Haiku

The National Geographic did a short article on 17th century Japanese poet, Matsuo Basho. I am entranced.

Listen! a frog
Jumping into the stillness
Of an ancient pond!



A mound of summer grass:
Are warriors' heroic deeds
Only dreams that pass?

Another Explanation

I've just realized that I owe another explanation or two. Three actually. We'll see how many I get through before I feel like I'm being terribly dull. Actually, no, scratch that. Nobody says you have to read this, so I'm going to be as dull as I want to be!
The Willie Nelson nickname comes from...actually, I'm not sure; it's a little tangled. I've always liked his music, and naturally I got picked on for that by my siblings. Any fuel for the fire, right? Evidently they thought I looked just like the picture on the cover of the record...he was wearing a tanktop--I wear tanktops. He had his hair in braids--I often display the same hairstyle. Naturally that makes me look like Willy Nelson. So...my cousin Kyle began greeting me with "You look like Johnny Carson!" Why, I will never know. Well, I turned it around, and directed it back at him, so he changed it to "You look like Willy Nelson." And it stuck. One of my strangest nicknames ever. On explaining that story once to a friend of mine, he thought for a moment and then said, "Well...if you had a beard..."

Cupcake is another nickname I never would have expected. Sam's idiot ex started calling me that before he was her ex, because he knew it would make me mad. Sam liked it, and started calling me that. Super Dave heard it from Sam and thought it was funny. And it only spread. The Twins were calling me Cupcake before they ever knew my real name. Bron came up with the variation of "Tasty Pastry." I used to hate it, and getting mad when I got called Cupcake naturally made it funnier for everyone else. I have to admit, I am rather fond of it now, in a grudging sort of way. I mean, it's a horrible nickname, but used by friends, so that makes it a little less icky.

And, lastly, The Favorite Aunt. One of my numerous aunts has always said that she is the favorite aunt. So naturally when my oldest sister had a darling baby girl, my other two sisters and I began to constantly argue over who was the favorite aunt. It was undoubtedly Heidi, at first, or at least, that was the easiest name to say. BUT! I might be moving up in the ranks! I called to talk to her twice last week. Then Heidi called the next day, and Mom asked Katelyn if she wanted to talk to Heidi . She said "Yes!" (it's always a fully-articulated yes, never "yeah"), took the phone, and said "Hi Jessie!" Heidi said, "No, it's Heidi, Katelyn." "Hi Jessie!" she repeated. The same thing when she said bye later on..."Katelyn, do you want to say bye to Heidi?" "Yes!" "Bye Jessie!" "No, this is Heidi!" "Bye Jessie!" She knows it's Heidi, she's just being a little scheisster. But it's so adorably, naughtily cute!

There. Explanations of the profile completed. Any questions? :) How did I do, Christina?

Your Life is An Occasion...Rise to it.

I'm going to write a book. Several, actually. I'll let you know when I've finished one.

And I'm going to be happy. I'm sick of moping.

And I'm not going to grow up. I've seen what it does to people.

I will stop and pick up rocks. I will lie on my stomach in the dirt and watch ants run in and out of their hills. I'm going to enjoy what's left of the snow. I'm going to read books for pure enjoyment, as opposed to self-education. I will ignore rude comments, or I will make sickeningly pleasant ones back. And having freshly shined shoes will always make me smile. Babies will always come first on the list.

On second thought...

I wonder if anyone took Jane Austen or the Bronte sisters seriously when they wrote their romances. Probably not too many. "It's a silly story," they would have said, "things like that don't really happen." They still do say it, and people don't really change much with the times, after all. But then, why is it that those books are now some of the most famous, most often read? Because we all want to believe in a beautiful story? And if so many of us want to believe it, and a scant few of us really do believe it, than surely it must be allowed to happen every once in awhile?

Pride and Prejudice

I recently saw the movie, and have finally, after meaning to for years, picked up the book. Jane Austen wrote wonderfully. Anyway, I really like this video; it's really good. Watch it. :)


http://youtube.com/watch?v=WsknGORDKKI

15 more days till I see my Rachel!

I had so much fun this weekend. We helped a co-worker and his German wife move into their new house. I think I was just glad that it was nice out, I wasn't at work, I was outside, and actually doing something. It makes a big difference. The night before we were all at Wade's having a Leap Year party (any excuse will work). Everyone else was down in the basement playing cards, but he and I and my roomie were upstairs discussing trade beads. I love beads. It was a good conversation. I am envious of that collection he's got.

Today, on the other hand, was one of the most humdrum yet. It's very frustrating, because we have been cataloging artifacts all winter, and the Head Honcho has been talking about doing a winter excavation for some time now...but we are running out of cataloging, the only thing that keeps us busy in the winter, he hasn't even begun doing the paperwork for said excavation, which can take about a month to get cleared by the BLM, and we are all dragging our feet, trying to make the work last as long as we can. I do believe that only one person out of all of us actually has real work left to do that's not just busy work. It makes it really, really, REALLY hard to want to get up and go to work in the morning.

Juicy

Now, as to why Joleen calls me "Juice." That actually started my first summer of doing archaeology ever. I was still new to the whole surveying thing, when Wade sent Jo, Maggie and I out on our own to do an artifact inventory of the site we'd found a few days ago. And so off we trekked. Well, I had already learned that the best way to clean off lithics--or anyway, the flakes of stone taken off in the tool-making process--is to stick them in your mouth and lick the dirt off. That way you can identify by various traits whether they are actually artifacts, or just rocks, or you can tell what kind of rock they are. Let me tell you, it's rather disappointing to put a particularly dirty one in your mouth, only to find out when you take it out that it's just a rock, and you now have a mouthful of mud for nothing. Which is why, when I picked one up that was rather large, and had quite a bit of dirt still on it, I put it in the palm of my hand, and spit on it instead. A much preferable method, in this case, I was thinking, when Joleen commented that "Eew, that was a juicy one!" It stuck. I was Juice for the rest of the day, and have been ever since. A couple of my professors and various other students know me as Juice as well. Thanks Jo. :)