Ramble On

Today I finally got my first taste of delicious summer. Not the gross summer that makes you wilt within 5 seconds of contact with the outdoors, but luxurious, hot, sunscreen-scented sunshine. It made me want a chaise lounge and a mojito. It's hard to say what my favorite part of today was. It was definitely not the fact that I had to work. But if I had not worked today, I would not have witnessed two things which brought me a lot of joy: 1) An excited bride surrounded by bridesmaids and flower girls and junior bridesmaids in vivid pink. She was taking large gulps straight from the bottle of champagne before the younger girls showed up. Her dad and lots of other suited men came up and glowed with pride (including one guy with the best chin strap beard I have EVER seen) as she was waiting for her limo in the lobby of the resort. I had met the groom the day before and the feeling of anticipation was palpable. 2) An elderly couple came in and wanted to thank me for the lunch reservatio...

I was sitting innocently at my desk, G-chatting and looking at Easter Brunch menus, when I hear " 'Ello Gov'nah!" Into my office walks a portly man in his 50's smiling. I couldn't help but laugh. He said "Oi 'av a few questions concernin' Colonial Waaaalliamsburg". At this point he had approached my desk, with its very nice secure guest-retaining wall that is extra high and that young children like to swing on in the summer months. Because the accent was so bad, and he was just a silly, silly man, I laughed. Mistake. He asked why I was laughing. I told him because of his accent. MISTAKE! He then CONTINUED the accent for the rest of our seemingly-endless Q&A session about where to eat in Williamsburg. In which I learned (in cockney English) that his wife likes "those new age places that give you a stick and a sliver of meat and charge you a hundred bucks" and that he likes real food. He also asked my where my boyfriend ...

I would very much like to drive this musical road in Lancaster, CA. I agree that the William Tell Overture is a little bit out of left field for a choice, but I still want to drive this road at exactly 55 mph. Good thing my dad owns a civic. http://blog.wired.com/cars/2008/09/the-road-as-roc.html

For winter's rains and ruins are over, And all the season of snows and sins; The days dividing lover and lover, The light that loses, the night that wins; And time remembered is grief forgotten, And frosts are slain and flowers begotten, And in green underwood and cover Blossom by blossom the spring begins. --Algernon Charles Swinburne, Atalanta in Calydon (1865) Also, Google's homepage design (see below) from the author of "The Very Hungry Caterpillar", Eric Carle, is making my day. I remember loving the illustrations in this book when I was in kindergarten.

Well, I've had some good luck on my Netflix queue this week. First up was "Son of Rambow" which is about a boy from an english mennonite(?) family who falls in with the class ne'er do well and begins an unlikely and hilarious friendship which is heavily influenced by their shared love for the movie "First Blood". There were some overly cheesy parts but I really enjoyed watching it. The humor made the cheese way more tolerable. I was surprised to see that the dude who plays the smarmy Chuck Bass on Gossip Girl plays the equally spoiled, equally rich, equally disaffected older brother in this movie, but I shouldn't have been. He was much more likeable and comfortable in his native England without his put-on American accent. Last night I got home and really wanted to watch a particular movie. I searched for it on the instant watch list and amidst the 40 other flm versions of the story, there it was: The Adventure of Robin Hood starring Errol Flynn (19...

I know I've spoken before, even in this blog about how I have a firm belief in Divine control over my iPod and the songs I hear on the radio sometimes. I saw a new non-threatening chain e-mail thing on facebook about the soundtrack to your life as defined by the shuffle feature on your music player, and I thought it was the perfect opportunity to test my beliefs. Now, I know that we're not supposed to test God like the Israelites in the desert did (see the book of Exodus) but I was hoping this is more like Gideon with the fleeces (Judges 6:36-39). Here's how it works: Open your music library, put it on shuffle, press play. For every question, type the song that's playing, and when you go to a new question, press the next button. No cheating and skipping songs, obviously. Each question corresponds to a scene in a movie about your life broken down into major events. In order to be scientifically sound (um, kind of...) I ran the test twice. I will include the result...

I read this article in the New York Times and literally 5 minutes later I got tagged. I took it as a sign that I needed to participate. Here's the article: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/05/fashion/05things.html and I will also post my 25 things. If you are not on facebook and would like to participate, feel free to send me your 25 things. It might be fun! 1) My least favorite word in the english language is "skort". Consequently, I think this is the worst idea for an article of clothing ever. Pick one, skirt or shorts. 2) I have a weird thing about needing to own my favorite movies but never watching them. 3) When I hear a song in a grocery store that I like, I sometimes will sing. out loud. also, if the song calls for it, I dance. I find Farm Fresh and Trader Joe's to be the places where this happens the most. 4) I respond to stress by baking or running. 5) My dream car is Cameron's dad's car from Ferris Bueller's Day Off. 1961 Ferrari 250 GT Californ...

"I'm sick and tired of living in the future. I just want some now." I think this quote sums up my feelings over life since about Thanksgiving. (It was spoken by the frontman for the Swedish rock duo The Tough Alliance about his resolution not to dwell on the upcoming year. I would never have come across them or this quote if it hadn't been for the clutch birthday present from my older bro, a subscription to Paste magazine. Mad props, Beebo.) All I can do is think about where I should be going, what I should be doing, what I could leave behind and what I could be heading towards. I've never called my parents more in my life. I keep hoping I will hear just the right thing to do. I remember being in college and picking classes and thinking with each class I decided to take I was deciding the course of my future. Now even buying new tires for my car seems like a gigantic, definitive life move.The truth is, there are good things and bad things about ALL the options in...

Over the last few very busy weeks at the resort, I have encountered several colorful characters. 1) Two weeks ago, a lady doing her morning weight lifting routine had her iPod on and successfully tuned out to the rest of the world. My office is caddy-cornered from the workout room and no one thought to soundproof it because usually workouts don't require a lot of noise. I'll occasionally hear people pumping themselves up, weird breathing, or weights clanging but beyond that I hardly even remember the room is there. That particular day this woman was BELTING out Whitney Houston's "I Wanna Dance With Somebody". She must have had it on repeat too because it lasted for an extended amount of time. I sort of loved her for being so oblivious to the world outside that workout room. Maybe she didn't care, maybe she didn't know, but either way, she made my morning. I do that sometimes in grocery stores. Particularly at Farm Fresh where they play all the old...

I saw this and I had to write about it. No one ever picks my initials for any demonstration. This photo is from a Wal-mart print ad for personalized gifts. I think Wal-Mart secretly appreciates my frantic weekly shopping trips where I keep my head down and try and get in and out as quickly as possible. They heart KP! Note: this is not a hint for a Christmas present.

I've been taking a class at W&M just to get my feet wet in the academic ocean again and most of the stuff for the class has been due in the last few weeks and will continue to be for the rest of the month. I've been enjoying the business though it has kept me from my online thought sharing. The thing that I'm enjoying the most of anything in life right now is definitely the trees. I don't remember ever seeing a fall this brilliant and colorful. It's probably got a lot do to with my perspective. I keep thinking where I was in fall of last year. Working 70 hours a week, being fed lie after lie and promise after promise, dealing with issues that were WAY over my head, and feeling totally overwhelmed and lost. I'm glad I'm not there anymore. I missed fall because all I experienced from September to December 19th of last year was the walk to my car in the morning when it was dark and then at night when I left the hotel when it was dark again. I completely mi...

This past week was my first-ever experience making Amish Friendship bread. While the end product is delicious and the idea behind it is rather warm and fuzzy, I couldn't walk away from it without feeling a lot of pressure. I like to bake whenever I feel like it. I don't really like to have a schedule. This bread is definitely on a schedule. Here's how it works in case you've never encountered it before: Day 1, someone gives you a starter bag. The secrets of this bag are held by the Amish so in order to begin the process of friendship bread you have to either be Amish or get a bag from someone. For the next five days you mush the bag once a day and make sure you evacuate any air that accumulates in the bag. Day 6 you add milk, sugar and flour to the starter bag and mush it together. Then for the next four days you mush and evacuate as in the beginning. On the 10th day, you add more milk, sugar and flour, put some of the mixture in four bags to give away, and th...

Remember when you first went off to college? Remember seeing your cramped low-lit dorm room for the first time? Remember how it was like summer camp with orientation activities for the first week? I sure do. And I was reminded of it today. I had a day off today and list of errands to run that took up an entire piece of legal size paper. I managed to accomplish everything in my power to accomplish with not a whole lot of delays or problems. But I am going back to school too. I'm going to be taking a class at W&M this fall to see if the Education school would work for me. And in registering for this class and doing my errands today I came across freshman and their families in many different situations. 1) Wal-mart - the obvious one-stop shopping place for back-to-school. I got there at about 11:30 which was before freshman move-in was really over and so I feel as though the big rush hadn't set in yet. So many desks, lamps, laundry hampers, large bottled water pack...

My goodness it has been such a busy month. I left for Blue Ridge on the last day of June, and I feel like I was only able to take my first real breath yesterday. In the month of July, I traveled out of state 4 times, got the news I had to move, moved, and started grad school applications. I am very happy to be on the other side of this month because I feel like even though it was hard all the changes and things that happened are ultimately good. I had to move from my awesome apartment at one of my small group girl's houses and now I'm at another basement apartment. It's nice because I still have my own apartment, still have my own entrance, and I have just started decorating it a little bit. That's always something I've enjoyed though paying for the decorating it's that fun. But it's starting to feel like my place. The thing I miss the most is having my own kitchen. But I have access to the one here, and laundry, and that's all I need. So I...

Today was a rather slow day at work. I spiced it up a little bit by searching for this one handbag I saw a guest come in with that I totally loved.  Then I got to thinking about designers and brand-names and I also got to thinking about how it's been a long time since I had a date with fashion. I decided that I would go on a quest and today's particular search was centered on vintage couture. I managed to come across a bunch of awesome pieces on this website called thefrock.com and I decided that I would post some pictures and explain where I see these fitting into my fictitious ultra-fabulous millionaire life. The only kind of life where these clothes would have any kind of a place. Here we go: This little number would be used for cocktail parties at my super cool friends' houses and perhaps hitting a swanky club after. 1950 Norman Norell. Pierre Cardin circa 1960. This one I would definitely use for business meetings where I would show up looking impossibly chic, but also...

I just returned this evening from a missions trip just outside of Asheville, NC with my church and with four members of my small group of rising sophomore girls. We left on Sunday after church and drove for about 8 hours. My van had my girls, 4 freshmen boys and some junior girls. It was a long ride, and the younger ones were very excited. I tried to think of as many car games as possible, but I ran out of ideas pretty quickly. We played the game where you go around and each person says one word to contribute to telling a story. They made me die in every story, but I died in very creative ways. Once I was incinerated in a frog's uterus. Singing show tunes then became the entertainment of choice for the girls, which quickly put the rest of the bus on their iPods with pillows around their heads. We got their late, around 10pm, ate cold pizza, got a brief run down of our week, the next day's schedule and some of the rules. The living conditions were not bad considering other missi...

I just got back from one of my very rare self-pampering sessions. I just had a pedicure. Because I like to run my feet periodically work themselves into an abominable state and need some TLC. Tonight I managed to get them back to sort of normal. I went for a different color choice than I normally do and now as I'm sitting with my feet up on the couch and my polished toes are staring back at me, I think that they have surpassed the upper majority of me in style. My toes look way better than the rest of me does normally. Usually when I come home I immediately change into sweats and a t-shirt. I think I may have to try harder so my toes don't look so out of place. This may be a problem. I have been described as stubbornly low-maintenance by friends before. I think that is definitely true. I can't get cute haircuts because I won't spend the time it takes to keep them cute. I can't buy makeup because I never take the time to put it on. There will come a tim...

A follow up on the blog from May 6th. Today, from an elderly gentleman named Fred, I heard the life story of Thomas Alva Edison. Apparently Fred lives in Ft. Myers, Florida which is where Mr. Edison summered. He knows all about his inventions, his family history, and shockingly, more stories about people related to Thomas Edison. I don't even think this gentleman had a question to ask me. He just wanted to talk about Thomas Edison. It reminds me of those public service annoucements that NBC used to do that ended with the phrase "The More You Know" sung by a pretty voice. Their implication that the more you know, the better off you are. They were usually about drugs or not talking to strangers, but knowing about good ol' Tom is beneficial too, in my opinion.

I think one of my favorite parts of this job is the random stories I get to hear. The perps are generally elderly men, young wives, or women travelling together. This week alone I have: 1) Heard the story of a family originating from Sussex, England, who came over and started Bermuda Hundred (near Chesterfield Co. in Richmond) and their progressive family developments from 1780 on. After the story I was sent on a search for a weaving loom that the family brought over with them and donated to my alma mater. The gentleman I spoke with was quite dismayed that I wasn't familiar with his family's loom and asked if I would be kind enough to locate where it was on display. About 10 calls and 3 hours later, I had spoken with every Colonial Wiliamsburg operator on the switchboard, (confused half of them, and supremely annoyed the other half) 3 museum curators and one collection director and none of them had any idea what I was talking about. I finally got the e-mail of a curator of obje...

So a man in a leather vest just walked into the Concierge office gripping an unopened 16oz can of Budweiser and asked for a tee-time for tomorrow afternoon. I reserved one for him and in doing so, learned his name. Guy Bowmaster. It was like something out of a movie. What a hardcore name! I had to stifle a giggle as a modern-day Conan the barbarian movie unfolded in my head and I saw fur and leather costumes with wierd helmets and lots of running through forests. Obviously we have to have awesome Rambo-esque bows and arrows as his weapon of choice, for how else would Guy have earned his name? How is that not a really bad 80's movie already? Sigh. Missed opportunities.