At the beginning of sophomore year when I moved ino the house I still live in now, I thought these storage container things were simply amazing [and they are] and I bought about 3 sets of these things, and they came in cubes of 6 that you assemble [that adds up to a lot of these things]. Well I've quit using them completely since them and I know I will never need that many ever again - I had crazy colossal ideas of storage for my closet when I bought them, it didn't work out quite as planned - so if you would like some of these storage cubes, they are currently unassembled in my closet and I would LOVE to give them away. So if you want any let me know!
Friday, August 31, 2007
now a word from our sponsor...
Thursday, August 30, 2007
day 2: walking on sunshine.
Oh! In the dresser drawer! I put my aggie ring on the band and put it in there for safekeeping. I was debating before we left whether to bring the ring or not for fear of losing it somehow, but then decided to use this opportunity to hone my "being-an-adult-and-not-losing-valuable-things" skills. I pulled out the watch and stared at the face. I turned it sideways and stared some more to make sure the thing was still really ticking. It was 6:15! Rested or not, that was entirely too early to get up, so I walked to the window and pushed one side open to make sure I wasn't missing something outside that could only be seen at that hour of the morning, nope, still gorgeous like yesterday, so I went back to sleep until I rose at a more respectable hour, 7.
Eventually we were all up and ready for a day at the beach. Mom, Kaitlin, and I walked down around 9:15 and Dad said he would come down a little later, he wanted to find a bakery first. So we played in the beautiful turquiose water for a little bit and then got our chairs positioned and began to bake. For the first 30 minutes I sat facing the water, occaisionally looking around at the lush hillside to my left with the white houses with terra cotta roofs built into it, unable to look away, as if I couldn't take it in fast enough. Halfway through the morning I starting forming an idea as to why a kept staring as if it would all suddenly disappear. Most of the time in our everyday lives, we get mere glances or snapshots of real beauty. I see an entire family out together enjoying each others company or the technicolor green that covered east texas this summer because of the abundant rain as I drove home, where normally everything is burnt to a crisp. Hardly are there bountiful opportunities to submerse ourselves in creation, and for this I only blame ourselves. We run around all the time trying to get more and more things 'done' as if when we get those things 'done' we are accomplished and we scarcely stop to slow down and just look around from time to time to look at the authentic beauty God has created all around us. So it took awhile for me to adjust to beauty being unashamed and then I pondered for awhile on what God was thinking when he made this part of the Earth. I didn't get very far, as I hardly ever do when I try to wrap my mind around God's but that morning was wonderful just sitting there. My mom and sister had flipped over a couple of times but I never did the first day, I stayed laying on my back, afraid if I did I would miss something even though the Jamaican landscape, as wells as its people, are never quick to change, and I feel as if there were an official facial expression of Jamaica it would be a lazy grin.
Winsome had lunch ready for us around 12:30 when we came up from the beach. Pumpkin soup and tuna sandwiches, both of which were amazing. Originally in my mind the day was going to go as follows: beach, lunch, beach, dinner, something else. Well after lunch we were all pretty tired so we took naps and around 2:30 Mom, Kaitlin, and I decided to walk around Ocho Rios and browse a little, while Dad wanted to go out driving around. My Dad always does this on vacations, he likes to just go off driving around to see whats there and so on. So we walked through several strip-type shopping centers [not getting as many blantant complements since Mom was there, but still obvious once-overs - we got used to it as the day went on and it didn't feel weird anymore - but realized it was just the culture and not that every Jamaican man wanted to take my sister or I down a dark alley] and then we came upon a large open-air type craft market where they have all kinds of hand-made souvenir type things: dolls, bags, paintings, jewelery, wood carvings, clothes, sandals, musical instruments, etc. As we came upon the market a vivacious woman, with named Dimpers came up and introduced herself to us and said, "Oh sexy ladies and sexy Mama let me walk with you and show you my friends shops." Okay, if this woman wanted to spend a few minutes walking with us around this thing that was fine by me.
The market is really just rows and rows and rows of poles and tarps haphazardly thrown together to form rows of shops that were each about 5'x8' and the owner of each shop stood or sat right outside it and when you approached said some form of,
"Come in and have a look, I have a special price today."
"Please come in, you don't have to buy, but just entertain me with a look."
"Come see, I have [insert random souvenir] special for you today."
At first I was obliging, going into every sweet persons little 'shop' as they called it and spending a couple of minutes looking at their things, even though I knew I wasn't going to buy anything that day. Then I realized all of them had pretty much the exact same thing, were using the exact same line, and Dimpers was leading us through every one like we were circus animals and the shop owners were the audience. I was beginning to wonder why this woman was still wasting her time walking around with us, I rationed it out as that in Jamaica they don't care what time it is, how long something takes, and the word efficient is not in their vocabulary, so I didn't care that this woman was tagging along trying to get us to buy something from her friends, which were in ample supply. After about 30 minutes we get to another shop, where the owner carves things out of wood, which are not surprisingly, just like all the other wood carvings we've seen [not to dilute the quality of the stuff - I mean some is junk - but a lot of it is really neat]. Dimpers turns to me and says, "Whadmondaryoubarn?" "What?" "Whadmondaryoubarn?" "What?" "Whadmondaryoubarn?" "What?" I look at Kaitlin because I could not understand what she was trying to ask me if my life depended on it. Kaitlin tells me she wants to know what month I was born. I tell her June. She sighs and looks away while I look at the wood things. After a minute or two she comes back to me and says, "Do you have defiansay at home?" I look at her and laugh and say no. Then she looks at me and tells me this is her son's shop and points to the rasta leaning against a pole.
Moving on.
We're almost done and Dimpers asks where we are staying and we tell her as we start walking in that direction. She is still with us and when we're about a minute from the entrance she says to my Mom, "So, sexy Mama, you going to help a lady out?" This woman wanted money for leading us around a place we were plenty capable and willing to do on our own! I was taken aback but apparently my Mom and sister had figured her out from the start. My mom gave her a few dollars I think and I was a little bewildered for awhile at her money-making opportunities. Did she not have a real job and just kind hung around on the streets until opportunity strikes and then siddle up to some Americans who happen to pass? Was this her only source of income? Was it her day off or had she just gotten off work and she thought she would make a few dollars in her spare time? It was beyond me and I wasn't bitter about it so much as just a little dumbstruck.
We got back home and Dad returned a little while later with new discoveries, one of which being Fern Gully, a couple of kilometers outside of Ocho Rios, which we would visit later in the week. We spent the rest of the afternoon resting around the house and enjoying the view out the windows until dinner was ready. Dinner consisted of jerk chicken [sooo goood, a carribean staple], rice cooked Jamaican style, and cabbage. It was reallly good, definitely compensating for the previous nite's meal. We went out and got ice cream a little later and then spent the evening together on the couch watching a couple of re-reuns of law and order.
Monday, August 27, 2007
Day 1: Welcome to jamaica.
Inaudible noise.
"Pretty ladies, let me show you something..come over here."
"Come with me pretty girls, I can show you a good time!"
Whistles and catcalls.
Kaitlin and I went onto the beach and played in the gorgeous water for just a few minutes, hardly noticing it however because we both felt so awkward, as there was still one man calling at us from across the way. We hightailed it back up to the room completely ignoring every greeting we heard and told my Mom we were never going anywhere without Dad again. She laughed at us and said he had gone to the grocery store with Winsome and Raquel to stock up our house for the week and would be back soon.
In the meantime we saw those grape/olive things on the table and asked about them. It turns out they are a native fruit called Genips [pronounced ginneps], [I forgot to take a picture, but I found this one in a google search] pictured here:
They are also known as spanish limes. They look like a minature lime from the outside, but their 'peel' is actually very thin, and once you tear it a little you can just push the little ball of fruity goodness out. The inside comes out in a ball, that is a pinkish color and fleshy that you put in your mouth whole and work off of the big seed in the middle. They are sooo good! I meant to look for them at the grocery store, but I forgot, I'm pretty sure they don't have them but I'm going to see anyway.
Dad returned later with our new friends carrying $12,000 in groceries, Jamaican dollars that is. It was about 6:30 and so Winsome and Raquel made a recommendation for dinner, John Crow's restaurant right across the street so there we went. Raquel recommended to me the steamed fish with vegetables which sounded really good and so I ordered it. Our food arrived and a plate was put down before me with an entire fish on it covered with various vegetables in a sauce.
Ok now when I say entire fish, I mean like in the movies with the head and tail still on it.
My dad saw me about to freak out and promptly covered the head and tail up with vegetables before I got a good look at it and showed me how the fish easily came off the bone. I took a few deep breaths and picked about the body part where a fillet would normally come from. It wasn't bad but I was so disheartened from seeing the whole fish it kind of ruined my appetite. So meal #1, not so great, but there was still hope.
We walked back home around 8 [it is pitch black in Jamaica by 7] feeling tired. My sister immediately went to bed, I followed around 9, with a weird apprehensive feeling about the rest of the trip which, looking back, I blame solely on the fish & catcalls.
Thursday, August 23, 2007
coming soon!
Tuesday, August 7, 2007
Mission: MAN BAND
and these too,
and a little less known,
and who could forget [mostly everyone, especially if you never knew them to begin with],
So I saw a commerical for this new show on Vh1 a week ago or so and it looked too good [read: a huge trainwreck] to pass up. I set it to record and I watched the first episode last nite. I'm talking about Mission: MAN BAND, people. No, I'm not making this up, vh1 decided to take 4 washed up, former boy band members, give them a contract and a manager and see "if lighting can strike twice" according to one of the guys.
The players:
1. Chris Kirkpatrick. Formerly of N*SYNC [my boy band allegiances lie solely here]. Also, the 'host' if you will, for the others while they are recording, etc. in orlando, in other words theyre living in his way nice mansion. Chris' platform for the show is, "I drink too much and have done absolutely nothing since N*SYNC [career-wise or other], I'm kind of tired of being really lazy, this should be fun."
2. Jeff Timmons. Formerly of 98 degrees. His platform is, "I have all this other stuff going on in my life, [cut to several shots of him on the phone sealing deals and whatnot], I don't really know if this is a good idea, I'm not expecting much." Talk about your debbie downer.
3. Rich Cronin. Former front man for LFO. Remember, the abercrombie and fitch song?? That's them. His platform is, "I was diagnosed with leukemia 2 years ago and now I want to live every day to the fullest and I think we can really turn this into something big!"
4. Bryan Abrams. Formerly of Color Me Badd. ... Well, anyway, his platform is, "I work at a tire factory, my wife and I just found out were having a second child, were in huge debt, this HAS to pay off, we need the money really bad."
I mean with characters like this, how could this not be hilarious? I was laughing through the entire first episode that was supposed to be serious, but between them auditioning with Police's "Every Breath You Take", Jeff quitting and coming back, the comforters Chris had made with each of the guys' huge head shot screen printed on them, and the native american 'new beginnings' ceremony they took part in, I mean really. This should be golden.
Sunday, August 5, 2007
2 new finds:
Thursday, August 2, 2007
why I love my major: reason #385
Professor: "Okay, now we're going to talk about terrorism."
Class: "YAY!"
Literally, that was our response. I think there were a few gleeful grunts from some of the corps boys, but general it was a roomful of yay!'s.
Wednesday, August 1, 2007
it's back.
Like for real, if I could go right now I think I would.
And now I'm considering the option logically. Before, it was just I really want a little thing on the side of my nose, now its I want the little thing on the side of my nose and I only have a year left to have it. What other time in my life am I going to be able to have it? I can't think of any, unless I only wear it on the weekends or something once I join the [scoff] "real world" [which I completely agree with John Mayer on, that it doesn't exist; and so what if I think the best of me is hiding up my, ahem, sleeve?].
Christina is coming in on the 7th, I think I'm going to inspect hers again, and then possibly start praying for a clean piercing place to appear in jamaica while were on vacay, where I will plead my case, ["It's only for a year!"] to my parents. I can see it all now. Really, I can, remember the last post?
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