At present count, I have an eight page document of quotes. Both the famous and infamous have made their way on to my list. There are song lyrics and poems as well as your standard prose varieties. As I sit at my desk at work I am looking at my quote-a-day-calendar that I received as a gift, a very fitting gift. It is called Wild Words from Wild Women...how appropriate (thanks Ally!) I read one each day and keep the ones I think are great and tack them up on my wall. There is Maya Angelou (April 4th), bell hooks (February 22), and even the supreme diva herself, Barbra Streisand (April 24th--I'm not kidding guys, she is really in the calendar...and on her birthday!)

I am in awe of the magic power of quotes! I seek out and read new ones everyday, literally. I am constantly amazed at the vast power of small bits of phrases that people once uttered that are now part of the cultural consciousness. I can hear them in my head, I use them in my own writing, I tack them on to e-mail and I share them with friends who, in turn, share with me. Then suddenly we are all swimming in a sea of quotations of people we know and people we wish to know...that's amazing!

I hope someday to be quoted...and not just in the book of fun we keep at Bluestone, although I am ever grateful for my friends need to document the hillarious things we say after one too many martinis! But I hope to be quoted in a manner of seriousness. A quote worthy of starting a speech or being in a calander. A quote that people know because I did something amazing...memorable.

I'm still drafting one. So, until I get it just right, here's one of the many I have collected to keep you going from a man we all knew and loved, despite his little sweater...

"I feel the greatest gift we can give to anybody is the gift of our honest self."
--Mr. Rogers

What a fun past couple of weeks I have had! I won't take time to explain the goofy details as each of you who are reading this have already read about the past activities on my friends Barbara and Ally's websites. I would pretty much just retelliong funny stories about booze and funny cakes and weddings so I'll spare the comments. The only comment that I will make is that it is scarily funny how all of our lives are uncharictaristically entwined...we are eachother's social calander...it's nice to have such good friends!

Anyway, life with the new roomie is fantabulous! I forget how chill she is all of the time...it's nice to have so much calm energy in the house. Our third roomie is out of town for a week so we've been able to just hang out together and catch up on stuff. It's fun to have your best friend from high school come back so dramatically into the picture. She's always been there over phone and e-mail but I had forgotten how great it is to have her around all of the time. Now if she could just remember to feed her fish, things would be perfect!

It's a good thing she is back too, summer television just isn't doing it for me so at least I have a bud to laugh with at all of the bad programming. "Dog Eat Dog" and a new "Road Rules" just don't fill up the TV time like a nice shot of "American Idol". It is, however, giving me more reason to hit the gym instead of sit in front of the boob tube...so maybe bad summer programming is really good summer programming...hmmm. I'll ponder that one for a while...

Well, the weekend was a success! I shipped out one roommate and welcomed in a new one, pretty funny how that worked out. So I pretty much entertained and was entertained throughout the whole weekend and I still haven't caught up on my sleep, but good times with good friends are always well worth a little bit of post-party drowsiness. The weekend to come brings with it a bachelorette party and a wedding so the fun just keeps on coming. Eventually my social calendar will once again be total white space but for now I am really enjoying the extreme hustle and bustle...

Farewell Fiesta

Tonight is party time! I am hosting a good-bye and good luck party for my favorite rommate and blonde bombshell as she heads up north. It kind of snuck up on me as it feels like just yesterday we were screaming and celebrating her grad school acceptance and now, our little girl is leaving the nest. (ahhh, nostalgia!) This is phase one of all of that change mumbo-jumbo I was spewing the other day...it still isn't easy but it is exciting! I'm looking forward to the celebration, not the departure. I guess that is just part of the cycle but, for the time being, as the crazy Cajuns say "Let the good Times Roll!"

I have long admitted that I am a mass media junkie. I watch entirely too much tv, read more than my fair share of magazines (everything from cosmo to newseek), spend more than 8 hours a day on-line, and listen to the radio A LOT! And I am sure that it is by no mistake that all of my years of massive media consumption have lead me into further studying the area and its affects on people and the world. All of that said, sometimes it is just too much! Not that I don't enjoy all of it, but there is just no way to avoid the pleasure of surprise anymore.

Case in point...by no fault of her own, a friend of mine spilled the beans on her blog about the Dawson's Creek finale last night that I had taped to watch after work today (because of the numerous other tv shows I had to see, namely That 70's Show, American Idol and The West Wing.) It's a bit frustrating but obviously not the end of the world, yet it serves as a perfect example of what I am talking about. If I hadn't read it on her blog I could just as easily have heard about it on the radio this morning or read about it online in a chat room or the New York Times for goodness sakes. The element of surprise has been thrown out of the window thanks to all of the ways to consume media.

The funny thing is, this media overlaod is such a double edged sword! Thanks to the internet I can easily catch up on all of the things that I missed too. What happened on last weeks episodes of As The World Turns?...what will happen on the season finale of Friends?...is The Matrix Reloaded really going to be any good? This is the beautiful part about the media and the reason I don't mind spending hours online digging up the info.

I suppose there is no real way to get around it, you have to take the good with the bad. Some days I will be surprised by an event and some days I will be saddened because my morning radio DJ thought it was cool to talk all about who The Bachelor picks despite my taped copy waiting anxiously at home. One thing is certain though, next Wednesday as I am jammin out to the Dixie Chicks live in Austin, I will be taping the finale of American Idol and I will not turn on a radio in the car until I have had a chance to get home and pop in the tape. It will be just my luck that someone will put up a billborad though and I'll see it on the way home...

I've been thinking a lot about change lately. Due in most part to the fact that all kinds of things in my life will be changing over the next few months. I think of change as exciting, the endless possiblities and such. Despite that fact, at the end of the day it is still the fear that takes hold and I sometimes forget to breath. It's an interesting dilemma in that is brings out the strongest parts of ones character while simultaneously reminding us of our inherent weaknesses. The inevitable bouts with excitement and sadness, the primitive nature of wanting to stay close to what you know yet having such a curiosity for what is beyond that you are willing to take a risk and move outside of what is familiar. Things aren't meant to stay the same, commonplace is equivilant to boredom, and being stagnant, well, just think of the definition of stagnant!

I do believe though that once you find a place in your life that is not commonplace but it is comfortable, relaxed, happy, then change doesn't need to come in as a big gust of wind and shake up your whole foundation. At that point in time, simple changes make for better days and a greater sense of fulfillment. But for me, for now, change has had to come as a tidal wave to wash me out of the state of lethargy I have been mingling in for far too long. I am going to miss all of the people and things that I have become acustomed to having around while I was waiting for change to come. They are what make the moments of relaxation well worth the stay. Not to say that I will never have those people and things with me always, but in a new, changed setting. One that reminds me of all that there is still waiting for me to find even if I am scared and unsure.

I guess that I am realizing more and more that the most beautiful part about change is the journey The bumps and bruises you may get along the way are only paving the path for something far greater than you can see. It doesn't matter if you are traveling the roads of change on your own or with the spirits and love of friends and family as I am, the journey is a solitary one that allows for growth but is always enriched by the love and support of those around you.

Everyone's catalyst for change is different. Everyone's journey is unique. But the possibilities are universal. That is the beauty and excitement of change in which fear resides. But that is also the point at which life starts anew.

Summer Lovin'!

I think that it is official, summer has found it's way to Central Texas! I realize that the official beginning of summer isn't until June 21st, but in Texas, spring time and summer time seem to endlessly overlap. The temperature is already topping 90 degrees pretty often and despite the occasional tornado warning and the annual "Mexican Smoke" that signal spring, the summer feel is still there. I guess it is because I have been doing a lot of summer time things lately. Amusement parks and mini family vacations, outdoor movies and baseball games, bar-b-ques and swimming pools...okay, well not swimming pools but you get the idea. I just can't remember the last time I was so excited about a Texas summer! I suppose it has a lot to do with the fact that there is an extremely cold Eastern winter in my very near future and it is making my dreams of summer a pretty exciting thing!

AAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Total frustration! I just erased my entire blog entry by accidentaly hitting the escape button on my keyboard! I hope this is not a sign of the rest of day. With that, I am leaving the office and going to buy the new edition of People magazine with the 50 Most Beautiful People in it. 'Cause that will make me feel better....sigh! Hopefully I will calm down and try posting again later.