weird clients

Do you know why I'm an idiot? No, not that reason... this reason...

So think about how many weird people there are out there? For those of us who ride public transportation, we see those people EVERY day.

And think about how many socially awkward people there are out there.

Yet for some reason I always expect my clients to be normal and wonderful.

Of COURSE I'm going to get some weirdos every now and then. That's just pure and simple math. It is bound to happen.

I am an idiot because I am still always surprised when it happens and think that the strange encounter is somehow because of me.

research

The best part about writing stories is doing research.

Today, for a short story I am writing, I learned all about asteroids and iridium and Middlesboro, Kentucky.

Now, granted, if I was getting paid to learn about these things that would be even better. But someday that will happen.

What a different world it is where we can answer any question we have with just the click of a mouse. I can't imagine the pain in the ass it would have been to do research for stories forty years ago. Though my writing teacher suggests that you should go to books for your research rather than relying on the internet and you will learn a ton more. But who has got the time for that?

french subtitles

I like to have a movie playing while I eat my lunch. (on days that I am eating my lunch at home) I usually just turn it on for fifteen minutes or so then turn it off and go do my other duties.

Why a movie? Because I don't have TV.

One of my favorite movies is the most recent Star Trek film. I probably watch it once every two months.

Since today is supposed to be a super productive day for me, I felt guilty about watching the movie.

My solution was to put on the French subtitles. And I actually read along with the movie. It makes me wonder how much better my French would be if I had been doing this all along. I jokingly asked on Facebook if that could be counted as an intellectual activity but it really is. Because I am learning how to properly translate French.

My problem with speaking French is that I just try to say the exact same thing that I would say in English and translate each word into French. It doesn't work that way. The result is that I speak broken French. You know how immigrants in America use improper words and verb tenses all the time? "I am eat my food tomorrow." That's what I imagine I sound like in French.

But the subtitle thing is great because you can see a normal English sentence and then see how you would ACTUALLY say it in French.

I'm not going to lie. My brain is a little bit tired after doing that for twenty minutes. But what an enjoyable way to learn rather than reading Proust or Baudelaire!

my happy pic of the day

There is nothing better than being serenaded by acoustic guitar. Mike has a lot of Bob Dylan songs in his repertoire. Turns out I love Bob Dylan songs... when other people sing them! When Bob sings them I have no idea what he is saying. But the man is a poet.

My current favorite song is called The Wedding Song:

I love you more than ever, more than time and more than love
I love you more than money and more than the stars above
I love you more than madness, more than waves upon the sea
I love you more than life itself, you mean that much to me.

Ever since you walked right in the circle's been complete
I've said goodbye to haunted rooms and faces in the street
In the courtyard of the jester which is hidden from the sun
I love you more than ever and I haven't yet begun.

You breathed on me and made my life a richer one to live
When I was deep in powerty you taught me how to give
Dried the tears up from my dreams and pulled me from the hole
I love you more than ever and it binds me to this all.

You gave me babies, one, two, three, what is more, you saved my life
Eye for eye and tooth for tooth, your love cuts like a knife
My thoughts of you don't ever rest, they'd kill me if I lie
But I'd sacrifice the world for you and watch my senses die.

The tune that is yours and mine to play upon this earth
We'll play it out the best we know, whatever it is worth
What's lost is lost, we can't regain what went down in the flood
But happiness to me is you and I love you more than blood.

It's never been my duty to remake the world at large
Nor is it my intention to sound a battle charge
'Cause I love you more than all of that with a love that doesn't bend
And if there is eternity I'd love you there again.

Oh, can't you see that you were born to stand by my side
And I was born to be with you, you were born to be my bride
You're the other half of what I am, you're the missing piece
And I love you more than ever with that love that doesn't cease.

You turn the tide on me each day and teach my eyes to see
Just being next to you is a natural thing for me
And I could never let you go, no matter what goes on
'Cause I love you more than ever now that the past is gone.

morning person

I am a morning person. I cherish mornings. I love getting up early and getting everything that I need to get done accomplished by noon. Then I have the rest of the day to chill. Because let's face it, the latter part of my days don't tend to be too productive. And the nights? Forget about it. It's so physically hard for me to stay up past 10 PM. It's about as hard as it is for a night person to get up at 6 AM.

So why is it that some of us are morning people and some of us are night owls?

And why is it that the world is totally geared towards morning people? That doesn't seem fair. I mean, I don't mind it. But if people told me that I had to stay up late to work on stuff, I would tell them to go bite themselves.

And night owls get a rep for being lazy but really they do the same exact amount of work, just at different hours.

What I was really thinking about today is how do you make a relationship work when one of you is a morning person and one is a night owl? I've tried it and it DIDN'T work very well. In fact, I think that was one of the things that led to our downfall.

This morning Mike's alarm didn't go off and I rolled over and looked at the clock and said, "Um, aren't you supposed to be awake by now?" Yup. And then I got to see him wander about confusedly for the rest of the morning. He apparently really NEEDS to snooze a few times before waking and when he doesn't get his snoozes he is very out of it. It was actually rather amusing.

When we are looking for someone to date we think of so many things that we are looking for... personality, looks, humor, cooking ability :) and so forth. Compatible sleeping schedules is not usually on the list, but maybe it should be. If Mike's snoozing bothered me, I would wake up grumpy EVERY morning. Luckily it doesn't. If he stayed up til 2 in the morning and woke up at 9 AM, I would never get to see him.

It's one of those things that couples CAN work around. Definitely not a deal breaker for most people. But it's even better when it's a non-issue!

LOVE

I'm sitting down to write this post, not because I have anything pressing to say, but because I get sad when I go to check my friends' blogs and they haven't updated in a long time. And I don't want you to be sad. I love you silly blog readers!

Let's talk about the word "love".

Is it over-used or not used often enough?

My boyfriend refused to tell me that he loved me for the longest time. It drove me crazy. However, because he wouldn't use the "L" word, he would come up with all sorts of other things to say to express his affection. He would list reasons why I was awesome. He would pay me compliments. Yet he wouldn't say "I love you."

Which, apart from driving me crazy and making me a bit insecure, was actually awesome. Because "I love you" can be so cliche and meaningless. But those other things he said were true and specific and took more effort.

But "I love you" means so much. It is the most powerful sentence we have to convey our positive feelings. That's a big thing.

However, if we use the word "love" to describe how we feel about pizza AND how we feel about our soul mates, does that somehow lessen the word? Shouldn't there be an extra special word just to describe loving someone?

French is even worse. The word "love" in French is "aimer" which is also the word for "like." So "Je t'aime" could mean either "I like you" or "I love you." WTF? To clarify you could use "adorer" which means to adore so that you mean love instead of like.

This is all coming about because I wrote "I love you silly blog readers." I do love you but there are so many different types of love. I think we need more words.

random thoughts for the night

What do I want to be when I grow up? A famous writer. I want to be someone who is quoted. I love quotes. I spent a little too much time today looking at quotes.

As a random side note: quote is a verb and quotation is the noun so really what I should be saying is that I love quotations but since it is socially acceptable to say quotes instead, I will do that, but I do still feel slightly bad about it.

Anywho, the best quotes are ones that make you think.

"There is no harder thing to give up than the thing that was supposed to make you happy." -Robert Brault

So true. Whether it be a relationship or a career.

We are all so scared of change. I'm including myself in that "we" even though I try not to do it. It is just human nature.

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Not to completely change the subject but we live in such a weird paradox. On the one hand, we are part of this giant cosmos and live for such a short little blip of time that we can say, "Our problems don't matter at all in the grand scheme of things, so don't worry about them." Yet on the other hand, that special moment you had today where you looked at something beautiful and thought, "This moment is truly a gift" did matter. That is what makes life matter.

So which is it? What matters?

Does it matter what matters?

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By the way, I often hate blog posts like this where the writer seems like they are trying to be all deep and are tackling life's serious questions. I'm not. Just rambling about the thoughts popping into my head.