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Sunday, August 31, 2008

little unexpected things

Yesterday was pretty productive as I ran some errands I'd been meaning to run. But the surprise benefit of being out and about yesterday was a free hair cut. Something else I'd been meaning to get done.

I was out and decided to stop by a salon to pick up a couple of things, and just as I was checking out, a student came out from the school and asked if I wanted a free hair cut because that day was model day and well...they needed some more models.

Ah...so now those stylists standing out on the corner made sense. There'd been several and my first thought was that I'd never seen so many people working there on a Saturday. But...why not? I needed a trim and had been putting it off and putting it off while debating what kind of cut I wanted...but hey, who can say no to a free hair cut?

That made my day. Even if I was a little less than ecstatic about how it turned out, I got the trim I'd been needing and overall my hair looks a lot better. At least I think. Now I can sort of see how my intended style would look, and I think I'll finally go to the salon soon or just wait until I visit Texas again. I used to go to a salon there, and nearly every time I went, even if I didn't have the same stylist, I was sooooo happy with the cut.

But a free hair cut? Totally made my day.

Saturday, August 23, 2008

iced coffee

Is it just me, or does iced coffee appear to be the new drink of choice?
It's everywhere now. It's in the windows of nearly every coffeehouse I pass, and not to mention on the sides of buses and bus stops. Just the other day I received an email from a French bakery I love introducing their new iced coffee. And there was a coupon for one for something like $2. Although, isn't that the average price of an iced coffee?
Really, what's so revolutionary about iced coffee? It's easy to make (I make it a couple hours into the day if I have coffee left), and we've had hotter summers that would warrant the news much more than the past few weeks have. And even in Texas, where the heat "is too hot for the devil and too hot for men"* hasn't really had such a prominent display of iced coffee before this summer, from what I gather.
First of all, don't get me wrong. I'm not ranting. I'm just making an observation. I like iced coffee. I buy iced coffee if I'm out, would like something cold to drink and would also like a little pick-me-up. It's just not a revolutionary new drink to me...and yet, it's everywhere. Anyone else noticing this?

*10 points if you know what this line is from. Anyone? :) It's from a poem, Hell in Texas. I think I've mentioned it before, but what can I say? It's entertaining and growing up in Texas...I could relate.

Sunday, August 17, 2008

strange sensations...for august

Is it just me, or does it almost feel like fall is here? Or at least fall's trying to make a breakthrough?

Maybe it's just trying to shove its way through the normally hot and sticky month of August. Which I'd have no problem with.


The other day, I had the strangest sensation of fall while walking home from work. Well, I guess it helped that my walk to work that morning was cool and a little breezy.

But since it had rained earlier, a cool, moist feeling hung in the air. But it wasn't thick and sticky, like normal humidity. It smelled fresh, the rain having already cleared away some of the putrid smells of summertime city streets. And because of the clouds, it was more like dusk.* Cars with their headlights only added to this, skipping forward to the shorter days in the months to come. All I needed was a few multi-colored trees lining the streets.

I know. I'm jumping ahead here, but a girl can dream, can't she? I'm hoping, and keeping my fingers crossed, that fall will come sooner rather than later.


*Interestingly enough, when I think of dusk, I think of summer. Maybe it's all those trips to Virginia in the summer when I was growing up. It was practically a family rule that we went out at dusk to catch fireflies. Fireflies signal dusk to me.

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

a little scottish history

Ok, so here's another book recommendation: How the Scots Invented the Modern World: The True Story of How Western Europe's Poorest Nation Created Our World & Everything in It by Arthur Herman.

I'll start by saying that it was pretty interesting. He looked at several ideas in the education system that eventually led to those great philosophical ideas we study in school and, one person that I knew very well from school, Adam Smith. And then it also described the Scottish culture influenced the US, Canada, and other areas of the British Empire as the Scots left Scotland in waves.

There were a few little known facts, at least to me, that I found fascinating. And this may be because I've always had a fascination with words and sometimes I think I really should have gone to school to become a linguist. For example, the old political party, the Whigs, was derived from a Scots word, whigg. And it's interesting to note that Tory apparently comes from an Irish word. Bu Herman writes "Whigg is Scots for a kind of sour milk or whey....Whiggamore [sour milk men] soon shortened to Whig; in John Locke's day, it referred to anyone bound and determined to have a Protestant succession, whether in Scotland or England."

The Scottish also went South and influenced endearing parts of "Southern" culture in the US. Herman mentions some words that were also generated from the Scottish and parts of Southern culture, which is strange because I wouldn't at first think of it as particularly Scottish.

It's the little facts that I really like. In my Euro class back in high school, my teacher loved the little facts and one of her biggest things were quotes. We had to memorize a quote from a certain time period or in the case of school, from a chapter. But it was fun and they stick with you. I know I've already brought up the Whig party to a few people.

The book is also a fairly quick read. Yes, it's a history book and history can be...complicated. Complicated in that certain people or families keep popping up and you may have to go back and refresh where they came from initially or why they're on one side of history as opposed to the other (even if they may have been on the other). But that's what makes it interested. I think that there could have been more dates in the book as there were a few times when I had to flip back several pages to figure out what time period, since the entire book wasn't chronological. It was for the most part, but when you have a chapter or two on a cultural aspect, time lines are going to flow back and forth quite readily.

I'll try and be better about my book recommendations. Right now my 'to-read' stack is a little daunting. I've got about 11 books stacked up on a console table, not to mention that there are several on my bookshelves that I'd like to reread. Ordinarily I'll read one, and then quickly jump to the next one for that feeling of accomplishment in seeing my stack decrease. And of course, let me know if you have any suggestions.

Sunday, August 03, 2008

success!

There's this opera song that I love, but have had absolutely no idea what it was. You may, and probably do, know which song I'm talking about. It's on so many movie trailers and in so many movies as a battle song or just...well, it's a great song to create tension (and patriotic tension at that).

Whenever I hear it I think I need to look it up. And in May when I last saw my sister, the two of us discussed how we need to look it up. But that was a few months ago.

Friday evening I put in a movie and watched the trailer for it, you know, just to get in the mindset of the movie, and guess what song played during the duration of the trailer? Yeah, it was this opera song. And I thought "hmmm...I'm home, with my computer and internet, and I'm going to look up this song now, while I'm thinking about it." Because like all the other times, if I put it off, I'd forget about it.

And I found it. It's "O Fortuna," from Carmina Burana, by Carl Orff. So, for your listening pleasure, here's one video I found on YouTube. Though of course there are many, many videos.



Sound familiar?