A few things.

A few things.

First, if you happen to be in London, go see Nick Payne's play, Constellations. It's really beautiful. A fair warning, though - if you don't like awesome things, you won't be into this.

Second, go see Silver Linings Playbook. The above warning must be applied.

Third, read this. It's from a list of 15 things that will happen to you in your twenties, but I just like it a lot. Credit Thought Catalog (clicky clicky. you'll like it.)

"You’ll read a book that will change your life. People say that all the time, especially your grandma and your mom and your professors in college, and it always made you roll your eyes but now you get it. Life is changed. You are this book’s bitch. You fell in love with it in the same way you fell in love with someone in high school: blindly and all-consuming. I’m talking about the book that became the lens from which you chose to see the world. You were just waiting for something to come along and explain to you how the world works, to make it all easier for you. and it came. You will remember this book more vividly than some of the people you dated for three months in college."

Fourth, read this too. It's pretty groovy.

"Captive Greece took her savage victor captive, and brought the arts into rustic Latium." Horace, Epistles II. 1. 156. #waywithwords much?

And that's all, folks.
xxx
Tabby

Tabby-Approved Challenges.

That's me. Totes crosswording like a boss. If I was a be-lensed fourteen year old boy of indeterminate race. Which is probably actually what I look like when I crossword. Whatevs. Brains > Beauty. Right?

 



I like a challenge, I really do. It suprises even me sometimes, for (crazy lazy lady) =/= (<3 challenge). It's simple math. (And that's all I got out of my entire academic career.) But I do. Of course, it has to be my idea of a good challenge. Physical stuff is great, stackin wood, &&c., but I'm thinking mental challenge, here: Thousand + piece puzzles, the New York & LA Times crosswords, Boggle, Scrabble, Spider Solitaire with four suits, highest level Tetris even. Say offhand that Sudoku is a great mental exercise and I will laugh pityingly, look at you sideways, and then maybe not talk to you for a couple of minutes - I've heard ignoring crazies is the best way to deal with 'em.

But I think I like these challenges for very lazy person reasons. They help me avoid real challenges...and they give me the high of having actually solved one.

Lots of homework to do?

OH LOOK. I CAN DO AN LA TIMES CROSSWORD PUZZLE. THIS MEANS I'M SMART AND HARDWORKING. WHAT DO YOU MEAN DOING MY HOMEWORK WOULD PROVE THAT AS WELL?

Chores that need doing?

OH LOOK! I GOT A PIECE IN THIS PUZZLE THAT'S TWENTY THOUSAND PIECES AND IS OF A PICTURE OF SNOW. I'LL VACUUM LATER. MUST SPEND ANOTHER HOUR FINDING THE NEXT CORNER.

Socializing to be done?

OOOH LOOK, LET'S PLAY SCRABBLE. I CAN IMPRESS YOU WITH MY SMARTS, IMPRESS MYSELF WITH MY SMARTS, FEEL LIKE I'M BEING SOCIABLE...AND ALL WITHOUT HAVING TO SAY ANYTHING TO YOU EXCEPT,
"Goatee?" "That's...I mean, that's pretty solid."
 "Oh, thanks. Qzjfhbk is just a little word I picked up reading Kafka one day."

Sleep to be had?

OH LOOK. I CAN STACK ALL THESE GARDEN SHOVEL AND FOUR-LEAF-CLOVER AND HEARTS AND ZERO-CARAT-DIAMOND KINGS AND QUEENS AND SUNDRY ALL ON TOP OF EACH OTHER. IN ORDER OF DESCENDING RANK. THAT'S LIKE SLEEPING. SOMEHOW.

Sometimes it takes me a while to think of what to blog. Tonight I thought of a funny opening and had to figure out what I was actually going to be talking about...and someday I'll figure Twitter out so I don't have to come up with a meaning for my funny quips.
Sometimes Blogger fights me and won't let me log on. Sometimes it gets pretty violent. (But don't worry, we've smoothed things over and I'm going to anger management therapy because my computer insisted on it, it was all "Don't hit me just because Blogger won't work.") (Just kidding about the therapy thing. What, did you think I was some kind of CRAZY?) (Just kidding. Cause I totes am. I would think you'd know that by now.)
So it's a bit of a challenge. What to write? How to even get on to write? What labels to use and other social media sites to link it to so people actually read it and how to make it funny and how to sometimes even sound a little bit intelligent and say things that people like and that make them think?

But in the end, it's my kind of challenge. ("I'm Tabitha Brower and I approve this challenge.")
And in the end, it's a challenge that helps me avoid reality.
(Like the fact that it's three freaking o'clock and I'm getting up at eight.)

But if it made you laugh or think about your own laziness or your own challenges or the meaning of life or even the pointlessness of that stupid effing 2000 piece puzzle of Saint Peter's Basilica in Moscow taking up all of your own dining room table (you too, huh?) or EVEN how it's true, Sudoku really is for stupid crazies...
then it's a challenge well worth wasting my time on, yeah?
So...think on that. Whatever the message of that was.
(If you do figure out what I mean ever, let me know. It would be nice to understand what's going on in my own brain.)
While you do that, Imma go see if that red Queen of Four-Leaf-Clovers is hiding somewhere.

xxx
Tabby





 

Oh hello!

I'm so honored to recieve this Most Infrequent Blogger Award!
I'd like to thank my parents for making me. Without them, I wouldn't be here. Like but seriously.
And a huge thanks to Blogger for directing me straight to my email whenever I tried to log in. Had it not done so, I might have actually posted during this brief but excellent period in my life!  And last but not least, to my computer for falling into a coma for three weeks. Were it not for your tragic coma and miraculous resurrection, I might have remained an anonymous blogger, simply making friends and family jealous with my thrilling tales of adventures overseas! As it is, I am instead The Most Infrequent Blogger. Thank you, Internet Gods, for giving me this award -I'll keep it on the shelf next to my Oscar that also doesn't exist!







Here's some pictures from my real-life adventures that actually happened and were actually awesome, whether I chronicled them on Blogger or not.
You can also check me out on the social networks I did keep up on, a.k.a. The FB and Instagram (enthusiasmandanthologies). And I'm on Twitter, too...technically. But were you to follow me on it...well, I haven't tweeted, so that would be boring. Check out ma pictures on this post instead. And the words that go with it. And I will seriously wrap this up now. And maybe post a link of this to Twitter. And I will have finally Tweeted. #meta.
Pictures of the place that has changed me forever.
xxx

Or one.

More when the Internet gets over itself and lets me put more up. You'll just have to be satisfied with this. Trees, a cab, a man, the sun, a fence, leaves, asphalt...all very unique to London.
More another day. I promise to never again be even considered for the very prestigious blogging award I just won. More posts stat.
xxx
Tabby

What the what?!

http://www.complex.com/pop-culture/2012/10/the-liz-lemon-soundboard
Liz Lemon soundboard. Press the buttons and your favorite spirit guide speaks.
Over and out.
 

Super productive Sunday afternoons.

Er, don't mind the cheesy old picture, and never you mind that there's not even a hint of guitar in this.
xxx

October skies & Belgique.

Belgium's great.
Also...free concert right outside our hotel? Mmm, okay. Obvs.

More moody poetry, mmmkaythanks. Like or hate it, let me know, yeah? Been in a bit of a poetry mood apparently.
xxx



I don't know how one would attempt
to describe it
other than broken-hearted wee
eeeeee
ping
but I will try.
She was like that brilliant
plume of white
factory smoke
across October skies
a cloud
against clouds.
Watching her wee/eeep gave you
that same desperate
senseless
lump
but in your belly
more than your throat innit?
Her twisty mouth like covering yourself
in fresh grass
in a field sumwhere
and staying there.
And kicked dogs are mentioned
quite often: "she looks
like [sic]."
But I am more
brought to mind
of the hopelessness
of the old people in that awful brick building
we just passed
or the surreal nastiness of the hanged dog
in that fancy-new-raw-whatsit
Heathcliff thing
er film
where it is ALWAYS
October skies.
So that's why I can't help.
you do understand.
of course of course of but of course you do.
Because a kicked puppy
I can clutch to my ample bosom
and give a bone and maybe a snuggle
but a hanged one I can only pity
and throw up
and bury.
 

Make That Three

Omaha Beach and the American Cemetery today.

This is like, er, straight from ma heart and all, so if you like it, yeah, words to that effect would be awesome, and if you don't, that's cool, it's okay, there are no claims to being great here, but...er, gentle, constructive criticism? Thanks mate.

Visiting the D-Day beaches and the American & German cemeteries though...seriously a transcendent experience.




I only know one person
- two - who have died.
I cried more
over Moe
who was 17
and my cat
than I did for my grandma
and great-granny
combined.
Make that three
but he lives -
lived - in the desert
and I rarely saw him
and so it's not real
is my understanding.
So 3000 graves is a bit much, yeah?
for an 18-year-old
who only knows
- make that 3 -
people who've
"passed on".

My great-granny
looked strange
when she was dead
I remember the room felt pink
like cloying, really warm
and she looked ridiculous.
And she was crabby
so I'm sure she agreed
and she'd have scolded
that mortician
roundly
Scolded him roundly.

I don't much like
to think about death
when I do it gets into my tea,
the taste of
the thought of
the inevitable-it-will-happen-without-exception-to-all-every-single-you-love-ness
of death.
So these white stones
and red lawn-mowers
make me tired and a little angry
- which I'm not used to -
but really sad
(and?)
I've gone from
- make that three -
I hardly grieved
or don't believe
to a father and son I didn't know
but am sitting on this freezing bench
kind of crying over.