no pants november and other things

a few friends and i have decided to start "no pants november." not shaving is no fun, therefore, we have decided to wear dresses/skirts to school all month. when we say "no pants" we say it in a non-janky way. it's pretty successful so far. it'll be harder when it gets even colder and there's snow on the ground.

"tell the truth and run." -yugoslavian proverb

"the world isn't such a bad gig when you take naps." -random kid on facebook.. not sure if he made it up

i've start burning incense again lately. i burned a lot during the summer. you know how they say smell is most connected to memory? the smell makes me miss summer so much.

i've been reading proust questionnaires online.

and i'm still reading wuthering heights for ap lit. i'm shocked i don't hate it. gothic literature is kind of fascinating, though.

a lady named eileen at my church was telling me how she was a war bride. she lived in england and was working as a nurse when she met her american soldier husband-to-be. they got married in england in 1945. she was 19. they moved to the u.s. and have lived here since.

that's all.

marcel proust and his questionnaire

the proust questionnaire. it's essentially a list of questions. marcel proust (his full name is Valentin Louis Georges Eugène Marcel Proust) made it popular, but it wasn't invented by him. according to the reliable source of wikipedia, it was popular at the time to answer questionnaires like these at fancy dinner parties and such. he answered them in such a different manner that it drew attention to himself, and i guess the trend caught on. npr did an interview with cookie monster using the questionnaire, and i watched it the other day on their website (+14 nerd points for caitlin). it takes about two minutes to get to the actual proust-ish part. anyways, some of proust's answers were way more interesting than mine would be. for example-

in what country would you like to live?
one where certain things that i want would be realized- and where feelings of tenderness would always be reciprocated
the quality you most like in a man?
feminine charm.
the quality you most like in a woman?
a man's virtues, and frankness in friendship.

there's this one question that was kind of interesting to think about. "if you died and came back as an object, what object would it be?" for some reason, the first thing that came to mind was a can opener. but that would definitely not be fun. maybe the pen of a really famous writer or something. or maybe the guitar of some great musician. a telescope, a camera, or a dollar bill.

fascinating fact- proust spent the last three years of his life in a cork-lined bedroom.

and now for a completely unrelated topic. someone was talking about karaoke the other day. the word karaoke comes from the two japanese words for "empty" and "orchestra." but i realized that i've only seen someone do karaoke once, and it was in honduras. we had just left this village, and we stopped at this old restaurant on the coast. i witnessed an old honduran man sing a spanish love song, and not particularly well. during the song, several other old men joined in with the singing, and it was unlike anything i have ever heard (perhaps not in a good way). i had completely forgotten about this event until about two days ago.