Just Call Me Popeye

This weekend we had my sister, brother-in-law and kids over for Easter. I was playing with my 3-year-old nephew, Drew, when he curled up his arms, with his fists by his ears, and said "Feel my muscles!" So I dutifully squeezed his teeny arms and told him how strong he was. Then he wanted to feel mine, so I did the Popeye thing. He reached out his hand and squeezed my elbow, very impressed, saying "whoa, Kelsey's got hard muscles!"

Before I Die

Out of boredom I pulled out a list that I made as a grade 10 English project of 50 things I want to do before I die. I love doing things like this, sorting through old papers or computer files, I guess, and being confronted with your younger self. The most obvious things are the outdated ones, like wincing at bad jokes. There are some things that are very immature, like wanting to be on the Oprah Winfrey show, swim with dolphins and have a holiday named after me. Some stuff I'm just not interested in anymore, like living with an aboriginal tribe in Australia (I would in a different place), speaking Italian and winning an archery competition.
Some stuff, wierdly, happened that I didn't expect. The first thing on my list was to receive a bouquet of roses from a mysterious stranger. Well, I didn't receive roses but I did get a bouquet of flowers sent to me from a stranger a couple years ago while I was on holiday in Brazil. For three weeks it drove me crazy, because I didn't know who sent them. Turns out it was the family of a boy I'd helped that summer at my cabin, which I don't think was exactly what I had in mind when I wrote my list, but it counts.
Some of it, I still want. I want to talk to a ghost, see every picture in the Louvre, travel in the Middle East, and it would be fun to discover a new planet although I would NOT name it after myself. I still want to make a full-length film. Most of all, though, after friends and family, I want a library like the one from "Beauty and the Beast". That's it. That would fill me up.

I Heart Daniel Handler

I'm in the middle of reading an interview with Daniel Handler, author of the Series of Unforetunate Events books, and I just had to post this quote.

Q: The series' anti-marketing irony level is so high, with the author, the dust jackets, and the merchandising constantly emphasizing, "Don't read this, don't buy these, they're awful." So you've never had any resistance to that approach from people who don't get the joke?

DH: I love meeting people who have absolutely no sense of irony. It's really fascinating to imagine what it would be like to go through life without understanding even the most basic of ironies. It's sort of like trying to imagine what it's like to walk around without a torso. I find such people sort of charming, even though they usually don't like me.

Horoscope Party

So today is my birthday, and I am now some multiple of a decade. Which is a little crazy. Had a relaxed-ish morning, though I shouldn't have. My day has gone a little like this: Woke up to Sufjan Stevens' "The Avalanche" (hmm didn't get that reading done last night). Hmm, does this skirt look better with a pink top or green? (you only have two hours to do work before you need to leave). Read with many cups of coffee until far too late in the morning (so, what are you going to do about that essay?) Ooo, Greek food! (you lazyass procrastinator. what happened to doing all your work on the weekend?)
On a side note, a wonderful friend of mine found me some horoscopes for my birthday, which I luuuuve. So I am posting them so we can all laugh together.
1)You are either about to take a giant step forward or a giant step back. Which one it is depends entirely on whether you have the self-belief to follow up on an idea you had around the turn of the year. Don't look back years from now and wonder what might have been.
2)You're even more popular than usual this year. You fit right into any group you want to be a part of. March brings an opportunity to travel. April makes over your finances and May does the same for your physical self. You hit it off famously with Virgo and Taurus. Your lucky numbers are 9, 24, 53, 48 and 13.
3)The Moon in your 5th House of Romance makes for sweet times on Thursday and Friday. Have your fun then since you may have work that will keep you busy for the rest of the weekend. Showing that funny, quirky part of yourself attracts the brainiacs you like and pushes away the wimps that you don't.

Thank you, Danica! On the P.S. side, the thing I said yes to fell through, but instead I am going to be Nature Intructor at camp this summer. I'm pretty excited.

The Love Seat Saga

So after ages of coveting some more seating for my room, I finally just started dragging things around and made space, and then directed my father and brother where to put the love seat I stole from our living room. This was overtop my dad's floating comments such as "You're taking the love seat? I didn't know you were taking the love seat. I was just getting used to the love seat. Why are you taking the love seat?" So now I have a bamboo-patterned sofa, which is excellent. The down side is that I of course shoved a bunch of things into the middle of my room to clear space, and then immediately lost all drive to rearrange furniture. It's still there. I can't actually get to my computer, and I feel like my junk mysteriously multiplied while my back was turned. Which is just plain mean, in my opinion.
On the p.s., I said yes to something. Don't know if it'll happen yet, but I'll post when I know more.

I'm Friends with a Genius

So I just received wonderful, wonderful news that my german exchange partner won this amazing oportunity. She was selected from 140 other students all over Germany to be eligible to win this huge national scholarship. You can't apply for it, but have to be recommended by certain institutions, like your high school if it's the highest level of education (gymnasium). But Lara wasn't only chosen out of the mediocre pond water of her school, but by the Academy that hosted 140 exceptionally gifted students last summer, Lara of course being one of then. I am so amazed and proud of her. Especially because it was all secrets and confusion when she found out and there's so much pressure on young people to succeed academically and now she has the chance to interview for this amazingly prestigious scholarship and that is so fantastic. It's genius! She's a genius! And she's moving to holland, on a side note. Congratulations, Lara, you deserve it.

Be Happy! It's New Year's!

So things have calmed down a tad. I am enjoying my last day of freedom before classes start, wow, tomorrow. I didn't quite realize it was that close. So I've enjoyed my weeks of relaxing--haha, yeah right. I mean working. But it's been nice. I have been cleaning my room, as I usually do when I want to do something productive but my procrastination monster rears up. Yesterday, instead of working on an assignment that is due Friday, I spent two hours ripping CDs onto my computer and typing in the songs titles since the computer doesn't recognize them. Important work yes, but damn that procrastination. I wrote today a short story about a dress that attacks my main character, based roughly on my New Years working at the restaurant. I got dressed up in blue satin and the house gave champagne to the staff that was still there at 12, which was nice of them. I also had some tequila shots out of rammiquins, the little dishes used for serving sides of horseradish, with the kitchen staff. Though I would have preferred to host the New Years party at my place again, or at been with my friends at midnight, it was still fun. I had to drag one of the younger girls away from polishing the cutlery so she would hang out with us in the kitchen and enjoy the last few minutes before the hour struck. Afterwards, at Dustin's, we ate lots of biscotti and quiche, drank a lot of coffee with Frangelico, and watched a lot of Grey's Anatomy until 6 o'clock. I'm fond of this year already. Be Happy! It's New Year's!!