fridee

hooray for weekends, hooray for hot chocolate with chocolate chips stirred in, hooray for new mixes, hooray for doorbell ditching, hooray for little notes to people i love, hooray for the chilliness which means I get to wear scarves and boots every day, hooray for preach my gospel, hooray for baseball hats, hooray for babies and classes all about them, hooray for 12-year olds who can't stop talking about star wars, hooray for phone calls to connect me to parents, hooray for old journal entries which help me make sense of everything senseless, hooray for running into secret crushes all the time, hooray for letters from out of the country, hooray for soup, hooray for old friends coming to visit, hooray for the temple on the hill, hooray for everything, everything.

and while i'm at it, here's what else is making me happy this week.

1. passion pit, and this song.

2. hocus pocus, a classic. (yes, I am aware it is a halloween movie, but it's still october in my mind)

3. this post by sydney. baby hunger, get thee hence!

4.autumn bike rides.

5. this video--just too good to be true.

6. postmodernism, for making me want to cry every time i do an assignment. the stories are so stinkin' good. all of you should read this book.

7. newspaper poetry.

8. awesome/amazing/brilliant ideas that strike in the middle of the night (sound familiar? the same thing happened about a year ago....and strangely it had to do the with the exact same subject. see number 8.). this one is just...oh man, i don't even have words.

9. this idea to make popcorn, saved me moolah. and now i eat popcorn a lot more. hrm....

what can i say, it's friday and it's november and nobody is playing Christmas music at the moment, so i'm feeling snaaazzy. how is your weekend looking?

dance, dance, dance the night away.

so chin up, and we'll drown slower

from here

I knew when I woke up this morning--actually long before I woke up--that this week was going to be one from the place down under. And I'm not talking about Australia. So instead of thinking about that, I decided to make a happy list.

1. the smell of old books. I smelled not one but three yellow-paged books today. I'm sure everybody on the 2nd floor was confused. They just don't undastan!
2. buying one of these beauties at last. This Saturday is gonna be like Christmas! No foolin'.
3. autumny music like this and this and this (p.s. no clue why there's a hockey player picture on that middle video. just listen to the music, kids).
4. the smattering of new freckles which has recently taken up residence on my forehead. um, helllooo, I haven't been in Mexican sunshine for six (?!) months now. What are you doing up there?
5. finally getting to wear my boots and sweaters and corduroy skirts. p.s. corduroy is a weird word.
   
6. indexing like I usually do on Sundays and putting down the occupation of a 3-year old as "scholar." Back in the olden days, it didn't matter how old you were--if you were in school, you were a scholar. Check. Yes.
7. the sound of leaves crunching beneath my bike tires. also, that cool autumn breeze on my face doesn't hurt either. basically, the only bad thing about bike rides in the fall is all of the bugs I have to swallow. Ick.
8. mailing not one but two letters this past week. And one of them was very obese...dear Amy, I hope you have warmed up your eyes for this one.
9. writing notes on gum wrappers. this used to be a cb scent and mcfrenzy tradition. I try to pretend she's still here sometimes.
10. letting my roommate cut my hair--it was gratis, guys. and not only was it zero dollah, it was also snazzy. My head feels lighter. Hopefully it's not because my brain is melting from all of this schooling...
11. finding old quotes from the chilluns in my journals.

Ellie: Why do we have Easter?
Mom: Because Jesus died and then got resurrected.
Ellie: So he got zapped?
Mom: Huh? Zapped?
Ellie: Yeah, zapped! Bippity-boppity-boo!

Gotta love Disney.

notice how the sun sets...

it starts to dip its hand in

a little anxious,

then the hues explode

each night when i go home

i turn around

start walking backwards

look down the street to see it

the same different patterns

over and again

this day, the kids shined

like the sun,

timid at first,

then their smiles came

they were proud of themselves

i was proud of themselves, too

now i know what it's like

to be a parent, holding the camcorder

waiting for the kid to mess up

but hoping with all you have

that they won't

now i know what it's like

to love someone else so much

you forget about all of your imperfections

and i watch

because

the sun keeps setting.

little hugs with little arms

when i woke up there was a breeze

bringing with it

words i don't know how to write

only feel

we walked through

a familiar neighborhood in the dark,

i felt so safe,

and people call it dangerous.

before i came, everyone told me

to be safe

never go alone, never look up, never be without fear

but they should have warned me

of how i would fall so easily

for those faces

their arms brush past,

just like that breeze

all at once i'm home again

home again.

home.