December 1, 2008

ELVES DANCING THE CHARLESTON ANYONE?

http://elfyourself.jibjab.com/view/Oc9s0B7kUp0OJNnSo7tv

| By Heidi V. | 2:43 PM | Comments (2)

July 25, 2008

Appeasing the Memers

Here you go Ange and other gracious memers....

RULES:
1. Link to your tagger and post these rules on your blog.
2. Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.
3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs.
4. Let them know they are tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

And here you have it:

1.

I've had a strange obsession with sloths since I saw a documentary on them in 8th grade and I've been really into Batman since going to my friend's dad's comic book store in middle school. This says it all...
http://spoonofthesea.stlouisblogs.org/archives/001203.html (read superhero quiz)

2. I was in pre-med for 2 years in college, but I dropped out after I was forced to pith a frog's brain and dissect it WHILE its heart was beating. I left the lab crying and ended up a Lit/Theatre major. I know-bit of a jump.

3. I have had stitches 8 times, broken two bones, and have chipped my front teeth twice---yeah, I was VERY rambunctious child!

4. In high school I ran a 6:02 mile my senior year, which was one of my happiest moments of my life! But I'm lucky to run a 7 something now.

5. I've belly danced for 7 years, but have never belly danced for anyone other than my husband, close family, and international groups that my troupe was paid to dance for. I stick to salsa, tango, swing and folk dance.

6. I had coffee with Sufjan Stevens and band mates when I was in College, but didn't know he became famous because I knew him as "Sue fee on" and people called him "Suefuh John". My friend Shannon was actually the singer of his first band called MARZUKI (I've got the CD for those who are curious). Sufjan played the flute and various stringed instruments.

7. I have a weird thing with my twin sister. We often call each other at the same time. Like to the minute, and at REALLY random times.

I don't know who to tag that hasn't already been tagged! So I'm tagging my favorite blogs to read in St. Louis: Angela, Heidi H., Kirk, Nate G., Neil, Sarah W., and Tanya Mark,

| By Heidi V. | 6:30 PM | Comments (4)

May 26, 2008

Free Writing

Lately, I’ve been writing. I started with some monologues loosely based on people I know, then I moved onto free writing. Free writing-for me-is writing what ever I feel inspired to write without thinking about form or continuity (a technique I learned from one of my English professors, which I found extremely helpful). In my case, I start with a loose idea of the story I want to convey, but try to focus mainly on creating images that I think set the “right” tone. Although, most people find starting with the form helpful, I prefer to do it the other way around-not sure why. Then, typically, I don't touch what I've written until I feel inspired to polish it into something worth reading. Uh....yeah...at this point, most my work get stowed away in a journal NEVER to be read again.

The thing is, I just joined this writing/reading group, and I decided this was a fine time to bring new work to the table while polishing old stuff. So here I go. The next step for the free write below is creating a more coherent structure that I can flesh out. I'm kind of excited see what I can do with it.

Oh. Happy Memorial Day or is Labor Day? Happy whichever. No Happy Memorial Day. Jake just said it's Memorial Day...NOT Labor Day. Funny, not one of my neighbors corrected me this morning-bet they didn't know either. ;)


"Celestial Garden" Free write before I polish it:

Sculpted in this soft but cold celestial garden
We nearly scattered like powdered chalk statues
Spooky in the white world of salt, sugar, diamonds, and glass

In the stillness we watched, enchanted by the obscured color we see
Where liquid crystal oozes over lush leaves
and blood red berries appear like rubies locked in glass

At this moment I feel paralyzed and breakable
I want to be let out into the world I knew before
The world built of dirt, coffee, gravel, and ash
Maybe there in the coal shadows I can move freely-not dissipate
Then you remind me…The Gate
We can’t make in through its thick bound vines or endure the slice of sharp chlorophyll fans skirting spruced-needle warriors

For now we stay
Stay to see if one day the walls will melt into green.
Stay to see if the Keeper keeps promises not fully understood.

Until then, while invisible hands shape ivory dreams into pearls
I’ll be scattering frost with the hope that some will travel over these walls
To the land we chose to leave

Maybe then this flurry can melt and bloom something more constant than snow
But for now we wait out the frost in this soft but cold celestial garden.

| By Heidi V. | 6:39 PM | Comments (7)

February 12, 2008

Multiple intelligence Quiz

I FINALLY found this quiz that my cousin was telling me about! Here’s the link if you’re curious.

http://www.mitest.com/o7inte~1.htm


You may be a bit surprised by your results—I was. I expected to be Intrapersonal to be higher, and I was SURE Linguistic would be my highest. I was wrong. Perhaps my low intrapersonalness is to blame.
My Results:

The Seven Intelligence Areas
Linguistic: 7
Logical-Mathematical: 2
Spatial: 6
Bodily-Kinesthetic: 7
Musical: 8
Interpersonal: 7
Intrapersonal: 5

This is the link explaining what the categories mean: http://www.businessballs.com/howardgardnermultipleintelligences.htm

| By Heidi V. | 3:32 PM

January 2, 2008

Nothing New

In honor of the year flipping forward to 2008, I dedicated an entire day to relaxing which generally leads to thinking. I’m not sure why my thoughts fixated on the topic of ancestry and “roots” but they did. I spent some time imagining what they, my ancestors, may have been like. I envisioned family members in tie dye, flapper dresses, pilgrim hats, and Flintstone attire. Somehow this got me thinking about how much of what I KNOW has come from those who had gone before me. And that got me thinking about how much of what I OWN has belonged to someone else previously (virtually all my clothing, furniture, and décor are a result of hand-me-downage). This got me thinking about how everything I’M MADE OF has been part of or belonged to someone or something else before me too! By this I mean on a molecular level!
In order to explain this without “going geek on you” as my Science Olympics friends used to say, I’ll spare you a chemistry lesson on the breaking of chemical bonds and formation of new ones. Instead, I'll just say this: A long time ago my dad told me that ALL water stays in the biosphere FOREVER and all our cells are part of atoms that have been here since the dawn of time! Now, if that’s true--and it is according to most Christian and secular scientists--THEN it’s possible that the water moistening my eyes could have been sweat from an ancient dinosaur or part of a raindrop that fell on Noah’s ark, or maybe even the breath of Jesus himself!

Isn’t that incredible?

Everybody on the radio’s talking about newness and breaking from the past as we usher in 2008, and here I am feeling more ancient and connected to the past than ever before.

Happy new year you atoms of old! May God use each of us fearfully and wonderfully made creatures to do great things this year!

| By Heidi V. | 2:50 PM

December 18, 2007

The Hobbit! YAY!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/fr/-/2/hi/entertainment/7150644.stm

| By Heidi V. | 12:54 PM