From July 22, 2011

"If there's anything the history of evolution has taught us it's that life will not be contained. Life breaks free and expands to new territories and crashes through barriers, painfully, maybe even dangerously ... well, there it is ... I'm simply saying that life, uh, finds a way." - Ian Malcom, Jurassic Park

(That quote was entirely transcribed from a youtube video that I spent many minutes searching for, trying to find one with a high enough sound quality to hear over my level 3 speed window fan.)

I've just returned from seeing a free screening of "Life In a Day", a movie produced by National Geographic which depicts short clips of "a day in the life" of lots (dozens? hundreds?) of humans from all over the planet shot on July 24, 2010. Some of the videos were filmed by the subects themselves (a la youtube videos) and some were obviously shot (beautifully) by some sort of professional film crew. 

All in all: a beautiful film. (My only complaint is that I wish it were longer. Watching humans do what they do is more fascinating than, well, anything.) 

The most important thing that I took away from this marvelous piece of art is also a lesson which I've been needing in my life lately: life finds a way. I love images and stories wherein, in the wake of tragedy, the world keeps on turning. (I even find it funny to say "wherein" as if it were a few, isolated instances that the world keeps on turning.) It is happening all the time. On the day that you are having the shittiest day of your life, someone is having the best day of their life. Or someone is having an even shittier day. Or someone died. Or someone was born. Or a new species has become extinct. Or we have discovered a new species in the darkest depths of the ocean. Shit is always happening ... whether or not I get the correct beverage at Starbucks.

My favorite clip from the movie was near the beginning. A father is trying to wake his son from a deep sleep on a futon in a tiny, crowded, messy apartment in what I assumed was Japan. The dad is baiting him to get up. "You can't watch tv until you've gotten up an peed ..." Finally he gets up and we see them in the bathroom. The father is dressing the very sleeping-looking child and the child is asking all sorts of kindergarten questions. "Why do you have a beard? Why don't ladies have beards?" And then you see them enter another tiny, crowded, messy room, where the father tells the child to say good morning to a picture of his mother. It is then that you realize that the mother has passed away and that there is a tragic reason that the father and son are living in a tiny, crowded, messy apartment. However, the child doesn't really seem interested in participating. He doesn't want to say hello or light the incense and seems sort of like he just wants to turn on Sesame Street and get on with his day. This is not to say that he probably doesn't miss his mom very much or that he isn't going to have all sorts of thoughts and feelings about his childhood when he is an adult, but the reality is that is still a kindergartner ... who doesn't want to go pee when you tell him to, who doesn't want to dress himself, and when you try to dress him, only wants to stop and discuss the inequality of facial hair between genders. Life, uh, finds a way.

This clip made me flash back to last summer when my cousin Rebekah died. I don't think any event has affected and/or continues to affect my family the way this one did/does. My sister, her husband and their two-month old daughter made the six hour drive down to Chicago for the services. It was really comforting to have them there and a really nice distraction to have a cute, happy newborn to play with during all of our down time. But I remember at one point when all of my family was just exhausted from grieving, my sister saying "I really need to go somewhere and feed the baby. It's time for her to eat." I remember for a few seconds being horrified! What?! How can you think about eating at a time like this?! Some of us haven't eaten in days! How dare you think of something so frivolous at a time like this?! And then I remembered: shit is always happening. That baby doesn't know what day it is. She knows it 12 o'clock and it's time to eat. Everyday. No matter what happens. 

All of these things immediately make me think of this Jurassic Park quote. Because I have thought of it many other times in my life. Not only because it is one of my favorite characters from one of my favorite movies, but because it is so terribliy true. I sat talking with some friends tonight about the "plights" of my life, among which has recently become finding a place to live. A dear friend said that on a particularly difficult apartment search with his would-be roommate that the would-be roommate said "Look, we are going to find an apartment. Because we have to." It's just true. When things seem impossible, you just do what you need to do to survive. It's just nature. 

From December 1, 2010

My favorite part of my favorite book.

You can get so confused 

that you'll start to race

down long wiggled roads at a break-necking pace

and grind on for miles across weirdish wild space,

headed, I fear, toward a most useless place.

The Waiting Place . . .

. . . for people just waiting.

Waiting for a train to go

or a bus to come, or a plane to go

or the mail to come, or the rain to go

or the phone to ring, or the snow to snow

or waiting for their hair to grow.

Everyone is just waiting.

From September 30, 2009

In a single girl's eternal search for late night entertainment, last night I started looking for 1980's commercials on YouTube. The first item that came up in my search was a McDonald's commercial for the McDLT, featuring a singing and dancing Jason Alexander (pre-Seinfeld). The McDLT, which is served in an eco-friendly, compartmentalized, styrofoam container, promises to keep the bottom portion of your burger (bun and meat) separate from the top portion of your burger (bun, lettuce, tomato). This concept begs a lot of obvious questions like: who cares? But the prevailing most obvious question is: what the heck does the "D" stand for?

Never a dull moment in my life, I also set the microwave at work on fire yesterday. Trying to make a bag of 98% fat free popcorn. After the fire department was called, all associates were evacuated from the store and the microwave was thrown in the trash, I was really just upset that I didn't get to eat my popcorn.

"Ryyyyyyan started the fi-re!"

I knew you were all thinking it.

Dave, Liza and I decided (at the ever-insight-provoking Christina's Place ... Home of the $2 Guinness!) that we are all totally comfortable with not having boyfriends/girlfriends. It is the incessant almost having a boyfriend/girlfriend that is starting to get uncomfortable. Dave likened it to being stuck in Orlando and only being allowed to go to Epcot. 

I found out tonight that Dave hates U2. Who hates U2?

I just picked up two socks and threw them at my laundry basket, not really caring if they actually landed inside of the basket, given the considerable amount of dirty clothes strewn about my room. However, the socks separated in mid-air and then consecutively landed in the basket.

Sigh. Maybe I haven't lived this day in vain afterall.

I love wool sweaters. I wish they loved me.

And I've decided that being broke has some advantages. Like the amount of joy I can now derive from the anticipation of eating leftover previously-frozen cheese pizza after a night of drinking $2 beers and tipping the bartender in quarters. (Except now I need to find a new lunch for tomorrow...)

Tonight I heard about a show that is opening later this month that somehow involves Christmas and dramatic readings of Craigslist posts. This is obviously my dream.

Speaking of shows, you all better come see "Our Own Devices" this weekend. Besides experiencing a wildly entertaining and thought-provoking live performance, here are some other potential benefits to seeing our show:

You can finally impress that man/woman you are dating that you have led to believe that you are brainy and cultured.

You can further impress them with your social awareness and compassion by reminding them that you are supporting a non-profit organization.

You can tell people you saw us perform before we became famous (which, by my calculations, should be happening any day now).

You can hang out with us after the show (I mean, we are really fun).