family feud of sorts.

I am spending two days with my parents in Asheboro. I love them. They are nice people. But I am stir-crazy. I want to be at the beach, and instead I am spending the afternoon going through Christian thrift stores (I forgot to bring my dress-up clothes for COURT) and watching movies.

We just watched Blame It On Fidel (see below) which was awesome and I highly recommend it. Richard wanted to go straight into Nacho Libre, but I need a break. I played the piano for a while, enjoying the barely recognizable (and not-frequently practiced) songs of Tori Amos and Coldplay. Now I'm doing this while they watch Family Feud. It's hard to compete with John O'Hurley I guess. Maybe it's the hair.



We're heading off to the beach tomorrow--FINALLY--so until then, I guess I'll rummage through all my junk that I've left in storage here.

I might be able to post an entry at the beach, but probably not. Either way, I'll definitely post some pictures when I get back.

Love, Charity ;)

ps-oh, and my mom is paying for me to go to Improv classes for my birthday! This will be the best birthday present ever, I think!!! Yay, 31! (God, I'm old.)

overthinking.

Overthinking is a bad habit of mine. It always has been. The drive home to Asheboro today was a long one. For some reason I was listening to my "bad-ass lady" music: Ani DiFranco (Not a Pretty Girl), PJ Harvey (Rid of Me), and the Breeders (Last Splash). And I was thinking. Dwelling in decisions I have to make, decisions I want to make but can't, decisions I know I should make but won't, and the like.

Driving down Highway 49 through the outskirts of Charlotte, I hit traffic. I found myself behind a car with personalized tags. I struggled to figure out what their tag meant: 4ARESON, and then I realized it was "for a reason" and I felt so silly because of what I had said the other day, and yet here I was, so easily slipping into the familiar pattern of worrying over every little thing.

I don't want to do that any more. I guess I'll just have to keep reminding myself. It was nice to get some help today.

I'm off to the beach tomorrow. I'll post some pictures afterwards.

Peace and love to you if you find yourself reading this,
Charity :)

whoa! what was that?

I will say this: when you honestly give something to God, or fate, or whatever--when you honestly let control of something go and quit trying to bend reality to your will, amazing things happen. It's pretty great!

Here's why:

1) you don't have to worry about the outcome anymore, and can relax knowing that the outcome is predetermined and will be the same whether you stress about it or not.

2) amazing things might happen--things you never expected. You will be surprised by good things that come into your life.

3) bad things that happen don't seem so bad anymore. The Avett Brothers describe their past loves:

"And I've known others,And I've loved others too
But I loved them cause they were stepping stones
On a staircase to you"

Everything that happens, even if it seems yucky, is just a step to something else. It's just a matter of seeing the eventual outcome as positive, rather than negative. Everything is temporary, and if you try desperately to stay on that happy step rather than moving forward, you'll just make yourself unhappy in the long run. Because you can't stay there. And who would want to, since the step beyond is better than you can even imagine!

Charity :)

PS-Um, 30 is really old. I'm feeling it today. It's ok, but I'm just saying. It's old.

i guess i'm just on a video-posting kick.

love these guys!

charity :)

transcribing.

I know I should be... I'm just SO INCREDIBLY BORED with it. I think I'll move on to analysis first, and come back to this interview. I think I conducted it summer of 2007. Yes, over a year ago. Surely that's a record. Over a year to transcribe an interview? That's like one word a day.

Hmm, meaning if I had only done just one word a day, I would be done by now. Missed opportunities...

I've been listening to The Wailin' Jennys lately. I really like them. The video below isn't my favorite song by them, but it's good, and it's the only one I can find that's not recorded live and weird sounding. Plus, it's kind of fitting. I hope you like it!



charity :)

six flags photos.

That's that, Mattress man.

charity :)

simply the best...

...musical ever.



I saw Curse of the Golden Flower yesterday; very good. Very lush (luscious?), just like they said. I also saw The Dark Knight again yesterday. It's still as good as I remembered. I really like the new series, and I'm sad about Heath Ledger again. His performance is top notch.

I miss church. My cousin's in town so we didn't go. :( Hopefully I'll be able to go next weekend, although chances of getting my little brother to go with me are pretty slim. But oh, yeah, SIX FLAGS here we come!

Last week saw Nights of Cabiria recently ("the Fellini film"), and my oh my was it heartbreaking. I don't know why I read that movies are described as "heartbreaking" and yet every time I'm surprised. It was amazing, though. It is now my favorite of Fellini's I think. The lead, Giulietta Masina, is AMAZING. Cute and gives a very touching and convincing performance as the prostitute who can't find happiness (I wonder why?). It's better than Pretty Woman, at least, although that's really not saying much. I worry about people who like that movie. Very much I worry.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy the clip. Liza Minelli is no joke. Love her.

(source)
Charity :)

PS-I got Wicked tickets for October! Unfortunately I couldn't get them for the weekend that my mom could come with us, but Rich and I will surely have a blast!

parenting.

While I have just about given up on having kids of my own, I imagine I will never give up judging others for their poor parenting choices.

In that vein, I read a really interesting article today; it was actually a blog/opinion piece, but very well-written and apt.

My cousin is here, otherwise I'd write more, but since no one read this anyway, I'll just pretend I wrote Judith Warner's blog entry...


Some photos I also didn't take (Jill Greenberg did).
Charity :)