Today I would very much like to sit in Pease Park alone and think up and write out some resolutions. I've never really made any, let alone kept them. And this may be superstitious and silly, but maybe this year would have worked out had I taken care of a few resolutions, just maybe. It's cold out, and I do hate the cold, but that's just too bad, I'm going out anyway. And upon the entrance of the new year, I'm going to see a fortune teller to find out what lays in store for the year. Then I'll edit and play around with my resolutions a bit more to accommodate the coming months.
I think this is a good plan.

It is important to note that I have terrible New Year's Eve luck

I never said I was perfect
I still miss spots when shaving

A few observations//thoughts//quotes from today:

A stairway leading to an entrance now blocked by barbed wire, a homeless man resting outside the gate of a golf course under a Titleist umbrella

A tree so large and with roots expansive enough to serve as a blanket for picnics beneath its branches

Thoughts on natural and man-made monuments: The interesting thing I've noticed about natural monuments (trees, mountains, rocks, etc.) is that they don't necessarily face any one direction. Except for sunflowers which face the ever-changing position of the sun, natural things only "face" one direction when their viewpoint is hemmed in by an artificial object. These man-made monuments always face one direction. They may have many entrances but there is always that one more-specific entrance facing on specific direction. Natural things, on the other hand, face the whole world at once.

From Anna Karenina [the greatest book ever written]:

All the variety, all the charm, all the beauty of life is made up of light and shadow.

But it was distasteful to her to read, that is, to follow the reflection of other people's lives. She had too great a desire to live herself.

"Excuse me," he said, "I think I'm becoming ridiculous."

"I often think men have no understanding of what's not honorable though they're always talking of it."

It's really so tough
When the things you want are the same as the things you don't

This evening I applied for summer work in Alaska, Montana, and Maine
So, I suppose...Wish me luck?

Do ya? Do ya? Do ya?

Oh Driver F, who knows

"I'm not too concerned with what I am going to do. I am more interested in who I am becoming. I want to be a lover of God and people." --Shane Claiborne

Ditto, Shane, Ditto

Sgt. Shriver: How can anyone in their right mind decide that it is an intelligent expenditure of our money to put 75 cents into military wars and drop out a quarter to solve the poverty problems here at home? That doesn't make any sense at all.

Myself 40 years later: A-flipping-men!

Johnson's "Great Society" really could have been.

Mother Teresa: We are called not to be successful, but to be faithful.

I've really been struggling a lot with my interpretation of that thought lately. How can you be faithful without some small amount of success? You're supposed to sell everything you have and go serve God but then where will you live? How will you eat? I really want to go teach in Tanzania next Fall. That's so clearly Serving, but how can I afford to go Serve? To do good, a lot of times you have to pay but how do you pay without a job and a level of success that allows you to afford to do good? I think I'm looking at this from the wrong perspective but I'm not sure I see any other spots from which I could see better.


This wasn't eloquent, but I never promised it would be.

Everytime I go to stretch I don't understand why I can't stretch my limbs further
My research appears to be unfruitful
Four months just isn't what it used to be
And everyday is just the same

Audrey and I went to the craft fair in the secret park below our house this afternoon
They had soy candles, pressed flowers, knit hats, handmade jewelry, record bowls, pottery, etc.
We didn't buy anything outside of the buttons I got resembling trees I want my tattoo to resemble
But we found a lady doing fortune-telling and each got our palms read
Apparently...
-I have an ego (true)
-I'm aesthetically-focused and I'm good with design (false)
-I'll always give my opinion on things but I'll sugarcoat for loved ones (true)
-I have a shell around my heart in romance (true)
-I take care of my goals but I'm always close to taking it too far (huh?)
-I'm a "goat, definitely not a sheep". "Sheep follow. But those that try and tell you what to do will get bitten and kicked. You do what you want to do." (true)
All in all though, I really enjoyed it
Audrey's was just about dead-on
We decided to get regular fortune-telling in one capacity or another
And there was a man walking around giving a puppet show
We're listening to the music being played there from inside our living room
I love Sunday afternoons in Austin

Do you want to come sit in the park with me?
I mean, I know it's not Nepal or Iceland
Or any of the places we said we wanted to go
But it's not a couch or a cold staircase
We could just sit



Did you know that the Great Barrier Reef is bigger than Poland?
That's irrelevant

Can we go somewhere and do something?
Everything's gone stale
I just want something new
Who knew that it could be so hard to come by

I don't know where I'm going
But I only like maps for their aesthetic quality
And taking advice just isn't my thing