Things i did today

• changed my gmail theme from "cherry blossom" to "beach"...(it was just too much pretty and pink)
• organized my firefox bookmarks into helpful categories such as community grant ideas, fashion inspiration and funny relationship advice...also minimized the previously prohibitive amount of scrolling involved
  
• realized that, yes, i can be THAT boring
• examined the anatomical valentine possibilities for the boy's upcoming, likely not-very-romantic card
• realized that i really need to start working again soon

luckily, i have a job offer that i'm really excited about and am piddling around while we sort out visa status and final salary offers. keep your fingers crossed.

Job hunting

Dear President-elect Obama,

Please, please, please hire me to be your speech writing flunky. I'm young, blue, secretly sappy, play well with others and only rarely run with scissors.

Thank you.

Do I sound cynical yet?

If you want a practical education, replete with all the realism and moral compromise that entails, go to a developing country.

I mean it. Go South, young man, and stay awhile.

Be sure to bring a copy of Heart of Darkness with you.

P.S. I suspect that there are rich and varied allusions to be made here...that or a tremendous cultural gaffe. Unfortunately, it's been almost 10 years since A.P. English and a solid five since my Comparative Literature degree. Thus, I am grossly out of touch.
P.P.S. Thus I am also getting old.
P.P.P.S. *shudder*

Sunset at Mar Saba

Stalker-ish or Southern?

Today I debated the relative creepiness of adding random other internationals who seem interesting as my facebook friends. I haven't done it yet, added people with whom I have no real world contact. The trouble is it seems 1 part pathetically friendly and 1 part webstalking...in the absolute best case scenario. I suppose I have to grow a pair and track down the crazy expat parties instead.

Making web friends does seem far easier, though, not to mention incurring far less transportation cost.

Care to weigh in?

The Birmingham series

Some friends here visited the states at Christmastime and visited some of my favorite cities, including the one in which I lived for 4 years. By and large, they were underwhelmed, and my theory is that they simply didn't know where to go.

Thus, I've decided to start posting favorite places on occasion in the hopes the future visitors will heed my excellent advice.

This inaugural set of photos is from The Garage, one of Birmingham's premier bars that was supposedly voted one of the 10 bars worth traveling for by GQ magazine. But who knows, that might just be an urban legend.

Regardless, it's the perfect place to sit and chat with friends; engage in cute, flirty conversation or climb a tree, Zaccheus-style. However you choose to enjoy it, don't you dare miss it should you happen to pass through Birmingham, Alabama.

Life lessons

Of course it was never going to be that simple -- coming home and NOT crying. As Gloria would say, I'm one of those people who "has lots of feelings", and I was never going to be cool enough for a graceful transition into "just friends".

I appreciate that he's trying, but I hate him for making it seem so easy.

He told me before he left the first time that he'd end it if things got too hard. I should have ended it then, as that is clearly the wrong attitude for a successful long-term, not to mention partially long-distance, relationship. Instead, I cried.

In his arms.

I am SUCH A GIRL.