Thursday, July 23, 2009

And If I Could Surely Would Today: The 5 Year

And if I could
Surely would today
And if I knew
All the words to say
And I could
Wisp you away
To my world...


The opening verse to one of my favorite Songs. It is called "10 ft tall" and is by an Australian Artist named Pete Murray. The song is beautiful and reminds me of my boyfriend. Speaking of boyfriend.... Happy Anniversary Darling! I love you very much.

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

A Good Laugh Is Sunshine in the House: A Comedy Promo

I have never attended the Fringe Festival but that is only because I did not know it existed. I feel kind of cheated that this has been happening in my area and I have missed out.
I love laughing and I do it often. I surround myself with friends that know how to find amusement in the everyday. At least once a week I make myself laugh so hard I cry. Usually it is something stupid that when I tell others about, they politely smile and back away. What I enjoy even more than laughing at my own inside jokes is watching live comedy. It amazes me that some people are so funny that they are paid just to make people laugh. I admire their ability.
I am lucky to live in an area that has really great comedy venues. My personal favorite is The Brave New Workshop It is a Saturday Night Live type skit comedy show. The actors are hysterical, the drinks are cheap, and the themes are pretty clever. If you also enjoy laughter and comedy shows, you should check it out.
Ok so back to my original point. My colleague/friend Sam has inroduced me to the Fringe Festival. The webiste will do a better job of explaining it than I can. There are over 150 shows being offered over a ten day period. They are held at venues all over the Minneapolis/ St. Paul area. Sam's show is called Sarah, Your Ovaries Are Drying Up: The Musical. It was rated by the Minneapolis St. Paul Magazine as one of the top shows to see this year! I have seen a few sneak previews and It looks really funny!! There are five show times running between August 1st and August 9th. Check it out on the website!

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Simple Inspiration: Voices of Experience























Today I will leave just a few quotes. I find reading these inspires me and makes me feel connected to the literary world. It is comforting to know that everyone struggles. The difference is that even in their struggle the words find themselves so beautifully on the page.

"One must be drenched in words, literally soaked in them, to have the right ones form themselves into the proper pattern at the right moment."
-Hart Crane

"Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart"
-William Wordsworth

"Don't tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass."
-Anton Chekhov

"Please write again soon. Though my own life is filled with activity, letters encourage momentary escape into others lives and I come back to my own with greater contentment."
-Elizabeth Forsythe Hailey

"The man who writes about himself and his own time is the only man who writes about all people and all time."
-George Bernard Shaw

"All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence that you know."
-Ernest Hemingway

"You cant' wait for inspiration, you have to go after it with a club."
-Jack London

"Fiction is like a spider's web, attached ever so slightly perhaps, but still attached to life at all four corners."
-Virginia Woolf

Monday, July 6, 2009

Nothing Happened as Planned: A Grateful Retelling


Five years ago yesterday my life started to change in ways I could have never imagined. On July 5th, 2004 I left my house in Boston for a study abroad in Wollongong, Australia. I was 21 years old and flying by myself to the other side of the world. Although I have always been fairly independent, this was a complete departure from anything I had ever done. I was nervous for the flight and for everything that was to follow.
My itinerary included a flight from Boston to Memphis to Los Angeles. I was scheduled to meet a group of students at LAX and continue onto Melbourne, Australia. Nothing really went according to plan and though at the time I thought of it all as bad luck, now I believe that fate stepped in and guided me into the rest of my life.
1.) Boston – Memphis: Fire at a rental car place in Boston’s Logan Airport shut down the terminal which delayed my flight.
2.) Memphis – Dallas: Because the flight was delayed, I missed my flight out of Memphis. I was rerouted to Dallas, Texas.
3.) Dallas – Los Angeles: Thirty minutes to catch my next plane. With three bags over my shoulder, passport and tickets in hand, and a cell phone on my ear; I ran through the terminal toward my gate. I talked to my parents for maybe a minute and a half. When I hung up, my passport was gone. A cold chill ran through my body. I turned around to run back onto the plane and was stopped by security. I explained my situation through streaming tears. Flight attendants were sent to look for my passport as I scoured the area just outside of the gate. The passport was gone. Vanished. My flight was the last one of the day so I boarded, sans passport. Flying to California, I was frustrated, embarrassed, and only a few hours into my 5 month long journey, I wanted to go home.
I made it to Los Angeles with just enough time to catch my flight to Australia but without a passport, I wasn’t going anywhere. At 1:00am, 18 hours after I started my trip, I checked into a hotel near the airport. I spent the entire next day at the federal building in Los Angeles and after 9 hours and $200, I had a new passport. I was on a plane to Australia exactly 24 hours after my scheduled flight.

Fast forward the 20 hour flight, the confusion and excitement of landing in a foreign country, and the several modes of transportation I finally met with my already travelling tour group (you know, those people I was supposed to meet in LA). I was dropped on the side of the road next to a parked bus. I was told that my group was off having lunch but I could climb aboard and wait. There were jackets and bags on all of the seats so I just chose a seat toward the back.
When kids my age started boarding, I was introduced by the driver as the girl who lost her passport. My story preceded me. The girl sitting behind me offered to show pictures of things that I had missed thus far, mainly a kangaroo stampede. I found out later, I had actually stolen her seat and that is how we started talking. I am proud to say that five years later, the girl whose seat I stole is my best friend.
That night, I sat next to a boy on the bus on the way to dinner whom I had not yet met. He was quieter then most but really cute. He was from Minnesota and was unlike anybody I had ever met. Five years later, we are together and living in Minneapolis. That night at dinner, there was a small group of people who were talking about ordering wine. I inserted myself in the conversation and said I would be happy to split a bottle. We did, and today those people are still some of my greatest friends.
Had things played out differently, I do not know who or where I would be. For all of the changes in my life, the moments that matter, and the things that didn’t go as planned; my journey to Australia will forever stand out as the time that something bigger than me, whatever you want to call it, took over and guided me somewhere new and wonderful.