Home Is Where the Mountains Look Normal

This week I drove up to Logan for a good friend's wedding. It was the first time I'd been up there since Christmas, and as I drove down into the valley from the canyon I was struck, as I usually am, by the excitement of getting to see my friends and being somewhere familiar.

Only...it wasn't as familiar as last time, in some subtle way. As I was driving around in Logan, I finally realized that my baseline for "familiar" now is Salt Lake. The mountains in Logan are not unfamiliar, but I kept expecting to see the shapes of the mountains near my house in SLC when I looked up. That expectation is in such strong contrast to even just last year, when going to Logan felt like going home. Without me noticing, something has subtly shifted.

Autumn is my favorite season

And we're having such a good one this year.

Saturday night adventures

Look who showed up to my hotel tonight! Someone must have tripped the fire alarm (accidentally or not), because I was happily updating my Instagram with pictures of my adventure today when it went off about 9pm~ish. Two honest-to-goodness fire trucks came racing up the street, sirens blazing and lights twirling, and some real, live firemen went into our building and checked everything out. I can attest that San Francisco's Fire Department is definitely quick-response. They were here in less than five minutes. Not that I hope I'm ever in an actual fire, but if I ever was, I'm glad to know help would come quickly.Thankfully, there was no fire, but it did make tonight the most interesting and exciting Saturday night I've had in a long, long time!

A little cone humor for you

A good friend of mine was back in town today, and we stopped at Aggie Ice Cream for some yummies. This gem greeted us at the counter.

Mannheim Steamroller = Christmastime

Happy October

Wow, I'm terrible about this blogging thing lately, huh? I keep telling myself I need to be more regular about it, but I guess I'm just being lazy. 

Quote of the Day

My youngest brother, age 8, said to me as I was tucking him into bed this evening:

"I hope the apocalypse doesn't come when I get married."

Just a little bemused by this seemingly out-of-left-field statement that came out of our discussion about our baby niece, I asked him why. "Because I want to have kids," came the matter-of-fact response. Hard on the heels of that revelation came, "But kids are a pain in the neck."

I wonder if he realizes the irony of his observation.

Living Life on the Edge

I just cut my hair. Myself. With kitchen scissors. In my bathroom at 11:00 on a Sunday night.

That just happened.

On Repeat

K.will - 이러지마 제발 (Please Don't)

박지윤 (Park Ji-yoon) - 나무가 되는 꿈 (Tree of Life)

Ailee - Heaven

B1A4 - 걸어 본다 (Tried to Walk)

Homesick

Today is the official last day of the semester, and most of the students are long gone. That means things are slow at the office. I'm flying home for Christmas next week, and I'm starting to get (more) homesick, in more than one way. How many ways can you be homesick? you ask. I'm anxious to get home and see my family, of course, but I've been missing Korea more and more lately.

Last night after work I took the bus downtown and had dinner at the Korean place. The proprietor and I are  pretty close. We chat about Korean politics (more like he lectures and I nod - my grasp of Korean-politics Korean is very tenuous), I hang out in the kitchen and chat with his mom (who makes the food), etc. And I can always count on him telling me I look like I've gained weight. (The topic is not taboo like it is in the States.) I've got to start working out regularly again, just so I can finally hear him tell me I've gotten skinnier.

I'd really like to go back to Korea soon. It doesn't look that will happen, especially not if I get into grad school this fall. The problem is that I don't know what I'd do there even if I went. I could teach English, but I don't know if that's something I'd want to do. I'd love to go to school there, but that's an expensive proposition. What I need is an American program that incorporates a study-abroad component, like the University of Hawaii's or American University's, but let's face it--I can't afford either of those places.

Actually, at this point, I'd like any kind of direction. Don't worry, I'm not all mopey like in my last post, but the frustration at my lack of direction is still there. I'm not any closer to knowing what I want to do with myself than I was three weeks ago or three months ago. It makes me feel a little lonely and pointless.

I'll Tell You What I'm Not Thankful For

...the GRE. Specifically, that I have to take it in T-6 days. The Quantitative Reasoning sectioning is gonna kick my booty. Just reviewing the properties of numbers -- you know, with those fancy ones like exponents and roots thrown in for fun -- is giving me headaches. And obviously my times tables have suffered a little since I memorized them in second grade and was quizzed on them in fourth. And it's been ten years since my last geometry class. Well, okay, only five and a half technically, if you count Euclid freshman year at SJC. Which was awesome, but it's not algebraic geometry. Sadly, the GRE isn't going to ask me to construct an equilateral triangle using only circles and a line. (I probably couldn't do that, either, but I bet I could make a decent go of it. A better one than remembering the rules of exponents or roots.)

2 + 2 = ...4? Really?

If the GRE tested on Korean pop culture, I would totally rock that section.

Just FYI

In case you were wondering, if you're "smart" enough to wrap your chicken breasts in saranwrap before you freeze them, in an effort to save time so you won't have to unstick them when you want to use them, you will spend approximately 20 minutes trying to pry saranwrap out from in between the parts of the chicken that have been frozen together. You know, just a helpful life hint.

Yeah, Baby

Sister Therapy

Amen.

A Short Laugh Break

I'm terribly behind on all the things that have been happening lately (I turned 26! my mom came to visit! I got another job!), but I thought I'd share this. I saw this at our local zoo tonight and got a laugh out of it. Sorry about the crappy picture, I still must rely on my dumbphone's 1 megapixel camera for all my picture-taking needs.

My baby's back!

My baby (aka my Macbook) is sporting a sassy new hard drive (the nice people at Expercom were able to retrieve almost all of my files!) and it's back in my loving and anxious arms. After almost three weeks of separation, I have to say I'm pretty over the moon about it. ^_^

We interrupt your Friday evening for an important news flash...

So every once in a while I get on a kick. An obsession kick. Where I listen/watch/eat/read one thing over and over and over again. These last few days it's been SHINee, specifically their latest music video (see above - sorry, no English subs, since I couldn't find any good ones). It's called Sherlock. But it's catchy. And SHINee always has great choreography. When I watch their MVs I almost want to stop being lazy and ignore my abject fear of looking stupid and learn to dance like that.

Uncertainty - I'm not a fan

I'm not a big fan of uncertain things. I like things -- my life, especially -- to be tied up nicely and neatly in a smart little package with a bow. I'm the kind of person who likes to be on very solid footing before taking the next step.

Unfortunately, that hasn't been working out too well lately. Or ever, really. I don't think life usually works like that.

P.S.

After rereading my post from yesterday and talking to my mom about it, I think I came across much more petulant than I was actually feeling. I was feeling pouty about the whole prospect of life not working out according to my plans / ideas of how it should go, but I think it was more frustration at my own stubborness and childish clinging to unreasonable expectations than a temper tantrum. I'm still not thrilled at the prospect of doing things I don't want to do (who would be?), but I'm happy to report that after a few days of reflection I'm feeling a little more willing to do them.

Incredulous

You know a word I'm sick of hearing?

Intimidating.

I'm sick of hearing, "Oh, AnnMarie, the boys are just intimidated of you. You have such a big vocabulary." What? So guys don't want a girl with two IQ points to rub together? I don't think I'm overly optimistic of the male gender when I say I find that ridiculous. My father married a very intelligent woman, and all of my guy friends and cousins did, too, so clearly that excuse is bull hockey.