Noticing the Little Things: Eye Contact

I guess when it comes down to it, eyes are just a complex set of lenses and muscles that allow the ability of sight. Camera lenses can do the same thing, but there's a reason why robotic eyes are so creepy.

Eyes are in essence a direct portal into someone's soul. Cover everything else up, and you could still tell if someone was giving you an icy glare, a far off mind-on-something-else look, a roll of annoyance, or watering lip-biting emotion.

Staring deep into someone's eyes while a smile creeps up on their face can be as affectionate as a tight embrace, and as reassuring as concrete spoken words.

The added bonus is that it's very hard for eyes to lie. Empty words and empty hugs are everywhere, but I don't think I've ever experienced a fake gaze of affection. Tis unfortunate, but with reason, that this special eye contact is considerably harder to find.

Songs of the Moment:
Sing, Sing, Sing - Chris Tomlin
Phantom Limb - The Shins
First Day of my Life - Bright Eyes
In the Still of the Night (I'll Remember) - Boyz II Men

Although Unnecessary

Went to Harvest Fest today, drawn by the "headlining" act of Relient K. I was pretty excited, despite this being my 7th time seeing Matty T and the boys. However, they only ended up playing 5 songs (Who I Am Hates Who I've Been, High of 75, Forgiven, Office/5 dollar footlong, Be My Escape), and I was stuck on the walkways watching them in the middle of the infield, so it wasn't a concert feel at all. I was disappointed by that whole ordeal, since I definitely wasn't there to see Skillet or Greg Laurie.

However, we decided to stay, and walked around to the area directly behind home plate. I'm not sure what we were looking for, since the place was beyond capacity, with even the seats in the outfield, behind the stage, being full. Then, all of a sudden, the usher looks at us and says "three? come with me" and leads us to the fourth row behind home plate. Definitely one of those everyday miracles.

But at the end of the day, there were so many little things I complained about or mocked and focused on.

Did Skillet have to jump down to the field, fall, and run awkwardly around the stadium? Did Greg Laurie have to go on tangents about jumbo shrimp, women drivers (ok this one is fine in my book), Shia Lebeaouf, and Travis Barker? Did Relient K have to waste valuable stage time playing silly covers? The answer is no. People include things or do things that are unnecessary or bad decisions that can leave a sour taste in our mouths. It is all too easy to go back and chastise them for those small things. But looking back at the grand scheme of their intentions, do those small things really matter? In the end, we should appreciate what people are doing, or just that they're there for us, and let the little things go, even if they strike personal pet peeve chords in us.

living by yourself

Pros:
1. You can sing loudly and generally make a lot of noise without fear of anyone noticing you and thinking you're a bad singer/freak.
2. No one else making noise when you don't want noise.
Cons:
1. Too much eery quiet.
2. Ok screw this list, it's just going to sound depressing and lame.

Resolution: I'm going to have roommates until I get married.

raspberries

I haven't been eating enough fruit lately (but then again according to my mom I never have enough fruit, ever), so I decided to have a thing of raspberries tonight. Summertime must be a good time for the berries of rasp, because these suckers were huge. Unlike previous boxes of berries, I did not need to add any "sugar" and thus was blissfully flicking these gigantic berries of joy into my mouth, heartily enjoying that unique mini-seed popping that only raspberries can offer.

Suddenly, my prancing taste buds came to a screeching halt. The raspberry that had just entered my mouth was definitely coated with... concentrated dishwashing liquid soap.

Thinking this run to the sink was all too familiar, the soap proved to be much harder to rinse out of my mouth than salt. Even though the salt was more overpowering, at least it is a generally accepted cooking ingredient. The soap on the other hand, was busy killing off 99.9% of the beneficial bacteria in my mouth, and definitely had no business being on a raspberry (that wasn't stuck to a dirty plate).

Sometimes, things are simply out of your control.