Doobie Brothers

Who cares about all this crap--he said, she said, panic, tomorrow, worry--what?  The Doobie Brothers got it right.  Just pause and listen to the music all the time, all the time.  Frankly, your life is much too precious for it to be spoiled by all these trivialities. 



Remember Sublime?  This takes me back to high school again.  Imagine if we deposited songs instead of tangible objects in our time capsules.  Our children would be greeted by the melodies that made us happy--think a dance, sing-song celebration every time somebody opened this memory box.  Wonderful, huh? 

I'm enjoying a warm cup of mango green tea and am about to fold another paper crane.  Ugh, tomorrow...oh, well, can't dwell on any more of these absurdities, right?  Right.

Good night.

Northern Lights

My room is like its own tiny planetarium now with my constellation projector.  I like to listen to my records or my "Lake Alice" playlist while watching all the lights flicker fireworks on my ceiling.  It's probably one of the coolest gadgets I've ever purchased.  Maybe it will help me sleep better.  Here's to hoping.  From time to time, I tend to suffer from these terrible migraines presumably because of my poor sleeping habits, but I've learned to deal with it in spite of how awful these attacks can be.  Yick.  Anyways, one of these days I'd like to go to Yellowknife and see the Northern Lights.  It's been a dream of mine for some time to witness something so beautiful.  Anybody interested in going?



I don't know why this song feels so sad to me, but I love Rufus.

Well, back to work!  Finishing up an experiment...   

Hello, Goodbye

Why does the new year always inspire people to better themselves?  Whine less.  Read more.  Lose 10 pounds.  Shouldn't we strive to be better people everyday?  Beginning and end are all relative anyways.  I don't have an "end" per se in my calender, but there is a beginning.  Maybe one day, after we fly my kite, I'll tell you my very uncomplicated story over coffee.  I've started writing Valentine's letters early because I know that once classes resume again, I'll be one of those pathetic people who uses the excuse "I'm too busy" to write a Valentine's letter.  Inconvenience is such a pitiful excuse, though admittedly, I can't say that I've never been one of those "pathetic people." Strike one.  Well, as part of my endeavor for self-improvement, here is my first attempt.  My relationships with people are so important to me and I always feel terrible when I lose touch with a friend.  It's a bit analogous to reading the first few pages of a book that you know is good and never completing it.  How tragic!  Perhaps all these social networks (i.e. Facebook) eliminates the need for phone calls and letters, but I don't want to discover on a news feed that "so and so" is getting married or that "so and so" is moving here.  I want him/her to tell me about it.   



But sometimes, if one's efforts at maintaining ties with a person are not reciprocated, you just have to let go.  Oh, well.  Though I suppose, it's never really "goodbye." It's "goodbye" until fate or circumstance brings you back to somebody and then it's "hello" again. 

Anyways, my love for planetariums has driven me to purchase my very own in home planetarium.  Merry Christmas to me!  This has pretty much been the highlight of my week...that and finding multicolored tube racks in my lab today.  Oh, what a life...

Good night.

Until next time

So long, my home.  Back to biz tomorrow...sob, sob, sob!

The photos above are of the Roosevelt Bridge in Downtown Stuart.  Underneath the bridge is my absolute most favorite spot in all of my hometown.  I could spend hours just sitting there, entranced almost.

Here is footage of my kite at the beach.  Feast your eyes!

Bingding gets beached

Kim, Alex, and I decided to take Binding to the beach.

This has been such a wonderful week--listening to my dad retell stories about his childhood, talking girl-talk over ice-cream with my mom, lunching at the Olive Garden with my cousins, car rides and long chats with friends, long walks, long drives, and flying kites.  I love home--the sunshine and warm people--but as much as I don't want to return to the hell hole (otherwise known as Ithaca) I feel like a lot of time could be wasted if I diverted my focus away from living life to hating a place, so I'll carry on like that 1930s poster advises we all do.  Harald, Scott and I have been discussing the very real possibility of hightailing it to California once we serve our time in grad school.  My tolerance for cold weather progressively gets lower and lower with each snowfall so we shall see where the next 2 years will lead us.

Here is my Roadie #52 playlist:



And a few other songs that weren't on Grooveshark:

16. Let It Be by The Beatles
17. Don't Let Me Down by The Beatles
18. Whatever Happened? by The Strokes
19.Inland Empire by Peter Bjorn & John

Happy New Year! Joseph Addison once said that the three grand essentials to happiness in this life are something to do, something to love, and something to hope for so my wish for you all is that this year and future years to come will bring you those "somethings." Missing you all! xx 

Roadie Number 50-something

I'm in the process now of devising my "Roadie" playlist for the drive up to Gainesville.  So far I have Sweet City Woman by The Stampeders and You Are The Woman by Firefall.  One of the things I miss most about my time in Florida are the three-and-a-half-hour-long drives from my home (Gainesville) to my home (Palm City).  I have about 50 "Roadie" cds from 2004 to present all scattered in the back seat of my car.  There isn't any particular theme that I assign to these playlists.  Each song is just a feeling, a memory--happy--for the most part.  I rarely drive in Ithaca so I don't have much opportunity to listen to my Roadie playlists.  A long time ago, I named my iPod "Jeanne's River of Dreams." Listening to music is like breathing to me and so while I do listen to a lot of music in my apartment, in my living room, in the kitchen when I'm making a sandwich, while I'm brushing my teeth, when I'm showering, while I'm falling asleep at night, nothing really compares to that solitary drive where the melody of a song meanders with the road and it's just you humming a tune that you love so much--escape.  Ah, moments, moments.  I've only been home for a few days, but already my heart feels so full of--I don't know, many things, but they're good.

I ate way too much, but it was soo, soo delicious.  Hats off to you, Jennifer and Dad!  Hope you all had a lovely holiday.

Happy Ho-ho-holidays!

I love Christmas.  I spent the better part of my weekend decorating and holiday shopping.  Check out my apartment:

This tree cracks me up.  I got it for 3 bucks at this crafts store, but I find it adorable.

I miss you all so much, but only two more weeks until I finally get to come home!