if life were a giant skit

This would be it

it wasn't rachel

Most people if they really learn to look into their own hearts would know that they do want and want acutely something that cannot be had in this world. There are all sorts of things in this world that offer to give it to you, but they never keep their promise. The longings which arise in us when we first fall in love or first think of some foreign country or first take up some subject that excites us are longings which no marriage, no travel, no learning can ever really satisfy. I am not speaking of what would ordinarily be called unsuccessful marriages or failures of holidays and so on. I'm speaking of the very best possible ones. There is always something we have grasped at. There's always something in that first moment of longing but fades away in the reality. The spouse may be a good spouse. The scenery has been excellent. It turned out to be a good job. But it's evaded us. In the morning it's always Leah.

-C.S. Lewis

pause

The swimming pool is flooding. The tiles on the roof are trying desperately to hold on. Yea, this rain is made out of the really good stuff. The kind of rain that doesn't sound like it'll stop anytime soon.

Thank you God, for being this thirst-quencher.

definition

It's just an absolutely fantastic feeling to know what you have to do. Because there's a timer that rings: it's time to move -- you kiss your I'm sorry I shouldn't have overstayed my welcome goodbyes, and say your I'm sorry I was so late hellos.

Hello. I'm sorry I was so late.

hope for it

adage for the ages

Dream big.

"Deep enough to dream in brilliant colors I have never seen" - Chris Rice

a must watch

Especially if you've grown numb to everyday statistics.

"... the problem for me was not ignorance-- it was preconceived ideas."

e.e. #12: finding that elusive white hair and plucking it out

I don't get white hairs often enough to develop a standard procedure for pulling them out. Not like I have for biting fingernails (I fail miserably at pulling splinters). So I find myself fumbling around in my bangs - because they always appear there for some reason - with the level of dexterity one would expect from using said fingernail-type, or say, a pair of short chopsticks.

So it's nice that when I'm sloppily combing through my hair, that annoying white strand sometimes gives away its location with nowhere to hide. I have to really hold my breath so as not to mess up the only chance I'll have for at least another few days. One quizzical look later, I pluck it from my life and go on about my day, feeling really good for all of about five seconds. Five great seconds.

If it were possible that all the stress behind that white hair was plucked right along with it, wouldn't that be a wonderful thing. But that would be cheating, I suppose.

e.e. #11: moving walkways at the airport

How can you not enjoy moving twice as fast while walking at the same pace? I also like to look over the other side of the banister and pretend-race with those who've chosen to trudge down the path less automated for reasons I can't understand. Human conveyor belts are fun.

Pretend-race... does not sound healthy at all..

e.e. #10: learning about how a song came to be

As the story goes. Gwenyth Paltrow's father had died suddenly from complications resulting from pneumonia. Gwenyth, inconsolable, returns from the hospital, completely covered in tears. And Chris doesn't know what else to do but to ask her, desperately, "What can I do, please tell me what I can do for you." She looks up at him and pleads very simply, "Just hold me. Because you're the only thing that can fix me right now."

Chris Martin wrote "Fix You" the very next day. And so it came to be not only one of the most highly acclaimed rock ballads of all time, but a personal anthem to so many of us for as long as we need it.

breaking it down

The level of intensity in this scene from "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" is right up there with what happens in the end in "Best of the Best" and the screaming-into-Albert's-Abyss scene in "Garden State." I scoffed at most parts in the movie because of the storyline's shameless parallelisms to "Forrest Gump" (that's what happens when you use the same writer for both movies), but this scene alone did it for me.

I still believe that there is a reason behind everything that happens. But we often fail to realize that we also give reason, regardless of the size of the role we play, to everything that happens too.

e.e. #9: when the line gets really long soon after you show up

Could be at a sandwich shop, post office, or a grocery store. The really cool thing being that within a mere few minutes from the time you stood in line to check out groceries, a long line has already formed behind you.. as if you had something to do with it. To be fair, you should first breathe a 'whew-I-JUST-beat-the-rush' sigh of relief and acknowledge that you lucked out from spending any additional minutes waiting in line. But it's still fun to entertain the thought that you - and only you - may have caused this absolutely meaningless, yet amusing, phenomenon to happen.

Same deal when a restaurant fills up right after you get seated. So entertain those thoughts away! Because we've all wished we were superhuman in one way or another. Even if the superpower may be super-lame.

(still makes you super though.)

e.e. #8: when the arcade game is already half-paid for

One of my personal favorites. That instead of paying full price to play "Marvel vs. Capcom," air hockey or that mini basketball hoops game, you realize the guy who played before you either: a) accidentally put in another quarter or two when he/she wasn't supposed to, or b) basically ran out of change to play another game. But God bless you!!

And if you don't play arcade games, imagine a kind of glee that's similar to pulling up to a parking meter with just enough minutes left for you to run into the bank and make that deposit.

Seriously, a quarter can still go a long way.

gravity

e.e. #7: when you get truck drivers to honk the horn

Rewind to childhood. You're going on a field trip with your class. The big yellow school bus is clamoring down the freeway to get to that museum. After having pressed your noses against the windows for some time in search of a big rig, a few of you simultaneously spot one, which is about to pass by real soon...

And, showtime! Many of you four-eyed (but wide-eyed), metal-mouthed (but hugely grinning) kids have now gotten up on your knees on the seats, insomuch as to ensure that the truck driver can clearly see you signaling frantically with flimsy arms, PULL THE HORN!! And most times, he'll happily oblige and make the truck give out a deafening bellow to everyone's delight, as kids scream and hi-five each other for having made this rolling beast come to life.

Aaaand... back to pressing your noses against the windows.

Hey, this still works.

e.e. #6: seeing your shadow under a full moon

On a night like this one. Such is the mystery of seeing your shadow without the familiar feeling of warm sunlight resting on your back.

And trust me -- you'll have more than enough moonlight to make silly shadow puppets of rabbits, birds and crocodiles to your heart's content, until your heart's content.

e.e. #5: when someone gets your name wrong but you play along anyway

During my church's VBS a few weekends ago, this little rambunctious 6-year-old girl named Esther had a minor bout with cognitive dissonance. "Roger" was what she decidedly named me. Though we all wore name badges, it didn't help the situation that she most likely couldn't read well, or maybe she just read the "R-O" part of my name badge and automatically assumed the rest of my name, like an eager Hangman player would.

I corrected her at least three times before giving up. She would scream "ROGER!! HEY, ROGER!!!" from across the playground, until I would finally look up after realizing she was calling for me. Funny little girl.

Hey, if you ever decide to call me something different, keep yelling at me.

e.e. #4: the fireworks you see while driving on the freeway

Oops, and how can I forget this one. Illegal in the United States, most likely. But you still silently thank the rogue who had the tenacity to ignite the Roman candles, M-80's, and (insert illegal firework here) to give us drivers a little treat as we travel home, free of charge.

Happy 4th.

(Thanks Knotts, thanks Disneyland, for the freeway shows you give year-round.)

e.e. #3: smiley face fireworks

It's really a pyrotechnic marvel. I remember the first time I saw one. It was around six years ago, when a bunch of us went to Fisherman's Wharf to watch the 4th of July fireworks display over the San Francisco Bay. I was completely floored. How do you form a perfectly shaped smiley face - with the dotted eyes, smile and everything to be all proportional to each other - by chucking a canister hundreds of feet into the sky and blowing it up!

Whenever I watch a parade of fireworks now, the smileys are the ones I wait for. Because a fireworks show isn't really complete without a few gigantic, oddly-oriented smiley faces in the sky, smiling at you and you smiling back.

But the upside-down ones make me laugh.


(taken last year during the Macy's fireworks show in New York)

e.e. #2: when the light turns green as you're rolling to a traffic light

Driving a stick-shift, I can't tell express how much of a treat this is -- not needing to shift out of gear or use my brakes, but having the pleasure of coasting sraight through.

Or, as you're entering the on-ramp to the freeway, you switch over to the empty lane because lo and behold, there's already a car in the other lane that was patiently waiting for the light to turn green. And you time it just perfectly so that as you're accelerating up the on-ramp, the light changes, seemingly for you.

I must really hate using my brakes.

e.e. #1: When the song you're listening to on the drive home ends as soon as you pull into the driveway

Which is your cue to hit the power button to make that the last song you hear this night.

raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens

I think my most favorite blog to read on the web is 1000 Awesome Things. What an absolute genius of a blog. And while this blogger steadily marches through a thousand different awesome things to share with the world, I'd like to join this cause by occassionally adding to his list with things that personally bring me joy.

And to not be a complete copycat of 1000 Awesome Things (though these ARE awesome too), I see them more as the "easter eggs of life" for lack of a better, less corny term... but will henceforth refer to them as such.

It's maybe not so much the eight hours of sound sleep that you get, but it's the abrupt awakening at 5am and relishing the fact that you have a few more hours of sleep left. Or the lollipop you get at the end of a doctor's visit. Or the balloon that's still tied to your wrist long after the carnival has gone home. These are the kind of whispers I hear.

So. Let's see how this goes.

optima dies, prima fugit

Andy, I'm stealing this from you and never giving it back.

"Optima dies... prima fugit"
(The best days are the first to flee.)

-- Virgil

today marks the summer solstice

Today will be the longest day we'll have this year... and in certain respects, it already has been.

jaw dropping

Loved how it ends.

Galactic Center of Milky Way Rises over Texas from William Castleman on Vimeo.