10 things I prefer

[snobby cats
watching people eat their boogers
a papercut
discovering a typo after you've printed off the final draft (on good paper)
chapped lips with ne'er a chapstick in sight
artificially induced wedgies
regular wedgies
when the roof of your mouth goes raw from too many bowls of sugar cereal in a row
a herd of deranged, rabid wildebeests
mail that won't come]

to teaching jr high

a little early a little late

this happy baby Charlotte was born last week. two weeks early, but not a second too soon (for me anyway).

Congratulations Jeff and Nicole. I love you

Happy 3-year Anniversary

to me.
3 years ago today I got home from the mish. what a trip. It feels like someone else's lifetime. like stories someone has told me so many times I can tell them like they happened to me. but they didn't.
Tonight Andrew told the family stories about his mission, which of course sparked stories in me. Stories I didn't know I had. they just sprang out of me: Spring!
People I have loved and almost forgotten. Or some I will never forget. As buried as they may be, they surface. time and again.
I have been good. and bad. I have been so many things since my mission. But I am happy today, that I am on the road to being the woman my missionary self would have admired. I'm happy to find that the gospel of Jesus Christ has so much depth, even in the simple things. That faith and forgiveness. Redemption. all have expanded meaning for me compared to then, even at that spiritual peak.
I hope that when I'm 85 (oh for goodness sake, if I'm not dead yet!) I can wish myself a happy 60th anniversary from some even loftier vantage point. Sana. Sa awa ng diyos.

5 reasons to fall in love

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happy valentines

oh man, what was I thinking

so, I have finally found some employment, in the form of substitute teaching. Last Friday was my first time and I got to work as a substitute librarian. Pretty nice, albeit a little on the quiet side. HA! the thought that I ever complained about that makes me laugh like a prima donna, first lady of the hour.
BECAUSE, today I substituted for jr high history and it wasn't quiet anymore. It was pretty much full-on insanity. just like the movies--teacher leaves; cut to the sub, head down on her desk in despair while ADD ridden cretins run around the room yelling. At lunch (30 min.) it was all I could do to sit there dumbstruck after the bell rang and the last hellion had filed out of the class. I think I sent out a few distress signals.
help me. I've been swallowed by a whale. a pre-teen whale.
I've always been a teacher that didn't have a firm grasp on discipline. I remember now, that would sometimes frustrate me with my missionaries and with my anatomy students. But this is on a totally different level. this is nuts.
I'd say 50 bucks isn't worth a day of this strange hell. but I already had to put so much money upfront (14 bucks for my TB test; 15 bucks to run my fingerprints), plus my pride/desire to be master of all I see. I mean, here I am handed a weakness on a silver platter. shouldn't I make a go at making it a strength? but I may die trying. Really. I may die.

Dog love

I dream about Frank several times a week. and I have a theory that he is in all of my dreams. just not always in an obvious way. Sitting there in a dream corner, he's the rug or part of the light fixture.
sometimes the dream is all about him--dying all over again, or barking away faceless trouble just outside my door.
Or else being cute and warm on my bed when we've both just woken up. fat belly up, hair guinea-pig-matted from sleep
sometimes I am aware of him in the background--being walked, or crouching down on his front paws, taking note of the crazy dream-play going by.
It's been 3 years. do you think I'll ever shake him

old friends

I'd prefer you as a memory, a point of interest on my travelogue.
wouldn't we like it distant and always perfect? You can remember me hazy. a photograph from the forties, blurred until we are beautiful. I'll make you a mood. those new boots in Winter. the night's thrill of crunching snow.
We could be a poem. clean, concise, efficient. leave out the vulgarity of insignificant details: your bathrobe on the floor; the hair on this carpet

Does Amanda Bynes have ears?

something fishy is going on.

sunday thoughts on a monday morning

Oh Utah altitude. eat poo and die.
Does anyone know how to spell pooh? I like mine with an H, but someone told me that only goes for the bear.

my stake president promised us in sacrament meeting that if we would read at least 3 pages of the Book of Mormon everyday for the rest of our lives, we would be exalted in the Celestial kingdom.
I believe him. Not because he had power to grant us some once in a lifetime fairy blessing or genie wish. but because the Book of Mormon has power to change us. That book is from God and when you study it you can't help but become like Him.
When I read it I feel my heart soften. It becomes easier to separate out the cares and philosophies of the world from those things that are eternal.
I am filled with the desire to know God; to be close to Him through obedience.
Oh, it is delicious to me. It is perfecting me. I think that if you had been visiting our ward that day, he probably would have still offered that promise. to you.

so let's get on it Holmes! I don't want to be up there alone ;)

my sweet ride

Well, it's a cuter. what can I say.
what a great week I've had with my family.
I have decided that provo (in all its glory) is one place I come to get strong again. like Lenk on the Legend of Zelda game and those crazy caves where fairies fly around you and fill up your power hearts. give me some P town and I feel ready to bump into jumping spiders and get hit by those fireballs the dude in the water spits out at you.
I know soon enough I will grow antsy,
because I am a rover. hiked a hundred highways and never found my home.
but for now it is sweet surrender:
david's hugs, madison's wet baby kisses
jenny's cooking
andrew's insanity
and jeff's conversations
mandy's nooks and crannies (!)
mom in general

and that's just my family. they soothe that nag for other places and other people who I have loved. who I love now. and give me space to rejuvenate without too much missing.
one day, you know, we will never have to miss again. because that is my heaven and where I hope to head

I am so Mormon

I believe it all.

sorry to be vague on that point.

I'm a little nervous

about being unemployed
about preparing for the MCAT (6+ years after taking the pre-reqs)
about my new phone--can't figure out the text messaging. HELP!!
about RM Andrew

and apostate Erin
about leaving old friends
and seeing older friends
about driving in this snow
about the way my voice sounds on tape
about the old milk
about this orange blog

Blog-xiety

Hey buddies. well, to cut straight to the meat and mayhem, I have had more than a few nervous inquiries into the future of my Boston blog since I am, dun-dun-dah!!, no longer in Boston.
Well, you better believe I've thought long and hard:
I thought about giving it up
thought about dedicating the blog to one subject, like fly-fishing
or Narwhals
thought about pretending I never left

But I finally decided the other day, checking out the crazies in maroon aprons unloading my car at the DI drop-off, that Provo can be a pretty fascinating place through the right eyes. and why not through mine? I've been away and maybe gained some perspective. and, when push comes to shove, I'm still as Provonian as the joggers on 9th east. as Cafe Rio knock-offs.
as the one homeless dude who always hangs-out outside of mi ranchito on center street asking for your leftovers.
so, yeah. let's do this thing mariah! it's temporary. so what do we have to lose
no more than your precious time
erin

Fighting Poetry with Poetry

Your Catfish Friend

If I were to live my life
in catfish forms
in scaffolds of skin and whiskers
at the bottom of a pond
and you were to come by
one evening
when the moon was shining
down into my dark home
and stand there at the edge
of my affection
and think, "It's beautiful
here by this pond. I wish
somebody loved me,"
I'd love you and be your catfish
friend and drive such lonely
thoughts from your mind
and suddenly you would be
at peace,
and ask yourself, "I wonder
if there are any catfish
in this pond? It seems like
a perfect place for them."

Richard Brautigan





Lullaby


Lay your sleeping head, my love,
Human on my faithless arm;
Time and fevers burn away
Individual beauty from
Thoughtful children, and the grave
Proves the child ephemeral:
But in my arms till break of day
Let the living creature lie,
Mortal, guilty, but to me
The entirely beautiful.

W.H. Auden

Season's Greets from P-town

Oh, what?
yeah I'm in provo. Here's the weirdest part so far: it feels like I just left provo yesterday and yet a year and a half has definitely passed--I see it in people's weight and wrinkles, and babies that are toddlers and big crazy buildings that sprouted up over night. It makes me feel like Rip Van Winkle, if you can know what I mean. and it's a little unnerving.
good news: the mountains are constant.
and andrew has been away the whole time too, so at least we are sharing this wild dream together
Provo is lovely. my family is big and beautiful. the sky is so big now, without my boston trees. my hair dries fast:)
but I miss you Boston already. my shiny city and my crazy streets. my wilderness.
you've definitely snuck into my soul
and bothered my sense of home
I know we will be together again. I'm just not finished with you baby
Merry Christmas!! God lives and loves you. I love you.
erin

It is such a treat to have you back in my world
Hallelujah and every kind of praise

my Boston Down

well my days are numbered in this city of bean dreams and willa billas. on the 21st I will be back in provo to celebrate Christmas and Andrew's homecoming.

my plan is to hangout there for at least a semester before my last great semester of classes, which I will take at the University of the Philippines in Manila (Fall of next year).

Today is my first last day: my last Saturday here in this crazy eastern state

In honor of this boston count down, I thought I might offer a little listing over the next week of delights that Boston has given me, offered me, and thrust upon me. TY Boston. ur da best!

today's shoutout goes to:
*the way true Bostonians say my name ("Aaa-ren"--heavy on the "Aaa")
*the unexpected, but great, incentive to bust out my professional babysitting skills again (after a 10 year hiatus)
*the T (how I love the T!!!!!)
*funny things that squirrels do
* my charles

It's coming

One week peeps.

and our Elder Beck is back home. Kind of shocking. but soooooooooooooooooo great.

"They look so much dang like the same person, I say 'you want icecream?' both of them say 'yes'

'What in the heck?'

'They are tweens, that is why.'
'What the heck"

from a happy place

well, I am writing tonight from one of my happy places--the Kitterman home--where I am pulling an overnighter. Kids are asleep (FINALLY. it took no less than 8 picture books), cats are asleep-ish, the place is cleaned up. and it's just me and my jammies playing like I own the place. I've been thinking a lot about families lately. What makes them so great and what I would have to do to make mine even greater. blame it on all these family-themed movies that have been coming out: the Family Stone, Dan in Real Life, Little Miss Sunshine, Meet the Robinsons (just watched that one tonite with the kiddies, actually). The Grapes of Wrath, which did not just come out, but which I am still reading.
Our families are these mini-worlds. we make laws and patterns that don't necessarily reflect reality. I think of the world my mother created when I was little--where saying "shut-up" was next to murder & where there was some kind of second-wave depression going on so we had to wear our clothes until they wore out (regardless of fit or fashion) and use spatulas to eek out the last scrapings of peanut butter in the jar.
(sidenote: I still fight a wave of guilt any time I throw away a ziplock bag instead of cleaning it up and reusing it)
In my mom's world it wasn't weak or naive to be tenderhearted (which all of my siblings are)--something she taught us crying over stories she read to us from the Friend, and at the deaths of our pets.
I don't mean to disturb anyone, but I think families are more than that traditional kind. I think they are wherever we are at and with whomever we choose to be with. it just takes two people choosing to believe in the same thing--two people willing to play the game. I don't know, maybe for some people it only takes one. or one and some cats or something.
In my family I want a place that is open. sharing (most people who know me well know my sense of possession is kind of...blurry). A place with lots of food and people and music. I don't want anyone ever to be shushed. I want a little love-shack. like dancing with the girls earlier, until we were worn out and huffing on the floor. like people who aren't too scared to admit they need eachother
I know that kind of family requires those same things out of me. you know, I have to be the amerigo vespucci of that world. that new world. but I am willing to work on that
anyways, those are my thoughts tonite from my happy place. I love my family. let's face it, you don't make it that hard ;)
sweet dreams.
erin

Happy Birthday Mama Mia

I love you!!!