this is just another one of those songs

that gets stuck in my head from time to time...mucho Maryland references. I didn't actually live in Maryland, in fact at times I had a well known "fear of Maryland" (which many Northern Virginians have, as in, "hey, that place/party/show/park sounds cool...aw, but its in Maryland, thats too far." Even though Maryland is only like, 10 minutes away when the traffic is good. But I kinda got over it when I was making trips back and forth between Virginia and New York when I was in school. Blue Skies Over Dundalk

Right now,

no matter what else is going on around the world...

the geese are migrating....

I might almost have a new (used) car!

Picture this in sapphire blue.

road trip to the midwest song

WELL I WENT BACK TO OHIO
BUT MY FAMILY WAS GONE
I STOOD ON THE BACK PORCH
THERE WAS NOBODY HOME
I WAS STUNNED AND AMAZED
MY CHILDHOOD MEMORIES
SLOWLY SWIRLED PAST
LIKE THE WIND THROUGH THE TREES
A, O, OH WAY TO GO OHIO


I WENT BACK TO OHIO
BUT MY PRETTY COUNTRYSIDE
HAD BEEN PAVED DOWN THE MIDDLE
BY A GOVERNMENT THAT HAD NO PRIDE
THE FARMS OF OHIO
HAD BEEN REPLACED BY SHOPPING MALLS
AND MUZAK FILLED THE AIR
FROM SENECA TO CUYAHOGA FALLS
SAID, A, O, OH WAY TO GO OHIO

The Pretenders My City Was Gone

Almanac

This is the Hidden Pond Nature Center Almanac

Did you know...

1% of Switzerland speaks a language that is a combination of Latin and Italian.

getting creative with food

brown rice
+
tomato soup
+
oregano
+
a spoonful of yogurt

tastes like pizza.

ways to enjoy moving & packing

take breaks.
chew fresh parsley and mint leaves.
play with the waterhose (look! when I squirt it in the air and turn it off real fast it doesn't hit the ground until a few seconds later!)

www.furiae.com

Lovely Day

Hoy dia yo fui al Library of Congress in Washington D.C. with my friend and her friend, history/art history students at George Mason U. I checked out a rare (to me anyway, though it is not technically in the "Rare Books" collection) volume that I had checked out more than 10 years ago. I found the old order slip in it, which even had my father's signature on it from when he lived in Virginia. He had to come with me because I was still too young to check out books from the Library of Congress. That was a trip, finding that slip. I guess that not very many people have looked at that book over the past 10 years...

The book was a biography of a 19th century writer named George MacDonald. It was written by his son and it is called George MacDonald and his wife. I spent most of my time reading/skimming it. (When I was younger I was mainly looking in it for photographs because I knew he was friends with Lewis Carroll, who was a photographer, and I was doing a report in my photography class).

Part of the reason I was reading it was I knew that this author had lead a bit of a rags to riches existence (to a degree) and I wanted to find out how he'd done it. Well, it seems that he'd occasionally attract the attention of well-off individuals (like Lady Byron for example). These individuals then provided him with money, and in turn, he wrote many books and gave lectures until at some point, after many years a whole bunch of people (and fans of his work) pooled together money and he got a big house in Italy. And by friends and fans, I mean...a Princess here, a Baroness there...I believe his wife and daughters mostly took care of the house...but maybe there were servants, too. It also said that even some former servants contributed money toward the family buying this house.

So. Thats one way to do it...

Also, I checked out The Triple Goddess Tarot (even the cards came with the book!) and a book about The Herbal Tarot. Also a book in Italian (which I cannot really read) about Elisabetta Sirani, a female painter in the Renaissance, and some books about Isabel Clara Eugenia, the daughter of Philip II of Spain, which were either in Spanish (which I can read) or Dutch (which I can't). Except for the tarot books, I didn't look at those very much but the whole point was, these are all materials you can't check out of any local library I've been to recently! Being in close proximity to D.C. has its advantages.(But, soon I shall make a journey to see family and seek employment in a colder, more Northern state of Michigan...That is, as soon as I figure out what to do about my car, which has a bad transmission, according to not-1-not-2-not-3-but-4 sources!)

There was a small fire(?) in the LOC today, and people were briefly evacuated out of the building, but it didn't seem to do any serious damage.

To be turned into links....

A Book
I recently (re)read:
Mirabilis by Susann Cokal

A Movie
I recently watched:
Being Human (with Robin Williams)

For now, I have to run off to a beer tasting at The Curious Grape, in Shirlington Virginia.

link happy

here's another link to a band that I got introduced to when I attended a Mary Prankster show in Virginia last autumn:

The Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band

MARY

PRANKSTER

hah!!

yes, sometimes bothering to look up the directions helps.

This girl is retiring...

thats a link, folks.

lets try it again...


and in case it still didn't take, the link is supposed to be www.maryprankster.com

I have hope, I have faith, but will the link thingy really work this time??

Mary Prankster is retiring! And if that link won't work, then what kind of world do we live in???

Tarot

So, currently indulging in a new obsession (or maybe I should say "re-newed") these are the decks I really would like to own:

Celestial Tarot (I loooove the art work and the astrological references)
Tarot of the White Cats ( I have a white cat and I think these look adorable. Plus, its a nice way to learn 6 languages!)
Motherpeace Tarot (I just get a nice feeling about this one)

and maybe also

The Rider-Waite Tarot (this was the first kind of tarot I ever used...an old pack of my mom's from the early 70s)
The Tarot of Art Noveau (sexy and Italian! but several other languages are on this deck too)
Art Noveau Tarot (love the colors)

I also quite like the looks of:
Gendron Tarot,
Chinese Tarot,
Old English Tarot ,
Tapestry Tarot,
and Legend: The Arthurian Tarot.

Its nice to read something with pictures for a change.

(By the way, the book Ahab's Wife has illustrations in it! I always thought that more books for adults should be illustrated.)

tarot and melba 'snacks'

i thought they were called 'toast'

once upon a time...

today I carefully scrutizinized (sorry I'm under the influence of cheap yet drinkable wine) 'the medieval scapini tarot"

by the way it is not medieval. one card depicts rasputin!!'

nevertheless...a fun time.

then I went out and bought "the pocket goddess tarot" by kris waldherr

"I wish they made us learn about tarot in school" I said, after finding websites such as www.tarotforum.net and www.learntarot.com. there are some interesting decks out there. "tarot of the white cats" (I have a white cat.) "the triple goddess tarot" "power of flowers tarot" "inner child cards"

"oh come on you know tarot has to be an out of school thing"

"thats not true! I could see you doing tarot, llike the inner child one, with kids in art class"

blarghy blar blar...

anyways my friend said "I could see you teaching a class about tarot"

"yeah....but then you never know...you could get some girl in your class whose mother is a psychic and knows more about it than you do."

"you're really out there you know that? but its good."

......

"i mean, you are! you're obsessed!"

(this was a convivial and funny exchange)

mineral spa...

is what I said to someone shoving a dirty laundry bag full of "not filthy" laundry behind my back

"how could you be more comfortable now?"

and a pillow at my side

"I remember this from my mother and my grandmother...pillows all the time...theres a female sense....in in in...um...a a a... well...I don't think its wrong to talk about one's family in conjunction with one's mind...I think freud fucked that up...to be honest...but how...I don't know..."

sound of a lighter...cigarette lighting....

patting adjusting

anticipation of typewriter keys clacking

If you really like a book...

then never, never go online and look up the reading group questions.

especially when its a long book and you are only in the beginning stages.

because, for sure, one of the questions will give away vital information about the story

and then, you will mutter grouchily, to your monitor, "thanks for ruining it!"

BLAH.

another interesting not a link

has now been turned into a link!

http://www.williambowles.info/poems/arlette/cornered.html
Cornered
by A. Lurie

compliment

fr the "The Baroness" in THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM CARLOS WILLIAMS on the Sept. 17 entry on "Conchology" (http://gabrielgudding.blogspot.com/) is very interesting. That is not a link. I don't know how to make my links work.

The new book I'm reading is appropriate to the new place. I LOVE Ahab's Wife by Sena Jeter Naslund. I also very much enjoyed her readings and "workshop" at the Binghamton University Writing by Degrees conference. I had a brief conversation with her, as she signed my books (I also bought Four Spirits) about the Laura Ingalls Wilder books. She likes The Long Winter the best. I can't really decide which one I like the best...I think that the first one I read was Little House on the Prairie, and I know I must've read The Long Winter either as the second or third book. (I read them all out of order). I can remember being in third grade and I had just moved to Renton, Washington, from Latham, New York, and I was the only kid in my class who liked those books.

I got teased a little bit by a new friend I made at my school, Campbell Hill Elementary, which was a school that had not one, not two, but THREE recesses. She was called Cheryl, she was skinny with a square jaw with a large mole, and long blond hair, and her family was on welfare and used food stamps. I think that she and I were two white girls who hung out with a larger group of mostly black girls who played on the bars every recess. Not that I think I noticed it back then, so much, but just in my memory as an older person, I notice it now. I learned to
skin the cat, and to do "the pencil" and other things which I don't remember the names of, but I could describe what I did. I don't remember which one "skin the cat" was. "The pencil" was when you made your whole body as straight as a board and flipped over the bar backwards. "Cherry Bombs" were when you hung upside down and, no hands, swung around on your knees and flipped off a high bar and landed on your feet. I only did that one time, on a playground, when my mother's boyfriend was close by and spotting me.

Also, at Campbell Hill, I learned to jump double dutch and play tetherball. I think that the first time I ever saw the older girls jumping double dutch was on St. Patrick's Day, maybe. "I am Irish!" I remember a dark skinned girl saying, with a tone of irony, or self-mocking, the one who was jumping. I secretly decided that I wanted to learn how to "jump Irish."

I almost think I love this book as much as I loved the Laura Ingalls Wilder books back then. A light house figures predominantly in the first part of the book, Ahab's Wife. Since Michigan is full of lighthouses, being on the Great Lakes, this seems very fitting...

moving

I just picked up a little ten foot truck (which is nonetheless the biggest vehicle I've ever driven) to carry my belongings out to Michigan. And my internet is going to get cut off at any second...

I will mention that when I went to NYC, my friends and I saw this rather interesting show in Central Park. It consisted of roller bladers, either in various costumes, stages of undress, or street clothes, dancing in their own distinct ways to music that...well I can't remember exactly but it tended to have a heavy dance beat but it was not techno (?) I think...to a back drop of about 40 people on a hill waving and swirling around multi-colored tie dyed flags.

And what that all was for, other than for the pure enjoyment/entertainment/amusement of the participants and the spectators, we did not know.

on the pleasures of dining

A new friend has had an interesting affect on my eating habits recently.

I have become a fan of eating a dinner salad very slowly. Not a wimpy salad, mind you, but a Greek salad, which includes feta cheese and olives and maybe just a few anchovies. Accompanied by a vinegar and oil type house dressing on the side.

So we talk, and I eat my salad very s-l-o-o-o-w-l-y. If the waiter keeps coming by and asking if I'm done, I say that I'm still working on it. My friend slowly consumes a bowl of french onion soup and a small tossed salad. Then for dessert, we each have a slow cup of peppermint tea.

This is not the way I was raised to eat.

Good yogurt tastes like dessert

I concluded today, after sampling the following:

1) Liberte "Six Grains Stirred Yogourt" (with raspberries, buckwheat, rice, barley, wheat, rye, oats) 1.5 % milkfat

2)Liberte Mediterranee Yogourt "Wild Blackberry fruit at the bottom" 8% milkfat

3) Stoney Field Farm "Vanilla Truffle" organic yogurt with cocoa at the bottom and pieces of a Hershey Bar thrown in for good measure. Fat content undetermined.

Dandelion Greens

Tonight, for the first time, I tried cooking myself some dandelion greens.

Tonight, I also found a very interesting article on the internet.



does it work?

If all goes well...

tomorrow I will be taking my first day trip to New York City, ever! I think in the morning I'll drive to New Jersey and I'll be meeting some friends from Maryland and Philly. How exciting!
This trip has been too long in coming.

I've been to Long Island before and I went to the Kennedy airport when I was six, but that doesn't really count.

Du, Du Liegst Mir Im Herzen

Du, Du Liegst Mir Im Herzen

Du, du liegst mir im Herzen,
Du, du, Liegst mir in Sinn.
Du, du, machst mir viel Schmertzen,
Weisst nicht wie gut ich dir bin.

Ja, ja, ja, ja,
weisst nicht wie gut ich dir bin.

Leonard Cohen - Chelsea Hotel #2 Lyrics

I remember you well in the Chelsea Hotel,
you were talking so brave and so sweet,
xxxxxx xx xxxx xx xx xxxxxx xxx
while the limousines wait in the street.
Those were the reasons and that was New York,
we were running for the money and the flesh.
And that was called love for the workers in song
probably still is for those of them left.

Ah but you got away, didn't you babe,
you just turned your back on the crowd,
you got away, I never once heard you say,
I need you, I don't need you,
I need you, I don't need you
and all of that jiving around.

I remember you well in the Chelsea Hotel
you were famous, your heart was a legend.
You told me again you preferred handsome men
but for me you would make an exception.
And clenching your fist for the ones like us
who are oppressed by the figures of beauty,
you fixed yourself, you said, "Well never mind,
we are ugly but we have the music."

And then you got away, didn't you babe...

I don't mean to suggest that I loved you the best,
I can't keep track of each fallen robin.
I remember you well in the Chelsea Hotel,
that's all, I don't even think of you that often.

my car...

my car, my car, my car...my kar-ma...seems to be driving exceptionally well...

conversationalist topics

car
rent
money
work
job
divorce
stress
IRS tax law anyone???

more star art

http://www.bnr-art.com/oleg/sparkling_star.htm

http://www.washingtonprintmakers.com/artists/matthews/star_bucket_320.jpg

http://www.newyorkartists.net/Hunter/Star.jpg

sort of a cool image

It looks mandala-ish.

how to make it a link I do not know.

http://www.washingtonprintmakers.com/artists/osher/star_crossed_320.jpg

I'm reprinting the star poem

STARS

While we
Know they are
Enormous suns,
Gold lashing
Fire-oceans,
Seas of heavy
Silver flame,

They look as
Though they could
Be swept
Down, and heaped,
Cold crystal
Sparks, in one
Cupped palm.

Valerie Worth

But I also like this pixies song...

"I live cement
I hate this street
Give dirt to me
I bite lament
This human form
Where I was born
I now repent
CARIBOU..."


You know, somehow the lyrics seem a lot less stark when you're actually just listening to the song and singing them than they do in print.

oh financial woes...

student loans, car bills, and now the IRS! whyyyyyy....
do you know they charge interest on money that they actually gave you???
that doesn't seem fair...

I feel tired...I'm thinking of a pixies song....I think it goes...


One two three
She's a real left winger 'cause she been down south
And held peasants in her arms
She said "I could tell you a story that could make you cry"
"What about you?"
I said "Me too"
"I could tell you a story that will make you cry"
And she sighed "Aaahh"
I said "I wanna be a singer like Lou Reed"
"I like Lou Reed" she said sticking her tongue in my ear
"Let's go, let's sit, let's talk"
"Politics go so good with beer"
"And while we're at it baby, why don't you tell me one of your biggest fears?"
I said "Loosing my penis to a whore with disease"
"Just kidding" I said "Loosing my life to a whore with disease"
I said "Please... I'm a humble guy with a healthy desire"
"Don't give me no shit because..."

I'VE BEEN TIRED.

damn...I might actually be inspired to clean my house. or apartment, rather.

sometimes I like country music

like in the car, driving up to lackawanna state park in pennsylvania.

this tim mcgraw song...

I went sky diving
I went Rocky Mountain climbing
I went 2.7 seconds on a bull named fumanchu
and I loved deeper and I spoke sweeter
and I gave forgiveness I’d been denying
and he said someday I hope you get the chance
to live like you were dying.

The heart will always surpass the mind.

cats cats cats cats cats

for some reason I feel like being kid-like

unicorns unicorns unicorns unicorns unicorns

when did I ever out grow them?

nonsense poem

I choose friendship
I choose grace
I choose stars
inside your face

song in my head...

leaving on a jet plane....

dear e-mail

thanks for the e-memories.

let me live my life...

grathias

I like reading other peoples' blogs...

when the other people talk about the kind of house they grew up in or where they went on vacations to every summer or things like that (especially if they are a WRITER because then they will often include funny quirky offbeat or lightly traumatic but interesting things). every family must have a culture.

I've been traveling around to various states and I've just about run out of steam or money. Actually, not steam, but yes, money. So. I have to figure out where to move and I have to bring my cat with me. (My current apartment does not allow pets.) I'm really vascillating between staying here or moving. I really keep changing my mind about it about 1,000 times a day. Or at least ten, which is still a lot. I suppose I should feel lucky I have so many choices but I feel kind of panicked...and without any permanent place or home...but...perhaps this will change...I hope so...

quote

"change is good
especially when it stays
in your pocket"

--trader joe's shopping bag


how interesting this quote is, I thought to myself this morning. how interesting. because suddenly I realize the limitations of the financial resource of my checking account, having mostly travelled and not worked this summer (not for pay anyway--I worked while visiting by helping out family, and occasionally helping one of my friends clean plaster casts from the Metropolitan Museum of Art)

Safe in their alabaster chambers...

This is an interesting version of an Emily Dickinson poem...it seems to fuse two versions together. But I miss all of the dashes that come with the last stanza, in other versions

It came from http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/melani/cs6/alabaster.html


Safe in their alabaster chambers,
Untouched by morning and untouched by noon,
Sleep the meek members of the resurrection,
Rafter of satin, and roof of stone.

Light laughs the breeze in her castle of sunshine;
Babbles the bee in a stolid ear;
Pipe the sweet birds in ignorant cadence,--
Ah, what sagacity perished here!

Grand go the years in the crescent above them;
Worlds scoop their arcs, and firmaments row,
Diadems drop and Doges surrender,
Soundless as dots on a disk of snow.

Today I drove to little upstate New York towns

and continuously listened to Blonde Redhead's "misery is a butterfly"

thats all I'm going to type

my computer is being funky

star poem

STARS

While we
Know they are
Enormous suns,
Gold lashing
Fire-oceans,
Seas of heavy
Silver flame,

They look as
Though they could
Be swept
Down, and heaped,
Cold crystal
Sparks, in one
Cupped palm.

Valerie Worth

Ha Ha Ha

Yes and if the link worked you would go to:

http://www.greengiant.com/history.htm

Ho Ho Ho

nope its not Santa...its THE JOLLY GREEN GIANT TIME LINE!!!

I'm in the South

cultivating my accent

feasting at K & W

not helping unpack the boxes

until today

thank god for antibiotics or else garlic

(my mother would definitely vote for antibiotics)

i'm going to help her hang up a flag now

is it an american flag? I asked

she replied

yeah, I can't find the...!@#$%^&*

??

links did not work?

full fathom five....

type this phrase from the tempest in google and you come up with some interesting things...

http://www.cs.rice.edu/~ssiyer/minstrels/poems/16.html

http://strangeways.tripod.com/

http://pearls.blogspot.com/

http://www.fametracker.com/blue_moons/misc_shyamalan.shtml

Or, hey, for actual links....

Tempest Thoughts

I.

...But this rough magic
I here abjure, and when I have required
some heavenly music....
I'll drown my book

Shakespeare's The Tempest 5.1.50-52,57

II.

Where the bee sucks, there suck I.
In a cowslip's bell I lie;
There I couch when owls do cry.
On the bat's back I do fly
After summer merrily.
Merrily, merrily shall I live now
Under the blossom that hangs on the bough.

The Tempest 5.1.88-94

III.

"...like this captious bee you will die from the world and sink into oblivion."

(See the last lines of the first poem in G. Guddding's book entitled "A Defense of Poetry" which I may misquote as I currently do not have a copy of it in front of me.)

You and I songs #2

"One Day I Slowly Floated Away" By Eisley

One day I slowly floated away
One day I slowly floated away
All the war horses wore rubber bands
to hide their hooves from sinking sand
The commander in charge was hoping that
The destiny was not to die

Wake up in the morning I shall
Wake up and so shall you
And I wake up, the sun is beautiful
And it is warming you and I
Fragile as we lie

Hard to foresee the future
Our bodies were growing thin
Glimpsing the peeling paint of
The nurse's ivory chain
You've got a lot of nerve coming here
Your eyes are beating rhythms way
Faster than the speeding bullet that
took the life of your radio

Wake up in the morning I shall
Wake up and so shall you
And I wake up, the sun is beautiful
And it is warming you and I
Fragile as we lie

And in the corner chair
soft and soap-scented
my darling cries apologies
We foresee the mercy
That's been shown my young limbs
Will not go unthanked or unseen

Wake up in the morning I shall
Wake up and so shall you
And I wake up, the sun is beautiful
And it is warming you and I
Fragile as we lie

You and I songs #1

too much work is not a good enough excuse to not enjoy anything. Such as two different kinds of "You and I" songs. Good songs...

For You and I by Keren Ann

Somewhere late at night
the merman called the breeze
found and out of sight
and simply watched at ease
The sea was cold as ice
and lonely as it seems
The wind came to my eyes
and woke me from a dream

And its over now for you and I
For you and I
Its over now for you and I
for you and I

Out there in the sand
I waited for the dawn
to bring me thoughts from other lands
and then you came along

But its over now for you and I
for you and I
Its over now for you and I
for you and I

Somewhere late at night
the merman called the breeze
found an out of sight
and simply watched at ease

some of the songs they sing

--rollin' on the river

--delta dawn (whats that flower you have on / could it be a faded rose from days gone by???)

--the "i saw your picture today" song

--proud to be an american

--cheer up sleepy jean oh what can it mean to a daydream believer and a home coming queen...

karaoke monsters

never
never
never move one store down from a mysterious looking liquor store with shades drawn and interesting little political manifestos taped inside of the windows
for even though it once appeared
that your apartment was next to a quiet little shoe repair shop
that shop is tiny
and does not stretch all the way to the back of the building
the bar does stretch
all the way back
the bar has a back room
the bar is not a liquor store
the back room is next to your apartment
the karaoke monsters enjoy singing
and they probably will not shut up until 3 a.m.

arrrrgh!!!!

Lengthy

Damn.

Not even that made the bottom post disappear from the bottom of the page?

It will go.

I must think of something

Long.

Looooong

L

O

O

O

O

O

N

G

.

.

.

Liebestraum

!!!!!!!!!!!

was

@@@

almost

######

or

$$

perhaps

%%%%%%%

entirely

^^^^^^^^

shot

&&&&

in

**

this

((((

city

))))

jewels
magenta red
silver
turquoise
hot pink
deep forest
green

stripes
old paint
burglar bars
a window
ice
gray concrete
broken tiles

getting needles stuck into oneself while lying on a table by a woman who can't seem to communicate whats going on and then having the needle points bleed and she still can't seem to explain why this happens and she acts most uncomfortable...

I'd like to thank the academy...

So the movie "Million Dollar Baby" just won all these awards and its funny cause I just saw that movie last night with a friend of mine and watched the Academy Awards with the same person, and after we saw the movie we went to a diner where I ordered a salad and then a gigantic, whopping slice of lemon merengue pie which I could not finish and which caused me to bounce around or tremor or something (according to him) and tonight just before it won an award I started craving another slice of that pie...I heard that wineries started selling out of Pinot Noir or whatever, just because of that "Sideways" movie. Wouldn't it be funny if diners all across America started selling out of lemon merengue pie? Hah.

--Insert lemon merengue pie graphic HERE

tea

There is an art to loose leaf tea, I'm discovering. Certain combinations are quite palatable; others are not.

For example, if you put 1-2 teaspoons of loose green tea in the bottom of a "grande" size mug and layer it with approximately half a dozen to a dozen dried chrysanthemum blossoms, & then pour boiling water over it...thats a pretty nice beverage.

But when you decide to go all crazy with it and enhance your drink with with a pink of rosebuds here, a sprinkle of uva ursi there, and why not tosss in some red clover while you're at it...ugh. Don't do it unless you feel like drinking a dried flower watery mess.

By the way I didn't mean to say "a pink of rosebuds" but I kept it in because I like it.

I am super post-happy on this blog.

I like to procrastinate and I have no television.

Today I bit it on a flight of icy steps. The chrysanthemum tea prescribed by the acupunturist flew out of the cup...a silver Copco cup I bought at Wegmans. That went flying, too, and the lid broke apart. Green tea/chrysanthemum mush was scattered over the sidewalk (also icy). "Are you okay?" the people next door asked, but only after I thought "hey, why aren't those people asking me if I'm okay already" "Yeah I'm okay." I said. My fingers were freezing as I walked a block and a half to my car and tried to put the plastic lid back together. I finally managed it after I sat in my car, got my fingers a bit warmed up a bit, and said to myself, "fuck, that was scary."

now in paperback...

Home repair...electrical wiring...alternative remedies...a history of famous seductresses...Barnes and Noble should love me for these impulse buys. Why would someone compulsively buy books, or spend money on expensive $1.99 amaretto truffles, and then (in an effort to curb spending) graduate on to a daily habit of melting a dish of chocolate chips in a stove top pan of boiling water & adding top shelf amaretto?

Maybe its because some people will say things like" I am not a good person" or "I am cruel." Some people think that since they've "come clean" and they've been "honest" about who they "really" are, that is the perfect excuse for them to act in a way that some would deem"cruel." I, however, think that should qualify as a logical fallacy...

"Dry. A memoir." by Augusten Burroughs was the most recent impulse buy. So far, its funny ;-)

Another one that I liked is "May and Amy" by Josceline Dimbleby. But its hardcover so I haven't bought it. Its all about relationships and letters exchanged between the Pre-Raphaelite artist Edward Burne Jones and Dimbleby's ancestors (a mother and a daughter).

In some ways, this has been a nice semester; it affords me some time to read for pleasure.

Rearranging furniture is fun, and being scared of where you live isn't. :-D

So about that website I mentioned earlier...it really is the most riveting procrastination tool that I've stumbled across in quite a while.

If you're into cartoons and eschew long paragraphs, check out Lenore's page.

If you like cooking, creative writing exercises, and don't mind knowing that a beautiful girl can eat whatever she wants and never gain an ounce (ha ha) check out Voltaire's page.

If you want to know what its like to get your body type brutally dissected on a message board by a bunch misogynists, check out Quinne's page.

Monet's page is interesting...she's an aspiring art student...also Al's page and the links to her friends' pages (can't think of anything catchy to say about them, I just think they're interesting.)

FYI

Woke up really early--like 4 or 5 a.m.--because of a terrifying ungodly noise that seemed to be coming into my apartment through the direction of the burglar bar windows. Lay in bed with stomach cramping from fear. Eventually managed to gear up the courage to peek out the window...saw nothing but the outline of the neighbors' burglar bar windows reflected on the snow...later when it became more light outside I went into the kitchen to eat some yogurt and the ungodly noise came back and I peeked out that window and saw a tiny bit of light sweeping the snow but still no indication of what the noise was. However, I think it might have just been a snow plow paving a parking lot or something.

Future entries may be dedicated to more pleasant and safe seeming topics, such as strawberries and Chinese restaurants. Don't ask me why those come to mind...probably at some point in life when I was feeling carefree I was cultivating an appreciation of those two things. Although, when I was a little kid a local Chinese restaurant burned down in a fire and I was in a state of disbelief about it because I liked it so much. They used to give me a little paper umbrella anytime I went in and make me twirl it over my head. "Umbella" they said. I told my parents that I had learned how to say umbrella in Chinese.

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After a scary experience several weeks ago, I am finally beginning to recover some sort of sense of security and safety but its a process. I am ever vigilant/watchful; however, I don't want it to completely spoil some of the quirky charms of the area where I am living.

More to come.

brrrr....

According to weather.com, the local forecast says its fair and only 5 degrees but feels like minus 9 degrees. I just came inside. I think its bitterly cold, bright and sunny, and to say that it only feels like 9 degrees below zero is a generous estimate. But I parked far away on a hill and it was very windy when I left the car. I'm just gathering the courage to venture outside again...I want to see if my school's bookstore sells better socks than the ones I'm wearing.

When I was 8, I left New York state. I was young but loyal. I vowed to myself that New York would always be my home. But after living in other places, who knew I'd feel like such a transplanted westcoast/southerner when I finally came back?

I just read "Seeing Red," an article in the Jan. 16th Washington Post magazine about the outcome of the election. The author states: "The decision to vote for Bush instead seemed wrapped up in the age-old city vs. rural dichotomy, change vs. tradition, theory vs. horse sense, new vs. familiar." This is what I remember about the election outcomes: I was in a cafe with an old friend and his friend, and both of them were railing against the voters who had re-elected Bush. They did indeed seem to embody what this author criticizes. That is to say, they were making broad generalizations in saying that the people who had voted for Bush were obviously so very closed minded and ignorant, etc. etc. etc. I told them I had many friends and family members who had voted for Bush. They treated me to an chilly, unforgiving, piteous silence and then resumed their railing against those voters. They'd also both donated to Kerry's campaign, and I do think that maybe it was just the heat of the moment and a bit of post election bitterness on their part. But I'd also have to say that, in that state of mind and verbal expression, they certainly were not the sort of people I'd nominate to go out and recruit to influence the vote. As an aside, in that chilly silence, I couldn't help but remind myself that both of them were in much better straits financially than I was, and had a lot more free time on their hands. (They didn't seem much happier for it in light of their supposedly wasted efforts due to the election results however!) So in reading this Washington Post article, I could relate to this author's take on the situation, i.e. that maybe there were a lot of people who voted for Bush, not because they absolutely loved him, but simply because he was less threatening and more importantly, because he didn't represent this idea that the "elitist intellectuals" don't respect their opinions. I personally disagree with that stance and I did not vote along those lines, but in light of that post election get together with a friend and an acquaintance, I feel like I can understand it. I thought that it was a good article with interesting photos, and a compelling graphic of "red America."

After reading Long Quiet Highway, by Natalie Goldberg

it is also very important to follow it up by reading The Great Failure.

http://www.nataliegoldberg.com/

Link to Bandelier

http://www.nps.gov/band/