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 It's almost 10:30pm on Friday night, and I'm exhausted. This is sad, indeed. After spending all day at school, reading and being in class, I'm pretty much wiped out. My weekend looks to be riveting -- I have the pleasure of grading a dozen or so first-year papers. One of which is partially plagiarized, another where a student consistently refers to an author by the wrong first name ("Thomas Highway" rather than Tomson Highway) -- not to mention a couple others whose margins are over 2 inches or the font is size 14 point or higher. Sigh.
I came across 10 tips to remember if you want to reach optimal sleep. So far, I'm breaking at least half of 'em. (which explains a lot, really)
1. Get regular exposure to daylight, especially in the afternoon. (Research shows that night-shift workers can improve daytime sleep by working under bright lights.)
2. Prior to bedtime, use dimmer switches or turn off a few lamps to lower the lighting in your home or apartment.
3. Don’t allow yourself to nod off on the sofa. When you start feeling drowsy, get up and go to bed.
4. Use your bedroom only for sleep and sex. Don’t make it a satellite office, study hall or entertainment center.
5. When you can’t sleep, try using imagery and thoughts to relax. Deep-breathing techniques also work.
6. If you haven’t dropped off within about 20 minutes, get out of bed and read or engage in some other quiet activity. Go back to bed when you get sleepy.
7. Put the alarm clock out of sight. Clock watching doesn’t help you sleep -- it may even keep you awake!
8. Sleep specialists recommend lying on your back or on your side, not your stomach.
9. Get Fido and Fluffy their own comfy beds. In a study conducted by the Mayo Clinic, half the people surveyed had their sleep disturbed by pets.
10. Only take over-the-counter sleep aids as an occasional emergency measure. You can build up a tolerance to them very quickly. If you can find yourself relying on them, see your doctor.
I'm so beat tonight, I'm hoping I'll fall asleep (and stay that way) quickly.
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While I know how annoying it is to read the countless "woe-is-me" blog entries out there, I think I'm entitled to one, every now and again.
So, on my way to class this afternoon, I think I had a little mini-meltdown. It's funny, when I first started this weblog, I put "The ramblings of a misplaced 20-something in Saskatchewan" mainly as an ironic self-serving joke. Yet it seems more and more like it's becoming the truth for me up here.
Thing is, I DO feel misplaced.
In more ways than one, too. Walking all the way across campus to my class, even though I was surrounded by tons of people, I still felt utterly alone. Which got me thinking -- Why am I up here? To get an education, yes. To gain a new perspective, yes. Okay, so I've gotten lots out of both of those already -- where does the part about being homesick and over 2000 miles away from people that love me fit in? No, I'm not looking to move back in with my parents, but it would be nice to be a least a day's driving distance away. There's a good possibility that my aunt could have cancer, or other serious health problems -- what if that had been my momma or another member of my family? What could I do, while 2000 miles away?
While I've been exposed to several opportunites up here, there's also several drawbacks. One, I can only work on-campus while I'm up here on my student authorization -- which seriously limits my employment opportunities. Two, I've got my own little mini-mountain to scale before getting my MA. Since I was accepted into the English department, and have since decided that its a waste of time and want to now pursue a Rhetoric/Communications degree, this means I need to transfer into the Interdisciplinary Studies Graduate Studies program.
Basically, to make an already too-long story short, I'll basically be starting from (almost) scratch, with no department or funding to back my program. While the reduced tuition costs next year are appealing, the prospects of me being up here for another 2 years, alone, isn't. That, and my MA in Rhetoric will be from a brand-new, only a handful of students graduated, Interdisciplinary Studies Masters program. I'm not sure how a PhD program at an institution in the States will view that.
Which brings me to now. I'm not sure what I should do. One part of me asks, if I'm already going home for the whole summer, why don't I just move all my stuff then? I don't feel like I'm running away from anything up here. I tried it for a year, and it didn't work. Okay. I've learned much, and gained relationships that I would have never had the opportunity to, if I had stayed home.
When I say "home," I don't automatically mean Savannah, either. There's a rhetoric grad program I could get into at the University of Georgia or any other number of schools. Lots of options. But before diving into any academic program, I think I really need to decide what direction I want my life to go in. I don't need to hide in school in order to find that. I just need to be near those that love me.
[disgruntled, moody, quarter-life crisis mode OFF]
We now return to our scheduled programming, already in progress....
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brrr.
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Girl With The Weight Of The World In Her Hands (Indigo Girls)
She won't recover from her losses
She hasn't chosen this path but she watches who it crosses
Maybe move to the right maybe move to the left
So we can all see the pain she wears like a banner on her chest
And we all say it's sad and we think it's a shame
And she's called to our attention but we do not call her name
The girl with the weight of the world in her hands
Cause we're busy with our happiness and busy with our plans
I wonder if alone she wants it taken from her hands
But if things didn't keep getting harder
She might miss her sacred chance to go a consecrated martyr
The girl with the weight of the world in her hands
I wonder which saint that lives inside a bead
Will grant her consolation when she counts upon her need
It makes us all angry though we feign to care
But who will be the scale to weigh the cross she has to bear
The girl with the weight of the world in her hands
Is the glass half full or empty I ask her as I fill it
She said "it doesn't really matter pretty soon you're bound to spill it"
With the half logic language of the sermon she delivers
And the way she smiles so knowingly at me gives me the shivers
I pull the blankets higher when I'm finally safe at home
And she takes a hundred with her but she always sleeps alone
The girl with the weight of the world in her hands
And I wonder which saint that lives inside a bead
Will grant her consolation when she counts upon her need
It makes us all angry though we feign to care
But who will be the scale to weigh the cross she has to bear
The girl with the weight of the world in her hands
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After sitting on the tarmac for over an hour, I'm finally back in the semi-Arctic. I didn't get harassed by Customs, yay! Now I'm tired, and headed to bed. In honor of me being back in the wilds that is Saskatchewan, a haiku by the Zen poet Basho:
Winter solitude
In a world of one color
The sound of wind.
(p.s. I got the job!)
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Reporting in for blog-duty
Yep, I've been really slack over the past couple days in my blogging. Mainly because I've been too busy enjoying the warmth and humidity to pin myself to the computer. That, and enjoying my time back home with family and friends. I really took this warm weather for advantage, at least while I lived down here. Now that I've really experienced "winter," I know how great it is to have sunny, warm weather pretty much all the time. While I do love snow (that is, when I'm not falling down because of it), there's nothing better than to be able to walk around outside with only ONE layer of clothing on, enjoying the sunshine.
Tomorrow I head back up north, at 5:50 pm. I'm sort of dreading my return, not just for the cold weather that will slam into me, but for all the work that is waiting for me. It's been nice to sort of relax and be lazy. When I return, I have so much reading and transcribing and marking papers, etc. Ah well, this is the life I signed up for, time to suck it up!
I have an interview this afternoon, applying for my old summer job as a summer camp coordinator at a local country club. I *really hope* I can get this job again. For one, I love working it -- the hours are great, the pay is awesome, plus its a whole lotta fun. But it also means I'll be able to be home for the summer, and will be able to save up a bunch of money for next year. The interview is at 5:30 this afternoon, hopefully next time I post I'll be employed!
My mom and dad had to go down to see my Aunt in Jacksonville this afternoon. They found some cysts on her ovaries -- could be pretty serious. So that's going on -- also the house hasn't been shown all that much (only 3 times). While the really selfish part of me is happy they're still down here, in the house and town I grew up in, I know that it would be lots better if they could go ahead and move up to Virginia. I know its hard for them living down here, having to deal with "the church" woes and soon their severance pay will be up, too. It's wild all the changes that are going on in our lives right now.
I've been having really weird dreams lately -- and by that I mean weirder than usual. I've never been much in analyzing dreams, but maybe I should start thinking about it. My mind tends to work overtime when its weighed down.
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"No Such Thing"
JOHN MAYER
"Welcome to the real world", she said to me
Condescendingly
"Take a seat, Take your life
Plot it out in black and white"
Well I never lived the dreams of the prom kings
And the drama queens
I'd like to think the best of me
Is still hiding up my sleeve
They love to tell you "stay inside the lines"
But something's better on the other side
I wanna run through the halls of my high school
I wanna scream at the top of my lungs
I just found out there's no such thing
As the real world
Just a lie you've got to rise above
So the good boys and girls take
The so called right track
Faded white hats
Grabbing credits, maybe transfers
They read all the books but they can't
Find the answers
And all of our parents
They're getting older
I wonder if they've wished for anything better
While in their memories
Tiny tragedies
They love to tell you stay inside the lines
But something's better
On the other side
I wanna run through the halls of my high school
I wanna scream at the
Top of my lungs
I just found out there's no such thing
As the real world
Just a lie you got to rise above
I am invincible as long as I'm alive
I wanna run through the halls of my high school
I wanna scream at the top of my lungs
I just found out there's no such thing
As the real world
Just a lie you've got to rise above
I just can't wait til my 10 year reunion
I'm gonna bust down the double doors
And when I stand on these tables before you
You will know what all this time was for
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Ah, to be in 20 degree weather again (above zero!)
The flights home were...er, interesting. Fairly turbulent-filled too. I'm all for extreme rides, but I like the ones that are on tracks and only last a couple minutes. Flying at 30,000 feet and bouncing all around for minutes on end isn't fun. At all. But I got home in one piece. Security at the Minneapolis airport has really tightened, probably due to the heightened color homeland security change (or, if you prefer, presidential-panic-media-tool).
I left Saskatoon at 7AM, to arrive in Minneapolis with a lovely 4 hour layover. I had brought a dvd to watch, Moulin Rouge to be exact, but I thought something was wrong with it when I tried to play it in my laptop. The colors (wow, I had to stop myself from typing "colours" just now) were all funny looking -- I thought it was because of the dvd format. So, after much deliberation, I bought My Big Fat Greek Wedding to watch. Yeah, so its all hyped up, but being the sap that I am, I love it. (by the way, it turns out that all my laptop needed to do was restart to "fix" the dvd problem!)
So, now that I've been home a day, I've had my bean burrito from Taco Bell and watched Chicago in the big theater (with the amazing sound system). Mike bought me the soundtrack, so I've been a Broadway singer and walking around with "jazz hands" for the past day! The movie was great, and I say this without having my bias for musicals getting in the way. I needed a movie that I could just sit in and enjoy.
Granted, the grrrls in it were entirely too skinny. No, not Queen Latifiah (who was amazing) or Catherine Zeta-Jones (who was doubly amazing) -- but most of the other grrrls were thin. Like bone thin, I-can-see-your-ribcage-and-sternum thin. The music was amazing -- the sets and costumes dazzling -- and the story just a lot of fun. It's great to see a film that doesn't take itself so seriously and is willing to make some pretty deep satirical comments at the same time.
(oh, if you haven't seen it yet, make sure to watch in the finale for Renee Zelleger's lipstick on the teeth moment!)
The weather here is so great. I just want to lay in the grass under the warm sun all day long. I'm stocking up on it in my solar-power/warmth cells for when I go back North next week.
And since you're all such faithful readers to my daily ruminations, here's A website you must try:
Guess the Dictator and/or Sit-Com Character
I win again! You are player number 2732 to have chosen Lucy from I love Lucy. I knew you were Lucy from I love Lucy from the start, but I strung you along for a while to make it seem more sporting. I hope that one day you will overcome the powerful sense of humiliation that you now feel. Until then, good luck.
Fair warning, this website is too addicting, in your quest to stump it. We tried everyone from Lucy, Ben Seaver, Cooter, Al from Tool Improvement, Tootie, Eddie from Fraiser, and Red Foreman -- each time they nailed us! Try it for yourself, and lemme know if you end up stumping it.
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Viewers Vent Over 'Joe Millionaire'
By LYNN ELBER, AP Television Writer
LOS ANGELES - Viewers were fuming and David Letterman (news - Y! TV) was cracking wise about Fox promotions for "Joe Millionaire" that seemed to promise more than the show delivered.
Evan Marriott didn't make the final choice between would-be loves Sarah and Zora on Monday, although there seemed to be network hints that he would. Instead, the episode was mostly a recap.
"We got duped. We totally got duped," viewer Cynthia Wiggin of San Carlos said Wednesday. She dismissed the episode as "Total filler. A whole filler night."
On CBS' "Late Show" with Letterman on Tuesday, a familiar video clip of Osama bin Laden (news - web sites) speaking in a cave was shown — but this time, he was supposedly fuming about Fox.
"The treachery of the infidels has reached a new height," said a voiceover offering a mock translation. "We had been led to believe that last night would be the finale of 'Joe Millionaire.'"
Fox said it didn't intend to suggest Marriott was going to make his decision.
"The payoff was always going to be on Feb. 17," spokesman Scott Grogin said Tuesday. "It's possible we were a little over the top with our promos and we're sorry if people felt misled." The network said it hoped any upset viewers would reconsider.
"We would hope that our audience will tune in. If they do they will not be disappointed," said Grogin, who promised that next Monday's two-hour finale would contain surprises.
Even the pros found Fox's approach misleading. Entertainment news magazine "Access Hollywood" had reported Monday that Marriott's decision would be revealed that night. "It just shows how low it can go," said "Access Hollywood" executive producer Rob Silverstein. "I thought it was pretty blatant and I think it upset quite a number of people. It upset us."
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Is 5AM considered the "ungodly" hour?
Ugh.
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O for a beaker full of the warm South,
Full of the true, the blushfull Hippocrene
With beaded bubbles winking at the brim,
And purple stainéd mouth;
That I might drink, and leave the world unseen,
And with thee fade away into the forest dim...
John Keats, "Ode to a Nightingale"
I can't believe I'm finding myself liking a Romantic poet. I must be in a good mood. That, and my mind is warped from having to teach about odes in my tutorial today.
But that bit of the ode relates well to my feelings tonight. One, I'm really excited at the prospect of me going back home for a couple of days. The wine bit in the poem is funny tonight too. I had to make a pit stop before finishing packing my bag, in order to bring home some of Canada's finest (namely cherry whiskey that you can't get in the States). I got carded!! I couldn't believe it. You only have to be 19 to drink here, so I guess the guy thought I was younger than that. Considering I just turned 25 not 2 weeks ago... ah well. I guess I haven't gotten to the age where this is a compliment. I shouldn't complain though, I was nearly offered a child's ticket at the movie theater this Christmas, when seeing The Gangs of New York.
Before I go any further, let me express my EXTREME HATRED for the FOX Network I can't believe them. Yes, I am one of the poor hacks that have been following the fiasco that is "Joe Millionaire." I sat through a whole hour long episode tonight, waiting for the big moment to be revealed, only to watch the hour wind down, and nothing happen. Until next week's two-hour fiasco. Bastards. Yes, I complain now, but I'll be watching next week. I just wish I knew that it would have been a waste of time, or I coulda packed during that hour or something. Ah well.
CSI:Miami was awesome though. Hooray for Shakespeare allusions. I loves it.
Off to attempt to get snatches of sleep -- which will be difficult because of my 5:30AM pickup tomorrow morning and my broken noisemaker (which is seemingly stuck on "wind" noise instead of the "rain" I'm used to).
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That kid is on the escalator, AGAIN!
Ah, I have found a gem on the 'net. And that gem would be Doom's Losers of the Week column on Azcentral.com.
Examinations of the overrated -- such as
Avril Lavigne
If you're ever on Jeopardy, and the answer is "Whom Britney Spears would be if she were uglier, wore 'grunge' clothes and called herself 'punk,'" the question would obviously be: "Who is Avril Lavigne?"
At Tuesday's Grammy announcements, Lavigne (pronounced "luh-VEEN") mispronounced David Bowie's name, saying something that rhymes with "Howie" rather than "doughy," which would also make her the obvious Jeopardy question to "Contrived Canadian pop star who knows nothing about actual music."
"Oops!" she actually told the AP. "I knew that was going to happen, I knew I was going to pronounce someone's name wrong."
It's hard to understand how her record label failed to tell her how to pronounce the music legend's name, especially considering how it already told her exactly how to dress, exactly how to act, exactly what to wear, exactly what to sound like and exactly how to pretend to play the guitar.
In an interview earlier this year, she mentioned "reinventing punk rock for this generation" and that she was "this generation's Sid Vicious," the bass player for the Sex Pistols, a band that she hadn't even heard of.
Punk is NOFX. Punk is Rancid. Punk is Bad Religion. Punk is The Clash.
Prepackaged Poser Pop Detritus is Avril Lavigne, which explains her five Grammy nominations, one for song of the year, for "Complicated," which is about a guy who wears different clothes and acts fake, which is a hilariously ironic joke that more than writes itself.
"Maybe I'll, like, write a song about this whole thing and it'll be totally punk," Lavigne should have added. "Or, at least, I can tell someone about it and have them write a song for me. I mean, that is, if my record label says it's cool, you know?"
Other "losers" include Mariah Carey, Hypocritical SUV-driving celebrities, Shakira's pants, and a man by the name of Jack Ass. This guy says he most relates to Bodie off of Mallrats. I can definitely see it. |
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Things to do when I get home, on Tuesday:
- Hug my parents, brother, and Mike really tight.
- Go to IHOP and partake of their new campaign of all you can eat pancakes
- Play tennis outside, where its WARM
- Cuddle with my dog
- Enjoy probably my last stay in the house I grew up
- Meet with new boss for a possible amazingly great summer job (running the summer camp I ran two years ago)
- Sleep.
- Go to my old university and hang out with friends
- Read long, boring, Victorian book, Mary Barton (for 110 class)
- Eat a bean burrito from Taco Bell!
- Watch Daytona 500!
- Go to Starbucks and lose myself for a couple hours in Barnes and Noble
- Lay in the warm grass at Forsythe and thaw
- Drink sweet tea
- Visit some old friends and professors
- Deposit some money in my checking account back home, pay off some credit cards, and pay back parents
My loan check FINALLY arrived!! |
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Well, just finished reading over Powell's address to the UN. Interesting stuff. Also interesting is watching the reaction to it, up here. At lunch, people gathered around computer screens, watching what he had to say. It's hard to read what the consensus is -- the most vocal segment is definitely the anti-war group.
In my useless grad class today, the prof advertised a "teach-in" for next Saturday. I'll be home then, but if I where here, I might go, just to observe. I'd like to talk to some people that are this vehemently against any military action in Iraq. I'm not quite sure I understand much of the arguments I've heard, floating around, that support the continued condoning of Saddam. I've heard that the US is doing this in order to access the oil reserves in Iraq or that Bush is just a crazy man looking for more blood to spill. I find it hard to fathom why the points of attack are focused so accutely on America (and consequently, often Americans), and NOT on this crazy megalomaniac running Iraq -- who has continually violated UN Resolutions for 12 years.
**Disclaimer, I am not an expert on diplomatic relations** -- but, why does it seem like the world prefers reaction over proaction? I doubt that France would support the US unless an obvious attack, with human casualities, was committed. How much evidence is enough to persuade? I thought Powell's speech was fairly effective. Granted, the evidence was censored a bit (protecting intelligence sources and such), but how much evidence is necessary to prove the point that Iraq is clearly in violation of the agreements they said they'd follow?
I don't want war. I don't want innocent Iraqis to be killed as soldiers try to root out the evil that's taken control of their country. There's an email floating around that suggests the US trade milk for oil. While that's a noble and ideal thing to strive for -- how realistic is it? This madman won't let milk or medicine or anything else useful get through to his people. Its fairly obvious he doesn't care about them in the first place, especially if he's willing to use them as his guinea pigs in testing chemicals.
Sigh. It's a mess. I don't want another September 11 attack -- be it on American soil or Canadian, French, Egyptian, etc. I don't think appeasing a maniac or putting our trust on his "humanity" is an option either.
World Peace. Is there such a thing? Will there ever be?
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T-Bone at Idle Type made my day: Celebrities Without Makeup. It's amazing what a processed tub of intestines and coloring will do for a person. That, and the almighty airbrush!
Wow, much going on. Tomorrow looks to be a full day. From my completely-useless English grad class (in which I sit and listen to "how smart" the professor thinks he is) to my 110 class to student appointments to my endless pile of reading to transcribing my research project to finding out who got kicked off American Idol (hey, a grrrl has to turn her brain off some time during the day!).
My dad may have actually traced down the ever elusive loan check. He dragged a tracking number from them, FINALLY. Turns out they've been addressing the check to the "University of Saskatchewan" -- and not to the Registrar's Office, no building number, not my name, NOTHING to identify where it should go. So, in an university of 25,000 students, were they expecting that the postmaster could mind-read where it belonged? Sigh. Hopefully it'll surface within the week -- maybe even tomorrow!
I'm making a concerted effort to go to bed "early" tonight. I leave you with Matchbox 20's song-lyric-of-the-year:
"You taste like honey, honey...tell me can I be your honey?"
(ugh, and I thought U2 sold out and got awful!)
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P.S.
I got to talk to several people from home tonight. My momma, Matt, Suz, then Mike. I feel loved, and really needed the reconnection. Thanks y'all.
Okay, really going to bed now!
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Late nights.
Don't you hate it when its really late, and you haveta get up early in the morning, but your mind just won't let you sleep?
That's how I feel, right now.
Today hasn't been the best of days. I think the ethernet card in my laptop has finally bitten the proverbial dust (and not a month after its warranty has run out, yay). Even Kevin-the-wonder-tech-guy at Shaw Cable couldn't help me revive it this afternoon. So after much cursing, I bit the bullet and bought a plug and play network card for the laptop. It was right at 70 bucks, and with my limited (due to our friends at Sallie Mae) funds, it was a bit of a bite. But at least I can get online now. And no, I'm not that big of a geek that I *have* to have net access 24/7, but it's nice to have it in my room so I can keep in touch with people back home. If I ever get my check from my loan company, I might be able to actually get some maintenance done on my machine.
I'm supposed to be teaching Dry Lips Oughta Move to Kapuskasing tomorrow -- and I'm finding that I have no real clue on what it's about, nor do I like it. That should make for an interesting class, no? I'm frustrated that the prof wants to go ahead and move on with new material, instead of spending another week explaining this complex play. Ah well, what do I know, lowly grad student that I am. On Friday I get a whole new batch of papers to grade! (4 down, 1 to go!)
Once again, I've stayed up way late and have to get up early in the morning. I do hope I get out of this funk soon.
Until then, I'll just play with this painfully obnoxious (and all too realistic) AOLer online translator:
(Gettysburg Address retranslated) FOURSCOR3 AND SEVAN YAARS AGO OUR FATHERS BROUGHT FORTH ON THIS CONTIENNT A NU NATION CONC3IEVD IN LIEBRTY AND D3DICAETD 2 TEH PROPOSITION TAHT AL MEN R CR3AETD EQUAL!1!! OMG WTF LOL
NOW WE R ANGAEGD IN A GRAAT CIVIL WAR T3STNG WH3TH3R TAHT NATION OR ANY NATION SO CONCAIEVD AND SO DEDICAETD CAN LONG ENDUR311!!11! OMG WTF LOL WE R MET ON A GR3AT BATLA FEILD OF TAHT WAR1!!1!1 OMG WTF WE HAEV COM3 2 DEDICAET A PORTION OF TAHT FEILD AS A FINAL RESTNG-PLAEC FOR THOSA WHO HER3 GAEV THERE LIEVS TAHT TAHT NATION MIGHT LIEV1!!1!!1 OMG WTF IT IS AL2G3THER FITNG AND PROPER TAHT WE SHUD DO THIS
(I Have a Dream) I HAEV A DREM TAHT ON3 DAY THIS NATION WIL RIES UP AND LIEV OUT DA TRU3 MEANNG OF ITS CRED WE HOLD THAS3 TRUTHS 2 B S3LF-AVIEDNT TAHT AL MAN R CREAETD AQUAL!1!! LOL
I1!!!!1! OMG HAEV A DREM TAHT MAH FOUR LITL3 CHILDR3N WIL ONA DAY LIEV IN A NATION WH3R3 THEY WIL NOT B JUDGAD BY DA COLOR OF THEYRE SKIN BUT BY TEH CONT3NT OF THERE CHARACTAR!11111!1 OMG WTF I HAEV A DREM 2DAY
The scary thing about that is I actually *know* people who type like that.
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6 more weeks of winter...
Stupid groundhog....
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This has really hit me pretty hard. I can't think of anyone who hasn't envied astronauts at some point in their life -- whether it's an 8 year-old's dream job or a 20-something year old girl, flying home looking at the stars around her. It feels like I've been punched in the stomach, waking up and hearing about this loss. In an age where space travel safety is taken for granted, these men and women really are heroes. I feel awful for what their families must be going through, right now.
Ilan Ramon, the Israeli astronaut, took with him this picture drawn in a concentration camp by a child of the Holocaust. It was a child's conception of what Earth looked like from the moon. It survived the Holocaust, but has died on board with Ramon. Again, hearing this makes it seem even more tragic.
Also on board with the astronauts were some protein crystals from the U of S.
I found the poem that was read at the Challenger memorial service. It was written by a pilot in the Canadian Air force, before WWII.
High Flight
John Gillespie Magee
Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed and joined the tumbling mirth of sun-split clouds,
- and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of - wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there,
I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless falls of air.
Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue
I've topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, nor even eagle flew -
And, while with silent lifting mind I've trod
The high, untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand and touched the face of God.
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What a week for space disasters. First the anniversary of the Challenger, now this. Unbelieveable.
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Happy birthday to me, happy birthday to me, happy birthday to meeee-eee. Happy birthday to me.
A quarter-century old. Wow.
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