Flightless Bird, American Mouth

So I'm having problems. A couple few, to use my father's terminology.

1. I am still jobless. Being jobless means little to no cash flow. And the little cash flow that exists is all an outpouring, not an inpouring (which I don't think is a word, but I'll claim artistic license on this one). Luckily, I'm still in school, so I feel a tiny bit less guilty about spongeing off my parents for the time being. Still, not a lot of spongeing. Not spongeing like Paris Hilton spongeing. Spongeing like, "Here's fifty bucks, buy some groceries so you don't starve." I'm grateful for everything they give me and probably wholly undeserving of it all, but it only makes me feel like a child (but not enough that I refuse their help).

2. I just found a website where you can do crossword puzzles online. Since I am a fierce and vicious procrastinator, I will never get anything done ever again. This is the site that has rendered me useless.

3. I keep distracting myself from the work I'm supposed to be doing because it's my last week of classes. Like the online crosswords and the fact that I am watching my second movie of the day right now, or that I spent all night last night drinking with my neighbors instead of taking five seconds to email questions to Chris Heavener of Annalemma Magazine.

4. I am officially tired of being single. I've suspected this for a long time, that I'm sick of watching movies by myself and going to bed every night without an occasional extra, warm body, but I've recently confirmed it. Not that being single doesn't have its perks-- believe me, it does. And I've enjoyed it for a while. And now, please can I try the other one?

So, those are my big problems. And now for something completely unrelated:

The Family Stone. I've been trying to figure out what about this movie makes me love it so much. The cast is awesome-- Diane Keaton, Rachel McAdams, Luke Wilson, Claire Danes, Dermot Mulroney. Oh, and Sarah Jessica Parker, who I could live without, but she doesn't ruin the movie. So, awesome cast, yes, but not the reason I love the movie. Or, not the sole reason. I'm pretty sure it's the story, and even more than the story, it's the characters. I'm a sucker for characters, and this movie has awesome ones, a lot of them, too, and the way their relationships to each other are revealed is just awesome. Yes, I know this movie came out in 2005 and it's a Christmas movie, but it's great. Really. I am going to study it and apply it to my previously unmentioned big problem number

5. I'm working on this short story that keeps getting bigger and bigger and I'm worried might turn into a novel, but there's this part about a family and I'm having trouble with showing the reader that this girl, Elle, has this close relationship to this family (The Walsh Family) and she has to decide between maintaining a relationship with them while torturing herself because of the youngest kid who was once her boyfriend, or break up with him completely and cut ties with the family, too. Sounds stupid now that I write it down. But it isn't. I promise. But that's my problem with the story, and I think studying The Family Stone will help me figure out what to do.

Yes, I think that.

ALSO: I've been listening to "Flightless Bird, American Mouth" by Iron and Wine pretty much on repeat.


Not an actual music video. Just a weird picture on the screen while the song plays. But the song is playing, and that's the point, yeah?


Same song, but performed acousticly by Sam Beam. Awesome.