Begin Chapter Twenty-Three Yesterday was my birthday. I was born at 1:08 in the afternoon back in 1982. I spent this last particular one with some of my family, looking at houses and running errands. At this point in life there's really no one else I would have rather spent the day with, and not much else I would have rather done. We got the whole family together last night since we have four birthdays in the month of May, grilled some food and caught up as best as we could make ourselves do. My cousin Kevin is heading off for France this morning; he'll be gone a month for a summer course then he'll return until September when he will leave again to spend a whole school year there. Pretty awesome. Some of my friends called me but I didn't want to do anything. Over the past few years I've done a pretty good job at distancing myself from just about anyone I ever knew. Way to go man!

Anyways, I'm back up in Denton this morning finishing up cleaning out the apartment. All that is left are my clothes but I also have to clean up some. It's a cool (well, 70's) and rainy day, so it's perfect for it. My dad is supposed to make some time this afternoon b/c he wants to see me before I leave Thursday for Cayman. I called him yesterday just to verify if he still wanted me to come by; funny, I missed where he wished me a happy birthday. Hate to be a prude or anything, but you know. Whatever. I'm slowly winding that relationship down.

Other that that, my bags are packed and I'm ready to get to Grand Cayman. I really believe there will be work for me when I get there. I sure hope so, otherwise Joshua will be s-c-r-e-w-ed. Also it looks like my Mom is getting a new house. Nothing like we expected, and it's in a pretty suburban, Arlington Road-esque neighborhood over off Hulen in Ft. Worth, but it's still a great house and much better than the small apt. we all cramp into now. Maybe we can actually all get together now, and not feel as if we want to leave as soon as possible. Wouldn't that be crazy? And just in time for me to leave for the Peace Corps! Still overall it's cool and I'm looking forward to her being anywhere where we all can be happy, even if it is just for a few brief moments in time.

Man I'm sarcastic today, better stop writing; someone might one day actually read this blog and they could get the wrong impression of me.  ¶ 5/28/2005 11:41:00 AM 3 comments

 
"...in a champagne supernova." (half circle)  ¶ 5/25/2005 08:30:00 PM 2 comments

  "Or the Creedence." I listen to a lot of music (again see=not being able to define who I am). For example in less than two weeks I've more than half filled my 20 gig Dell DJ, and I left out quite a few CD's. I gave up on most radio a few years ago. In the car I usually have on NPR (because I'm sercetly a 45 yr. old lesbian mother of two from New Hampshire) or the campus jazz station. I've more or less phased out music when driving these days. But sometimes the news is just too much to handle. That's when this comes in handy.

My Creedence tape. I recorded it a few years ago off an LP I have, so the sound is beautiful and grainy. It's got all the hits: Bad Moon Rising, Proud Mary, Looking Out My Back Door, and my personal favorite, Lodi. If you're not familiar with this song, get to know it. I became acquainted with it after a friend of mine in Lubbock came back from a summer out in California where he would pass the exit for Lodi everyday on the freeway. Sure it's just a ripoff of Cash's Folsom Prison Blues but where the narrator of Folsom is pissed off and depressed, in Lodi he's pissed off and melancholy: a much more interesting state of mind if you ask me.

So I recommend everyone get themselves a Creedence tape, or just a tape in general of their favorite music they don't listen to on a regular basis, to pull out when the rest of the audio world lets you down. I'd trade all my Ryan Adams, Jimmy Buffett, Lyle Lovett, and All Things Considered for this one poorly made cassette. (I recorded it over what must have been the Good Will Hunting soundtrack, b/c when Creedence ends Al Green very loudly busts in with How Can You Mend a Broken Heart?. It's quacktastic).

I don't know anyone that sells tapes anymore, except truckstops. So if anything, hey, another great excuse to stop at a truck stop.  ¶ 5/24/2005 01:58:00 PM 1 comments

  I'm slowly finishing up all this moving crap. Emphasis is on the word slowly. I'm down to the point where all that is left is small stuff and I have to find a place for it all to go. It's these miscelaneous items that tend to be a pain, but like I said I'm getting there. A few minutes ago I decided that I was scared of settling down anywhere in the near future (something we alread knew, right?) if simply because of the pains of cleaning up when you're ready to move on. Maybe I should just in the future focus on a feng shui lifestyle. That sounds like a better plan.  ¶ 5/23/2005 09:57:00 PM 0 comments

  Because no one and someone asked... Peter Joshua is the name of Cary Grant's character in the film Charade. I chose the moniker for my blog title because, well if you've seen the movie than you know that throughout the story Peter Joshua comes and goes, in more ways than one. Just as soon as you think you understand his personality and his intentions you get thrown for a loop. I may change my blog title sometime soon, but in the past few months and I believe into the near future I am going to feel the persona of Peter Joshua. Some say change is good; I say sometimes. The fine art of blending in and defining who you are has not come easy to me, and that's something I don't expect to change anytime soon. Also I'm kinda hoping to run into my own Audrey Hepburn, if I haven't already missed her.
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I'm still in the slow process of moving this weekend. Moving and copying music onto my Mp3 player. It is a groovy toy. This morning Dad and I moved all of my furniture from my apartment into a storage unit. The post-college move (into uncertainty). Great fun was had by all. But at least it's over; I don't know when I will be done in my apartment in Denton, but I've set a personal deadline for Wednesday. That's when my grandparents come in town. The rest of the week we will be looking at houses in Ft. Worth. They are planning on buying a place so that they won't have to keep shacking up in hotels when they come in town; also Mom will live there because they want a bigger place for her to live so Ben and I will have a place to stay when we need it. Oh and I found out my birthday is Friday. So I got that going for me.

Well we have our first Hurricane. Hit El Salvador, but then it dissapated. Earlier this week it was predicted that this season will be another strong one like last year. God's talking to us: but what does he want??? Lol. Anyways, screw off, ADRIAN, and the whole lot 'o ya just waiting to pounce.

I have completed all my medical tests for the Corps. I passed. I FedExed them to D.C. on Thursday. I'm not sure what will happen next; I guess we'll just have to wait. Hopefully I'll be through with doctors for a while and can move onto an official placement.  ¶ 5/21/2005 11:39:00 PM 4 comments

  You know, we're not the only ones destroying trees. What about beavers? You call yourself an environmentalist, why don't you go club a few beavers? I may be leaving the country, but you're not. So catch up this summer and watch America's best sitcom. And no, Fox isn't paying me. It's just worth it to yourselves to have a great big laugh every week as long as it's avaliable to us. FOX renewed Arrested Developement for a third season; don't take it for granted guys. Screw laugh tracks. Embrace the Bluth's.

http://fox.com/arresteddev/

Buy the DVD's. Watch America's funniest half hour (other than your local news).

Please? If you don't support the Bluth's then the terrorists will win.  ¶ 5/19/2005 12:36:00 AM 1 comments

  the great indoors I'm packing up my room this week and moving all my posessions into a storage unit. I still don't know where I will be heading for the summer. It doesn't look like the D.C. internship is going to happen; I'm kinda bummed but as long as my man in Cayman comes through I will be okay. I just need credit so I can walk in August.

So a few weeks ago I came home from work and opened the door to my room. I took a look around and felt a very comfortable feeling, one I had been taking for granted. Standing there I started thinking about how the end was rapidly approaching for all this. It was getting close to finals and I was in the midst of finishing papers and projects and starting to study. I can sort of have an idea where my next few beds will be, but when or where my next room is I have no idea. It could be a while, and so as I was standing in my room that night I knew I had to capture it as it was, before finals, before packing, before the feeling I had it got away from me. I believe it took just a few days after I took these pictures for it to happen. And you don't even want to see my room now.

There's my desk lamp and my orange juice and my magazines about desperate housewives and further proof of evolution, from top to bottom.


The bed.


I had just scarfed down some frozen waffles.


this bookshelf would fall down if it were not for the objects on either side of it.


my desk. it got so messy after that i just gave up and moved to the floor to do any work.


posters and postcards from some of my travels.


chevy chase and north by northwest.


pretty sure i'm the only one reading 22 year old Rolling Stone. Men at Work and REO Speedwagon had albums at #1, in case you were wondering.


music and books.


posters around the bed





"you must be joking boy..."


So this was where--and how--I lived, more or less. I took about 50 pictures that night, just soaking it all in. Any other time I take it all for granted, but that night there was something about it all.

Scared of the world outside, maybe so. If there's anything I wonder when looking at these pictures it's how different it might be from whatever is next.

  ¶ 5/15/2005 11:51:00 PM 0 comments