Archive for June, 2007

“When earthly hopes shall fail”

Published at June 29, 2007 in Blabber. 0 Comments

We found an apartment. In order to do so, we left Abed-nego locked up in the bathroom for 13 hours. I felt pretty bad about that, but I am proud to report that he didn’t destroy anything and just peed in the bathtub.

Since we have a dog, we were kind of limited with apartment options. I called a lot of different places, both corporately owned and privately owned and it came down to two apartments. The first was cheaper, but 20-30 minutes away from campus, small and dark, not the best area, required a pet deposit and monthly pet fee, no washer and dryer (but you can rent one for $40 extra a month), and Chris had no cell service and I had one bar (we aren’t planning on getting a land line). The second was a bit more expense, but 5 minutes exactly from campus and everything else, a really good and safe area, a good reputation, had a washer and dryer, a 2 bedroom (no 1 bedrooms available), brighter and newer and prettier, and a one time pet deposit without a monthly fee.

So, after weighing out these options we decided that it was worth it to us to feel safer and to be closer to school even if we had to spend more. We put down a deposit and our application is in the process of being approved. I guess we’ll be moving within a week or so. We also applied for some part time jobs around town to help bring in extra money to live off of. I am kind of scared about expenses, but we’ve been playing with a budget over the months and it looks possible.

After all that we went up the mountain to my aunt’s house for dinner. Lynchburg is so beautiful with grassy rolling hills being eaten away by cows. I can’t wait for Lynchburg to become home. Everything feels right. It has ever since we began this process. It was interrupted for a little while and I couldn’t understand why, but now it is all going smoothly.

I notice that when listening to music, I don’t often distinguish the words that are being sung, because I can’t get myself to stop paying attention to the instruments. Chris plays a “what instrument is making that noise” game with me often, because to him, everything becomes one sound and he can’t separate it. Kind of strange how our ears are. I’m tired and not making much sense. I feel happy. I feel blessed. I feel uncertain, but I shouldn’t. Mr. Rufus just ran over me to get my attention.

“chase what makes your heart flutter”

Published at June 28, 2007 in Blabber. 0 Comments

Dear Life,

I’ll never understand you.

Much love,
Katie

Okay, it is official–actually it will be official once I drop these forms in the mail. Christopher and Katie Robinson are moving to Lynchburg, Virginia and will be Graduate Student Assistants for Liberty University’s English graduate program. The corporate world can wait a couple of years. We’re doing it.

Today: FAFSA in hopes of getting the V-tag grant.
Tomorrow: apartment shopping in Lynchburg.

“and when cloven hoof prints turn up in the garden, we keep up the good fight”

Published at June 27, 2007 in Music and Blabber. 2 Comments

The interviewing process certainly is exhausting. Finding the job, then getting a call back, then driving an hour for an interview, then waiting…. and waiting…. I get scared sometimes and worn out and these are just Christopher’s. Not mine yet. It’s strange how nothing goes how I imagined it would. That isn’t necessarily a bad thing. When I was a kid, I didn’t really think I would go to college and definitely not in Farmville, Virginia of all places. Then when we came here, it didn’t turn out how I had expected. It was very different. I thought we’d be in a different situation right now as well. I have no clue what the future will hold, so I guess I can’t be wrong about it.

Yesterday evening we went for a run around campus. We thought it wouldn’t be as hot if we waited until dusk. It was still hot. We saw Herlan walking his chocolate monster, I mean lab. Then we saw Dr. McGee walking to his car. We ran down the Wheeler lawn. So many memories around there… We used to walk on the lawn after a certain class and complained about a certain American lit professor, we talked Dr. Tracy into letting us have class outside when we read Dr. Faustus by Christopher Marlowe, we talked Dr. Challender into letting us have class out there and saw a little squirrel running all over the place, we eventually walked the lawn for graduation.

After the run, we ran through the fountain by the library–for those of you who don’t know the Longwood campus, it is one that shoots up from the ground. Our first week at Longwood we rode our bikes through that fountain at night. We came back and watched “The Last Kiss.” Thankfully, I had heard that it was disappointing and so I wasn’t too disappointed. I just really was bothered by Jenna constantly changing her moods from “I’m sad at you” to “I hate you” when she was always priding herself in being reasonable. Also, I found everyone else’s situations much more interesting and realistic than Michael and Jenna’s. It was all too contrived. And the ending? Come on. This movie felt like it was trying to go beyond pleasing a young teen audience, something that looks at how relationships really can end up instead of ideals. The ending was way too romantic comedy for me. But, hey, I’m hard to please. My favorite character was Chris, because he was flat and round at the same time. He didn’t say much or much with depth, but I got it.

“Hwæt!” –the first word of Beowulf in Anglo-Saxon

Published at June 25, 2007 in Photography and Blabber. 0 Comments

It rained last night, so the morning air was thick with humidity today. That could not serve as an excuse, we needed to go on a run. We headed up to Wilck’s Lake and had it mostly to ourselves. Everything has become so much greener in Farmville. It almost seemed like a different park. We even saw a turtle laying eggs. Abed-nego was very excited to get out running again.

We went to campus to check with the registrar on some transcripts. I feel like we are always getting transcripts for something, whether it be transferring summer school courses or applying to grad school or proving to a company that we did indeed go to Longwood University…. When we went into the commuter lot we noticed a few of our professors’ cars. I like that we know what cars our professors drive and their personalized license plates. I guess that goes to prove that at Longwood you really do get to know your professors. I really miss them already. Part of me wants to ask Dr. Tracy if we can sit in on her Tolkien summer course. It’s second session, I believe, and we already read Beowulf and Saga of the Volsungs.

Anyway, on the way to the registrar’s office we saw Jessi and her new puppy. I must really have some sort of cosmic dog connection with Dr. Riden, because she came out to see the puppy too. This is the third time that I have seen Dr. Riden and our meetings have always been centered around a dog. 1. At the vet they confused our last names. Her dog was very sick and my dog was getting his last round of puppy shots. 2. We ran into each other walking our dogs at Wilck’s Lake. 3. We both were admiring Jessi’s puppy. Weird or what?

After dinner we went back to campus to walk around at night. I’m already missing that place. It really is all over…. I love campus and it looks so beautiful and green this time of year. We took a bunch of photos.


The Confederate soldier statue on High Street.


Farmville United Methodist on High Street.


Ruffner.


The inside of Ruffner. That is a statue of Joan of Arc, the patron saint of Longwood.


Grainger, Department of English and Modern Languages.


A fountain on Brock Commons.


And Abed-nego. Just because.

“and you and I are open wide”

Published at June 23, 2007 in Music. 0 Comments

Christopher is typing up his own thoughts on The Polyphonic Spree so in order to make sure space is not wasted, I too will post an mp3 of “Running Away” along with my thoughts.

I saw The Polyphonic Spree in concert for the first time in May. At first I was slightly turned off, because I had been told that the band retired their robes for army uniforms and the lead singer (Tim DeLaughter) cut his hair. Instead it turned out to be the best concert I have been to filled with happiness and confetti machines. These tricks are nothing new with bands such as The Flaming Lips focusing on the brighter side of life. However, I have not been able to experience The Flaming Lips, so it was new to me. The Polyphonic Spree members seem to be like a family, all working together. When the pianist played a lengthy solo, all the members watched him smiling as if he were their younger brother and they were proud of his achievement. They all seem to really believe in spreading hope and love.

In my opinion, the shift from The Beginning Stages…. to Together We’re Heavy had lost something. I think that some of the songs had too many changes for me to recognize them as a unit. The transitions from fast and upbeat to slow and somber felt unnatural and uncalled for. Maybe if they had been cut into separate songs then I would have accepted them better. The earlier songs on the album such as “Hold Me Now” and “Diamonds/Mild Devotion to Majesty” felt more complete and accurate than later songs.

The new album The Fragile Army has some of the same issues, but not quite to the extent that Together We’re Heavy holds. For example, the title track (”The Fragile Army”) truly is one of my favorite songs off the album, but I cannot say that I am too impressed with the beginning of the song. Then I am amazed after the first transition. I do see the need for a separate beginning, yet I don’t think they hit it right-on in this situation. Maybe I’m too critical and maybe you have to be prepared and set up in order to appreciate the insides of a song.  Other songs grab me right from the beginning, such as “The Championship,” which uses strings to connect the song.  I’m sure Tim knows a lot more about music than I do.

Overall, The Polyphonic Spree is developing and needs the support of its fans. Tim continually begged the audience to not steal The Fragile Army, because they are “sick of getting dropped from labels.” It is a good album. I appreciate horns more because of it and am loving the increase in flute eruptions. It was better live, but I guess that’s the way it goes most of the time. The Polyphonic Spree always comes through with a message hope despite being beaten down. At the end of the concert, they left and returned with their robes on. I captured this photo on my camera phone.


Download “Running Away” from The Fragile Army.
(It’s okay to take. They made it available to the public themselves as a demo).

“as a five-year-old scientist leaves the room”

Published at June 23, 2007 in Blabber. 1 Comment

Our fridge is back to normal again. It was looking a little scary for a while… It still smells like death a bit, but baking soda is in the process of taking care of that. Now we can actually buy some food and cook a meal tonight.

The weather outside today has been absolutely perfect. Not too hot and with a nice breeze. I wonder if this is a weather shift all around or if just Farmville is feeling heavenly. Either way, I’m looking forward to taking Abed-nego on a walk at some point today or maybe a run. We haven’t ran in a while. Things became so busy right before the wedding and then not only was it terribly hot, but we completely fell out of our pattern. Now we have nothing to do, but job search so I think we will be able to ease back into a routine.

The photography site is now functional if you care to look.

“like a bat against a barn to greet the autumn and late hungry ravens as a hollow yellow sign.”

Published at June 22, 2007 in Blabber. 0 Comments

Ah, so a new blog outlet has been created.  It is something that is needed every now and then, like a new physical journal.  Pages get boring and the fancy cover that just has to be bought loses its charm.  I have been using a livejournal for the past three and a half years.  Reluctantly I switched to livejournal from my own domain.  This was due to some technical problems and also the idea of being able to receive comments made me feel as if I had a real audience.  Well, now I can have the best of both worlds.  I just hope that my friends will continue to read despite the move.

Christopher and I have made the move back to Farmville, Virginia.  We will remain here until we figure exactly what our next step in life is.  Things are so confusing right now.  One door seems to close and the very same day, a new door opens.  As Chris said earlier, it feels like we are in a maze.  There has to be a point to this in the end, I know it.  Anyway, it is nice to be back with all of my books again.  I had left my Leonard Cohen poetry books here, because I knew I wouldn’t have time to thumb through them.  Now we are reunited.  I had considered buying the 50th anniversary reprint of “Let Us Compare Mythologies” from Barnes and Noble, but $20 was just too much.  Sorry, Lenny.  It is okay, though, because I have a large selection of poems from “Let Us Compare Mythologies” in a book.  The title of the blog is an excerpt from the poem “For Wilf and His House” and I believe is where the title of the book came from.

Well, no one cares that much about Leonard Cohen and exactly what yellow-paged books Christopher bought me from a used book store in Richmond.  It’s time to head to Wal Mart for some food.  No perishables, though, because our fridge is dead.