I wanna do better. I wanna try harder...

This weekend was terrific! I got to see Kim in "Proof" and she was phenomenal. I got to spend time with my family and my roommates. Kris came in and we spent time together after the play. Conversations over coffee are my favorite moments in friendships, and I had many of those moments this weekend. I am truly blessed to have such wonderful, sincere, witty friends. Kris did not leave until almost three o'clock this morning, so I slept late. I feel like such a slacker, because until today, I had done no homework. "The Brand" goes to print on Tuesday morning, and I have only edited one-fifth of the articles. This is not a good thing. I have a huge test in linguistics on Tuesday and I have not touched the review. However, I would rather have to stay up all night playing catch up then to have sat at home all weekend and missed out on all of the fun.

We had family in from Virginia this weekend. It was good to see Tommy and Sylvia, and I always love hearing their accents. I will be going to see them soon, so that is exciting! Tommy lives on the Chesapeake Bay which will be wonderful for writing-- it is serene and beautiful. It's really too bad Abilene is not more picturesque. We had a wonderful lunch at my grandmother's house today and then I headed up to the library for the rest of the afternoon. For dinner, I ate at my grandmother's house again and had her tortilla soup. I ate better today than I have in a long time-- good home-cooked meals. The library was uneventful, as always. The highlights were talking to my friend Nancy that works there and seeing Rachel. She came in and we talked for about an hour. We will both use any excuse to not do work. I have a million projects going on right now and I hate that feeling, because even though you are working on all of them a little bit, since you are not completing any of them it feels like you are making no progress. Well, onwards and upwards. Tonight it is just homework, editing, Pilates, reading in the bathtub, and bed. I look forward to the latter most of all.

I have been listening to Over the Rhine quite a bit recently. Here are lyrics to one song I have listened to repeatedly this afternoon:

"Long Lost Brother"

I thought that we'd be
further along by now.
I can't remember how
we stumbled to this place.

I loved you like a long lost brother.
On a bad day maybe I thought, "why bother"?
I've seldom seen so much anger
in a face.

I wanna do better.
I wanna try harder.
I wanna believe
down to the letter.

Jesus and Mary
can you carry us
across this ocean
into the arms of forgiveness?

I don't mean to laugh outloud.
I'm trying to come clean,
trying to shed my doubt.
Maybe I should just keep
my big mouth shut.

More often than not
when it comes to you,
you want whatever's not in front of you.
Deep down I know this includes me too.

I wanna do better.
I wanna try harder.
I wanna believe
down to the letter.

Jesus and Mary
can you carry us
across this ocean
into the arms of forgiveness?

So tell me your troubles,
let your pain rain down.
I know my job, I've been around.
I invest in the mess.
I'm a low cost dumping ground.

Trouble is I'm so exhausted.
The plot, you see, I think I've lost it.
I need the grace to find what can't be found.

I wanna do better.
I wanna try harder.
I wanna believe
down to the letter.

Jesus and Mary
can you carry us
across this ocean
into the arms of forgiveness?