her blog

i think this is gorgeous. seriously. it reminds of i'm smitten - weird and beautiful. creepy and sweet.

IF JULY 15 IS YOUR BIRTHDAY: Actor Forest Whitaker (1961) shares
your birthday today. You're kind, generous and supportive to loved
ones. You believe in being useful to others. You're resourceful at
using whatever is around you to the best of your ability. You're a
strong influence on others, whether or not you know this. (Be aware of
this power and influence so that you can use it.) In the year ahead,
you'll work hard to build something important.

and

IF JULY 15 IS YOUR BIRTHDAY: You're extremely thoughtful about
the direction you'd like your life to take this year. However, there
are some decisions you immediately know are right for you. Seize these
opportunities, and fascinating developments perk up your personal and
professional life through the next 10 weeks. Capricorn and Libra people
adore you. Your lucky numbers are 7, 4, 33, 16 and 48.

and

Today's birthday (July 15). This is an excellent year for making money. Set it up to do something you love and get very well paid for it. Even if you work for somebody
else, have a business of your own. Today is an 8.

Find out your Harry Potter personality at LiquidGeneration!

i was showing shawn a gift from karen, my mother's best friend - a lovely gift actually. it was incredibly thoughtful and cool. it came in the midst of a few not so nice days so i was touched.. he looked at it and said, "its happening. you must put a stop to it now..." "but its just an owl," i said.

and then i knew what "it" was and that he was absolutely correct. you see, my mom has an owl collection. please note that i did not say she collects owls. no, no, she got one because she thought it was cute. and another. and then people were like, "oooooh, diane collects owls. now we know what to give her for THE. REST. OF. HER. LIFE." i don't think i underestimate when i say she has hundreds.

i have some owls.

i bought them because they were cute and they reminded me of my mom. or they just appeared like this one.

i have made art with owls. i occasionally use a notepad with owls on it. i have even rocked the owl earrings from time to time.

but i do NOT collect owls. i say this mere moments before my birthday, where i could receive owls from people who had purchased them before this post. i will accept them graciously. i will probably even love them.  you see, it is not the owl, it is the collection. and since shawn and i have been trying to declutter our lives, the idea of collections seems counterintuitive. even if they are so damn cute.

they're dying. the sound is becoming softer and softer. i barely even notice it. their dead bodies are everywhere and they've been crashing into everything left and right. there was more than one cicada incident in the office.

so, they've done what they need to do and they're disappearing again. not to be heard from again for another 17 years. how weird.

"From your 164  subscriptions, over the last 30 days you read  4,626  items, starred  106  items, and shared  102  items."
that tidbit brought to you by google reader "trends." i am scared. i really would rather not have known that...

so, antioch is closing. i went there, briefly. i have proof...

i worked in the community government office.  i went to a "come as your favorite diety" dance and a "big top" div dance. there was the ever present press on campus. (ron reagan jr. was nice. i got drunk with a camera guy from mtv at my very first college party. the other reporters were a blur however plentiful.) i hung out with everyone else in the union building waiting to see our own lives satirized on snl. i made friends. i wandered the glen almost daily. i ate fruit loops for breakfast and hummus for lunch and dinner every single day. i visited nurse barb. i lived in derby. i had fun. i learned VERY little. although, my absolute favorite class was biology, which is odd. i hated science until then. i went to ramesh patel's eastern philosophy class, the class i thought i'd love the most, exactly twice and passed. the campus was in a perpetual uproar and tuition was HIGH. i became convinced no one could could receive a quality education at antioch and i left. and i felt shunned the second i announced my decision to older classmates. the majority of my friends who started the same year left soon after i did. 

so, when i saw the new york times yesterday i was a little stunned. but how should you feel about the demise of a place that you spent so much time feeling ambivalent about? 

antioch seems like ancient history to me now. i can look back with clearer and slightly wiser eyes. could someone receive a quality education at antioch? i couldn't though others have. my roommate graduated - quite possibly in
four years. and she's gone on to do the kind of work antioch graduates
are supposed to go on to do. she represents the best of antioch.

i was young. in love. homesick. and rudderless. this is a recipe for attrition at antioch. i can be honest about this now. and i believe in the idea of antioch.  i believe antioch and places like it need to exist. i believe that its especially important given today's political climate. but i believe its today's climate that will make it next to impossible for antioch to revive itself in 4 years, as it hopes to do. i will keep my fingers crossed though.

so, they're LOUD. very loud. i find it strangely soothing. no one else does.

they are also flying everywhere. crashing into things. landing on people. i had one on my shoulder for a little while the other day. i didn't mind. everyone else does.

what i do mind is that they don't really sit still long enough for pics these days. this is one of the only good pics i've gotten all week...

the weird thing is that some areas still don't have any. i was talking to one of our neighbors who said that the last time they were here the neighborhood was swarming. and mom still doesn't have any. odd.