Some rambling sights, thoughts, and words of the past little while.

Last week it got appropriately gloomy and gray, with the few leaves that have been brave enough to turn popping against the dull sky and wet streets. This week we are back to sun, but with a definite tinge of fall. Of the many things that I look forward to with the cold weather, tights perhaps top the list. Dressing suddenly seems easier, because you just boldly throw on a pair of bright tights and will it to match whatever else you are wearing. I like to tell myself it makes my students pay attention, but I think they kind of think I look like a renegade oompa loompa.

Yesterday I made the first batch of pumpkin muffins for the season. I will probably turn these out at least a dozen times before spring because they are so easy and delicious. I try to always keep the two (yes TWO!) ingredients on hand during the cooler months so I can whip them on whenever there are hungry people around.

People, the Internet is an awesome place. This had me laughing way more than I should considering the humor is predicated on Flemish art, not really a knee slapper. This also had me laughing, though only in hindsight, as I was mostly just disturbed the first time soon.

Remember those lofty New Year’s resolutions? I am not a total failure. Up until this weekend, my nails were painted for 4.5 weeks solid and I cannot even begin to express how awesome that is. I had a minor girl moment a couple weeks ago where I might have sputtered out in tears, “THEY JUST MAKE ME FEEL SO PRETTY!!!!” and I think I scared James. I have also made it through a little over season 1 of 30 Rock, so I am basically feeling like a champion and dreaming ahead of next year’s plans.

My college bestie, roommate, and running buddy is in town this week. My running zeal has tapered to almost nothing in the past months, with laziness, busyness, and achy knees getting me after just a couple miles. Bethany is running a half marathon last week, and the pupil has become the master. She cheered me through 5 long miles — past all the “closed” monuments — and then we celebrated by downing a whole box of Sweet Lobby macarons. I kind of feel like a champion today knowing again that I can indeed still run.

There was a span of time in the recent past where I ate way too much brunch food within a couple days and I went almost three days without a veggie. Is this a problem, or is it the solution?

This past weekend we went to Charlottesville for the wedding of some college friends and it was pretty awesome. James found out at the last minute that he probably couldn’t go and I was so disappointed. Right after he told me I checked my email and one of you awesome readers had just sent me an email saying that you were praying for me and James during this stressful time at his job — without any idea of how stressed we actually were. Sometimes the people who have never met you bless you the most. A couple hours later, James called back saying that he was able to come, and our weekend was full of lots of good times with old friends.  I can’t wait to share the wedding photos with you in a couple of weeks. In the meantime, here is the quote they had on the back of their program, words that are staying close to my mind and heart this week:

“I feel sometimes as if I were a child who opens its eyes on the world once and sees amazing things it will never know any names for and then has to close its eyes again. I know this is all mere apparition compared to what awaits us, but it is only lovelier for that. There is a human beauty in it. And I can’t believe that, when we have all been changed and put on incorruptibility, we will forget our fantastic condition of mortality and impermanence, the great bright dream of procreating and perishing that meant the whole world to us. In eternity this world will be Troy, I believe, and all that has passed here will be the epic of the universe, the ballad they sing in the streets. Because I don’t imagine any reality putting this one in the shade entirely, and I think piety forbids me to try.”  Marilynne Robinson, Gilead

What have you been finding in your ramblings lately?

PS: The style and title of this post I totally ripped from my friend Anna’s blog, because I always love her rambling posts!