Why are you still here?!

You should be here!

Moving On (Moving Forward)

Few things make my stomach turn like pulling up an oft-read blog and finding a moving announcement.
They’re MOVING? To a new WEB ADDRESS? WHY IS MY LIFE SO HARD.
I avoid paying attention to these things like my life depends on it.
Only… now I’m the one playing the card. As I recently mentioned, my writing babble is moving to a new internet home called As They Say in Paris, and I’m pretty excited about it.
For those of you frustrated with the sparse writing of the last 2 months, this is the truth: I’ve been writing entries and saving them for the new blog. What do you say to that? They are ready and waiting to be posted and read = Incentive!!!

I would like all of you to keep following me, so here is how to do so. It is, contrary to popular belief, not a painful process! I understand if you have to leave and come back another day to go through with all of it. Don’t worry, I’ll speak slowly. This is very easy. Deep breath. You can do it.
This is the new address:

http://www.astheysayinparis.blogspot.com/

If you read my blog in Mozilla Firefox, right click the above address to open in a new tab. Click the blank star next to the address and voila! It’s in Favorites! All done!
If you read my blog in Internet Explorer, right click the above address to open in a new tab. Hit File>Add to Favorites: voila! All done!
If you read my blog in Google Reader, highlight the above address, hit ctrl-c, go to the menu bar to your left where it says Add New, paste it in there, and voila! The easiest of them all!

It’s been a great 5½ years round here at ol’ Sprinting to Floor 3. Can’t wait to see what good stuff is waiting to happen at the new place.
See you there!

ETA: Why am I not surprised that I crashed and burned my own Grand Opening. I completely forgot to change the restrictions so that the page can actually be viewed. GO PERI! C'est réparé. Also, comments on this blog are now closed.

ain't it thrilling

What an absolutely beautiful white Christmas. The snow has covered trees and streets and the ground with a thick, perfect layer of white. Everything shines white; the dark contrasts fascinatingly with the light; and it lifts my heart right up through the roof. I can't stop smiling at the snow.

The day has been spent with my mother, sister, brother, and dog. There's a fire going, the lights on the big green pine are glowing, the air smelled like cinnamon rolls for a while before changing to chili, the poinsettas couldn't be redder, and Charlie Brown music is playing in the background.

I've been curled up in the comfiest living room chair devouring The Hunger Games. We played Disney Scene-It and I won by a landslide. We just played Pirateopoly and I lost by a landslide. Maizy has joyously ripped all the cotton out of her stuffed reindeer. It's a relief to know all the holiday food will soon be gone.The living room is a comfortable wreck.

My heart is in such a good place. This year I've been able to swell up with Christmas--all the meanings, trifles, and joys. The delights of balsam-scented candles and too much peppermint and the same happy songs everyone knows and the blessings which are ours in Christ. Pure, overwhelming thankfulness for this God who loves me so much, who has spent December keeping me safe and far away from a downcast spirit. Christmastime is the celebration of the blood flowing through his veins, his feet on the earth, his human LIFE and everything that meant and everything it means.

All of it makes me really happy.

(I join Jorge in wishing everyone a very merry Christmas.)

God smiles upon those who have to work on Christmas Eve

Specifically, Johna and I.

It began like this:

• I opened my Google Reader.
• I read Cheryl’s post mentioning Richard Armitage’s Christmas message to fans.
• I went to the website and read the message. I chuckled at his Hobbit joke.

IT COULD HAVE ENDED THERE, DEAR READERS, BUT GOD WAS SMILING.

For no particular reason I scrolled down and read the news section, looking for anything about Spooks since the roomie and I have been bingeing on it all week.

And then this happened:

I saw these words, and they were all in a paragraph together:

audiobooks
Richard Armitage
single most popular reader
Georgette Heyer

AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Are you saying that THORNTON is reading HEYER? I mean, I would listen to this man read recipes or mathematical equations, for heaven’s sake, but you’re. saying. that he’s reading one of my favorite authors—and—(having seen the book list) some of my favorite books of hers? OUT LOUD? AND I CAN LISTEN TO IT? IT’S NOT A TRICK? IT’S NOT A TRAP?

Yes.

Nicolas Soames: “Richard Armitage has been, without a doubt, the single most popular reader on Naxos AudioBooks this year. Listeners on both sides of the Atlantic, Australia and elsewhere too, have been homing in on his recordings of Georgette Heyer. We hope that more will come next year… but it is dependent upon his availability as he is about to disappear to New Zealand for months on end to film The Hobbit. Nevertheless, we at the Naxos AudioBooks office would like to thank the kind anonymous person who, every time we release a new Armitage/Heyer audiobook, sends us a rather fine box of Belgian chocolates as a gesture of gratitude. We appreciate it!” (here)

Richard Armitage

The Convenient Marriage

Sylvester

Venetia

Also, the bottom of each page has a link to an interview where Richard talks about why he enjoys recording audiobooks.

I think this is an appropriate subject to close with as I wind down this blog.
(To clarify—this isn’t my last post here. It couldn’t be, could it? Since I haven’t given you the link to the new one yet. I’m just saying it’s thematically appropriate that one of my last posts has to do with Richard Armitage, Georgette Heyer, a combination of my favorite things, my random discovery of it, and an arms-flailing reaction write-up.)

picking a blog name is hard

unless you have a stated purpose for your site, which I don’t. I can’t just call the new blog “Blather” (though it would probably win for accuracy) and the lack of title has been the biggest roadblock in turning the blog page.
What I like about the name Sprinting to Floor 3 is that it describes energetic movement to a stated goal. This is how I want to live my life in all areas: physically, spiritually, creatively, etc. I’ve been mentally grumbling about losing the title with the change. Why can’t I come up with something I like as much as this? Something unique, cheerful, and meaningful to me.
What came of this were a few dark days where the title was going to be Sprinting to Floor 2. Get it? 2! Like a sequel! And it’s practically the same title!
Thankfully that was ditched quickly, and since I don’t want to rip off of a song or book or bible verse or movie quote, the last few days have been spent creating and discarding ideas. Here are the short-lived list-toppers:

An Iron Fist & a Yellow Peacoat
This was inspired by my brother’s quote of the same phrase. It was discarded for lack of meaning, Nazi imagery, and making me feel cold.

Lift
This was my favorite one. Unfortunately some bum email thing has already laid claim to the web address. It’s fine; I probably would have abandoned it anyway.

Bird Scattering
I have a bird thing going on lately and this seemed to put the “purposeful movement” title into play. Discarded because it sounds like I’m kicking birds, and because it makes me think of bird poop.

Sperry or Sperri or Speri
It’s only cute if it’s spelled the first way. The 2nd is so close but too far, and the last one just looks like a weird typo. And yet the last one is the only one that would (in my case) make sense. This is the ONE TIME IN MY LIFE I’ve wished my name was spelled the other way. I’m telling you, blogs show you sides of yourself you never expected to see.

Save the Receptionist
It’s catchy and short and not complicated. It’s also an Office quote and it makes me the passive party. And, I’m not a receptionist.

i yam what i yam
grow a pair, alex
why am i still awake
globetripping
i’m hungry
the underbrella
but i don’t want to be a pirate

How do people do this? Name blogs? Restaurants? Books? Movies? Businesses? Does the name fairy come down and wave her wand over your mind as you dream? WHAT IS THE TRICK?

The story has a happy ending. I have a new blog and it has a satisfactory name… to be unveiled on a forthcoming date.

scene:

My brother is on a comedic rant.

Mom: No, tonight is the night for crushing your hopes and dreams.
me: GET IT RIGHT, WESLEY.

My sister is driving home from GA in the middle of the sleet/ice storm. My mom is on the phone with her. Wesley is standing at the kitchen table making a giant paper snowman.

Mom: You can do it! Yes you can! You can do it! Yes you can!
Wesley: Stop it with the oral motivation.

The project is finished.

Welsey: [singing] Who's that snowman on the wall? [falsetto] Who's that snowman on the wall? Ch ch ch BEST WISHES UPON YOUR MARRIAGE. Peri, look. Peri! Look!
me: Yes, I see it, the snowman is taller than you.
Wesley: NO. It's holding my hand. Bet you think you're too cool to take a picture of me.

The whole night has been like this.

the return of everyone's favorite elf

Orlando Bloom likely to return as Legolas in 'The Hobbit'

Like most of the world, the first time I was made aware of the existence of Orlando Bloom was when he was adorned with a long blond wig, pointy wax ears, and blue contacts. I loved the life he gave to the character, which made it easy to love the actor--and I read countless interviews and articles that described him as such a positive, energetic, friendly person. This launched an adoration that continued for years. It petered off around the time that he played that wimp Paris in Troy, although I did have large posters of him hanging in my dorm room every year of college... but the affection will always be there and the fact that he's likely to reprise the role in an entirely different story makes me want to hug things.

This also satisfies my great love for interweaving storylines/character cameos, a thing that I love to put into my own writing because despite constantly complicating and annihilating my timelines and making me want to kill the muse of plot points, it makes everything more interesting and is also just FUN. Madeleine L'Engle did this (to a less complicated degree) in most of her books, criss-crossing her characters and their families; Connie Willis's time travellers have appeared in multiple related novels; C.S. Lewis, while he was obviously writing a series, managed to make each of his Narnia book so distinct from each other that when the Pevensies showed up in a book that wasn't theirs or we got brief appearances from other out-of-story characters, it was like a Christmas present wrapped up in birthdays. The point is, this is one of my favorite storytelling devices and Peter Jackson is winning it.

I also love that (if the Legolas reappearance does happen) they are using the nature of the characters to further the story.: as the article says, it's "very conceivable that the immortal elves can appear as themselves in this decades-earlier prequel." But that's a whole other point and my break is over, so digest the good news and pray that it's actually true, and now I'm off to buy more Velveeta and Rotel for the holiday party. LATER!

quandry

Oh, everyone.

I don't know what to do.

Make a new blog?

Keep this one?

The end of the year is fast approaching and it was my goal to start a new one come January.

Now I'm reading over old posts and I CAAAAAAAN'T.

But I want a fresh start. You know... out with the college, in with the mid-twenties.

Excuse me while I wrestle a descision out of myself.

Coldplay's "Christmas Lights"

Coldplay has a new Christmas song out. I love when they do this. Chris's cover of "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" ranks in my top 50 songs of everything. However, they made this one all by themselves... and it's beautiful. One of the things I love about this band is that it's always showing new sides of itself: they aren't afraid to change their sound, to experiment--but the soul is the same.

The video is embedded below; first, I have a few recommendations:

1. Listen to the song before you watch the video. I love creating my own mental imagery for things like this. My vision of it plays out very much like it would in a film: walking down the street at night, Christmas lights everywhere.

2. Buy it from AMAZON. I cannot love Amazon enough and they consistently feed my love by doing things like selling their mp3s for $0.99 instead of following the obnoxious path of iTunes and their enraging $1.29-PER-SONG prices.

3. Watch this in HD full-screen when you do.

Reasons I Love This shortlist:

• I love the song.
• The one long shot is so artfully filmed (the band must have been booking to get to the right marks at the right times) that it initially had me wondering if it was pieced together.
• I love the balloons because they're reminiscent of Tangled. Yeah, I went there. Incorporate this movie into every post I write lately: ACCOMPLISHED.
• Fireworks are one one of my favorite things and there are A LOT of them in this video.
• It's like visual food.

I wish that the makers of these videos would just let Chris Martin go. He is like a writhing mass of energy who can hardly contain the force inside him. I witnessed this first-hand at the concert last year and you can see it right here on the screen. Look at him. He cannot stand still. I wish they would loose the bit and let him sprint around down Christmas-lit streets with arms flailing and legs leaping and voice shouting. It gives me great comfort to know that eventually this wish will become a reality. This is how I know: 1) he will create a song that makes the energy explode right out of him (see first paragraph, above); 2) past videos; 3) basic necessity: sooner or later they're going to realize that sooner or later he's going to break the tether and start jumping around unrestrainedly.

OH MY GOSH, PERI

YOU DO NOT NEED A TANGLED STICKER BOOK.

STOP IT.

thanksbirthmas

Right now Cathy and I are decorating the office for Christmas. We just lugged eight boxes out of the tower storage and have decked the front hall with a beribboned and beornamented Chrismas tree, wreaths on the conference room windows, the ugliest cat nativity scene that's ever existed, and a bunch of stars and small ornaments that make a very pretty jumble of dangling things. The radio is playing Christmas music (this country station is the best--it's like someone over there finally said, "102.5 has played the Christmas Shoes song one too many times; we're going to do it right.") and we're singing along with Frank Sinatra while we detangle one fishline from another ('detangle' has led to multiple conversations about Tangled--and I'm not even the one bringing it up). It is also my birthday, so there are big colored balloons stuck to my desk and a bunch of photos of turkeys taped everywhere with captions like"Strut your stuff today" and Barth's face photoshopped onto a hunter holding a just-bagged fowl wishing me happy birthday. While we were unpacking the decorations Cathy found all of her mini ornaments with all of the Edward faces from last year still stuck on them, so the prank has come full circle as she's happily sticking every single one in a line across the side of my desk. This is all kind of awful and hilarious.

vingt-quatre ans

I really lucked out to get such an aesthetically pleasing birth date.

PERFECT.

new favorite movie

I'll give yall a review once the glow has worn off and I can discuss it coherently.

i eat my turkey with mayo, not gravy

My family is playing Scrabble.

WESLEY: "Mix." Ten points.
MARVIN: Your I is upside-down.

I love Thanksgiving Game Night.
Hope it was a delightful day for ALL of you!

I realize that we all have days when we're unaware that the butt of our pants has a huge rip in it, but

did it have to be the day when I was out and about running four errands INCLUDING TIFFANY & CO.?

I'm going to see Tangled tomorrow night.

If it's anything like the Australia Fiasco of 2008, let all and sundry be assured that I will not only know the taste of Disney blood, I will also refuse to see any more Thanksgiving releases for the rest of my life. But hope springs eternal and a lot of it is based on Flynn's face in this frame:

Yes. I turn 24 on Friday. WHAT ABOUT IT. Let the birthday countdown begin.

this is fairly typical

ME: [entering kitchen]

JOHNA: Peri, I was just going to come over there to find you! I just wanted to remind you that I won’t be here tomorrow, so you’re welcome to use my red bowl for your salad tomorrow! Or Monday. Okay, I have to go, they’re waiting for me. It’s been a breath of fresh air talking to you. [exits kitchen]

dear drivers who sit on my tail when i'm already going 10mph over the speed limit and really piss me off,

Hey
Slow it down
Whaddaya want from me?
Whaddaya want from me?

that time we celebrated megan changing her incredibly long and difficult to spell or pronounce last name to something much simpler, and she was beautiful while doing it

My November Guest

Robert Frost

My Sorrow, when she’s here with me,

Thinks these dark days of autumn rain

Are beautiful as days can be;

She loves the bare, the withered tree;

She walks the sodden pasture lane.

Her pleasure will not let me stay.

She talks and I am fain to list:

She’s glad the birds are gone away,

She’s glad her simple worsted grey

Is silver now with clinging mist.

The desolate, deserted trees,

The faded earth, the heavy sky,

The beauties she so truly sees,

She thinks I have no eye for these,

And vexes me for reason why.

Not yesterday I learned to know

The love of bare November days

Before the coming of the snow,

But it were vain to tell her so,

And they are better for her praise.

I always forget about the sweetness of this time of year until the first dreary November day arrives.

Listening to Karen Carpenter sing Christmas songs gets me all nostalgic.
Josh Groban gets me all teary.

NOT READY FOR THIS. Stupid radio. I'm only listening to the 24/7 xmas station because they won't stop playing Teenage Dream on our regular station.

today's rants

• Why doesn’t anyone in St. Louis know how to use their turn signal
• Why can’t anyone seem to listen to their voicemail before calling me and stating their name and expecting me to read the minds of everyone in this office to know who called them and why
• Why does Illinois exist
• Die, Microsoft Office 2010
• If they play Teenage Dream on the radio one more time I’m boycotting everything

The End of the World

There is some inappropriate language but-- I'm laughing so hard I'm actually crying.



BUT I'M LE TIRED.

You smell like Axe

My brother and I, having not waged war against each other within recent weeks, found it necessary to remedy the situation tonight.

Wesley is now thirteen and trying with everything he’s got to grow the quarter-inch that will make him as tall as me. We have a section of the wall in the kitchen dedicated to weekly measurements. I never had one of these as a child and now that I’m finished growing, Wesley measures me every Wednesday night before dinner. My marks vary by the space of a centimeter. His are a steady climb. His voice is cracking. He has acne. He’s in 7th grade. He just got a nice haircut and is losing baby fat to muscle.

But I am still his big sister. Meaning… 10 out of 10 times I am the victor of our battles.

Background:

• Wrestling
• Water
• Playmobil I and II

It all began with Tangled. We were discussing when to go see it and kept getting off the subject.

ME: Okay, but back to the important topic at hand…
MOM : You.
ME: Good! Good, Mom!

My mom’s phone rang, which took her away from the conversation again. Wesley, who wants to see Tangled, told me, “I’m going to take away your dream of Tangled. You took away my dream of Prince of Persia. A few months ago, I wanted to see it but you said it didn’t look like a good movie. I was excited to share LeCray with you but you took away my dreams of that too—”
I began playing a tiny invisible violin and went over to melodramatically hug him and try to make him fall out of his chair. He was spreading vanilla icing on a pumpkin cookie. Keep your eye on the cookie: it will feature later.

As a matter of fact, it will feature right now.
I returned to my seat and said, “You can still like music and movies even if I’m not excited about them.”
He said, “You know what, Peri?” and reached across and smushed the cookie, icing-up, against my face.

Then he took to his heels, as well he may, since I bolted out of my chair and went after him, only he made it into the bathroom and locked the door before I could return the sugary favor.

Unless you’ve been to my mom's house it will be hard to follow what I’m about to describe, so I’ve made a handy diagram:

I positioned myself behind the wall that divides the bathroom/bedroom hallway from the living room. The cookie was in my hand like a soft baked-goods grenade. I waited for him to lose patience, which didn’t take long. The bathroom door opened. I watched his shadow move slowly along the wall. “Peri?” he said. I braced myself. Timing was everything. If he spooked before I was able to jump at him, I’d lose my chance.

Suddenly, something round, blue, soft, and full of water was flying at me. He landed three hits of the loofah right on my face before I could even react. This time, though, his flight took him into his bedroom, which doesn’t have a lock. AH HA, I thought, and smashed the cookie (icing up) into 1st) his hair and 2nd) his face. REVENGE: It is sweet, and pumpkin-flavored.

Out of nowhere came the sound of an aerosol can being sprayed. He had managed to get his hands on his can of Axe deodorant and trained it right on me. He cackled, I yelled, Maizy jumped around, I withdrew, Wesley realized that his cookie had not served him well.

I choked my way into the bathroom and cleaned myself off. My hair and face were wet. There was icing all over my cheek and forehead. “Truce!” I shouted at my brother, who I could hear commanding the dog to clean up the food in his bed.

I went back to the kitchen table where my mom was patiently waiting for the battle to come to its close.
I said: “He’s getting better at this.”
Mom said, “Yes, he’s getting faster and stronger.” I thought of the time I poured water all over him and said, “No… he just knows how far I’m willing to go.” She replied, “You were both asking for it. I can’t say I feel much sympathy for either of you,” and asked if I wanted any leftovers to take home with me.

My brother emerged from his room. He said, “There are COOKIE CRUMBS in my bed!” She shrugged her shoulders at him. “Mm.” Times like these, I truly love my mom.

We had to debate the skirmish standings, since the results weren’t as clear-cut as they generally are.

ME: We called a truce. Nobody lost, but nobody won.
WESLEY: Yeah, but you stink and I don’t.
ME: And you have cookie pieces in your bed, and I don’t. [catching sight of his hair and starting to laugh] Also, you might want to find a mirror that shows you what’s happened to the back of your head.
WESLEY: WHAT. [feels his hair] Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh. Gosh darn it, Peri.
ME: I think I came out on top of this after all.

He and Maizy went off to evaluate the extent of the damage. He came back with a comb full of icing and shoved it defiantly in front of my face. I began to comb the rest of it out. He knelt on the floor and I sat in my chair and neither of us could stop laughing.
Mom: [on the phone with a friend] “Oh, sheesh, they got icing all over each other’s faces.”

Wesley does not back down easily. Ten minutes later, he was still raging.
I said, “You know how I know I won? Because you’re madder about this than I am.”
Wesley said, “I’M HAPPY. I’m very happy because I was able for the first time to use my Axe as a weapon against a potential enemy, and I have 14 oz. of it waiting for next attack.”
My mother said, “CHILD, GET READY TO LEAVE OR I AM CALLING MRS. BANKS AND TELLING HER YOU DON’T WANT TO HANG OUT WITH IAN ANYMORE.”

I loaded the dishwasher. My mom put on her shoes; my dog took advantage of her sitting position and cuddled herself into the indefinable space between my mom’s bent torso and her legs. Wesley re-entered the kitchen and said, “I wrote a song about us and our fight. Wanna hear it?” He then performed a song that not only had an epic melody but aptly described, in slightly Beowulfian terms, the events of the evening, moving from the tyrannical sister to the heroic arrival of the Axe can out of the darkness. It ended with him getting the best of me and my pride.

I can’t remember the last time I laughed so hard.
I love that kid.

why, yes, as a matter of fact...

I did have to.

I’m more excited about the release of Tangled (Nov 24) than I am about both Thanksgiving (Nov 25) and my birthday (Nov 26). Interesting.


I have plans to love the freakin' heck out of this movie. Disney, do not disappoint me.

Illinois is boring as ever, but I am safely returned home from Jo-ja.

I wanted to have some photos from the wedding to post here but they aren't appearing on facebook as quickly as I counted on them to. Suffice to say,

megan was beautiful
the ceremony and reception were beautiful
everyone was happy

More details and stories when photos show themselves.

!!!

Good morning everyone. The event of the day is that this afternoon I'm finally departing for Chattanooga to begin the wedding festivities of a certain Megarama (Megolith, if you will) and let me tell you, I'm excited. Please pray for traveling mercies as I didn't get as much sleep as planned last night and will be driving my pretty little cr-v all the way to GA. It will be carrying not only myself but a certain D&A Miller as well (yes. They're baaaaack!) and will be all by myself on the return trip this Sunday.

I can't believe this wedding is finally happening. Last week I finally bought a new camera and can't wait to sink my eyeteeth (there was a pun in there somewhere) into the fall foliage, not to mention all this crazy fun waiting to happen.

I'm dismayed because I realized I completely forgot to carve my JackShephard-o'-lantern.

nightmares, you may commence

The head of a mosquito. Happy Halloween to you too, Telegraph.

things you realize at 4:30 on a Monday afternoon

After working out the various destinations of my next 4 paychecks, I can no longer deny the fact that I am saving absolutely no money.

But time makes you bolder. Children get older. I'm getting older too. WHATEVER, BANK.