Unplugged.

~ Sahara ~ 5 Comments

Getting away from these glowing screens is a delicate subject in the Quest household.  Cohiba makes his living by being brilliant on these things and, as his wife (in less than five months – yay!), I am equally yoked.  Furthermore, since our bread and butter is produced by these boxes, he is never without some kind of connection – and therefore I am not without a connection.  He has to be available for coworkers or needs to check in on his own. He doesn’t like being lost or without an answer to something he needs.

Having said that, we love to get outside (I think me more than him, actually) and I know there are full days I get so engaged in life that I’m not checking Facebook in favor of biking or climbing or knitting or reading. Although, come to think of it, I’m reading on a Nook, so maybe I’m not as far as I think. 🙂

 

Cool Songs for Cool Kids

~ Sahara ~ 3 Comments

“Here. I made you a mix tape.”

Wow. What would I put on a mix tape for a new friend – this is an important question. Making a mix tape has never been a joke; it’s a serious business.  It not only comments on you, but it also communicates some assumptions to the person to whom you’re giving the tape.

First, what length tape will you give them?  30 minutes a side?  45 minutes a side? I think there were even some tapes that were an hour on each side. Then, you need the right equipment.  You can’t record off the radio onto a mix tape. No. The whole point of a mix tape is that the person have the whole song, unadulterated by radio personality bla-di-blah. So you have to take it directly off the CD or another cassette (that doesn’t have radio crap on it.) If you don’t have a clean version, don’t add it.

Here’s what I’d put:

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A bit at a time

~ Sahara ~ Leave a comment

I got to clean the kitchen this past Saturday – it made my whole weekend.  So cathartic and meditative, I love having things clean.

I think part of clutter has to do with all the *stuff* that we have, stuff that, while nice, isn’t a necessity.   Cohiba and I daydream about the day in the future when we build a little house on an old trailer bed, and travel around in it.  I wonder why we don’t do it now.

Because having things clean makes me feel so good, but I have a lot of other things that I do (bikes and PhD applications come to mind) I do a bit at a time.  Vacuum one weekend.  Do the kitchen like I did last weekend. I didn’t used to do it like this, and I like it.  A lot of the junk or stuff is Cohiba’s; we’re still learning how to manage this kind of thing with each other. That’s also coming along a bit at a time, but it is coming.

Blink and its 2016

~ Sahara ~ 8 Comments

My 20 year high school reunion is this fall.  I don’t know if I can make it back to the US to go to it; my research is just getting started here in Bath, and we’ve spent so much money traveling.  We’re living the dream.

I’m pretty sure I’m pregnant.  That’s the big thing on my mind, the big thing that would keep me here. I haven’t found a doctor here, yet, but I need to do that right away.  This is kind of what Cohiba and I have been planning all along, so I’m not upset, just nervous/excited.  If my baby’s born here, it’ll be a British citizen.  It may call me mum instead of mom!

One way of unbending time

~ Sahara ~ 11 Comments

I’m going through a period of excitment right now: I’m getting married March 3, 2014, and I”m preparing for it now.  I can’t even count how many times people have told me about this engagement period, “That time is so much fun.” “Enjoy it; it’s a great time.”  “Remember this time.”  I’m glad they warned me, because I hadn’t imagined that this would be a particularly significant time to remember, but I’m taking their advice.

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What do prithee and probably have in common?

~ Sahara ~ 7 Comments

Language is a beautiful and living bridge back in time. As one who enjoys a Renaissance fair, I’ve studied Elizabethan speech in effort to get more into character.  I’m not very good at it, but I still love it. During the renaissance period, verbal communication was the main form of entertainment available to people.

“Prithee wait until I fetch it to you anon.” (Wait a sec.)

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Who still has their bee-bee?

~ Sahara ~ 11 Comments

“If you want total security, go to prison. There you’re fed, clothed, given medical care and so on. The only thing lacking… is freedom.”  These are the words of President Dwight D. Eisenhower.

This quote was offered to incite thought about security versus freedom, thanks to a more existential prompt source, (sorry I’m late with this, by the by.  I was sick) and I’ve been thinking about it this week.

A client came to mind: A white man in his 60’s, he’s just out of prison.  He said that when he got out, they put him in a cab with $5 and sent him downtown. And that was it.  He doesn’t know where to go or what to do, so he came to my center. He said that, in prison, his needs were met, he was in a structured environment and he had a pretty good life.  He seems to feel overwhelmed: he doesn’t know what to do or how to do it. He doesn’t have any kind of structure and boundaries imposed on him and he’s lost touch with the ability to limit himself.

I think this is telling. Freedom is scary.

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Remember the time… I only wanted to be with you?

~ Sahara ~ 2 Comments

I am now coming to an age when I have lots of memories, like a basket of chestnuts to turn over a bored fire. Some memories are painfully embarrassing, though I suppose I should enjoy it though; this is the marrow of my life, and those days are not coming back. Which is sometimes for the better, as there are certain things I don’t need to live twice.

Like the first concert I went to….

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