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I'm moving!
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Runnunculas!

Yet another flower that sounds like a Harry Potter spell. Can you imagine waving and pointing a wand while shouting "Runnuncula!"?

Anyway, Runnunculas are one of my favorite types of flowers. Naturally, when I saw them at Trader Jose's, I snatched them up and ran... to the cashier.

I used to hate flowers in vases because I thought, "What's the point? They're just going to die!" Then I realized that they'll die in their natural habitats as well. I also realized that having fresh flowers in one's room is very nice. They are little reminders that the world (or parts of it) is quite beautiful.

___

I've attached some pictures (from my lovely little cell phone) of the runnunculas I bought.

I'm going to ride away, or, for my bike-loving friends

Do you ever have those days where you just want to ride away? It's tempting to think that I could just ride away on my little bike with flowers in a basket and leave all of my troubles behind.

I think this Swede thought so, too.

Picture via: Purple Area, "Snygga Blickfang" (which means "pretty, eye catching pictures" basically).

Things that are free

I need to save money. No, you don't understand. I really need to save up some money. With the Gilbert hike and the Oxford conference coming up, I need to get as much into my already anemic bank account as possible.

Here's the catch: I love buying things. I.e: salads at New Frontiers, flats, blouses, candles, etc. Well, au revoir, to those!

From now until, well, probably sometime next year, it's hello cheapness! Hello deals! And, better than that, hello free things!

Some things that are free or very nearly free:

Going on a walk

Reading (probably for M.A test) outside in the sun (with lots of sunscreen, of course)

Blue flax seeds and soil

Naps with Kamilla (I never said free= productive)

Bike rides (must start up again!)

Making Swedish pancakes for roommates (not free, but very cheap)

and, of course,

p

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o

c

r

a

s

t

i

n

a

t

i

o

n.

Alles Gute zum Geburtstag! (Happy birthday, mom!)

Happy birthday to the woman who:

• ran inside the trailer and shut the door when she thought she saw a bear, leaving Catherine and I outside by the campfire.


• Makes me Swedish pancakes almost whenever I request them


• Takes silly pictures of herself hiding behind the flowers Cat and I sent her


• Is the animal whisperer


• Is the neighborhood mom


• Dutifully made me three southern belle dresses and tracked down a shop that sold hoop skirts


• Learned how to do everything Dad did


• Fell through the ceiling from the attic attempting to do previous point


• can simultaneously hug me and crack my back


• who joyfully comes in from working outside, scratches on her arms, saying "Look what the bougainvilleas did to me!"


• loves me more than anyone!

Happy birthday, mom!

(p.s- Catherine took this picture of mom in Boise a couple of years ago. It doesn't express her "look at what the bougainvilleas" joyfullness, but I like it nonetheless!)

Oxford

"I don't give a ----- about an Oxford comma," but I do care about the "4th Fear, Horror, and Terror Conference" in Oxford, UK because my proposal got accepted. That is to say, I might be going to Oxford a bit before September 12. This means:

1. I'm not going to Ireland (where I originally thought the conference was to be held, for some reason...)

2. I need to start saving money A.S.A.P

3. I really should graduate this May... (so I don't have to worry about the conference and more M.A studying.)

4. My mom is bursting with pride even though I told her my paper proposal was accepted. They could very well read my paper (to be submitted in August) and wish they had never accepted me...

5. I need to talk to Dr. Marchbanks about my Daniel Deronda paper *after* the M.A exam.

For those of you who care, which is, naturally, all of you: I wrote my paper about the nature of fear in Daniel Deronda, specifically in Gwendolen Harleth. Essentially, she needs her crippling, hysterical thoughts and reactions and even real, physical danger in order to make her a better, less ego-centric person. Without fear, she'd continue to be an arrogant, shallow person. (That's a summary of 16 pages.)

Um, God save the Queen?

No. Right now I need:

Keep Calm and Carry On!

What a charming nose you have!

Don't bother me; I'm reading.

I'm reading approx. 150 pages of psychoanalysis today (for my critical theory class.) About half of it comes from this (<--) man.
While I *am* skeptical of almost all modern critical theory, I do think there are a few useful little gems sprinkled (or rather burried) within it.
Here's an example:

"Being entirely honest with oneself is a good exercise."

So, here's your quiz: Who said this? Or, if you really dislike thinking about quotes, who is the man to the left, looking so hard at work? Hint: unheimlich!

The stuff that matters

It's raining, our power went out, and I couldn't see very well to read/study (or so I told myself). So, slightly depressed and more than willing to procrastinate under the pretense of "knowing what really matters in life," I made beef burgandy. Again. Except this time it was without the beef. (Beef, you see, is rather expensive and why eat cow when you don't absolutely need it?)

Anyway, I made my beouf bourguignon (sans beouf) and felt good about myself. Then I wished that my biggest problem in life *was* forgetting the tomato paste until the last minute, rather than feeling absolutely unprepared to take an M.A exam.

For that short time, I felt ein bisschen froh, and that's what it's about. Eating good food and taking the time to do it and not think about the crazy hoops life demands you jump through every so often (or constantly, like you're some super-agility-sheepdog.) Annnnyway.

Eat well, my friends.

Frohe Ostern!

Frohe Ostern!

Glad Påsk!

Happy Easter!

Whatever this holiday means to you,

(even if it means nothing to my Jewish readers...)

have a good one, my friends!

Appreciate the beauty found outside

(even if it's

a tree in your neighbor's

yard.)

What are your Easter traditions?

Did you know

that little Swedes dress up as witches and go door

to door collecting candy? They represent the bad

witches that many Swedes believed came on the Thursday

before Good Friday!

And the Germans, of course, invented the Easter Egg,

chocolate Easter bunny, and hunting for Easter eggs!

Random Picture Time!

It's 9:54-- a bit too early to go to sleep on a Thursday night but too late to post anything fabulously creative. I'm in the procrastinating (studying for the massive M.A test that will eat me in six weeks) mood so I decided I'd just post a random picture! Or rather, I am posting a picture that is selected from my files at random.


Let's give it a try.
Oh yes. These are my headbands from the 80s and early 90s. I didn't want to forget them, but I knew that if I donated them nobody would wear them, so I did what I so often do. I snapped a photo for memories and tossed them.
My, those things were hideous, and yet I wore them practically every day. My daycare/babysitter lady, Lon, would make them for me.
What a diversion! What fun!
Good night, everyone!

p.s- Sorry, Cash. I think the one on the far left was yours...