Wednesday, October 14, 2009

like an unforseen kiss.

Currently Listening To: O How He Loves Us by David Crowder
Excited for: a new episode of Top Chef. I think I'm shifting my allegiance to Kevin instead of Jen. For Project Runway, I think I'm going with Althea.


A few summers ago, I worked at a church in Texas. Every year, the students there go on a missions trip to Mexico. They do some construction work and help with an outreach for kids in the community. Each year, in preparation for this trip, they design their own t-shirts.

My absolute favorite shirt they did, pretty much my most favorite t-shirt of all time, bore this slogan:

We make Speedy Gonzales look like Regular Gonzales.

It's been a few years since I worked there and it still makes me happy. I still smile, or snicker, every time I think of the quote. I need to add it to my quotes page on Facebook. Or paint it above my door. Or something.

Tangent: My other favorite quote from Texas came from a girl who said, "My cousin is having a baby. Her husband wanted to name the baby Derek Wayne but she said no because that's how everybody in East Texas says Dairy Queen." Tangent complete.

This week, I'm trying to adapt the brilliant Speedy Gonzales quote to my life. In addition to ripping apart the only scene in The It that truly reeks of suck*, I'm working on something new. My friend Jimmy, man of wifeandman, jokingly called the new project Thing: The It. That made me laugh. Not guffaw laugh, but like a heh-heh-heh kind of laugh. So this week I've been editing It and writing Thing.** And that's pretty much all I've been doing. I hang out with my dog. Then I write. (And while I write, usually the dog sleeps beside me. She's the coolest critique partner ever :) That's why the blog is kind of quiet this week. I just assume you don't really want to read about the finer details of the psychosis that consumes me when I write.

But I do have a few pieces of information I wish to divulge:

I could be a gold medalist in corn maze.
On Friday, Sarah and I are having our Annual Fall Fiesta of Awesome. There are three things that occur on this day:
1. We go to the corn maze and walk around making click-click-click noises like the aliens in the movie Signs.
2. We watch Hocus Pocus. "A black river! Tis firm!"
3. We eat.

This year, Sarah's husband Joey is participating. Joey has a slightly more natural inclination toward problem solving than we do ... so we might get through the maze even faster than we did last year. Sursly, if corn mazing was an Olympic Sport, Sarah and I could medal. We were out in record time last year. Both mazes. At night! So that experience should lead to a couple of funny stories for Monday. If it doesn't, I'll make something up.

I hit repeat everytime this song comes on.
I was listening to David Crowder while I drove home a few nights ago. It was an incredible night to start: this big gauzy cloud had swallowed the moon. I had the window down, because the air smelled like burning leaves. I was holding a cup of coffee so I wouldn't get cold. Then the song "O How He Loves Us" came on the izzlePod and I kind of lost myself in the moment. I bet I hit repeat fiften times:

And heaven meets earth in an unforseen kiss
and my heart turns violently inside of my chest
I don't have time to maintain these regrets when I think about the way ...

I am obsessed with Joshua James.
Well. Not him exactly, but his music. I don't know much about him, but I know his music is gorgeous. Thing is the first project I've done inspired very heavily by other pieces of art. Namely, a short story written by Flannery O'Connor, a song by Jeffrey Foucalt, and a tree made of glass. The music I've been listening to as I write Thing has been very melancholy. Music is helping me feel my way through the scenes and emotions in this project in a big way. This is one of the songs I've been listening to. It's very sad, but in the most perfect way.

I am a chronic dork.
It is impossible to develop street cred when the following situation occurs: A few days ago, I pulled up to the red light, music blaring from my speakers, windows down. The guy beside me was doing the same thing. Except the guy beside me was driving a sparkly silver Mercedes and listening to rap music. I was driving a dinged up Honda Civic and listening to Aladdin and Jasmine sing "A Whole New World." I bet he listens to Disney songs when nobody else is around.

I loved reading your comments on the "yellow notebooks" post.
Hearing about all the sweet memories you have (or had) of your grandparents made me teary. This is definitely a beautiful bitersweet time of year for memories like that. Thank you so much for letting me read yours. If you haven't read the last post's comments, I encourage you to do so. Just make sure you have an ample supply of Kleenex when you do ...

And finally, I am so very ready for the wild rumpus to begin!

I promise a slightly more interesting blog post in the future :) What's on your mind this week? Do you have any secrets for conquering a corn maze?

* There are several weak parts, but there is one scene driving me bonkers. I'm taking the whole thing apart today and piecing it back together.
** And thinking of other obscure pronouns to use for projects. Why call it by its working title, or even just say "My WIP" when I can confuse the daylights out of you?

8 comments:

  1. I laughed so hard at the quote about Derek Wayne and Dairy Queen. When I read something like that, I have to say it aloud, so I'm sure my parents are downstairs wondering what I'm up here whispering and giggling to myself about.
    I'm terrible at corn mazes. Our church group went to one a few years ago, and we took about twice as long as the Boy Scout troup did to get through. And there were clues.
    I'm a dork, too. I'm learning to embrace my inner goober. But who doesn't love Disney music? I have probably 50 Disney songs on my iPod. I bought the whole "Aladdin" CD from iTunes. =) Mostly just for the Genie's songs. I bought two songs from the original "Parent Trap" and by a terrible misfortune accidentally ended up with a whole Annette Funicello CD (think Miley Cyrus in the 60's...singing Italian songs. Yeah.). I force myself to listen to the CD since it cost $10, but I refuse to listen to that in my car.
    ~Kristin

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  2. Natalie,
    Funny you mention Texas. I will be there this weekend! We leave tomorrow. :) I love Texas. It is a beautiful place. This week has been a rather easy week. It's fall break and I am so glad to be away from class for a while. I get to shop!! ha ha. Other than midterms and work, I have been listening to Parachute nonstop, and getting prepared for a weekend away. We sing that song by David Crowder almost every weekend in church. Love it. :) Don't feel like a dork for the Disney music thing. My sister and I have a Disney Mania cd and we blare Ever After with the windows down :) it's a girl thing. (or a guy thing they don't want to admit. ;)

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  3. You should refer to them by what they are, but in other languages. For instance, if it's a book, use the Russian (because Spanish is too easy) word kneegah (the k is pronounced).

    I wish there was a corn maze here that I could run around in...however, this is Ukraine, and people probably have no clue how fun it is to run around in a cornfield that has been specially made. Not to mention I am in the middle of the capital city, with cornfields miles and miles away.

    My friend made a Facebook photo album called "my heart turns violently inside my chest," and for the next month, I hadn't any idea where the line came from--then I heard one of our school's summer min teams sing it.

    On my mind right now: I need to go on a photography field trip to capture the fall colors of Kiev. Picture this: riding on a bus to school; look across at the church/monastery, with green domes, that sits nestled behind tress on the hill behind the soccer stadium; the trees are various shades of red, yellow, and maybe some green too. That is where I need to go with my camera.

    :)

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  4. You must MUST work the Derek Wayne comment into a book. Cause if you don't, someone will come by and steal it. Like me.

    And of course we all had to say Derek Wayne out loud. I love that.

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  5. We went apple picking and corn mazing last saturday! Did you see the pics on facebook? There's actually a pretty fun pic of me poking my ahead around the corner in the maze to get into a picture with the wife. There's also a pic of me eating an apple cause our friend joy always gets pics of me eating... like the corndog at the baseball game.

    Have fun mazing!

    Oh, and isn't it so wonderful! to have a doggy just being around when your working on things like Thing: The It. and in reference to your **... you've got a whole Abbot and Costello routine in the works.

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  6. Kristin, I am glad to hear you rock out to Disney songs! I do it all the time too. I don't have any Anette (thank goodness) but there's an obscure song I found on a CD called "The Tiki Tiki Tiki Tiki Room" that makes me happy. I try to sing along in the same accent the singer has. Thus, I save that one for when I'm alone :) I don't have any of the Genie's songs though ... I must remedy that!

    Steffanie, how fun that you'll be in Texas! :) I lived in Dallas for just a little while. It is such a fun state. I like to complain about the traffic and the heat, but I'm totally smitten with Texans. And with the Mexican food. Until I went there, I didn't know the difference between Tex-Mex and authentic. Now I have a special place in my heart for both. I hope you have fun on your fall break!

    Jessica, I like the Russian idea! I may seek your help for title obscurity in the future ;) And I want to see a pic of all those gorgeous places and things you mentioned! You described them perfectly, but I still want to see it all. I don't know if I told you this, but you put a pic up on Facebook of the inside of a bus. When it was small, it totally looked like a cathedral. When I clicked on the pic, and realized it was a bus door, it made me smile. It's easy to take a pretty shot of a cathedral but it takes an eye to spot how pretty faded paint on a door can be. I'm so glad you're sharing all your pics and stories.

    Jen, I'll try to work it in. I always feel kind of bad when I rip jokes like that. For like five seconds, I feel bad. I get over it real quick.

    J, I can't find those pics on your Facebook. They're in your albums? Why am I so facebook illiterate? You have been right all along about this dog business. I should have listened to you sooner.

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  7. I didn't post the pics... my friend Joy did and she tagged me, so they should be under "Pictures of Jimmy" or if you go to my profile, I think there's a link on that page where it says I've been tagged.

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  8. The week before last, I housesat for a family in my church.
    On Thursday of that week, I had a migraine, so I watched The Little Mermaid, Mulan, The Lion King, and the day before I had watched Beauty and the Beast. All on VHS.
    It. Was. Awesome. :)

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