Tuesday, April 3, 2012
Monday, April 2, 2012
My thoughts exactly...
http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1246/how-does-my-nose-produce-so-much-snot-so-fast-when-i-have-a-cold
Super Sick plus no Charger
Hey!
So, while my stories are pilling up, so are the phlegm filled Carrefour tissues next to my bed, in a word, I am sick. Really sick in fact and not really taking care of myself the last few days is not making me any better. I got four hours of sleep the first night that i was here and three the second. Add that to jet lag and staying in a hostel will 12 other people plus Brandon's workout routine of walking, plus being in France and doing things you would never do and wanting to see everything you possible can fit into one day and bam!!! You are really, really under the weather.
I should post an audio clip of my voice, but I do have to say, the nasal congestion makes my accent a bit better and also allows me to mumble!
Thankfully though, i am at Claire's where I can get some rest. Paris was not really that conducive for down time as noted above, but I digress.
Basically, I have a really hot fever, can't tell you how hot, but that when I put my head in between my legs, it burns my knees, but that is a story for another time. I can't hear or breathe because I am so congested and my lips are chapped within an inch of my life. But i just bought this really pretty guava sparkle Chapstick, which I love, so that alone is helping! As long as I can look pretty, all is well! Additionally, my nose is raw from tissues, as a pack of like 25 mini tissue packs were €1,25. There's quality right there! Should have bought Kleenex brand not Carrefour!
To add to the fun, I accidentally left my computer charger in Brandon's bag, and he is two hours away by phone. So at this point, still, my computer is a large paperweight and not useful for anything. So I guess until the weekend, it will be blogging by iPhone and by Claire's laptop.... All good options though.
So, I have two stories from Paris that I will hopefully get around to sharing by the end of today. One involves me almost dying, literally, and the other cannot be done justice in print but I will try, this I guess will be my test of how good of a writer I am. But until then, I'll catch you up on details.
Today is Tuesday, I arrived in Paris on Friday, and was there with Brandon until Sunday night. I then met Claire at the train station in Paris, and we rode it to Lyon, where she lives. I'll spend the week here, until this weekend when we will go somewhere, location still to be determined. Okay, enough for now, too much detail and you will get confused :)
Alright, well its 6:47am, I should be sleeping but I am not... Go figure. Heading to a cool cafe with Claire around eight and the we'll see how the rest of the day plays out!
A+
So, while my stories are pilling up, so are the phlegm filled Carrefour tissues next to my bed, in a word, I am sick. Really sick in fact and not really taking care of myself the last few days is not making me any better. I got four hours of sleep the first night that i was here and three the second. Add that to jet lag and staying in a hostel will 12 other people plus Brandon's workout routine of walking, plus being in France and doing things you would never do and wanting to see everything you possible can fit into one day and bam!!! You are really, really under the weather.
I should post an audio clip of my voice, but I do have to say, the nasal congestion makes my accent a bit better and also allows me to mumble!
Thankfully though, i am at Claire's where I can get some rest. Paris was not really that conducive for down time as noted above, but I digress.
Basically, I have a really hot fever, can't tell you how hot, but that when I put my head in between my legs, it burns my knees, but that is a story for another time. I can't hear or breathe because I am so congested and my lips are chapped within an inch of my life. But i just bought this really pretty guava sparkle Chapstick, which I love, so that alone is helping! As long as I can look pretty, all is well! Additionally, my nose is raw from tissues, as a pack of like 25 mini tissue packs were €1,25. There's quality right there! Should have bought Kleenex brand not Carrefour!
To add to the fun, I accidentally left my computer charger in Brandon's bag, and he is two hours away by phone. So at this point, still, my computer is a large paperweight and not useful for anything. So I guess until the weekend, it will be blogging by iPhone and by Claire's laptop.... All good options though.
So, I have two stories from Paris that I will hopefully get around to sharing by the end of today. One involves me almost dying, literally, and the other cannot be done justice in print but I will try, this I guess will be my test of how good of a writer I am. But until then, I'll catch you up on details.
Today is Tuesday, I arrived in Paris on Friday, and was there with Brandon until Sunday night. I then met Claire at the train station in Paris, and we rode it to Lyon, where she lives. I'll spend the week here, until this weekend when we will go somewhere, location still to be determined. Okay, enough for now, too much detail and you will get confused :)
Alright, well its 6:47am, I should be sleeping but I am not... Go figure. Heading to a cool cafe with Claire around eight and the we'll see how the rest of the day plays out!
A+
My Peeps - Getting There
Hey all!
It's been a crazy few days getting here and getting settled. So many cool things and fun stories and only 64% of battery life left to tell it. Let's see how far we can get.
Oh, wait, we're down to 62%, I got distracted.
I left Hawaii at 4:30pm on Wednesday, March 28th and arrived in Atlanta, the next day at 7am.... my connecting flight wasn't until 11:30pm... wow, that is a long time. 16 hours to be exact.
Have you ever thought of all the things that you can do in sixteen hours? A lot of things because that is a lot of time.
Anyway, of friend of my offered that I could spend the day at her parents place near that Atlanta airport. Great! However, it turned out that her mother was out of town that day, so she arranged for me to stay with her neighbor. Still great it turned out.
I called the neighbor, her name is Debbie by the way, and she directed my to her house using the light rail and offered to pick me up at the station near her house.
Well, was I in for a treat because when I came up out of the station, I was in Decateur, GA, and if you have never been there, you should, because it is just so nice!
The town is really really cute and beautiful. Debbie came and got me and took me to here, house, which was stunning, fed me, let me sleep, shower, and then i read for a while. I should throw in there that Debbie is super cool and super niee... basically a twin of my aunt sue! She reads, her house if full of eclectic things, she has an outside table that she actually uses, and she made me poached eggs for breakfast.
I must say, thank you debbie, that was too fun! So thankful for a break from the airport too. Meredith, your homeland rocks!
So, it's about 4:30pm and so I head back to the airport. My cousin Meg, the one whose nearly died in February in Liberia, we heading back and by the grace of God, our layovers overlapped by an hour, So I am rushing to get to her gate and litterally make it there just seconds before she stepped of the plane. Excellent timing! We grabbed a drink next to these two men who I think couldn't believe the stories that we were telling and then headed to here gate, which was packed! She boarded, it was a quick hour, but really good to see her as I hadn't in I want to say two years! That seems long but i think that it's right.
Anyway, I headed to my gate..... three and half hours early, to wait for my next 8 hour flight, whoopie doo.. to Paris!
It's been a crazy few days getting here and getting settled. So many cool things and fun stories and only 64% of battery life left to tell it. Let's see how far we can get.
Oh, wait, we're down to 62%, I got distracted.
I left Hawaii at 4:30pm on Wednesday, March 28th and arrived in Atlanta, the next day at 7am.... my connecting flight wasn't until 11:30pm... wow, that is a long time. 16 hours to be exact.
Have you ever thought of all the things that you can do in sixteen hours? A lot of things because that is a lot of time.
Anyway, of friend of my offered that I could spend the day at her parents place near that Atlanta airport. Great! However, it turned out that her mother was out of town that day, so she arranged for me to stay with her neighbor. Still great it turned out.
I called the neighbor, her name is Debbie by the way, and she directed my to her house using the light rail and offered to pick me up at the station near her house.
Well, was I in for a treat because when I came up out of the station, I was in Decateur, GA, and if you have never been there, you should, because it is just so nice!
The town is really really cute and beautiful. Debbie came and got me and took me to here, house, which was stunning, fed me, let me sleep, shower, and then i read for a while. I should throw in there that Debbie is super cool and super niee... basically a twin of my aunt sue! She reads, her house if full of eclectic things, she has an outside table that she actually uses, and she made me poached eggs for breakfast.
I must say, thank you debbie, that was too fun! So thankful for a break from the airport too. Meredith, your homeland rocks!
So, it's about 4:30pm and so I head back to the airport. My cousin Meg, the one whose nearly died in February in Liberia, we heading back and by the grace of God, our layovers overlapped by an hour, So I am rushing to get to her gate and litterally make it there just seconds before she stepped of the plane. Excellent timing! We grabbed a drink next to these two men who I think couldn't believe the stories that we were telling and then headed to here gate, which was packed! She boarded, it was a quick hour, but really good to see her as I hadn't in I want to say two years! That seems long but i think that it's right.
Anyway, I headed to my gate..... three and half hours early, to wait for my next 8 hour flight, whoopie doo.. to Paris!
Sunday, March 25, 2012
What I'm Into
So I'm just sure that you all care so much about what I am into these days. Brief recap...
Went to a Foster the People concert. Simply, it was awesome. Totally worth buying the CD if you haven't already, pretty solid stuff. 92% chance you won't be disappointed.
Listening to some lame stuff (like usual) these days:
Song for Sienna - Brian Crain (piano and cello version)
We Are Young - Fun.
Somewhere Only We Know - Keane
Shadow Days - John Mayer
Slow Dancing in a Burning Room - John Mayer
Best of My Love - The Emotions
The Breeze - Dr. Dog
For Emma - Bon Iver
Flightless Bird, American Mouth - Iron & Wine
Call It What You Want - Foster the People
And I'm reading:
The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri
On The Road by Jack Kerouac
Obviously I only read books that get turned into movies.
Alright, hopefully i'm better at this this go around!
Words of wisdom.
“My aim is to put down on paper what I see and what I feel in the best and simplest way.”
ERNEST HEMINGWAY
Went to a Foster the People concert. Simply, it was awesome. Totally worth buying the CD if you haven't already, pretty solid stuff. 92% chance you won't be disappointed.
Listening to some lame stuff (like usual) these days:
Song for Sienna - Brian Crain (piano and cello version)
We Are Young - Fun.
Somewhere Only We Know - Keane
Shadow Days - John Mayer
Slow Dancing in a Burning Room - John Mayer
Best of My Love - The Emotions
The Breeze - Dr. Dog
For Emma - Bon Iver
Flightless Bird, American Mouth - Iron & Wine
Call It What You Want - Foster the People
And I'm reading:
The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri
On The Road by Jack Kerouac
Obviously I only read books that get turned into movies.
Alright, hopefully i'm better at this this go around!
Words of wisdom.
“My aim is to put down on paper what I see and what I feel in the best and simplest way.”
ERNEST HEMINGWAY
Found this....it's alright.
Get up in the morning, get dressed, go to work, eat lunch, work some more, then drive home.
Now let’s take a closer look.
Every morning you wake up. You pull out your light blue cotton shirt and put it on. You make your way down to the kitchen where you quickly slap together a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. You pop your sunglasses on your face, hop in the car, and make your way to work.
Let’s take an even closer look.
The cotton gin, the sewing machine, peanut butter, sunglasses, the assembly line… all things that you probably used this morning. But what do all of these things have in common?
America.
My friend once told me that you can never go wrong writing about America. What teacher would not give you a good grade for writing about the greatest country in the world? Wouldn’t you think a country that invented all of these things, things that are essential in our everyday life, would be on top of the world right now? Not down in the dumps in debt.
It’s inexplicable to me, really. How can the country who created the light bulb, the airplane, the computer and the internet for heaven’s sake, be in debt? We should be richer than Dubai!
But we're not...
So what’s the problem? I say it’s simple.
Vending machines, yet another American invention.
With the creation of the vending machine, as well as many other inventions after, we at the same time created a monster of a trend.
The vending machine, while ingenious in its own right, also perfectly displays the ideology of Americans while simultaneously setting them on a crash course for the future. The combination of American problem solving mixed with the poison of instant gratification was born, and this time it was neatly packaged in preservative-laced, trans fat filled, partially hydrogenated health bars. Yum!
While it may not be fair to argue that the vending machine is the root of all our problems, it does provide an excellent example.
People love what they love, and when they want something, they want it now. The difference is Americans, in their nature, have found a way to satisfy that need. But greed has made us stupid. Yes, we can get what we want anytime, almost instantly, thank you iTunes, you are single handedly taking down the music industry, but at least my CD’s from eBay are cheaper, but what is the real cost?
I think the real cost is all the waste it creates. The U.S. had become a throwaway society. We are inefficient. Millions of dollars are lost or tied up in red tape. Our society is sick, our economy is sick, and our country is sick (from all the trans fat) but somehow, we have managed to keep our heads above water. But how long can that last?
Because that is all that instant gratification is: a quick fix. A temporary patch. Great ideas take time. You can’t just create a masterpiece overnight.
Take an author. That book he just published did not just get down on paper the first go round. There was a first draft. And it was horrible, but it was that first draft that created an idea for the second draft. And then came the third, and the fourth, and the fifth. And eventually, after work, and time, and love even, the words on the paper can become meaningful and epic. There is no immediacy (instantity) in that.
Dubai has vending machines that vend gold bars. We, the U.S. can’t even think about gold bars much less if we need to get rid of our dog because we can no longer afford to pay for dog food.
If you can’t afford it, don’t buy it… this does not apply to the aforementioned dog food. A good rule to use would be necessity, be honest, people! Sure, I want a new car, a lot of people do, but just because I can get it, doesn’t mean that I should get it. Same goes for the house. Living within our means is something that our country has forgotten after marching downs the gratification trail for so many years.
Look where that has gotten us. Something has got to change. But will we as a people ever take that initiative?
Is it possible, or is it too late?
So do I think that one can blame all of America’s failures on the vending machine? No, but you have to have someone (or something) to blame it on, right?
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