I freakin' HATE the cold! It makes me cranky. The worst is the wind...no matter how many layers I wear, the cold just goes straight through me. I think whales have the right idea--maybe I should put on a few pounds for insulation. I can't handle it much longer. I'd MUCH rather be in Brazil right now, sweating my brains out. It only makes it worse that our area has been hit by an arctic front; we've had snow nearly every day for the last week and a half. Temperatures have been in the negative digits---not including the wind chill. I'm not trying to bore everyone with my Weather Channel talk, I'm just fed up with winter. This is WV, not Minnesota...it's just not right, we didn't sign up for this. Our little buddy,
Punxsutawney Phil did not see his shadow which, as we all know, means spring should come early this year. I can't wait...
I've been trying to keep myself busy to forget how utterly miserable it is outside. My friend Sam has been helping me learn Arabic, which I'm really excited about. I know what you're thinking---Arabic? Why? How? What about Portuguese? What can I say? I'm just a linguaphile. Plus, I think once you've learned one language it makes you more impatient for the next one, and the next one and so on. I certainly haven't abandoned Portuguese. I just figured it wouldn't hurt to start working with a language that has nothing at all to do with the other two I've learned.
Arabic was the perfect choice in that. It is in no way related to Romance languages so, it won't trip me up in terms of vocab or grammar. I'm really jazzed about it. It just such a pretty language. The calligraphy is amazing-- the writing is both literature and art. The sound is very exotic too-- but very hard to pronounce. I've already made a mix CD of music by
Nancy Ajram and
Najwa Karam. Pretty awesome, especially the duet with Nancy and the Gypsy Kings,
"Ya Habibi Yalla" ---totally makes me dance around in the car. Sometime soon I'd like to visit the local mosque. All I'll be able to say is: "hello", "my name is", "No, I don't speak Arabic--only a few words." and "Where are you from?" but, hey, you gotta start somewhere...
I love this woman!!! (In a platonic admiration sort of way...) She's just the best. I devoured Lately and I've begun reading Crackpots. I attended her reading the other night in the WVU Library with a slew of MFAs, professors and other beaming supporters. (She is a former WVU MFA--gotta support the team, right?) Her novel is good so far but I ADORED her collection of 
short stories; they're all so real, quirky and funny, not to mention surprising. She's the kind of writer I want to be. She read a new story last night, which made me kind of nervous because 9 times out of 10 when a writer makes that announcement, the piece stinks. However, it was great--- an engaging, rolling narrative that took the listener on a rambuctuous ride through her head. It took a lot of--excuse the expression-- balls to read something new and have the confidence that it was quality work. So, ALL HAIL SARA PRITCHARD!!! We are so not worthy :)
