o. m. g.

last night my indian roommate told me that my voice sounds like this:

and i'm like, "THANK YOU!"

she said i'd left a song (the above song) on in my room when i'd gone downstairs and she thought it was me until she looked in my room and didn't see anyone except a lone computer belting out this little number.  "you're voices just sound the same!" she explained.

she has front row tickets to my daily performances, as her room is right next to the bathroom.  i have often wondered whether she dreaded my shower time.  who knew all along she thought i sounded like rihanna?  i'm not sure whether or not she thinks that's a good thing...but i think it's awesome, for like a billion reasons including that:

1) rihanna's not white, which has always been a goal of mine.
2) she's got a phenomenal voice, and
3) fabulous clothes, not to mention her

4) hair, face, and bod.
5) she can BUST A MOVE.

6) she has a hot boyfriend, and

7) an awesome accent, and
8) a holiday dedicated to her.  (it's on february 22, so, let's go to barbados and celebrate!)

however, in compiling this list of pros for being rihanna-esque, i realized that many of her pros are also serious cons because:

1) sometimes her clothes are atrocious.

2) as are her hair and accessories (though her face and bod are always on point. ok, well maybe not her face).

3) her boyfriend punches her in the face, and
4) he currently looks like this, complete with the worst tattoo ever tattooed:

5) she probably cries herself to sleep at night remembering that chris brown used to be like this:

and this:

and from the fresh wounds he has inflicted upon her.

so, all in all, i don't wish that i was rihanna, since she's mostly crazy (with a frosting layer of cool).  but i do not mind being told that i sound like her.  and i want it on the record that chris brown will always be an OC band geek in my mind.

in other news, the road to lake powell fell apart.  WHAT. THE. HECK.

thing one and thing two

1) i want this dress to be my wedding dress.

and i want to keep it pink because it is beautiful like a rose petal and who doesn't want to look like a rose petal on their wedding?  no one i care to know, unless you're a boy, in which case i can think of quite a few who don't want to look anything like a rose petal ever.  wedding dresses are generally supposed to be white, though.  so, that is problematic.  as is the fact that it is expensive.  and that i'm not engaged.  i guess what i'm trying to say is that i want to both thank and curse jayne for posting this picture on my wall.  

2) you should not blow your nose like a fog horn in the middle of class.  you just should not.  it is terrible and disgusting.  and don't add insult to injury by blowing that crap into a rough brown paper towel procured from the bathroom.  it is not absorbent.  it is one step up from expelling your nose contents into a piece of lined paper.  all of those boogers will wind up in your hand and not in the towel which leaves my ears ringing from your nasal-honk and stomach churning at the mess now being wiped on your pant.  i'm just saying.

winter schminter

each winter i feel increasingly more like this tiger:

not so much about living in a small place with double-glazing, or about feeling like a kind of piece of object in a box, or about being a car-NI-vore eating fresh meat instead of potatoes.

but for sure about living in a hot country that i have a good weather, a space with blue skies that i can see the sun every day, alright.  that i have nice weather, that i can just have nice water that i can dive to swim in, it means a tropical country.  it's easy.  any part of the world, but hot.  name it.  and i'll go.

preach, brother.

enough of this 12 degree weather already.

(and thank you, gretch.  you know how i love this clip.)

hark, and we can hear it still

the christmas story is one of my favorites.  it has so many wonderful characters.  the donkey, who humbly and surely carried Mary to bethlehem.  the angels who couldn't help from singing such glad tidings, and the the shepherds who were worthy and ready to hear their message when it came in the middle of the night.  the innkeeper who didn't have room in his inn, but who found room in a stable.  herod, who would have had the Christ child killed.  Joseph is one my favorites.  i cannot imagine what he must have been feeling as a man, the responsibility and focus that must have been his as his wife gave birth to his Savior.  and Mary herself, who we know to be fair, obedient, faithful, and who pondered those sacred and hallowed things in her heart, probably, for the rest of her days.

but each time i read the christmas story, i read on to the wise men and the star that they followed, who knows how far and who knows for how long.  such interesting and mysterious people are these three kings from the orient, who had the means and the conviction and the belief to follow a star to their redeemer.  which leads me to the star itself, a symbol of hope and of promises hung in the heavens to be followed if sought.  sometimes i feel like a wise man, ever trailing the stars the Lord sees fit to put in my sky.

yet all of these characters would be pointless without the Baby Jesus, who was born to save us all that night, and changed the world with His birth and the promise of righted wrongs and eternal joy that it brought.

i hated law school finals

until this...

it's christmastime

and christmastime means:

1) the festival of trees

which i missed this year because law school sucks.

2) love actually.

          a) along with this,

           b) this, 

          c) and this.

3) christmas lights,

which i love despite the fact that those grinches just said that they won't be doing tours for the next four years.  (and while i'm at it, david beckham is a grinch too.)

4) rich family christmas parties.

there is talk of an olympic theme this year.  cool.  there is also talk of a pajama theme.  not as cool.

5) magic.

6) JACOB COMING HOME!!!!

7) no. school.

8) and, Christ.

and there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.

and, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were afraid.

and the angel said unto them, fear not: for, behold, i bring you tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.

for unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

the great debate

the debate of which i speak is thanksgiving v. christmas.

it does seem that every year, christmas comes earlier.  and thanksgiving is given less and less room and credit.  i am not going to pontificate about this.  it, much like the presidential election, is rather old and tired.

i feel i must confess, and my mother would be ashamed of me if she knew, that i don't entirely mind an extra month's worth of christmas music and santa clause, even if it is just a ploy for my money.  i LOVE christmas.  if i had my way, i would move it to february 25 so that christmas time could spread over 3 months (because, under this plan, there would be plenty of time to celebrate thanksgiving all november long and then entertain a december-january-and-february-span-of-yuletide) because january and february are generally grey and no good anyway.  but, i am not in charge of the calendar.  so, i'm just quietly saying that i don't wholly hate (and a little bit secretly like) that christmas creeps in earlier and earlier each year.

however, i don't want thanksgiving to be forgotten or abandoned either.

i have a sneaking suspicion that thanksgiving is more resilient that we give it credit for.  while it is being shunted out of ads by jingle bells and and reindeer, thanksgiving has found other, possibly less public and definitely less commercial, ways to live on.  right now gratitude lists dominate facebook feeds, instagram posts, and blog entries.  have you ever checked out what pops up when you select #thanksgivinggram or #30daysofgratitude?  it's pretty cool.  just like those puritans that landed here hundreds of years ago, their holiday is flying under the radar and finding new and uncharted places to flourish.

i kind of like it this new way.  it seems more genuine than having crate paper mayflowers and squantos hanging in grocery stores and goofy turkeys running across every commercial.  when there's not so much hype, so much pomp and circumstance, the gratitude stays authentic and honest. and i like that.

this is one of my very favorite hymns of all.  it is a thanksgiving song.  and it is wonderful.  i think it says it all.  but i have highlighted the parts that say the most.

Prayer of Thanksgiving

We gather together to ask the Lord's blessing,

He chastens, and hastens his will to make known;

The wicked oppressing now cease from distressing

Sing praises to his name; he forgets not his own.

Beside us to guide us, our God with us joining,

Ordaining, maintaining his kingdom divine,

So, from the beginning, the fight we were winning,

The Lord was at our side; all glory be thine.

We all do extol thee, thou leader triumphant,

And pray that thou still our defender will be.

Let thy congregation escape tribulation.

Thy name be ever praised! O Lord, make us free!