because clearly when you post once every 13 months (give or take), you certainly need comments! so now i have comments so people can tell me how crap it is that i have but never use a blog. cool. how is everyone? is anyone still reading this? hah, reading, yeah, cause that implies that there's something to read. is anyone still occasionally dropping by to confirm that, in fact, i *still* havent posted anything?

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JOY OF JOYS! I just downloaded the Mac Classic sound pack and installed it on my shiny macbookpro. IT EEPS! Oh how much a wonder it is that I get this excited about little things. never mind, that's not a wonder at all, that's entirely how i function. the little things working the way i want them to.

EEP!

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Q: WHOS THE 4TH PERSON ON YOUR RECEIVED CALL LIST?
A: Alyssa

Q: WHATS YOUR MAIN RINGTONE ON YOUR PHONE?
A: Clocks, Coldplay

Q: WHAT WERE YOU D0ING AT MIDNIGHT LAST NIGHT?
A: coughing and hacking and trying to sleep

Q: WHAT DID THE LAST TEXT MESSAGE ON YOUR CELL PHONE SAY
A: "Dude so excited bought me an ipofinally!" (she meant ipod)

Q: WHOSE BED DID YOU SLEEP IN LAST NIGHT?
A: mine.

Q: WHAT COLOR SHIRT ARE YOU WEARING?
A: grey (but i think the actual tshirt color is called heathergrey) with maroon silkscreened lettering.

Q: MOST RECENT MOVIE THAT YOU WATCHED?
A: final destination 2. but i didnt watch it willingly. it was the only thing on my two-channel tv and i turned it off several times before resolving to just finish it already.

Q: NAME 3 THINGS THAT YOU HAVE ON YOU AT ALL TIMES?
A: necklace of 6 charms from various important times/places; two anklets made of red and yellow twine from my trenches in pompeii 2003 and 2004; very small silver hoop earrings (i very very rarely ever change them)

Q: WHAT'S THE COLOR OF YOUR BEDSHEETS?
A: yellow.

Q: HOW MUCH CASH DO YOU HAVE ON YOU RIGHT NOW?
A: um... not much. little enough that my need to order something delivered is squashed.

Q: What is your favorite part of the chicken?
A: hmm, that's interesting. coming from a vegan's response, i immediately wonder if i have a favorite part of a live chicken. cooked (it took me a minute to realize this was an option) i like drumsticks.

Q: What's your favorite town/city?
A: fairly even tie between san antonio, sorrento, and rome. and ancient pompeii.

Q: I can't wait to (til)...?
A: pompeii this summer!

Q: When was the last time you saw your mom?
A: a week and a half ago (down at parents for dad's birthday)

Q: When was the last time you saw your dad?
A: see above, for his birthday.

Q: When was the last time you talked to them?
A: yesterday. dad for doctorly consultation (decided i dont in fact have the flu) and mom for momly consultation (drink vitimin c, go back to sleep, no you shouldnt try to go to work tomorrow)

Q: Who got you to join livejournal?
A: i am not a member and glad of it.

Q: What did you have for dinner LAST NIGHT?
A: nothing really. combination of not being hungry cause of being sick and lack of food in my apartment. sigh. occurs to me that i'm hungry now.

Q: How long have you been at your current job?
A: since october. 5 months.

Q: Look to your left. What's there?
A: the back of my loveseat and the wall.

Q: Who is the last person you spent over $50 on?
A: me. oh, but if you go back to christmas, each of my family.

Q: Whats the last piece of clothing you borrowed from someone?
A: hmmm... i really cant think of the last time i borrowed a piece of clothing from anyone. ok, probably a sweatshirt of my dad's when i ended up not bringing appropriately warm clothes to c'ville at some point.

Q: What website(s) do you visit the most during the day?
A: a whole host of blogs, the times, craigslist

Q: Do you have an air freshener in your car?
A: only sort of. the thing was once an airfreshener, but considering i havent changed the little freshening cartridge in it for... lets say 5 years to be on the safe side, i doubt it actually functions anymore.

Q: Do you have plants in your room?
A: supplanting (hah) room for apartment, yes. 12 plants. kinda in a not too happy state of repair (they like it outside more).

Q: Does anything hurt on your body right now?
A: most of me. reprise on that whole being sick at the moment thing.

Q: What city was your last taxi cab ride in?
A: dc to takoma park. had missed the last bus back after a party with abram and paul.

Q: Do you own a camera phone?
A: no, i think they're dumb. my phone should be a phone, my camera a camera.

Q: What's your favorite Starbucks drink?
A: well, i can't say i approve of starbucks at all. and if given any opportunity, will walk right on past to a cafe that sells actual coffee, not burnt black sludge. or, better yet, i make my own. but if forced (which i was a couple of times when working towntown with no other cafe in any close proximity to me) i'll get a mocha. which is not to say that i like it.

Q: Recent time you were really upset?
A: Really Upset? probably when my parents move out of san antonio and out of my house. nothing any more recently can be categorized as Really Upset.

Q: Have you been in love with anyone?
A: yes.

Q: Who do you think will repost this?
A: this is a dumb question. people. people will repost this. people like me that like these little quizzes on randomness.

screaming from under the lab bench 17 February 2006

From Thursday's New York Times Science section:
Top political appointees in the NASA press office exerted strong pressure during the 2004 presidential campaign to cut the flow of news releases on glaciers, climate, pollution and other earth sciences, public affairs officers at the agency say.

The disclosure comes nearly two weeks after the NASA administrator, Michael D. Griffin, called for "scientific openness" at the agency. In response to that, researchers and public affairs workers at the agency have described in fresh detail how political appointees altered or limited news releases on scientific findings that could have conflicted with administration policies...

In a conference call with colleagues in October 2004, the colleagues said, she said that Glenn Mahone, then the assistant administrator for public affairs, had told her that a planned news conference on fresh readings by a new NASA satellite, Aura, that measures ozone and air pollution, should not take place until after the election.

is anyone else insensed by the extent to which the Bushies went for coverup and spin? i mean, sure, this is old news, expected, etc., but why are we still putting up with this crap? and which came first: the Bush adiministration or the term "Bush league"?

incidentally, and in complete opposition to the above's ignorance and tendancy to ignore science, way to go Ohio!

this is too good not to write up for a bigger audience (even though i suspect my bigger audience may be an audience of three).

one of the doctors that i work with lives on the NIH campus with his wife and their dog. this weekend (before the snow), his wife went out to pick up some things and took the dog along with her, walking off campus with the dog on a leash. a little while later, they returned. for those of you familiar with the NIH, it should come at no suprise that to get back on campus, you have to present an ID card to the guard at the gate, they verify that yes, you are supposed to be there, and let you in. so she arrives at the gate and presents her card to the guard who is new. ok, you're clear, but where is your dog's ID card? um. really? it took her a little while, but she eventually convinced him that resident dogs require no ID, but the dogs that work in the clinical center do.

after emailing one of the security people about this, it was discovered that, indeed, resident dogs don't need ID, but, in reality, honest to god, the dogs that work in the clinical center actually do. apparently dogs are brought in to play with the patients and the like, and they actually are required to get a photo ID card before they're let in.

this lead to the subsequent conversation about other animals. what about cats? gerbils? what if you needed to bring a fish into the clinical center? do all the experimental animals require ID? we decided that no, they are technically residents as they never get to leave the clinical center unless, well, they're bumped off in the name of science. and we've already established that resident animals dont need ID.

but what about all the unauthorized, wild rats?

for someone who only figured out how to make box macaroni growing up, i'm starting to get a handle on the cooking thing. the influence of nori and various friends' online recipe lists.

i just made soup. with no recipe. referenced a few to get the basics down and then just throwing stuff into a pot, i created some really pretty frikken awesome soup. and it vindicates me owning a soup pot.

so what i did:
in the bottom of the soup pot, sauted a couple of shallots (didnt have onions) and about 5 garlic cloves.
meanwhile, i seared a steak's worth of cubed meaty-bits after dredging them in flour. good and seared.
after the sauteing shallots and garlic were sauted, dumped in the contents of one chicken stock carton and got it simmering.
seared steak gets dumped into the simmering stock.
simmer it for a while, like maybe 20 minutes.
dumped in a can of rotel (this is diced tomatos and chilis for you non-texan types). i think i used original, might have been tex-mex, not sure any more. spicy!
let that simmer around for a while. (this involved turning on the tv and, cause i only get two stations, watching an episode of 'charmed'. ugh.)
poured in what remained of a heavy cream carton. which means most of the carton.
simmer for about a half an hour. ish.
added three tablespoons of butter.
threw in a bunch of sliced mushrooms and quartered cherry tomatos (can never have enough tomatos in anything).
salt and pepper. maybe some flour for thickening.
simmer simmer simmer.
oh! bay leaf in there somewhere.
eat. yum. and that's my soup! whatever was left in the fridge became soup! good soup! meaty, wintery, good-for-a-day-of-snow soup!

dude. i just took the trash out and came back in and my god but it smells good in here. if for no other reason, make this soup to make your house smell insanely good. mmmm soup.

i finally just now got a library card to the takoma park library.

it's raining outside, peppered every now and then with a wet, melting snowflake, tidings of the later snow storm scheduled to hit us in the next few hours. driving back from the library (a small, cozy little building holding maybe a half dozen people reading silently in the manner of library quiet that i'd sort of forgotten about; a separate annex for kids books, appropriately colorful), it occurred to me just how much i like takoma park. i went to the post office this morning and was helped by the most pleasant postal employee that i've dealt with in the last several months (and there have been many in the application to gradschool process) who worked with me to figure out how i could get yet another application packet to a former professor in virginia with an included postage-paid envelope to england. she was friendly and wonderful and repeated back, just for clarity, the list of destinations the packet was supposed to hit. then went to savory, the takoma cafe that i'd like to spend more time at for its good food and funkiness. had breakfast while reading as it rained outside the big picture window that i usually sit at, a little granite-topped bistro table tucked atop a small flight of stairs. i prefer this spot where a couple of years ago, i sat while working on something on my computer, listening to a playlist titled 'rain in takoma' that i had cobbled together from the random assortment of remaining mp3s. and then i went to the library where i finally got a library card, presenting my still-texas liscense and a piece of mail with my current address. the library is less than a mile away from my apartment and i have visions of when it gets warm again (as though the winter so far has been cold), walking down the trail of sligo creek parkway to the library, spending hours going through the plastic-dustjacketed stacks, picking out several dozen books, walking back in the sunlight and spending the rest of the day reading on my little deck.

isnt it funny how when you finally find somewhere you like with a life you enjoy, you decide to pick up and move again? if i dont get accepted to gradschool, i wont be unhappy in staying here.

the first night we were there, we went to some restaurant for dinner. sat down, ordered, and a woman sat down at the table next to us. ordered in clearly american english. somehow or another, we started talking to her, asked where she was from. Washington DC. me too! what are you doing in Paris? rehearsal and opening of a musical at the garnier opera house. wow. that's really fantastic. are you a singer? no, the composer. oh, even more wow. slight more discussion, about this being the first all-black performance in the opera house in 100 years, a little on rehearsals and her travel plans, food comes, conversation falls off. as we leave we wish her luck, say we might look into going to the performance and leave.

four days later, we got tickets to the opening performance. $10 a seat, shoved into the second to top balcony, sitting in chairs way in the back, the tickets even state "restricted view", more like no view. but no matter, it's the experience. the show is the temptation of st. anthony, in english, a gospel musical/opera. beautiful. simple. clean lines, simple set, simplified african costumes, powerful women singing beautifully arranged gospel-inspired sets. could have used more dance. there were half-hearted attempts at almost-african dance moves, but no one ever really got going. and the man who played anthony was NOT a dancer at all. spent most of his time running around the stage and stopping abruptly. but he had a wonderful voice.

indeed, at the end of the performance, after two curtain calls, the woman we were sitting next to came out on stage to receive her accolades and belted out a minute or two of her own incredibly powerful voice, joined the cast for a call, and retreated. we had met her!

so then two days ago, i was jumping around on the web, looked up the woman we had met, had eaten dinner next to. bernice johnson reagon. the founder of sweet honey in the rock. we were sitting next to actual greatness. as my mom said in an email responding to my letting her know, "i wish i would have known when we were talking to her. i would have thanked her."

texas is beautiful in myriad ways. it's huge, so you can find pretty much any kind of scenery to suit your fancy. san antonio is my favorite, with sun-bleached scrub and hulking, gnarled live oaks, stretching their branches more horizontally than vertically, creating living tents of leaves and shade. everything stretches horizontally. space is not at a premium, so stretching out is allowed. yards are big, spaces between cities are bigger, there is nothing but room.

driving makes sense in texas, where people actually use their blinkers when they want to turn, where there are no competitions for who can cut off the most people while trying to make it to the next stop sign, where when you let someone into your lane, they wave to you, thanking you for your consideration for thier plight of trying to merge. the cars are big, suburbans, dodge ram trucks on lifts, but most of them are used for the purposes they were intended, and less as status symbols. roads are long and straight and sometimes have a slight bend in them just to make sure you're awake while driving cross county.

things are cheap. houses and apartments are a fraction of what one would pay on the east coast. food is good and the best mexican food ever will not set you back more than $10 if you know where to find it. there has never been a better place to get mouthwatering steak.

gas is cheaper.

while most of the state is pro-bush (myself definitely not not not in the least included), people are nice. very, genuinely, heartfelt-ly nice. avoid politics and all will be well. and even then, were you to espouse extreme lefty liberalism as your own, they'd politely disagree and look at you funny, but nothing more. most people are not bibletoting psychos. and most bibletoting psychos live in east texas in small towns that arent worth visiting anyway. i think most texans would agree that, regardless of where you're from, if you ever live in texas, you are a texan. in the words of lyle lovette, "that's right, you're not from texas, but texas wants you anyway". there's an unspoken comradery between texans outside the state.

it's almost always warm. i was home on holiday in december during college when it was in the 90s (ok, 40s for you). beautiful. and so long as you stay away from the coast and houston, dry heat. when there are storms, they really mean it, and you can watch them roll in for miles before they hit you, rumbling across the state and then crashing into one another. i sat with my best friend on her front lawn sometime during highschool and watched three storms converge above us, gathering force as they drew closer, lightning brightening the sky to an eerie blue daylight. and when it rains, it pours.

the best time to visit san antonio is in april, the third week, when fiesta is held. a week long party closes downtown to traffic, opening up the streets to booths holding all the foods of the cultures that make up texas, more beer than previously thought possible, and arts and crafts. but mostly food and beer. there are cascarones, egg shells emtied of their eggy contents and stuffed with confetti, which are used to attack people, smashing them over heads and leaving a snowfall of multicolor all over the streets and sidewalks of the city. there is nothing like fiesta anywhere.

Macadoo12: claire! you were in a dream of mine last night...we were movie stars...you arent a movie star all of a sudden, are you?
CW Swattie: sadly no, but thats really cool!
CW Swattie: what was our movie?
Macadoo12: oh it was a fantastic pinnacle of cinematic excellence
CW Swattie: titanic!
CW Swattie: oh wait.... no
Macadoo12: but...erm...it wasnt actually in the dream
CW Swattie: clearly this is a sign that you and i should go find a productionn studio and show them our act
Macadoo12: oh, indeed
Macadoo12: wait...what act was that?
CW Swattie: quick! we need an act!
Macadoo12: post haste! to the act-o-matic!
CW Swattie: crap, it's out of batteries.
Macadoo12: its ok...it only really ever has one act
Macadoo12: and i just cant juggle pies
Macadoo12: ive tried
CW Swattie: hahahaha
CW Swattie: so how are things? what's up?
Macadoo12: oh theyre well! im finally getting settled in the new place
CW Swattie: excellent
Macadoo12: i think gr and co are going to construct me a bar
CW Swattie: nice!
Macadoo12: for (shhh) the new years pre party im planning
CW Swattie: oooooh
Macadoo12: will you be back in texas?
CW Swattie: news flash: parents moved to virginia. very very unhappy about this.
CW Swattie: but, yeah, i'm going to san an for new years to crash with friends
Macadoo12: oh, wow...virginia? im sorry...ah, cool
Macadoo12: where in virginia?
CW Swattie: charlottesville
Macadoo12: hrm...my knowledge of virginia geography is akin to swiss cheese
Macadoo12: so im not even sure i know why i asked

CW Swattie: UVA
Macadoo12: well theyre closer to you at least, then...right?
CW Swattie: yeah, i suppose. i'm mostly upset about them moving out of the house i grew up in
Macadoo12: yeah...bummer...plus i imagine you were all too happy to fly back for visitations
CW Swattie: yeah, but i refuse to lose san antonio too. so i'm going back a lot. maybe more than before. (so i say)
CW Swattie: otherwise, yeah, i can drive to my parents pretty easily now
Macadoo12: the whole concept of 'losing the past' is one im quite scared of these days
CW Swattie: you and me both
Macadoo12: im not really sure how to deal with it
CW Swattie: but it's sort of always been that way for me. i've been archiving my life forever
Macadoo12: hmm...
Macadoo12: how so?
CW Swattie: i've got everything. every ticketstub since 1995, pictures in flip books, all of the corsages from highschool, i mean i'm insane about this
CW Swattie: yearbooks from middleschool on through every year of swat
CW Swattie: when my parents moved, i transferred my home phone number to my cell phone
Macadoo12: wow...
Macadoo12: ::applause::
CW Swattie: yeah, it's crazy. (taking a bow)
CW Swattie: i can tell you the significance of pretty much anything i own. and probably put a soundtrack to it.
Macadoo12: wow claire...thats quite the effort...
Macadoo12: basically i just never assumed it would happen
Macadoo12: and am now sort of just...not dealing with it but wishing i could
CW Swattie: well, what's happening?
CW Swattie: forgetting stuff? or just the feeling?
Macadoo12: well i dont think its that i forget...im one for living in the moment anyway...in fact i generally exert all energy on the moment (though thats changing with age)...im realizing that the energy that is not being expended on the past is causing it to fade from....'the world' is the best way i can describe it
CW Swattie: gotcha, that makes sense
Macadoo12: whew...heh, im not sure i ever make sense
Macadoo12: well hey, it sounds like youre in the right field
CW Swattie: yeah, seriously. museum stuff and digging up other peoples' pasts, here i am.
CW Swattie: to some degree, the past is required to fade
Macadoo12: by definition, eh?
CW Swattie: i read the intro to some book which talked about the transition from one era to another and how, until you're in the midst of another era, you dont notice the difference and change of the feel of everything around you
CW Swattie: and then it ends up being completely different and the old one foreign to anyone that wasnt in it
CW Swattie: which freaks me out, but there's no getting around it
Macadoo12: yeah that makes sense...like if we found some farmer from the early 1800s and dropped them in...oh...the backseat of a sports car bombing down the nj turnpike...i imagine they wouldnt stop screaming for a week
CW Swattie: or they'd love it
Macadoo12: hmmm....good point
CW Swattie: i keep meaning to write a book (or several), which seems to me the best way to really freeze memory into something communicable
Macadoo12: oh you should!
Macadoo12: or you could write a book explaining to the rest of us how to freeze our memories
CW Swattie: uuf, it's a process
CW Swattie: i started one in highschool, where i'd carry around a tape recorder and tape conversations of my friends and then transcribe them. i've still got at least 8 hours of tape left to transcribe, but what i've got is pure highschool and my friends. and frikken hilarious.
Macadoo12: oh thats magnificent
Macadoo12: well, ill call it a work in progress...ive started the whole blog-thing in an effort to accomplish this very goal
Macadoo12: but im building my own blogger so its somewhat slower
CW Swattie: yeah, that's a good plan.
CW Swattie: where's it at?
Macadoo12: traipsing.net
Macadoo12: its a rough sketch right now
CW Swattie: cool!
Macadoo12: no links work yet cause theres no database to speak of
CW Swattie: blogging and me dont work. and i cant figure out why, really.
Macadoo12: yeah i had the same issue...well, im not sure if the reasons are the same...i figured out it was because it...wasnt unique enough for me...its such an institution now...and widely ridiculed by the non-believers
CW Swattie: i think i'm more of a pen and paper person. been keeping a diary since 3rd grade.
Macadoo12: so im building my own in an attempt to counteract that...im going to have a rating system almost like slashdot's
Macadoo12: oh!
CW Swattie: nice
Macadoo12: well then...isnt that the precursor to the blog?
Macadoo12: just personal-style?
CW Swattie: yeah, but not public and easier to write on park benches in downtown philly or rome.
CW Swattie: i've just never made a successful jump
Macadoo12: it seems so much more pure that way though...cause its just for you
CW Swattie: and i dont have to censor myself
Macadoo12: agreed
Macadoo12: there are just some things you wouldnt splay out on the net
Macadoo12: 'you' like 'one'...not like you-you, but...oh, you know
Macadoo12: i mean you know like you-you...not like....
CW Swattie: right right
Macadoo12: oh ugh, ima quit that
CW Swattie: "you", the all encompassing second person singular, not just me.
Macadoo12: quite
Macadoo12: i get so frustrated with IM sometimes...but im addicted
CW Swattie: it's gotten to be a way of life. but one that i'm appreciative of for keeping in regular contact with people you might not otherwise.
Macadoo12: yeah...so much is lost in the text though
Macadoo12: ive been misunderstood to the nth degree on numerous occasions
CW Swattie: sarcasm, for one. i've had so many confused conversations around misread sarcasm
Macadoo12: oh, tellll me about it ::rolls eyes::
Macadoo12: i guess i just try to combat that myself by never reading into the words more than i should
Macadoo12: but people is people, and will do people-things
CW Swattie: as always
Macadoo12: well, im gonna go bang out some more code...good chatting though
CW Swattie: likewise! i'll let you know if i get any good acting gigs.
Macadoo12: ha! do indeed to that...and ill let you know if i remember what the one we already had was...i do remember that the whole plot of the dream had to do mostly with the old rickety building we were acting in...which was somewhat haunted
CW Swattie: cool!!!
Macadoo12: yeah, heh...i should try to log it........later!
CW Swattie: ciao ciao!

10 June 2004

walking down the street on my way to a cafe yesterday evening, passing an elementary school yard blinking phosphorescent green from hundreds of fireflies and having recited shel silverstein over a berry shake with nori, i miss my childhood. already an insufferable archivist, lists of things that i remember and wish never to forget are no foreign thing to me. looking for the text of twistable turnable man, i came across this post on someone else's thread. a must for borrowing. my additions are at the end. thanks, Arya Blightnfell, for your clear vision of how it was and how it always should be.

(posted on this site at 1/20/01 4:12 pm)

Close your eyes.....And go back in time....

Before the Internet or the MAC, Before semi-automatics and crack

Before SEGA or Super Nintendo...
Way back........

I'm talking about hide and seek at dusk.
The Good Humor man,
Red light, green light.
The corner store.

Hopscotch, butterscotch, doubledutch, jacks, kickball, dodgeball.
Mother May I?
Red Rover and Roly Poly
Hula Hoops

Running through the sprinkler
The smell of the sun and licking salty lips....
Wax lips and mustaches
An ice cream cone on a warm summer night
Chocolate or vanilla or strawberry or maybe butter pecan.
A cherry coke from the fountain at the corner drug store

Wait......
Watching Saturday Morning cartoons...
short commercials
Fat Albert, Road Runner, He-Man, The Three Stooges, and Bugs,
Or staying up for Gunsmoke

Or back further, listening to Superman on the radio
When around the corner seemed far away,
And going downtown seemed like going somewhere

A million mosquito bites.
Sticky fingers.
Cops and Robbers, Cowboys and Indians, Zorro.
Climbing trees,
Building igloos out of snow banks

Walking to school, nomatter what the weather.
Running till you were out of breath
Laughing so hard that your stomach hurt
Jumping on the bed. Pillow fights
Spinning around, getting dizzy and falling
down was cause for giggles.
Being tired from playing.... Remember that?

The worst embarrassment was being picked last for a team.
War was a card game.
Water balloons were the ultimate weapon.
Baseball cards in the spokes transformed any bike into a motorcycle.
I'm not finished just yet...

Eating Kool-aid powder
Remember when...
there were two types of sneakers for girls and boys (Keds & PF Flyers)
and the only time you wore them at school, was for "gym."

It wasn't odd to have two or three "best" friends.
When nobody owned a purebred dog.
When a quarter was a decent allowance, and
another quarter a miracle.

When milk went up one cent and everyone talked about it for weeks?
When you'd reach into a muddy gutter for a penny.
When you got your windshield cleaned, oil checked, and gas pumped,
without asking, for free, every time. And, you didn't pay for air.
And, you got trading stamps to boot!

When laundry detergent had free glasses, dishes or towels hidden
inside the box.
When nearly everyone's mom was at home when the kids got there.

When it took five minutes for the TV to warm up, if you even had one.
When your Mom wore nylons that came in two pieces.
It was magic when dad would "remove" his thumb.
When it was considered a great privilege to be taken out to dinner at
a real restaurant with your parents.

When girls neither dated nor kissed until late high school, if then.
When all of your male teachers wore neckties and female teachers had
their hair done.

When any parent could discipline any kid, or feed him or use him to
carry groceries, and nobody, not even the kid, thought a thing of it.
When they threatened to keep kids back a grade if they failed ..and did!
When being sent to the principal's office was nothing compared to the
fate that awaited a misbehaving student at home.

Basically, we were in fear for our lives but it wasn't because of
drive -by shootings, drugs, gangs, etc. Our parents and grandparents were a
much bigger threat! and some of us are still afraid of them!!!
Didn't that feel good.. just to go back and say,

Yeah, I remember that!
Remember when............
Decisions were made by going "eeny-meeny-miney-mo."
Mistakes were corrected by simply exclaiming, "do over!"
"Race issue" meant arguing about who ran the fastest.
Money issues were handled by whoever was the banker in "Monopoly."

The worst thing you could catch from the opposite sex was cooties.
It was unbelievable that dodgeball wasn't an Olympic event.
Having a weapon in school, meant being caught with a slingshot.

Nobody was prettier than Mom. Scrapes and bruises were kissed and made better.
Taking drugs meant orange-flavored chewable aspirin.
Ice cream was considered a basic food group.
Getting a foot of snow was a dream come true.
Abilities were discovered because of a "double-dog-dare.
" Older siblings were the worst tormentors, but also the fiercest protectors.
Remember whenÉÉ

Lets Dance-----I'll Lead

------------
my additions:
jellies and zoobooks and my little ponies
'garfield and friends' on saturday mornings
red and purple and green were flavors
and the best time was had with your neighbors
64 crayons, jumbo chalk and hopscotch,
sparkly toothpaste, muddy shoes and flipflops
dodgeball and jumprope and capture the flag
clubs and club houses and after dark tag
grass stains on knees and shiny slug trails
secret decoder pins came sent in the mail
belle and sebastian, not the band, the cartoon
and time for recess was never too soon
animals of plastic and bears that were stuffed
halloween candy was never enough

enough rhyming, i can only keep that up for so long. 'the mysterious cities of gold', goonies, cabbage patch dolls, pound puppies and kitties, g.i.joe, transformers (more than meets the eye!), nickelodeon, david the gnome, popples, flintstone vitamins, unicorns, dinosaurs, joe scruggs, raffi, puff the magic dragon, rainbow bright, lightbright, strawberry shortcake, building forts out of the couch pillows, dr. seuss, danny and the dinosaur, tomei depaola books, the very hungry caterpillar,the last unicorn, imaginary friends, the silent game, lunchboxes with matching thermoses, peanutbutter and jelly sandwiches, ants on a log, superhero underwear, cubbie holes at school, leggos, arts and crafts, rice tables, times tables, talent shows, glowbugs, hasbro toys, bigwheels, hoolahoops, moonbounces, snocones, the icecream truck, bazooka joe, ringpops, slap bracelets, hotloops, 'my buddy', pogo balls, pinwheel, sesame street, reading rainbow, 3 2 1 contact, mr. yuck stickers. i could go on. i may go on later. email me things from your childhood.

Nori and I were in the Poconos for the weekend, Mom having traded our time share for a week at a resort on Lake Wallenpaupak (sp?). It was largely a weekend of movies, good food, and laying around doing very little. Good stuff. We watched Beaches last night, the Bette Midler movie. Reminds me so clearly of fourth grade. Spending the night at Jennifer Esparza's house for her birthday, conjuring Bloody Mary in her bathroom mirror, staying up later than I ever had at that point watching movies. I watched Beaches that night, the last one awake and still watching whatever was left of the rentals. It reminds me how important old friends are to me, how I am my past and am those times with those friends, friends I've had since elementary school. And somewhere, Wind Beneith My Wings will always be my favorite song, with slightly slowed down footage of that 4th grade year. Of Nicky Bustamante sitting down at his desk and missing his chair. Of Sara Bazan dumping her desk on Travis Slagel and getting her first conduct mark. Of Trey Darslek saying something about someone being funky but accidentally leaving out the "n". Of the anniversary of Castle Hills and the march of all the students down the street in celebration. Of Mrs. Huggins, my favorite teacher for a very long time. Of feeling so comfortable in a place and time in my life that I can't be shaken of knowing that then and there, everything is right, is how it's supposed to be. A feeling that I have now, here. It's been a while since I made that definite realization. I think I might write to Jennifer and say hi, that I thought of her while watching Beaches and to thank her, many years later, for a very fun party then. It would make me happy if someone were to do that for me, so I think I'll let her know.

Update: I got a B in organic chemistry, thus rocking the final in order to pull up my grade that much. Am very happy and very very relieved.

So much has happened this semester, this year, and yet, very little has changed for me. Somewhere in there, in the last four years, I'm supposed to have become an adult. Funny, that. I feel exactly the same as I did in fourth grade. Exactly the same. Taller, maybe. I would be happy to report 12 years from now that I felt exactly the same as I did when I graduated college. I guess I have yet to see about that.

dude, so i've really thrown a lot of stuff onto my site in the last few hours. this sort of thing happens when you're not cramming organic chem knowledge into your head for a week and a half straight. so check it: quotes.

and now i'm going to bed.

it's officially started: my end-of-something-big-collection-of-whatever-it-was-memorabilia. my conscious mind has finally perceived the end of swarthmore and has put my packratism and oversentimentality into overdrive. i bought two senior tshirts, all the deans' shotglasses, am trying to find out if mike can get the rest of the complete files of the sixteen feet quakermatchbox results from the last four years. am very seriously considering bringing down my video camera from off its shelf and charging the battery. have been chastizing myself about not carrying around my camera at all times. thought about going through all the programs of all the performances from the last four years to put them in order and make myself a list of the recordings i want to get a hold of from lang sometime in the near future. this is how i work. i have lists of things that i was introduced to as a result of swarthmore, a very long document about my favorite moments at swat, all that stuff with which, if anyone were to want, i could create a multimedia-post-swat expirience. i did this for high school, there's no surprise that i'm doing it now. i'm a bit surprised it didnt manifest itself sooner. my sentimentality i mean. this might be part of the reason that i'm starting this bloggish thing now. sigh. three weeks to the day and counting, with no rush.

Ok, so i've coerced myself into making myself a sort of blog page. i dont know how i really feel about this yet, and it certainly doesnt look how i want it to yet, so give me several breaks. especially till after tuesday (orgo final). fun fun. blah.