I live on one of those backroads that's really good for biking (cycling) because it has some great hills, but also long patches of even ground.

So anyway, cyclers will come out in groups and ride down the road, and they're always talking. Listening to this is so strange, because of course bikes don't make any noise. So all you hear are these voices, rapidly & smoothly approaching, and then quickly fading out again.

It's so unusual (I'm tempted to call it a phenomenon), but only if you really think about it.


joanna

I just got home from seeing The Dark Knight.

Seriously? Just go. Drop whatever you're doing and go watch that movie.

And that's all I have to say about that*.


joanna

*Actually I have a lot more to say about it, but I'll save it for a time when I'm more coherent.

Ok, this is pretty much my favorite thing ever.



I think I've listened to this song about 20 times today...and the video is so indie-fabulous. I love the home-grown quality and the rain and the fall colors and scarves and...ah! It's everything I want to be.

My little brother (he's 11) and I figured out the chords today and have been jamming all night!!! (Those 3 exclaimation marks were from him.) It's simple yet intricate & beautiful & glorious & sad...basically everything I love in a song. Have a listen.


joanna

I've been thinking about I Am Legend lately.
I really wanted to like that movie (I think Will Smith is great). And I did until the end, which I think simi-ruined it.

But anyway, that's not actually what I wanted to talk about. In the movie, Smith's character is possibly the only living person on the planet. He is completely alone for much of the film(except for his dog). And one of the things I kept wondering while watching was, would I have the courage to do that?

If everyone else in the world was dead would I go on living? Would there even be a point in that? I don't know. What do you think?


joanna

I've been trying to live without time lately.

This is something that can only really be done in the Summer when one's job hasn't started yet, & it just so happens that I'm currently in that position, so..lucky me, I guess.

What I mean by living without time is, of course, not looking at the clock. Trying to just do things when my body wants to as opposed to obsessively scheduling every thing into the ol' planner, or even say...eating lunch because it's 12 oclock. I go to bed when I'm tired, wake up when I feel rested, eat when I'm hungry, etc. I've been doing this for the past several weeks. I was worried at first that I'd just sleep all the time and eat everything all the time, and essentially become a disgusting human being. But it's actually quite the opposite... I feel really good.

I began thinking about this after I had a World Religions philosophy class my last semester in college. Our prof was telling us how some societies live with barely any clocks--they don't worry about meeting eachother at exactly 7:30...it's more about daylight than minute hands and I think that's so cool.

But so completely unlike our culture. The world works in mysterious ways.


joanna

It's been so humid around here that everything in our house is...damp. (Almost.) Papers drooping, soggy cereal, non-crunchy crackers. Crazy. It's so cool...how technologically advanced the world is, and yet we still can't escape/control the weather.


joanna

ps
Our new kitten, whom my little brother has dubbed Chowder, is scurrying around my feet chasing moths. I'm not a huge animal person, but she is a constant distraction. Who can resist a cute little ball of fur that periodically mews and curls up in your lap for a good snuggle? Not I.

Ok, just so you know my new theme is probably the cutest thing in the world. I usually don't go for something so silly, but I just couldn't resist... little chick hatching? Adorable.

That's all.


joanna

Sometimes it's hard being a girl.

I'm receiving endless amounts of grief trying to convince certain men in my church that I am fully capable of using a hammer. I've got skills. I've got the knowledge to back up the skills. I've done poverty relief work for 4 years under the instruction of PROFESSIONALS from literally all over the country, and even they said I've got skills.

Yes, I can operate a circular saw with the best of them, and I curl my hair. I can build you a wheel chair ramp, fix your railing, replace the floor, and I like pretty dresses. We've roofed houses where the pitch was so steep it was impossible to stand up without holding onto a rope for dear life. I'm a pretty girl and I like working with my hands and accomplishing very tangible things.

Why is this so hard to accept. I seriously thought the world was over all of these silly stereotypes by now. Let no man despise thy youth! Let no man despise thy gender!

Baffled.


joanna

Well. Here I am...1AM. Just me and a box of cheezits.

The past few days have felt unfulfilling so I've been staying up late...trying to redeem the time or something, I don't know. To no avail of course. Maybe it's just the jet lag.

I'm back from my trip and enjoying the lovely GREEN that is the countryside here. I haven't seen greenery in over a month...no trees, grass. No rain either. It was a different, stark kind of beauty which I tried to appreciate. But endless sand will never do it for me like the lush fields and forests of the east coast, USA... I really just love it here.

Going away reminds me of these things, y'know? It's nice to be back.


joanna

In less than 3 weeks I am going to spend 21 hours in an airplane. Twenty-one! Crazy. I've spent 12 hours before, but this will be a new record for sure. Luckily for me I enjoy flying. And I'll be alone! It'll be great.

I've been pretty alone for the past 3 months and it's been a horrid drag (often), but traveling alone is completely different. It's exciting! I lovelove airports.

Being alone is weird...it makes you face yourself, y'know? Which is the real you--the one when you're alone or the one when you're with other people? Or both? I wonder.


joanna

OK, let's talk about music.

It's recently dawned on me that pretty much every song I've ever written has been like...uber-dramatic, flirting with the melodramatic. Minor chords, soaring choruses, the like. (Case in point: every.single.one of my saints&children songs).

And it's annoying the heck out of me.

I mean, why can't I just write a simple, happy little song? I love those. Why do I have to make such a big deal? Geeze. Seriously. I mean, I do know why I write these things. Music has always been the way I get out those emotions that I tend to bury. It builds & builds until I can't take it anymore and I deal with it by writing a song. But I can't keep recording these things because I can't expect people to keep listening. It's too much...for me, let alone everyone else.

But it's just what comes out. I sit at the piano and it's like, behold the DRAMA.

Stop it! No more drama! Simple. Happy. Butterflies and little bunnies and a light breeze and blue skies. Just...calm down, joanna.

I'm working on it...

I had a Perfect Moment yesterday.

I think these are Good for the Soul to collect, so I--of course--must record it.

So Ezra and I were driving to Bel Air to watch This American Life LIVE (which was inexpressibly wonderful...because I'm an npr nerd). Perfect moment happened as such: driving over a bridge, a beautiful sunset reflecting on the lake beneath, listening to 'tomorrow takes too long' by love coma, windows down, sunroof up. Perfect.

The end.


joanna

So this morning I walked to the mailbox to get the mail. I happened to have my car keys in my hand, and as I approached the box I hit the 'unlock' button on my key remote.

And then I realized..


joanna

Just got back from the Sunshine State. Things didn’t go quite as originally intended (do they ever?), but overall a great trip. Grad school interviews were amazing, and I’m ridiculously excited about life now. And I didn’t get sunburned (much).

It was weird running on asphalt this morning after a week of Chariots of Fire-ing it.

There was a little calf frolicking around in one of the pastures Ez and I ran past, and it was so cute I almost decided to never eat beef again. But I didn’t.

I guess that’s all.

Love,
joanna


p.s. I can’t stop listening to Jens Lekman...I think I’m in love.

Well, I gave my students their first test today. They were scared, I was excited.

I think almost all of them did really well, which either means it was too easy or I actually taught them something... hopefully the latter.

I can't believe how much I enjoy teaching; I never thought I would. I've always rebelled against the idea of becoming a teacher because like half the people in my family were teachers. But I guess it runs in my blood too...because I'm kind of loving it.

Weird. What does it all mean.


joanna

Man, I love mornings. There's something so inspiring about early morning light (early morning for me, by the way, is like...7. Wake me up much earlier than that and I begin to protest).

I've been drinking too much coffee lately, so I need to go back to my first love: tea. I've decided that loose leaf is the way to go, so yesterday I went out and bought some Twinnings English Breakfast and some local british breakfast decaf, and also a nifty spoon tea infuser. So I'm all ready to go. I'm enjoying some now--it's lovely stuff.

I hope I'm productive today.


joanna

p.s. The new Foxglove album is everything I hoped it would be. I think I will write a review once I listen to it a couple more times.

The weather has been so weird lately.

Not to be one of those people who talk about weather on their ljs, but really... I'm up here in Maryland and it's WARM. Not wear-a-bikini kind of warm (although all of the stores seem to disagree with me...come on people, it's February! Can't you wait to bust out the beachwear until spring?) Crazy.

Anyway, what I really wanted to tell you is that yesterday the wind was warm, and it made me really happy because warm wind is definitely on the Joanna's Top 20 Favorite Things list. I remember the first time I noticed warm wind...it was so strong, and I was so little, that I could lean against it and it'd hold me up. Definitely my first sehnsucht moment.



joanna

I feel weird.

This is probably because I graduated, and I'm back in MD, and I have no peers here, and I'm used to being around peers 24/7.

Now when I say I have no peers, I really mean none. Nary a one, my friends. That's what happens when you graduate a semester early...even your friends from home are still away at school. Sigh.

Graduation: don't let it happen to you!

It's not all bad, really...I mean, I'm working. I'm working out. I'm reading a lot.

Oh yes, so Now I GIVE YOU A GREAT COMMISSION. Please suggest to me a book to read. What's your favorite? I'm kinda trying to read "classics" right now...I recently finished Catcher in the Rye and The Giver, for example. So not Charles Dickens, exactly, just books everyone should read at one point or another. Any suggestions on what to pick up next?


joanna

I grow weary of all of this election hooplah. Politics in general tend to annoy me, but I know the presidential "race" is a big deal and should be paid attention to. I don't remember the media ever covering the primaries so extensively before, though. I guess it's different this time because we have the whole Hillary/Obama thing going on, which is cool and exciting but irks me a bit at the same time, because the fact that it's such a monumental occasion, I think, shows how little we've grown as a country. But I guess first steps have to happen sometime...so I'm glad it's happening. It's about time.

Still, it never ceases to amaze/annoy me how news stations grab random people off the streets and ask them who they're going to vote for, or who they think will win. How is that good reporting? How is that relevant news? Why do we care who Joe Schmoe is voting for? A week or so ago on NPR (which I usually love) they were interviewing a black woman who was agonizing over whether she was going to vote for "the woman" candidate or "the black" candidate. She felt so torn! What would she tell her grandchildren?

I really couldn't believe what I was hearing. If that's all your considering (sex/skin pigmentation) then you probably shouldn't vote at all. There are actual issues that these candidates are fighting for, and the only reason why being black or a woman is an issue is because people won't stop freaking out about it.

I propose a national count to ten and 3 deep breaths.


joanna

I am graduating from college in 25 days. Twenty five!!!

Scary. Exciting. Really scary!



joanna