I can't believe I missed yesterday's hugely important soccerball match!

I’m also ridiculously happy Team U.S.A. pulled off the win; especially considering FIFA refs seem to dislike the team. (Maybe they just haven’t caught onto the fact that the U.S. is growing up as a soccer nation. It only took, oh, I dunno… eighty years!)

And now I have a dilemma. I am insanely superstitious. So much so, I would have made a superb professional athlete. If I was not also outrageously uncoordinated. After a team I’m supporting does well, it’s imperative I be at the exact same place doing the exact same thing the next time they play. (I’ve already told you: my brain is a scary place sometimes.)

However, there are only so bikini waxes one can get in three days. Also, if I have to spend one more minute in that hellhole of a computer lab, I will rampage. Even with Starbucks and Swedish Fish as my buffers against the crazy annoying student-students. (What can I say? I get a lot done in 110 or so minutes.)

It will also be a Saturday with tempting beach weather.

What to do? What to do? Maybe the lab won’t be too bad on a Saturday. But the beach would definitely be way better. Except if Team U.S.A. loses against Ghana, I will blame myself. Hardcore. Even though I know it really has nothing to do with me at all. I just like to think it does.

Oh, you should also know soccer didn't even exist in my world until that game against England. Twelve days ago. Pretty much why I should just limit myself to baseball and the Olympics; I get hyper-invested. Even the vuvuzelas are growing on me.

I went. I saw. I conquered.

Instead of blogging, I've been travelling.  

• 16 -21 March: Honolulu, Hawaii
• 29 April - 4 May: Washington, D.C.
• 8 - 12 May: Egypt (Cairo and St. Catherine)
• 12-17 May: Jordan (Aqaba, Petra and the Dead Sea)

I will (eventually) post pics and sum up my trips. Hopefully sooner rather than later but no promises since this weekend is Memorial Day weekend (and I'm expecting my brand new dishwasher--mostly courtesy of the Mass. appliance rebate--on Sunday [fingers crossed] and possibly picking up an iMac) and, next weekend, I will be heading to Saratoga Springs, N.Y., for two Dave Matthews Band shows.

How is already practically June?! Seriously. It's as if I just blinked and, all of a sudden, I was taken from February and plopped into the end of May. 2010 stop moving so quickly!

I really need to get back on the blogging train. It's been too long. I hope you're all well!

What's the point?

"I will only say this once, so listen carefully," my instructor announced. "I want you to take a piece of paper and make a point. When you are done, hang it up on the wall."

My mind instantly jumped into overdrive, asking questions it knew pointless to actually physically voice. What kind of point is she looking for? An arrow? A statement? What should I use? A pencil? A pen? Some of this nifty paint that was on the supply list I received at the orientation for this continuing professional development course in graphic design? Then, a moment of enlightened clarity reminded me of my high school math classes; where a point was just a dot, a simple dot. Of course! This was clearly the easiest solution to the problem posited by the instructor. Also the most logical. First class, first assignment, a place to start. Where does anything begin? At a single point.

I drew a small dot in the middle of the page and pinned my paper to the cork board wall. I was the first to make my point.

Each of my classmates glanced up from their blank papers to see what I hung up; pencils frozen in their hands, confusion written on their faces. It was your typical first-day-of-class jitters: no one wanted to be singled out as being wrong. I was not surprised to see four other dots next to mine when all the papers were hung. But I also wondered whether there was any creativity in this design class.

I am .101 Plutonian years old.

 

How old are you? Find out here.

The gentleman doth presume too much.

Just because we’re in the same graphics class that meets for three hours once a week does not mean I’m interested. Just because I slowed down while walking to the T so you could catch up does not mean I’m interested. Just because I’m friendly and chatty does not mean I’m interested.

Your completely presumptuous, overtly awkward mention of your girlfriend driving you to class in the rain was exactly that: presumptuous and awkward. (And it made you sound like a pansy.)

I don’t exactly have a specific type of guy but you definitely do not interest me in any regard outside the fact we have to see each other for three hours once a week until this class ends.

Where do you get your groceries?

Wegmans is absolutely the best supermarket I have ever been to. I love Wegmans. It is the only place I would shop if there was one within a 40-mile radius. But, alas, the closest is in New York.

Thank goodness Ahold USA (owner of Stop&Shop [where I get groceries], Giant and Martin's Food Market) is a close second.

I've begun paying more attention to what I put into my body and where food comes from. Mostly for selfish reasons--I'm trying to lead a healthier lifestyle--but also because my awareness of the world has increased. Little steps and everyday decisions can affect the direction we've been heading in; in regards to the foods we will ingest, how that food is raised, harvest and prepared and the effects on the world around us. And we, the consumers, are the only ones who can and must insist on these changes.

Rest of the list can be found here.