walls

I meant to post those when I got my room all settled and decorated in our new arrangement after christmas break. but ... it's still awesome, so here it is:

gobbledigook

I am being SO snarky today.
downhill since yesterday afternoon.
except for andy's family - they don't make me snarky at all.
they make me laugh a lot.

last night, facts were sprung on me.
facts I still have not yet been able to process emotionally.
which is driving me freaking crazy.
or snarky.
or whatever.

I slept on the couch.
and slept badly.
and didn't shower this morning.

and after work, I'm skipping my classes
to go home and crawl back into my comforter.
and try to process emotionally.
which is always difficult and confusing and lame.

and makes me snarky.

this song has meant so many different things to me.
all of them existed beneath my skin in a place I can't describe.
in an inseparable and undefinable way.
sigur ros tends to do that to me.

well, I can't get it out of my head:

this is me today

alas

gratitude notebook

well, I filled up my cahier de reconnaissance. now I need another cute notebook ... darn it. I always need another cute notebook.

here is what I have been grateful/happy for:

(before christmas)

+ orange juice and fruit

+ Flight of the Conchords

+ I love wearing skirts & dresses - every every day

+ the quaint-ness of the local news

+ my bed

+ going to wal-mart with dad

+ my skinny jeans felt too loose on me

+ the most comfortable underwear ever

+ samantha is soft and adorable and still alive

+ cranberry sauce

+ pilates in the early morning

+ swiss cheese

+ the sound of rain on the new windows

(after christmas)

+ the smell of charles's shirts

+ alpaca-hat hair

+ driving abraham's car

+ being funny and making people laugh

+ getting my hands inky from the printer

+ empanadas

+ practically living in the JKB

+ aerobics

+ matisyahu

+ going to see david in tartuffe

+ cleaning the bathroom

+ dancing in the kitchen

+ andy

feeling creative

oceane is amazing.

who needs henna when you have her and a marker?

b-day card for andy

he liked it :)

soundtrack

We're alive in lofty stratospheres
With currents that keep us afloat
Beyond the reaches of outside noise
-- with only this soundtrack playing
around our ears and through our chests.

Un-played scenes flicker across my eyes,
Shot with an old scratched-lens camera
In the style of faded prairie dreams
-- the tape ticking in the background,
sound reel to my silent laughter.

The sunlight flashes haphazardly,
Behind your head and through your hair,
Streaks that open and close in your form
-- the black-out of this stop-action
cinematography of love.

All bathed in old film candy-bright blues
A color aura that seeps in
And stains my lungs so word-song comes out
-- in music notes and baby birds
of magenta and kelly green.

So we catch them with butterfly nets
To take to the top of the hill
And release, but they don't fly away
-- they settle in the tree branches
and serenade us while we sleep.

home sweet home

can I please pretty please steal it?

NOW

or build it.

whatever.

stealing is so much cheaper.

a collection of possibilities

roundtrips from salt lake to:

seattle - $247
burlington - $391
reykjavik - $1000 ($827 from Pittsburgh)

seattle - an upcoming weekend perhaps
burlington - july vacation with the family
reykjavik - christmas break

roadtrips:
(for when, you know, I finally get a car)

utah/california as base -
yellowstone
redwoods national park
san francisco

penn/vermont as base -
michigan
back to tennessee
maine
quebec

miscellaneous future excursions:
chile (esp valparaiso - claire says it is the city for me)
new zealand
morocco
wales/ireland/scotland/the like
switzerland

and within the next 3 years:
africa - umm. everywhere. but especially senegal and kenya.

cannonball

I put these videos up on vimeo and facebook, so I imagine some of you have already seen them, but I'll keep putting them on here, too. for those who don't frequent those other places (my father).

cannonball from tina verbena on Vimeo.

boy lilikoi

kryn thought I would like this song and man, was he right. it. is. incredible. it has inspired me to change my life. or at least feel like I can when I listen to this song. well, all of jonsi's songs, actually. but that's even better!

cecilia

cecilia from tina verbena on Vimeo.

well what do you know - I'm alive

oh my holy goodness, it's been a long time. you know why? the things I have to do are not impossible anymore, so I can actually do them and don't have to put them off due to the sheer terror of impossibility, so no more procrastinating through the blog ...

anyway, more to come soon, I promise. I've been singing up a storm on my ukulele and I'll be posting some sparse little covers here and there, and I'm also working on writing a song! which is so exciting! because I've tried before and it was just really hard but for some reason when I tried again, it was a piece of cake ... must be all of these poetic creative juices I've been cultivating this year. or perhaps because working in a chord mindset by playing the ukulele is easier for song-writing than a melodic piano mindset.

school is good. I am exhausted. I didn't catch up on any much-needed sleep over the weekend. but I did go to celesta's house for dinner and had a fun time. I came bearing gifts of books I got for super cheap at a bargain book sale. I love books and I love giving gifts and I love giving books as gifts! ta-da!

well, I've got to go put my laundry in the dryer. cheerio.