a mooving weekend

i think just about everyone i know moved this weekend. i remember lots of boxes, scrubbing, dusting, arranging, screwdrivers, shimmying furniture, drinking beer, grill assembly--oh my. it's kind of a blur. i have to say though that it is so much easier to move when it's not you who's doing the moving. there's something very fun and empowering being able to sweep into a situation, identify the sweaty and disheveled mover, and valiantly put together their futon or scrub out their fridge. it's all about those jobs you know they aren't going to have the energy to do after packing up everything they own and having to haul it somewhere new.

funny how one minute you live in your house with all your stuff organized (or not) in one place, where the scents and sounds are familiar, where you recognize your neighbors, and know exactly what the corner store sells and does not sell. and then the next minute, you've up and moved all your stuff to somewhere new. you sleep in a new place, start new routines, and essentially get a new outlook on life.

it's great to see my friends growing up, falling in love, building lives. walking out my good friend's door to see cows and mountains in maine is so fucking awesome! i'm so grateful to be a part of that and i'm definitely excited for new places to play this summer. it also makes me desperately want to paint and make some changes to our place (i'm thinking taupe, blue, and black!).

moving would be so horrendous without the support of friends, good food, and lots of beer. so, congrats to all my friends in their new houses. i love you all dearly (although i doubt any of you will actually read this).

this shit is bananas

b-a-n-a-n-a-s !

as if i needed another reason to boycott, disney. boing-boing posted a tid-bit yesterday about disney hong-kong. apparently greenpeace and the worldwide fund for nature are protesting disney's decision to serve shark fin soup at banquets. millions of sharks each year are caught, have thier fins sliced off, then are tossed back into the ocean.

disney says that while they are aware of environmental concerns, they are EQUALLY sensitive to cultural traditions and so will continue to serve the shark fin soup.

how does a cultural delicacy outweigh killing so many and attributing to species getting closer and closer to the endangered list? corporations like disney care about one thing only, making money.

disney sucks.

big apple, little brother

i'm back! did'ya miss me?

i went to the big apple for a seminar yesterday. i have to hand it to all you New Yorkers out there. i don't know how you do it. that place is crizazy! i'm sure i looked like the quintessential country bumpkin climbing out of Penn Station, eyes a-glaze, staring up at the buildings, and getting shuffled back and forth by all the people on the street. to say i was overstimulated at first sight is an understatement.

i spent my first hour getting my bearings, finding my hotel, and the hotel where the seminar was located. i decided to save the company a few dollars and booked myself a room at the Stanford Hotel. it looks real nice from their web site, but i was sadly mistaken upon my arrival. this place a bit sketchy, really smokey, and slightly decrepit. the window in my tiny room looked out onto a brick wall, there was no airconditioning, and all the instructions for everything were in Korean. it was weird to say the least.

i did get to spend some q.t. with my little brother Walt though which made the trip worthwhile in itself. Walt and his buddy Zeb met up and went to union square which made for some great people watching.



i have to hand it to Walt, he's living quite a life. he works in a video store, lives in Brooklyn, and has really mastered getting around in the big city. we went to SoHo for dinner at Peep, a trendy Thai restaurant complete with pink glo lights and metal stick chandelier. the coolest thing about Peep (aside from the awesome food) is the bathrooms, which have one way mirrored walls in the bathroom so you can look out at what's going on while you're doing your business. ha! after dinner, we headed back uptown to the Recession Cafe for some pretty cool folk music.



i spent all day yesterday in the ballroom of a hotel, listening to lectures and networking. it was actually pretty interesting and relevant to my job, so that was cool. the train ride home was long and thankfully my savior best friend came and rescued me from the bus ride home from South Station which is sooo long. while i had a great time in NYC, i was so thankful to return to my favorite little seacoast town where the people are spread out and the sky is open.

she don't likey

i just love it when i pay $10 to get my car washed and then smartly park under a tree which poops little tiny leaves and pollen spores all over my car during the night. my car looks like it has leprosy.

kids are amazing

this morning i had the pleasure of volunteering in my friend's classroom. they are doing a unit on poetry and i came in as 'guest' speaker. it was a little overwhelming to see twenty-some-odd little faces squirming eager and intent as i read them some of my age-appropriate poems. they had all kinds of great observations and questions. we did a mini-lesson together, organizing images and corresponding feelings of the beach. then, they all sat down and wrote their own poems using our starting point as reference. their creativity was impressive, their humor undeniable.

i really have to hand it to all the teachers out there. what a wonderful job you have, helping our children learn all about the world. it's got to be a really demanding day, keeping all those kids in line. the range of proficiency is so wide at that age (3rd/4th grade), i can't imagine putting together lessons. it's much more physically and mentally demanding than i would have thought (i guess that's why you get all those summers off).

while kids these days are growing up faster than we did, it was refreshing to be in the midst of their innocence. when else in your life can you shout out 'crabs!' and know everyone in the room is thinking of sea creatures? it was inspiring for me to listen to their words, art, and imaginations. in small groups i witnessed them encouraging each other to be proud of their work, to share, to shine. while my contention stands that i shouldn't be around large groups of them for too long, kids today are pretty gosh darn amazing.

ioka so lucky!

last night some of my girls and i went to see the Jack McCoy surf film festival at the lovely Ioka Theatre in Exeter.



Fair Bits was great. i am so in awe by the power of these giant waves and the way these guys are able glide on top of all that energy. they're the cowboys of the ocean. some of those waves were so big, just swallowing up people. and there they were jumping and dancing on top like it's the most natural thing in the world.

by far, the best part of the evening was intermission. there was a drawing, in which Jaclyn won a surf board! yep, that's right, a real board all her own. it's hot too in brown and black argyle.

these pathetically hormonal homey kids were all like "we'll see that board on e-bay tomorrow" and i was all like "fuck that shit, homeys. you're gonna see our asses wiggling on the 2 foot waves at the wall bitches!" well, i didn't actually say that, but it's what i was thinking.

so, this summer our mission is to learn how to hang ten. i'm stoked. i totally think it's possible too given that waves around here rarely get big. the danger factor isn't so great. the chill factor though is huge since the water temperature is always freezing. i guess that's why real surfers pee in their wetsuits, ek!

check out the webcam for current wave conditions at the wall.

wonderland

here's just one reason why my friend allison rocks my world:

allison wonderland

yes, she made the blue dress out of POST-IT NOTES!

peace of mind

here's a picture of the back of the inn that i took with my camera phone.



i'm slowly but surely figuring out this technophillia. the possibilities are endless.

this is my desk



i know this is the most visually stimulating post you've ever seen from me.i hope the glitz and glamour isn't too much for you. this opens up a whole new dimension of insight into my life. i know you all have just been dying to get a glimpse of the excitement. ha!


stevie wonder quote of the day: "transendental meditation speaks of inner preservation, transendental meditation gives you peace of mind"

shine on sister

happy monday morning ya'll. it's cold and rainy here, yet again.

the weekend was good, maybe a little too good. in all the excitement of celebrating a friend's birthday, i might have consumed a few too many drinks in the wrong combination.

i had actually forgotten what it was like to wake up in excrutiating head pain and nausea. i had the classic college hangover and not a happy girl. after about 1:30 i was able to transfer myself to the couch where we ordered in italian food and watched movies all day. so, it turned out okay in the end.

today i'm feeling well rested and productive. listening to David Byrne and drinking tea, i think i'll get back on the productive bandwagon and do some work.

frosty weekend

the weather isn't the only thing getting frosty around here (seriously, it's going to be less than 30 degrees tonight!).

it looks like Wendy's is trying to redeem themselves after the finger debacle.




free frosty's for everyone!! really, just show up and ask for one. you can cash in friday through sunday.

lucky for me, Wendy's is right down the street from the gym. how's that for motivation to work out?

feet

feet
Originally uploaded by brinkidink.

ha! i think i'm ready for this again.

(ps.these are not my feet)

my cloudy head

today my head is cloudy. me thinks it's due the sudden blossoming of my social calendar. for a couple of weeks i hibernated after the boy left and now that i've come out of hiding, life is grand again. well, it's on it's way to grand. so this makes three nights in a row that i've been hitting the bottle. my poor little head is not used to such consumption and today my brain is swelling out of my skull.

on the plus side though, i'm getting back into the swing of life. being single isn't as bad as i remember it (yet). i've some good ideas rolling around, just waiting to get fleshed out and put into motion. it's amazing what a little exercise and a lot of good friends can do for a girl's mind!

oh, and i think i'm going to Bonnaroo! i swore to myself after Coventry that i was done with mud, port-a-potties, wookies, and traffic. but an offer has arisen that is better than wonderful. one of my bestest friends, vip access, rv or condo accommodations, and the red carpet treatment--i don't think i can pass this one up.

small town perks

one of the most wonderful things about living in a small town is that the crime rate is low. it's an amazing privledge to be able to walk the streets without fear. however, it does make for slow news stories.

loose laces

the world crumbled beneth her finger nails
when she reached too far and tumbled
over his untied shoelaces

she landed flat on her face
eyes welling up with asphalt tears
as their devotion cracked against the pavement

lost in irrevocable dissolution
the weight of his indifference dissolved
under the terminal silence

in solitude she stood
exiling her bewildered brain and mistaken inclination
from the orbit of miscalculated reasoning

it is not in her nature to remain miserable
for boredom floods stagnant grief
and is quick to suffocate a soul

dusting off disappointed knees
a red bird catches her eye
wings bright and strong against the tourquoise sky

harmony glides attainable overhead
gathering peace of mind
as she humbly walks on

bmm:05/05

Ta-Da!

Today marks the unveiling of my new and improved blog design. Designed for the most part by moi! I did have to steal someone elses template to figure out how to get all my blogger info to appear here and the little pinwheel bullets do not belong to me, but all in all it's looking new. It's not the most flashy or beautiful blog out there, but it's mine and I'll love it just the same.

However, I HATE this font. If anyone, anywhere knows about fonts please let me know. I'm going to do some researching b/c I've seen plenty of others that I love. I just don't know how to get them here!

Gotta meet the moms for lunch. More later.

crystal lite

it's been a quiet friday here. below is an un-ordered list of things i have done.

i have:

• eaten spaghetti with a spoon
• pocketed 2 nuts from homedepot (they go with bolts)
• done minor home repair on my lunch break
• read an html tutorial
• found an eight page list of css comands
• drank one crystal lite
• listened to the napoleon dynamite soundtrack
• had a meeting with my boss
• wished i had a pet wolf
• wrote this blog entry

if you are, like me, looking to add some lift to your Friday afternoon lull check out this rad video.

under construction

please forgive me if this place looks a little crazy over the next few days. i'm trying to make my own design template (gasp). it's kind of fun in an annoying way. i've fallen in love with this website where you can test out your color combinations. i could do this all day. how do i really know if my combos are cohesive? are there rules for this sort of thing?

i've also got to figure out where to host my images as they are all right now clogging up a flickr account. that might be alright i guess since i don't have a digi-camera with which to show you my let (yet).

this place is going to be smoking hot though. i'm doing things with wagon wheels you've never even imagined. ha! at least it's keeping me busy.

happy cinco de mayo, crackas!

girls rule, boys drool

boysandrocks
Originally uploaded by brinkidink.

ex-box

well, i guess it's appropriate that i'm starting over right now. it's spring afterall. the boyfriend is leaving and i'm reeling. i'm going through that god awful phase where you've got to take down all the pictures, cards and keepsakes. all those hopes and dreams and memories will get packed away in an ex-box for him. i've got to return all the socks and shirts he left in my room. and i've got to start my life without him. i hate having to tell everyone. i haven't told my mother yet. she's going to be even more crushed than i am; she was sure he was the one. what is really pissing me off about the whole situation is that i've never felt like this. i've always been the dumper. i've never questioned my gut instinct that tells me it's time to move on. i guess now the tables are turned and i'll be the one who's sad for a while.

belly buster

what is the deal in our country with restaurants offering gigantic sized portions as a challenge for customers to consume? i just read this article about a restaurant in PA that is now offering a 15 pound burger. yes, that's right, 15 pounds. actually, i think the burger is somewhere around 10 pounds. the other 5 pounds comes from the 25 slices of cheese and the whole head of lettuce. ew!

i just don't get the fascination. at a local bbq joint in town there's an offer called the squealer. for just $30 you get like half a chicken, a rack of ribs, a pound of pulled pork, a pint of beans, a pint of mashed potatoes, and maybe a loaf of cornbread? it's something insane like that. if you can single handedly eat the entire thing you are rewarded with your picture on the wall, a tee-shirt, and a gift certificate. i wonder if the prize is worth the pain, the puking, the bloat, the clogging of the arteries.

what kills me is that people get psyched for this stuff. i guess we as americans like to turn just about everything possible into a contest. we like to be the best and get the most for our money, even if it means consuming 15 pounds of food in one sitting. i just don't get it.

nip

it’s 11:07 and the cat is attuned
to the whistling wink of the harvest moon.
flickering for ages on fireflies’ eyes

dancing affably he turns and bows to the grace wind
curling over bookends and leathery
maps of Santorini

wind reverberates answering agreeably
in azure waves splashing against rusty rocks of the hearth
where sanguine feline now reclines

indigneous fidget kitten skitters
to his side and jingles imploringly
asking to curl into his mellow solidarity

his dignified tuxedo spots deflect
her sooty charcols and blustery browns
bedfellows yawn and sprawl with intent

tomorrow they will gather the nip