on a less controversial topic...

my lovely sister is pregnant with her third child, and i am getting a new niece in december. alright, well we aren't sure whether or not this is, in fact, a girl, but it seems only fair that jil finally get a girl. since the time that jil told me she was pregnant, i had been spending a great deal of time dreaming of the beauty that will emerge in six months, until jil brought home this recent souveneir from her latest visit to the doctor's office...

you might notice that not only are the ocular cavities enormously large for her tiny head, but she appears to have flesh-mangling teeth. i fear that this baby may in fact be alien spawn sent to eat me.

the doctor claims that those are the baby's little hands and not fangs, but i'm still not entirely convinced. what do you think: child or alien spawn?

violated

i guess i should have seen it coming. i mean, when i think of david sedaris, sensitive and uplifting aren't quite the first two terms that come to mind. but when i heard he was coming to boise to promote his new book, i knew i had to check it out.

so, today after class, i unknowingly headed off to my local Hastings (an incredibly unlikely place for a new york times best selling author to show up, but i'm not complaining). i picked up a copy of the newest book. i laughed at the reading. after all, making coffee out of water from an arrangement of wildflowers is unceasingly humorous. i find david sedaris's voice oddly soothing--perhaps because i have grown so accustomed to listening to it on This American Life? whatever reason for this comfort, i felt i had made a great decision for my evening.

i have never tried to get a book signed before (i'm usually cranky by the time they get to signings), but i had this delusional idea that it may have actually gone quickly, so i got in line. for two and a half hours. this is in addition to the forty-five minutes spent standing during the reading (not that i--and my feet!--am/are complaining). luckily i had my dear friend jana, my cousin jake, and his beautiful wife rachel to keep me company.

i finally got to the front of the line, with pained feet and emotinal fatigue, and realized i didn't really have anything to say. no worries, david took it from there. staring relentlessly at my chest, he simply said, "Rebecca, what nice breasts you have."

"what?" i reply incredulously

"well, i mean, i'm no expert or anything" (in case you don't know, david sedaris is gay) "but you have seriously nice breasts."

he has still failed to look at my face once.

i instantly turned bright red. at this point in time, jake and rachel started cracking up. everyone in line can tell how obviously uncomfortable this comment has made me, so they all start laughing. i don't think i had ever been this mortified in my life... until he started writing this astute observation on the title page of my book.

"please," i plead, "please don't write that in my book."

"rebecca," he said, "they won't be nice forever..."

and so it is. eternally preserved for my grandchildren to lovingly cherish generations down the road. i don't think i have ever experienced such a mixture of mortification, flattery, and hilarity.

update on the mundane

i never thought i'd be genuinely sad to see a class go. certainly i have had those classes that i knew i'd learned from and enjoyed, but after a full semester, i generally knew it was time to go. but today i am actually sad that i didn't have to go to school again.

i just finished taking a week-long creative nonfiction class, and it was absolutely wonderful. i loved my instructor and his approach for setting up the class, i loved my writing group i workshopped with all week, i loved seeing andrea's happy little face every day, and i really loved making the time to write something new every night. i received such positive feedback and helpful critique--and i even shared some of my stuff with jesse (which i generally refuse to do).

i thought i would dread a 9-4 class every day this week, but all in all, it was a really great experience.

let's hope this upcoming week's class is almost as good.

and seriously, guys, i need some positive thoughts headed my way for the job hunt. i'm starting to really stress out...

school's (not) out for the summer

i started school again today.
only two more weeks of class and i am officially done with classes for my Master's.
now, if only i could find a job to use my degree...

in other news, we moved

about a week and a half ago, jesse and i had our first big move together. because we are moving to pocatello in the next little bit, we didn't see much point renewing our lease or going month-to-month (particularly because i am currently unemployed and therefore broke), so it was time to move on.

i have been delaying blogging about the move for a few reasons:


1. i am still recovering physically from the exhaustion that naturally ensues after a big move (in our rush to move out, we didn't even think to ask anyone to help us move all of our furniture, so it was just jesse and i)

2. i hate blogging about events for which i have no pictures (all pictures used in this post are a bit old)

3. i am oddly emotional about the whole ordeal


i know that not everyone saw our apartment as lovingly as i did. most people walked in to our five hundred square foot, one bedroom cave and would make comments like "wow, cozy space here," which not so subtly translates to "how do you live in these cramped quarters?" however, i loved it there. it was our first place together and it really felt like home to me.

right now we are staying at my dad's condo in the boise area, and we're grateful for the free rent (and the extra storage space for everything we haven't had time to deposit in our storage unit in pocatello), but i still find myself dreaming of this...

and ocassionally this little nook...

but i don't miss the tiny kitchen so much, though there were some good memories to be had there (can you imagine the frustration associated with making an entire thanksgiving dinner on that mini stove?)

so, until we have new jobs and homes, for now we live homeless, humble, and happy.

over and out.

rising from the ashes

alright, so i may officially be the worst blogger in the world for the last few weeks. however, life has slowed down a bit, and it is time to rise from the ashes to my former blogging glory. rather than overwhelm you all with the amazingly exciting and significant moments of our lives for the past few weeks, i'll cover one topic per post and try to keep up with the posting these moments regularly.

as promised, here is some more on Jesse's graduation.




jesse graduated, with honors, and i am so incredibly proud of him. not only did i get to see the young chap take the next step toward his five-year plan (yeah, we have a five-year plan), but we were also thrilled to have both of our parents and all of my siblings make the trip to congratulate him. it was a truly momentous occassion. it was remarkably warm the day of graduation (95 degrees), and i felt like i was melting. i can't imagine how jesse felt in his robes and layers of shirts... yowza.



after the ceremony, i threw a fabulously exciting barbecue over at my sister's house (apparently our apartment had a maximum occupancy of five, so the twenty-something people who attended felt more comfortable in larger quarters).





of course, no celebration of a major moment in jesse's life would be complete without a borderline hideous cake made by yours truly, so i was obliged to follow through with this teal monstrosity (it was supposed to be bronco blue...)

by the end of the day, i think the past six years of hard work finally caught up to jesse. that boy was tuckered out.

i'm proud of you jesse, and i hope you enjoy the next two months of break. come august it's back to school with you... congratulations!