Everything's Coming Up

Mussels and I had a lingering breakup Sunday evening. It was the second time, and they don't get a third try. No, I don't think anything was wrong with the mussels themselves.
It's now Thursday, and my chest muscles are still sore. Ouch.

Movin' On Up

Photograph from the 2008 Chicago Air & Water Show by kudzuplanet

Dad is retiring from the ministry in June, which means he and Mom will be moving. Oh joy, oh rapture: more packing/unpacking. My family has become as nomads, each of us moving every couple of years. My sister and I moved to a new apartment in August; my grandmother followed suit in December. Once again, all of us will have moved within a year. (And that's not even counting my office's move back in June.) Thankfully, these will likely be the last moves for my parents and grandmother, unless they get to the point that they need more assistance.


This week also marks my parents' birthdays (today and Thursday), plus Valentine's Day, which this year is balanced out for us singles by Friday the 13th the day before. Maybe I'll host a wake Friday night, or at least dress all in black.

Try To Be A Straight-A Student

My first assignment for my graduate class got a virtual thumbs up from the professor. He's using part of it as a discussion point for the rest of the class. This makes me feel a little better about my chances to do well in graduate school!

Unfortunately, work has been very difficult the past few weeks and doesn't appear to have any intention of improving soon. I just need to keep reminding myself of how blessed I am to have a good, stable job that I (mostly) enjoy.

A Change is Gonna Come

Image taken at Atlanta Botanical Garden by Robbie, April 2007.

Twenty years ago today, I was in Washington, DC, for the inauguration of George H.W. Bush. My college band was a national representative in the parade, or I never would have been able to go—or wanted to, really, since I wasn't much of a political maven in those days. It was the Bicentennal Inaugural, 200 years since George Washington was sworn in as our first president under the new Constitution. Think of all we've learned since 1789!

I'll be watching the Inauguration today at my desk at work, via the CNN feed provided by my employer. No matter your opinion of the policy positions held by our new president, it's impossible to deny the importance of this event. For the first time in our 220-year history, our president will not be a white man. All of us who don't fit into that mold suddenly find that glass ceiling over our heads crumbling to dust.

On a subject much less historic but still personally notable, I start graduate school today. My textbooks are waiting for me in the leasing office of my apartment complex, and I've just downloaded the syllabus from Blackboard. I'm nervous but excited, on a much smaller scale like the Obamas feel today, I imagine.

It's a chance for a new beginning for all of us, and I hope we'll embrace it.

Most Sensational, Inspirational

Atlanta skyline from the Omni Hotel. Photograph by Shannon Noelle, taken September 1, 2007.

As part of our New Year's resolution to do more things here in town, my sister and I spent several hours Saturday at the Atlanta History Center, most of it in the exhibit "Jim Henson's Fantastic Worlds." Fantastic doesn't begin to describe it. You might expect something that's 98% Muppets, but it was closer to a 60/40 split. They had all sorts of projects he did back in the 1950s and 1960s: silkscreen posters and art done in college, cartoons and pen-and-ink drawings, storyboards for various films, and even a showing of the film "Time Piece," which he wrote, directed, and starred in, and for which he earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Short Subject, Live Action Subjects, in 1966 (I never knew about that).

It was an amazing journey into the mind of an amazing man, and one that took me back through my childhood in the process. I highly recommend seeing any part of this collection if you can. It's a Smithsonian traveling exhibit; schedule dates are available here.

Another Auld Lang Syne

Photograph from the Art Institute of Chicago by Kudzu Planet.

Like most of you probably do, I get introspective and contemplative at the start of each new year. I'm not one for making big lists of resolutions and trying to change my life every January, but it's a good time to take a look around and change things that just aren't working. That can mean getting rid of things, or it can mean filling in gaps.

My sister and I spent the past few days doing that with our apartment, and it's refreshing to look around and see only things that we choose to see: no boxes, no clutter. At the same time, I picked out some things I'm not using at home that will go to my office, to make it feel more comfortable and more like my own space.

Unfortunately, weeding out bad habits is much more difficult than making cosmetic changes to your living environment. It's even harder to remember that every day is a blank slate and a chance to try again. January may be a convenient tipping point, but in reality, a new year, with all its promises, starts every morning. Wake up and smell more than just the coffee!

Under Pressure

I think my problem with public blogging is that there's just TOO MUCH PRESSURE. In my private blog, I can blather on all day about the minutiae of my life, and my readers are fine with it because they're my friends. They blather on, too. It's assured mutual blather.

Blogging for the public is a whole 'nother thing. The general public doesn't know me. They don't care what I bought my grandmother for Christmas, unless it's snicker-worthy or possible a fabulous deal that they can either get for themselves or, at the very least, envy. And, of course, I don't want the general public to know every little detail about me and my life. So I have to choose stories that are funny, insightful, or otherwise interesting enough that people will care about reading, AND that don't give away too much personal information.

That's a lot of pressure, people!

My last attempt at a public blog failed because it was too specialized and boring. The boring part could certainly doom this blog, too, but at least I'm not tied down to a single subject. I can write about anything! The world is my oyster!

If only I liked oysters.