Friday, July 30, 2004
"and like a cat she landed on her feet..."
I am an idiot. The guy sitting next to me was polite enough not to agree, when 30 minutes into our flight, glasses of champagne in our hands, he goes "well, you got into business class" and....I did? huh...what? this is??? oh.......
so I was a little distracted. a 600 hundred dollar travel credit had vanished under my nose, I was at the customer service desk and she was rebooking me for tomorrow, and then,whoops,space on the plane after all, we don{t need more volunteers. The visions ofEurope dancing in my head tripped and plummeted off a cliff. Guess they figured upgrading people was cheaper than rebooking them on tomorrow´s overbooked flight.
so I am in Beautiful Buenos Aires, at a chic place for a few days until I move into my very own apartment across from the library. (motivation, I hope). its very autumn-like here. last trip I was here for halloween and I nearly forgot- it being 80 degrees out. now, I keep expecting witches and ghosts and pumpkins and well...not so much:) But I got so excited on the plane I was bouncing.....but I can´t get the internet in my room to workand the spacebar on the keyboardI{m using requires hardcore pounding...so thats all for now:)
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I am an idiot. The guy sitting next to me was polite enough not to agree, when 30 minutes into our flight, glasses of champagne in our hands, he goes "well, you got into business class" and....I did? huh...what? this is??? oh.......
so I was a little distracted. a 600 hundred dollar travel credit had vanished under my nose, I was at the customer service desk and she was rebooking me for tomorrow, and then,whoops,space on the plane after all, we don{t need more volunteers. The visions ofEurope dancing in my head tripped and plummeted off a cliff. Guess they figured upgrading people was cheaper than rebooking them on tomorrow´s overbooked flight.
so I am in Beautiful Buenos Aires, at a chic place for a few days until I move into my very own apartment across from the library. (motivation, I hope). its very autumn-like here. last trip I was here for halloween and I nearly forgot- it being 80 degrees out. now, I keep expecting witches and ghosts and pumpkins and well...not so much:) But I got so excited on the plane I was bouncing.....but I can´t get the internet in my room to workand the spacebar on the keyboardI{m using requires hardcore pounding...so thats all for now:)
A thesis thought for the road, from Storied Lives:
“My propositions are elucidatory in this way: he who understands me finally recognizes them as senseless, when he has climbed out through them, on them, over them. (He must so to speak throw away the ladder, after he has climbed up on it.) He must surmount these propositions; then he sees the world right”- Wittgenstein
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“My propositions are elucidatory in this way: he who understands me finally recognizes them as senseless, when he has climbed out through them, on them, over them. (He must so to speak throw away the ladder, after he has climbed up on it.) He must surmount these propositions; then he sees the world right”- Wittgenstein
Thursday, July 29, 2004
Listening to Barack Obama's convention speech, which because I'm lame I didn't hear the first time around. (or, for that matter, anyone's). Thinking back to how little time I've spent in the U.S. in the past two years. But simultaneously reading a friend's update from Israel, and wondering about Argentina, and coming back to thinking, so conflicted and confused- and perapatetic? (maybe, maybe not). And still on the move.
Here's to Pink Floyd (and the song which triggered a lot).
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Here's to Pink Floyd (and the song which triggered a lot).
Wednesday, July 28, 2004
packing is so much harder when you never quite unpacked from the last time....or the time before that, or that, or that....
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Its funny...I was staring at my aim buddy list, and its funny how attached I am to seemingly random names...how much screennames have become so closely associated with the people attached to them, and not even via my knowledge of the actual person.
I'm not much of an instant messanger person, so this is perhaps overly obvious. or horrifically unclear. I'm not much for clarity at the moment. but...sigh. I think I'm going into internet withdrawal, already!
pretty little digital recorder in hand, clothes strewn everywhere. 300 pages of a book left. plow through it tonight? or save it for the trip? (its sort of a downer- Andre Brink's An Act of Terror. but increasingly human, 350 pages in, despite its overt politics.)
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I'm not much of an instant messanger person, so this is perhaps overly obvious. or horrifically unclear. I'm not much for clarity at the moment. but...sigh. I think I'm going into internet withdrawal, already!
pretty little digital recorder in hand, clothes strewn everywhere. 300 pages of a book left. plow through it tonight? or save it for the trip? (its sort of a downer- Andre Brink's An Act of Terror. but increasingly human, 350 pages in, despite its overt politics.)
Monday, July 26, 2004
Library of Congress...done...nominally. except for 13 dollars still on my copy card, the unfortunate result of a lack of small bills.
Packing....ha. um. oh dear.
Same goes for copying the CD's I was loaned.
Same goes for convincing the school's health insurance people I really haven't graduated.
Which is, of course, why I went to the Smithsonian yesterday and had a great time and my friend and I were captivated by a Gerhard Richter painting- Sanctuary, 1988.
And of course, the club experience- Platinum. Did, dat, done. 6 of us, and hands all over til I couldn't tell anymore...with the exception of a lovely Senegalese Brooklynite and of course the chance to happily mix Harvard and home courtesy of choir.
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Packing....ha. um. oh dear.
Same goes for copying the CD's I was loaned.
Same goes for convincing the school's health insurance people I really haven't graduated.
Which is, of course, why I went to the Smithsonian yesterday and had a great time and my friend and I were captivated by a Gerhard Richter painting- Sanctuary, 1988.
And of course, the club experience- Platinum. Did, dat, done. 6 of us, and hands all over til I couldn't tell anymore...with the exception of a lovely Senegalese Brooklynite and of course the chance to happily mix Harvard and home courtesy of choir.
Saturday, July 24, 2004
I bounce between worlds. Today was waterfalls and blue mountains, woods and a copperhead sticking its neck out. "Wildlife conservation" tags next to a Bush for prez bumper sticker.
And now, the choir girls take on the town...
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And now, the choir girls take on the town...
Mom and I hit up Adams Morgan tonight to hear the guy I interviewed Wednesday play. The bouncer got a big kick out of us, but awesome enough I found the people inside so we got a table (which was a relief because mom, not entirely joking, had been like, we do we pay a cover if we have to stand?), and felt part of the "in crowd."
A buddy of the bassoonist was at the table; he went to Whitman in the 70s and regaled me with stories of it in its heyday. When a woman who was in China when Mao took over took over taught Asia studies (they HAD Asia studies). When Whitman organized a trip to East Germany and Russia, and the "max" drink limit was a not-so-strictly enforced two. When there was a quad with coffeehouses and smoke everywhere. When Simmons struck fear into people's hearts with grammar rules.
oh wait, that was 1999 too....(we had the same English teacher. Who I respect inasmuch as I briefly knew what a dangling modified subjunctive participle was, or some such, but who apparently had not changed at all in 25 years).
and down memory lane, looking for parking we drove down the street where I used to live- I haven't been back since we moved out when I was five. If I could have picked the soundtrack, it maybe would not have been Jethro Tull, but it was a Moment all the same.
anyway, I'm sad I'm leaving next week. I heart Washington. and mothers who let their daughters drag them to smoky bars.
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A buddy of the bassoonist was at the table; he went to Whitman in the 70s and regaled me with stories of it in its heyday. When a woman who was in China when Mao took over took over taught Asia studies (they HAD Asia studies). When Whitman organized a trip to East Germany and Russia, and the "max" drink limit was a not-so-strictly enforced two. When there was a quad with coffeehouses and smoke everywhere. When Simmons struck fear into people's hearts with grammar rules.
oh wait, that was 1999 too....(we had the same English teacher. Who I respect inasmuch as I briefly knew what a dangling modified subjunctive participle was, or some such, but who apparently had not changed at all in 25 years).
and down memory lane, looking for parking we drove down the street where I used to live- I haven't been back since we moved out when I was five. If I could have picked the soundtrack, it maybe would not have been Jethro Tull, but it was a Moment all the same.
anyway, I'm sad I'm leaving next week. I heart Washington. and mothers who let their daughters drag them to smoky bars.
Thursday, July 22, 2004
I tiptoed around awesomeness today, but I was writing so fast it was hard to notice. I need a tape recorder....hmmmm. maybe knowing how to, as G puts it, "delve" would help too.
in other news....I grabbed Rilke's Duino Elegies on my way out of the house, and it (almost) makes me want to learn German. The translation is sort of bizarre but the sentiment is there, type thing, bizarre enough that I feel intrigued and yet cheated.
"Ist sie den Liebenden leichter? Ach, sie verdecken sich nur miteinander ihr Los.
- Die Erste Elege
Joined in on a post- Happy Hour Harvard/Yale dinner, slipping into Harvard-speak I didn't know I had. With two WashPost employees, two US News and WR, one Washington Monthly, and one Boston Globe. uh, I did Black & White for a semester....?
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in other news....I grabbed Rilke's Duino Elegies on my way out of the house, and it (almost) makes me want to learn German. The translation is sort of bizarre but the sentiment is there, type thing, bizarre enough that I feel intrigued and yet cheated.
"Ist sie den Liebenden leichter? Ach, sie verdecken sich nur miteinander ihr Los.
- Die Erste Elege
Joined in on a post- Happy Hour Harvard/Yale dinner, slipping into Harvard-speak I didn't know I had. With two WashPost employees, two US News and WR, one Washington Monthly, and one Boston Globe. uh, I did Black & White for a semester....?
Wednesday, July 21, 2004
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(Sub)urban landscapes, cont.
Father and son tourists in matching Bush/Cheney t-shirts. ok, not so uncommon, but a shame;)
and a pay phone on the platform that was ringing off the hook. No one answered, for which I was glad...I half expected (dare I say it?) something to explode.
Oh, and a guy in muscle shirt and fatigues, air-keyboarding to something house-like.
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Father and son tourists in matching Bush/Cheney t-shirts. ok, not so uncommon, but a shame;)
and a pay phone on the platform that was ringing off the hook. No one answered, for which I was glad...I half expected (dare I say it?) something to explode.
Oh, and a guy in muscle shirt and fatigues, air-keyboarding to something house-like.
Sunday, July 18, 2004
Today, I managed to injure myself sitting on a bed, hugging a stuffed turtle. Maybe the piano bar last night addled my brain.
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Saturday, July 17, 2004
Nordstroms Anniversary Sale: For a very long split second, I considered getting one of those frilly soi disant "skirt" things. Then I opted for the lined corderoy jacket.
Argentina, 10 days and counting!
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Argentina, 10 days and counting!
Thursday, July 15, 2004
I played the staring game in the reading room today, with someone who resembled an old friend. It was pretty much one sided- an idle diversion from "Repression and Reconstruction of a Culture" - until we were walking down an empty street to the Metro together. I didn't have anything to say, he didn't say anything, we boarded different cars and that was that. I remembered later I'd made the original friend by approaching a stranger in a train station (but with good reason).
There is always Dinesen to blame...
"The explanation was that to them only possibilities had any interest; realities carried no weight. They had themselves had all possibilities in hand, and never given them away in order to make a definite choice and come down to a limited reality"
- "Supper at Elsinore"
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There is always Dinesen to blame...
"The explanation was that to them only possibilities had any interest; realities carried no weight. They had themselves had all possibilities in hand, and never given them away in order to make a definite choice and come down to a limited reality"
- "Supper at Elsinore"
Monday, July 12, 2004
signed and noted (and only a bit paraphrased;)
Josh from Jersey says: "People are better looking down here"
on the crowd at the DMB concert
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Josh from Jersey says: "People are better looking down here"
on the crowd at the DMB concert
Friday, July 09, 2004
(Sub)urban landscapes, vol 1 and 2:
Chilling on the metro platform, wearing an RCS shirt, when lanky guy sidles up alongside: What house were you in?
huh? wha- how did you know? ...ohh. winthrop. (he was lev '02)
but that is perhaps the first documented time I've been pegged for older than I am...
Sitting on a crowded orange line train, guy asks if he can snag the empty seat next to me.
sure.
asks me what I am, and please don't take offense.
irish dominican/spanish/italian. black? nope. do I identify white? I guess..especially where I'm from...racially white, ethnically sort of hispanic.
where are you from? um, Boston.
you only date hispanic guys?
ha.
white guys? no black guys?
I would date anyone if I knew them-
would I go on a date with him? ("this is how people get to know each other, on trains")
um...I'm leaving for Argentina soon.
are you seeing someone there?
no...and nice to meet you, I have to grab the red line now...
I'm sorry for embarassing you.
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Chilling on the metro platform, wearing an RCS shirt, when lanky guy sidles up alongside: What house were you in?
huh? wha- how did you know? ...ohh. winthrop. (he was lev '02)
but that is perhaps the first documented time I've been pegged for older than I am...
Sitting on a crowded orange line train, guy asks if he can snag the empty seat next to me.
sure.
asks me what I am, and please don't take offense.
irish dominican/spanish/italian. black? nope. do I identify white? I guess..especially where I'm from...racially white, ethnically sort of hispanic.
where are you from? um, Boston.
you only date hispanic guys?
ha.
white guys? no black guys?
I would date anyone if I knew them-
would I go on a date with him? ("this is how people get to know each other, on trains")
um...I'm leaving for Argentina soon.
are you seeing someone there?
no...and nice to meet you, I have to grab the red line now...
I'm sorry for embarassing you.
Tuesday, July 06, 2004
I was cleaning my room, and in the process of relegating a dusty stack of hitchcock and asimovs magazines to a closet shelf, the pile started to tip out of my hands and out from one issue tumbled two photos. The same boy, a year apart. No idea what they were doing there (and for so long, forgotten!). but the mags were certainly garage sale fodder- it would have made a good mystery for someone. the dusty corners of the soul, and all that.
in related news, I was in the newly renovated, industriously quiet local library when two people were arrested and hauled out of the main room. when I left 20 minutes later, the plainclothes cops were quibbling over whos sting operation it was supposed to have been, while the arrestees were still in their custody. random.
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in related news, I was in the newly renovated, industriously quiet local library when two people were arrested and hauled out of the main room. when I left 20 minutes later, the plainclothes cops were quibbling over whos sting operation it was supposed to have been, while the arrestees were still in their custody. random.
Saturday, July 03, 2004
the Indian Ocean
also Pilanesburg
Pilanesburg
Pilanesburg Game Reserve, S.A.
Washington summer days are a great equalizer- everyone who ventures out is a mess in the heat, and so it doesn't matter at all. Scott Sara and I dancing in the Haitian music tent at the folklife festival, part of the big rhythmic mass of humanity. I love home.
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Friday, July 02, 2004
28 hours after we took off from Cape Town Intl, 42 hours after we left the Garden Center Apartments, cockroaches, rugby team (Jim: "Look girls! Boys!" when they jogged past us) and all, I landed at Dulles.
A day and an amarula banana split later, its all a hazy memory...except to say, after a day of humidity, South African winter wasn't a bad deal after all:)
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A day and an amarula banana split later, its all a hazy memory...except to say, after a day of humidity, South African winter wasn't a bad deal after all:)
