What matters is the trip

Jess on October 19, 2008

So I don’t know that I mentioned it, but the university radio station is fantastic.  In addition to having an NPR affiliate that plays All Things Considered later than KPR, they also have a really rad indie station.  Yesterday, i was driving around and this song came on.

By Balloon or Sinking Ship by Jordan O’Jordan

I think it’s great! And it makes me excited to road trip back to Kansas City tomorrow, not that I’m not super excited about that already.  I also have been thinking about doing more interesting things with my blog than I’ve done in the past.  Maybe some music recommendations, some sweet photos I’ve been taking or finding on the internet.  I’m not sure.  I read some more interesting blogs now so maybe I’ll start by recommending those things listed in my blogroll.  I have been especially enjoying The Boat Lullabies at Square America.  It’s great.  Though today’s post is pretty sad.

Let’s see what is going on in my life, shall we?  I got that haircut.  That was pretty swell.  Thursday, I had a huge test in collections management and I think it went really, really well.  I’m trying not to be overconfident about it because I would hate to be devastated by my actual grade when I receive that, but for the time being it’s nice to not be constantly second-guessing myself and my answers like I think I did on the last test.  It’s always a nice feeling to get out of a test and feel good about it… and I’d sort of forgotten what that felt like as my last major testing experiences were in Art History and Collections Management.  Too much memorization!  Thursday was a very, very long day though.  I had the test from 8-9:15, then the professor lectured until 10:15, then Data Management from 10:30-noon and an MHSA meeting after that followed by class from 1:15-5ish.  Gracious.  When that was over I went home and laid down for a few minutes then picked up Kyle and we headed to Triple J.  I was pretty well obliterated and passed out by 10.  Which was a nice end to a long, but mostly okay day.

Friday, we went to the communications colloquium and I watched Katie and Amy present a really interesting paper about manifesting whiteness through tradition and public memory at Texas A&M.  Afterward we went out to dinner at Chili’s with some of the grad students and professors.  I really enjoyed chatting with them and it was nice to have some mental exercise.  Makes me really want to get back into history when I’m done with museum science, I think.  At the very least to use in museums.  I’d just like to teach.  I’m jealous of all the comm. friends who get to.  We also saw W.  which made me disappointed/angry/tired.  After waking up a bit after the movie and having a night to sleep on it, I decided that I didn’t like it because I felt that the characters could have been much more dynamic than they were.  Bush, W and HW, were both dynamic but I felt like most of the cabinet was very two-dimensional and that isn’t very cool.  I just felt like it should have been a lot more than it was.  I’m also not quite sure that i agree with the fundamental premise of the movie.  Mostly, I don’t think the war in Iraq stems as much from W’s daddy issues as Mr. Stone apparently seems to think.  And given his track record with history, I’m not about to take him at his word.

Yesterday, we went to the book sale at the Mahon Library and oh em gosh.  It was incredible.  We spent about 30 dollars and got about 50 books.  I got a bunch of books I’ve really been meaning to buy and read… and I think The Historian is at the top of my list—after all, it’s close to Halloween and I am going through a vampire phase.  Last night we watched the mizzou disaster with Kevin and Jess and Kyle and then went to David Trout’s karaoke again.  I think he is near the top of the list of things I love most about Lubbock.  I even did karaoke this time!  I sang “Wrong Way” with Jess and then Kyle roped me into “it’s your love” which was a huge disaster.  Turns out I am not Faith Hill nor am I familiar enough with the song to actually know when it is my turn to sing.  Ah, well.  Heather came out too as we were celebrating her surviving her twenty-second birthday.

Today has been nursing my knee which I think I sprained when I fell down the stairs yesterday.  Heels + Slick painted concrete staircase + drunk = bad times.  Ugh.  There are skid marks on the stairs from where my heels slid out from under me as I slipped.  Poor thing.  It’s really starting to feel better though.  I can limp around and things just certain positions for sitting don’t feel too comfortable.

Tomorrow, I’m spending the day heading to Kansas City for a conference! I’m so excited to get to be home for a few days!  And the conference should be fun too… especially because I get a bit of a break from my regular lecture schedule which I think is much needed at this point.

I wish I said which less.

Everything is progressing smoothly

Jess on March 17, 2008

So I’m the best wedding planner ever and had everything booked within three weeks of getting engaged. The only thing I have yet to do is officially order flowers to make our bouquets, go shopping with my bridesmaids, and get a ceremony musician. Also, Kyle has a short list of things that need to get done (like blocking hotel rooms, picking out tuxes, et cetera et cetera) and he can now focus on that (or in a few weeks he can) as his debate season is almost complete.

If you’ve been playing the home version of Jess and Kyle’s wedding planning, you’ll notice that I’ve changed the layout of the website. Now that we’ve picked out colors, and they aren’t latte, I thought I’d go for a different theme and move stuff around to make it more wedding-website like and make the blog a little more secretive. I know our friends will read it, and I would love it if our families would read it when they stop by, but I also think guests probably want to read about us and our relationship rather than a criticism of the wedding industrial complex levied one entry at a time. 🙂

If any of our friends are reading this, I’d like to thank them for all of their help. So many people have volunteered to relieve the financial burden of having a wedding in their own way and Kyle and I are ever grateful for their efforts.

sigh.

Jess on January 23, 2008

lisa loeb finally released the purple tape as a compact disc.
i am so happy.
i could cry.

When I look at you, you're so far away.

Jess on August 10, 2007

I like post-rock enough to listen to admit it publicly.  I like post-rock.  There.  And I hope I listen to more of it until I understand it well enough to defend that it doesn’t all sound the same.  Cos right now, I don’t understand how every lead singer sounds the same vocally.  It’s an amazing trick.

Yesterday was Kyle’s last day in Topeka for the summer.  Wednesday is his last day in Kansas City.  I’m basically devastated.  We’ve spent this week watching Season 3 of 24 which I should be finishing up as we speak, but instead I’m blogging because I care about all of you folks being able to keep up on my life.  Season 3 is a great season. Jack Bauer is an American Icon.  I can’t watch Law and Order anyway cos of Golf.  It’s been great.  We took a  break yesterday and watched Season 3 Part 1 of Entourage.  We went on lots more lunch dates than normal. We stayed up till 4 a.m. laughing with each other.  We cuddled on the couch.  And I cried basically non-stop. Sigh. I just don’t want him to go back. Slash. I don’t want to be apart from him.  But it’s ridiculous to think that he’d not go back to finish his senior year of college.  And Bearman would kill us both if I even considered it.  So I know that this is the way it has to be.  And my eyes have dried up since he left.  I held it together at work and I’ve held it together today.  I’m not even mildly depressed which I have been most of the days I’ve spent apart from him.  Ask him.  Last weekend I was downright irrational without reason and the weekend before was almost the same story… but maybe that storm was building.  So everything between us is wonderful.  We both wish we could be closer for these next ten months or so but we understand we can’t and so we’re off to figure out more about ourselves without the other there until next June. I’m just glad that neither of us is doubting the other.  We’re pretty much invincible.

Since he’s gone basically… I’m just looking forward to our last two dates together.  One is our anniversary (six months, woo) which is coming up next week, we’re celebrating early… The other is worlds of fun tomorrow.  I’m super excited about both.  But I’m also so ready for school to start.  Rahul and Cara and occasionally Kyle (Rahul was too drunk to make sense of what we were saying and Kyle was too drunk to make sense of what he was saying) and I had a good debate about the 08 elections the other night.  It got me jonesing for some good intellectualism.  I love it.  I can’t wait for classes.  African Art History with Janzen is gonna be so sweet… and I have it with Cari! Yay!  I’ve really missed Cari these past few years that we haven’t been as close. And I’m excited for my Morse class… though not so much for the tests.  I just hate writing essays which compare and contrast historical truths by creating some hypothetical historical society.  This is why I like her upper levels much better.

I want to watch more 24 so I can be indoctrinated on how cool it is to not have Constitutional rights so we can be safe from mostly outlandish terrorist plots and wonder how Nina will resurrect herself and if the PATRIOT Act really can save us all.  So I’m done blogging. Good night.

To make you see me

Jess on July 15, 2007

So.

Today.

I was listening to Last.fm’s Artists Similar to the Decemberists which is what I do (with all bands I like) to find new good bands that are similar to them.  and this song came on and i was like “this isn’t bad who is it…?” which is a statement i only utter once every five songs or so in part cos i already know most of the bands they play and in part cos the bands i don’t know are out of my repertoire for a reason.  It was the Flaming Lips.

I’m pissed.

The thing is, i’m kind of sentimental about Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots.  But liking things on Finally the Punk Rockers are Taking Acid is just out of the question. Out. of. the. Question.

In other news… a story that you all can’t keep up with cos you couldn’t read yesterday’s entry… archiving my blog is going pretty well.  I’m at the part of my life that I like and I’m really happy to see how well it all went.  It’s great to know that everything was exactly how you remembered it.  All the good things and the bad ones.  And it’s good to be living where I know how the story ends and it is very good.  Love love love.