If I keep thinking of words, I will keep writing them down
Archive for birthdays
July 12, 2010 at 9:58 pm · Filed under alaska, summer 2010 and tagged: birthdays
One of my American Lit professors said “People don’t hate poetry, they only say that because they don’t get it and they aren’t good at it.”
She was looking RIGHT AT ME. Maybe because I had just said that I don’t like poetry.
I proved her wrong by getting an A in her class and an A on the poetry analysis assignments and an A on every test. I even got an A for ROBERT FROST, who is WAY TOO CLEVER for anyone but American Lit profs to understand.
I proved her wrong again today, by writing a poem in honor of Kelsey’s birthday. Sometimes we call her Stella, because it is her middle name.
Hierochloe alpina
Arctagrostis latifolia
Polygonum bistorta
Potentilla hyparctica
Yellow Marsh Saxifrage
Betula nana
(Is a little HOBO)
Ranunculus nivalis
Trisetum spicatum
Hylocomnium splendens
Dupontia fisheri
Andromeda polifolia
Yes, yes indeed–
Stelllaria laeta
Thamnnolia subuliformis
Eriophorum vaginatum
Luzula arctica
Ledum palustre
ALL AROUND THE TOWN
February 23, 2009 at 11:39 pm · Filed under school and tagged: bandsaw, birthdays, hate
I’ve been sick since my last post and am too exhausted and too busy to write down all the things I hate today.
I told most of them to my mom, however, when I called today to tell her Happy-Birthday-ps-I-cut-off-my-hand-with-a-bandsaw*, so call her and ask about them. They are so hateful and boring, you ca’n't think.
*This is a private joke. It is very funny.
December 1, 2008 at 1:26 pm · Filed under school and tagged: birthdays
Sometimes I wish that my only obligations were to be certain places at certain times, and then when the time is up and I am done doing whatever, to go home.
Other times I think that if only I didn’t have to go anywhere at specific times and I was left to get work done in the way I see fit, as long as it meets the deadline, I would be much more satisfied.
The trouble is that I have both to do, all the time. I would like to cut back to only one; I don’t care which.
Today I have several responsibilities that fit each of those categories. Perhaps it would be better for me to have checked some items off the list yesterday, but it was my birthday and I didn’t want to. I wanted to eat a burger and play Mario Kart.
August 2, 2008 at 2:38 am · Filed under atquasuk, Barrow and tagged: birthdays, food, the kids, weather
Evidently, being in the lab all day instead of the field makes it harder to find time and material to post. The weather that boded-not-well earlier this week caused us to miss three field days in a row, and therefore we were to sit in the lab and enter data.
Somehow, though, three days worth of data did not get entered (though one-and-a-half days did), and I cannot for the life of me remember what it was that I was occupying myself with that was not a). data entry or b.) blogging.
I actually enjoyed the weather, miserable though it was. This morning Rob and I agreed that the light snow and the temperature were quite Thanksgivingish, or week-after-Thanksgivingish. As this applies to mid- and lower-Michigan, I’m not sure how it translates for other states or countries. The snow was much more of a novelty, for example, for our comrades from Texas, Florida, and California. The snow also iced up all the trucks and took out the power in the hut last night.
Lab time equals crazy time, and though there is little that is memorable enough to report, Jobby was frequently pulling out his quote book to document small tastes of the cabin fever that set in fairly quickly. Sandra and Gilda can vouch for some of this, too… they caught Rob and I patrolling a back hallway, “disguised” as velociraptors. They were amused but unsurprised at this turn of events.
Lab time also means lunch in the cafeteria. This gets mixed reviews. The food is passable, even, at times, quite good, but not if consumed at too high a frequency. Plus, we are fairly surprised that Jeremy, the Hippie Vegetarian, has not yet shriveled up and died because of the lack of suitable vegetarian-friendly choices. His meals are usually: shady salad, overcooked vegetables, boring rice, boringer potatoes. And yesterday, Santonu from UTEP found a mysterious wire in his macaroni and cheese, so the health benefits continue to decrease. The cafeteria staff were actually quite proud of him for this find, and declared that if he hadn’t said anything they would never have even NOTICED that their mesh spoon was disintegrating, by golly!
We are in Atqasuk now, which presently is only minimally warmer than Barrow. Only a very few of The Kids came in today, and they helped us celebrate our Jeanie’s birthday- her real birthday- by eating a ton of candy. She said it was her best birthday in the arctic circle ever!
Back to Barrow on Monday, though I hope to post again before then. I have been forced to wrestle with the internet this entire evening (but I was getting work done at the same time!).
July 28, 2008 at 2:10 am · Filed under atquasuk, Barrow and tagged: birthdays, caribou
It’s just one birthday after another around here, with all the accompanying shenanigans. Last night the frosting on the cake was blue, and I still have blue on my hands. Yeah. I eat my cake with my hands. It was a birthday party, not High Tea with the Queen!
This was a REAL birthday party- for Denver the owl guy, in fact. He is going home to Montana on Monday, and we wish him well.
I also had the pleasure of accompanying a few UTEP kids to town to watch the boxing match with a heap of Mexicans. Adrian offered a pity invitation, and I called his bluff and accepted. He was surprised for me to show interest, as were Sandra and Sergio, who think I am antisocial. Of course, I was the only non-Spanish speaker, so “social” proved to be difficult. I did a lot of smiling and nodding. It was nice. I like blood. And fights. And halibut soup- I pretended that it wasn’t hotter than I’m used to and they pretended to believe me. It was very good though. A nice change from Asian food every day.
Today we had the pleasure of yet another birthday party in town. This party was for Craig, the UTEP PI. The persons who protested on this blog about the “birthday” I had last week (when my birthday is of course in November) would be correct to suspect that Craig did not know that his “birthday” was today. They told him stories about the various other “birthdays” that have been celebrated this summer… the most successful being that of a German gentlemen who reportedly turned red as a lobster…!
Our 24 hour trip to Atqasuk proved a great success, though the timeliness of the airplane (as usual) was less than stellar. Fortunately Jeremy and I had company while we sat at the “airport” and waited. A baby caribou and its mother had a grand time checking out the facility.
Fortunately the blue teeth and lips that accompanied the blue hands had disappeared by the time Sergio and I finished inventing new words with the refrigerator magnets. I do have my dignity.
