Today I signed up to participate in
Discovering Dickens - A Community Reading Project. Basically it's a project to drum up interest in reading Dickens the way he was originally published: in serial form. So once a week for ten weeks they send you installments of a novel (this year it's Hard Times)...ostensibly, to read aloud to family whilst sitting around your drawing room in the evenings, wearing Victorian dress. The idea sounds really cool; plus, I haven't read anything of Dickens since that blasted book report of Great Expectations in 10th grade, and surely there's something wrong with that. So between this and netflix, my mailbox will be a regular party.
2:06 PM 0 Comments

The moment has finally come...the first snowfall. I think it began about ten minutes ago, because I popped outside to see if I'd need my heavy coat, and then went back in to get it, and by the time I was ready to leave, it was snowing. Funny how the weather likes to sneak up on you like that.

I'm a person who is severely affected by the weather. Rainy days (yes, and Mondays...) send my energy levels plummeting, and on sunny days, all seems right with the world. Something about air pressure. But there's something about the start of a snowfall that throws me for a loop. Dark, opressive sky, yet light flakes floating around, swirling in patterns on the road...all very van Gogh, really. I'm tired, but jittery, like I've had too much caffeine and not enough sleep. But then perhaps that is because I've indeed had too much caffeine and not enough sleep. :)
10:10 AM 0 Comments

Wilmington was wonderful this weekend! Britt and I toured the WB studios (I so very much want to be a set dresser), went to the Fort Fischer aquarium, saw Garden State finally, ate tons of seafood, and spent not nearly enough time watching the dophins frolic in the surf. A great ending to my week off (except for the 4 hour drive back last night).
10:10 AM 0 Comments

Why, oh why, would it be 70 degrees in NC in January? I'm pretty certain this is not Florida, and yet I've been wearing short sleeves and flip-flops outdoors since the beginning of the new year. And next week should be just as warm. Oh, how I look forward to the obligatory ice storm in February, just so I can pull out my sweaters and scarves again! Maybe it wouldn't be as bad if it were sunny and bright, but for now there are leafless trees, bleak skies, and not a crispy day in sight. But the good news is that I'm headed for the beach this weekend. Wilmington. And so the present phenomenon should be nice if I can just pretend it's April for a few days.
11:44 AM 0 Comments

OK, so 2005 it is! I'm caught between looking forward to the next year and back at the last. Such a fast year and I expect the next to be even more so. But if things continue as they are, it ought to be a good one. My college roommate, Amanda, came to visit for a couple of days before flying back to the Czech Republic to continue teaching at a university there (not bad for 25, eh?), and we rang in the new year up in Winston-Salem with some good friends (some also from college), a little Napoleon Dynamite, and some blackjack. I've discovered that I'm absolutely terrible at poker strategy, and so long as i'm not playing with real money, I make up for it by egregious amounts of bluffing. Guess I'll have to watch celebrity poker showdown for pointers if I decide to ever try it with actual money...or just stick to scrabble, since I'm killer at that.
2:23 PM 0 Comments