Fortunate Times

There's always something to look forward to when you choose Asian cuisine for lunch. It's especially true at one of my favorite restaurants in Provo, Saigon Cafe. I went there after a successful finish to a school presentation. I was able to get my car's safety passed across the street as I ate. It really was a wonderful afternoon. The restaurant just added to the joy.

Without fail (I lied, one time they forgot), the meal starts with this amazing appetizer of fried won-ton skins for dipping in this mystery sauce that makes my tongue dance. I've wondered if there's addictive substances in it, it's that good. I've tried to guess what it could be: maraschino cherry juice and bits mixed with pineapple juice and bits. . .and something else. Lemon or orange? It's so good.

The $5 plate comes with a small cup of soup. I always choose hot and sour over the egg drop. Both are good, but the hot and sour is everything your tongue could dream of. To mine at least. Even the spoon is fun, all long and shallow, like a little shoe with a handle.

The plate comes out with two days worth of meat/whatever you ordered, ham fried rice and an egg roll complete with dipping sauce. General Tso's chicken is a long time favorite. Each bite is, how can I say? Like making every green light.

And of course the fortune cookie comes at the end. I always break it in half, pull one half from the other so the fortune sticks out of the end I don't eat. I eat the paper-free half before I read my fortune. I'm always amazed at the taste of those cookies. No two are the same. Seriously. Anyway, this time around it was kinda gross, so I didn't eat the other half. My fortune said, "You discover treasures where others see nothing unusual," which is fortunately true.

After a few glasses of water, I needed to use their restroom; I needed a rest.... It smelled remarkably like baking cake. That was intriguing. When I went to wash my hands, the soap dispenser had two options: soap, or jabón. I'd never tried jabón before. It lathered a lot like soap...

The check came to only $9.56 (I'd ordered the daily special that made my $5 plate only $3.95). Robbery. We left thirteen dollars, all in ones I believe. The bird toothpick dispenser bid us farewell as we grabbed a complimentary mint and shuffled belly first across the street to my waiting, safe automobile.

Love

Love comes...when you think more about the other person than about his or her reactions to you.
When you dare reveal yourself fully.
When you dare to be vulnerable. -Dr. Joyce Brothers

The love we give away is the only love we keep. -Elbert Hubbard

Love is composed of a single soul inhabiting two bodies. -Aristotle

Love does not consist of gazing at each other, but in looking together in the same direction. -Antoine de Saint-Exupery

There is no remedy for love but to love more. -Henry David Thoreau

Real love stories never have endings. -Richard Bach

It's Final

So this evening I joined an experiment, much to my personal shame. My friend sent me a forward text. So pitiful. E-mails are bad enough, but text forwards? Well you know, to prove that I know it's worthless, this time I did it. It said:

Sh00t this arrow------> to 13 hearts you truly care about (i better get 1 bak:) and in 13 mins u will have a suprise! :)

Oh, well I realize now that, though I did care about each heart I shot it at, I had the intention of sending it to those who would either take it seriously or know I was kidding and/or bored. Whatever, it still didn't work. Thirteen minutes later I received a text message from one of the recipients saying "Surprise, it's thirteen minutes later!" And a brief moment later a guy came to the door inviting me to go play Ultimate Frisbee. I replied, "I'm sorry, I'm waiting on a surprise." No, I didn't really. I said I needed to go to bed. Which I will eventually. What did surprise me is how fast you can waste thirteen minutes.

Moments When

You see farther than thoughts can reach.

You stand taller than you measure.

You smell the past like you could touch it.

Tears create a map and wash your footprints away.

Confidence pumps your heart floats away.

Your lips Tango.

Falling accompanies no impact.

You awake before the world starts spinning again.

You hear everything like pieces of a puzzle.

You feel deeper than words have traveled before.

. . .

Quirk Tag, I'm it.

Okay, the only reason I'm doing this is because of the person who sent it to me. She's wonderful and makes me feel happy about my quirkiness though she may not even know what that consists of. She's just one of those people that makes you feel normal and loved, no matter how strange you might be.

The game:
1.Link to the person who tagged you
2.Mention the rules on your blog
3.Tell 6 unspectacular quirks about you
4.Tag 6 following bloggers by linking to them
5.Leave a comment on each of the tagged blogger's blogs letting them know they've been tagged.

Well, it shouldn't be too hard for me to find unspectacular quirks since I dare classify myself as a writer...or in other words, an artist of words. ;)

1. I have a quirk for straightening things. Victims: The pillows on the couches at my parents house (and those are also organized so as to distribute the patterns and colors equally); Any slanted framed item, be it in my home, the dentist's office, etc.; Bed spreads, couches, chairs, mats, papers, dishes in the dishwasher or items in the refrigerator even; you know, any inanimate thing really.

2. I'm unspectacularly obsessed about my eyebrows. I suppose it kind of branches from the straightening quirk. I pretty much can't stand it if they aren't perfectly in place. Once upon a time I even combed clear mascara into them to keep them from moving. So don't even think about touching them, btw.

3. I eat in an interesting fashion...at least according to my mission companions (several of which were foreigners). So, first of all, serving in France, they eat one food at a time. In the U.S. we eat Thanksgiving style every meal: the whole meal on one plate. So I don't know if it's really all that particular to me, but I taste all the foods that are on my plate and figure out which one I like best and eat it last. It ends up being a sort of prioritized wheel of fortune experience. I don't often physically turn my plate, but I'll eat a little salad, then a little lasagna with bread, then the veggies, then I'll finish off the veggies, then the salad and end with the bread. If there's bread that will usually be my favorite and last bite. It was well demonstrated by lunch with Ben on Saturday, actually. I had a gourmet turkey sandwich and an Australian orange. :) I took a bite of my sandwich, which was really great, so I moved on to taste the orange. As Ben finished his first sandwich, I finished peeling my orange. It tasted great too, so I alternated, rather equally, bites of sandwich and orange til my plate held only napkin, peels and crumbs.

4. I can't fall asleep without a blanket. Except twice so far. Both times I was stinkin exhausted and it was perfectly warm.

5. Wow I'm really struggling now. Well, something I haven't seen anyone else do is roll their tongue upside down. Pretty much everyone can roll it up but I can do it the other way. Ask me, I'll show you. Then you'll try and I'll be impressed if you can, too. Yes, that means I'm a great kisser. ;)

6. Okay last one....I used a life line for this one. My friend Graham has some observations of when I'm thinking. He says if someone is describing something or if I'm reading I apparently curl in my bottom lip. I squint at things when I think. Or I tap my cheek with my index finger. And when I'm all done looking at something I'll let out a sigh. Observant fellow, eh? I didn't realize I did any of that! But as if to prove it all, I was squinting as I pondered if it were truth.

Well there. And I'm not going to obey the rules and link other people to do this, because I'm a big fan of not passing on forwards. No offense intended, Barb. But all comments are welcome.

Can't Sleep

My dear roommate warmed me some milk and Billy Joel serenades me with his lullaby, so hopefully that sandman's not too far away.

I was talking with a friend and out came a quotable line:

The heart: it's a curious instrument. It can change as fast as it beats.

Later as I lie in bed, someone was playing music far enough away that I only heard the low beat and I imagined it was the heart beat of my nearly-life-size stuffed alligator so it wouldn't annoy me.

Depending on the beat, the instrument will reveal a melody that sometimes the mind couldn't hear. The composition is complicated for a single instrument and one wonders how the heart survives itself.

My own heart suspended in my chest beat like it usually does, pumping blood, for which I'm grateful. It too summoned a distant tune and I felt like humming.

The melody leaks into the stream where drifts my life. It bleeds through my voice; a wound that will hopefully never heal.

I want to hear your heart beating in your chest. I will see if our voices harmonize.

Some people have such beautiful circulation.

To The Men

from the ponderings of a single woman's mind.



Is there a(n un)spoken rule of dibs? If two guys see a girl at the same time and guy A says "dang, I wanna get with that," ever so respectfully, but when the girl meets both guy A and guy B, she is more attracted to guy B, but must guy B yield to guy A to make his move? If so, why?

How long does it take for you to fall in love?

If you're dating a great girl, would you ever risk that security if you found another girl attractive (not just physically) to give her a chance? Isn't it a bad sign if you're even looking around to notice her?

If you don't like a girl, or spending time with her, or frankly you just don't see a future, but she's showing interest, flirting, what have you, will you (please) just tell her you're not interested?

At what point can she fart in your presence without grossing you out?

Do you agree with the general desire that the girl wants to be with a guy that weighs more than her potential weight at pregnancy?

How tall is too tall?

Do you care about the shoes we wear? Are there ones preferred over others?

What communication problems? Let's hear 'em.


Your masculine thoughts are very much appreciated. Ask your friends. Return and report.

Did you hear the one about....

Ode to Spectacles

Due to the impending surgery of tomorrow, my glasses will be of no use in less than 24 hours. These glasses and I have been together for a long time. Sure, I've messed around a little with contacts, but still glasses and I have had a forgiving and lasting relationship. In honor of these memories, I make up a poem for glasses. And it's my 100th post. Neat.

Before you, my life was incomplete.
Looking ahead was a painful feat.
When you came into my life
It was as if a big knife
Cut through the air
And removed the glare
Of what seemed like two hands made of wax paper held always before my eyes.

You did something to me.
I mean, besides help me see.
It's like you made everything clear
Like I could finally hear
As if I'd been deaf before.
Or as though you opened a door
Where there had only been a wall as far as eye could see.

I remember when I left you on the bed.
Thinking for sure you were elsewhere instead
I rolled over and heard you cry.
When I held you up, all was awry.
Gently, tightly, I bent your frame
back to normal; but you were never the same.
But later we were able to look back and laugh at the experience that night.

There was nothing between us;
I was me, you were you: we've been us
since every day we've been together.
Over hills, under roofs and into weather
we always got along. In fact,
Even your disappearing act
Would make me laugh for the irony of seeking that which I can't see so I can see.

As I say goodbye it's like...like
hard, I guess. Sometimes I think, 'yike
s' because now what will I do
When I'm nervous and need to
Nudge you into place
On the nose on my face
As I think of what to say to whomever awaits my reply.

Friend, window to the world;
Now an oyster unpearled.
I will not forget you fast.
After all, we have a past.
But my days as caterpillar are through
As flying above I will have a view
More like that of a butterfly's, in the sky, twice as high as a caterpillar's.