Drumming up some memories

Today I will try to briefly explain the story behind one of my obsessions: hawaiian shirts.

Those of you who know me know that I am obsessed with hawaiian shirts. They are happy, happy shirts. However, contrary to popular belief, I wasn't born with a hawaiian shirt obsession. It developed way back in my senior year of high school.

In the fall of my senior year of high school, I was busy. Busy with classes, busy with activities (band and handbells, mostly), and busy stressing over college-related decisions. Music, as it still does today, gave me a chance to destress (hitting things...er, drums...is very enjoyable) and a good excuse to spend time lots of time with my friends (most of whom were in the band).

Our percussion rank that year was interesting as always. We were an odd bunch; nerds and "cool" people and some dorks, all thrown together and trying to play as a unit. We weren't all the best of friends (though there were some very close friendships within the rank), but we managed to have some good times together.

One of those good times was spurred on by the upcoming annual halloween parade. Every rank chose a theme and dressed in costume (there were some interesting choices over the years), and our percussion rank needed a theme. Being a percussion rank, too, we wanted to be cool -- after all, we had a reputation to uphold. ;) As a brief tangent, we had been pirates the year beforehand, and "distinguished English gentlemen" (the outfit consisting of bathrobes and bubble pipes and drawn-on mustaches...even for the gals) the year before that. Yes, very random. I think I've gained part of my sometimes-bizzare sense of humor from that group. :)

So after some discussion, we decided on a hawaiian theme. We all took a saturday afternoon to wander around town together and find hawaiian shirts. I remember ending up in this very random hippie-like store in State College -- the entire place reeked of incense! We bought our shirts, wore them to school the day of the parade (I think that's the most I've ever stood out, clothing-wise, in high school...I've become a bit more bold since then), and marched that evening. We went all out -- sunglasses, grass skirts for the gals, flowers in our hair (even for the guys!), and leis...and we even decorated our drums with bright streamers. It was a fabulous night.

My parents took a picture of us that evening, and that picture has become one of my most favorite pictures from all of high school. We enlarged the picture and hung it up in the percussion corner of the band room, where it remained for years (it was still there when my brother graduated high school in 2004)...along with other random percussion people paraphenalia from over the years.

There have been many great hawaiian shirt moments since high school (most recently 2 weeks ago when I saw my priest wearing a hawaiian shirt to a local restaurant). It's fun to think that this all started with a really fun and random group of people, way back a long time ago.

Do any of you SC people remember other parts of that story? Sadly, some of the details have become fuzzy. We have to keep these fun memories alive. :)

Devotion

"I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work."
~Thomas Edison

Maybe I've just been realistic (as opposed to optimistic) lately. Maybe stress is getting to me. Maybe it's mutant yargh. But whatever it is, the result is that I'm starting to key in on just how much of life is comprised of failure...and how easy it is to forget that.

This line of thinking stemmed from...well, numerous actual events, but most recently from an article that I was reading. The article, geared toward incoming MIT AI graduate students (random, I know), discussed the often devastating toll that even brief moments of failure can have on future progress and motivation. But these failures, the article stressed, are surprisingly common...for everyone.

Duh, you're saying. Everyone fails occasionally or eventually. Well, yes, probably. But how often do we see this?

After all, we display our successes to society. Concerts (the product of long and difficult rehearsals, during which many mistakes are made). Weddings (how many ex's does each have? How many heartaches did each experience before finding Mr./Ms. Right?). Published novels and research articles (How many drafts? How many rejections? How many failed experiments before locking into the "good" one?).

I'm not saying that we should always display our mistakes for the world to see. But it is often said that we grow by our failures, not by our successes. If our failures turn out (way later) to be such good learning experiences, why are we all so reluctant to share our shortcomings and difficulties?

I wonder how good old Tommy Edison felt when he first articulated that quote. Was he matter-of-fact? Sarcastic? Concealing a smile? However he felt, I long to share his simplistic view.

In the meantime, it's all about Romans 5:3-5.

Nested thoughts

So t-minus a few hours until my parents arrive in town for the weekend (yay!). Since I've felt waaaay too scatterbrained recently to write on any given topic for an extended period of time, here are some random thoughts that have been floating around inside my head:

- I think that metaconversations are fantastic. A metaconversation is essentially a conversation about a conversation -- something like "when the group conversation turned to this one subject, I was thinking that I'd like to steer it back to the original topic, but I never had the chance. What did you think about the discussion?" I've had several metaconversations recently and I've really grown to appreciate them and the many opportunities for open and honest sharing that they provide.

- I'm getting a new bike! Okay, it's actually a new used bike...but it's one that actually fits me. It even has some shocks so that I can go trail riding without feeling every single root and stone that I ride over.

- My favorite cards in the game Apples to Apples are the following: festering wound, friction, the common loon, angry hornets, and black hole. If you play one of those cards, I won't necessarily pick it, but I'll certainly be tempted. :)

- It took me awhile to figure out why I've felt like my week has been incomplete. But I think I've figured it out now. See, one of my friends has toyed with the idea of blogging about why geishas are more relaxing than attending church. So on monday, I excitedly check his blog. Nothing. Tuesday, nothing. Certainly by wednesday...but no. And here it is, saturday, and he still doesn't have a post written. I think I can make it through the weekend, but it's gonna be tough. Can someone please hand me a tissue?

- I am really quite a lazy person. When friends drag me out to do something active, I'm all over it. But when I'm by myself...well, that's a different story. Sometimes I'm pretty good at being active, and sometimes I'm not. I have to work on being more self-motivated. My goodness, I thought that I had enough of that to do what with being in grad school and all. But the most recent result of motivated friends was a fun game of ultimate frisbee -- yay. :)

- My math nerdiness has been rearing its ugly head lately -- due to a combination of factors. I'm a little wary of how much I want to nurture the beast (this is a different beast than Ghengis, fyi), but here's a warning in advance that I might try to post life-mathematical thoughts sometime soon.

- It's difficult to strike a balance between meeting/getting to know new people and continuing to get to know people with whom I have an established relationship. I wonder if I'll ever get to a point in life when I just don't want to know any more people. I hope I don't -- I think that would be sad.

- When I started writing this, I felt like I had many more random thoughts...oh well. Happy July!