mighty maggie: Ponder

Ponder

June 5, 2008: #487 on the List of Ways to Improve
Comments: 6 | Categories: Ponder

I am not going to write about the baby today. But first I will tell you that I have a pregnancy weight-centric post up at Parenting. Mmm, ice cream. I got an email yesterday from someone thanking me for fulfilling...

January 31, 2008: Twelve years too late!
Comments: 5 | Categories: Ponder

In keeping with our little school theme here, I got an email the other day from a girl I knew for all of one year of high school. Apparently she found my brother's MySpace page, got my email address from...

January 30, 2008: More thoughts on school
Comments: 4 | Categories: Ponder

Like I told my mother last night, "Sometimes you ask the internet what is wrong with your screaming barfing baby, even though you kind of already know the answer and the comments aren't that helpful. But SOMETIMES you ask the...

April 26, 2007: I need a nap
Comments: 5 | Categories: Ponder

No baby today. What he lacks in size he makes up by rocking the non-stress tests. I'm exhausted. I barely slept last night (third trimester insomnia?) and spent the entire day explaining 400 things to the new girl, which made...

January 29, 2007: Witching hour
Comments: 3 | Categories: Anxiety , Ponder

I've decided that I have too much free time. My friends snorted at me when I said this yesterday. And I know those of you with babies are either rolling your eyes or firing up an email to order me...

January 22, 2007: Old ladies
Comments: 3 | Categories: Ponder

I have a new best friend. She lives across the street from me, she is 89 years old, her three granddaughters are among the smartest and most accomplished young women on earth and she has been going to my church...

January 2, 2007: Happy new year?
Comments: 3 | Categories: Ponder

I had one of those Depths of Despair moments yesterday. You know what I mean. As someone who has never been truly depressed, I can sometimes imagine what it might be like during my fleeting moments in the Depths of...

December 22, 2006: I can see for a long way
Comments: 4 | Categories: Music & TV , Ponder , Project Baby Cheung

I had a lot of time in college to sit around listening to music. Well, that's not entirely true. I didn't have tons of time, due to whatever job I was working and the demands of the Non-Denominational College Fellowship...

October 23, 2006: Still here
Comments: 5 | Categories: Anxiety , Family , Places , Ponder

I thought a bit of an Internet Hiatus might do me good, but HA. THAT was a dumb idea. I was away, but I was Working. Here I am attempting to deliver the first reading at my cousin's wedding on...

October 4, 2006: Further evidence of my unparalleled dorkiness
Comments: 5 | Categories: Ponder

So, yes, I'm sort of bad at announcing things. Sorry! A few weeks ago I had a mini baby shower at my house. The guest of honor and I had gone out for coffee the day before and I told...

September 22, 2006: A night at the fair
Comments: 6 | Categories: Ponder

Way to make me BLUSH, Internet. You guys are so nice. You are all invited to come over for TV. Just don't expect me to start entertaining you or anything. On to the topic at hand, which is that I...

September 21, 2006: Hello, my name is
Comments: 14 | Categories: Ponder

Yesterday I signed up for this free stat counting service. It only tracks so many hits per day, but since I have all of four readers (and one of you is my mom, hi Mom!) I didn't think that was...

August 28, 2006: Abundance
Comments: 1 | Categories: Ponder

Yesterday was Shanna's birthday. Shanna was my best friend in fifth and sixth grade. She was skinny and blond, which clearly denoted her superiority over me. She had a Nintendo in her room and often accused me of being friends...

August 21, 2006: Giving myself a good talking to
Comments: 5 | Categories: Ponder

Oh good people of the Internet, I had no intention of giving you all complexes over the pronounciation of the word "bruschetta". I just happen to be a snotnose brat who spent several of her formative years in bruschetta's home...

August 10, 2006: Yet another way to make air travel the most dreadful experience on earth
Comments: 6 | Categories: Places , Ponder , Rants

Well. I have to say that this British airplane terror plot thing upsets me terribly. I happened to be on hold with my frequent flyer award reservation desk (aka: The People Who Have Never Heard of Direct Flights, What Can...

August 8, 2006: Actually I invented a special kind of glue
Comments: 2 | Categories: Ponder

I've had a bunch of friends go to their ten-year reunions this summer. (Except my husband. He didn't even get an invite. Your loss, Phillip's high school!) Anyway, I'm still kind of amazed that people GO to reunions. Here is...

July 25, 2006: Will it ever stop? Yo! I don't know
Comments: 0 | Categories: Cranky , Ponder

Yesterday Phillip came home at 7:30. He worked till about 6:30 and biked home. I worked till about 4:30, drove home and proceeded to eat the entire contents of my refrigerator. After hearing my pitiful self-loathing on the subject, Phillip...

June 22, 2006: More blather about babies
Comments: 1 | Categories: Ponder

My neighbors told us quite a while ago that they were expecting. I forgot about it (we have a rather large grudge against these neighbors), although every once in a while I would see the wife and notice she certainly...

June 5, 2006: He wants to name our first child Wang
Comments: 1 | Categories: Family , Ponder

Yesterday Phillip and I bought a cooler and filled it with pop and water and beer and Mike's Hard Lemonade. I made brownies and chocolate chip cookies and we hauled all these things to Carkeek Park where some of the...

June 2, 2006: Before the start of another insane weekend
Comments: 1 | Categories: Ponder

I have a couple friends who know I spend my afternoons daydreaming about being Oprah's next book pick and having her interview me on that nice white sofa. These are the people who ask me "how writing is going" and...

May 31, 2006: Graduation day
Comments: 0 | Categories: Awesome , Family , Ponder

This morning as I drove to work in a jet-lagged Dramamine-induced fog, I listened to the sappiest most miserable my-heart-is-broken song EVER, and I LOVED IT. I even sang along, in the embarrassing way that you sing along to a...

May 23, 2006: After the game of love, baby!*
Comments: 1 | Categories: Ponder

Okay so you know how yesterday I said I had Thursday free? HA. Thursday the husband and I will be the Resident Experts at the pre-marriage class at church. We have been married BARELY three years, we were the youngest...

May 19, 2006: Manners, gesture and consent
Comments: 4 | Categories: Ponder

Since you people seem to be interested in the wedding stuff, here's a random question for you: what sayest thou on the potential groom asking the potential bride's father for her hand? Or, as it works out more often today,...

May 17, 2006: When do I get mine?
Comments: 2 | Categories: Ponder

It was eighty degrees yesterday so my coworker and I stole borrowed our boss's Miata and drove ourselves to the park near the Ballard Locks to eat lunch. My coworker likes to watch the seagulls and the odd representative of...

April 19, 2006: No amount of whiskey, no amount of wine
Comments: 2 | Categories: Ponder

I have a new favorite song. It's called 'Gotta Have You' by The Weepies. It's like I have the troubador from Gilmore Girls following me around with his guitar, only he's joined by Deb Talan and they're singing the chorus...

April 6, 2006: Confessions of an uptight basketcase
Comments: 0 | Categories: Ponder

I went to confession last night. Oh, excuse me. Penance service. Where everyone sits together examining their conscience and then stands in line to give a speed-confession to the priest of his or her choice. In Italy I used to...

March 30, 2006: Don't know much about science books
Comments: 0 | Categories: Ponder

I just completed two "writing exercises" for a potential new job. I either spent a week obsessing over a dozen paragraphs I will never hear about again, or I am one step closer to an actual writing job. Who knows....

March 28, 2006: "I went up and talked to him because I wanted to make him feel welcome."
Comments: 0 | Categories: Ponder

This happened while I was waking up in Friday Harbor on Saturday morning. The papers have done a rotten job reporting it, in my opinion. The newest info could always be found here and was compiled here. It's awful. I...

March 22, 2006: An anniversary post three months early
Comments: 6 | Categories: Phillip , Ponder

I have always been a tiny bit embarrassed about the fact that I was 23 when I got married. I don't know why that is. Ha. I lie. Of course I know! Because you don't get married when you are...

March 16, 2006: Transfiguration? Some initial thoughts.
Comments: 0 | Categories: Anxiety , Faith , Ponder

The other night Phillip and I were in charge of the Yes, Look At Us We Are Organized Now Young Adult Lenten Bible Study. We're using a little book one of the other young adults ordered from a nice Christian...

March 11, 2006: She's a Pisces
Comments: 0 | Categories: Ponder

Somewhere in the world there is a contemplative easy-going blond girl celebrating her twenty-eighth birthday. I think she is on the East Coast. I think I found her phone number via the magic of Google, but I'm not going to...

February 21, 2006: Totally disregarding my financial security
Comments: 0 | Categories: Ponder

Phillip and I had big plans to go to bed early last night. Our last two weeks having been the equivalent of sticking our heads in blenders and hitting "Puree", we were solely interested in television, junk food and sleep....

January 17, 2006: May
Comments: 1 | Categories: Awesome , Faith , Ponder

Somewhere in this world is a little girl named May. At least, that was her name when I met her. She’s at least two years old now, maybe three. When I first held her two summers ago in a Chinese...

January 4, 2006: Old vs. Young
Comments: 1 | Categories: Ponder

This article in the Chronicle of Higher Education kinda freaked me out yesterday. We can be certain that they [young Americans] have mastered the fare that fills their five hours per day with screens — TV, DVD, video games, computers...

January 3, 2006: Resolutions
Comments: 5 | Categories: Ponder

Predictions, Resolutions and Things To Mull Over for 2006. A not-anywhere-near comprehensive list of things I intend to do, accomplish, see, learn or read in 2006. Buy pants that fit. Due to the earthshattering news that I kept one of...

December 14, 2005: If it means I must prepare to shoulder burdens with a worried air
Comments: 1 | Categories: Ponder

Last winter I completed a project that is a Very Important part of my job, if not the most important, in about two weeks. I had never done anything like it, it was completely intimidating, I had to ask lots...

November 18, 2005: Waddle waddle
Comments: 0 | Categories: Ponder

Earlier this week I went to see that penguin movie. [Side Note: I went to see the penguin movie at the coolest movie theater in Seattle, The Big Picture. To enter The Big Picture you open the doors to El...

November 16, 2005: Cut him out in little stars
Comments: 1 | Categories: Ponder

In the spirit of this list, I am compelled to make my own list of Crushworthy Books I Read In College. (I can't pick just one. I was an English major. All I did was read.) The book I remember...

October 28, 2005: I should really start a 'Navel Gazing' category
Comments: 0 | Categories: Ponder

I never wrote about Dar. So. I guess what I wanted to write about wasn't really about Dar or the concert or the awesome opening act or how much I love that Dar wears sparkly dresses when she's performing. Most...

October 12, 2005: A lifetime's not too long
Comments: 0 | Categories: Ponder , When I was a kid

It was either the end of eighth grade or sometime during that summer when I was accosted by a Teacher or some other Important School Official. "We'd really appreciate it," they said, "if you would show a new student around....

October 10, 2005: Insignificance, Definition of:
Comments: 1 | Categories: Ponder

Today we have Pat Robertson explaining to us that the End Times, They Are Near. He supplies the recent tsunami, hurricanes and earthquakes as evidence, and, if Pat allows, I would like to add Katie Holmes' predicament to the pile....

September 20, 2005: More navel gazing, courtesy of the New York Times
Comments: 1 | Categories: Faith , Phillip , Ponder

I took two women's studies classes in college: Women's Studies 101 and another one that was upper level- basically the same thing with better books. The 101 class taught me about being a victim, how to get hysterically offended about...

September 1, 2005: Punctuated by moments of grace*
Comments: 0 | Categories: Ponder

I haven't posted here in a few days... I keep trying to write something about the hurricane and then I think, "What a sanctimonious pile of crap." And then I go downstairs to watch summer reruns in my brand new...

August 29, 2005: When you go out to the woods today
Comments: 2 | Categories: Cranky , House , Ponder , Rants

Internet, prepare yourselves. My husband and I have started a new Project. (I KNOW. WHAT ARE WE THINKING?) The new Project involves an unfinished pine storage bench that took four weeks to arrive and now needs to be sanded, pre-conditioned,...

August 26, 2005: Oh no, what if it gets my nose and that's IT?!
Comments: 1 | Categories: Ponder

The latest weird thing I've been thinking about is this: when I have a baby, he or she is most definitely not going to look like me. Okay, wait. The thought process doesn't start out that way. It's more like...

August 12, 2005: In which I turn all philosophical about a friggin PERSONAL WEBSITE
Comments: 1 | Categories: Cranky , Ponder

So, I'm starting to think about turning this thing into a blog format, meaning more than one entry on the page. Sometimes I don't update here because I haven't thought of a full-length post (and sometimes I just go ahead...

August 8, 2005: Leaving on a jet plane
Comments: 0 | Categories: Ponder

I spent the whole weekend with my folks because they're going back to Italy on Tuesday. (Well, not exactly. First they're visiting the baby again, then they're going back to Italy. But for all intents and purposes, Colorado may as...

July 15, 2005: Everything that was left over
Comments: 0 | Categories: Ponder

It is almost my birthday. Almost. One summer when I was a little kid, my mom was talking on the phone with my uncle and she asked me if I wanted to say hi. So I get on the phone...

June 28, 2005: The Anniversary Waltz
Comments: 0 | Categories: Awesome , Phillip , Ponder

I had to be talked into this whole getting married thing. That sounds awful, doesn't it? It's NOT that I didn't want to get married. No, I definitely assumed that one day I would marry Phillip and it would be...

June 21, 2005: It's like the weather knows I can't go home yet
Comments: 1 | Categories: Cranky , Ponder

I've written the same post a dozen times today and it always comes out overly angsty and wistful, even for me. It's about work and careers and how everyone I know seems like they're in some kind of What Will...

June 16, 2005: In honor of the person who made high school a bit less atrocious
Comments: 1 | Categories: Ponder

My high school friend E got himself married over Memorial Day. I really wanted to attend- the wedding was in LA and I was going to go to Disneyland, get a tan, read junk novels on the beach, and gorge...

May 30, 2005: Not for those who have a limited intake of Sappy
Comments: 0 | Categories: Music & TV , Ponder , When I was a kid

I'm very fond of country and bluegrass music which is not terribly popular in my household or among my group of friends. Well, I do have one friend who had a long ago sordid love affair with George Strait, but...

April 19, 2005: White smoke
Comments: 0 | Categories: Faith , Ponder , When I was a kid

This is about the Pope. Not the new one. Between June and August of 1997, I was stuck at home, working at the base Public Affairs office until it was time to pack up and go to college. I turned...

April 13, 2005: Travel the world and the seven seas
Comments: 0 | Categories: Music & TV , Places , Ponder

Near the top of my Must See TV list is The Amazing Race, the only reality show I could ever see myself doing. Except not, because, hello, it's on television. Also, I like taking showers every day and people like...

March 16, 2005: Sometimes it causes me to tremble
Comments: 1 | Categories: Faith , Ponder

Oh Internet how I've been neglecting you. Let's blame it on my spyware-infected computer, shall we? Somewhere on this site I believe I have called the death penalty "vile", but let's amend that to "vile except in the cases of...

March 10, 2005: Sentimental
Comments: 1 | Categories: Ponder

I know a guy at church who has a two-year-old son. Sometimes after church we'll agree to meet in the school cafeteria for coffee and doughnuts. And our friend will point to the nursery and say, "Let me go get...

March 1, 2005: Can of worms
Comments: 0 | Categories: Ponder

I have a few things to say. This is, after all, my website. Thing Number One: The Supreme Court ruled today that persons who received death sentences for crimes committed before their eighteenth birthday shall not be put to death....

January 5, 2005: Resolve
Comments: 0 | Categories: Ponder

Well Happy New Year, everyone. Especially to those four unfortunate folks whose new years were ushered in via the hot pot that never boiled. Why? Because the combined force of mine and Phillip's stupidity ensured that we left the second...

December 30, 2004: Auld acquaintance not forgot
Comments: 0 | Categories: Ponder

My typical new year's eves are predictably lame-o affairs involving spiked punch, people I don't know, truly pathetic attempts at small talk, and no midnight kisses, not even from my husband. One year, as I recall, I think I went...

December 20, 2004: Christmas list
Comments: 0 | Categories: Ponder

Work hours until my three and a half day weekend: 21 Presents left to purchase: 1 Liters of water sucked up by the tree whose trunk we did not saw off upon bringing it home from that urban tree farm,...

December 16, 2004: Witness statement
Comments: 1 | Categories: Ponder

I saw an accident happen today. I was sitting at a light two blocks from my apartment. It's not a perfect four-way intersection. The cross streets are at skewed angles and from where I was sitting, I could turn left,...

November 23, 2004: Home for the holidays
Comments: 0 | Categories: Anxiety , Family , Ponder

I watched five different news stories this morning about holiday travel. All bad stuff, of course- airplane security, traffic, bad weather, gas prices- but it still made me wish I was going somewhere for Thanksgiving. I have no shortage of...

November 18, 2004: Complications
Comments: 0 | Categories: Cranky , Ponder

You know those people in college who switched majors seven or eight times, graduated in five or six years, and then shuffled off to grad school because they still didn't know what to do with themselves? I was not one...

October 27, 2004: I get to see the ocean every day
Comments: 0 | Categories: Ponder

About a week before we left Xi'an, I tagged along to Blondie's Friday afternoon sophomore English class. As I was once (and sometimes still am) pretty interested in teaching English overseas, I was curious to see it in action. Blondie...