reckless abandon

Today was the day we went in search of Robert Smithson's Spiral Jetty. We set out this morning.

But this is what it would end up looking like for us, more wintry and cold.

And I had a song stuck in my head the majority of the time (please indulge me here):

What I wouldn't give if you could have it all

The sun that's going down

The bed that breaks the fall

The cradle and the bow

So you can take comfort now

You can take comfort now...

Sometimes a heart can break and make it's own relief

The way the cold dark night invites the fire thief

He wants to show us how

So we can take comfort now

We can take comfort now...

Thank you, Hem.

And we also stopped at a place I've been wanting to go to since I learned about it in fourth grade history. I can't believe I've never been until now.

Promontory Point. Indeed, my friends, we stood there in the bitter cold appreciating the silver placard. I'd made it. Check that one off the list. Check. Check.

a·ban·don

–noun
a complete surrender to natural impulses without restraint or moderation; freedom from inhibition or conventionality: to dance with reckless abandon.

Lloyd George is a cool cat

After the others had grown weary of the game, my friend and I continued to play what I was told was called "Take Two". I'm sure you've all played this game before. You use Scrabble tiles all face down in the middle of the table. You rush to make words before the next guy says "take two" at which time you take two more tiles and the game goes on. Anyway, the details of the game aren't necessarily that important. But my friend and I were playing, as the others had grown weary, and both of our tile grids were migrating into the other; it was taking an awful long time . I learned a lot of words during the game, but this one was near the very end and the word "shoal" stuck out to me.

shoal

–noun
1. a place where a sea, river, or other body of water is shallow.
2. a sandbank or sand bar in the bed of a body of water, esp. one that is exposed above the surface of the water at low tide.

I had used the word in my grid but had no idea if it was even a word. "Erm... eh... is this a word?" The others examined my tiles.

–adjective
3. of little depth, as water; shallow.

"Of course not!" laughed my competitor, "what does it mean then?" I could have sworn that I'd read it somewhere, but I couldn't pull up the definition. "Uh..."

–verb (used without object)
4. to become shallow or more shallow.

Then, someone came to my rescue. "What?!? That's a word! Seriously, you guys..." and he rattled off his definitions. He was so frustrated at our ignorance that he was slightly incoherent and I couldn't quite make out what he was saying.

–verb (used with object)
5. to cause to become shallow.
6. Nautical. to sail so as to lessen the depth of (the water under a vessel).

And indeed, it is a word, or so says the dictionary. I'm pretty sure I'm going to use this word again sometime. I mean, noun, adjective, and verb! I can't resist.

p.s. if you knew this word already and your intelligence is feeling slightly insulted as a result of this post, please send it my regards and express my sincere apology.

good things happen to good people

Last night I came home and decided to read a bit before I went to sleep. I find that I decide to do this at the worst times of the day. This particular time was 2:11 am. Yes, I should have been sleeping so that I could get up early and check my old tests and annotated bibliography score and then give a Biology 100 review session, but... well, I have no real reason. I wanted to read. I guess that's enough.

I began where I left off in Daniel Pinkwater's The Snarkout Boys and the Avocado of Death where Walter and the gang set out with Osgood Sigerson in search of Rat's Uncle Flipping. And all of a sudden Sigerson said this, "I'm going to go reconnoiter," just after leaving a security guard trapped in cocoon of scotch tape (part of the plan, you know).

So:

re·con·noi·ter
v. To make a preliminary inspection of, especially in order to gather military information.

We can thank Todd for this one. He's the one that suggested the book to me, you know, to read when I needed to think of something else. I don't know if he meant so early in the morning, but hey.

I'm so lucky to have people looking out for me.

should have been word of the day in february

So, I was having this conversation with my friend, amethyst. She said she had a contribution for the vocab list, and since I was only coming up with scientific words that mean but one thing and one thing only (I love science, but seriously), I decided I'd take the English major's side of things.

me: I was going to tell you something... oh!
please make a suggestion for the vocab blog
do you have one right now?

ame: i do
do you want to know it?
ludic
bess taught me

me: who is bess?

ame: my computer

me: ha ha ha
her name is bess? that's great
so... tell me the story if you would

ame: i was reading bourdieu and he said "...quasi-ludic"
and i said "bess, what does ludic mean?"
and she said "lu-dic: loodik adjective Formal

showing spontaneous and undirected playfulness.

ORIGIN: 1940s: from French ludique, from Latin ludere \'to play\', from ludus \'sport\'"

i didn't ask about quasi cause i already knew and then i used that passage in my paper

me: very cool

and so, there it is: ludic. So how many of you knew what that meant? And even more intriguing, how many of you have used this word?

because International Cinema had technical difficulties

So what am I supposed to make of the guy sitting next to me in the library using a lighter and a hunting knife to sear his recently incurred wound? I don't think I'd think twice about it except for the fact that he has also been talking to himself, or the computer really, ever since I got here. There's really nothing inherently wrong with talking to the computer, or yourself, while you work, but adding the searing wound bit makes it different... maybe. Ha ha ha. The best part is that I heard the *snick* of the lighter and looked over just in time to see him realize what he was doing and scan suspiciously around for any sort of library official. I also got a lucky glimpse of the wound: a small nick on the middle finger of his left hand. That explains the frustrated, "Dangit!" coming from his direction a few minutes earlier. Ah, when you've got time on your hands.

Ooo! Ooo! And I just witnessed my first guy being excited after getting a date! No joke, I thought all that discussion about having to pump yourself up before asking someone on a date and then feeling triumphant when it actually works out the way you want it to was all fable! I mean, I knew that's probably what I'd have to do being the person that I am, but I thought guys were much too suave and understandingly confident for it to be really true. Perhaps I just thought it was a story they told us girls knowing that it might make us feel, you know, a little more special. Now that I say that outloud, it sounds quite naive. Well, I'm glad to be proven wrong. And indeed he looked triumphant. That's enough to make anyone's day! My friends, my day has been made.

ex‧ult‧ant  adj.
exulting; highly elated; jubilant; triumphant.