Further picspammery

I so seldom take pictures that now that I actually have, for once, you're getting barraged. Look guys! Evidence that I have a camera! Besides, Fall in New Hampshire = very pretty. Who doesn't want to see pictures of that?

The shoreline at my grandparents' was in full color:

Taking wedding pictures down at the town docks the next day (I actually snagged this one from facebook. The other wedding pics were from fb as well):



I love this picture. All lisa's cousins, friends, etc. are diligently working on scrapbooks and last-minute wedding details while she's over there snuggling with the fiancé. (Although she sort of deserved it at that point.):



And Happy Halloween! I went to a work-friend's party last night, and was desperately trying to figure out a costume at the last minute. At first I was just going to go as Liz Lemon, since I'd just have to wear office clothes and my glasses, but I made a big mistake: Liz Lemon doesn't have curly hair, I thought to myself. She has straight hair! I haven't straightened my hair in years! I'll straighten it, and try to curl it a bit at the ends!

Straight Holly hair, I discovered two hours later, looks perhaps even less like Liz Lemon hair than regular Holly hair does. >:/ Since I didn't have time to reset my curls and didn't want to be confused with Jennifer Aniston from Friends, I went about desperately trying to figure out who else has straight brown hair with blond hilights.

I settled on the character below, specifically from the scene below, since I don't own the iconic cigarette lighter, long black dress w/tons of pearls/diamonds, big hats, whatever/etc. of the other scenes:





Not the most creative or recognizable costume, but I was running out of time.

Here's a close-up on the hairstyle she wears in that scene, since I'm pretty proud of how my attempt at styling mine ended up going. I mean, Holly hair, even straight, is fluffier than normal-people hair (sigh), but still, it's a going down as a big SUCCESS in my book.

The best part is the monk's face at the end

Aaugh, my dad's getting old, guys. I just started to notice it in the last few weeks, but since the heart attack he's been looking older, mostly in the way he holds himself. He's more stooped. He's still tall and strong, but he walks more like an old man now, and he doesn't stand up as straight. He's acting older, too, although I think that change has been more gradual. He's never been the best listener, but he's developed that old person's habit of not absorbing almost anything you say because he's so focused on the conclusion he's already reached, and if you try to point out that you were saying something different than what he thought, he doesn't really absorb it. Also, his tendency to gripe and criticize has become more pervasive and very "back in my day" in tone, like he's crossed the line where he can no longer accept that things just change and has started taking it personally, or like it's all a dire commentary on the downfall of western civilization. He's not like that all the time, but it happens pretty often. It feels kinda like the beginning of the end. :/ Blurg.

Gracie has a knack for knowing when it's time to get back in people's good graces, and caught a mouse yesterday. Or rather, she cornered one long enough for me to get a bowl over it, which is good enough. I'm a bit of a wuss when it comes to killing cute, fuzzy animals, even if they spread disease, so I released it at the other end of the parking lot next to the dumpster. I'm not quite sure how to go about killing a mouse in a way that wouldn't involve mess and squishing anyway. My grandma flushed them live, but I worry it might stop up the toilet, and I'm not keen on the idea of drowning animals, even mice. So I let it go, far from my building, like the soft-hearted pansy I am.

On an unrelated note, I'm downright in love with this video at the moment. Can we all take a moment to acknowledge the difficulty this level of coordination would involve?:

Mawwiage is what bwings us heaow togevah...

My cousin just got hitched! The wedding was in New Hampshire, and it was absolutely gorgeous. Of all the times I've been to NH, I'd never been there in the fall, and it was amazing. My uncle actually took me on a motorcycle ride through the mountains Friday morning -- it was in the mid thirties (I wore 2 pairs of jeans and 3 pairs of socks), but it was totally worth it. Anyway, wedding....


Lisa was gorgeous.



More gorgeousness. If you look closely you'll notice she wore white All-Stars.



Her husband Kreg's a good looking guy, too.



It was beautiful, but really cold out (mid to upper 40sish?). The bridesmaids huddled together for warmth, despite some of us having only just met each other. It appears I am officially Not Paying Attention.



Here I am walking down the aisle. We had a last minute GIRLS! THE GUYS ARE ALREADY UP THERE YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO BE GOING GO GO GO panic, and I totally forgot to smile til I was almost at the front. Oops.



Her daddy about to give her away:



When he was asked who gives this woman in marriage, he answered "her mother, her brother, and I," which was touching and bittersweet. Also, they walked down the aisle to an old recording of her brother John playing Pachabel's Canon. (John passed away 5 years ago.)

Vows:



Aren't they disgustingly adorable?



Exhaustipated.

Things I like, part deux

-Fall. I love fall. Some of the trees around here right now look too bright to be real; it makes me wish I were living in the country again.

-Spiced cider. Nom.

-My avocado green walls. Also, the independence having my own place affords. My dad would never go for avocado green accent walls.

-Blankets straight out of the dryer. I realize this is a go-to "happy list" entry, but....

-Orange peach mango juice.

-Christians who aren't crazy.

-Gracie when she's not peeing on my couch. Unfortunately this has been happening a lot lately, but it does bring us back to "blankets straight out of the dryer," so until I get a nice couch, she's getting away with it.

-Shakespeare.

-Women playing kickass Shakespearean dudes. Like this!! Look, guys!!:

Variations on a theme

Hey, like my new, not-remotely-pretentious blog format, guys?

I sometimes laugh that I even have a blog. Almost every day's the same: I get up, go to work, do my boring job all day, trudge home, and spend the evening dwelling on all the things I'm too tired to actually do, but which might actually get out of my current situation if I had enough energy to do them. Sometimes I feel guilty about how little I like the situation I'm in since, after all, I have a job that adequately pays the rent, and a good boss.

I read this article today about the Millenial generation and felt perfectly pinned, except that the "lazy" Millenials she's describing in her office seem a lot less lazy and more motivated than I am. One thing that routinely bugs me, however, about critiques of the Millenial generation is how the writers of these articles so completely remove themselves from the situation. It's not as though the Millenial generation raised itself, or aliens dumped us here fully formed. Yes, each individual needs to take responsibility for who he or she becomes, but no one ever stops to ask if we could have been born into the era of yuppie greed, a booming growth of electronic entertainment, increased celebrity worship, "every child is special, can become president, can do what they want with their lives," and a decreased emphasis on having your kid pull his or her weight around the house, and be expected to turn out any differently.

My mom once described to me something called Maslow's Hierarchy, which describes the order in which people worry about their quality of life. Physiological needs come first (food, water, excretion, sex, etc), then safety (of self, family, resources), love/belonging, esteem (by self and others), then self-actualization. Once one level has been achieved, we worry about the next, but not until then (basically). Another criticism I've heard of the Millenial generation is that we move on from job to job too frequently -- always looking for a more fulfilling experience. Seen in context of Maslow's hierarchy, this only makes sense. A couple of generations ago, the primary need our culture emphasized was providing for the family. People dreamed of owning a house with the proverbial picket fence. After that was achieved and taken for granted, later generations worried more about financial security. Now we, who've been raised in perhaps the best economic climate in history, are all pursuing self-actualizing careers. Art teacher. Professor. Screen-writer. Novelist. Harsher critics might say we're actually pursuing more entertaining careers, and they may be right. How much can we really be blamed? Doesn't this seem like a natural progression, especially when many of us were raised with the attitude that settling for anything different in a job would be either materialistic or selling ourselves short?

What's scary is that the culmination of this trend is coinciding with the globalization of the job market and a population that's growing exponentially. So, yes, there's a good chance we'll have to settle for something less than exactly what we want to do with our careers. Maybe in 30 years we'll be worried about eating at all, but I hope not. Still, is it all that unreasonable to want to be happy? Even if our ideas about what would make us happy are a little inflated, or if we expect it to happen too readily? To not want to spend most of our waking lives being bored or miserable? Maybe this is our generation's burden to bear: being set up with unrealistic expectations, then having to face not only reality, but a grimmer reality than anyone saw coming. Yet, knowing all this, it's still hard to not want to shoot for a career that will make me happy.

On a lighter note ("Thank God," screams everyone), super-congratulations to the guy I mentioned earlier, Chris LaPorte, who just won ArtPrize! There's one self-actualized artist who won't have to worry about going hungry for a while.

"I have lived through much, and now I think I have found what is needed for happiness. A quiet secluded life in the country, with the possibility of being useful to people to whom it is easy to do good, and who are not accustomed to have it done to them; then work which one hopes may be of some use; then rest, nature, books, music, love for one's neighbor - such is my idea of happiness. And then, on top of all that, a mate, and children, perhaps - what more can the heart of man desire?"
- Tolstoy's "Family Happiness"