(ooo, baby, baby) it's a wild world

Sometimes, late at night, with the open windows and the crickets and the sprinklers and the pool laughter, I wonder why I'm still in school. But look at all I'm learning!


1::: FORGET THE TOASTER.

Our sad little excuse for an appliance called it quits yesterday, leaving me with a slice of wheat about two seconds warm and not all that appetizing. I'd just finished buttering it when I remembered the oven, hit the broil button, and tried my luck.

End result? I am never going back. The oven method not only toasts your bread to your individual ideas of toasting perfection, but the pre-buttering adds a to-die-for carmelized crunch.

2::: YOU JUST NEVER KNOW (UNTIL YOU ASK)

You can live with a person a full eight weeks and not know much more than their music taste or their cereal choice (if that). Last night, I came back from a late run to find our top floor in complete disarray and enough glitter and metal to outfit a backstage tour. Turns out Mandy only recently became the prim law student in organic neutrals and sensible footwear. In her other life, she was a rock star.

Or, at least that's what it felt like. For the next two hours we sorted through her closet, organizing the evidence into thrift shop, costume closet, and just-for-the-record piles while Mandy filled me in on her former life. With the last garbage bag tied down just past one a.m., she yawned with a sheepish smile. "Yeah, you caught me at kind of an interesting turning point," she admitted.

3::: MAKE WAY FOR DUCKLINGS

Take advantage of location. If you live ten steps from a Duck Pond, go. Especially in the Spring. When their are three (3!) different fowl families to choose from, palm-sized packages of outlandish entertainment.

Just make sure to set aside some time---this week, only meaning to stop for a second's look, I ended up staying a full half hour, completely enthralled. My favorite little guy couldn't quite make it up out of the water and continually toppled backwards off the bank in a series of ridiculous maneuvers.

3 1/2 ::: I'M EIGHTY-FIVE YEARS THREE MONTHS AND A DAY!

This gets the .5 because it's something I only wish I knew---how exactly old am I? Because I'd really rather love to be able to begin each day like Dylan Thomas's Mary Ann Sailors.

*edit: I'm twenty years two months and twenty-three days! (I guess this is something I could've figured out before the necessary edit, but I don't usually do numbers. At all.)


So much to do, to see, to learn! And with only two weeks to go, it's not all bad.