Loveliness is divine

AS YOU KNOW:

there's a new boy in town. But we're going back to an old favorite for this challenge post. A little someone I liked to call the Magic Charms (because he's magically delicious?) or more frequently, Paddy O'Furniture (because Robert created the name). Anyway, the scene:

I, cold and alone, have just moved to Scotland like five days ago. I'm jetlagged and all I want is some hot chocolate. So I step into a little cafe called "Juice Monkeys" and I order myself my favorite cold weather beverage. The person sitting at the counter on his laptop, I noticed as I approached the empty register, was rather lovely. He stood, slid behind the countertop, and took my order and two-pound coin. Then he brought me my hot chocolate.

In the meantime, we had a lovely conversation about how he was Irish and thus reminded me of home in, er, Boston, because Boston is wicked Irish? Anyway. He has these gorgeous cornflower blue eyes that just bore into me. And I have a lovely, blustery morning chocolate. I sit there filling out a postcard to my grandfather while I indulge. When I leave, I drop the postcard in the postbox just outside Juice Monkeys, right near St Patrick's Square (OHSOFITTING).

Ten minutes later, my mother calls me to inform me that my grandfather died a few minutes before. I cry and return to the coffee shop for a few more delicious hot chocolates.

It becomes a ritual for me and eventually, I learn Magic Charm's real name (Paul) and that he is older than he looks (31, at the time). He gets so friendly with me that he lets me choose the music he plays and, at one point, sent me with a tenner for strawberries. To this day, I believe that he was as taken by me as I was by him. We remain in occasional communication and some awkward but endearing IsItFlirting? is prone to ensue. It makes me smile, right?

The lasting legacy of this most lovely of encounters (spanning six months, is it still a mere encounter?) is something simpler and altogether lovely, itself.

Hot chocolate. I can't drink it without hearing Paul clear his throat or picturing the way he'd smile through his hair. I feel the warm, comfortable peace of sitting in Juice Monkeys on a gray winter/early spring afternoon by myself, reading a David Sedaris book and carrying on a fascinating conversation about nothing with him. I drink hot chocolate every day and remember a person with whom I had a lovely, perfect friendship. I remember a feeling of sublime peace and sedation. Every single day, I indulge my desire for something sweet and lovely and simple and with it comes an avalanche of lovely, simple, sweet memories of a time when I ought to have been sad, but instead felt warmth and affection.

Things we found in the fire

Because my life moves fast, and it's not just that my life is moving fast; my life is, in fact, moving.

To DC.

So here is one top ten list. I have two.
Top Ten Things I Found While Packing to Move to DC

10. Memorabilia. Cruise memorabilia, in particular. A magnet of a frog wearing swim trunks that say "Bermuda" across the crotch, lying on a lily pad, and sipping a beer.

9. My S Club 7 CDs. Both store-bought and self-mixed.
8. My book of ticket stubs. I have seen a lot of movies and gone to a lot of concerts. Some highlights included Lifehouse, Hanson, and The Village.

7. The amethysts and peridots I bought at Cambridge Beadworks for Mom and Bay.
6. A photograph of my old best friends before they started dating each other, Liam fast asleep on Courtney's shoulder, on the eighth grade trip.

5. The cropped gray sweater I was wearing the night I thought I was falling love. It was buried on my mom's work table. How it landed there I am not entirely sure, but it sort of brought some strange stuff flooding back.

4. The photocopied letter that JK Rowling sends to everyone who writes her fanmail. I got it in middle school and it felt joyous.
3. The lock of my hair that I insisted on saving after I shaved my head for the first time after the very silly boy told me he liked my hair.

2. A stale copy of Parade magazine with Jonathan Rhys Myers on the cover. I think this was shortly after I saw I'll Sleep When I'm Dead and was going through my Varied Brits phase. (Clive, Ewan, Chewi, Jonathan... etc)

1. This photo:



Top Ten Josh Ritter Lyrics For When You Become A RealDeal Adult (With a Job and Not Living With Your Parents Anymore)

10. Out in the desert now and feeling lost.
9. Saturday night in a town like this, I forget all my songs about trains. Bar with a juke box, you on my arm -- Heaven and Earth are pretty much the same.
8. Below me are the sailors; they're on this journey, too. And each of us must make our unknown way upon the blue.
7. Tell me I got here at the right time and if I did, it's probably the first time.
6. I'll hold it high for you cause I know you got, I'll hold it high for you, your own valley to walk. I'll hold it high for you, though it's dark as death, I'll hold it high for you, it gets darker yet. I'll hold it high for you though your path is blocked, I'll hold it high for you through the thieves and the rocks. I'll hold it high for you, keep you safe from harm; I'll hold it high for you until your back in my arms.
5. My wings are made of hay and corn husks, so I can't leave this world behind.
4. Out at sea for seven years, I got your letter in Tangiers. I thought that I'd been on a boat, until that single word you wrote. That single word it landlocked me.
3. Time is like this fast freight train; you gotta ride, you can't remain behind. And all your friends are on separate tracks and some of them, they won't look back to find the one place that we all have known, the one place we can call a home, the place where each of us began. Sure as that day rolls around, when the road back home is finally found, I know our paths will cross again.
2. Lying on your backs, sun going down, you know it's perfect cause you gotta leave.
1. It's only a change of time.

Inspired by Roseanne: a challenge

Hey everyone, have we forgotten each other? I guess you guys all get to see each other at least once in a while (meanwhile I only get to daydream of the time when Cara was in America, sigh).

But Roseanne inspired.

I'm challenging you all to make a top-ten list. About anything. Music, movies, reasons Barack Obama is totally doable. It can be funny or serious or mean-spirited. It can be anything. And I'm going to say by.... eh, September 7th. That should give each of us plenty-o-time.

I'm also going to post a blog alllll about Cara. Because I love her, that's why.

Challenge 2: Paparazzi

This week, I challenge you all to meet someone new, even if you have a boyfriend.

And this is what I want you to do:

1. Find an attractive male stranger. (I know they exist, I've been to Scotland.)
2. Say to him, "Excuse me, but you are ridiculously attractive."
3. Remember his response.
4. Then say, "This might seem odd, but my friend triple-dog dared me to take a picture with a ridiculously attractive male stranger and then post it on my blog. Would you mind?"
5. Take a picture with him, for crying out loud!
6. Post it here, and tell a little story. Where did you stumble upon him? What was his name, age, rank? How did he respond to you telling him, "Excuse me, strange man, but you are ridiculously attractive." How easy was it to convince him to take a picture with you? Was he flattered? Flustered? Flatulent? (I just threw that one there for sound.) Tell your captive audience.

A Wee Post

Hey dudes, it's Mhairi. I'm just gonna do a wee post on the challenges and go away quickly so I only have to do one challenge next week.

1. Family: I have a mum and a dad and little brother and AN AMAZING DOG CALLED GENGUS
2. Pets: I HAVE AN AMAZING DOG CALLED GENGUS. I also I have an ikea bamboo plant and supermarket basil, coriander and parsley plants, and I love them all dearly.
3. Areas of academic interest: Maths! I might do a post or two about maths, it won't be anything scary it will be cool! Some maths is really awesome, honest. I also generally like science. And I also generally like things that aren't science! Stuff is cool.
4. Favorite blogs: I don't actually think I read any blogs...? I try to avoid going on the internet too much because I tend to waste time reading rubbish pointless crap.
5. Best concert: Franz Ferdinand!! Touched! Legs!!
6. Dinner Eating: I've always thought having a dinner party with someone famous would turn out super awkward, or super disappointing. They'd either be as cool as you hoped and then you'd feel stupid and have nothing to say or they'd be boring. So I'd just have my friends!

Challenge:

Introduce yourself! Family, pets, areas of academic interest, favorite blogs, best concerts, who would you like to eat dinner with?

Schedule

Tuesdays- Jenny
Wednesday- Cara or Roseanne?
Thursday- Ashley
Friday- Cara or Roseanne?