Oh, crap!

MISSING:
One green and white striped hammock!
I just came home from work yesterday and it was gone! Man, that's what I get for bragging about it on the internet. I figure either it blew away during the thunderstorm, or some jealous poopoohead stole it! Anyway, if any of you happen to be in the neighborhood and come across a green and white hammock, please bring him home!

Great weather, not-so-great photography

I don't care what other teachers say, they're lying if they don't admit that the extra days off are quite a perk. In other words: I had the day off, and I was pretty darn happy about it. Don't get me wrong, I adore my job. But I adore play time just as much.

My roomie put the hammock up a few days ago, and I'm pretty sure this contraption is going to be the end of me. Or atleast the end of my motivation. Since the day was absolutely irresistible, and all my friends and family were at work, I decided to explore the lake across the street and take some pictures.

I know nothing about taking good pictures. And as far as my taste is concerned, I've always been more intrigued by urban images. But today I've taken a fancy to images that have both urban and wildlife images cohabiting. Minnesota's a funny place in that perspective; both urban and wildlife elements exist so close together. In one way, I love MN for it, you get the best of both worlds. But at the same time, you start to wonder how one affects the other, and vice versa. The Twin Cities are growing so rapidly, I can't keep track anymore. And it concerns me at times.



Well, have a wonderful week everyone. Back to work, it is:)

New Blog Name!

You may have noticed the curious new title to my blog. Friend and fellow blogger cK had a link to my blog entitled: Mips (The Skyylark). And this kinda cracked me up and inspired me. Mips is an old nickname that my family has called me for years. And Skyylark, well, if you've ever met me or are familiar with my musical obsessions, it's pretty self-explanatory. So there you go. Hope you all continue to read; I'm thoroughly enjoying all the funny and insightful comments from friends and strangers. Later!

Thank you, azithromycin, I never could have done it without you.

Hey all. Sorry I've neglected my blog lately. I'm starting to feel a whole lot better tonight (refer to post title) and I'm back with a vengence! I live for the day that I start feeling somewhat normal after being sick, and as a result, I'm feeling rather plucky. Thus, I've decided to do a sequel to a previous post I wrote on my old MySpace blog: "5 Things That Make Missy Happy." Here we go:

5 More Things That Make Missy Happy

1. When one has been sick for a over a week, the best part of getting better is when your ear pops and all of the sudden you can hear again. This happened to me today while chewing on a sticky bun, and I just felt like a million bucks afterward. It's somewhat of a sad satisfaction. However, when this occurs I feel like shouting from the rooftops, "Glory Hallelujah! I can HEEEEEEEAR!". I dunno, that's just me.

2. The song, "The Beautiful Ones" by Prince. And the live performance of it in the movie Purple Rain is even better. Ah, Purple Rain. It's so bad, it's good. I saw it for $9.99 at Target, and I couldn't resist. Anyway, back to the song. All technical aspects aside, the outpour of emotion in the Purple One's vocal performance is beyond compare. This may reveal me as a big sap, but if a man were to ever sing that song to me on stage, I'm pretty sure I'd marry him and love him forever. I know everyone says this, but Prince is amazing. Has there ever been a man of his physical stature that has ever achieved so much game? I think not.

3. Seasons. As much as I curse this God-forsaken state and it's endless frickin' winters, I really don't know what I would do without its seasons. It's been just gorgeous out lately. The lake across the street from my house has broken free, and has turned from a stiff grey and white to a restless dark blue. Seasons serve as fabulous metaphors for our dispositions. Anything bad that may have happened in the winter can melt away with the snow. An unpleasant occurance in the summer can dry up and hurtle to the ground in the fall. These cycles give us so many chances for renewal. And though I may gripe endlessly about shoveling, rakeing, or whatever hassles Mother Nature may bring, I also can't live without it.

4. Album, "Astral Weeks", by Van Morrison. This record was given to me as a gift by a man I used to date. And honestly, this album is the best thing that ever came of that whole dating experience. That may sound bitter, but on the contrary, I think it's rather optimistic of me. This album blew my mind the first time I listened to it. Usually my favorite-albums-of-all-time are ones that I wasn't nuts about at first, but continued to grow on me. "Astral Weeks" had me at 'hello'. While the core of the songwriting is led by acoustic guitar, the arrangements are sprinkled with flutes, vibraphone, horns, percussion, strings, and a string bass. (Ohh, don't get me started on the string bass. All I'm going to say is that it's one of my favorite instruments). I don't believe that there's a single electric instrument in the whole album. The songs are earthy, passionate, and chalk-full of dizzy, achingly beautiful lyrics and vocals that only Van Morrison can pull off. It's the shiznit. Favorite tracks include "Sweet Thing", "Beside You", and "Young Lovers Do".

5. While sitting at wedding receptions, I like to people watch. Mainly because in any other circumstances certain behaviors would be considered taboo. But because it's a wedding, it's all to be expected. Especially when about half of the wedding guests have had a few, and start to, uh...overestimate themselves on the dance floor. I've seen priests fall on their keisters, aunties, uncles and grandparents nearly kill themselves pulling an ambitious jig, and even a groom who broke his ankle slipping on some beer on the dance floor. (This last one, however, did NOT make Missy happy. Missy is not sadistic:) And along with the funny and treachorous moments, you also observe the loving couples, cute families, and childhood friends that would do anything for eachother. All borders and boundaries are down, and you get to witness a raw display of love and life. How great is that?

*sniffle

I haven't had much of a chance to gather some interesting thoughts lately. My inner monologue for the past day-and-a-half has consisted of: "Missy don't like being sick, Missy don't like being sick. I want some tea. I can't breathe through my nose. Missy don't like being sick." Well, if I'm going to have to stay home on a Saturday night (while all my healthy buddies go out, poop faces!) atleast it gives me no choice but to get some procrastinated planning work done. And it also gave me an excuse to practice strumming my ukulele. I'm not kidding. I'm a part of an acoustic duo, and we toyed with the idea of me contributing some ukulele magic to a song or two. We'll see how that goes, no guarantees people:)



Here's me strummin my uk. Seriously, I look this good when I'm sick:) Hey, if I just spent a half-hour figuring out how to play Guided By Voices' song, "Game of Pricks" on my ukulele, does that officially make me nutty? This isn't a rhetorical question. For real, I want answers. Well, off to bed I go, night.