Joint Birthday: Hard Left

These guys....

25 Things or Narcissus Flexes his Gorgeous Muscles

Everyone on Facebook is doing it, right? It feels a little bit more intimate here...

1. This morning I woke up with the word “somnambulate” in my head. I hadn’t any idea what it meant so I looked it up online. Now I wonder if maybe I “somnambulated” last night and got some weird psychic vocabulary message about it.

2. I dyed my hair dark brown last night.

3. In related news, I’m going grey real early. I mostly blame my previous stint as a teacher in Revere.

4. In related news, I’m finishing my Masters degree in August after a long hiatus.

5. I started wearing earrings on a regular basis this year, and I’m delighted with how much more poised I feel when I am wearing them.

6. People often ask me what perfume I’m wearing and my initial reaction is always to say “Michelle Barbera” because it’s her perfume. By “her perfume” I mean, I admired how she smelled for so long that one day I finally just asked her if it was okay if I bought the same perfume that she wore. She was very gracious about the whole thing and not nearly as creeped out as I imagined she’d be. She’s my perfume icon.

7. I miss a lot of people who have passed away, but the only one I want to call on the phone all the time is Neil Shapiro, my high school drama teacher. He was really awesome in this really fallible, human way. I miss him all the time.

8. The older I get the more I realize that the only “stupid” people are the ones continually calling other people “stupid”. The best way to be a human is to develop some perspective and allow yourself to be humbled when humbling things occur. Again, something I’m learning.

9. I started going back to church after Christmas last year. Long-term implications are still up in the air.

10. In quasi-related news, I think gay people should be able to marry and have kids and do everything in the world that straight people get to do, and it makes me very angry that other people think differently. It’s one of the only things I get all huffed up about.

11. My friend Braden is a constant source of inspiration to me. He’s a brilliant director and writer and he pursues his dreams with a single-mindedness that no libra in history has matched.

12. Alison Royer has taught me more than I ever thought she’d teach me, just by being who she is. I thought she was going to be a real handful when I first met her, but she’s one of the wisest people I know. Besides, of course, the fact that she read the entire Twilight series and didn’t catch on to the fact that Jacob and his tribe are Native American.

13. I love Thursdays and thank Matt, Ryan, and Taylor for destroying me with their brilliance every week.

14. Don’t know where I’d be without my Renee. Everyone should have a tall best friend who lives in New Hampshire.

15. My family’s dog, Louie, makes the most unbelievably terrible smells in the world. I’ve never ever smelled anything so bad as what can come out of that dog. That being said, he’s cute.

16. I’m real bad at keeping track of things I’ve written. I have no idea where 1999-2007.

17. I’m a good swimmer!

18. I ran the mile in 9^th grade in 8 minutes. It was maybe the hardest thing I’ve ever done. I was trying to impress my dad. I threw up directly thereafter and still had to go to math.

19. I was a varsity football cheerleader in High School.

20. I was also a hockey cheerleader.

21. I was also VP of my class, and co-president of the drama society.

22. I was also obsessed with my resume.

23. I wrote my first play when I was 16. I would be really embarrassed to see/read it now, but people seemed to like it at the time.

24. I like reading other people’s blogs, even if I don’t know them. If you have a blog, I probably read it every so often and love it.
25. I am deeply grateful.
    

don't fall in!
xo
erin

Hi Again (or, Allegory Involving Debt)

You know when you forget to make a payment on your student loans and you make a mental note to write and send the check as soon as you get home on a given day? But then, after dinner with a friend and a long T ride home, you just make some tea and go to bed, completely forgetting about that check you need to put in an envelope and send to the loan company? It might be a few days later that you you remember it makes you kind of embarrassed so you put it off for so long. And where are the stamps? There are no stamps, you have to buy them, which is something that you try to remember to do. And fail. Eventually it gets to the point where you're getting phone calls and you know the number when it comes up on your cell phone and you hit silence every time. This is because you're ashamed to talk to the debt collector, because he/she will judge you. It's not even like you don't have the money in your account, you totally do, but it's become this monster thing that you don't want to deal with because it's symbolic of your childish irresponsibility. And you're 27, and should really be able to face these things and deal with them but you feel helpless and overwhelmed which is a thing that's alternately scary and depressing??

That's kind of how I feel about not writing here for a long time.

So, hi!



Sorry for the long hiatus. I don't know how with how much regularity I'll be updating here, but I'm going to try. Things in my life continue to shift and turn and change, and sometimes it's a challenge to strip it all down to a quick story, and make it palatable enough for general consumption. But I'll give it my damnedest effort.

Human experience is so varied. There's so much hideous and so much gorgeous. I'll try to direct us closer to the shiny stuff and keep out of the mud.

Chin ever up,
Erin