Strange Maps, Strange Plants

My thoughts are incoherent, so I’ll just pass on the thoughts of others tonight.

1.) from Simply Recipes: How to Cook and Eat an Artichoke (useful information).

2.) from Strange Maps: Your Antipods Most Likely Have Fins (good to know).

Shooting the Messenger

I can’t watch the news anymore. I can’t stand the way that it’s always something — very public racial comments, severe spring weather, and now a major shooting at a university — presented 24/7 as though they are of equal importance or equal urgency, as though a spring storm will bring us to our [...]

More Anxiety

So I have to take my comprehensive exam this week — the penultimate hoop to jump through before receiving my master’s in library and information science. How do you study two years’ worth of material in such a way that you can intelligently write on three unknowable questions? I’ll be fine, and at [...]

Tipping Point

I used to think of myself as a generous tipper, which basically meant that I would leave more than my dad would in any given situation. I waitressed in small-town restaurants through high school and (partly due to the nature of small town restaurants and cheap tourists, and partly due (I’m sure) to my [...]

A Little Shock

A couple days ago I was a few minutes late for work.  Traffic?  Beautiful as always on my sidestreet route.  Weather?  Crisp and dry.  Shower? Night before. Location of keys? Predictable.  Hair? Graying.
Yep.  Graying.  It’s been headed in that direction for a while — I lived in Fort Collins when the first one emerged (and [...]

Where I Went, What I Saw (Part IV: The Reading)

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Displaying a lack of foresight, I began last week’s trip with two books: my Intellectual Freedom Manual (a textbook for one of my courses) and Love’s Executioner by Irvin Yalom, of which I only had about 40 pages left to read. The well-meaning side of me figured I’d finish the for-pleasure [...]

Where I Went, What I Saw (Part III: The Walking)

I’m a fan of walking. I prefer, when traveling, to avoid local public transportation as much as possible — you miss entire worlds if you speed through as a passenger, or worse yet — as a driver. New York, however, is pretty big, and we were on a mission to get over [...]

Briefing

This is so clever I think I’ll buy her book.
And this was awesome on the radio tonight.  I had no doubts that I would buy it (on the very day it comes out), but hearing it on the radio makes me more excited.
Speaking of radio, I hope this is effective.  I have a friend who [...]

Where I Went, What I Saw (Part II: The Shoes)

I’ve had some monstrous blisters before (photos available upon request, but I don’t want to subject you to them unwillingly). I’ve had sore feet. I choose comfort over fashion. Which is why I brought one pair of shoes (not five) on this trip: the trusty Dansko clogs that are moderately hideous (or [...]

Where I Went, What I Saw (Part I: The Art)

My sister and I traveled “back” east (which isn’t really “back” when you’re from the west, is it?) last Friday, and just got home last night. She’s looking at grad schools, and wanted to spend time in Philadelphia to see what she thought… And then on Thursday she found out she got into [...]