A Few Things I Love

Hi guys! Happy Valentine's Day! I hope everyone is enjoying something you love or spending time with someone you love. I'm not going to do a mushy post about how in love I am (I'm saving that for next Monday, my 2 year wedding anniversary!). Instead, here's a list of things I am loving at the moment, around the web and whatnot.

1.First, in case everyone thinks I hate the Internet because of last Friday's post about Facebook, I don't! I love the Internet! And so does this guy. Ze Frank is very, very cool. This is what "connection" over the web looks like and feels like.

2. I've just discovered this, via Chester Copperpot and her pretty much infallible taste in music. I'm pretty sure this is one of the most beautiful videos I've ever watched!

3. Anything and everything Garrison Keillor. I'm currently reading Lake Wobegon Summer 1956. I've never read anything by him before, but my grandmother used to play a Lake Wobegon tape series on the way to family reunions.  I remember loving to listen to him tell those stories and sing snippets of hymns. He introduced me to rhubarb pie. I might still have those tapes in my closet somewhere, but I wouldn't have anything to play them on. Instead, I listen to the weekly podcast of the Lake Wobegon bit of Prairie Home Companion. Seriously, if you don't love this guy, I'm not sure we can be friends. ;)

4. marc johns. I spent hours scrolling through his work the other day. It's simple, fun, and oftentimes hilarious.

Have a good week, lovelies! What are you loving, lately?

Good for your soul

new headphones+old music=good stuff

A Break

Hi guys. Things have slowed down considerably over here at Wonju Wife. Mostly because real life has sped up. We're nearing the end of the semester at school, apparently I have way too many ideas to do a good job on any of them, and I'm still a wife and a friend and a coffee drinker. If I didn't have a job, I could blog to my heart's content. But, I gotta make that money honey. I have a few things in the works that I'd like to post sometime this week, because I had a blast with my friend Angie who came to stay for the weekend. However, I've got to get some other stuff done first.

For one, I'm rereading the first four Harry Potter's (on #3 now) and then reading the rest that I never got to. I've been rereading all my childhood favorites from the school library, mostly because I can't afford my book-buying addiction anymore. Me and the HubbO sat down (okay, mostly the HubbO because my math is atrocious) and figured out our new budget until the end of the year. Let me just say, my daily iced caramel macchiato habit is in danger. It's going to be tough for a bit, because I'm an expert at spending money. I mean, it's not like I took any classes in it, but I'm qualified for a degree. But I'm also excited about the challenge presented.

I've recently been inspired by my good friend Melanie, who just shaved 20 minutes off her PR time in her 5th marathon! I loved following her training plan, reading about her long runs, her breaks, and then her ultimate triumph at Chicago last weekend. It's nice to have friends who are amazing people and achieve their dreams consistently through determination, hard work, and I hate to say it... planning! I've got to get some planning into my life. So, we've planned a budget, we've planned a book, I've planned... well, other stuff. So, let's see if I can get busy making that stuff happen!

I also have to quit expecting to be perfect. It's the most disappointing and ridiculous part of my personality, always expecting the impossible. I am not perfect, and that's perfectly fine. It's okay, really. I AM OKAY. I will always have something to work on. There will not be a day when I look at myself and think, "Hmm... I think I'm done!" But for now, I will work toward my goals and remember that I'm okay.

Bear with me through the dry spot!

The Big Chop

So, it was time to do something with the dreadlocks. They had become one massive clump on the back of my head. Kenny sat down on Saturday night and cut them all apart so they could hang straight from my head again. But the results were disastrous because I hadn't been washing them properly. So, when he cut the matted hair apart he found a disgusting amount of shampoo caked in my hair accompanied by an also disgusting stench! This would never do. And so, I knew my time with the dreads was coming to an end. I was upset and on the verge of a s bout of depression because I was sure my hair was going to be super-duper-Natalie-Portman-in-VforVendetta-short. It hadn't grown as much as I had hoped it would since I had them done in February. I loved my dreads. They were super simple. But, if you don't respect the dreads and take care of them in the first few months you have them, they don't respect you back and you end up with a mess.

Sunday rolled around and Kenny called The Hair Guy. He had been recommended to us by Philip and Sandra. He is Korean, but spent a lot of time in London so we figured he would know what to do with the dreads. There are a ton of places in the Hongdae area in Seoul that specialize in dreads, but I couldn't be bothered to go to Seoul, and there wasn't enough time for that. So, we headed to the Hair Guy. And Guy worked some serious magic.

1. Guy razored my dreads a little more than halfway off. It wasn't physically painful, but it hurt nonetheless.

2. He and his amazing wife/assistant spent close to 3 hours picking out my dreads with combs, water, and a little magic sauce, which I assumed to be akin to detangler.

3. He combed it all out straight. It was NASTY. Can't you tell? Then we washed it again and again and he started chopping.

And..... VOILA:

Can you believe how much hair he saved? This is what it looks like after I do it myself, which is the style that counts because it's the one I can successfully make in the mornings.  (And yes, my shirt says Dunder Mifflin on it. I found it here in Korea last year on serious sale at one of those little clothes shops in the subway.)

(Yep. My HubbO brought me breakfast in bed this morning!)

I thought I would be stressed and unhappy with the haircut, but it pleases me.

It's so much longer than I thought it would be. Although, I did say, "Oh Guy,

I can't have bangs. My skin is too greasy and bangs just end up plastered

unattractively across my forehead." And he said, "Okay."

And then snipped a right short chunk in the front.

What do you think?

Monday Magic

It worked! The schedule is magic. 

I got out of bed at 7:07 am. I cooked breakfast. I prayed. I went outside to jump some rope, but it was raining. So I had an impromptu dance recital in our living room to burn some of The Belly (which is back with a vengeance might I add). Then I Skyped with my mother, and answered some email. And now I'm blogging. And it's only 10 am! I'm so happy. We'll see if the magic continues for another day. And I encourage you to make your own schedules (but don't make them better than mine because then I'll feel stupid) and post them! Make sure you leave me a link in the comments if you do your own so I can share in your happy dance when you finally achieve your own daily goals!! 

For now, I'd like to leave you with a quotation I've been chewing on for a while. It's from the ever-wise words of Tamie, over at the owls & the angels. Seriously, if you're not reading her blog, you should be. 

THE EFFORT ISN'T IN VAIN. The effects of the effort may always be a mystery to us. We may not succeed in life in the ways we think we should succeed. We may make the same mistakes, getting hung up in the same places, our entire lives. But, somehow, still, in a way that is held always and only in the heart of God, the effort is not in vain. We have to try with all our hearts, all the while knowing that it is never the trying that will get us there. We have to stop trying and fall on God's mercy alone. 

Now, go! Live your awesome lives. And then tell me all about it. ;)  <<- First smiley face EVER on this blog. Mark this day in your calendar. History was made. (I blame Korea)

Here's Hoping for Better Days...

Or really, better time management! I've been hearing about how if you write down your goals, you're some ridiculous percent more likely to achieve them rather than if you just talk about it. So, I'm done talking. I got crafty and wrote down my goals for a daily weekday schedule. Loving this plan on a wall in the kitchen!

* We work from 1-9 everyday, just in case this schedule seems extremely strange. And "play" pretty much means "blog" or "write" or "read" or "generally fart around on the internet and wait for people to comment on your blog and then have a shower and check your email and check for comments again" kind of thing. Also, this does not apply to the weekends. Because those are sacred and should not be adulterated by silly things like schedules.

Whatcha think?

Monday

Today is Kenny's first day at work. We get to ride the bus together and ride home together, too! We had a wonderful weekend with many good friends, and I'm going to tell you all about it! Hopefully later tonight, I'll have a post in the works about my fabulous weekend in Seoul and Wonju. Until then, love you guys!!

A Few Good Things

I'm smiling.

My head and my heart are full up at the moment. First of all, I love my job. And I don't say that lightly. If you'll remember, I've never loved my job. In fact, most of the time I've loathed even having a job. I always felt that it kept me from having the time to accomplish what was really important to me. It got in the way of my writing, in the way of my thinking, and in the way of my reading and sometimes running. But my job feels good this time around. I feel like I could do something here, become a better teacher, learn a lot.

I had been dreading the beginning of this week because my adult classes started, and I was scared. Because with kids, I can always wing it and they have no clue. They usually don't care what I'm doing to begin with. But adult students. They're for real. So, I was really nervous last night as I stepped into my first class. It went so well. No one ate me. It's a sweet, small class of women. And tonight, my other class, turned out to be so smart and fun. They are eager to learn and it should be fun because they're at a nice level for a discussion class. I'm also excited about starting a Book Club with my 5th and 6th graders. I am so pumped that perhaps I can get some of these kids reading for real, discovering other places, experiencing wild things, living other lives. I'm excited. And overwhelmed.

Oddly enough, I'm enjoying taking the bus. It's not usually crowded as I go to work in the middle of the day. And in the evening it can be busy, but we live so far out that by the time I get home, I've usually stolen a seat and rocked out to whatever is currently playing on my iPod.

I'm reading The Writing Life by Annie Dillard. It is a good book by itself, but on the veranda in the morning with a bowl of Choco Chex, it's even better.

Also, there's a Dunkin' Donuts down the street from work. Do you really think God in all his Goodness would put one anywhere else besides a few minutes walk from me?