best time of the year

i have lots of real life things i should blog about, but instead, can we talk about how it is autumn? this is the best time of the year. nice weather, pretty, halloween candy, blah blah blah:

GOOD TELEVISION IS BACK.

jet lag

i got back from Australia exactly one week ago. since then i have not woken up of my own volition before noon (most days i'm dragging myself out of bed by the early hour of 1pm). last night i decided to go to bed really early (ie, at midnight) to convince my body to get up earlier. i woke up at 5:30am and slept fitfully till 7:30am. Around 8am (10pm in Australia), I fell blissfully asleep until noon. Proof that my body just wants to stay up till 3am and sleep till noon. if only school & work were cool with that schedule.

bathroom etiquette

i hate public restrooms but unless you are agoraphobic they are unavoidable. sadly, some people do not seem to understand how to behave in them. here are some general guidelines:

1. no talking. it is just awkward. if it is just you & your mom, i'll let it slide. but if anyone else enters the facilities, cease conversation immediately. no one wants to hear it.

2. no talking to me. even/especially if you are my mom, i will refuse to speak to you if i am in a stall.

3. the no talking rule goes double for cell phones. what is the person on the other end thinking?

4. if there are more than 2 stalls and 1 is occupied, use the one that does not border the occupied one. i do not understand how when there are 5 empty stalls, you are going to pick the only one that borders mine. (i always use the 1st stall b/c a) lower chance of someone being next to you and b) i read an article about how it was the cleanest b.c fewer people use it - stall 2 is the most used. fyi.)

5. if you are a male, being gay is not a valid reason for using the women's restroom. (i'm looking at you, Midtown)

6. if you are my male co-worker who keeps using the women's restroom & leaving the seat up - SERIOUSLY? the only person with a penis allowed in there is the transgendered girl & i'm pretty sure she's not putting the seat up. unless you are ready to fully commit to the life of a woman the way she has, walk the 15 feet around the corner and use the men's room.

the monthly update

the last few weeks have been a little crazy. i was going to move into a house with these two girls at the beginning of june but they both flaked out 2 days before we supposed to move. so i was homeless for about 2 hours and then my dear friend, RationalThought, showed up & said i could live in her guest room. a ton of people helped me move - half of them took my crap to a storage unit and the other team took stuff to RationalThought's house. so when i got home, it was all there waiting for me. my friends are kinda awesome.

me & RationalThought. the creepy head floating above her shoulder looks like The Manorexic, but i'm not sure

despite my amazing friends, the whole moving thing was kinda stressful. so i skipped work last week & went to the beach with some girls from church. i forgot to take any pictures of the beach, but here is our successful grilling attempt:

these girls dressed in matching outfits the whole time. i don't know why.

i also totally got a tan, but you'll just have to imagine what that looks like. and now i have 1 more month of work before i quit my job and spend a month traveling!

heavy things i could not see

may has been quite the month. here are a few things i did:

i went camping here. it was wonderful - perfect weather & i slept all night long thanks to earplugs & drugs.

i went to the re-dedication of the atlanta temple

i spent a weekend in alabama picking up trash after the tornados

Boy & i went to our cousin's wedding in north carolina

and this weekend, i am moving!

the most patriotic post i'll ever write

i feel such ambivalence as i watch the national reaction and counter reaction to the news about Osama bin Laden's death. i am glad a man that represented such evil is not in my world anymore. but then i read quotes like this one by Martin Luther King, Jr:

"I mourn the loss of thousands of precious lives, but I will not rejoice in the death of one, not even an enemy. Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that."

does rejoicing in the death of an enemy automatically equal hate? perhaps. can we be happy someone who attacked our nation and irreversibly changed our lives does not have that power anymore without feeling hatred toward him? i don't know. i certainly don't want to chant "USA! USA!" or wrap a flag around my shoulders, but i will not pretend i want him in my world. while i do not personally celebrate his death and wish he had been captured alive (for a myriad of reasons), i view his death as good news for me & my country.

i feel no hatred for bin Laden. i kinda pity him. at what point has one lost so much of his humanity that thousands celebrate his death?

Arab Americans celebrate the news of Osama bin Laden's death (NYTimes)

i marked the news of his death last night the way i marked the September 11th attacks (and the way i remembered that day when i watched United 93*) - by crying on my couch. other took to the streets in what seemed like a post-game celebration. appropriate or not, i can understand their feelings. the events on September 11th were devastating for all Americans, but the physically harmed cities bore a special burden the rest of us cannot claim to understand. when spontaneous celebrations break out in DC & NYC, the two cities bin Laden's minions undeniably hurt the most, i am hesitant to vilify these communities for a moment of open catharsis.

the worst part of September 11th is the uncertainty that has followed. the last decade has been filled with violence, death, and tragedy. and while those things are far from gone, bin Laden's death is a monumental symbolic victory for our side. it says to all those people who have lived in fear that while evil may strike and innocents may die, those that attack us will answer for their crimes and, ultimately, we will win. and if that is what people were celebrating last night, i am with them (in spirit at least).

*anyone who can watch "United 93" without becoming an emotional wreck is dead inside

Epic Love Story

my beloved grandmother passed away one year ago this week. anyone who has had more than 3 conversations with me knows my love for my maternal grandparents borders on obsession. accordingly, i did not handle her death very well (i was kinda a wreck for about 2 months). as the year anniversary has approached, i have found myself working her into random conversations. also, i may or may not have forced RationalThought to look at pictures of her house for 20 minutes last week. but this post is less about her & more about some awesome people i met through her.

for me spring break equals florida. almost every year of my childhood we traveled to Mt.Dora and stayed in the little pink cottage for a week. we usually spent one day at Disney World, one day at the hot springs, and the rest of the days playing in the next door neighbors pool. these neighbors, the Huebners, were almost as much a part of my florida world as my grandparents were. one day my grandmother told me about how they met:

during world war II Teresea was a young nurse living in what was then Czechoslovakia. after the nazi army invaded, she began working at a military hospital. while there she met Martin, an injured German solider, and they fell deeply in love. when Martin finished his convalescence he was sent back to the front, but before leaving he gave Teresea his sister's address in Berlin and asked her to try to find him after the war. (at this point, the war was ending and he knew a former German solider would not be welcome back in Czechoslovakia). when the war ended, Teresea set off to find Martin. the railways and roads had been bombed so she decided to walk. along her way she met some American GIs who let her spend the night in one of their tents and gave her food (after that night she decided she loved Americans and America). after several weeks of walking through war-torn lands, she arrived in Berlin only to discover she had lost the piece of paper with Martin's sister's address on it. not knowing anyone in Berlin, she spent the next 2 days wandering around the city asking everyone she saw if they knew Clara Huebner. eventually, she found someone who knew her and he took Teresea to Clara's house where she was reunited with Martin. they married in Berlin and eventually immigrated to the States.

i just love how ridiculously dramatic their story is. if i ever write a screenplay it will be based on Teresea and Martin (and Joe Wright will direct it). can you imagine the scene when she finally sees Martin again in Berlin? cue the crane shot and sweeping music... now.