Oopsies!

Okay, so I've been naughty.

But I promise I'll be back soon! This long hiatus has been plagued with Provo, Utah, clouds, cold weather, and way too much sleeping in. And I just haven't felt up to trying to be witty or observing the world around me in my usual bloggedy way.

Basically I've been a whiney baby.

But the sun is peeking through! My snister and darlingest buddy, Jenabunny, is having a baby (who I already love an insane, auntie-anna, cheek-pinching much), my cutie-pants, poncho-wearing, arabic-speaking, beard-donning boyfriend, Shea, is back from Syria after five months of skype-dating.

I'm in a bad rad book club (I know, I know, I put "bad rad" and "book club" together).

I might just have picked a major.

I'm training for a half marathon (waaah! whhhyyy?).

I have a choir concert this Saturday. [DO come if you're in the vicinity. BYU De Jong Concert Hall, 7:30 pm, march 13th. Tickets through Womenschorus.com It's going to be so great!]

I decided to start performing again. I miss the theatre too much!

And life is good. After all,

"The strongest and sweetest songs yet remain to be sung."

-Walt Whitman

love, winter, and a good dose of poetry,

banana

So, here's the thing about long-distance relationships...

They suck.

They totally, completely, absolutely, positively, cross-my-heart, hope to die suck.
Now I'm not the whiney kind by nature, I don't think. But for the last, oh, very near a year now, it's been sucking big time.

And yet I can't give up on it because, well,

I really love him.

The last time I saw him was in Jordan. In October...

So I will keep on becoming whineyanna and I will miss him every day. every minute.

every time I hear classic rock.

every time I hear anything.

every time someone bumps into a wall and doesn't really notice.

every time my cuticles need pushing.

every time my feet are cold.

Well, you get the point. all the time.

I love so much about this painting.

Thanks to my heavy load of Humanities classes, I'm developing quite a thing for Mr. Rembrandt Van Jinn.

This is on display at the BYU Museum of Art. I adore it. I've gone back a couple of times to look at it.
What do you think?

[Head of Christ, Rembrandt]

love, Banana

Cut-up

So bestfriend Marybutton visited me this weekend and we did fun best friend things:
birthday party. IHOP. lots and lots of piano. books. hours of talking, deep and shallow. snuggling. sleeping in.

One of our favorite best friend things is to cut up things. And sometimes we write cut-up poems.

Here's how it happened: I took seven lines each from four random sources (Atonement, a New York Times article, my Jerusalem journal, and a collection of poems by Rilke) and attempted to compile them into a pleasant sounding, almost

coherent poem.

[Us at the Seattle Zoo, years ago]                                                                    The title was chosen at random by miss Mary.

Her Multitudes Await

She hovered on the peripheries.

The stitches were clumsy and irregular;

Gandhi, Monroe, Sinatra, Kennedy.

These indignant thoughts afflicted her.

Sitting on the summit, daylight creeping in

Endless ribbons, inventing new bows

How was she to know they meant nothing in fact?

They were the best of the best in their field.

I was so nervous, tracking every single second of the trip

But it’s something I can’t give up on.

I have been a stranger in a strange land,

And I never, never want to stop singing that.

I’m becoming something of a mosaic expert,

For beauty is nothing but the onset of terror we’re still just able to bear.

The man and the woman part

He speaks only the few words necessary.

Then both look fearfully at the piano,

Two ambulances were parked at the side of the road, their back doors open.

For whosoever will save his life shall lose it,

So I’m not certain who’s crying out.

You could see the handwriting on the wall

After a protest in East Jerusalem.

And in the end you still had the spirit to celebrate.

Yes, the springtimes needed you.

In the middle of December,

There was no time to ask them where they were being sent

I can feel direct deliverance,

For staying put is nowhere.

creativity, blueberry pancakes, and lots of giggles,

Banana

[Us at the Washington coast, years ago]

I don't want to be a journalist.

[icky pooey journalism blog here]

Milk and Honey

In case you've been wondering where I've been the last four or so months...

It's been somewhere like bliss.

Jerusalem.Galilee.Egypt.Jordan. 

And now that my life is nice and dull again, I'm sure I'll once more be a full-time blogstress.

BUT

"Your name will stain my lips forever,

like a seraph's kiss, untold,

if I forget thee, golden city,

Jerusalem of Gold."

Salam and Shalom,

one forever-changed Banana

p.s. For a more detailed history, dearfriend Kali and I kept up something of a Holy Land blog. click-a-roo-roo!

Bananarama and a belated adventure log

I just realized that I am, perhaps, more often called "Banana" than my actual name ["Anna"] by my intimate friends .
Does this make it an alias?
Does that make me a spy?
groovy.

Speaking of intimate friends... remember how I went on that little trip to Yellowstone the weekend before last?
I do! And here's the proof:

[note: these pictures were taken on something of a crappy camera, and I don't yet have pictures of the really gorgeous stuff. Don't you fret. I will deliver.)

best friend, Mary Button. She's like a sister, mother, therapist, publicist, and girlfriend. All in one.

Guess who showed up? [No, the answer is not Jesus.]

He's actually a very attractive person. He just has to look like a crazed lumberjack/ Hebrew prophet for a movie role.... so, really, it's not much different from dating Brad Pitt.

Love, thunder, and more Deet in the mouth than you could possibly comprehend as an outsider,
Banana

I can see clearly now

Well...almost.
Here's how it goes down:

1 I walk up to the eye test chart, cock-sure of my 20-20 bestowal...

2 My left eye takes 4 or so lines up before it can distinguish a p from an f...

3 I walk away with 20-50 vision.

4 which is quite a bit worse than my mother's...
5 who's in her mid-fifties.
and had a rogue bungee cord severely damage her cornea.

I admit I am sufficiently humbled, and will just have to get cutie specks.
yours in meekness,
Banana

Well said, self.

view from backyard of best friend Mary's lake house. This summer has been so magical.

My cherished, tattered notebook of thoughts, lists, and the occasional be-scribbled poem, inspired me today.

yeah, it's a little narcissistic to inspire myself, I realize.
but still.

It was the last line of this:
Freedom List (LIBERATING TO-DOS)
travel. everywhere.
backpack (travel on meager means. everywhere.)
SCUBA.
skydive.
elope.
become completely financially independent.
motorcycle.
caravan .
sail around the world.
rock climb (real rocks).
live in the city.
live in the boonies.
and here it is:
*get lost in the lustre of existence*

my own profundity astounds me sometimes. (Note the use of the "re" ending. Very European.)
ummm I really hope I didn't read that phrase somewhere.

How should I go about doing that?

love. banana.

I'm a readin' machine!

"The boy didn’t know what a person’s 'Personal Legend' was.

“It’s what you have always wanted to accomplish. Everyone, when they are young, knows what their Personal Legend is.

“At that point in their lives, everything is clear and everything is possible. They are not afraid to dream, and to yean for everything they would like to see happen to them in their lives. But, as time passes, mysterious forces begins to convince them that it will be impossible for them to realize their Personal Legend."

I finished this last night.

It was beautiful!

I think sometimes the most profound thoughts are best expressed with simplicity.
I feel all motivated now to
1. realize my personal legend
2. make each day a day of learning and growth
3. Never ever fear failure
4. [in the least trite way possible] Believe in myself.

And it helps that I'll be seeing the Egyptian pyramids myself in a month or so!

*Stay tuned for the photographs of my magnificent weekend adventure in the back country of Yellowstone*

love, camels, and the Soul of the Universe,
banana

Oh, Charles...

Okay. So I finished this book.

I am blown away
by the fact that something I started many many months ago and felt agony reading through much of
ended up being
one of the most beautiful things I have ever laid my mind on.

I was totally moved to tears.
I was totally impressed.
It was totally worth it.

The humanity, the insight, the language, the humor, the masterful understanding of the human being....


sigh.

I decided, after closing the glorious cover, my heart and eyes all burny, that I would (like Desmond on "LOST") read "every glorious word" of that
magical Mr. Dickens'.

Liberté, égalité, et fraternité,

banane