in medias res

What Kind of Accident...

This might be futile, but I just stumbled upon my own blog and realized that people are, occasionally, visiting it so perhaps I will update it. What kind of accident has brought you dear souls to a blog that has been dead for so long? A bad Google? I would like to officially apologize for this misdirection. Now, I shall blog silently, I'm sure.

I am long overdue for an update - though I have no idea what shape this blog will take and I think it needs a change. My friends use their blogs to showcase their tremendous marketable talents (photography, design, etc.), their wisdom and wit, or their babies. Three strikes for me. While I figure out where this will go, I should tell you this biggest thing that has happened to me. So there's this boy...


I first met him in the spring of 2005 and we became friends. It wasn't the kind of friends who try to see each other, but the ones who have great conversations when they do. And the summer of 2007, I stopped blogging songs of thesis procrastination (stopped blogging full stop), and I got in the zone on my thesis. I lived in a local coffee shop that had cozy corners and crazy hours. This boy showed up at this coffee shop as well. And every once in a while, we would both look for a little distraction and end up talking, and then end up at the pub next door with two pints of beer. Here it is, two years later, and I went and married that boy after he proposed to me with a sunrise on top of a mountain in Maine.
To be continued...

(Look at how lazy I have become!)

posted by tara @ 10:22 PM 0 comments

COMING SOON

...I WILL be blogging merrily again. And I have stories.

Starting with this little transformation:

posted by tara @ 6:19 PM 3 comments

50 Ways to Finish Your Thesis

Paul Simon, my apologies for this bastardization. I call it therapy.
Some of these names*, you will not find in a baby book - unless it is a really bad baby book.



1. Start over from scratch, Hatch.
2. Just get a new ploy, Roy.
3. Don't answer your phone, Joan.
4. Jump off a bridge, Midge.
5. Divorce facebook, Brook.
6. Wait 'til you're crazy, Daisy.
7. Don't get mad, Thad.
8. Eschew The Boy, Joy.
9. Avoid The Girl, Earl.
10. Disown your blog, Dawg.
11. You gotta get fierce, Pierce.
12. Don't get sad, Lad.
13. Avoid depression, Lalalaression.
14. Go to church, Lurch.
15. Or the coffee pub, Bub.
16. Don't ever sleep, Peep.
17. Or go for a run, Hun.
18. Pour yourself a stiff drink, Link.
19. Start a new fad, Tad.
20. Write an email, Dale.
21. Go for a trip, Kip.
22. Apply for a job, Bob.
23. Forget how to think, Pink.
24. Over-research, Perch.
25. Make a long list, Chris.
26. Get a little silly, Billy.
27. Have some fun, Sun.
28. Go ride a bike, Mike.
29. Embrace crack, Zack.
30. Search for Truth, Ruth.
31. Find someone to blame, Jame.
32. Exfoliate your feet, Veet. *
33. Make out your will, Jill.
34. Make yourself sick, Nick.
35. Long for thinner thighs, Bligh.
36. Put on the kibosh, Josh.
37. Climb the highway to heaven, Evan.*
38. Decide you're intellectually sterile, Darryl.
39. Practice being curt, Bert.
40. Start to get fat, Matt.
41. Write a poem about fizz, Lizz.*
42. Re-read The Bell Jar, Lamar.
43. Watch Who's the Boss, Ross.
44. Live like a bat, Kat.
45. Obsess over your fanny, Danny.
46. Long for a hug, Doug.
47. Decide it's all a fluke, Luke.
48. Pull some weeds, Edes.*
49. Find your way, Jay.*
50. Don't make me cry, Rai.*

*All names are fictional and have no correspondence to real characters in the Life of Tara, with the exception of the asterisked peeps. Veet is short for Vita, my new friend. There is no real correlation between her and feet. Evan plays in a local band, Lizz is a writer, Edes (also a writer, even though she doesn't know it yet) loves yardwork, Jay was in the Coffee Pub as I wrote this, and Rai is my major professor. He is a kind man who would never intentionally make me cry.

The final one for me: BE YOUR OWN BOSS, HOSS!

Bossing myself into productivity.

P.S. - MY YOUNGEST BROTHER, CHRIS, GOT ENGAGED THIS PAST WEEKEND! It's a beautiful story - I'll have to tell it later. Here is a picture of the happy couple.

posted by tara @ 12:39 PM 5 comments

Please Don't Hit the Crazy Duck

I have a much longer blog waiting in the wings for some clarification and refinement and word haggling. For now, I will just continue with a quick update and a moment of happiness for me.

Update #1: I will not be going to school next year. I feel good about this decision, even though it involved much hands-wringing and waffling. More on the specifics of that later.

Update #2: I will be in TWO fabulous weddings this summer: Jodi Thomas and Tisha Warren. I am very excited about this! It gives me something to look forward to while I diet and exercise.

Update #3: I am in the last throes of my thesis, which I just described to someone as feeling like I'm wrestling with a greasy hippo in a jello pit. I will post a more substantial post once it is in the hands of my committee and off of my "To Do" list. (Also, "thesis" kind of rhymes with "feces." I'm going to use that in a song or a poem soon.)

Update #4: Today, it hit me that I'm 26. If you're older than me, you're probably thinking "Baby!" If you're younger, you're probably thinking "Fogey!" I'm just thinking, "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!"
Time to wake-up and smell the decreasing metabolism.

Update #5: More animal crossing signs! I discovered today that I'm a huge snob about these. I am only amused by ones that are in the wild, and not ones that are produced for Gadzooks or Spencer's or some other intentionally goofy store. It's like buying your Krispy Kreme at a gas station. It's an abomination.

One of these is from my recent trip to Savannah - turtle crossing. My favorite one right now is of a mama duck (or a stay-at-home papa duck) and four baby ducks. One of the baby ducks is a wee bit harried. Since I also never behave for family pictures (see below), I feel a deep connection with this duck.


Now...I'm off to apply for graduation. Hollaaa!

posted by tara @ 11:48 AM 2 comments

But You Don't Have to Take My Word For It...

Happy Daylight Saving Time Change Day! I stayed up to bid farewell to the hour I won't get back until November.

Also...

I don't know if I'm legally allowed to steal this much content, but I recently [re]discovered toothpastefordinner, and I want the world to know about my love. I was actually introduced to this website a couple of years ago by someone who knew me well enough to know that I would love it. Like my fashion and my perfume, I'm just now catching up with what the rest of the world knew was great several years ago. And, in my typical overzealousness, I lost two prime grading hours today when I decided to check out the archives. It's just like when I "discovered" Scrubs (now that it's in its sixth season) and decided to watch everything available on peekvid. Or this past Thursday, when I decided to take five pictures of "bear crossing" signs while driving down Hwy. 19 along Florida's coastline.

And tonight's obsessive amusement is brought to you by "Insomnia: Guaranteeing an Unproductive Tomorrow."

Enjoy. This one's on the house.


For your favorite diabolical hamster or frat dude:


On teaching woes...

On singing the blues...

On "tara's real problems are funny"...

On tending to pomposity...
On the joyful life of the easily amused...



On family...

Pomposity, meet Easily Amused. You two should get along grrrrrreat.


Sweet dreams. (This is from my recent trip to Tarpon Springs, Florida. More on that once I have been more productive and am allowed to write a real post.)



P.S. - No Ph.D. news yet. Keep holding your breath.

posted by tara @ 1:35 AM 4 comments

A Funny Thing Happened On The Way to 27 - Take ONE

Recently, at the height of my optimism, I mentally penned a lovely little post about emerging from the valley and arriving at a mountaintop of self-acceptance and, finally, being comfortable in my own skin. I even thought that maybe I was ahead a few years; I heard this wasn't supposed to happen until I was in my 30's.

I should've started writing immediately.

Unfortunately, as is wont to happen, I've somehow wandered to an entirely new valley- except now I have a mountain of papers to grade, confusing comments from my thesis adviser, no word from any of my Ph.D. programs, and a strange cold that knocks me out before I can get anything done. (Tara marvels at her capacity to whine.)

That is to say, dear reader, this is where I am at the moment. I hope to be in a much better state for the next take.

Low point: when I again failed my "lemonade-maple syrup-cayenne-water only" diet, this time after 24 hours.

High point: Playing with Nena, the 4 lb. chihuahua (Bruiser's doppelganger) we are dogsitting for the weekend. Mims and I have been projecting our own neuroses onto the dogs again. "Bruiser is confused and feels like he's receiving mixed signals. He's going to go hide in his home."

I plan to continue my game of hide-and-go-seek with my life for the rest of this week and to get a little interstate therapy on my drive to Charleston this coming weekend. Stay tuned. It will get better.

posted by tara @ 1:08 PM 2 comments

Nunsense!

I have to thank the lovely LAURIE PINKERT for sending me this article under the subject line "Our vocation changes would not be so unusual!"

Some days, darling....

posted by tara @ 9:28 AM 2 comments