:::quote of the week -- march 28, 2009:::

{somewhat irrelevant photo from flickr}

"in a dating and courtship relationship, i would not have you spend five minutes with someone who belittles you, who is constantly critical of you, who is cruel at your expense and may even call it humor. life is tough enough without having the person who is supposed to love you lead the assault on your self-esteem, your sense of dignity, your confidence, and your joy. in this person’s care you deserve to feel physically safe and emotionally secure."

-- Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, 'how do i love thee?'

:::quote of the week -- march 21, 2009:::

{old picture}

"I talk to myself because I like dealing with a better class of people."

-- Jackie Mason

:::sunday, march 29, 2009:::

this sunday i woke up struggling. i immediately knew that i would be fighting and emotional uphill battle throughout church that day, so i tried to prevent a total collapse as best as i could.

as i was sitting in the chapel before sacrament meeting, i noticed a woman in the ward whom i really admire talking with another sister. they both have children who are about the same age, and i began to feel, as i often do, that i miss out on so many friendship opportunities because i don't have the mom life in common with most of the women in the church. that really depressed me, but, i managed to keep it somewhat together.

during the testimony portion, another woman whom i really admire bore her testimony and it really touched me. every time she visits our ward (her mother and two of her children our in our congregation) she says something that totally uplifts me, and today was no different. the testimony she bore brought a bright spot, a feeling of peace, and a sense of hope to my day that had been missing beforehand.


after sacrament meeting i went to the nursery only to find that the leader wasn't there, so it was just me and some of the parents. i've been having a hard time with my nursery calling dealing with parents who linger (i understand their situation, it's just hard to parent someone's child while they're sitting right there).

happily, the kids were so good today, and we only had two parents linger for about 5-7 minutes. i stemmed the tide of a potential breakdown, easily shepherded the kids between activities, and furthered my connections with a few children who i haven't completely won over yet. those small successes meant a lot to me.

here's something odd. we're having enrichment this tuesday, and while the parents were dropping their kids off at nursery one of the mothers was talking to another mother about some food items she had agreed to bring. as i was sitting there listening to their conversation, i heard the first woman mention that they still needed chicken noodle soup. this reminded me that on friday i had seen some delicious looking turkey noodle soup at costco, and before i could even think about it i heard myself volunteering to bring soup. what?! that means that i now have to metro to costco on monday night just to get soup, and we all know how much i hate running errands after work. needless to say, i thoroughly shocked myself with my spontaneous volunteering.


as i was walking home from church today (my ride had to leave after the second block), i was enjoying the gorgeous 70 degree weather, the bright sun, and the delicate but vibrant blossoms that are out on the cherry trees. all of these things reminded me of the songs we had sung during singing time -- 'i lived in heaven', 'my Heavenly Father loves me', and 'the chapel doors'. standing in primary (with baby on hip) and singing those songs with the children had soothed my beleaguered soul by reminding me that i came from a beautiful place, that sunday and church meetings are an opportunity to feel closer to that beautiful place, and that Heavenly Father loves us so much that He gave us a beautiful, beautiful world to live in. each year the coming of the spring and Easter seasons after the cold and bitterness of winter remind me again how wonderful and true the Father's plan is.


i continued walking and could feel my heart and thoughts becoming lighter and lighter as i made my way down 2nd street. there is some kind of religious non-profit in a townhouse across the street from the supreme court that currently has a cross in their little patch of grass with a purple cloth draped around it. this visual reminder of the Savior and His sacrifice, coupled with the glorious weather and the primary songs in my head, just filled me with so much love. at that moment i had such a desire to be as pure and beautiful and radiant as the Savior, and i finally found the calm i had been looking for all day. i thought about my spontaneous soup commitment, and felt a reassurance from the Spirit as i told myself again and again, 'i can bring soup, i can do that. i can manage soup, it will be okay.'

i'm so glad that this sunday has ended on a positive note because the way it started did not portend a successful end to the day. i can't help but feel that this small experience of a sunday that was turned from bad to wonderful was a lesson about the magnificence of the Savior's atonement during this Easter season. i love the Savior, i feel His love, and it is the most important thing to me in my life.

:::ikea trip:::

yesterday was my last day borrowing my sister's car, so i decided that a trip to ikea was in order with my friend christina.

here is christina with one of the three shopping cart options available. those swedish, they're so innovative. we spent a good, long time walking through the store and filling our carts. there are so many great things at ikea, but there are also so many weird and just plain ugly things there as well. as i passed certain items i wondered who in their right mind would ever put something like that in their home, and many of the color choices made no sense to me at all -- who wants fluorescent green sheets, or neon orange shower curtains? it's almost as if half of their design team is made up of uber hip moderns, and the other half is comprised of 13 year old boys.


nevertheless, i think ikea is great at stocking items that are just what you were looking for, especially by way of containers. the jars alone had me swooning, i could barely handle them all. who knew i had a jar fixation?

above are some of my selections after walking through the store with very big eyes. i really wanted butter yellow towels, but i suppose these will provide a nice shock of color in a drab bathroom, while still coordinating with the blue bathmat. i love the combination of this shade of blue and a lighter yellow. for some reason it reminds me of wonderful old movies like summer magic and the music man.


the day before our trip i had gone through the entire ikea website and made a list of all the items that i wanted. on saturday morning, however i couldn't find my list. blerg. so, when we got to the cash registers i realized that i had somehow passed the table runners without noticing it. christina made the very generous offer to go all the way back for me while i sat on a leather couch relaxing. i couldn't help but laugh when she came back with every single runner they had, and had even memorized the prices (again, weird design choices here). now that is a friend!


we had lunch at the ikea cafe, and then headed back to dc. after hitting traffic we decided to go home on the george washington parkway instead. too bad it was a gloomy day, otherwise it would have been even more pretty than it was.


we were pretty impressed by our car packing skills. we managed to fit a bookcase that i bought through the trunk and into the backseat, as well as multiple little odds and ends.

last night i put together my bookcase all by myself, which made me very proud. i'm not great at construction type projects, and we've all heard ikea horror stories about trying to assemble things, so i was a little scared. thankfully, it wasn't too bad. i'm now a flarke expert. call me if you need help.

my room is coming together, slowly but surely. the knew influx of ikea finds has turned things upside down, s0 i again have a floor covered with piles of misplaced things. i am determined, however, to get my room to a point that i am just putting the finishing touches on it by conference this saturday. pictures to come.

:::blog spring cleaning:::

i'm messing around with my template a bit, and trying to incorporate as many lovely pastel colors and muted shades as possible. you aren't tripping out, don't worry.

:::housekeeping, march '09:::

{i haven't taken the time to check this post for spelling and grammar errors, so read at your own risk...}

enough is enough. i've been such a blog slacker lately, with posts and pictures piling up and no motivation to to do anything about it. so, i'm forcing myself to write this quick-ish catch-up post to get myself back into the blogging groove.

1. spring is almost here! the bulb flowers are blooming, there are buds on the trees, and warmer weather is slowly but surely trying to stage a comeback. hallelujah!



one week later (yes, it's taken me over a week to write this post):

we have blossoms! it's spring! time to head over to the tidal basin.

2. every week we get a flower arrangement for the reception desk. our florist is not that motivated to so his best for our order. we usually get half dead flowers and fillers that have already gone to seed. i guess he is the brother of an attorney that used to work at the firm, so they don't want to just fire him, but seriously...anyhow, sometimes if the flowers miraculously last until friday afternoon i'll take some of them home with me.

this week i snagged these green spider mums, one orange tea rose, and this lovely bunch of orchids and lisianthus.



3. last saturday my activity for the day was going up to columbia heights to return some things at lane bryant, and to stop by target. i was trying to find shoe polish (which i never found) when i noticed that the foot care products were displayed right near the frozen food. does anyone else find this a little gross? do you really want to be thinking about athlete's foot while you're trying to pick a frozen pizza?


i stopped at five guys for lunch. very naughty, but so good. as i was leaving, i ran into one of the workers from lane bryant. now if that isn't poetic...

i would chose five guys over in-n-out every. single. day. and that's coming from a southern californian grew up singing, 'in-n-out, in-n-out. that's what a hamburger's aaaaall about.' five guys burgers taste exactly like a backyard burger -- fresh, grilled, with soft doughy buns and all wrapped up in foil (was my dad the only one who wrapped hamburger patties in foil as soon as they came off the grill?). it's the burger of your childhood. it's perfect. it's life changing. and their fries...heaven help me.

one of my purchases at target was this green bag that i'd been thinking about for a few weeks. when my other purse fell apart, i decided i actually needed a new bag, and was happy to bring this one home.


5. i spent the night at elizaben's on saturday so that i could take them to the airport for their 5 a.m. flight to honduras. after church (i only made it to the last hour-and-a-half after sleeping in), i came back to their apartment to make my 3rd attempt at baking a decent loaf of michelle's sheepherder's bread. my last two attempts were failures, but i was sure that this time i would finally triumph.

this bread takes a lot of time to make, so i brought my miss marple dvds to watch on their hd tv by way of their hd dvd player (is that what you call it?).

the quality put my little portable dvd player to shame! wow, just, wow. i felt like i was there solving the mystery right along side with miss marple.

i also found other ways of entertaining myself, like playing with this embossing tool that my sister bought. fun times.

as time wore on, however, i started getting antsy about getting home before dark. to home to the district from their house i have to ride a bus and ride two metro lines, and it makes me a nervous wreck. i am not a champion bus rider. i hate it, hate it, hate it, every time i have to do it.


i made a list of the times the bus would be stopping in their neighborhood and watched the clock tick on, and on, and on...

i think i might have taken this photo during the second of three one-hour risings. serenity now...i must be doing something wrong. i think my pot is too big.


when the sun finally set, i had a full-blown panic attack, threw the loaf in the oven , yanked it out 20 minutes lates, let it cool while i packed my stuff up, then wrapped that 40lb brick of dough in foil and tossed it in a shopping bag. as soon as i got outside i started running like a mad woman to the bus stop. i had my puffy, ankle length white coat on, a lap top strapped across my chest, my purse in one hand, and the dough bomb in trash bags in the other. i looked like the stay puft man on a neurotic rampage.

here's the ill-fated loaf with it's on set on the bus. i don't know if sheepherder's bread has ever ridden public transportation before, so there you go.


here's what that stinking bread looked like when i finally made it home around 11 p.m. i've decided that i'm not attempting this bread until i live in my own apartment again and can devote 48 carefree hours to the process.

6. i've been meaning to have a good, long date with my iron since i moved. i love my iron, and i love having the space to have my own board. i think i love ironing so much because it offers instant gratification -- you start with something wrinkled and unsuitable for wearing, and you end up with something crisp and dazzling. mmm, ironing...


i bought this iron when i was still at byu, and it's been the only thing i've insisted on carrying with me through all of my moves. it was $100, which was a lot for a college student, but it was so worth it.

7. i went to old ebbit express for lunch on wednesday and had their chicken taco salad. it was delicious, as every $9.90(!) salad should be.

(let me guess, this picture is cut off)

ah, caught up. as i said, i've been working on this post on and off for a full week! hopefully i've got my mojo back now and can be a more faithful blogger.

it's spring!

sorry, i just had to say that one more time.

:::the move:::

so, last week i moved from my tiny, tiny, galley style room to a much bigger room on the third floor. i've been waiting for this move since september, yes, september, when i was asked to be a assistant resident manager at the house. you know i live in a boarding house, right? i live in a boarding house on capitol hill. i may not have written about that yet.

anyhow, one of the perks of the job is that i was promised that as soon as one of the managers moved into the carriage house at the back of the property, i would get her room. so, like a good girl i waited, and waited, and waited...september, october, november, december, january, february, then halfway through march and it finally happened. let it never be said that i don't have patience. let me tell you though, it can be very agonizing to wait seven months for something that could happen 'any day now.'

nevertheless, my day finally came, and i decided to take a much needed mental health day from work to rest and then get a jumpstart on my move.


after lazing about all morning i finally got and gained the motivation i needed to get started. isn't the first step of moving so daunting? when i wheeled the luggage cart into my room i had no idea how i was going to transport so many things with one little cart.


i decided to load up my craft supplies first and to get my work table set up so that i could have something familiar and pretty to look at every time i came up with another load.


the move actually went very quickly, mainly because everytime i brought a load to my new room, i could set it up as it had been in my old room since the furniture was identical. this is a picture of my dresser drawers. instead of packing all of my clothes, i just switched the drawers out! what a time saver. i did the same with my desk drawer, and with my heavy bookcase.

my new room is at least twice the size of my old room, with a larger closet, two windows instead of one, and....


my own full bathroom! it may be drab and uninspiring, but it's all mine!


i have a feeling that this picture is going to get cut off when i publish this post. this is the card i made for my friend and neighbor, another manager, that i left behind on the 2nd floor. it's a little elephant that i pieced together from different papers to remind her that i would never forget my time with her (we were being dramatic). get it? elephants always remember? maybe it's a bit of a stretch.

(ok, the picture is cut off, i'll try to fix it later)

i've really been enjoying putting together my new space and fine tuning the layout. even though the floor are the ugliest tile in the existence, having more room is so fantastic that i can barely contain my joy. and the bathroom, oh, man...

:::for my sins:::

{edited to fix pictures. this better work sohelpme!}

i haven't been good about blogging lately. my life force is slowly being drained from my soul...

anyhow, if i don't blog my life just slips past, so i offer this small post as 'something is better than nothing.'

:::pictures in pink and orange:::

{ignore the mess, i moved rooms last weekend*}

someone in the office today gave away two ivy plants in a raffle, and i won one of them! i snatched the plant with the most even growth and the nicest container. of course you can't see it because i didn't think of that when i was taking this picture...{sigh}...but it's a cute white crock.

i have no idea why this picture is so stinking pink...{deep breath}...serenity now...anyhow, i love that it looks like someone painted different shades of green on each leaf.

my nail growing experiment has taken an unforeseen detour. instead of growing out wonderful flat nails like my mother, my nails curl under at the sides and grow out a bit skiwampus...{exhale}...tonight i filed them down on the sides, and now i'm going for more of a 1950's-pointed-and-rounded look. i had to paint them otherwise they look pretty silly.

one more day, friends. one more day and it will be the weekend and i can write about the good* things that have happened lately. plus, i still need to update you on my progress with {work} in february...now that march is halfway over...{exhale}...calgon...you know the rest.

:::a new day:::

this morning when i was doing my hair, i looked in the bathroom mirror and said, "i look really good today, really good." farewell, ashy skin. get the hence dull eyes.

then a minute later i snapped my head up and exclaimed, "and the world didn't end last night!"

cuz we were all thinkin' it might, weren't we?

:::quote of the week -- march 14, 2009:::

"Why are these temple ordinance guarded with such secrecy when anyone who really wants to can find out what goes on? Even though everyone may discover what goes on in the temple, and many have already revealed it, the important thing is that I do not reveal these things; they must remain sacred to me. I must preserve a zone of sanctity which cannot be violated whether or not anyone else in the room has the remotest idea what the situation really is . . . . No matter what happens, it will, then, always remain secret: only I know exactly the weight and force of the covenants I have made--I and the Lord with whom I have made them--unless I choose to reveal them. If I do not, then they are secret and sacred no matter what others may say or do. Anyone who would reveal these things has not understood them, and therefore that person has not given them away. You cannot reveal what you do not know!"

-- Hugh Nibley, The Temple and the Cosmos

:::nil desperandum:::

"i hope you feel better."

"huh?"

"you're sick, aren't you?

"oh, no, not really..."

"i'm sorry."

"do i look sick?"

"...yeah, kinda."

"oh..."

"sorry."


and that's how my week began, a passing conversation with a coworker that would portend the beginning of my mental decline. if i looked sick, it was because i was slowly losing my sanity and it was impacting my physical fortitude.

by that night i could barely function. the next morning i could not, could not, open my eyes when my alarm went off. eventually, i had to throw myself out of bed and stumble to the shower. i ran into the wall a few times.

i almost collapsed walking to work. i almost fell down the escalator into the metro station. every time i shut my eyes at my desk, i nodded off for a few minutes.

at night, i came home and sat in my chair and stared at the wall, completely exhausted and too tired to sleep.

rinse and repeat on tuesday, wednesday, and thursday.

it's been one of those weeks where everything on your burners needs immediate attention. pots are overflowing, the kettle is whistling with shrill insistence, and the bacon is burning in the pan. if you came into my mental kitchen, you would see me standing there like a dear in the headlights, completely flummoxed because there is so much to do and i haven't figured out yet how to do it all. this week my sanity went up in flames, and i was left standing there in the billowing black smoke with nothing left to give.

i'm not sure why this week was chosen by the fates as the week that would become The Week. was it friday the 13th? the impending ides? purim? can i blame purim? or maybe it was...

the email from HR about more restrictions on our insurance policy...

trying to find shoes for my wide feet...

trying to find clothes for my wide body...

the growing clutter, so bad now that i can barely move -- the stuff i found for free off the street, the huge bag for goodwill, the stack of papers for filing...

the never ending trips to cvs...

sophia's issues at school...

scheduling a trip to texas...

scheduling visiting teaching for four women, one of them in a rest home, none of them near a metro station, and i don't have a car...

dealing with a new calling...

the lack of sleep...

my never ending pile of laundry...

the ironing, heaven help me, the ironing...

the evil of others...

waiting for everything that i need to happen to happenfortheloveofmike...

needing to go to the grocery store...

constantly being hungry not matter how recently i've eaten...

trying to find time for a trip to costco, knowing that i have to carry whatever i buy all the way home...

cancer. frankly, i'm sick of it...

my job that is draining me like a dementor's kiss...

my ugly feet, the $65 pedicure that made a difference for one day...

the money wasted on cab fare because i didn't get up in time...

looming reviews and wondering about raises (if there are any to be had in times like these)...

trudging to work every day...

sore knees...

pants that fit in the legs, but not in the waist...

not being the blogger i want to be...

trying to grow my nails out and catching myself chewing on them...

ashy skin...

the loss of natural highlights...

spending $8 on lunch everyday because i don't have food to pack a lunch (see above re:Costco)...

not turning in a rebate in time...

the pile of boxes that need to be shipped back for refunds...

wondering what a generous fast offering really is...

the financial apocalypse...

waiting for other people to get their act together so that i can get my act together...

momentarily popping my head above the chaos and trying to address the future...husband? children? career? relocate? celestial? terrestrial? telestial?


serenity now.


i came into work yesterday and told the receptionist, "i'm taking a sick day tomorrow." then i walked back to my desk, sat down, and fell asleep before i had even logged on to my computer.

see you on monday.

:::it would help if you could see what i'm talking about:::

i went through and fixed the pictures on a bunch of old posts. take a look and let me know if it worked.

:::life spans:::

i just saw this on my friend sarah's blog and i had to post it over here. maybe i cried.




it reminded me of one of my favorite youtube videos of all time, people in order:

:::no fond return of love:::

i just finished my second barbara pym -- no fond return of love -- and i am so happy that i was not disappointed. i love the way pym captures the every day occurrences of life with witty insights and playful interactions between her characters. i think she is a fabulous author and i wish more people read her books.

so far as i can tell, pym tends to write about single women who are dealing with their spinsterhood in comical yet earnest ways. undoubtedly, anyone who likes high comedy and has the patience for an older book would enjoy her writing, regardless of whether or not they were married.

in short, the story centers around dulcie mainwaring, a single woman in her late twenties, i believe, who begins to stalk professor aylwin forbes after meeting him at a literary conference. yes, there is more to the story than that, but the plot grows from the main storyline of dulcie and her friend viola dace endeavoring to find out more about aylwin.

in case you can't see what it says, on the cover, it is a quote from the new york times thay says, "the novelist most touted by one's most literate friends." so...i guess that makes me your most literate friend. please, don't be stinting with you praise.

without any further ado, here are my favorite quotes from no fond return of love...

"dulcie always found a public library a little upsetting, for one saw so many odd people there, and it must be supposed that a certain proportion came in because they had nowhere else to go. others were less easy to classify and less worrying."
page 52


"'there are some people one could never cease to care for,' said viola, 'and I suppose aylwin is one of those.'

'obviously every man must be that to some woman,' said dulcie, 'even the most unworthy man...those are the people from whom one asks no return of love, if you see what i mean. just to be allowed to love them is enough.'"
page 75


"'you young women nowadays are so much cleverer than we were.'

'and yet,' said dulcie, feeling that she knew what was coming, 'you were probably happier than we are.'

'oh, I wouldn't say that. but life was simpler then. we made our own pleasures. Perhaps in some ways we were more serious -- felt our responsibilities more.'"
page 80


"and the way she had looked -- so fragile and appealing with her fluffy curls, almost a 'girl wife' -- had been such a refreshing change from the frightening elegance, frosty bohemianism, or uncompromising dowdiness, of those women who could really have entered into his work and would probably in the end have elbowed him out of it altogether.
page 81


"'the man in the queue after me asked for baked beans, and he got them. he was laughing and joking with the girl who was serving -- you know the way they do -- i didn't say anything, but i was quite upset.'


'yes, i know, that's what life is like. and it is humiliating. one feels a sense of one's own inadequacy, somehow, almost unworthiness,' said dulcie thoughtfully."
page 88


"the young woman seemed a more elegant version of herself, rather as dulcie might have looked if some woman's magazine had taken her in hand."
page 89


"it was sad, she thought, how women longed to be needed and useful and how seldom most of them really were."
page 103


"it seemed -- though she did not say this to viola -- so much safer and more comfortable to live in the lines of other people -- to observe their joys and sorrows with detachment as if one were watching a film or a play."
page 108

"dulcie herself was to travel home with laurel on Christmas Eve to spend the holiday with her sister charlotte and her family. It would be better than spending Christmas alone in london, she knew, yet she felt reluctant to uproot herself and be reduced in status to the spinster aunt, who had had an unfortunate love affair that had somehow 'gone wrong' and who, although she was still quite young, was now relegated to the shelf and good works."
page 109


"she went on to wonder why anybody married anybody. it only brought trouble to themselves and their relations."
page 141


"'but he's a celibate, of course.' here her tone took on a sterner, more vigorous note. 'and anyone can see that. it sticks out a mile.'

dulcie caught viola's eye and she wanted to laugh, though one could see what she meant. celibacy so often did stick out a mile, and not only among clergy."
page 149


this quote is in regards to her stalking of aylwin forbes -- "oh -- don't you know how it is! one goes on with one's research, avidly and without shame. then suddenly a curious feeling of delicacy comes over one. one sees one's subjects -- or perhaps victims is a better word -- as being somehow degraded by one's probings...'"
page 171


"some thin slices of meat were now served, and little dishes with just enough vegetables for two were placed on the table. remembering that it was friday -- and Good Friday, too -- dulcie glanced to see whether the clergyman was having fish. but he was not, and did not appear to object to what was put before him. dulcie was disappointed, having hoped for some spirited protest or whispered conference between him and the waitress. she supposed he must be rather Low Church."
page 177


"it so happened that the evening chosen was also laurel's last evening at dulcie's house, before she left to 'take residence', as it were, in the flatlet house in quince square. it had not been so difficult as had been feared, to persuade her parents to agree to the arrangement. charlotte, laure's mother, revealed an unexpected and presumably long suppressed desire to live a 'bachelor gir'ls' life in london; the idea of a bed-sitting room with a little cooker hidden away in a cupboard, a concealed washbasin and a divan bed piled with cushions was to her as romantice as an elopement to the south of france with a lover might have seemed to one of a different temperment."
page 115


"it was at this point that somebody came to the unoccupied table, but as she was a woman of about forty, ordinary-looking and unaccompanied, nobody took much notice of her. as it happened, she was a novelist; indeed, some of the occupants of the tables had read and enjoyed her books, but it would never habe occurred to them to connect her name, even had they ascertained it from the hotel register, with that of the author they admired."
page 176


"He would have preferred an emptier carriage, and had seen one with only a single lady in it, but just as he was about to enter it he had noticed that the lady was miss randall...she in her turn, and of course without his knowing, had avoided him at an earlier stage in the journey when she had seen him standing at the bookstall...thus, there may be mutual avoidance between men and women, the men not always realizing that they are not the only ones to be practising the avoidance."
page 208


"they're engaged, ducie thought, disliking herself for the slight sinking feeling she experienced. and it will be all jolly, and i shan't really know what to say."
page 223


ETA: aaah! these picture issues are driving me nuts. i will fix them when i get home tonight.

:::this sunday:::

my 'duh' moment of the day, brought to you by the two non-coordinating necklaces that i wore to church, not realizing when i put the second necklace on that i was already wearing one. awesome.

because of an extremely late night, and the fact that we lost an hour of sleep due to daylight saving time, i came home from church and took a four hour nap. i woke up feeling a bit loopy and a little hazy.

it's now 1 am, and i'm not the least bit tired. awesome.

a few hours ago my friend brought me some ice unexpectedly. i still need to tell you about my ocd ice water habit. anyhow, her little act of kindness saved me a trip down and up four flights of stairs. awesome.

:::quote of the week -- March 7, 2009:::

not that i would confine him to one best quote, but i think this could easily be called one of President Benson's greatest:

"the world would take people out of the slums. Christ takes the slums out of people, and then they take themselves out of the slums. the world would mold men by changing their environment. Christ changes men, who then change their environment. the world would shape human behavior, but Christ can chance human nature."

-- "Born of God," Ensign, November 1985.

:::according to plan:::

some times i think i want to get married.

many times i think i want my garden flat in london.

occasionally i think i want my garden flat in london + the spoils and praise of babylon.

there is nothing about garden flats in the plan of salvation.

the downside of remaining single = no posterity, no man, no social acceptance, tears at church 4ever, working for life.

the upside to staying single = garden flats, me time 4ever, personal space, money for me and no one else, travel, i'm in charge, regular sleep, no man, independence...ahem, i'll stop.

a lot of times, i feel...torn.

today my doctor put me on a new prescription that may increase libido.

hot damn!

things may change.

:::did you just say that?:::

gwyneth paltrow on defending her new website -- "I felt like I had a lot of really useful information that I was privileged enough to get, because I have this amazing, super, fortunate life."

what?

are you kidding me?

in other news, the pictures still aren't working. going to fix that real soon...