LiLo!!!

I innocently signed onto Twitter this morning and was startled by a series of tweets from everyone's favorite mess Lindsay Lohan. Apparently while I slept news broke that LiLo failed a drug test! And she admitted it... on Twitter! Dramz!

All I can say is that Brit Brit is so lucky to have relatively stable and caring parents who were able to relatively bring her back from the cliff of crazy.

Daily Mail story of the mornin'

A return of one of my favorite features. Here's a classic Daily Mail story about "Broken Britain." This time a follow up of Kathleen, (one of, though at the time of the birth she was the youngest) Britain's youngest mum. The story is the usual sad yet can't stop reading varieties that explores where they are now that Kathleen's daughter is 12 (the age she was when she had her).

The best part of the story is a baby picture of Kathleen, underneath which the Mail wrote the caption: "So young: Kathleen aged just 18 months, just a few years before she would give birth aged 12"

Well... while Kathleen did give birth ridiculously young, I think a "few years" may be an overstatement.

Weekend

Tomorrow I'm finally reuniting with Oxford Northern Irish twin and journeying to Blenheim Palace. Which is not only the home of the Duke of Marlbourgh, but also the birthplace of Churchill AND the set for Kenneth Branagh's Hamlet.

I am MASSIVELY excited.

After that we're going to dinner at The Trout, which I attempted to find like four times during my Oxford days. Luckily J knows where it is. Apparently he called to make reservations and they couldn't understand his name in his accent so he had to give them my name. Awkward turtle.

the most calming advert ever

Lady Gaga on her new album...

"The album is my absolute greatest work I've ever done and I'm so excited about it. The message, the melodies, the direction, the meaning, what it will mean to my fans and what it will mean in my own life — it's utter liberation. I knew I had an ability to change the world when I started to receive letters from fans: ‘You saved my life...' ‘I'm gay and my parents threw me out...' My fans have related to me as a human being and as a non-human being - as a super-human person that I truly am." And: "Everyone tells me I'm arrogant but my music's the only thing I've got, so you'll have to let me be confident about one thing. I suppose that's what you can expect from the album: a lot of hit records that will piss people off. Beyoncé said: ‘Where the fuck do you get these ideas from?' And I was like: ‘I don't know Bee, it was just the way I was born.'"

found via the amazing Jezebel

Awkward times at work

I was just sitting here reading a follow up to the most horendous sad story, a story that completely shocked me when it broke. The story about the robbers who tortured and murdered an entire family besides the father. Like, awful awful. I can't even imagine what would drive people to do that to others.

Well I was reading that and then my coworker said something really funny.

So my voice went to sigh from the story and then broke into a delayed laugh from my coworkers comment. What came out sounded like a broken fog horn. Everyone just stopped and went, what was that.

Awkward turtle.

Such a horrible case though. I think they should get the death penalty. They really deserve it.

The art of losing isn't hard to master

I've been repeating this Elizabeth Bishop poem in my mind lately. With so many friends leaving and so many changes in general, I feel like lose is something I'm confronting almost daily. It's a lovely poem though. And sad. My favorite combo.

One Art by Elizabeth

The art of losing isn't hard to master; 

so many things seem filled with the intent 

to be lost that their loss is no disaster.  

Lose something every day. 

Accept the fluster of lost door keys, the hour badly spent. 

The art of losing isn't hard to master.  

Then practice losing farther, losing faster: 

places, and names, and where it was you meant 

 to travel. None of these will bring disaster.  

I lost my mother's watch. And look! my last, or 

next-to-last, of three loved houses went. The art of losing isn't hard to master.  

I lost two cities, lovely ones. And, vaster, 

some realms I owned, two rivers, a continent. 

I miss them, but it wasn't a disaster.   

--Even losing you (the joking voice, a gesture 

I love) I shan't have lied.  It's evident 

the art of losing's not too hard to master 

though it may look like (Write it!) like disaster.

This poem is especially fitting with my horoscope in today's Evening Standard:

"Ignore certain well-meaning souls who are trying to protect you. Their intentions are good, but they just don't understand how far-reaching the cycle of change you're currently experiencing will be. While you're short of facts, your instincts are making it clear that the most important accessory is an adventurous attitude."

Words to Live By

"What is the meaning of life? That was all- a simple question; one that tended to close in on one with years, the great revelation had never come. The great revelation perhaps never did come. Instead, there were little daily miracles, illuminations, matches struck unexpectedly in the dark."
— Virginia Woolf (To the Lighthouse)