A Way with Words

     When I was 16, I got my first job at the Virginia Renaissance Faire, working in the kitchens. It didn't take me long to figure out that I didn't like food service work (that's a different story), so the next year I worked as a Reveler- ie, unpaid local 'color.' We, the Revelers, were supposed to play the peasantry of the faire. Most of it wasn't bad: we got to interact with the locals, wash clothes in the river (and make as much mess and fuss as we wanted), and had a lot of time that was unsupervised with the injunction to go interact with people. Without a doubt, though, my favorite activity was the Maypole Dance.

     Twice a day, we got to go unwind the ribbons from the Maypole and teach patrons how to do maypole dances. I would occasionally be required to play the music on a recorder, if the musicians were late, but for the most part, I got to dance, weave ribbons, figure out the logistics of weaving and unweaving ribbons and bodies, and encourage people to join in. When it comes to dance, my antisocial tendencies vanish, so I had an absolute ball (pun intended).

Some people

     This morning, I was the only one in the apartment, as my roommates all had Russian classes in the morning. I did homework, made breakfast, cleaned the kitchen, and wrote postcards to pass the morning, then got my stuff together and headed out. Oddly, however, I couldn't find a key. The situation is that you get one key per room, and the front door locks both on the inside and the outside- that is, you can't accidentally lock the door, but you can lock someone else out or in. I searched and searched for the key, but it was nowhere to be found.

     After silently thanking my two good roommates for not locking the door when they knew I was there (i.e., locking me in), I went downstairs, leaving the apartment empty and unlocked, and asked the front desk if they had my key. It turns out they did, so I was able to go back upstairs and lock it, then head back downstairs and go to school, but I was more than a little ticked off at the wasted time and possibility of being locked in. I texted the bad roommate- ms. motormouth from earlier posts- and told her that she is an adult, and shouldn't need me to tell her how to handle the key situation. I got no response, but when I ran into her at college later, this is what happened:

Faith in humanity

     As a general rule, I try to believe in the overall decency of humanity. It's not always the easiest thing to do, especially when the news is consistently full of hatred and violence, while "human interest" stories get only a brief nod on some back page, but it is possible. Most of the time it involves paying attention to the world around you, willfully looking for the little good deeds that are done, even if it's just a smile on the street or a word of encouragement to someone who's trying as hard as they can. But every now and then, the world seems to realize you need more than that, and it blindsides you with a really memorable occurrence.

     A number of months ago, Elf, a very close friend of mine, contacted me for help writing up a resumé for one of her friends who had recently lost his job. I am frequently called upon for help with writing and editing (I guess being a Linguist comes in handy sometimes, eh?), so I gave the go-ahead to send it over. In the course

The ugly side of losing weight

     In today's body-obsessed society, it seems like everyone is concerned with losing weight and being thin. Fortunately, for a lot of sensible people, it's not a big thing- just that little "society voice" in the back of their head, reminding them that really, they shouldn't have that extra brownie for dessert. As long as that never gets out of hand, I think that's probably a good place to be. You can enjoy yourself and your food without guilting yourself or being overly concerned about having obsessions. Except tacos. Tacos are ok to obsess about.
     Anyway! For some reason, I've been losing weight this year. I don't have an exact number, but as of two months ago, I'd dropped thirty pounds off of my winter weight, without even really trying. Considering that I'd already come down another thirty pounds from where I'd been two years ago, I feel pretty good. I will be keeping track of it, just in case I've done something silly like picked up a resident tapeworm or something