Awesome Memories

Well, my second Spring semester as a grad student is almost over and I’m rather sad to see it end!  I have had so much fun this Spring—from science field trips such as boating on a stormy day, visiting tide pools and petting swell sharks (yes, I did pet actual sharks, and no, I wasn’t scared!), to my friends and I laughing over discovering what is probably one of the first “yo mamma” insults ever in one of our Renaissance plays The White Devil by John Webster…it all has been an absolute blast!  Sure, I experienced stress, just like I do every semester (this time around was perhaps a little more stressful than usual because I took five classes, two language, one English Lit and two more for my teaching credential, all of them work-intensive, and on top of all of this I also worked 20+ hours a week).  But all of the stress I went through was totally worth it because of all the laughs and good times my friends and I shared.

As I have told my girls, all I remember of last semester is darkness.  But new and bright light came back into my campus life this Spring and I have God, my family and dear friends to thank for that!  I’ve been so happy this semester and I’m really going to miss sitting and chatting outside LA1 and LA2 with my friends, soaking up the sunshine while sipping on my nonfat white chocolate mocha (or my sweetened iced green tea!).  I’m going to miss the late night Tuesday librarybucks chatting dates with Molly and the spontaneous runs to Deli News for $5 medium pepperoni pizzas.  I’m going to miss the random, spur-of-the-moment lunch dates with Danaé, “What’s Happening Hour” with Bobbie and chillin’ out with Sam.  I’m going to miss frantically trying to finish the reading I couldn’t get done the night before an hour before class starts—and then, after reading as far as I could, getting the Melissa-ized version for the rest!  I’m going to miss Kat’s sweetness and snark, Melissa’s and Rachel’s stories, and the discussions Erin and I have about American Girl, men, Harry Potter, and retail therapy.  In fact, I’m going to miss all of the conversations I share with my girls!  I’m going to miss the fun science experiments, such as making ice cream using nothing but spoons, plastic bags, sugar, vanilla, milk, rock salt and ice.  I'm going to miss my professors teasing me.  I’m going to miss the hilarious times in my Spanish class and the “I can’t believe this is real life” looks my tablemates and I shared during our math class.  I’m going to miss Old English (not necessarily the translating part…I could do without that ;D) and the great one-liners my professor had (“thinky thing,” anyone?) and the conversations about how Beowulf and Grendel’s mother are like the pro-wrestlers we see on TV, ninjas fighting unicorns, unicorns fighting ninjas, and how the Anglo-Saxon people are misconstrued by the general public as hoards of peasants eating turnips.

Oh, how I love school!  I’m going to miss it so much when I finally graduate with my masters and teaching credential next year.  But I will forever have these awesome memories to take with me on my journey through my adult life and I’m sure they’ll make me beam with just as much joy then as they make me do now.

PS: In case you want to read one of the first ever “yo mamma” insults…

Monticelso [to Vittoria]:   I shall be plainer with you, and paint out

                                       Your follies in more natural red and white

                                       Than that upon your cheek.

Vittoria:   Oh, you mistake.

               You raise a blood as noble in this cheek

               As ever was your mother’s.

(3.2.51-56)

Love it.

<3

Simple Joys

Even when I’m feeling stressed about all of the projects and tests and papers I have due at the end of each semester, I always try to take the time to appreciate the simple joys each day brings.  This week has been a week of many joys.  Here’s a few I’ll share~

~An impromptu Deli News pepperoni pizza and chit-chat date with one of my dearest friends

~The gorgeous, warm weather

~Sitting outside between LA 1 and LA 2 and enjoying the warm sunshine on my face and the cool breeze in my hair

~Drinking a Starbucks sweetened green iced tea

~Making ice cream in class—and then getting to eat it

~Drawing
~Laughing and chatting with my dear friends before class starts and after class ends

~Finding out I have another month to earn more money to put towards Fall tuition

~The taste of fresh, homemade whipped cream

~Turning on the whole-house fan at night and listening to my two sweet little parakeets warble happily to the sound
~Talking on the phone with three of my other dearest friends

~Reminiscing about American Girl and finally, after years of waiting, buying Felicity

~Napping in the sun

~The feeling of clean, cool sheets against my bare legs

~Falling asleep at night with the window open

~Getting complimented

~Logging on to facebook and seeing my friends link me to posts that make me burst out laughing

~Hearing Florence & the Machine’s “Dog Days Are Over” on the radio and singing along

~Having my classmate wish me Happy Star Wars Day: May the Fourth be with you

~Finding more closure and feeling peace within about it

~Reading one of my favorite, well-loved books

Take the time to appreciate the simple joys in each day.  You’ll find that you can’t help but smile!

<3

LOST

The almost-tropical weather we have been having today—blue skies and bright sunshine instantly turning into dark clouds and rain—reminded me of something I’ve really been missing this Spring: LOST.  

Yes, the TV show. 

I’m not sure if I can call myself a Lostie like I call myself a Phile (a hardcore X-Files fan) but I love LOST.  Back in 2005, Grandma asked me if I was watching “this new show called LOST.”  I admitted that I hadn’t seen any of the episodes but I’d heard great things.  I remember her saying to me, “Oh, Dana!  It’s really good!  You should give it a shot.”  Seeing as how I’m always open to watching all kinds of shows, and knowing that this show was acclaimed for its deep character development and its elements of mystery and science fiction (everything that I enjoy!), I decided to follow her advice and get into it.  So for my birthday that summer I asked for LOST Season 1.  On that warm summer night in late August my family and I settled down in the den to watch it and we didn’t (couldn’t!) stop that night until we finished disc one. 

I was floored by how addicting the show was.  I just couldn’t get enough!  After finishing Season 1 on DVD, my mom, dad, brother and I began watching it religiously together on live TV.  I fell in love with the characters: from the reluctant but strong leader Jack to the ambiguous Kate to the bad boy Sawyer to the sadistic Other Ben to the Other-turned-good Juliet—all of them.  The flashbacks of these characters’ lives before the plane crash became just as important as the current trekking-through-the-jungle-avoiding-monsters-death-and-the-mysterious-Others-while-desparately-searching-for-a-way-off-the-Island plotline.  Each episode focuses on one of the characters.  Their flashbacks and the current Island plotline are woven together with a themed symbolism and purpose that I find innovative and provocative.  The characters of LOST are not one-dimensional.  Each flashback (and in later seasons, each flashforward) and action they take in the Island plotline adds layer after layer after layer to their personalities, making them real people who are good and flawed, who have loved and suffered, who have gained and lost.  They are not black and white—they are shades of grey.  I think that is definitely part of the reason why I fell in love with all of them and why everyone who loves the show can relate to them—because we are all shades of grey.

LOST is a show that is character-driven which is the number one reason why I love it so.  But I love it for its mysteries too, both explained and unexplained.  I mean, smoke monsters?  Ghosts?  Polar bears roaming around the jungle?  Miracles?  Immortality?  Time travel?  You can’t get much better than that!  I also love it for its complicated storylines that took me on a whirlwind of a wild ride.  It’s definitely not a fluff show.  To quote my professor, it is a “thinky thing” because it challenges your perceptions.  It didn’t really irk me that not everything was explained by the series finale.  I felt that the way it ended, with unraveling threads and loose ends, was fitting for a show that was renowned for its ambiguity. 

This is my first Spring since 2006 without LOST to look forward to every week and I really do miss it.  I miss the feeling of excitement that used to come over me when it was 15 minutes til 9:00.  I miss settling down on the sofa with my family around me, chatting about the last episode and theorizing about the mysteries unexplained.  I miss talking to my friends about each week’s episode, exclaiming over the events that occurred and wondering what in the world was going to happen next.  I’ve missed LOST so much that my family and I have started the series over again since we own the seasons on DVD.  I love revisiting all the characters and reliving their stories with them.  Even though I know what is going to happen next, I still find myself biting my lower lip nervously, clutching my blanket to my chest, sometimes groaning and snarling at the TV, and, yes, sometimes wiping away a tear or two—it’s a sign of an excellent show.

There will never be another show like LOST.  Never.  I count myself fortunate to have, in a way, grown up with it.  If you haven’t watched it I recommend that you, to quote my Grandma, “give it a shot.”

<3

Sail Away...

“Showers in the morning.  Chance of thunderstorms in the afternoon.”—so said the weather channel for Dana Point last night.  Considering I had to drive down to the Ocean Institute in Dana Point for a boating fieldtrip required for one of my classes, I was pretty disappointed.  I don’t get to go out to sea often.  In fact, I can actually count on one hand how many times I have been out on the ocean.  Until I heard about the ominous gray and cold forecast I had so been looking forward to going out there! 

This morning, when I looked out my bedroom window at the gloomy day and checked the online weather—again—for Dana Point, I almost considered not going.  “All-day thunderstorms.”  I’m a woman for 75 degree weather and constant sunshine and blue skies with the occasional white puffy cloud decorating the sky here and there—not thunderstorms!  But I sucked it up, made the definite decision to go and bundled myself up in my warmest clothing.  Maybe the weather would be all right.  Maybe it wouldn’t rain the whole time.  At least I’d get it over with. 

As I drove down the 5 freeway at 8:15 (I had to be there by 9:15) the dark clouds overhead began to drift away and the warm rays of the sun shot through the sky—and when I got down to Dana Point and parked my car at the Ocean Institute, I looked up and saw that the dark clouds had formed a huge half-circle around where I stood.  There was clear blue sky right above me, stretching out like a giant blanket toward Catalina, and the pale yellow sunlight felt so good on my face.  I sent a silent but heartfelt thank you to God for keeping the weather nice.  Maybe it wouldn’t rain after all!

There were about 15 or 20 of us that came out today.  Shanette, the Ocean Institute employee who was in charge of our little group, was so pleased that we’d decided to brave the weather and show up.  “I was afraid you all would bail today!  The fact that you guys showed up tells me that you have a bit of an adventurous spirit in you—that’s fantastic!”  And she’s right—I suppose I do! 

Then Shanette ushered us onto the research boat and stuffed our hands with muffins, bagels and cream cheese, fresh fruit, croissants, coffee and hot chocolate, telling us we needed our strength.  After we munched on our goodies and listened to a brief safety talk and met with and greeted the other crew members and the captain himself, the girls and I went out to the front of the boat.  As we powered through the harbor, we exclaimed over the different types of birds that were nesting along the jetty—pelicans, gulls, and little birds that looked like black ducks.  Did you know that the older pelicans have white heads?  Neither did I, until today!  I was still admiring the pelicans’ grace in the air when suddenly a blast of cold air tossed my hair into my face—we were finally going out to sea!

The sky was still a brilliant blue above and the golden sunlight was even stronger now.  I went to stand near the prow of the boat with a few other brave souls who weren’t afraid of getting wet, clutching the handrail so I wouldn’t fall on my face as the boat rocked back and forth, back and forth, back and forth.  The icy wind buffeted against me and the waves leapt up against the sides of the boat, lapping greedily at my pant legs—but I was hardly aware of this.  My eyes were fixed on the horizon, on the faint outline of Catalina Island, on the chopping waves, the white foam stark against the black-blue water.  It was one of the most beautiful sights I had ever seen. 

It didn’t take long for my body to begin to sway on its own to the rhythm of the boat, and now that my balance was much more stable, I edged further along until I was at the tip of the prow.  The icy wind whistled in my ears, slowly numbing my face, throwing and tangling my hair all around.  The churning waves splashed up, raining down on me, soaking my jacket and my jeans.  I licked my lips, tasting the brine, completely uncaring that I was drenched or that my hands were growing red from the wind and numbing until I could barely feel the rail beneath my palms.  I was mesmerized by the ocean and the potent beauty of a stormy Nature. 

With every dip and crash of the waves against the boat I felt my spirits get lighter and lighter.  Laughter and screams of delight from the rest of the girls sounded all around me, and my own screams and laughter mingled with theirs.  “Look!  Look!  There’s a sea lion!  At 12:00!”  Then, “Look!  Another one!”  We clapped and cheered as two sea lions leapt among the waves, spinning and twirling in midair before they slipped back down beneath the frothing water.  We all were one entity, delighting in this wet and wild adventure.  Then, after a while, the laughter faded and I focused on the sounds of the water and wind, losing myself in my own thoughts.

It’s hard to describe what I felt in my soul as we sailed over the water.  There is something very healing about the sea, isn’t there?  I have always felt there is.  I love the beach and the sea.  I’ve always loved it.  I couldn’t live in a place without it.  I have always felt closest to God when I’m at the beach.  It is a place where the earth meets the heavens, one of the many places were the beauty of God’s creation takes my breath away, and therefore, for me, it is a place for reflection and introspection, to thank God for the many blessings in my life and to ask him for His guidance.  Today’s experience was no different.  When you look at the beauty and wonders of nature, how can you doubt God?  My soul was unbound and I was free to soar in His loving majesty.

Now I’m back home, all warm and cozy and happily windburnt under a pile of fuzzy blankets.  I’m so glad I went down to Dana Point today.  It was a beautiful day!

<3