Braquaggio

i haven't posted in forever. as much as i enjoy writing, sometimes the idea of putting something out for anyone to read is a bit daunting. tonight i don't care so much.

it is crazy to think how much things change in a short amount of time. my life feels very different from the last time i posted... a good kind of different. God is always working in my life, but this time i'm actually trying to go along with it instead of fighting.

another crazy thing about life is how quickly it can end. i went to a visitation tonight for a 20-year-old. i didn't know him, but i know his family. he hit a patch of black ice, and his truck rolled and flipped end to end. i'm sure he didn't wake up that day thinking he might die. none of us ever do. we forget how temporary life is. we take for granted that we'll have a next breath, a next day. that will not always be the case. we need to be conscious of our limited time on earth, especially as we relate to other people.

anyway, those are some of my thoughts tonight.

i’ve wanted to be a storm chaser for years. however, without a vehicle, my brand of storm chasing consists of me wandering around whatever town i’m in and taking pictures of clouds and storms in their various stages of ferocity.

today was no exception. with a 70% probability of favorable storm conditions, i kept my eyes on the windows for any good excuse to skip work and take pictures. i got my chance around 3:30.

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today was a new experience for me--being chased by a storm.

most assuredly yes, in many senses, but none more so than when there is a storm or i have a camera in my hand.
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i was distracting myself from work by looking at the news online, and i remembered it was April Fool's day. when i was a kid, i used to really look forward to April Fool's and try to think up all kinds of tricks i could play on people. now i barely notice it. i think that happens with a lot of things in life.

i was talking to a friend recently about playing in the snow. she told me that her son loves to play in the snow. i used to love playing in the snow as a kid. i'm kinda iffy on it now. i don't mind walking in it, and i definitely like to take pictures of it, but i'm not so keen on rolling around in it anymore. i have plenty of adult friends who love to go sledding and skiing and do other fun snow activities; i'm just not one of them. okay, i do have to admit that i like throwing snowballs.

anyway, back to April Fool's... the only trick that comes to mind was one my brother played on me when i was 13 or 14, i think. i was taking a shower, and he dumped a blue or purple Kool-Aid packet into the shower at my feet. i remember it gave my feet a slightly bluish or purplish tint. i wasn't very happy with him. i'm sure other people have played tricks on me, and they might have even been good. but evidently they weren't good enough.

i visited a friend in the central coast area of California. i was out there for about 10 days, and i got back on friday the 18th. i've posted pictures of my trip in my LJ scrapbook. be forewarned--there are a lot of pictures.

you can either access the pictures through my userinfo page, or you can paste this link in your browser: http://pics.livejournal.com/braquaggio/gallery/0000tk52?.view=grid
(sorry, i couldn't remember the html code to make the hyperlink.)

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i finally got that book finished. i don't think i've ever been so happy to get through something in my life... well, that's probably not true, but i was definitely glad to be done. i actually finished about a week ago, but i picked up other work and didn't have time to post.

i was planning to post something longer here, but Simon the cat seems to have other plans... i'll have to post later, when i don't have a cat licking my face.

the book i've been copyediting lately is by far the heaviest edit i have ever undertaken (or had thrust upon me). as much as i love a challenge, i must admit i'm very frustrated with this author. the writing quality, sentence structure, and organization are abysmal.

what's worse is i can't get myself to focus properly on the book. i start thinking about how to rewrite a sentence or restructure a paragraph, and i begin to mentally wander. obviously this doesn't help my editing rate.

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I went to my home church for service last Sunday. We started by singing a few worship songs, all of which seemed to be a bit patriotic. I was confused until I remembered that this week was the 4th of July.

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well, i'm back in my home state for the time being. i was looking at the news online this morning, and it occurred to me how much the news is like a soap opera. everything is sensational, and if you don't watch it for a few days and then go back to it, the same things are happening. there is nothing new under the sun. the same stuff is recycled over and over across time. i'm actually not trying to sound depressive; this has just been my observation.

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for those of you who don't know, i'm leaving minneapolis in june and moving back in with my parents for a couple of months. i'm hoping to save up money and move out to san luis obispo, california, by the end of the summer. within a year, i plan to take the LSAT and apply to law school at uc berkeley, and possibly to a related graduate program. crazy? maybe a bit.
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