Great Music, Great Lyrics

I've been finding a lot of great new music lately, thanks to friends, Pitchfork.com, Pandora.com, and WXPN.

Mumford and Sons is a recent find, they were a "suggested video" on YouTube... and I love them now. They're a band from London who have an old-timey sound. It reminds me of something I'd like to hear on a ship or next to a campfire.

Currently I'm listening to them at work though...

Check them out, this is what I'm imagining is the single: Little Lion Man.

Soup and Brussels Sprouts

On this rainy Sunday night I decided to make soup and brussels sprouts for dinner.

Here is my chicken and veggie semi-spicy soup. I make a veggie soup just about every two weeks now and it's never the same. This time I decided to forgo the noodles and added some potatoes instead.

Making soup reminds me of living with Sammie, who makes the best potato leek soup you will ever have.

Here are my brussels sprouts... A little olive oil, a shallot, a clove of garlic, and a little shredded Parmesan cheese.

It bothers me that "brussels" ends with an "s" and is then followed by a word with the same letter.

Brussels sprouts remind me of living with Haley. She made them a lot better than mine turned out... I had to add a lot of pepper.

Friends You'll Have Forever

On Friday I drove down to Bel Air, Maryland to see my best friend from college, Kendall.

Kendall and I became friends through the random roommate lottery at the University of Delaware. However, she was not my original roommate assignment. I was supposed to live with a girl named Dina who I had never met, but rumor had it that she was a terrible bitch. So when Kendall called to say, "Hi! I'm your new rooommate, Kendall," I was ecstatic!

We kind of agreed that they must have switched us just to screw people up when the met us. "Which one is Kendra? Which one is Kendall?"

Our schedules never seem to mesh so we hadn't seen each other in about six months... a planned visit in February was ruined by a snowstorm. So I decided it was worth the drive for dinner.

Kendall took me to a restaurant called, "The Lodge." It's ski-lodge themed. Some of the booths are actual chair lifts. Very cool. It was great to catch up with a friend that I hardly get to see, but one that I know I will be seeing for the rest of my life.

This is the size of the "cups" they give you at the Lodge. I'm a little disgusted (yet I drank all of that chemical-infested Diet Coke... and loved it).

Funny Little Interpretation

Searching old entries on one of my favorite sites (see link to right - A Smart Cartoonist) and came across this:

Funny, huh?

Warm Beds

It's funny how fine you are when you're alone (or at least how fine I was alone) until you find someone that makes you want to always be with them....

Does Jesus Enjoy Car Rides?

I am editing the beginning of this story heavily because my intention is not to embarrass or ridicule anyone, or become a blasphemous person. But this one was too funny for me not to share.

So let's say that someone that I am very close with told me last night that Jesus sat in the passenger seat of their car each day. I am not sure why they said this, or what that even would mean, since it was said in such a literal way. (Side note, my problem with the type of Christianity I grew up with is how particularly literal such abstract ideas can be...)

Anyway, today I tell one of my best friends in Wilmington about this. Holly (who I happened to have met at work) is a Christian, of a more practical type than I am used to. The kind that, had I been raised in a similar vein that she was, I probably wouldn't have had the same issues I have with Christianity that I do now... In fact, to go on another tangent, she has been one of the most influential people in my life over the past 2-3 years. I don't even know if she's aware of that. I digress, but I'm trying to get the point across that she "gets me," and I "get" her.

So I tell her about this conversation I had the night prior about Jesus sitting in the passenger seat of a very close person to me. She automatically knows how I feel about it. She knows I am disturbed because deep down somewhere in me, a place that I hardly ever acknowledge, I am afraid that these people are right. But she also knows that the majority of me is pained that they really think this is true, and that I really do not. The true strife of my religious debacle is the rift that it inherently causes between me and the people I love the most.

So she does what I need in a moment like that. She will joke right along with me.

I love Holly.

When I first told her the story it was in a more serious, "I am concerned and a bit hurt (this conversation contained more than which seat Jesus chose in the car)" tone.

So now, hours later I am still thinking about it and ready to get it out of my head.

So, I joke.

Holly and I talk in person and through our company's instant messenger all day. Today she worked from home, so this was all via instant messenger. After our conversation I laughed so hard that I had to save it, which I started out of the blue; we had been talking about work related issues right before this:

Kendra ... I hope that Jesus is sitting in my passenger seat when I drive home today.

Holly ... Not only is he going to be there in your passenger seat when you get in to drive home but he is waiting for you there right now.

Kendra ... I should have cracked a window.

I think I am hilarious sometimes. I am not.

And I still don't get it... and I'm still trying... but I sure as hell am still going to joke about it while I figure it out.

No pun intended.

Hot Yoga

Due to my family history of high cholesterol my doctor told me I needed to find an exercise that I could do until I was at least 70 years old. When I mentioned I do yoga regularly, she suggested I begin hot yoga. Nearly two years later, I listened. After tonight I've done two classes total (at $13 a pop I'm not making this a weekly thing by any means). I loved it the first time. It makes your abs hurt (later, for a full week), it enhances your practice (if you're already doing yoga, you'll surprise yourself with what you can do in 98 degree heat), and it makes you feel a little lightheaded and high.

HOWEVER...

Tonight, behind me, to the right of me, and in front of me, were men. Smelly, stinky, I-might-be-watching-you-a-little-too-much men. Normally, I really wouldn't think twice or even notice. If it weren't for the smell...

For an hour an a half in an almost airless room where I am supposed to be breathing deeply, I smelled...

BALLS.

Gross. I want my thirteen dollars back.

However, my saving grace was the fact that I wipe my mat down with Mrs. Meyer's Basil Earth-friendly all-purpose wipes.



That saved me until I soaked my own mat with sweat about 30 minutes in...

Hot yoga is disgusting and yet I am addicted.

Words

This morning I am unmotivated at work, so I am reading through my favorite news sites: Huffington Post and NY Times. I usually get through "World" and "Politics" and go back to work, but it's a rainy Friday so today I am venturing into the lighter topics. Enter the Living section of Huffintonpost.com. I loved the one article about Six Word Memoirs. Read it here.

The idea is to tell a story in one six word sentence. Which promotes tact and mindfulness in your writing. She quotes the Strunk's "Elements of Style" book that I use often at work and have been using since my first Journalism class:

Vigorous writing is concise. A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts. This requires not that the writer make all his sentences short, or that he avoid all detail and treat his subjects only in outline, but that every word tell.

SO I thought I'd play around with a few of my own.

External beauty, an added bonus only.

Rainy Fridays lack motivation at work.

Small-minded people are usually lonely.

Running to get that runner's euphoria.

Some pairings:
Without family there is no love.
Family need not be blood related.

Living alone is freedom and quiet.
But it's nicer when you visit.

I gave up on this place.
You came and changed my mind.

There is a great one on the author of the article's blog - it's a short story of sorts using only six word sentences. I loved it. Check it out.

Running and food go well together... when running comes first.

After an 8 miler, we like to eat. I made chicken asada, steamed spinach, tomatoes, garlic and whole wheat rotini, and edamame. Followed by strawberries for dessert. I am trying to get better at taking food pictures...

A few things I like about living alone:

-Falling asleep in the living room doesn't necessarily mean you have to wake up to go to your bed.
-The entire fridge is mine.
-I buy toilet paper half as often.
-I can make coffee naked.
-I can do yoga in the living room and leave the yoga mat out until the next living room yoga session.