I saw this poster in my Modernist Warzone Lit class yesterday. Apparently, the army isn't just about war. They're about cricket and rugby too! Hooray!

Ok I admit it.

I am obsessed with shoes. Prior to this blog, I was totally unaware of this fact. I thought I was a sensible girl with sensible obsessions (ahem: the Olsen Twins). Apparently blogs lead to self-discovery. My most recent discovery was yet again, shoes. I found this awesome version of the classic Chuck Taylor, The Converse All Star Lite. This is good news for the already clown footed, like myself. Another luxurious improvement are these shearling lined chucks. Which will keep you warm and no offense, look waay cooler than Uggs.

It's Hamma Time

Hammer pants are back. Big time. I'm wondering if I (or anyone) can pull them off.

It's hard to make a sleepy face smile.

Almost everyday for the last six months, I've worn purple and green together. But it's cool, so do all my role models.

Fear of Sleep

Ohhh the pain. I finally understand the perils of sleep deprivation. This whole week, my sleep schedule has been all over the place, some nights with 8 hours and some with less than 3 for no good reason (don't pity me). Last night I got a hardy 6 hours and yet this morning I could hardly stand up. I've had a dull ache in my head and a sick feeling in my stomach, which I thought this would wear off after a granola bar, but nay, it is 5:00 pm and I still feel weak and groggy. Part of my aversion to bedtime is partly due to important late night projects like organizing my itunes library and talking on the phone to western friends 'til 4. Also, it's partly because of the gripping paranoia that strikes me right around midnight where I feel that sleep makes me vulnerable and too slow to respond if crises strike. I'm so tired though, disaster can come find me. I'll probably sleep right through it.

Boot News

While reading one french fashionista's blog today I spotted the bottom black slouchy boots from online UK retailer Asos and went to the website and found these brown ones as well. While I can't be french, I will certainly pretend to be. Especially if they wear awesome BOOTS!

Heliocentric

Sometimes I forget the sun exists. I forget that light comes in bright yellow rays and not just diffused in gray. It doesn't bother me. I don't miss it when it's gone, but when it shines I remember how glorious it is. Yesterday and the day before the sun came out and I felt euphoric. Walking into work, I saw the pink and red sunrise coming over the highway overpass. The clouds were like an explosion and there were streaky jet streams all over the sky. In Ohio, it's cloudy almost everyday (190 days of full clouds, and 103 of partial clouds, that's 293 days of clouds.), which is only two days more than Fairbanks, Alaska, and we don't even have the northern lights.

Place: Columbus
State:Ohio
Sunny days:72
Sunny rank:(203)
Partly cloudy days:103
Cloudy days:190
Cloudy rank:(56)

Place:Fairbanks
State:Alaska
Sunny days:70
Sunny rank:(205)
Partly cloudy days:86
Cloudy days:210
Cloudy rank:(23)

http://www.cleveland.com/datacentral/index.ssf/2008/08/sunny_and_cloudy_us_places.html

Un-scarred Story

Finally, I had a harrowing near death experience. So maybe not near death, but certainly closer to it than usual. It happened last week in Lake Tahoe while riding aboard my snow hog, or snowmobile, if you will. Just prior to my snow mishap, the missionaries were over for dinner and we'd all gone around sharing our scar stories to break the ice. This crafty conversation starter was invented by my college roommates as a boy snagging device back in the old days at byu. (Not that anyone was trying to "snag" a missionary, it was just to pass the time. Really). My roomates and I would go around from dorm to dorm telling boys we were collecting scar stories for a "class project" and since few boys can resist telling eager girls their tales of triumph and glory it provided funny banter and even some dates. (Until eventually the boys got wise). Used in other settings, this trick is at least 10xs more fun than "Tell us your name and something interesting about yourself". Which never fails to erase anything remotely interesting from your mind. Elder Whatshisname and that other guy had lots of crazy stories about driving a four wheeler through a barbed wire fence and bungee jumping off a bridge into shark infested waters through rings of fire and such. Thinking frantically of what scar story I might share, I realized that years as an uber cautious wussy with an aversion to contact sports and danger in general, had yielded me few scars. The only story that came to mind was "So this one time I used a men's razor to shave, and wowzer it looked like a wolverine attacked my ankle...close shave, but NOT WORTH IT." Fortunately the elders and my Dad had enough battle wounds to keep the conversation lively and all were spared hearing my Gillette story. But last Tuesday I finally had my very own catastrophe. On our Lake Tahoe mini trip the family decided to forgo ski/board activities and dabble in the sledding/snowmobiling variety. I clutched the metal handles on the back of my seat while my brother drove. With every bump, I flew about a foot in the air not sure if I would land on or off my seat. On the first big bump of the day, my white knuckled hands flailed and hit the metal handle which hurt like the dickens. I ignored the pain and tried to focus on staying on the vehicle. After a couple of very bouncy nerve wracking spins, I got crazy and decided to try driving myself. When I grabbed the gas clutch my brother yelled "Michelle! Your hand!" There was blood all over my hand and all over his jacket. Drama! I think I freaked out the snowshack rental guys when I held up my bloody hand and asked for a band-aid. For a moment I thought maybe I'd lost a fingernail or torn it, turns out it was a tiny gash that just looked much worse than it really was. Although it's a slightly more exciting story than the man razor incident, this does not fulfill my need for a scar story, and maybe that's a good thing.