Lists

Things that I cannot find:
-Stamps (I have four international stamps in my possession....but where? Clearly, I refuse to buy new stamps until these stamps are located and used.)
-Big white sunglasses (We've had some sunny days but alas, I must squint through them.)
-Plaid Macalester boxer shorts (A very important part of my wardrobe.)

Things that have happened lately that I think should end up in poems:
-People falling asleep on the train. Especially strangers sitting next to each other.
-Helping old people weigh their bulk products at the grocery store. (See this number here? You just put your bag on the scale and then press that number? Do you want me to do it, here, really, it's fine, just like this.)
-In a dream I had: I held a dead bird in my hand and moved it's wings up and down, clumsily simulating flight. Then all of a sudden it moved its neck, it turned its head; it was alive.

Categories that I've recently realized all of the stories I tell can be reduced into:
-Once my friends all thought that I was wrong about something, but then it turned out I was right!
-Man, other people are crazy and hard to understand!
-One time something really funny happened. Isn't that funny?
-I read this article on a seemingly arcane subject but really it explains a lot about human nature.

Long Latin palindromes that I've learned:
-In girum imus nocte et consumimur igni. ("We move in a circle in the night and are consumed by fire" or something like that)

Cuando estoy en vena puedo ser bastante sarcástico

I am reading "The Catcher in the Rye" in Spanish. It is kind of AMAZING.

In other news, I've been admitted to two graduate schools and now I'm spending lots of time planning possible futures. Mostly I'm just exploring the cities in question through craigslist:How much would it cost to live here? What neighborhoods are near the University? Can you buy cool bikes here?

So, yeah, I love planning and I love sarcasm. What else is new?

Hello, you are my very special one

It's been a while of no blogging for me. And mostly that while has been enjoyable and enjoyably filled with things like: nice weather, visits (I have happily been both visitor and visited and I hope to continue in this pattern), increased comprehension in Spanish, trying to get my students pen pals from my high school, enchiladas (visitors brought me food supplies), ridiculous clubs full of young Basques, novels, magazines, plans for the future, gossip about the past, a sidreria (that's a traditional Basque cider house, kids), discussions of issues of deep importance (independence, inter-personal relationships, the relationship of the mental to the physical, etc, etc), curry, laundry, a hair cut, not writing much poetry, cleaning the bathroom (but just once), walking on the beach, valentines, Spanish reality television, checking facts on the interent, new shoes and embracing my love of lists, even if it does not always lead to increased clarity and order.

In short I'm not really sure what to say. I'm in between. I live in Spain, I'm mostly happy, but sometimes I am not. I think that next year I am actually going to graduate school and that almost seems real to me. Most things almost seem real to me.

When you don't know what to say you must turn to the words of others so here is a poem by Les Murray that I read in The New Yorker a while back, which I like for it's simplicity, it's rapid line breaks and it's turn at the end. Also, that's just really how I feel sometimes, you know?


Science Fiction

I can travel
faster than light
so can you
the speed of thought
the only trouble
is at destinations
our thought balloons
are coated invisible
no one there sees us
and we can't get out
to be real or present
phone and videophone
are almost worse
we don't see a journey
but stay in our space
just talking and joking
with those we reach
but can never touch
the nothing that can hurt us
how lovely and terrible
and lonely is this