April is the cruelest month ...

Why is April the cruelest month?  Are people really more horny in Spring? Questions I asked myself today. 

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Spring this year has got me feeling
Like a horse that never left the post
I lie in my room
Staring up at the ceiling
Spring can really hang you up the most

Morning's kiss wakes trees and flowers
And to them I'd like to drink a toast
I walk in the park
Just to kill the lonely hours
Spring can really hang you up the most

All the birds twitter-twitt
I know this tune
This is love, this is it
Heard it before
And don't I know the score
And I've decided that spring is a bore

Love seems sure around the new year
Now it's April
Love is just a ghost
Spring arrived on time
Only what became of you, dear
Spring can really hang you up the most

Doctors once prescribed a tonic
Sulfur and molasses was the dose
That didn't help one bit
My condition must be chronic
Spring can really hang you up the most

All alone, the party is over
Old man winter was a gracious host
But when you keep praying
For snow to hide the clover
Spring can really hang you up the most.

Countdown to London: Hot British Dude #5

Ok - on this next one I am stretching it a bit.  This man isn't British, he is Scottish - but in the vein of my UK travels I feel it's acceptable.

The one, the only, 007 ...
he is shakin', not stirred.

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Countdown to London: Hot British Dude #4

Despite the "cheating-on-elizabeth-hurley-with-a-tranny" bit and NOT AGING WELL,

I FELL in LOVE w/ Hugh Grant in Four Weddings in a Funeral.  When i was a wee bit lass.

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Honeysuckle Rose

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Every honey bee fills with jealousy
When they see you out with me
I don't blame them
Goodness knows
Honeysuckle rose

When you're passin' by, 
Flowers droop and sigh
I know the reason why
You're much sweeter
Goodness knows
Honeysuckle rose

Well, don't buy sugar
You just have to touch my cup
You're my sugar
And it's oh so sweet when you stir it up

When I'm takin' sips
From your tasty lips
Seems the honey fairly drips
You're confection
Goodness knows
Honeysuckle rose

Well, don't buy sugar
You just have to touch my cup
You're my sugar
And it's oh so sweet when you stir it up

When I'm takin' sips
From your tasty lips
Seems the honey fairly drips
You're confection
Goodness knows
Honeysuckle rose

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Countdown to London: Hot British Dude #3

If you know me, this pick will be no surprise.  Total. Dream. Boat.

Dapper

Hottest Archaeologist ever!

Countdown to London: Hot British Dude #2

Joseph Fiennes!!!!

London: Countdown begins

When I was studying abroad in Italy, I was blessed to see some fabulous countries.  During my 5 months there I got to see Paris, France, Mykonos & Athens, Greece, Vienna, Austria and tons of Italian cities, big and small.

Two places I wanted to go on their own trips were the UK and Spain.  Having ten days for Spring Break, I've decided to go to London with one of my Best Friends! She is much more of an Anglophile than me, so I'm excited to be going with someone as geeked - if not more - as I am!  I had a great time at SXSW last Spring Break, but by the end of it, I felt I needed a vacation from my vacation.  I think this is will be the perfect opportunity to take a wonderful trip, to a wonderful city, with a wonderful friend, before I have to pay my loans and find a job in May.

As always, I think this trip will be a time for fun and reflection.  I'm planning on bringing a journal and leaving my computer at home.  I'll be with my Best Friend and in an amazing city, people watching, gaining inspiration and causing a ruckus. I think time away, outside of your element is one of the healthiest things you can do for the soul.  It's a great oppourtunity to look at yourself and sort out things you'd like to change, things you cherish about your self - your "signatures".

I am cracking open my savings for the trip. Some people never go on trips because they don't have enough money.  I think that is a bullshit stance.  If you really want something, you can save up for it. I paid for my study abroad, my parents paid for that semester's tuition.  But all the travel, food and whatever else was paid by me.  This early practice in paying for travel taught me if it is worth it to you enough you will find a way. I remember Friday nights after working at the restaurant the summer before I went to Europe, the treat I gave to myself was Taco Bell.  A $5 dollar Taco Bell meal....wtf?  Of course now I don't even eat fast food.  I stayed away from Starbucks and Malls the entire summer.  Every time I was tempted to spend money on something I asked myself, "is this better than Italy?"  Of course the answer was always "No."

Learning to budget for yourself is probably one of the most empowering things in life. You are in control and it feels great.

To commemorate this London Countdown, I will be posting sexy images of one British Hot Dude every day leading up to my departure. Here is the first dashing man to put you weak at the knees.

Would you like a cup of coffee w/ your Fassbender?

oh ... hello ...

Hey Girl ... 

Sexy man outfit

"Stare into the camera like you want to have sex with someone!" Good job, Michael. 

Hardboiled and loaded with sin ...

"I like smooth shiny girls, hardboiled and loaded with sin."- Raymond Chandler's The Big Sleep

 

Hula hooping

Last night we painted the town. We drank wine and hula hooped at a bar and i flirted with a cajun named Simoneaux. It was a good night.

A poem someone left in the book they returned to me ...

somewhere i have never travelled, gladly beyond
any experience, your eyes have their silence:
in your most frail gesture are things which enclose me,
or which i cannot touch because they are too near

your slightest look easily will unclose me
though i have closed myself as fingers,
you open always petal by petal myself as Spring opens
(touching skillfully, mysteriously) her first rose

or if your wish be to close me, i and
my life will shut very beautifully, suddenly,
as when the heart of this flower imagines
the snow carefully everywhere descending;

nothing which we are to perceive in this world equals
the power of your intense fragility:whose texture
compels me with the colour of its countries,
rendering death and forever with each breathing

(i do not know what it is about you that closes
and opens; only something in me understands
the voice of your eyes is deeper than all roses)
nobody, not even the rain, has such small hands

The Romantic in Me ...

Lately, I've been love sick, lovelorn, eager to move, eager to be completely refreshed.  This is most likely b/c i am keenly aware of the next phase in my life; Life after Graduate school.

The past two crush/dalliances have not panned out well. My good friend posted this "Some E-Card" on my wall today. It basically sums my present romantic life up completely:

One was a "confused" (that's putting it lightly) Brit and the second was an aloof scholar.

I'm slowly getting over it, but it's annoying getting rid of the last few bitter ends.

Partly due to the bitter-ends and partly due to my guilt-ridden mentality of being a secret, hopeless romantic, I've been obsessed with epic romances starring British actor, Ralph Fiennes and Out of Africa. I can't stop watching The English Patient and Constant Gardener.  All of which are on Instant Netflix.  I don't have TV so maybe this has something to do with it.

Meryl Streep and Robert Redford lounging in a romantic East African Savanna

Why hello ...

"Love. At all Costs." so dramatic!

when she convinces him to take her to Africa.

Before Shit hits the Fan.

Another aspect this romanticism instills in me is this urge to runaway to a foreign country and be an aid worker or something. But then, I realize I may accidentally die, get sick or suffer a nervous breakdown having to live in a hut in Darfur. How can I help people without possibly dying?
The answer of course is the small things. We learn this when we are little and that is not a new concept to me.  But i want the sweeping background shots, the sun, the desert, the lazy rivers and the local fare.

What i think aid work is: 

 What it REALLY is:

This is when shit REALLY hits the fan.

To beat the horse dead, here is a perfect explanation in pictures from my Human Rights consultant friend who lives in London:

So of course, I've been chasing yet another concept which may not exist.  I'm applying to as many international jobs as possible, ngos, all that stuff. I even have been considering the Peace Corps. I almost applied for a Digital Archivist job in Cairo.  I told my mother and she freaked out.  then the next day on the news they talked about a bus of 73 people being exploded. Then i was like, "Maybe I won't do that."

Even if I don't get a job far away, I know now that I must spend some time doing something humanitarian, here or abroad.  anywhere that is needed. I gave a breakfast taco to a homeless man last week when he wanted money- so I'm hoping this is a weak, but good start.