I was hoping to write this blog post when I get back to Austin. It’s just easier to blog when in Austin. Unfortunately, I ran into some car problems and am stranded in Houston at least another day so here I am writing an open letter to you from Houston. The good thing is I was able to dig up in my old bedroom photos of you from high school! Look at you over 10 years ago!
I had no idea how lucky I was in high school. To share a city with you and be able to see you at least 5 days a week. We haven’t been able to do that since. With the way things have gone the last decade, I don’t think we’ll ever live in the same city again. When I think about this, it makes me feel a little hopeless. How can we get through never seeing each other? But then I quickly remember we’ve managed to talk for hours most days and are blessed to be able to visit at least once a year. I’m so thankful for this.
It’s also kind of awesome how well we get along despite our glaring differences. I think if we itemize everything, our list of differences would vastly outweigh our list of commonalities. I think my life is made richer not only by our friendship but the difference in perspective you always give me.
I’m so lucky to have grown up with you! Here’s to more growing up. Happiest birthday to you!
It’s that time of year again! I share with you my personal recap of 2010. This year was much better than 2009 (which was much worse than my 2008). It was a year of recovery and regaining balance. I feel very fondly of 2010 but I’m ready to embrace 2011. Bring it!
Moved out of my 2 bedroom apartment which I shared with Brandi and into a 1 bedroom by my lonesome. Meanwhile, Brandi moved to Dallas for culinary school.
My half sister whom I haven’t seen in over ten years found me on Facebook.
Dressed up as a cop for Halloween.
Auditioned for a travel reality TV show after receiving an email from a casting director. I took Neville as possible partner and he totally outshone me.
A close friend’s brother died unexpectedly. Being with her has been a top priority whenever I’m in Houston. I’ve grown deeper in love for and with her.
Attended annual Christmas Party for Big Brothers and Big Sisters of America with my little and her cousin. This is our third year in attendance!
Had hot pot on Christmas day twice. Lunch with Mary Ellen and her mom and her brother, and dinner with my own family. I did exactly this last year for Christmas!
Tomorrow’s plan is to party on a rooftop downtown in celebration of a new and fresh year. A stretch Hummer may have been rented.
Annual Christmas Party with my Little
That was my year! I’m happy to have shared it with you and have your support, comments, and readership. It means an awful lot to me. Thank you!
Question: What are five highlights from your 2010?
I was organizing my box of letters today and I stumbled upon a letter from my friend, Cindy. It wasn’t dated so I couldn’t really cross-reference any of my running records to see why she was so encouraging. Regardless, it was such a sweet letter. Recently, I’ve been soul-searching to see if I give back as much as I receive. I was worried that maybe I’m a crummy friend. Re-reading this letter was reassurance that I have done some stuff right. Which means, I just need to keep an eye on who I want to be and continue to reach. Here’s the letter. Shared with permission.
Dearest Linda,
Another year has passed, meaning a full year tacked on to our friendship. In the past year:
- You’ve shown the meaning of a true friendship. Not necessarily with your actions directed towards me, but also with the way you treat your other friends. I know very few people who are as loyal, caring, or genuine as you are. A true gem amongst friends.
- You’ve shown more strength than you will ever know. I know you feel like you’ve regressed, but I’ve never seen someone fight as much as you have for emotional peace of mind. You’re stronger than you think, and I know you’ll make it through. It’ll take time, but I know you’ll make it.
- You’ve shown me how to appreciate the little things in life. You have no idea how much this has changed the way I carry myself in my own little cynical world. In this way, you’ve literally changed my life.
- You’ve taught me to love the people around me, and most of all, to love life itself and all that it can offer for me. For that, there’s no amount of words that I could say to thank you.
Here’s to another year my dear.
Ti voglio bene,
Cindy
My heart was thoroughly warmed today when I read this letter. Sometimes it’s hard to not let the bad things people say about you outweigh the good things people say about you. Having tangible rave reviews around for those days is good for the spirit.
Question: How do you take criticism? Do you fixate on them? Ignore them?
Today is day 5 of National Blog Posting Month. To participate, alls you gotta do is post a blog post everyday in November. I totally underestimated how challenging NaBloPoMo is going to be. I thought if I managed alright posting a video blog everyday in August for VEDA, I can manage blogging everyday in November. I totally forgot that VEDA came with an editorial calendar. It’s only the first week and I’m already struggling! No idea what I’m going to blog tomorrow!
2.
I sent 9 of these note cards out this week. I stumbled on these note cards at a dollar store a while back. I bought 3 packs of 8 and kind of wish I just emptied out the stock. I sent them all as thank you notes. Pink for the ladies and not pictured is the cream colored identical set for the dudes. I finally grew up and converted from expressing gratitude through phone calls and emails to paper note cards. My friend Hillary is my inspiration behind sending out paper thank yous. She’s amazingly diligent in sending out postal notes of gratitude and has been for years.
3.
I started Christmas shopping. This one is for my mom. Regarding the paper: I have a longstanding love affair with penguins and snow globes.
4.
I’m running/walking Race for the Cure with Brittany this Sunday. Still a little shy from my goal. Please consider helping fund research and supplies to breast cancer patients by donating as little as 5 dollars. You can do so by clicking on the link.
5.
Click for bigger image
I was walking on campus when I stumbled on this water bottle. The bottle had a message. I only had my cellphone on me, hence the crummy photo quality. The tag reads:
A stalker’s worst fear is being found out. I think I gave myself away yesterday morning. There is an old lady who works out at a gym on campus. I’ve come to look for her car at around 8 – 8:30am in the morning when I’m desperately circling for a parking spot. Yesterday, I saw her car is still there and I was still sans parking space. So I started my usual creepy routine of circling the lot with an eye out for her and the other on her car. It took a while and I had just driven past her car to see her coming out of the gym. I totally reversed, planted myself with turn signal on, and waited for her to reach her car. Could the stalking get more obvious?
7.
This week’s moments of bliss: ♥ Being able to lend a helping hand for once to my saint of a friend Dave. He’s usually the helper and not the helpee ♥ Walking hand in hand with Alan downtown in between noshing at a couple of restaurants. Something about strolling hand in hand during one of the first chilly nights of the season got me. Weird, but I’ll go with it. ♥ An email from Jessica. She used to be my neighbor for over 3 years and moved out of town just 3 months ago. I miss her dearly. ♥ Two long online chats with my Solemate, after months without. Click on the link. Her new blog (as with all her blogs) is a treat for the eyes and soul. See! We do know the difference between soul and sole.
Question: What were your moments of bliss this week?
Throughout my life I’ve heard references to Who’s Afraid of Virgina Woolfe? in pop culture. In TV shows, movies, and books, and each time I wondered, what is Who’s Afraid of Virgina Woolf? about? I received an email from the Harry Ransom Center (a museum on campus) and they’re screening (for free!) the film. So I invited Brittany, my movie buddy along to be my date last night. Neither of us did any research to see what we were in for. I knew that an emotionally abusive couple invites another couple over for drinks. Other than that, I wasn’t sure what to expect. The lady who sat next to me said she avoided watching this movie for years because she heard it was intense. Here, watch the trailer.
Needless to say, it quite a ride. The dialogue was biting and hilarious which is just as well since we needed the comic relief! I can see why it was such a sensation back in the day. I’m still processing the movie but for now, suffice to say it was pretty good and pretty disturbing.
2.
A few hours after Who’s Afraid of Virgina Woolf? let out, I embarked on my second movie of the evening. The midnight showing of Inception. I won’t torment you by posting the trailer. If you haven’t seen the trailer, you must be living underneath a rock. The trailer has been out for what seems like a full year!
Thoughts and reactions: Alan said this may be the most fun he’s had at a movie ever, he didn’t want it to end, and he thinks everyone should see Inception at least twice. I on the other hand barely made it through. I agree it was pretty original, intricate, well woven, LAYERS, literally LAYERS of realities and fantasies happening at once. I liked the concept and the plot but the pacing was too slow for me. However, when reviewing Sci-fi and fantasy books and movies, you should know I have a hard time suspending disbelief and it’s usually not my genre. I walk in with my walls up. The other couple we went with both thoroughly enjoyed it.
2 movies. 1 night. 2.5 hours of sleep. Today will be a long work day.
3.
I checked my mail for the first time this week yesterday night. Am pleased to have gotten 2 real letters! One from France from Ms. Brenda.
4.
The second letter from Madison from Ms. Jen. This has now upped my letters owed to 4 letters. Writing these letters is on the weekend to do list! I’m guessing at this rate, I’ve either already reached and or will exceed one of my New Year’s Resolutions of sending out 15 letters.
5.
I’m all unpacked and set up in my new one bedroom apartment. I built this bookshelf with my BARE HANDS. NO HELP FROM BOYS. I’m the least handy girl I know. Brandi (previous roommate) helped me screw in some screws and that’s about all the help I got. It took me three days but never mind that, I’m a (mostly) independent woman, what what? YEAH. Do you see the black things attaching the bookshelf to the wall (top shelves)? I actually used plastic anchors and screws. I’m most proud of that. I had no idea what plastic anchors were! They’re plastic screwy things that you push into your dry wall to help “anchor” your screws and not ruin your dry wall. Do you hear that? I actually have some sort of clue of what I’m talking about.
Okay. Calm. My point is, my apartment is now homey (I only have one box of shoes left) and I built a bookshelf.
6.
I miss Houston. I miss the food and I miss the people. I think maybe in August I need to go down there. Plan a few good meals, eat some momma food… Replenish.
7.
Weekend obligations/chores: hang out with the little from Big Bros Big Sis’s of America, grocery shopping for next week, return stupid Time Warner cable box, laundry, write zee letters, cook a meal, and crank out some blog entries.
Hopefully some fun and sleep will come my way too! Happy Friday peoples.
I’m moving in less than a month and have not started to tackle the mountain of a challenge of packing and uncluttering. Every year, I move. Every year, I tell myself, “Linda, you must not buy so much stuff. Do you need all these miniskirts? You are a working woman and you can only wear these skirts two days a week!” Etc! The only good thing about moving is that it’s a good time to reminisce and take stock of your physical life and your emotional life. Letters from old friends surface. Sentimental keepsakes surface. Journals are opened and perused before stacked neatly in boxes. I’m looking forward to going down memory lane. It’s a moving tradition.
2.
One of my 2010 resolutions is to write 15 letters. I wrote a few for Valentine’s Day but I cannot for the life of me remember how many. I think 4 is lowballing. I forgot this was a resolution so I haven’t been keeping out. I think it’s safe I’ve sent at least 7 this year. I’ll start the count there. I’ve been meaning to write Suki of SuperDuperFantastic for what, a month now and that first letter to someone is always kind of intimidating.
I’m almost out of my Lisa Frank stickers circa SECOND GRADE. That’s 1990! I like to sticker bomb my correspondents with stickers from my massive childhood collection. See below, Kim’s facebook photo of a letter I sent her a few weeks ago.
The sweet blurb she posted with picture:
one of the best qualities to find in people is their ability to remain young at heart. playing in the snow, getting excited about fireworks or making smores, water balloon fights, lisa frank sticker-bombing notes to your friends. i hope we never grow up.
3.
Curious, I did a search on zee blog and found a picture from this year of a batch of cards I sent out for Valentine’s day. I counted 5 in this picture. Booyah! I have adjusted my letter/correspondent count to 8.
Alan just gave me a morning call to thank me for the serving of lasagna I dropped off last night. (I like early morning calls from him.) I made my first lasagna!! The excitement still hasn’t completely worn off. Made it for a mini potluck. Mini includes myself, Bing, Deesh, and Jesse in attendance. Here’s a picture of my plate pre baked beans. Kind of funny. Do you see any vegetables? Not pictured is Jesse’s cake.
In our defense, we winged it. This potluck’s only stipulation was “bring what you want.”
5.
I had my first and hopefully my last Double Down this week. I give you permission to be disgusted at me. If I’m going down though, I’m taking my partners in crime with me. See photo of guilty partners in crime below.
6.
Remember how I told you Brittany and I were making eyes at a real live camel? I have proof! This was taken at the Bob Bullock Museum after a free screening of Arabia (IMAX & 3D).
Don’t be coy with me, Camel.
7.
I’ve sat and contemplated no. 7 for a while now. I give up and share with you another picture. A wipe board message from an undergraduate who left our lab. I never get used to that part of growing up, the goodbyes :(.
This cell phone picture does not do you justice. In fact, any photo would not give you justice. We’ve missed you and it’s been way too long. We thought Mighty Fine would be a close competitor but we were wrong. We want you to know that if you should ever come to Texas, you’d be eagerly and appreciatively received.
Reunited and it feels so good,
Alan & Linda.
About Linda
Texas native. Living and working in Austin, TX. Twenty something. In hot pursuit of good food, adventure, and laughter. Dreams of owning her own place with a big giant library.
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