Short Skirt/Long Jacket (in the Winter)

The night before last, shortly-ish after unpacking my heart unto the internet, I fell asleep, being one who has become accustomed to that sort of thing. I had very lovely dreams, mostly because amongst the other figments of my imagination, there was a girl -a young woman, if you will- who was pretty, as dream people will be. Most importantly, though, we imaginarily got along famously. Following the rules of good dreams, I woke up as things were getting interesting (we went on a date!) and spent the following several attempts at sleep under the illusion she had been someone I knew and trying to figure her name. As she didn't actually exist, the morning came without that revelation.

Now, you could be saying, "Geez, Richard! You say you're bitter about love one day, and now you're a hopless romantic?" To be fair, you could be saying a number of other things, too.

Yeah, I don't really understand why, after falling to sleep thinking dark thoughts to all lovers everywhere, I conjured up the subconscious illusion of personable female company. Then again, it might just make sense. Besides, I'm always varying degrees of hoplessly romantic.

In other news, I think there is an odd assortment of forces playing with my mind. Yes, tired as I was, I decided serving my mom in the spirit of the holiday season would be, well, in the spirit of the holiday season. I went into the store, purchased the foods my mom requested, and returned to my car. Only it was slightly less in good shape then when I had left it.

Yes, a gentleman with a truck backed into my driver's side door, knocking off the mirror, and putting a dent in the side. Pah... But he was very nice and gave me his insurance information. Now I'm beginning to think that that all won't really be necessary, and a bit of tape will hold the mirror on and about the dent... it's not a vital fix. Maybe this is yet another chance to enspirit the days of holiness. But there's more!

The portion of Utah County in which I reside has been somewhere from hammered to slammed with snow! I haven't driven in snow for almost a year. People stress me while driving in snow. I'm almost out of gas in my car. And I was cold. The trip did much to get me more high-strung, but now I'm at home, warm, relaxing, my car as intact as it was yesterday (minus a gallon or two). The best part of winter. Except for the whole watching a movie by the fireplace with hot chocolate, a woolen blanket, and person of the opposite gender. And Christmas with family. And snowball fights with the neighborhood kids. *sigh*

Well, happy holidays everyone! Travel safe! Don't trust any strange men wearing white beards and red suits!

But the Curry Was Delicious

I meant to write this post a little earlier, before I got caught up in playing Kingdom Hearts II. As it turns out, that was fortuitous, as I actually have something to write about, at the risk of casting a pall over what I had hoped to create as a more upbeat idea blog. Regardless, circumstances should not be ignored in writing, I believe.

But first, I would like to inform all of my readers (who number may very well be close to nil at the moment) that the curry doughnut was very toothsome. Imagine an unsweetened long john (as I believe they're called), only, rather than being filled with custard, filled with curried beef. Or curried anything, actually. Very delicious. Unfortunately, the curry filling was slightly less than warm. The rest of Japanese class was filled with origami (the turtle and traditional crane) and gawking and gagging over an advertisement for Pizza Hut in Japan. I don't know, I could be old fashioned, but potato salad on a pizza doesn't sound very tasty. Still, it was a class of much enjoyment.

The rest of today was pretty uneventful. I had this idea I started putting to document that has been turning out quite well. Aside from my daily contemplation of the infinite, I've had the opportunity to consider what mattered to me, what leads me on through life. Unfortunately, from that stemmed a bit of conflict between a friend of mine and myself.

I have a friend, one who I've known since my later high school years. She's artistic, creative, and really handy with the abstract. She's strong, and also a little strong-willed and slightly headstrong. She's been supportive of me, especially when I've been in the quagmires of life. In that sense, I owe her quite a bit, and even as I'm typing this up, I'm beginning to reconsider how I felt about what has happened.

Still, an explanation is in order. Recently, I've been inclined to be irritated as we converse over IM. Sometimes, it's just difficult to talk about anything, since she's been busy with finals and the like, and understandably not very responsive. Regardless of the cause, I felt distanced from her, and I began questioning why we were friends as we have so many different ideas and  opinions. And in the past, I felt betrayed, sometimes used, sometimes ignored.

To set the picture accurately, we had just finished discussing her tagline, and my own determination to get my point across did little to keep the conversation casual. A sort of non-verbal cease-fire had been called, and she started talking to me about this poem she had written. Because I am not one who enjoys the music she enjoys, as I think it is typically dark, vindictive, and/or depressing, I braced myself for something of the same type.

The poem expressed her ideas without obscurity. Parts illustrated how she felt about her relationship with her boyfriend, which I enjoyed to a point, despite my current scoffing at relationships in general (read "love-forlorn bitterness"). Even so, I appreciated them for what they were, being an amateur word-smith myself.

The trouble started when I overstated a certain discomfort with the method she employed in expressing something less happy than relationships and love and the like. I can't really be critical of the way she reacted, seeing as I initially felt justified in my opinion. Then she got upset, and expressed a desire to call it a night, I apologized profusely upon realizing the injury inflicted, and it went downhill fast, eventually ending in a manner that did little to leave me comfortable.

And my quandry right now is this: should I try to pick this up soon after and try for a resolution? Or should I let it drop and move on? Assuming she will read this post, my decision might already be made. Otherwise, I still feel slightly injusticed, even though I was the offender here. I did my best to bite back some scathing remarks I wanted to make, with a good deal of success. And yet, will I let this friendship fall because my ego says I'm justified in being angry?

So, this is asking quite a bit for my second post, but even still, I'd like feedback, even if it so happens to be you are reading this months from its original posting. Otherwise, should I get the curry doughnut recipe, you aren't getting any. You have been warned.

This Is The First Post

My mood today: "Is this thing on?" 

Showers are beautiful things. Where else can you step into a miniature room and have some conical spigot sprinkle water on you while your hands are free to make soap bubbles, grapple the back scrubber for use as a makeshift microphone, or write the name of your crush over and over again on any surface sufficiently fogged over to enable the slightest legibility? If you have an answer other than "The Shower" or a derivative of the same, let me know.

Oh, there is a point to me talking about showers. It just so happens that, at roughly seven o'clock this morning, I was standing under the nozzle, contemplating the infinite, when an idea hit me. Here I was, a strappling almost-twenty-one-year-old with a blog that was by all accounts dead. What was I, a caveman? Nay, said I. I needed a new blog.

So I considered all the myriad blogs out there, with their equally myriad purposes. I'm not one to talk about politics. To be honest, I'm not well enough informed, and I could care less. Not much less, but less. Even things which might be considered my fortes- video games, books... uh... -I determined I didn't have much to write on.

However, I'm not one to give in so easily. I determined that I would be just like everyone else and write my thoughts on whatever. Here's for hoping I have interesting whatever thoughts to write about.

Now that the preface is out of the way, allow me to share a tidbit of info. I go to Utah Valley University. It's my third semester, and I have had the pleasure of attending Beginning Japanese I. In class today, after reviewing the material for the final next week, my teacher mentioned that she would be bringing curry doughnuts tomorrow for class.

Curry doughnuts don't really sound too delectable, do they? Well, I'm anxious to try one. My mouth salivates at what I think it might taste like... And tomorrow, I'm sure I'll have a full report ready for viewing.