Adopting in Ashburn

This is the part of my life I like to call overwhelming . I'll be back to blogging as soon as I get my life back on track. (Please God let that be tomorrow.) Love always, ~Heather

One more day as the stage manager for Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and then it is back to grad school normalcy. I dream/wish that I could keep working on a show, but not actually have the performances or extended rehearsals until after school was over. I have been beyond frazzled lately, but have gotten so much work done it's unbelievable. Having a million things to do makes me work every available moment of the day. I love working that hard. That being said, I am EXHAUSTED. It isn't horrible hard work to run a light board, be reposnsible for props and 53 elementary student cast members, and then clean up/set up for the next day. But it is more physically exhausting than you can imagine (unless you've done this) to stand for the two hours before, the hour and a half of, and at least an hour after the show; running like crazy during the breaks and standing as still as possible during the scenes. I've never been a stage manager before, though I'd...

If you are an Oscar fanatic, but haven't had a chance to see all the Picture of the Year nominated films, AMC is giving you a chance. On Saturday they are letting people - for only $30 - see all five films back to back. You also get refillable popcorn and drinks in addition to a commemorative ticket. AMC Theatres I haven't seen any of the five nominated films, so this would be pretty exciting, except the musical has an afternoon performance. Bummer. I might still try to go see some of the shows. Anyone interested in splitting a ticket (Lorien and Dana are planning on going too ... but none of us really plans on being there all day, so there could be some serious ticket trading if you're interested). More work, less play. Love always, ~Heather

Ecifircas. My life is completely full of ecifircas. I never thought I would ... I hoped I'd be strong enough to ... but I never wanted ecifircas for myself. I wonder if this can be considered jinxing myself. I am superbly lucky though. I have a fabulous friend who understands exactly what I mean. Who knows what I was thinking and told me exactly what I needed to hear. I'm fairly certain she doesn't know the word ecifircas, but she knows me pretty well. And the best way to live is with friends who get you. I don't think there will ever be enough ways to say thank you. Love always, ~Heather

I was doing research for a speech I'm writing and was looking at some old manuscripts and speeches by Oliver Wendell Holmes. I came across the following passage in an essay on Memorial Day. "For, stripped of the temporary associations which gave rise to it, it is now the moment when by common consent we pause to become conscious of our national life and to rejoice in it, to recall what our country has done for each of us, and to ask ourselves what we can do for our country in return. " ~Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. An Address Delivered May 30, 1884, at Keene, N.H., before John Sedgwick Post No.4, Grand Army of the Republic. I hope that you noticed, as I did, the striking resemblance to one of the most repeated soundbite quotes of all time. In speechwriting class they keep telling us that using other peoples ideas, jokes, anecdotes, etc. is actually a best practice (so long as it isn't plagarism). I guess I never really thought about the idea ...

I'm Catholic, I love Catholics (generally). But I think that doing everything in your power to get someone fired because they disagree with some of your principles is pretty ridiculous. It is reverse bigotry. There have been alot of people posting on the Edwards campaign "scandal," where two of his bloggers resigned under fierce pressure from an ultra-conservative Catholic organization. As a woman, a moderate feminist, a Catholic, and an aspiring politico I feel the need to comment. Everyone gets to have their own ideas. Although posting on a personal blog in a public domain is sort of counter-intuitive, there is a difference between writing for yourself and writing for others. These women resigned because they were put under intense scrutiny and pressure and were not allowed to respond lest their response be used to futher exacerbate the situation. I know that there are alot of Catholics who are passionate about the right to life and preventing gay marriage. But, i...

Three things I could do without ... 1. Francis - who is quite possibly the bane of my AU existence and possibly a spawn of Satan. (Special note for Melissa: this makes him related to the annoying cousin of the spawn of Satan.) 2. Financial Aid (the office, not the actual monetary support) - who really have no idea what they are doing and send a secretary to answer questions for me that I am perfectly capable of asking myself. Oh, and who decide part way through EVERY SEMESTER to stop funding me, requiring me to spend hours figuring out where they made their gigantic, stupid, mistake. 3. Friendlessness - because everyone should have a friend. Period. (If you watched Grey's Anatomy tonight, this is mostly in reference to the "she's my person comment.") **(I should note that I am not claiming to be friendless - not by any stretch of the imagination.)** Unfortunately, I have little control over these features in my life (and the control I have is overpowered by masoc...

I finally got to sleep last night!! Hooray!! Today was half of a snow day really. I thought it was a snow day until I realized that classes at AU were only delayed in the morning and that evening classes were still on. Oh well, I like class. This afternoon I had quite the adventure getting my poor little Focus out of the ice it seemed to be cemented it. I couldn't even get traction when the snow was out of the way because I was parked on gravel. Not the most ingeniuos thing ever. But no matter. It was fun to shove the ice off of the top of my car in one giant sheet. Also, watching Dana try to make a snowman out of two inches of ice was pretty funny too. The best moment however was shoveling the driveway. We live on a cul de sac with six houses, but the main driveway isn't in front of a single one of the houses. I decided that this was, however, the best place to begin shoveling, because it was the most travelled location. Dana stood on the corner as I tried to get t...

This is the part of my life I call exhaustion. On Sunday night, in my infinite wisdom, I decided to completely rewrite one of my three comprehensive exam essays. Unfortunately, Sunday night was technically Monday morning at 2am. Brilliant. The good news is, that I know the second essay (which didn't include a single sentence from the first) was 150 times better. It is the only one of the three essays I feel like I could "pass with distinction" on. I think I needed to prove to myself that I could put in effort on the exam, and not just settle for knowing I was going to pass. (I hope confidently, since the results won't be in for a month or more.) So I went to bet about 4:40am Monday. I was up before 9am to read over and edit the essays one last (millionth) time. I raced to school and turned the exam in about 2 minutes before the deadline. Phew. I got home and was too awake to sleep. So I watched Brothers and Sisters online and then crashed. Thirty minutes la...

I'm working on my take-home comprehensive exams this weekend. It is literally half way through my program and it seems like it is all going to pass very quickly after this. To take a break though (because one cannot really concentrate for 72 straight hours and be productive), I went to a play with a friend. We saw God by Woody Allen and Hell by David Mamet. I like Hell better. Both were really well performed. Special kudos to the guy who played the devil, because he was out of this world amazing. Also, if the devil's secretary really does have a voice like that, he should drop out of law school and become and announcer somewhere. His voice was both soothing and engaging. The most interesting part though was that the actors in both plays were all law students at Georgetown. Where they find time to rehearse and memorize lines is beyond me. Three cheers for y'all. After the show we went out to ice cream in Cleveland Park. (Testing my ice cream theory.) The gelato ...

I hate that I can't tell you what's going on. I know you don't all believe in it, but those who do, please pray that it gets better. I really don't like asking for help but the list of worries seems to be getting longer. Don't you stress though. I like the idea that everyone else is super happy, it gives me something to look forward to. Exciting thing of the day: Went to a ridiculous class this morning, then took care of emails and homework. Lorien and I went to see Because I Said So . It was incredibly good. Very realistic. We stopped for chinese food in Chinatown and then watch much more television then I'd like to admit to. Have a great day/night! Love always, ~Heather

Il etait HYPER froid ici aujourd'hui. Moins de zero fahrenheit (souviens que 32 est le meme chose de zero celcius) avec les vents. Desolee que je n'ai pas ecris avant maintenant (en francais). J'ai plein devoirs a faire et c'est deja tard mais tout de suite ... Mes cours sont super. J'adore "speechwriting" c'est les discours, principalment. Je joue bien aven les mots! Mon these c'est un petit livre de "Comment faire les communications scientifique." Aussi, je travail pour deux profs. Un est un peu comme une dinde; l'autre est super! Plus des detailes plus tard. Ma soeur habite avec moi au moment. Elle est gentille et cool ... tous les bons choses. Nous prions qu'elle trouve un job bientot. Pas des choses interessant avec ma vie vraiment. Je suis super fatigue mais je vous promis plus des mots en francais bientot. Franchement, j'ai regarde les photos de Charleville aujourd'hui et la ville me manque, mes amis me...

This is a speech I wrote for this week's speechwriting assignment. I thought it was funny enough to warrant a blog post. _________________ Whenever I’m rushing, I think about how much faster I could get to the bottom of the Metro escalators if they were slides instead. Like at the slides in the park, I often lose time waiting for others so I can go. Since escalators aren’t going to magically turn into slides, the next best solution is to eliminate the human blockades. When people stand on the right, others can pass and arrive at their destinations more quickly. Imagine getting to the train on time; not having to mumble under your breath or shove past people. Imagine a world where people stood to the right and walked to the left. So the next time you’re on the Metro escalators envisioning the fun you’d have if only the stairs would morph, stand to the right. The person passing you might be on their way to inventing the escalator slide of your dreams. ______________________ I kno...

Pain and missing always seems to go away. Things you think are the defining moments of your life - the events you worry about so intensely - end and change and cease to be important. What I fail to grasp is how to keep that relevant in my daily struggles. I am an extremely lucky girl - I couldn't ask for much more than I have already been given. Yet in a homily I heard recently the priest explained that we shouldn't fail to go to God with even the smallest problems. I sometimes feel like that is "taking up all the tape on the answering machine" for a really busy person. I think it may be the restriction of my little human brain. This is probably the reason I don't lean on my friends or family too much either (or I try not to). I seem to scuttle into a corner, revert to silence, and entertain myself with an abundance of unthought-provoking menial tasks. Or I dive into a season of West Wing. * * * One thing I like about being left alone in the apartment for l...

I have a theory that ... eating ice cream in the cold makes you feel warmer because your internal body temperature decreases. negative thoughts beget negative actions. the roaches visible at night on the USC campus turn into squirrels in the daytime (you never see squirrels at night and rarely see roaches in the day). living in the now (instead of the past or potential future) will eleviate much stress and emotional drama. pizza places in suburban neighborhoods are counter-intuitively decreasing profits by not delivering to homes (or even being open) after 11pm. I should add this also applies to restaurants who are open later than 11pm but who have a delivery area the size of an olympic swimming pool. if the window and cabinet in my apartment were not open in such a fashion as to let in the outside air, it would stay significantly warmer in here. some people, no matter how hard you or they try, will always be stupid. (The same theory applies to intelligence, though some waste that by...