Yep! For now, I'm done. Done with my semester, done with my thesis! I just ate a chocolate chip cookie and watched all the trailers for the "Sex and the City" movie on the NYT website to celebrate. Now I'm looking at old photos that I have stored in too many places online.
Tonight's a little celebration for graduation, tomorrow's a picnic and another celebration for a friend who got her Ph.D., and Sunday's the event itself, bagpipes and all. I hope it doesn't rain and it's not too boring. M. cooked all day yesterday so we'd be prepared for these various events, while I was a total witch, grumbling away about All My Work. I hope to be more human from now on. I know I've said that about a hundred times this semester, but now I really feel it.
Next week, we're headed to my parents' and then to the midwest to visit my sisters, brothers in law, and niece. I can't wait to get a change of scene! And see everyone! And traveling anywhere with M. is about the most fun thing I can think of.
The summer will be a nice transition time; several of our friends will be abroad, which is great for them, a little sad for us, but still, I think, an all around good thing.
I don't know what to say, really - I'm just relieved to have everything over with for now.
I leave you with a picture of one of those old wooden roller coasters at Coney Island - a photo I took years ago.
Hey, it's been a while! I defended my thesis last week, and as soon as that happened I became very lazy and very happy, and very lazy.
Seriously. It's the last week of class, but I can't do any work. I have a bunch of finals stuff but I just can't get anything done. Instead, though, I've been being human again: I've cooked dinner with M. nearly every night in the past week, watched a bunch of fun things (including "Waking Life" D+ [directionless; bad writing; cool look], "Juno" which gets an A- [very cute; George Michael and Michael Bluth in one movie!; somewhat predictable; awesome soundtrack], "Lars and the Real Girl" which gets a surprising B+, and "Slings and Arrows," which is too good to grade). I've sent letters to my grandparents, I've taken a walk almost every day, I've slept late, I've gotten to email friends, we've had time to discuss (briefly) wedding planning; I've even had time to be BORED. What the heck? It's like... normal life is back?! The real me is back too, as the people around me will be glad to know - no more weird crying fits or monosyllabic responses or failures to do any chores ever. Certain persons who cooked and cleaned everything for me for two months (and to whom I am very, very grateful) will be particularly relieved, I suspect.
Just to celebrate spring and May 1st (though it's not related to workers in any way):
I'm glad to report that other parts of my life seem to be ok too: my school hasn't completely fallen apart, though it will be going through some growing pains. I'll know more about this over the summer, I think, if the committee ever starts meeting. We don't have to move this summer - excellent! I don't think I'll have a garden but hope to join a CSA or find a decent farmer's market. We've been talking a lot about what we eat and how we live and whether it can be (affordably) more environmentally sound - strategizing about "carbon footprint"s and organic vegetables and about how bad the beef industry is. I'm not trying to turn anyone vegetarian but sometimes you really have to stop and think...
My sisters seem to be doing well; my baby niece is now six weeks old and has already outgrown a piece of clothing. She has tiny eyebrows, apparently. Amazing! I hope to meet her in a few weeks. My parents are thinking about taking a trip with my great aunt, which could be a combination of wearing and hilarious, but she's an accomplished traveler and I think they'd probably end up having a good time. I'm pushing for Italy in September but it's all up in the air. They deserve it, though, they're working really hard. So is my sister R.; I hope she finds another job soon, one where they can afford to treat her properly (I'm worried she's getting burned out). She'll get a little vacation this summer, which is nice.
I hope this finds you well, and somewhere with cherry blossoms or daffodils or tulips.
Hello folks,
Been too busy to update this thing, but recording has been taking place. Another vocal is completed, another one has been sketched out. Another has been half completed! Another guitar has been put down... progress is still slow just due to the nature of musicians (hard to get hold of, even harder to get them to turn up on time...) but I am happy that this project probably has just crossed the halfway point in terms of total material needing to be recorded.
and yours truly with the cans.
I will return soon with some sound clips!
Benz.
Hey, all,
I've been busy with work at school, trying to chip away at my thesis, and I will continue to be out of touch for the next few weeks. There's lots of good news in the air (nice folks at M's new program, baby C.D. my niece, lambs, everyone being super supportive, folks surviving their prelims, crocuses and daffodils). I'll elaborate next time. Hang in there, y'all.
xoxo
My sister A.'s baby was born this afternoon! We're all thrilled. This means I'm an aunt, and my parents are grandparents. I can't wait to see some pictures of her. Hopefully M. and I will meet her in a few short months. Wow. I can hardly believe that my sister is a mom, though she'll be a very good one.... all of the things she's gone through now... birth is something that's very unfathomable to me.
Welcome to the world, tiny Lina!
I came across this fun article in the NYT today, and it led me to this fun blog about a documentary on young farmers. The next generation of Back To The Land-ers! I sent the link to my parents - I hope they're excited. It was sort of eerie watching the trailer and imagining my parents, checking books on building a house and farming out of their library, just like the people in the film.
Now I want to be a farmer. Maybe it's just thesis stress, and I know it would be really hard. But come on, can't I have a little bit of land with space to grow garlic and tomatoes and make cheese? I guess that stuff could be accomplished with a sunny back yard... ah, someday. How exciting to think about. Go young farmers!
Hi, all,
Mostly I'm writing with another translation, but I also wanted to do two other things. First, I wanted to post this picture of the cutest thing I've seen in about forever - a little farm scene that my mom is knitting for my sister A.'s baby (she's due March 11th! M. and I are very excited to be uncle & aunt). See Fig. 1 (just practicing my APA style, guys). If this thing doesn't just cheer you right up, I don't know what will.
Second, I want to celebrate my awesome trio of new girlfriends, who are helping me to stay sane (with plenty of girliness), and also making sure that I eat plenty of dessert (not that there is any danger of that not happening). We got to hang out last night and it really is encouraging to have one of those (sorry, for lack of a better phrase) "aha!" moments where you can see that you're not the only one who is a little nuts. :)
Now, to the poem. The photo isn't related unless you think about Marx (mentioned in the poem) and thus think about the estrangement of the laborer from the product of her labor, and thus think about collective and more small-scale human projects, and thus about a TINY KNITTED ORGANIC COMMUNAL FARM!! Sorry, got a little carried away there. Not sure that what Mom had in mind was to knit a Marxist utopia for the baby. Ok. Now really to the poem, by contemporary Venezuelan poet Eugenio Montejo:
GOODBYE TO THE 20TH CENTURY
Eugenio Montejo
to Alvaro Mutis
I cross Marx Street, Freud Street;
I walk through the ring of this century,
slow, sleepless, ruminating,
a pro bono spy from some gothic realm,
collecting fallen voices, small pebbles
tattooed with infinite murmuring.
Before my eyes, Mondrian's line
cuts the night into right-angled shadows
now that no more loneliness will fit
inside the glass walls.
I cross Mao Ave., Stalin Blvd.;
I witness the instant where the millennium dies
and another sprouts into its place.
My vertical, theoretical century...
My century with its wars, its post-war this and that,
its distant drumbeats of Hitler,
between blood and abyss.
I press on, passing old suburban pavements,
through misfortunes, through a little jazz,
thinking about the gods who sleep dissolved
in the sawdust of bars;
I decipher their names in passing,
and continue on my way.
ADIÓS AL SIGLO XX
Eugenio Montejo
a Alvaro Mutis
Cruzo la calle Marx, la calle Freud;
ando por una orilla de este siglo,
despacio, insomne, caviloso,
espía ad honorem de algún reino gótico,
recogiendo vocales caídas, pequeños guijarros
tatuados de rumor infinito.
La línea de Mondrian frente a mis ojos
va cortando la noche en sombras rectas
ahora que ya no cabe más soledad
en las paredes de vidrio.
Cruzo la calle Mao, la calle Stalin;
miro el instante donde muere un milenio
y otro despunta su terrestre dominio.
Mi siglo vertical y lleno de teorías...
Mi siglo con sus guerras, sus posguerras
y su tambor de Hitler allá lejos,
entre sangre y abismo.
Prosigo entre las piedras de los viejos suburbios
por un trago, por un poco de jazz,
contemplando los dioses que duermen disueltos
en el serrín de los bares,
mientras descifro sus nombres al paso
y sigo mi camino.
n.b. this poem is from a Montejo page (link), and here's another, where you can hear Montejo and others read their poems: (link). Also, Alvaro Mutis is a Colombian poet; you can read about him (here) and here's his awesome poem about (tequila).
Molybdenum. What a cool word. I found it in this scary article in the NYT about an old mine that's full of toxic water that is only being held back by a wall of accumulated rubbish. Horrible! But the word, the idea of being "lead-like," is a good one. In fact, it's how my brain has been lately!
Well. I wanted to write in and say "hi" for a moment. Things are going fine with me, though this is another long week and I honestly can't understand how people work 12-hour days every day for years. But then again, I fear I've gotten very complainy in the past month and it's not a trend I would like to see continue. School is fine. I presented initial results from my thesis project to some other students last night, and they had a lot of good suggestions for me. Hopefully this will make my research more "person centered" instead of "variable centered." Yes, people really do use these terms. I find them, like most terms in this field, risible. But what can you do? First I have to master the lexicon, THEN I will have earned the right to mock it.
I think my family is doing well. My sister A. is about to have her baby, which is really exciting (due date: March 11th), and she and her husband have apparently mastered the art of stained glass. My sister R. is also doing well, though she works with some very inept people (wearing slippers and pajamas to work, in a healthcare setting? come on!) so that's definitely trying. My dad's trying to figure out what to do with his practice, how to find a new doctor, how to make it viable. Remind me never to open a small business in a rural area. But no, seriously, it's not that he and his partner have done anything wrong, I think this is a difficult time economically, and recent graduates want to live in cities. Seeing my dad get stressed reminds me of how bad stress can be to the body and mind. Imagine having low levels of the 'fight or flight' response all the time, with no time for the body to repair itself and regroup. It's bad! I find that ongoing stress makes me somewhat stupid - I get absent minded, make very boring conversation, and forget things. And these are just stupid school tasks I'm talking about. I can't imagine how Dad feels when the fates of 20+ employees and thousands of animals are in his hands. My mom is hanging in there despite dad's stress, and they both have single handedly (well, in their case, double handedly) saved their local contra dance group from extinction, so they're proud of that.
I'm grateful that I've gotten to spend some time with supportive classmates and friends over the past week or two, though I'm not sure I've been very good company. People put up with me! It's so nice of them. M. especially puts up with it brilliantly, weathering the endless stream of department gossip and my general neuroses. I'm so excited and proud that he's going to Penn, and I can picture him there, which is definitely a good sign.
My "2007: The Year of Love" theory seems to have caught up/rolled over into 2008, with several new engagements (T & C in Raleigh, K & E in Wilmington, and most recently, H & J in Los Angeles!) and my friend A. finally meeting a guy who makes her smile. All of this totally, totally rocks.
And, YOU rock. You rock like molybdenum.
Tu perfección es...
Daisy Zamora
Tu perfección es inimitable
como el templo de Luxor que contemplé
conmovida en el Museo Metropolitano:
Construido sin argamasa, piedra por piedra.
La guía del museo lo mostraba
majestuoso, bajo la gris y alta bóveda
del cielo de New York.
Pero a tanta excelencia yo prefiero
tu abrazo en las tinieblas al final del día.
Your perfection's...
Your perfection's inimitable
like the temple of Luxor, which I contemplated,
completely beside myself, at the Met:
built without mortar, stone by stone.
The guide showed it to us
so proudly, under the high gray vault
of New York sky.
Despite all that excellence, I prefer
your embrace in the shadows at the day's end.
This is from a book of poems by Nicaraguan poet Daisy Zamora called "A cada quien la vida" (To each, life).
