Update, Schmupdate

Well, I've booked my flight to Boston. So it's all set. I fully expect to be searched at the airport, since I'm flying nonstop with a one-way ticket. Oh, well.

Now I'm busy trying to get stuff together to ship. We're also crazy busy trying to work out the details of my mom's move. Keep your fingers crossed that everything gets settled soon.

Trying to stretch out my reading of Harry Potter to last as long as possible. That way maybe it'll feel like a shorter wait til the next (and last, *sniff*) book comes out.

Knitting a hat with earflaps to get me through the cold Boston winters (and that's just inside). But it's a little too big. So today I measured my head, and discovered that it is 22 inches in diameter. According to the Craft Yarn Council of America, that's the head measurement for men's hats. So my head is apparently bigger than the standard woman's head. This is interesting (to me) because most of my family members have big heads, but I've always considered mine average. Guess not. So that pattern is just really, really big. Anyone else out there have oddly-sized heads?

Ford Escape

Ford Escape
Originally uploaded by kamio.

If you're fascinated, you can check out the Ford website and learn all about their hybrid program.

Ford Mercury Mariner

Ford Mercury Mariner
Originally uploaded by kamio.

In case anyone happened to be wondering, Ford does have hybrids. Two actually.

Just in case you were curious. Or thought that because I don't drive, I know nothing about cars. =)

Just Another Manic Monday

Sorry to start the week on such a depressing note, but I just found this story creepy. A young woman was killed in a drive-by shooting in Berkeley. It was at the corner of Dwight and College, where I lived for 2 years. I can't guess how many times I stood at that corner. If you want, you can read about it in The San Francisco Chronicle

On a happier note, I had a good time visiting with friends over the weekend. We took San Francisco by storm, and with the weather here in Sacto., I'm ready to go back. We've had 7 straight days of temperatures over 100 degrees. And the forecast shows the whole rest of the week the same way. By Thursday we should break a record for most consecutive days over 100 in Sacramento.

Movin Day's A Comin'

The good news is that it looks like my mom may have found a place to move. She hasn't signed the lease yet or put down a deposit, but she's pretty committed to it. The manager is just checking when the place will be free for move-in.

The bad news is that it's not gonna be free until probably around the week I leave. So that means my mom can't help me with my move. Also, depending on the exact time, I may not be here to help with her move.

I'm starting to look into things like the cheapest way to ship some boxes to Boston. Also, it's much harder than you'd think to get a cheap one-way airfare between Sacramento and Boston. Southwest doesn't go there; JetBlue doesn't go from Sacto. to Boston (it does Sacto.-NY, or Oakland-Boston). And then I need to find somewhere to stay for one night before the dorms open. Hotels in Boston are about as pricey as the ones in the Bay Area.

It's both exciting and overwhelming to realize that TWO moves are coming up in 6 weeks. It hasn't really sunk in how different my life will be in a month and a half.

It's a Beautiful Day

Death and destruction. They're everywhere. Especially death. A friend's boyfriend's cousin. An elderly relative. People riding to work on a double-decker bus. But then again, so is destruction. People destroying their lives with alcohol. The little ways we tear each other down with cruel words, glances, actions. The slow stripping away of our freedom.

Life is short. Everybody knows it. We try to pretend it's not with wrinkle creams and sports cars. Or just by ignoring the facts. But I will die, and you will die. And it's only a matter of time. Who knows how much?

So, now that that's been established, we can curl up and mope. Or we can rail against the unfairness of it all. We can try to forget again. That's what most of us will probably do.

But there's another option. We can dance.

We can give ourselves over to life. Find meaning. Smile at strangers. Be joyful and grateful and giving.

You want to live forever; experience the Eternal Now. You know how when you look into your lover's eyes, you feel like time stands still? That's the Eternal Now. When you are working on something you care about, and you look up, shocked to realize that hours have flown--also the Eternal Now. Love and Meaning joined together. The limits of ordinary time can't compete.

With compassion and beauty and peaceful spirits and thankfulness and love, every day we can accomplish a lifetime's worth of work. We can make Creation dance.

By the Way....

If you like women's sports, or you just can't stand male chauvinist pigs, this article will make you smile.

Yup, I've Lost It

So, I've been reading 1L, a really interesting book by Scott Turow. It's practically required reading for all incoming law students. It's all about his 1st year at Harvard Law. Anyhow, the book is supposed be intensely frightening. It hasn't had that effect on me, but it did push me to do something crazy.

I decided to try out briefing cases. I figured it would be good practice. But the really insane thing is, I loved it. No, really. Loved it. Didn't want to stop. Granted, I was using cases that I found interesting. And I'm sure when I have around 20 to do at a time, it won't be quite as entertaining. But still.

That last thread of sanity has clearly snapped. =)

Happy Fourth!

Nada mucho here. My ma and I are gonna watch the fireworks tonight from the parking lot near our place. It's a heckuva lot easier than going all the way to the park... Watched The Terminal and Bridget Jones 2 this weekend; both were quite enjoyable.

A few Independence day thought from "America (The Book)" by the Daily Show folks (sorry, I'm too lazy to go through the effort of underlining and italicizing this paragraph properly):

"In seventeen hundred and seventy-six The Declaration of Independence was signed-ix"

"If you are going to sever ties to your Commonwealth through bloody struggle, it is considered polite to write down why."

"Still, knowing the inherent contradiction between their noble words and the reality of a slave-owning nation, Jefferson and the Founders wisely decided to strike....the phrase "or your money back."

"The Founding Fathers could now retire back to their respective states, knowing that all that was left to achieve was for their untrained militias to engage and defeat the most powerful empire the world had ever seen."

Happy Independence Day!