my orchestra had a cherry blossom picnic this evening.  with flashlights.  in a graveyard.  haha

oh the valentines things on sale at walgreens!

I love Valentine’s day.

I struggle to explain why.  I recognize why other people hate it, the cheesiness, the commercialism, the forced gestures.  I am not even a romantic person.  In fact, I winced when one guy wanted to celebrate month anniversaries, and grimaced at the beau who picked me up at an airport with a red rose (call me ungrateful but I’m sure I told him that I dislike roses, red ones most of all.)

I haven’t even had that much luck in love.  Even though I’ve had my share of boys, through circumstance every single one of the last 23 Valentine days has been instead spent with my friends and/or family.

Nevertheless I have memories of wonderful Valentine’s days.  The only way I’m familiar with is the Valentine’s day of school kids– decorating a shoebox with construction paper and doilies, choosing a candy to hand out, choosing which fandom should grace my cards, wondering if cute boy who sits to my right will finally realize that I like him because I gave him the card that says “You’re the best”, wondering if cute boy who sits to my right really means it when he puts “Bee mine” in my shoebox, but probably not because the only other options in his transformer box were “I’ll fix your heart” and “You’re high voltage”.

Things haven’t changed much since then.  Sweets still make me happy and ruin my teeth.  Tacky cards still make me laugh.  Boys still confuse me as much as ever.  But I still have plenty of people to love.  And I still get as much satisfaction from handing out Valentines as receiving them.

It randomly snowed here this morning– enough to stick to the ground, even!  This only happens here maybe every 6 years!  It’s always such a big deal and all the schools and businesses in town close down.  After appreciating it for a few moments, my brother and I set to work messing it up by building a snowbear.  Then we went back inside to eat mochi icecream.

When I was washing up I got into my head that I wanted to make a snow bear and then dressed accordingly.  It was a bit Gala Darling-ish in retrospect.  Don’t fret about my health- it was actually not so cold outside.

panda hat: boshi basiik
striped sweater: H &M
tulle skirt: hanjiro harajuku
wool tights: anthropolgie
old timberland hiking boots

Oh, the mochi icecream is bubbie’s– the besttttt mochi icecream!  And it comes in great flavors- pistachio, tiramisu, passion fruit.  These ones are strawberry dark chocolate chip flavor.

The good thing about little brothers is that they get awesome toys for Christmas, and that sometimes they share.

My brother got a lego robotics set as an early Christmas present, and he’s really into making robot protectors.  The first one shoots balls at anyone that comes too close, and the second is a robogator that pounces and bites if you come too close.

They don’t give their maker any special treatment though:

Checklist for a simple but festive New Years celebration at home: locally brewed pecan beer (I don’t even like beer but this stuff is goooodddd) and as many fireworks as $1 and a smile will buy you (the old man at the local firework stand was so generous- my dad estimated my loot is actually worth about $8!)

news paper strips, corn starch/water glue, cardboard boxes (wrapped in plastic bags for easy removal later), cardstock paper, paint, confetti, assorted Lindt chocolate truffles to make a year of the tiger pinata.  (My brother and I suggested to each other at the same time that it ought to be white, like a Siberian tiger, so it was white.)

Hi, hello, meet the most ridiculous-looking tiger that has ever existed.

My grand idea was to break the pinata at the stroke of midnight but my family are all early-to-bedders so the compromise was 10 pm.  After we smote the cute beast and its confetti & truffle innards sprayed our porch, we celebrated by lighting fireworks and sparklers in the back yard.  All to usher in the new year!  Then, back inside, we sat on our couch, toasted with pecan beer or apple juice, and watched a short segment of The Return of the King (it’s either a slow LOTR or Star Wars marathon each Christmas-New Year.)

I’m not much of a resolutions kind of person.  Honestly I don’t think that I’ve ever kept a single New Year’s resolution of mine.  However, I’ve realized many of the dreams that I write down at the start of a New Years have come true, so I am a big believer of writing down my dreams.  Also as a yoga-practitioner, having a mantra does make sense to me– a phrase to repeat over and over, to give me resolve and focus.  If I reflect on the areas of my life that need improvement, I think that what I would like most of all is more courage.  In this year what I’d like to remind myself is to go have adventures!  And to always pick the choice that makes for a better story.  Happy 2010!  Here’s a New Year’s Eve kiss from Mississippi xx

The theme for almost any room of mine is something like: yoshimoto nara, paper cranes, sheep.