Boo

Talk about a rough day.

I am tired and cranky and emotional.

It's almost like I'm menopausal.

Christos Anestis!

Happy Easter!

Brian told me that for Greek Easter they dye all the eggs red and crack the eggs against each other. The person with the egg that doesn't crack is the winner and "is in charge of the house."

Yesterday I dyed eggs with two of my good girl friends from home, Jackie and Kate. Kate showed me how to blow the egg out of the shell. After we did that then we dyed them.

Here's how they turned out...

Teeth

I really like teeth. They're really important, but at the same time this little drawing is hilarious, because it's true. Teeth are creepy, but what's really odd is when parents keep the teeth of their children long after the Tooth Fairy dropped by to leave a little somethin' somethin'.

When I was in junior high or high school I found this little wooden case shaped like a tooth where I used to put my knocked/fallen out teeth. I found it in my mother's random drawer, you know, the one's where mother's just toss whatever it is in their hands that they don't want in their hands anymore in. It was strange to me, seeing those teeth. I can remember there being more than four. It's weird though, what sort of attachment could my mom have fostered with my baby teeth?

I think it would infinitely more odd if my mom kept the "adult" teeth that could have fallen out. Lucky for me, my big teeth have stayed relatively in the same place for the last decade or so.

I know a few people that have a fake tooth or two, so now, sometimes I wonder if what I'm seeing is actually what was originally there. Veneers are weird, but for some people definitely necessary. My best friend had to get some of her teeth shaved down and the dentist placed caps on them for various reasons. One of my college friends simply didn't like the way her teeth were so she got veneers on the front four. And another girl I know had a tooth die on her, so she had it replaced. If it were fifty years or a hundred years before today those girls would have to just deal. Our culture is so complex.

Hey Cupcake

I sometimes get Natalie Dee cartoons e-mailed to me by friends. Recently I was reminded of this particular cartoon that I received last year, and have been searching endlessly on Natalie Dee's website, but it wasn't showing up. I just found it on some random person's Myspace.com page. I'm a creep, but I found it. Hooray.

80 Hours on Air- KRUI 89.7

Listen to these radio stories I did for The Daily Iowan radio broadcast and podcast:

A story on the University of Iowa's "Ten Minute Play Festival"

A story on controversial performing artist Tim Miller at the UI's Obscenity Symposium

For a list of all the radio pieces done this semester by The Daily Iowan arts staff

Like clockwork

I miss:
-reading for fun
-going to concerts and dancing like a crazy
-whistling
-the days when my butt wasn't in pain after doing homework
-talking to my sister on the phone regularly
-out on a lot of stuff, but i do other stuff
-white sox games
-being right most of the time
-snail mail
-listening to an entire album while driving
-sleeping more than 6 hours


I think the name of this year in my chronology of thoughts since birth would be titled "Time: Having, Yet Not Having."

While at the same *time* I also think I need to spend it better i.e. on things that will last. It's hard to tell the things that are important from the unimportant when I'm so close to it all. I need to back up and look at things from a different perspective.

accents

I always found it so strange that the United States is such a potluck of people. We have all heard the term "melting pot," but I guess I never kind of paid attention to the fact that people come here, to the US to live. They leave their roots, cultures--lives behind. And for what? To live here.

Currently U2's "The Refugee" is playing on my iTunes. It goes something like this:
Oh, Oh
She's the refugee.
I see your face,
I see you staring back at me.
Oh, Oh
She's the refugee
Her mama say one day she's gonna
live in America.

In the morning,
She is waiting,
Waiting for the ship to sail,
Sail away.

Her papa go to war.
He gonna fight,
But he don't know what for.
Her papa go to war
Her mama say one day he's
gonna come back from far away.

Help me.
How can you help me?
In the evening,
She is waiting,
Waiting for her man to come.
And take her by her hand.
And take her to this promise land.

She's a pretty face,
But at the wrong time and at the wrong place.
She's a pretty face.
Her mama say one days she's gonna live in America.
Yeah, America.

She's a refugee.
She's coming back, she's coming for company.
She's a refugee.
Her mama say one day she's gonna live in America.

The concept of an American going to live abroad, I feel, more than in other countries, is seen as kind of unpatriotic. "We've got it so good here--Why live anywhere else?" I think that's part of a problem in America. People only want to do what's comfortable, and if you're born in U2's so-called "promised land" should there be anywhere else worthy of living in? Personally, I'm all about understanding the lives and cultures of other human beings. To me, it's really unfortunate when I hear of someone who has no desire to go beyond these boarders. For those who are akin to traveling I can really see that lifestyle as appealing. Maybe not forever, but enough, enough to satisfy.

If this isn't making any sense, then fine, but I just started thinking about how my country is seen in the world, and I wonder so much if I would feel this way if I lived outside of here. Then there's always the accents. However aware I am of my Chicago sound, I still think its rather humorous when I hear the accent of someone else. There's this moment when you realize that we both sound kind of cool to the other. It just doesn't always seem that when in Iowa, where there's an international student maybe 1 in 100, if not less.

Really, that's it. All I have really thought about so far.