Picnic

I don't know why I love picnics to much. David says that it is just eating outside, but for some reason it seems so much cooler than that. I think that my favorite picnic ever was the one that we took to the Greek Theater before seeing Allison Kraus. We had some wine and cheese and other treats, but we were surrounded by other people who had these really fancy picnicking sets and we could tell that some of them had brought really expensive bottles of wine with them. Plus, the scenery was gorgeous.

All this to say that I had a very beautiful picnic on Tuesday night and I didn't even have to lift a finger.

David made bean and cheese burritos, baked sweet potatoes, and lemon bars. We packed it all up and went to woodbridge lake where we ate at a picnic table in the playground and took a walk afterwards.

It was simply delightful as day turned to night. I am not sure what picnics feel so much more special than a normal meal, but they do.

The Sprituality of Stories (And being slightly starstruck too)

Where does one go to eat after seeing Ira Glass speak at the Barclay Theater at UCI?
-Veggie Grill.

Where does Ira Glass go to get his take out after he speaks at the Barclay Theater at UCI??

You guessed it- a man after my own heart.

The show was amazing. He is such a normal guy, and yet the things that he says are both witty and really touching.

He started the show off in complete darkness, and talked about the fact that when listening to the radio all you hear is someones voice and how the lack of visual stimuli makes it a completely different medium. He said that he suggested doing the whole show in the pitch dark, but then the audience might not think that they were really there in the theater with him.

He went on a slight tangent about the television series the OC and knew a little bit too much about he show to not be embarrassed. He played the sound clip where they mentioned TAL on the OC and he said that he had to go back several times on the TiVo because he thought he must be imagining it.

I wish that the house lights had been up so that I could have written down many of the things that he said. He talked about the story of the Arabian Nights (I am not very familiar with the story, but there is a good synopsis on Wikipedia.) He talks about how the kings newest wife tells the king stories for 1,001 nights in order to keep him from killing her in the morning (as he did to all his other wives.) He spoke about how the king never killed her because her story telling and narrative made him not want to let her go, because he always wanted to see where the stories were going. He spoke about how after 1,001 nights the king has heard so many stories and has empathized with the characters so much that the hardness in his heart melted away and he no longer had the bitterness that has caused him to kill so many wives. The story made a very powerful statement for narrative and how we can learn to heal, and empathize, and to just been on the same wave length as other people by listening to their stories. And that is really what TAL is all about.

It was very touching, and kind of went along with the very spiritual morning I had in meeting- where people were relating to each other through their personal stories and seeing God in each person and their story. The essence of god in others. The essence of god in other's stories. The essence of a god exiting completely and wholly in the way that people relate to each other.

It is truly beautiful and more intricate than I can convey. And for today, for me, it is peace.

Bored Games

I heard about this on NPR this morning. And I thought it was an amusing piece minus the actual underlying political reasons (which are sad.)

And then I thought to myself, 'Who still plays monopoly these days?' Don't get me wrong- I LOVE board games, but Monopoly to me is like a never ending game of boredom.

Sorry if that's offensive to anyone.

(P.S.- I seem some un-bored gaming in my near future, and I like it.)

Driving in the Rain

When you are driving in the rain at any speed over 20mph the smallest drizzle can make it seem like it's pouring outside.

And then at a stop light the wipers start squeaking on the glass because it's not raining hard enough to justify having them on when stopped.

The point is that maybe if I slow down a little bit or even stop and enjoy the act of being stopped it won't seem like things are coming down so quickly.

Benefits of Moving

Even though I love my apartment and it is an amazing deal, two blocks from the beach, has the best roommates ever, and is a 3 minute walk to my sacred coffee shop I was thinking that the one benefit of living in the UCI campus housing was that I could have a kitty again.

I mean I don't think if I stay around here I will move, but if David happened to live anywhere that allowed him to have a cat during grad school then maybe just maybe his next Christmas or (or Labor Day) gift would be a little adopted tabby kitten.

(Okay, not really, but it's nice to dream.)

Drained

I feel like I should be riding on some sort of high right now,
But I just feel tired and worn down.
I am not sure if it is the work week,
Or all the worries that I tried to meditate out of myself last night,
Or that David is under the weather and I haven't seen him for a couple of days,
Or that I didn't have enough coffee today.

I want to curl up in bed with a good book (since I won't be curling up with a good friend) and melt into a sleep that lasts until tomorrow at 5pm when I am free from the chains of my desk.

And UCI too!

That's right.

I got into University of Irvine California, and I am pretty stoked about it.

Yaaaaay!