Day 2, Can you believe it!?!

Alright, so it looks as though blogging is going to be a dangerous time suck. I should be writing right this second, and I even want to be writing, but after spending alllllll (did you get the emphasis there?) day learning about how to customize blogger, I really wanted to come and play with it a bit. End result? I mangled the thing beyond recognition and had to revert to a template. But sometime this weekend, I'll start writing the html for a new and much more Bally-esque blogger page. Which actually fits in nicely with the paper I'm going to start any minute now. I'm comparing the Arts and Crafts movement (ie craft mafia, stitch n' bitch and all the rest) with the resurgence of hand woven traditional garments in my field site. Hey, wake up, it's interesting, I swear. :) So that's next on the to do list. After that I need to get ready for tomorrow's concert and then crawl in to that amazing mass of satin, pillows and fluffy blankets that I spend all day missing. Just the thought of it makes me feel safe and warm. Ahhhhhhh.

Ok, back from my moment of bliss. Today was a great day. I accomplished quite a bit at work today, and was able to cross off a few things from my project list. More importantly, I spent the evening with two of my Nepali sisters, which is always amazing. Fast fact about my life: I know the most amazing people in the whole world. Who has cool friends? I have cool friends! And I'm not talking cool enough to date the homecoming king/queen cool. I'm talking big hearts, quick minds cool. But I should stop while I can.

I was trying to tell you about hanging out with my sisters. So I have a huge Nepali family. Tonight I mostly spent time with Bahini and Sundari. Bahini is one of the freest spirits I've ever met. In many ways, she's everything I've ever wanted to be. She's brave, amazingly smart, and her openess is truly awe inspiring. But as she is my only little sister, I find myself feeling ridiculous protective and concerned when it comes to her. So when she said she was worried about seeing Sundari tonight, I went into hyper-mothering mode. I hope I didn't smother her too much. But she seemed to be doing much better when I dropped her back at her place. Ugh, it's getting late and this is really rambly. I'll try and fill you in more tomorrow! Goodnight dear! Read more on "Day 2, Can you believe it!?!"!

The First Post

So this blog has been born, not of my great desire to unload my thoughts on the rest of you, but out of the need to force myself to do some writing, and more importantly, to prepare myself for the coming year. Next year, I hope with every teeny tiny etsy bitsy molecule of my heart to be living and working in Nepal. But since dreams have quick wings, and committees work slowly, I'm currently living in student researcher limbo, planning big and living, well living like next year I'll be living on Pluto or some equally distant planet. As you may be able to tell from my tone, blogging is not something I really wanted to get in to for a number of really great reasons. First of all, as much as I need to write, developing the general "blogger" voice is not going to get me anywhere. If you don't know what I'm talking about, spend a little while reading blogs, go on, I'll wait. After the first couple, have you noticed how everyone starts to sound like the same writer? It's kind of like how all newspaper articles sound like there's only one omnipresent, decidedly average, reporter in the world. Yeah, don't want that, don't need that, honestly, terrified of becoming that. But I promised all of those that I love so dearly, (yes, that means you!!!) that I would stay in touch and keep everyone updated when I leave and this seems like a good way to do it. The next two reasons are mutually exclusive, but I'm certain one of them will prove to be true. Either, I'm going to find myself wasting needless time writing posts out of some egotistical delusion that people really deeply and importantly care, or I'm going to completely neglect this page. Unfortunately, both are serious problems. I don't have time to spend writing. Most days breathing is a carefully scheduled activity. Don't get me wrong, busy is great and I love fitting as much as I can in to every precious moment I've got, but busy takes time, lots of it. But I also need to work on discipling myself when it comes to recording day to day events. Anthropological field work is not about remembering an interesting tidbit here and there, it's about careful observation. That will require me to journal every single day. So there's the up and the down of blogging. It's become a necessary evil.

Alright, I think that's enough explanation. I know I'm thoroughly bored now. Let's see if I can't think of anything interesting to write about. Nope, guess not. Congrats, you're off the hook and you can stop reading now. So please, turn off your computer and go do something awesome (like dancing, you should go dance...really it's good for you). :) Read more on "The First Post"!