fear of the blog

it's true, i have been putting off writing for a little while.  i mean, i wake up every morning with all these best intentions to write about europe and about being home and to finally upload/download (i never know which) pictures of the last 2 months...heck, even just the last 2 days would be fun enough.  but then i get busy catching rollypollies and making rainbow-pop-bead necklaces with melissa, and chasing ice cream trucks with rosie, and reading books, and making crepes, and digging my bedroom out of the 3 months of luggage and europe under which i have buried it.

so suffice it to say the following:
1) i have been brushing my teeth with sparkle fun toothpaste for the last week because i forget/am too lazy to go get a tube of real toothpaste from upstairs.  it's pathetic.  i know.  but every time i use it, i think of this toothpaste from my childhood (picture up/download alert!  (hey up/down, sorta like that book "up the down staircase" which i have never read but see every time i bookshop at d.i.  yes bookshop like the noun, but used like a verb.  yes it's 12:36 at night and my mind's going a little berserk.))

does anyone else remember this stuff?  some truly genius person invented a STAR-SHAPED OPENING in the toothpaste tube.  this means that all that bubble-fun goodness came out as a STAAARRRR on your toothbrush.  i need to find me some of this.

2) in only 4 days, i managed to get back on my awful (and perhaps awe-ful, as watching it in action is a sight to behold) sleeping pattern.  late bedtime, late risetime.  those 4 days when i went to sleep at 10 and got up at 7 were really lovely though...so lovely, in fact, that i am making that.....

(trumpet noises please)

my 30 day challenge!!  (i hope the UFC announcer voice with which i said that in my head came through to yours whilst you read it.)

3) three 30 day challenges (silence ye nay-sayers that think i should start with only one!) :
A) drink 64 ounces of water every day.
B) go to bed at 10 pm every day that i am home at 10 pm (clearly the clause here allows for dates, late-night ice cream truck runs, getting lost in the woods, and so forth),
and C) ...i think i need a new number for this one:

4) (deep intake of air) drive the speed limit and let other people pass me.  pass me occasionally.  (swift outtake of air (outtake?  outlet?  release?)...scratch that: large sigh.)  i know, i know.  this isn't really my "thing".  but i haven't driven for three months, so what better time to break an old habit and start a new one.  i suppose.

5) been listening to pretty much only justin vernon since i got home.  his new album, ooohh boy.  prepare yourself.  it really is the kind that unfolds around you, more and more every time you listen, until you find yourself living inside the songs.  an odd feeling.  but it's bon iver.  (quick lesson in bon iver: it's pronounced "bone eve-AIR."  NOT "bahn EYE-ver."  i've just been to france so i feel justified in that little rant.)

6) and tonight, after watching "the great debaters" (excellent movie--make it the next one you watch), my grandma got to telling us stories about my dad and what an exceptional person he is.  these were stories i hadn't heard before.  these were of course followed by a discussion of death and the swiftness of life (MEMENTO MORI! (to be said ghostly, obviously)).  so now i'm panicking a little bit as i look back on my life.  i mean seriously, what have i been doing all these 25 years?!  somedays, i swear.  i need to get with the program.  this translates tonight into mini mental pep talks about how next year i need to be a better grad student.  you know, days in the library, not eating anything, buried in books.  probably wearing argyle and sweater vests everywhere i go.  ha.  oh and my hipster fake glasses.  (please notice i did not say fake hipster glasses.  they are real hipster, but fake glasses.  again, it's late.)  now, though, lest i pass up a good opportunity to actually share something of significance, i must say this regarding the swiftness of life: every time i think about distance and velocity and things like that when it comes to accolades and accomplishments in life, i think about this scripture (mosiah 3:19--book of mormon), which reminds me that what is most important are things like humility and patience and love.  that's where my focus should really be.  (and then i really need to get with the program.  ha.)

7) and funny line of the night: my dad thought the book "the secret life of bees" was entitled "the secret life of peas."  i am now in the grassroots stages of writing said novel.  prepare yourself world.  it's gunna be big.