Monday, April 23, 2007

 I couldn't get to sleep last night for a spectacularly long time, and i ended up thinking a lot about space, due in part to watching Apollo 13 on cable on Saturday. Side note: MAN that is a great movie. Anyway, my dad's a huge space program nut so i grew up exposed to a lot of that stuff, and i was in an astronaut club in elementary school and of course living in Florida you kind of have to end up at Cape Canaveral every once in a while. But i still don't feel like i ever appreciated it enough- NASA and rockets and astronomy- even though i know i've felt huge respect for space travel for a very long time. It's just that last night it really struck me- and ideas always seem clearer and more enormous in the dark in the middle of the night- that human beings have been to the MOON. We have left our own planet, our home in the universe and traveled in SPACE. It mystifies me that this happened in my parents' lifetime, that it really wasn't that long ago that mankind hadn't been to space, and yet by now we're totally used to the idea. We travel by flying through the air, we talk to people halfway around the world through a glowing box, we can see pictures of places thousands of light years away, PEOPLE HAVE BEEN TO SPACE. Technology blows my mind.

And it's not just space travel and technology that gets me, because then i get to thinking about Earth itself, and how it's really just this tiny little speck in the universe but it's able to sustain so much life. So much had to happen for humans and animals and everything we know to exist at all, and then for us to grow into a species that is so conscious of itself and its surroundings, to write books and music and make movies and art, to travel and communicate and live, it's astounding. And all of this in a place that had already been populated by dinosaurs long before us.

Then, in the end, all of these thoughts kind of depress me, because as much as life is amazing, it also means knowing that your place in the universe is so incredibly tiny.

ANYWAY! That was part 4 in the 1396128752016501365807655 part series Marina Ponders the Universe. I guess i have a lot of time on my hands lately, i'm way too existential these days. My quarter-life crisis has got my mind thinking all over the place. Whew, it's tiring!

- 10:27 PM

Friday, April 20, 2007

 Last night the dog killed one of her toys in a brilliant fashion. She's ripped holes in a lot of them, and she really loves chewing on plush animals' eyes (she likes little nubs! also: zippers, tags, drawstrings, knots, hair, and the old classics fingers and toes), but this little guy... she ripped out his entire frontal lobe. She ate his BRAIN! It is both hilarious and terrible. But mostly hilarious. Bringing us right back to the conclusion that she is, in fact, a zombie dog. Aww. I love her. She also still thinks she's a lap dog from when she was a tiny baby (all of... a few months ago?) and so will smother us when we're sitting on the couch. She's pretty ridiculously tall and skinny for a labrador, and a couple times recently people have asked if she's part greyhound (we don't underfeed her, she's just like that!). But our favorite was when one little kid called her a panther a couple months ago. So, basically, she's a big dumb zombie pantherhound. Awesome new dog breed? I THINK SO!

In sadder pet news, one of our goldfish is dying. We thought he was done for about two months ago when he was swimming really wonky, then somehow he hung in there. But now he's just been laying on the bottom of the tank for two days, which is... not a good sign i think. He's in a different position every now and then, and you can still see his mouth and gills moving, but otherwise you can hardly tell he's still alive. But he's like seven or eight years old, which is pretty nutty for a little feeder goldfish won at a carnival. We've got two of them that have lived that long, they're both practically blind with cataracts swimming around in little geriatric scooters and soaking their dentures at night and complaining about us kids and the racket we make with our tv and our rock music. I salute you, little fishes!

GOING TO SEE HOT FUZZ TOMORROW. I'm so frickin excited, it seems like i've been waiting for this movie my entire life. Or at least... a while. I'm voting for the Simon Pegg/Nick Frost/Edgar Wright superteam to rule the world.

- 8:33 PM

Sunday, April 15, 2007

 Laying on warm cement in bright sunlight while the air is cool and windy is possibly one of the most pleasant feelings i have experienced. At least, today it is. Boy i love when it's not asphyxiatingly (NEW WORD?!) hot out!

Last night i had a dream that my older brother and i started working at 7-Eleven and Ryan Seacrest was our boss. And then one of the walls of the place fell off and it was snowing outside and all of the employees (there were at least fifteen of us working at once!) had a party. WHY???!?!?!? I don't know. Lately my dreams have been really vivid and odd. In all fairness, they're always odd, but i don't usually have nights and nights in a row of such memorable craziness. 'SUP, SUBCONSCIOUS?

- 5:35 PM