It Can Only Get Better from Here

My friend P-Saf and I love all forms of social media. Facebook, Twitter, blogs, we've tried them all. I was therefore not surprised when she approached me the other day (approached in a virtual way, remember, she's the in the furthest regions of Canada right now) with the idea of making a podcast. I agreed because quite frankly, I have free time. My days nowadays consist of going to "work" (which is becomming more work like everyday....odd) then lounging out on my new patio thinking of what dresses I'd like to buy. I think I could find some time in there to make a "podcast" with Paige. I assumed it would be much like the "e-mails" i made with the 5 year old that I babysit, less e-mail, more open Micorsoft Word document.

We decided to record our podcast on Monday night and were met with mixed results. I was distracted by my new favorite team Butler and their heart wrenching quest for the national title (did I spend the half hour after the game in silence staring at the wall with a few tears running down my face? yes. I swear I could get emotionally attached to a beer league softball team from Des Moines. I'm that easily attracted to sports stories.) We also found ourselves unprepared, inarticulate and generally a mess. After listening to our podcast again we decided that we would have to take a mulligan (hey-o, Masters themed word) and try again.

We tried it again last night and are fairly satisfied with our work. There are a TON of umms, ahhhs, I means and likes. Live with it. Sometimes our sentences are made out of nouns and only nouns. Sometimes we forget to use a noun at all. At times we lie through the skin of our teeth and cite statements as facts that are anything but. Basically, it's Marianna and Paige at our best.

We hope to make this a weekly feature. Todays podcast theme is Women's Colleges, something we are both familiar with. We make a ton of sweeping statements and by no means represent the views of Bryn Mawr (our personal women's college) or women's colleges in general. I should note that at one point we discuss the very Bryn Mawr-esque process of room draw, and I get it completely wrong. Don't stop listening, I correct myself.

Right now the only way we know how to post it is to give you a link to download it. I'm going to work on finding a better way as this seems cumbersome. I should also note that it's less of a podcast and more of a mp3 file of two people talking. Either way, it's iPod friendly, so take it to the gym, put it on in your car or listen to it while you work.

Future topics include, but are not limited to: Conjoined twins, documentaries, Law and Order: SVU and far happier topics (we're not as messed up as this list would suggest, just quirky)

So enjoy Wildhaus (named after something Werner Herzog did, Paige will have more information on that. I didn't question her, it sounded cool). Please comment with thoughts on the podcast or suggestions for future podcasts.

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=RAW11064

(note: you will have to enter the code in the top right hand corner in order to hear. Based on the experiences of our foreign friends whose countries have blocked access to my blog and thus were sent the link, you also might need to refresh the page in order to see the link)

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Two part entry! What is this, Christmas? Actually since it's been so long since I've posted a real entry it's more like a holiday when your parents forget your birthday and Christmas and are forced to make it up months later in an awkward celebration that really probably wasn't worth it. Does this happen? If it did it would be like this blog entry.

I mentioned earlier that I spend most of my days on my new patio. The week before Christmas my mom hired a landscaping company to come install a patio in our backyard, because nothing says Christmas like a new patio that won't be used for months. True to form, hours after the workers finished we had the first of our 4 Snowpocalypses. OMP had no idea what the patio looked like until he cleared some snow out there to set up a firepit for my mom on Christmas. We're really into seasonally-inappropriate Christmas gifts apparently.

While the idea of a patio was nice, the lack of furniture and cold weather made it nothing more than a place of my spoiled prince of a dog to lie so he could be outside and not get his feet wet at the same time.

Then spring came. Then the 60 degree weather came. Then 70 degrees. Then 80 degrees. Then 90 degrees. So we put a few folding chairs out here to sit on until we get some more permanent furniture. 4 days into our heat wave all I can say is....where has this patio been for the past 23 years?!?!?

I am currently blogging to you from my chair with a wooden folding table, a glass of red wine and People magazine in front of me. Bliss. A slight breeze wafts through the trees as the sun begins to fade beyond the horizon. If I were a poet I'm sure I would be struck by the moment and create a masterpiece. I am not, however, so I can only awkwardly describe how much I love this patio. Were I not afraid of the squirrils, bunnies and possible fox that I swear I saw the other day down the street I'd want to move my bed out here and sleep under the stars. A morning dove just flew onto the patio, how glorious is that? While I'll admit that a morning dove is just a pigeon trying to get himself off crack and make a name for himself....his tan feathers complement the stone quite nicely. Patios are Gods way of telling suburbanites "Sorry about the lack of anything awesome, this should hold you over until you get the time to go to the beach".

During orientation to college we all had to watch a movie about different families from different backgrounds enjoying Christmas dinner in Los Angeles and how they were all different yet intertwined. I forget the name of the movie, but it was good and I recommend it. What I remember the most, however, was that one of the families ate Christmas dinner on their patio. With all of the racial and social class angles of the film, the thing that struck me the most was the family eating Christmas dinner on their patio. I think this says A LOT about me as a person. Seeing as how I've only known Christmas as a holiday during a cold and dark month, the idea of eating dinner on a patio was surprsingly foreign to me. The dinner looked so delcious, not just because of the food but because of the setting. The stone floor, the vines on the house, the weathered wooden table. Even the food looked fresher than the damn stuff the family eating at the traditional dining room table had. It looked perfect. I realized then and there that I was going to meet people at Bryn Mawr who had patios like that, and I would have to come to terms with the fact that I myself did not have one. I fought through that prejudice...and I think I'm a stronger woman today because of it.

I can now count myself amongst the lucky few who own a patio. Looking into my neighbors backyards right now like the stalker that I am I can see that by few I meant majority. Of the five connection yards to our....four have patios. Suck it, people behind us (who might actually have a patio but I can't tell because there is a 8 foot tall fence in between us). Once I get the strength to get the hammock out of storage I'll be in business. Now all I need are some friends that I could invite over.