Names. They're All Beginning to Sound the Same.

Luke.
That was the name I was going to give a boy. I was twelve years old when I made this decision. I have dramatic journal entries from seventh grade explaining how I will divorce any man who'd have the audacity to say no to the name Luke. Gradually, as I became more sophisticated as a human being, I decided that I'd simply ask potential husbands what they thought of the name before marrying them. That was before I fell in love with my wonderful husband, of course, and I realized that no matter what he thought of the name Luke, I'd be marrying him anyway and I'd be staying married to him.

LUCKY FOR ME, however, my husband LOVES the name Luke. Thereby assuring that I get the man of my dreams and the name of my dreams. Perfection, no?

No.

Hawks. Luke. Hawks. Say it three times fast. (pause) Did you hear Lou Cocks? Me too.

Lou Cocks.
That's what teachers will call out every single day of his life during role call.

---Spelling segue. Role? Roll? I know one is a fluffy dinner side-dish and another is what you get in a play...but I do not know which is the one that is called out during class. Maybe I should just use the word 'attendance' thus clearing the air of any potential confusion.---

Anywhoo, this brings us to our current predicament. When I found out I was pregnant it took me about 7 seconds to name this child. My husband and I both agreed on Luke William Hawks for a boy and Sariah Michelle Hawks for a girl. The girl name is still fully in tact. I love the name Sariah and Michelle is both a beautiful name and the name of my beautiful sister. HOWEVER, my mothering sixth sense (which I'm told kicks in during pregnancy) has me thinking this child growing within me is actually a boy so I've been calling him Luke for months now and only three days ago did it hit me:

Lou Cocks.
Dreams. Crushed.
I am seriously grieving the loss of that name.

That brings us to the ACTUAL reason for this post. Here is a copy of the boy names my husband and I are looking at right now:

BOYS

Paxton

Austin

Tanner

Carson

Mason ( I have not yet asked Shem about Mason. So I'm doubtful that this one is actually in the running.)

MIDDLE NAMES (BOY)

Alan (My brother's middle name)

William (Shem's middle name)

Caleb

Isaac

Any thoughts? Opinions? Names to add? I'd love suggestions. Which middle names fit nicely with which first name? ANNNNY help you can offer will make my heart happy. Make me fall as madly in love with one of those or one of yours as I've been with Luke for the last 10 years of my life. *sigh*

March: The Month of Blog

Okay, people. I do not understand the phenomenon. Maybe you can explain it to me?

• 2 years ago, almost to the day, I started a blog. I then abandoned said blog the very next day.

• 1 year ago, almost EXACTLY to the day, I began THIS blog in an attempt to reconcile for having ditched the last blog. About a week later, I again abandoned the blog.

• Today. March 12th, 2011, I suddenly got an overwhelming urge to blog. "Must. Write. Extensively. About. Nothing. Maybe. Include. Pictures. As. Illustration." The idea grew like a cancer. (Inception!) And voila: Here I am, blogging. Because I am a narcissist, I began reading the blog entries I'd written previously. It was then that it hit me: TODAY IS MARCH 12TH! For the THIRD year in a row, I have had this inexpressible urge to blog during this same time of year!

What in the world?? How has this happened? Is there something about Spring that promotes such extensive thinking that it all just wells up inside of me until I can no longer contain myself and simply must put the thoughts into the vast complexities of the world wide web?

(side note: My husband just began playing with my toes. He then smelled his fingers to check the smell of my toes. How do we have friends?)

Okay. Honestly, if someone could explain this to me. It's my personal version of a two-headed tortoise. It should be in Ripley's Believe it or not, floating in a jar of formaldehyde like Albert Einstein's brain. And while you're at it, if someone could then explain to me how in the world to get followers on this thing...that'd be terrific. Because here's the deal. I've got many friends who blog...but I can't seem to get one schtinkin' friend on this thing. And I've been trying for 3 years.

Alrighty! Well, until next March!
Just kidding!
I hope.

Oh. Updates on my life in the last year:

• Moved to Utah for school
• Ended up meeting the love of my life.
• Got married (yeah...this whole process took 6 months. How Mormon is THAT?)
• Got pregnant (I head those audible gasps...no judging...I'm creating human life and it's exhausting.)
• Got extensively ill because of said pregnancy. (Still dealing with that on and off. LOTS of fun)
• Survived my first Utah winter since I was 6.
• Aaaaand am trying to live happily ever after whilst making a body for a baby.

So. Lots of changes. I'm a pretty happy camper. Excited for the future. It's been a tough last few months, but they'll all be worth it when I get to meet this baby.

If I have any note-worthy thoughts, I'll try to remember to stick 'em here.
Kay, bye!

How Acne Saves Lives

I love Baz Luhrman. I just want to put that out there before we actually get going. Let's face it: The guy is a genius. Maybe one of my all-time favorite directors. If his name is stamped on it, I'm 100% more likely to fork over the 9 bucks it costs nowadays to go see a movie. Using this theory, and the knowledge that I'm head-over-heels in love with all things Shakespeare as well, I decided it was a tragedy that I hadn't yet seen his version of Romeo and Juliet.

Well. Every Tuesday and Thursday I pick up Alaura from day care and we hang out until her mom gets home from work. This particular day, she was especially tuckered out from a long day at nursery school and slept pretty much the entire afternoon. "Ah ha!", I thought, "This leaves me ample time to finally fulfill my duty as a Baz Luhrman fan and watch "Romeo and Juliet!" (Oh...and just so you know how cute Alaura is, and to break up the monotony of all the words I'm using, here's a picture of her)
I know, it's unfair that I get paid to watch someone so cute. =) Anywhoo, so I popped in Romeo and Juliet and prepared to suspend my disbelief which is a prerequisite to watching any film directed by my good friend Baz. Unfortunately, that didn't seem to be enough this time. I don't know what happened. I don't know if I just wasn't in a 'Baz' mood, or if I just wasn't in a Romeo and Juliet mood (who is, really? It's definitely the most inane of any work of Shakespeare...but we'll get to that in a second) but for whatever reason, I simply could not allow myself to enjoy the artistry or the story or the acting or the stylized retelling of it that I knew Baz would bring to the table. In fact, all of these elements of a Luhrmann flick which would usually thrill me, were making me want to claw my eyes out.

Finally, I reached several important conclusions which ultimately caused me to turn the stinkin' movie off halfway through and opt for investing, instead, in my regular "Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmerman". The realizations were these: 1. Romeo may be the weakest fictional male character ever to be penned by Shakespeare. 2. Any director who makes the choice to set any Shakespearean work set in modern day should be shot. 3. If Juliet had had any sort of facial flaw, acne, clef lip, heck, even a big, red pimple on the end of her nose would have sufficed, the entire tragedy could have been avoided.

So in my personal opinion, any story whose plot depends entirely upon the perfect beauty of its female lead is not worth telling. No audience can identify with a character so beautiful that an entire story is built upon the one moment the male lead lays eyes on her. No audience can identify with a male character falling 'life-or-death' in love after on two minute viewing either. And let me just say this, I don't care if Romeo HAD looked like Leonardo DeCaprio, if some strange guy that I've never met shows up to my father's party and immediately begins stalking me and then tries to kiss me during our first conversation, I'm gonna go with Paris. I mean, really, I've known Paris my entire life, he's rich, my parents like him, he's probably seen me with a zit or two in my life and still seems to have feelings for me, and really, let's face it, he looks like Paul Rudd. Sounds like a winner to me.

I guess that's why Shakespeare will never write a play about me. "Paris and Alicia" '-A play in which Alicia has a bad break-out the night of the ball thereby chasing away any potential Romeos, so she marries the far less edgy, but arguably more stable Paris, they have babies and live a normal, healthy life together for ever and ever with no nasty run ins with poison, daggers or grumpy in-laws', would never make it in the Globe.

Schizophrenia is no Laughing Matter.

So I'm following myself.

A year ago (almost to the day, oddly enough) I started a blog and then immediately ruthlessly abandoned it. Recently, I've had the strange desire to blog again. It's been a recurring thought, so I figured I'd try and resurrect my poor, forsaken blog of old. Alas, I could not locate it. Due mostly, I'm sure, to my lack of 'blogspot savvy', I looked everywhere for about two weeks and couldn't access it. Of course, I've completely forgotten all my loggin information and no matter what I did to try and find the stupid thing, I would end up wandering around all of bloggdom, lost and hopeless. Finally, I bit the bullet and decided to just start a new one. Minutes after my new blog was born tonight, I decided to catch up on Marie's life through HER blog. And there, I found myself.

Alicia: A Taste Of Bean. My blog. It turned one a week ago yesterday. (Something about March apparently makes me antsy to share my thoughts with the world wide web.) Anywhoo...I decided the best thing to do would be to follow me. So I'm my first subscription. I figured I'd better keep tabs on myself. That way I'll never be able to blog without my knowing about it. I'll be able to check in with myself for any updates, funny stories or clever anecdotes I may have missed. I figure it'll be a good way to pull a Plato and "know myself".