Spring!

The colors outside my apt this morning made me melt a little inside. The refreshing rain that fell all night washed off the lovely yellow-ish tree pollen that's been coating everything the past few days. The sky was still that rich, dark grey that brings out the many-hued greens of new foliage. Spotted amongst the bright greens of fresh leaves and dark browns and greys of branches were a bright blooming red bud and a crisp flowering Bradford Pear (thankfully too far away for me to smell). The sight of it all was quite therapeutic.

Then I had to go to work.

On Friendship

It's a strange phenomenon that the same person can either drain you of energy or refresh you.

How can you break down the dynamics of communion between two people into chemicals and biological processes?

I'm sure some scientist has pinpointed all the little chemical pathways that instigate emotional responses, but is an emotional response a predictable process? Can you predict what a particular situation will elicit from different individuals?

I should have paid more attention in biology.

But something in me rebels from the thought that my experience boils down to a chemical. Somehow that is too simple to account for the richness of living. Or maybe I underestimate chemicals. Or maybe I don't like thinking that all the wonderful feelings and experiences I live can be teased out of some tube under a fluorescent light in a chemistry lab. Seems to cheapen my value or worth.

Why do I respect things I don't understand?

Why do I keep writing this babble?

Peanut butter

I've been trying to muster up some inspiration to write a deep, thought-provoking blog, but for some reason inspiration doesn't come that way. Or maybe I'm just not deep and thoughtful.

Instead I'm going to tell you about the superiority of Kroger brand crunchy peanut butter. It's basically the best you can get if you like crunchy peanut butter. It has nothing short of whole halves of peanuts, and Kroger isn't skimpy on dishing them out, either. It's kind of like the whole Raisin Bran "two scoops" thing, only with peanuts in peanut butter instead of raisins in cardboard flakes (don't misunderstand me; I like those cardboard flakes, but I really don't know a better way to describe them).

I often ponder the use of the word "crunchy" to label crunchy peanut butter. I don't think of peanuts as crunchy, reserving that word for things like toast or croutons. But I have seen the label "chunky" peanut butter. That's just gross, so I guess it's why the industry (in general) sticks with the "crunchy" usage.

My GRE study guide came in yesterday, so I have no excuse to put off studying for that lovely exam. I also got Far From the Madding Gerund, which has an amusing account of author bios on the back cover. You should check it out. My only hope is that linguistics will save me too!

Keep an open mind?

Lately I've been challenged in my perception of life. I keep running into these statements that force me to stop and reconsider everything I've held to be right and true.

For example, "Bacon is a vegetable." I've always thought bacon tasty, but have (almost) always felt some guilt when eating it for fear that the one slice I just consumed hardened my left ventricular artery or caused another lipid molecule to adhere to the vessel wall, beginning the dark, dangerous path to a clot. But now I am faced with the option of believing (if I want to keep an open mind, after all) that bacon falls under the category of vegetable, that class of foods purported to increase years and quality of life. The real question is whether my belief changes reality (after all, I do want to keep an open mind). Well, you see, I can believe that it does (for me, at least) or I can believe that it doesn't, which would put me right back where I was before I read that bacon is a vegetable. I certainly don't want to think that I wasted all this time reading and contemplating that statement, so for the sake of redeeming potentially wasted time I'll just choose to believe it (haha! I love grammar. You, dear reader, have no idea what I've decided to believe! There are way too many antecedents for that pronoun. Anyway, in the interests of relativity, I'll let you decide which noun "it" refers to.)

The other statement I've seen is "feelings are boring, kissing is awesome." I had to think about this one for a while because, you see, I'm a girl. If you've lived life more than five minutes, you've heard that girls are all into feelings and relationships and stuff like that. You might think that this statement comes from a guy, seeing that they are the ones always classified as "chauvinist pigs" and "too physical" and etc. But, after long, careful contemplation, I have to agree with this statement. I'd make one revision: "feelings are boring, good kissing is awesome" (though that may just be my feelings saying that).

Birthdays

Today is my friend Sarah Jo's birthday. It's overcast and windy, which would make one think that it's a bad day for a birthday.

BUT

we're under a tornado watch. For most people that may mean an even worse birthday, but not so for my dear friend. No, some of us have a great appreciation for the more violent of mother nature's expressions. Wait, I'm Presbyterian, I don't believe in mother nature (or do I?). Anyway, the fact that we're under a tornado watch, in Sarah Jo's eyes, redeems the overcastedness of the day making it all add up to a fantastic birthday day. Though she did admit that it would be most exciting if we actually have a tornado and no damage is caused and no people injured.

I'm not really that fascinated with tornadoes, but a good, thorough thunderstorm does get me excited. The strength of air and water in that context astounds me. Well, whatever happens . . .

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SARAH JO!!

I hope you have a great day.