What summer at home looks like in the best of times

Cam enjoys putting things in her mouth

Ethan displays his adoration of Camryn while Michael politely puts up with his little sister and his brother's demands to take photos together.

Cammy is smiling!
Family Resemblance!

Things I've learned this week:

1. Putting citrus peels around your room absorbs bad smells and releases tasty citrus smells, and the peels don't get moldy, they just dry out

2. People in general spend the majority of their day in diads or triads. Definitely true for me and helps explain why I tend to have close personal friendships with several individuals separately and not with groups.

3. I really like biological psychology because it accounts for the important role of environment and society in an individual's development better than sociology does.

4. I am perfectly capable of getting up at 7:30 am even on the weekends

5. You can make delicious sandwiches with peanut butter, banana and dried apricots and by extension, you can put almost anything in a peanut butter sandwich with good results

merry christmas!

i got socks and that made me very happy

i didn't use shampoo all last quarter. i used the baking soda/vinegar technique i learned from Ksenia and sometimes i used Dr. Bronner's magic soap. Because it isn't soap thats the enemy, its the pertroleum derived chemicals and the idea that a bottle will make me beautiful thats the problem, and Bronner's soap is all natural, organic and produced in the USA and workers share in the profits (http://www.greenamericatoday.org/greenbusiness/interviews/articles/200803.cfm)

i found that my hair stayed grease free for a long time between washings, it was soft and shiny. i was pretty happy. except for the dandruff. you can skip the next gross paragraph if you like

it was terrible, terrible dandruff. by the end of ten weeks the dandruff had gotten really really bad, i was so embarrassed about it i kept my hat on whenever possible. i should have taken a photo to prove it. i've always had some dandruff, since i was a kid. but this was chunky and thick and itchy, and scrubbing my head to get the flakes out made it worse.

i couldn't take it anymore. i bought some head and shoulders to celebrate the end of the quarter. one wash and all the nasty flakes were gone.

but i'm not giving up. i'm going to do research on dandruff cures. i hope i find something that works, or head and shoulders will own my soul until i'm a bald old lady.

A Warm Up

A fellow plamerite who I shared the elevator with asked me "Are you gonna walk??"as I headed down 55th instead of waiting at the bus stop.

Yes, I am.

It was 23 degrees, the first truly below freezing day we've had this fall. I honored the coming of winter by walking all the way to the reg from my dorm, while my uchi mates fretted and panicked that the bus was late. The cold was marvelous, eventually. For the first few minutes my eyes were tearing up from the wind and my hands were cold, not because I wasn't wearing gloves but because my sleeves are too big and the wind creeps up my arm and into my pockets.

I wrapped my scarf around my head and then around my neck, leaving my face exposed so that i looked like a kind old granny. If I had worn it a little closer to my eyes, i would have looked like a muslim woman.
But this scarf method prevents my beloved-fleshy-under-the-chin-to-the-neck-area from being horribly cold. A cold under the neck area makes me curse the climate. My ears and part of my head were kept beautifully toasty thanks to this scarf method . I can understand why muslim women and grannies women wearing those head scarves- it feels really good and cozy to have your head wrapped up. More secure than a hat and scarf combo, the scarf around the head is simpler too- only one article is needed instead of two.

I was still cold, sort of unhappy because my hands and legs were growing numb until I got to Woodlawn and and turned to walk to 57th. The sun was no longer blocked by the buildings, and god's own heat lamp was glaring in my face, bathing my legs and head with a real tangible warmth. With the help of the sun, my blood began moving again and warmth returned to my legs and finger tips.

My the time I got to the library, I was overheated, and read to unzip my coat. I love the winter!

Solitude, says the moon shell

I have an unexpectedly free and clear day today. I have nothing scheduled today, not even lunch with Daniel. Around 5 o'clock I might go meet Daniel after he's done with work and go have dinner and maybe see some friends, but until then, I'll be hanging out with myself.

I would like to write a thankyou note and a mail it to Daniel's mom for sending me a beautiful care package full of goodies like candy, granola, honey, organic chapstick and best of all, a fancy journal. This means I need to go browse 57th street books or the co-op until I find the perfect card. Browsing a bookstore is a wonderful way to spend free time.
I think 57th street is more appropriate for buying a card because if I go to the co-op, i might be laughed at for being an intellectual lightweight, going to an amazing bookstore to buy stationary.

Then I might mosey on over to campus or a cafe to find the perfect nook to sit in to write the letter. this kind of activity always seems like it will be soul satisfyingly romantic, but it isn't always. Sometimes it just feels sort of fake and lonely to sit in cafe with a steaming cup of tea or cappuccino and fuzzy sweater and notebook. one of those ideals that isn't really all its cracked up to be.

Other than that, I don't really have anything planned for today. I'm excited to see what I end up doing, where I end up drifting. It feels really good that I have a free day by myself. I usually spend my free days with Daniel, going back to bed after eating a silly breakfast, or pretending to read while sneaking glances at his pretty fingers and brow bones. Letting the day dissapear in a warm fuzz of love and attempted productivity. Those times are wonderful, but what love will i have to share with him or the world unless i refill my wells of creativity and love with solitude?

"Solitude, says the moon shell. Every person, especially every woman, should be alone sometime during the year, some part of the week and each day. How revolutionary that sounds....If one sets aside time for a business appointment, a trip to the hair dresser, a social engagement or a shopping expedition, that time is considered inviolable. But if one says: I cannot come because that is my hour to be alone, one is considered rude, egotistical or strange. What a commentary on our civilization, when being alone is considered suspect."

-Anne Marrow Lindbergh, Gift from the Sea, 1955