I'm Useless

Things have been more busy than fun around here lately. 

For some random thoughts...

Why do I keep forgetting about the library?  That place is amazing.  I was debating ordering some books off Amazon, but couldn't bring myself to after looking at the shelf of books I already have at home.  I haven't been really excited about any of those and wanted to try something new.  Well, I looked on the online catalog at the library.  They had the books I wanted and I won't have to pay a thing!  Again, the library!  Don't forget about that place. 

Also, my sister and I might have a small problem of shopping when we are bored.  There is nothing else to do here when you want to get out of the house and we find ourselves with time to kill situation before going to work all the time.  We will go to our local thrift store, Buffalo Exchange, the mall, etc.  We always find these awesome deals that we just can't pass by.  This is all adding up and it's getting kind of ridiculous in our closets.  Even though, shopping makes me happy, we have to find something else to do with our time, I think.  Oh, the sales! 

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I got red pants!  This is happening. Love!

Another thing, I want to learn how to play the guitar.  I've been saying this for years.  I actually learned a little bit in Malaysia and I liked it.  With my violin background, I don't think it would be too hard to pick it up.  Now the challenge is getting a guitar.  There are so many kinds.   Which one is good that isn't an outrageous price for a beginner?  Any guitar players out there that can help me out?? 

This sad excuse of a post brought to you by me.  Now I'm depressed.  Bye.

Words That Don't Exist in the English Language

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Language is fascinating, isn't it?  I am often times jealous of Non-Americans who are bilingual or trilingual from a very young age.  Sometimes it makes me sick how closed minded and self absorbed Americans are in general.  English is not by far the best language.  And yet everyone is flocking to learn it.  I think if I had more time I could spend hours just lost in the study of language. 

It's amazing how different each language is and how each one has it's own way of expressing something.  Being fluent in American Sign Language and now adding in Nepali Sign Language to the mix, I find myself using signs or words from the one that is easier to express what I mean at that moment.  Not one language is the same and sometimes one is better than the other for a specific thought or meaning trying to be conveyed and the brain subconsciously picks the right one.  Does this make any sense? 

Isn't that list great?  I wish I had words for all of those feelings.  How amazing it would be to know all these languages and be able to pull out these expressions when you needed them.  I love talking to friends who speak Spanish and how they say in Spanish we have this expression that means this, because there really just isn't an equivalent in English. 

Too bad learning languages is so challenging.  I gotta get on that. 

Last Friday Night

How did we spend Friday night?  Singing Karaoke in a Korean restaurant. We had the little room off the bar all to ourselves, but we were pretty sure the whole restaurant could hear our singing.  

The karaoke system was from Korea naturally.  The book to select your songs had about 200 pages of Korean/Chinese (??) song selections and about 10 pages of songs we recognized.  Yes, English.  We stuck to those pages somewhere around pages 180-90.  Those few pages kept us going all night.  

Then there was the music.  Everything from Lady Gaga to Metallica had the same soft Asian inspired beat almost as if a flute were playing every song.  And the background videos.  How I love those!  Anything from a tour of some random castle in the middle of the English countryside to camera shots of guys surfing.  Where do they get this stuff from? 

The karaoke game would rate you on how well you did.  I'm pretty sure this was horribly inaccurate or else it only recognized Korean tones, which I obviously don't have in my voice.  I'm not bitter at all.  

When the night was coming to a close all the Korean employees rushed in to the room to join us.  They started singing Korean pop songs and pretty much grabbed us all by the hand to get us to dance.  It felt like we were in our own Korean club in the middle of Tucson.  They didn't want us to leave and begged us to come back.  

Because we're us and we are awesome, we get ourselves into these amazing/awkward situations.  It was great and I wouldn't have changed a thing.  

Street Art

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How I would love to stumble upon some really inspiring street art for a change!  Maybe I need to take the time to slow down and see things for more than the blur of what they are as the car is driving by them.  There is something to be said about being on foot and really seeing a city or just a street even.  This is by UK artist Banksy.  Love!

"She said she usually cried at least once each day not because she was sad, but because the world was so beautiful & life was so short."  -- Story People

That One Night in November

Where I am now and with my non existent social life, I've learned that if someone invites you to do something, you do it.  You just never know what you might discover.  Even if it means driving almost two hours to Bisbee for dinner.  Just for dinner.  No other outstanding activities planned.  Sometimes just dinner is all you need.  New friends and lively conversation with people who know how to converse was refreshing. 

After over an hour of desert bleakness as we came round the bend there it was, life.  Bisbee is such a cute little town built on hills with 1,000 steps leading up to the quaint houses.  The little porch lights lit up the hill and it just looked so picture perfect.  It has such a presence on those hills.  If it wasn't so far from everything, like Trader Joe's and most civilization, I would live there in a heartbeat.  I love the thought of living in a cozy house with hidden little nooks and all around character that is hard to find in the sea of cookie cutter subdivisions.  Being able to walk out your front door and head down the street to the local coffee shop where everyone knows each other by name.  It would be nice for a change, wouldn't it? 

The people in small towns are different too.  We had a group of people from four different cities all longer than thirty minutes drive from one another, but yet they too went the distance to meet for dinner.  The city is sometimes a lonely place after trying to invite people a number of times and no one ever showing up.  They are all waiting for the better invitation, but how do they know they picked the better one.  I don't think they do.

Back to Bisbee.  We had dinner. We walked to a couple friend's house down the street, enjoyed some espresso, and then took a two hundred stair climb detour back to our car as the temperatures dropped and we could finally breathe the brisk, autumn air.  I was wearing a jacket for the first time this fall.  So exciting. 

Then we made our way back to Tucson, which as a city seems to have no clearly defined identity and is just sad in comparison.  It was a nice night, which may not too often be repeated.  That's what makes it special.