Inspirational Words

So I was cruising the blogosphere looking for Decorating Porn, because I totally don't have three more papers to write in the next ten days and have plenty of time to look at decorating porn. Yup. No problem here. Move along officer... when I came across this post from The Uncluttered Lifestyle. Inspirational words on the wall in her office. Faith, Imagine, Love, Family...really nice words that illustrate how she lives her life. Not to mention a beautiful home office to blog in, rather than my preferred workspace of the couch with my laptop and a glass of wine in arms reach.

What would my inspirational word wall say?

Wine

Procrastinate

QUIET!

Damn

No

Later

Hmmm...I'm thinking I should work on how I live my life. It's not looking so hot on the wall. Maybe I'll make a wall of how OTHER people live their lives. Much more company-ready than mine.

Counting Down

10 days until the end of the quarter and the end of my first full year of grad school...

4 weeks and 5 days until I go to Vegas with BFF Cousin...

5 weeks and 3 days until I go to Australia with Marvelous Mom to visit Scientist Genius Brother and his FIANCEE!!!! Yup, that's right, he FINALLY popped the question! She said yes and the wedding planning is ON!

3 more papers to write and then I can relax.

Iran Trip Part I: by Thing 2

Hey folks, Thing 2 here. We just got back from Iran! And by "just" I do not mean "just," as it was just a few weeks ago, so saying "just" would just be unjust, and saying so would do me no justice and be just plain unjustified. I'm just sayin'.

You know what's a really stupid name for a movement? Antidisestablishmentarianism. Why not just call yourselves the "Double Negativists," or "The We Failed English Classists?" Cut out the middle man! Stop foolin' around and admit who you really are!

*ahem*

Anyway, Iran. It was an enlightening experience. I can't type out all of my thoughts on Iran in one go, because my brain is faster than my tongue, and my tongue is faster than my fingers. Hey-o!

Here you can see a really old bathroom of a really old castle from the 1700s. The echo was absolutely unbelievable; I couldn't understand what I or anyone was saying! I tried to say,

"These pillars have really intricate patterns on them."

but what I ended up saying was,

"THROOMWORKRWXPPLLGARMNOOBBODMPADMPTRAKLZPNTTRAAGFSMDRM!"

"Buddy, are those your kids over there?"

"Yeah."

"Are they speaking English?"

"Yeah."

"Are they American?"

"They're Iranian-American kids."

"Wow! As a tour guide, I think that I'll drop everything I'm doing in my busy schedule and whatnot and give them a personal tour, free of charge!"

"Gee, thank you, sir!"

"Do they speak Farsi?"

"No, they never bothered t-"

"You must be a terrible father. Shame on you! Here, be my translator."

We climbed a whole mountain, and got a beautiful view of the Tehran smogscape!

Come, my children! Have you your jackets and water bottles and ovaloid chunks of flatbread? We shall take the fight to the mountains!

Whoever heard about the Western tradition of throwing coins into fountains must have translated it as throwing money into fountains. We saw in fountains golden coins, silvery coins, and...paper bills. Yes. Actual, real people decided that it was a good idea to

Throw.

Paper.

Money.

Into a fountain.

Wait, that's not the best part! Here's the kicker: At the end of one fountain, we saw resting at the bottom of the pool, rendered almost invisible by the obscuring effect of the wind blowing across the water...

A CREDIT CARD.

Pardon my Sanskrit, but WHO THE HECK DOES THAT?!? Did some obscenely wealthy international fatcat stop by and say, "Gosh, I really need good luck on the next shareholder's meeting. I know! Here, have a freshly-picked Visa from my personal money tree!"

I mean, that's just silly.

The Snowball Effect

The ubiquitous "they" say that getting started is the hardest part. They're right.

For my Organizational Change class I had to pick something I wanted to change about my habits and keep track of it over the course of 8 weeks. At first I picked something way to big with too many small habits to change all at once, so I revised it to be "Drink 72 ounces of water a day".

In six weeks I have managed to develop the habit of drinking water all day and it has snowballed all out of control. I drink less Diet Coke because I am not thirsty. I sleep better at night. I've been drinking wine less frequently and when I do, drinking fewer glasses. On Friday I spent four hours mulching the gardens, on Saturday I walked my first ever 5k and daughter and I are signed up for another 5k next Sunday. The more water I drink, the more energy I have, and the more I want to move around.

Wow, I could really get used to this!

May Flowers

Celebrating a beautiful sunny day (finally) and the late-blooming tulips that are springing up all over our yard. We have been doing some major work to the yard and hopefully soon I will have the before and after shots. I hope Nannie is enjoying the flowers too, a beautiful garden was one of her favorite things.

Curious

Why is it that when Health Care costs soar higher and higher, the republicans fight tooth and nail against any government intervention whatsoever but when gas prices shoot sky high they scream that the (Democratic, natch) president is not doing enough to intervene.

Priorities people. Get some.