cheesy

I did my patriotic thing at the Miller Outdoor Theater (along with half of Houston and all their collective children) with what was described as the Houston Symphony Orchestra. We couldn't see anything from our side of the hill, so I'll have to trust that it was.

I was wrong about The Yellow Rose of Texas. The handclaps come during Deep in the Heart of Texas, a strange ritual that always reminded me of a Catholic Mass or the "Ohhh!" at Camden Yards during the Star Spangled Banner--if you weren't raised Catholic, or a Baltimoron, you feel like you're the only one in the room with no idea what's going on.

The "Armed Services Medley" reminded me of Farenheit 9/11 (the other patriotic thing I did this weekend). That Michael Moore's a real jerk (ok--the woman is grieving, we understand, do not force us to watch for 10 minutes in order to elicit tears from the audience; the facts are strong enough on their own) but thank god for him. If I had bought popcorn, I would have thrown it at GWB's face on the screen many times throughout the movie. Since I had nothing to throw, I just seethed in my seat, joyfully envisioning my Texas ballot in the fall. The rest of the movie-goers, I imagine, were having similar fantasies, and cries of "he's a monster!" and spontaneous applause riddled the quiet theater. In HOUSTON this happened! No joke!

What I have left to say has no connection to any of this. I bought Wilson Philips's new CD for their goosebump-inducing cover of "Go Your Own Way." The rest of the album is, yes, a little cheesy, but not as cheesy as this exchange over grape juice:

M: This tastes horrible. How could juice have gone so wrong?
J: Because you keep buying weird juices. What was that one there--white cranberry or something? Why don't you just buy nice, normal orange juice?
M: This is normal--it's supposed to be white grape.
J: No. Grape juice should be purple.
M: That's just... you're-- you're GRAPCIST!

finding a voice

This post is dedicated mostly, but not entirely, to Heather, but not because she bullied me into it.

I haven't yet written about the National Writing Project class I'm taking, although I might soon. For now, I'll just say that yes, it's worth getting up at 7am and driving 45 minutes to Clear Lake (I pass two airports and NASA on the way, making the drive seem longer than it is).

Tom Romano, who is way cooler than any internet link I could find for him, spoke today about multigenre research papers and creating "voice" in writing. He first discovered his own voice in middle school, during a mandatory end-of-day study hall period which he used to send silly stories back and forth with a friend. I can relate.

When I first met Heather, we had nothing in common except for a shared amusement over Fernando _____? who hosted our weekly Inca videos in world history. Thus we began composing notes back and forth (even phone calls!) through the guise of Fernando, and we were multi-genre-ing without even knowing it. As a teacher, I try to encourage my students to respond to literature and learning in a personal way, because that's how we make connections and retain knowledge. Of course, this never occured to Heather and I as we were writing limericks on our math homework or mailing death threats that warned "stay away from Jem Finch, he's MINE" and writing silly quizzes and so on. We responded to books like Watership Down by poking fun at them ("Frith-RA!"), and at ourselves, because that is what readers and writers do. If there was ever any question about how I developed "voice" in my writing, it was because I was lucky enough to have a friend who pushed me to write and see MORE, to make it funnier, wittier, more personal, to own it.

There's more to be said about this, but I've been writing all day and my brain aches. The good kind of ache, like muscles sore from exercise. I will say that Michael Chabon of Kavalier and Clay fame stuck his pen into the screenplay for Spiderman 2, and it is really really really really great. In America is also an outstanding rental, so buy yourself some popcorn and tissues and enjoy.

hahahahaHAHAHAheee

"Among triathalete Mindy Surratt's many skills is her ability to juggle while riding a unicycle."

Some of her lesser-known skills (that only a former roommate could tell you) include:
-the ability to eat an entire box of Ritz crackers/carton of soy milk/pint of gelato/etc. in one sitting
-going for a four mile run after a night of drinking
-nearly killing the poor saps who agree to go running with her and actually try to keep up
-the "mindy dance"
-TWISTER!
-upside-down sit ups (in the living room)
-juggling fire while trampolining (she probably CAN, but she didn't)
-harmonizing to Sister Hazel during road trips
-listserv madness
-driving without pants

And yeah, she can unicycle. Big deal.

Austin, Reloaded

Pictures from 24 hours in Austin this weekend.

dear rain, you suck.

Is it not ironic, or at the very least floobatonic, that after all those nights of praying for a "flood day" (weather bad enough to close the schools, but not bad enough to damage my car) June rolls around and it just won't stop raining?

Dear computer geeks,

I've been staring at the Dell webpage for an hour now, and all I see is gibberish, combined with an urgent gut feeling that I have to buy NOW because OFFER ENDS TODAY. Luckily, I have consumer sense enough to know that someone out there knows more than me about finding a good deal on a desktop system. Here are my criteria:

-enough memory and hard drive space to run lots and hold lots without ever being a headache
-CDRW
-ethernet
-stereo speakers
-microsoft office (word, excel, powerpoint)
-not bulky (flat-screen monitor a plus)
-two year warranty
-$1000 or less

Could someone point me in the right direction, please? I trust Dell when it comes to laptops, but I have no idea where to look for a reliable, affordable desktop system.

Oh, and I don't want to pay for shipping.

Thanks mucho.

we can't all be astronauts

[the following conversation took place in front of the walk-through space shuttle replica at the Johnson Space Center]

kid: "Noooo... I don't wanna go up."
mom: "Go up where, sweetie?"
kid: "Into space."

Why We Can't Have Nice Things

It occurs to me that last week marked my two year anniversary of moving to Houston, a task I embarked on with only a compact car stuffed full of possessions, a good (but cramped) friend to keep me company, a wing and a prayer.

Since then, I've lived at three addresses, had four phone numbers, and accumulated furniture and necessities from various places: IKEA, Target, yard sales, side-of-road, hand-me-downs, Fiesta, etc. I sort of live like an adult now, but I never got over the transient lifestyle, and an aversion to collecting "things" that will only take up space the next time I have to move.

Accordingly, this post is dedicated entirely to stuff I don't have, and how I cope.

1. DVD/VCR player.

I do, reluctantly, have a television, purchased from Best Buy when Andrea and I realized that we needed the ability to rent movies. She took the VCR, I got the TV. Right now I'm borrowing Jeff's X-Box, which works for DVDs until, I suppose, we break up, or he suddenly decides that he needs to be able to play Ninja Gaiden at home again.

2. Wine Glasses.

I don't know what happened. I used to have wine glasses (cheap ones from the Blue Bird thrift store). I'm assuming they broke, possibly due to wine consumption or dirty dish mountains.

3. Measuring glass.

So a cup of liquid is about, like, yay much. This combined with a lack of 4. baking pans; 5. mixing bowl; 6. sugar (scratch that, bought some this week); and 7. flour... means that I don't make a whole lot of cookies. I do, however, have a truly fabulous electric mixer that came as a bonus to my vacuum cleaner (x-mas pressie). Moving on...

8. A working printer

I say "working" because ideally a printer's job is to print things, and I have two that do not.

When it comes down to it, the list of things-I-do-have-and-don't-need, or things-I-have-but-they're-total-crap (like the $5 yard sale microwave that always smells like pork) outnumbers anything I lack. One day, I imagine, I'll have a wedding and people will come and bring fond wishes and fancy knives, and it will be a chance to start over with real furniture and plates and silverware that match.

Until then, I'm a mismatch, owning nothing that can't be shoved in a Neon, thrown out by the side of the road, or shipped across the country book-rate.

life in excess

Last week was just bursting with food and drink and music and exposure and weather and people, people, people.

I'm tired now and I need to be still. Thank you, I had a lovely time.

Eat more pictures

I'll be posting the pictures from my Maryland trip in installments, since there are a truckload of them.



First stop: Annapolis for pre-wedding get-together.



Next stop: Mount Vernon, Baltimore to check out Kristen's new neighborhood

and i ran...

So, remember that thing about the paperwork that I blatantly ignored before I ran off to another state? I got called about it today. I'm not sure what to do. All right--you got me. I'm coming out with my hands in the air. I have completely and utterly failed at red tape. Please put me in teacher detention with the rest of the riff-raff.

(Might I stop here to brag that 95% of my students passed the TAKS writing test. All but 8, and three of them were in the office all the time and one transferred to my class after the test. This, according to the office, is my only redeeming quality right now.)

This summer is all about being a grown-up and keeping my apartment clean and stocked with food and necessities. Going to the doctor. Checking my mail. Paying bills on time. Watering the plants. I've lived alone for nearly a year now and only now do I actually have time to do it right...

The cat and I live quietly. She lets me pick boogers out of her eyes now without squirming. That, my friends, is love.

First things first

Pictures from Ladyfest.

round trip

origin: houston; destination: maryland =

five airports and three planes.

(you figure it out, I dare you)

More to say about this later. Meanwhile, much love and thanks go out to the MacBrides. You are beautiful and we had a fabulous time.











See? Fabulous!

souvenirs

Things I am bringing back from Maryland:

-knitting needles
-yarn
-2 containers of vitamins
-12 old issues of Cricket magazine
-assorted City Papers
-Wilco, Jonathan Richmond, Crooked Fingers

And books. It's good to know that even when I finish my book on the airplane, I'm guaranteed to find something interesting for the flight back from my dad's bookshelves.

And pictures. Sooo many pictures. I've commissioned eriC for a new webpage design (you can, too! He's looking for freelance work) based on "still life with scissors" and I'm actually looking forward to getting fruitcakebrigade off the ground again with three new sets of photos: 1. artcars; 2. Austin Ladyfest; 3. Jessie's wedding

This summer, I am also looking forward to the Greater Houston Area Writing Project, making a trip to California to visit Mindy and Jess, and catching up on past-due projects, like those guitar lessons and learning to knit (I have 7 inches of scarf, so far).

There are some new, secret projects, too, and I can't help but reflect that it's good, good, good to be a teacher in June.

six hours on the airplane...

...and I didn't even wind up in Europe.

Hi, I'm in Maryland for Jessie and Devin's wedding. Be back in Houston on Sunday.

Cicada spotting: 0.

(Where are they hiding? I want to take one home as a pet!)