and perishing that meant the whole world to us. In eternity this world will be Troy, I believe, and all that has passed here will be the epic of the universe, the ballad they sing in the streets. Because I don’t imagine any reality putting this one in the shade entirely, and I think piety forbids me to try.” (Gilead, by Marilynne Robinson, p. 57)

Please read it.

Also, please read Atlas Shrugged. The movie comes out on tax day (so appropriate) and I can't wait.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6W07bFa4TzM

As a final note, our dearest friends the Korean neighbors moved out on my birthday. But they're worth another post altogether.

Moment of mind-blowing insight

2011-01-25T17:31:00.001-08:00

Today I got on facebook and found this picture of me and Alex Pham at high school graduation and I realized I still have the skirt I was wearing. I don't know why this merits reporting but when that kind of thing happens to you, you just have to tell someone. And tag yourself.

What happened? That's not me anymore. That person looks more like my little sister than she looks like me. About a million and a half important things have happened in the years since then, not the least of which being that I apparently became an entirely different person. Who also owns a green paisley skirt from Gap.

Sometimes life slows down and I am forced to face naked reality (as opposed to facing reality naked, which works equally well but makes me feel slightly vulnerable) which is sometimes good and sometimes I'd prefer not to think about it, like climbing water slide stairs against my better judgment. It's not that I don't like what's happening, it's that sometimes I don't like what isn't happening or didn't happen and I like what already happened too much, and I don't know if I'm going to like what's about to happen, which is ridiculous because I like mostly everything that's happened so far.

So let's think about what I can learn from this picture.

1. My necklace was flipped backwards and now it's been immortalized that way.

2. There's short lady with super creepy eyes in the relflecty-windows on the right.

3. I look a lot better with bangs.

I'm not sure what this all means but I'll think about it and get back to you.

Some lists

2011-01-19T08:08:00.001-08:00

Things I am grateful for lately:

1. The carnations on our coffee table. They're pink and orange, and just beautiful.

2. An old friend in town for the semester, an old friend back in the country, and a new friend across the hall. Jen is doing Washington Seminar and Lar is back from her mission. And my neighbor Jeong Hee is bringing so much friendship into my days. She is Korean, and so kind and friendly, and has a sweet self-deprecating sense of humor, and I feel like we're such good friends even though I think she's my mom's age.

3. Primary. It's the best. It's also super tiring and sometimes I'm slightly terrified at the responsibility, but our sunbeams are cute and forgiving and super wiggly.

4. My fitness conscience turned back on last night. I've been kind of worried at its absence, because I haven't been able to make myself feel bad about my gross diet of junk food and my lack of exercise. But I felt the pilot light come on again yesterday and I went running (very slowly) today, and I'm feeling so good about it.

5. Colby is wonderful. Enough said.

A brief wishlist:

1. I was blogstalking a girl I used to know this morning, and she and her husband are now living in Thailand, just outside Chiang Mai, and building a house in the jungle. I can't help wishing WE were building a house in Thailand. Like, pouring the cement ourselves and everything. What an adventure!

2. I wish cilantro came in more reasonably-sized bunches, so I'd ever have a prayer at finishing the whole thing before it got all wilted-up and brown.

3. I wish Virginia's climate was as conducive to running as Juneau in the summer. I'm not kidding, guys, it's the best. Cool, misty mornings, sea level, flat roads, great running trails, and gorgeous, not to mention light outside no matter how early you get up. I miss that.

Nature smackdown

2011-01-18T06:30:00.000-08:00

We fell asleep last night listening to the pleasant sound of rain on the roof and windows. We woke up this morning to a full half-inch of solid ice covering everything. This made walking out to the car extremely hazardous. It also made getting into the car extremely difficult. I ended up going back inside to empty our emergency water storage bottle and fill it with hot water to dump on the windows to get the ice off. Colby chipped away at the ice like a hero, and uncovered something that looked remarkably like a windshield by the time he was through. It took us a really long time. I felt very small and powerless and drove home about 10 miles per hour after dropping Colby off. Colby thought that if any one was going to throw rocks at our car today would be a good day, as it is covered with an impenetrable shield of ice. The roads are also covered, as is the sidewalk, as is the grass and trees and everything. Also, the back doors of our car are frozen shut.

Here is a picture I found online. It is worse than our ice storm, but you get the idea.

This is ridiculous and I'm never going outside again.

However, the science of freezing rain is actually pretty cool. (Nerd alert). Apparently it starts out as snow, but melts on the way down. Then it supercools in a layer of cold air before it hits the ground (cools below freezing while still remaining a liquid), so that when it hits something, it immediately freezes solid on contact. Chemistry is so cool. I have no idea if this is true or not, because I just found it online, but it provides a satisfactory explanation, so I'm going with it.

Colby is working late today

2011-01-14T16:00:00.000-08:00

I just tried to write "I am bored" in French, and ended up with "I am boring." Then I deleted it out of embarrassment. Attention, everyone, Elvis has left the building, along with the last shred of knowledge from my college education.

I'm so bored that even fun things sound boring.

In other news, I took the car to the Honda dealership today to get the oil changed, among other things, and I sat in the waiting room forever. Did you know that the acting on All My Children is so bad that when you're just listening to the television from across the room the show is almost indistinguishable from an infomercial? Then I ate a sandwich, then I sat for a while longer, then I started crocheting a sweater, then I sat some more.

Then I came home and sat. And crocheted. I don't know why I was so eager to get out of the Honda dealership, because nothing really changed.

Here's a completely unrelated story, for your entertainment (but mostly mine).

One time, my freshman year of college, I got asked out by a random guy I'd never met. Because I was wearing a shirt from Cambodia and that's where he served his mission and whether or not that was the reason, that was the cover story. So, I went, and it was fine, but not great, so that was the only date. Two years later he shows up in my organic chemistry class. I spend the entire semester smiling at him when our paths cross, because, hey, we met, and maybe the date wasn't great, but you should acknowledge that you know somebody, right? So finally, one day I'm out in the hallway studying when he comes up to me. I say hello, because I know him, but he introduces himself to me, because apparently he doesn't know me. Anymore. Then he asks me out again. For a first date. I know it was the same guy. I didn't exactly know how to confront him about this, so I just gave him my phone number. Again. He never called, so I guess he figured it out.

The UNmaster's degree

2011-01-06T10:56:00.000-08:00

You might have noticed I ditched the master's in English plan. I wasn't kidding about the "new plan every week." One thing my cousin suggested when I was talking to her about her master's degree (in English) is that it might be equally satisfying to simply read great books on my own, if reading great books was my motivation for studying English. It is. So, I've decided to make this year a year full of literature. I figure any year that begins while you're in the middle of Moby Dick is a charmed one. I've set a goal to read more good books, more classics, more literature that will make me better and smarter and... better. So I'm going to do it, and also write down every book that I finish, which I've never tried before. Who's with me?

So, book number one is Othello, by Shakespeare.

Why: Having missed a couple of the standard Shakespeare plays in high school due to wacky liberal English teachers, I am trying to remedy the problem. Also, Colby and I got the GAME Othello for Christmas and so I've been thinking about the play all the time.

Verdict: Too sad. Partway through, I realized I knew where it was headed and didn't want to finish. But I had to finish. An interesting commentary on gullibility, misguided faith, trust in marriage, forgiveness, anger. Reminded me of Tartuffe - warning against misplaced zeal. Tragic, but worth reading.

The plan

2011-01-06T09:45:00.000-08:00

I feel like people are always asking me about my plans. Ever since junior year in high school when applying to college started to become a looming issue, people are pretty much obsessed with asking each other what they plan to do. "Where are you planning to apply?" "Which school are you planning to go to?" Later, "What do you plan to major in?" "What are you planning to do this summer?" "Where are you planning to live next year?" Even in social situations: "So, what's the plan?"

Sometimes I prefer not to have a plan.

Sometimes I have a few different plans, often mutually exclusive.

Sometimes I have a new plan every week. Actually, that happens a lot.

Sometimes I have thought long and hard and have not come up with a plan at all.

But you can't present these as answers in conversation. Even though I do, anyway. Nobody likes that response. It makes people feel uncomfortable and they regret they asked the question, like when you forget you're talking to a homeless person and ask them where they live, or when you ask about someone's boyfriend and it turns out they broke up.

Anyway, what I really set out to tell you is that I have a plan, now. I am going to attend Northern Virginia Community College in the fall, and study to be a Medical Lab Technologist. Those are the people that do the pathology tests on your tissue samples when you're sick. I'm so excited. The field and all the classes are so interesting, and I feel like this is exactly what I've been looking for. Not only that, but because of my bachelor's degree, I can do the program in one year. And in the meantime, I'll be taking one prerequisite class online: Immunology. I can't wait.

So go ahead. Ask me about my plans.

On board games and marriage

2011-01-04T17:31:00.000-08:00

Our first Christmas together was a lot like all the other Christmases of my life (with the possible exception of the time we ate Christmas dinner at the closed Hogi-Yogi in Kanarraville, Utah. It wasn't really at all like that one) but we got a mother lode of board games. Board games: the perfect gift for newlyweds, right? We have lots of free time, spend every evening together, and can only watch so much Netflix before our brains rot and our eyeballs turn square and the children in Africa starve and all that. We anticipated entering the second board game phase of our lives (the first one having begun at age 8+) with excitement . We needed constructive activities besides television. Not that television counts as a constructive activity, Mom.

Unfortunately, turns out there's a whole chapter about board games in the marriage guidebook (unbeknownst to us -- it really would have been helpful if I'd EVER gotten my copy) discussing various topics such as "Games to play and games to avoid," "Knowing when to stop," "What to do if you feel bad when you lose," "What to do if you feel bad when you win," and "How to tell if your spouse is using supernatural powers to defy the laws of probability." The chapter, apparently, also includes helpful tips like "Don't keep track of your spouse's winning streak," "Have a back-up plan for when game night goes downhill," and "Tears are remarkably ineffective and just make you look like a baby."

It would have been nice to know these things before we got married, like how it's a good idea to know how to say a few things (please don't touch me, I'm actually allergic to that, where is the embassy) before you visit a foreign country. But since we didn't, we're figuring it out as we go along. It's been fun, really! And we just bought Scrabble today, so I'll let you know how that goes.

Thanks for the board games everyone! We're learning a lot. It's just causing a little stress. Kind of like looking for the embassy in Berlin.

2011.

2011-01-01T12:12:00.000-08:00

Colby and I celebrated the beginning of a new year by doing absolutely nothing. And in our pajamas. I wonder if this has any foreshadowing significance on the rest of our year. I kind of hope it does.

Current Events

2010-12-17T07:15:00.001-08:00

Remember in high school when you used to have to bring a newspaper article and a one-page report on it to civics class and then the teacher would randomly call on 3 people to share them? Those used to stress me out so bad. To this day I can't tell what media phenomenon constitutes a significant political event, and I was always worried I'd bring in something like "Giant Squid Sighting" when everyone else had cut out "World Trade Towers Attacked."

Luckily, I'm pretty sure that the current events in OUR lives have zero global significance.

1. It snowed all day yesterday, resulting in about three inches that closed down schools in Maryland yesterday AND today, and postponed Colby's work party. Everyone was freaking out and driving 10 miles an hour everywhere and stocking up on MREs and glow sticks. Colby said everyone at his work was so concerned that HE started getting concerned too, until he remembered that it was only three inches and he grew up in Idaho. I thought it was festive. It finally feels like Christmas!

2. I stayed at home most of the day yesterday, and almost died of boredom. Then I tried to complain to Colby about it and he said, "Really? Because I went to work all day." He didn't feel bad for me. I can't figure out why.

3. I'm trying to read Moby Dick. It's really good, but it takes so much energy that reading isn't a relaxing pastime anymore. Colby settled down to read his book for a while last night, so I got out Moby, but then I just sat around looking at the cover for a while until I thought of something easier to do. What? Yes, I am planning to get a master's degree in English. Why, does that require literacy?

4. I went to the mall yesterday, and the man behind the counter called me "Sir." The worst part is that for once I had actually done my hair that morning, put on a nice sweater, and was wearing lipstick. See if I ever get ready for the day again.

5. I recently started studying for the GRE and am having the time of my life. I had forgotten how much I love standardized testing. On the state exams we had to take every year in high school, the sample question on every test was about a boy named Jim who had lost his dog, Sultan, in the rain. I loved Jim and his dog Sultan. I love standardized tests. I love bubbling in the little answers, especially my name at the beginning, I love that the answer is on the page and you'll find it if you just think hard enough, I love them because they are usually simple and straightforward. I love them because they are not very specific, like the final exam of a class you didn't understand, they are just general, and generally, you know the answers. I love them because they are a lot like crossword puzzles and they make me feel good about myself. Hooray for the GRE, the ACT I never thought I'd get to take again!

What we've been up to

2010-12-14T10:11:00.000-08:00

So, sometimes we DO actually do things, I mean apart from Colby going to work and me sitting around at home and watching Pocahontas and making paper snowflakes, which I don't exactly count as things. And because I finally figured out how to get the pictures off of my camera onto Colby's computer, here is a start on the sort of things we've been doing. At least one example, anyhow, with I hope a lot more to follow.

Two weekends ago (weekend before last?) we took the metro downtown to the national botanical garden. It is my new most favorite place in all of the D.C. metro area and I would happily go every week if I could. Not only was it jungly and humid and warm, with all kinds of great tropical plants, it was decorated for Christmas!

This is just to give you an idea of how beautiful it was in there. Just felt like another country. Maybe one a lot closer to the equator. And the Christmas tree was spectacular!

Here you can see the Christmas tree again. And behind me, that little building, is one of tons of these teeny replicas they had of D.C. landmarks, all made out of botanical materials!

Here's Colby on a log bridge! See how great the foliage was (and how attractive he is)?

This is so you can see the catwalks they had. You could walk around the whole perimeter of the main atrium a whole story in the air, and see everything from another perspective! Also there were more plants up there.

The atrium we have pictures of wasn't even the only one - there were many more rooms, each with different kinds of plants from different climates. It was so much fun.

After the botanical garden we went to the National Archives where we saw the Constitution, the Bill of Rights and the Declaration of Independence. I am so grateful to live in this country, and I think it's so appropriate that anyone can go see these founding documents. We finished up the day at the National Portrait Gallery, where there was a fantastic Norman Rockwell exhibit. And the best part? All we paid was the cost of riding the metro (which was so fun that we didn't mind very much). Hooray for free museums! The whole day made us feel like true locals. We love living here.

A little boost

2010-12-13T05:40:00.000-08:00

Yesterday in nursery our lesson was somehow extra short, and we all ended up coloring for about twenty-five minutes of the hour. At least, I ended up coloring with 3 somewhat calm children, and Colby ended up walking around the room with an obstinate child attached to his ankle. Biting him.

It was an interesting day.

Anyway, I was coloring just like the rest of them, while also trying to keep them focused (because we obviously didn't have any other activity ideas) and to keep all the crayons on the table. My favorite little boy was sitting next to me, and at one point he leaned over and looked at my paper.

"Hey, that's looking so good in the lines!"

It made my day. It's been a long time (like, a REALLY long time) since I've been complimented on my ability to color in the lines, but it never loses its thrill, you know?

Scripture Study with the Davises

2010-12-01T05:16:00.000-08:00

Usually our "companion" study (as Colby likes to call it) is pretty straightforward: we read a chapter or so, maybe talk about it a little.

Last night it got sort of out of hand.

Mosiah 23:10 "...and has made me an instrument in his hands..."

Colby: A cello.

Me: What?

Colby: The instrument - a cello.

Me: Oh.

*laughter*

Mosiah 23:12 "...and therefore ye were bound with the bands of iniquity."

*more laughter*

Me: Do you think instruments in God's hands play in the bands of iniquity?

Colby: Probably not, considering it's the devil's band.

Me: I wonder what kind of music they play in the devil's band.

Colby: I know what they play.

Me: What?

*pause*

Colby: "The devil went down to Georgia... he was lookin' for a soul to steal..."

Me: "He was in a bind, cause he was way behind; he was willing to make a deal..."

And then "hell broke loose" in Zarahemla.

Me: "...When he came across this young man sawin' on a fiddle and playin' it hot.

And the devil jumped up on a hickory stump and said: Boy let me tell you what:

I bet you didn't know it, but I'm a fiddle player, too.

And if you'd care to take a dare, I'll make a bet with you.

Now you play a pretty good fiddle boy, but give the devil his due:

I bet a fiddle of gold against your soul - I think I'm better than you.

The boy said: My name's Johnny, and it might be a sin,

But I'll take your bet, and you gonna regret, cause I'm the best there's ever been!

Colby: "Johnny, rosin up your bow and play your fiddle hard

Cause hell's broke loose in Georgia and the devil deals the cards.

And if you win you get this shiny fiddle made of gold,

But if you lose, the devil gets your sooooouuuuuuulll......"

Needless to say, we gave the whole thing up by verse eighteen. We'll try again tomorrow.

I'm BACK!

2010-11-29T09:18:00.001-08:00

I'm wearing my hair in a ponytail today. I feel like myself again. Why does this make me so happy? I don't know. Admittedly, I have three little clippies holding the stray bits in and I feel like a 5 year old who did her own hair, but my scalp feels tight and my hair's out of my face and I feel like I can seize the day. Hooray!

I forgot to tell you!

2010-11-23T08:21:00.000-08:00

First: an update. Remember all the books I got from the library that one time? I only read one of them. And I'm not telling you which one, because I'm embarrassed.

Second: I have a job, sort of. I have been working part-time for a family in our ward. They have four children, one of whom is handicapped. For him, they get a state grant for 30 hours of help a week. I was a few of those 30 last week, and will keep helping out until I find a "real" job.

So yesterday I took one of the boys to physical therapy. It was super hard to get through two sets of doors on the way out, plus down the ramp to the car, especially because the sidewalk is kind of pot-holed and I'm sure the poor kid feels like he's off-roading in a wheelchair. So yesterday we were coming down the ramp and we seemed to interrupt an intense conversation between 3 or 4 tough asian guys standing on the ramp. This was difficult to navigate, because the ramp is really narrow. As we scraped past them I gave them an endearing, apologetic smile and told the boy with me to "Say excuse me!"

I heard one sheepish "Excuse me." Not from my friend in the wheelchair, from a tough asian kid who thought I was talking to him.

One mo' 'gain

2010-11-23T07:56:00.001-08:00

I obviously forgot how to blog. I intended to keep writing about our daily life because I so enjoyed having the outlet, finding the humor, exercising my brain, and stringing wonderful words together. But I haven't been doing that because my life is like, way too boring to write about. If I told you what I do all day, you'd be embarrassed to be friends with me. It would go like this, which is how conversations with Colby usually go when I pick him up:

Me: "Hi, how was your day? Mine was good. You know what I (heard/read/saw) on (NPR/my friend's blog/a blog of someone I've never met/mind-numbing television show) today? Weird, huh? Oh, and I did some laundry. Oh, and I played a lot of tetris."

So, what I'm really doing by posting awful horrible heart-wrenchingly sad songs and terrific yellow-journalism I-wish-I-could-write-that poetry is sparing you the squirrel-watching body-odor candy-corn-eating details of my life. Really, you should be glad! And I know it's supposed to be about OUR life, but Colby goes to work all day (BORING, too) so he doesn't contribute to blog interest. And on the weekends I make him stay in the house all day so we can listen to BYU football on the radio. Sometimes I'm worried my geekiness is going to alienate people.

In other news, Nursery is going well. We have the cutest kids in the whole world in there. They struggle a little bit with the whole lesson idea, but they're really good at wiggling. This week we were talking about things we were grateful for, and when I suggested movies (we had just had a discussion about our favorite ones, in which Wall-E and Transformers figured largely) one little boy said, "Um, what about libraries?" His mother is doing her JOB. Another favorite exchange from the day (with regard to favorite animals):

Me: Do you like sharks?

Him: Robots can kill sharks. And then they stick them in the fire to cook them.

Um, what?

A Vagabond Song

2010-11-17T05:45:00.000-08:00

Don't you love that title? I came across this poem in a book I am reading (and enjoying, by the way; it's called Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner), and I just had to share it. It's wonderful! Maybe a little dramatic, but so much what I wish I could say about autumn that I want to say it anyway, even though it's someone else's words. Colby and I say to each other every day, can you believe it's STILL fall? Virginia is a wonderful place.

A Vagabond Song (by Bliss Carman)

There is something in the autumn that is native to my blood--

Touch of manner, hint of mood;

And my heart is like a rhyme,

With the yellow and the purple and the crimson keeping time.

The scarlet of the maples can shake me like a cry

Of bugles going by.

And my lonely spirit thrills

To see the frosty asters like a smoke upon the hills.

There is something in October sets the gypsy blood astir

We must rise and follow her,

When from every hill of flame

She calls and calls each vagabond by name.

Eet.

2010-11-12T12:07:00.000-08:00

I rediscovered this song the other day and I cried. I don't know why it breaks my heart every time. I guess it reminds me of a time in my life when I really felt like this - like I had forgotten the words to life. And on some level, among all the beauty and change, there's always a little of this to life - something lost, something forgotten. I guess that's the bitter part.

Farmer's Market, Early November

2010-11-05T06:08:00.000-07:00

I went after I dropped you off for work,

I'll tell him, later, when we're sitting together over dinner.

And he'll ask me did I buy anything

With the unspoken question (then why did you go today?)

Hovering on his mouth.

Because it was the last day, I'll tell him.

The last day for the sweet musk of apples and the hard golden curve of pears,

For the lumpy green tang of osage oranges, for a question answered by a heavy old man.

The mist and the morning greetings will probably be around next week, somewhere,

But the smell of soil on rutabegas and beets surely won't last long.

And feeling my toes go numb as I wander between tables of vegetables-

That is irreplaceable.

And the last day is the best, I'll tell him.

Because autumn doesn't wane the way winter does, weakly petering out toward the end.

Autumn saves up color and smell and feeling and warmth and then it goes out

Like a short candle, in a carnival blaze of pumpkins.

The leaves were mostly fallen, this morning,

Their dusky incense packed in around the sharp smell of chives and the late autumn roses.

I wished I could smell the perfect rounded beige of the summer squash,

But they sat piled in chilly, promising reticence.

The thick spice of the apple and pumpkin bread, comforting and homey

Was confusingly wrapped in the clear, crackling cellophane of winter on the air,

And life felt tangible, this morning.

I wanted to walk around and around the parking lot, smelling every stall and every person

And burning them deep into my senses like cleaning-day ammonia,

So I'd smell autumn all winter.

But, I'll tell him, I couldn't keep it.

And I'll tell him I can't explain it

Any more than I could bring it home with me.

Nursery

2010-11-01T11:26:00.000-07:00

"Being called to Nursery is the best form of birth control." (Hilary Hurst)

But actually, we thought it was okay! Our lesson yesterday was on "I Can Take Care of my Body." We taught the children about sleeping, washing, and eating healthy foods because our bodies are blessings from Heavenly Father. It included singing "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes" several times, a fair amount of controlled (?) dancing and wiggling, coloring, and some brainwashing. "What do we say when Mommy says it's time for bed?" "Okay, Mom!" "What do we say when Mommy says to eat our veggies?" "Okay, Mom!" What do we say when Mommy says it's time for a bath?" "Okay, Mom!" It was almost like teaching public health!

The highlight of the whole hour was watching two little boys during clean-up. They both wanted to push the sweeper-vacuum so bad they were fighting over it. Finally, when one kid had his turn, he dumped the remains of a bowl of popcorn on the ground just so he could vacuum them up. I think his mom should take advantage of this interest.

Sic Semper Tyrannis

2010-11-01T11:14:00.000-07:00

As good as I felt about living in Virginia, I feel even better now that I know this is our state motto. It's hard to find a state seal cooler than ours - Virtue (personified as a tough-looking half-naked Roman centurion WOMAN), stands on the fallen body of Tyranny (portrayed as a dead Roman soldier guy). That is just gruesome and stellar beyond anything I hoped to find in this state.

We went to the DMV on Saturday morning and let the United States know we're here to stay. It was an interesting experience. We saw an ALBINO hispanic guy. We saw tons of hispanic guys. It felt like everyone in the DMV was hispanic. Why is that?

We now have Virginia license plates on our car, and we're so geeked out about that we took pictures. Of our OWN license plates. We'll probably take pictures of our new drivers' licenses when they come in the mail in seven to ten days.

October 29

2010-10-29T09:17:00.001-07:00

I felt like a little girl coming out of the library this morning, with my arms full of so many books I thought I might drop one on the ground. It's ridiculous; I'll never be able to read them all in the 3 weeks I have them for, and what the librarian at the desk DIDN'T know is that I already have 4 books at home. I've been wanting so badly to find a book like A Prayer for Owen Meany that I just finished - interesting so I don't want to put it down, and yet startlingly meaningful. I want a book that will make me grow somehow, but unfortunately there's no way to search that in the library catalog. So I came home with The Cider House Rules, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and These is my Words. I also got a book of short stories by Mark Twain and Escape, a story about a woman who escaped from polygamy.

(I feel like I should explain myself on that last one, because it's kind of sensationalist, I know. I ran across the show "Sister Wives" the other day, and now I have an inexplicable morbid fascination with polygamy. It's kind of weird but I think it's so interesting that people really live that way.)

Anyway, I would love suggestions on anything you've read recently that was simply wonderful and life-changing. I have all this free time (I've decided to go with the word "funemployed" to describe my situation) and I've decided to use it well, instead of lying around hating myself all day.