I told you it was false

Classes were canceled for the first time in my 2 1/2 years at college, and I spent the morning (after taking these pictures) drinking Chai tea and reading Ulysses S. Grant's memoirs. It really was as romantic as it sounds.

I would like to see truthful history written. Such history will do full credit to the courage, endurance and soldierly ability of the American citizen, no matter what section of the country he hailed from, or in what ranks he fought. ~ U. S. Grant

false spring

Everyone is skipping today, it seems. It's 60 degrees outside and my window's open. I just wrote a poem about the snowflakes falling not two days ago, and now the sun is shining and the mud is thawing and people are skipping. They're not thinking about the fact that tomorrow it's supposed to be 34 degrees or that it's only January 23rd and we have many more months of winter to go through. But it's okay. Because right now it's spring. I wonder if all of a sudden a bunch of random people will decide to start dating, and then tomorrow they'll break up because the wintry clouds of dissension will rip apart their love affair. Dun, dun, dun!

Why do people have to be mean? Why do they have to say mean things? Here's my challenge for you (and me) this day: Consider other peoples' hearts before you speak. What might not hurt you might hurt them. Even something so little and flippant can be taken to heart if the heart is sensitive. Not everybody needs to hear what you think. Sometimes "being kind" is not saying anything at all. And rewinding your video tapes before returning them to your local library or video store.

I wish I had more time and the means to bake new recipes and knit new patterns and read new (to me) novels. Contrary to popular belief, The Habsburg Monarchy is not interesting. At all. I look forward to the day when I marry someone rich and he faithfully supports me while I cook him meals and knit him socks and dedicate my books to him. Unless he is poor, in which case I will most likely be working in a laundry room for the rest of my life because I already know how to fold fitted sheets. Really well.

Somehow this weather is making me very pessimistic. Maybe 'cause I know it's just kidding. And I don't like to be kidded. (If I had a scowl and a gun I would pull them out right now and look intimidating. Instead all I have is some pink yarn and a class at 3...so I should probably go.)

be it ever so humble

There are some things that the absence of is needed in order to make you realize how much you loved it. My cold feet at night remind me of how warm my heated mattress pad made my flannel sheets. The orange-ish red concoction on the main line makes me realize how delicious Dad's turkey soup was. Waking up to the dark and a piercing alarm reminds me of the slow, sleepy awakenings to dishes clanging in the kitchen and light peeking through the slats in my blinds. Icy pellets from the sky onto sloppy muddy earth only slightly resemble the large flakes landing softly on an already existing blanket of whiteness.

Highlights of Christmas break '08:
+ Hiking through 2 feet of snow, burrowing under fallen logs, getting pushed in the snow by Dad who thought it'd be funny to spear me with his walking pole like Moby Dick.
+ the Christmas Eve service...twice.
+ Watching Band of Brothers in my bed.
+ Shoveling snow the first five times...after that it got tiring.
+ The first 300 pages of Anna Karenina...after that it got tiring.
+ Playing the Andy of Mayberry trivia game and speed scrabble with the fam. (Dad: "Do you spell 'slut' with one 't' or two?")
+ Watching Clint Eastwood movies, war documentaries, and Valkyrie with Dad.
+ Staying in my pajamas all day.
+ Baking peanut butter cookies every time the supply ran out.
+ Venturing by foot into unknown, snowy lands in search of the post office and stumbling into it like a dazed elf sutmbling into a ginger bread house on his way to the North Pole.

I miss Bing Crosby. And this: