a good samaritan on the yellow line train to fort totten

To the man who remembered what it means to respect our elders, thank you. I saw you out of the corner of my eye the whole way from Braddock to Archives talking to another man who I gathered was a complete stranger to you. He was in his early nineties, dressed to the nines with a paisley bow tie & a sharp sport coat, and it was obvious that he was a little nervous as to how to get to where he was going. The two of you didn't share similar beliefs of an after life, but you comforted him all the same about the loss of his wife of 60+ years. You & he regaled the neighborhoods & restaurants of what once was in our lovely District. You comforted a man whose life is no longer the same, & you even told him that you were going to get off with him at Archives & make it your mission to find his destination. You, sir, are a wonderful soul & a refreshing breath of humanity. & to be honest, my initial impression of you would never have seen you do that. Thank you for reminding me that first impressions are often wrong & that the little things are often the most important.

a very happy birthday to one of the best of friends

To the loud girl two doors down in Griffis Hall,

Thank you for being the first friend I made at college. Despite our terrible first impressions of each other {you the loud & annoying girl on the hall, me the shy & snobby bookworm}, we still managed to form an incredible friendship that I am blessed by everyday. Thanks to you, I actually developed a love for Mississippi State that finally put to rest my childhood adoration of Auburn {that first picture was from freshman year, give me credit...}, learned the proper way to perform a pageant walk/turn on stage {at 3 am in the dorm hall, making us both the loud girls on the second floor of Griffis}, found a friend who would side on the greatness of Harry Potter over Twilight any day, interviewed for one of the greatest groups I have ever been a part of- Alumni Delegates, created the best wake-up alarm game ever: peekaboo! - the many faces that could haunt the first few seconds of your day {as well as the many adventures we had on that dying inflatable twin-sized mattress}, discovered that there's more to college than good grades & studying even though we spent the majority of our college life in Mitchell Memorial Library, survived Dr. Mead's Organic Chem I & II classes relatively unscathed, realized that medical school was never meant for either one of us, & came out of my shy shell to become who I am today. Even in college I knew that our friendship was going to be one of the great ones because we never considered each other our competition in class but rather our cheerleader in life. I am so thankful for you, and even though we're separated by 985 miles {I looked it up, some bookworm habits never die}, I still feel like if we both walked into Mitchell Memorial right now we could pick up where we left off & procrastinate on our studying by talking for hours :)

happy birthday, sweet Sarah! you, my friend, are one of the greats of my life.


love,
the shy bookworm hiding behind her desk, waiting for you to barge in & ask your question about our class assignment

the fifth day of spring {by title only}

Dearest Mother Nature,

This past week I've had a case of the bloggin' blues {as noted by the lack of interesting content around here}, and I blame it wholeheartedly on the weather. I mean, I get it. Last year we were all up in arms because we never even had a semblance of a winter, so I think these days you're just trying to prove your point that you were giving us a pass. As an uprooted Southerner, I am grateful for the lack of snow this past season, but throwing in a few inches this late in the game is a bit cruel. I have a bad case of cabin fever, and I desperately need to find WARM sunlight and blissful spring days STAT. I don't really feel like I'm asking for much, just traditional March weather. And as it's almost April, I think it's high time to give in to our wishes. I know for a fact that my body is craving some Vitamin D, so I'm hoping your little temper tantrum of a late winter snow is out of your system and that we can go back to being friends. I'll even settle for 50 degree temperatures so long as there's sun.

>>>> Your friend,

                      Kat

P.S. As if my ramblings could be any more persistent {or more random}, I hope those few lines from James Merrill's "The Broken Home" (Always that same old story--/Father Time and Mother Earth/A marriage on the rocks) hasn't caused you much trauma. As in I hope the fact that Merrill used you as a metaphor for his parents' messy divorce isn't causing you pain in the form of late March snow... I'm here for ya, sista. That husband of time is with you, too {even though he causes you to change constantly to keep up your longstanding marriage}. On second thought, if you've been fighting back against the grains of ticking time to immortalize one moment, I forgive you for this looming chill. But let's mimic the feminist independence movement and gain some confidence in that field, k?

letters of the nonsensical variety

Dear Postman, at first I started to think you had forgotten about my J. Crew jeans when my package was noticeably absent, but you greatly impressed me by stuffing them into my little apartment mailbox instead. You, sir, deserve a gold star in packing efficiency and should probably hold a seminar on how to properly pack a carry-on so as best to avoid airline charges. Dear Mr. Huxley, I know I praised you in high school for a job well done on Brave New World, but really, job well done. After recently reading it again, I still freak out about the world to come. But don't worry, I shall bring God and Shakespeare with me. Probably more God than Shakespeare though (I gotta be honest). Dear Sarah, thanks for reassuring me after I read BNW that I was just feeling the "the weight" on my shoulders, and that this too will pass. Dear Modern Family, thank you for understanding what I meant about parents & kids being friends when Claire asked Haley on a date. You get me every time. I especially loved the analogy: "Raising a kid is like sending a rocket ship to the moon. You spend the early years in constant contact and then one day, around the teenage years, they go around the dark side and they're gone. All you can do is wait for that faint signal that says they're coming back." Hey parents, I'm baaaaackkk! Dear weather, you befuddle me. Yesterday was delightfully cool. Perfect running conditions. Dare I say it, spring weather-like? Today, we're getting our first "real" snow of the season. In March. Are you hormonal? Let's work on that. Dear first week back of running, I both love and hate you. Thank you for reminding me that I am woefully out of shape. When a woman three times my age zoomed past me on the trail, I finally got it. Dear husmate, your enthusiasm for learning something new is quite possibly the cutest thing. ever. When your books came in the mail the other day, you would have thought it was Christmas morning. I can't wait to see you really get into your new skill. :) Also, Michael Buble is the cheesiest. I apologize that my Avett/Mumford love makes me skeptical of your acceptance of Buble. Let's work on that, shall we?