street scenes

All in all, the first week of summer has been a good one. There have been many meetings, most of them useless, but some were wonderful. Susan was so helpful and the working group was a little inside look into academic workings. So, I'm getting excited for the summer, instead of apprehensive that I'll never write as much as I would like. I probably won't write more than I already do on the day to day basis when teaching, but I'll be able to read in the afternoons! It will be so wonderful. I also found out that I am pretty much guaranteed teaching. If Spanish doesn't work out, it would be the 4 series and I would die of fatigue, but at least I'll be employed.

I like stopping at om cafe on the way home from school because I actually get work done in the evenings and feel so much better than when I come home and just lay about waiting for it to be late enough to go to sleep. I also love my walks home through the little neighborhoods that are broken up by big yucky streets. Moreover, I like that brief encounters with people and objects prompt all sorts of unfulfillable curiosity for me. Like yesterday, I crossed paths with a woman walking her rather large toddler in a stroller. I peered into the stroller, expecting to see an adorable baby and instead, it's a red-head with a beanie smashing down his hair on the crown of his head such that wild curls spring out around his ears who stares back at me. His pale face had a few freckles, but a wicked black eye in its green phase. He followed me with his eyes as I passed him by, a look so intense that even though he wasn't moving, he seemed to be twitchy with energy. Most certainly it was my expectations of a beatific character that caused me to find the image discordant, but how is it that such a compact little body can project the emotions of a raging adult?

Later on, although I'm not in the habit of picking up street detritus, I bent down to unfold a little crumpled piece of paper that I saw nestled in some sidewalk lawn. I guess it had fallen out of various bags and bins in its escape from a fate in the dump. I had to shake out the dirt that had crept into its crinkles as I smoothed out the personalized note paper to read:

[Front]:
TONIGHT IS A BIRTHDAY PART for your FRIEND--> NOT "WORK DRINKS"

And, look at your mail ("sent") on your phone from 5/16 to Ana -->

[Back]:
The divorce stuff aggrivates you but doesn't change how you feel? ...

LOVELY. I WAS RIGHT(

Was this thrown out by the recipient, or written to try to work out anger and then discarded so that the person who had triggered these emotions would not be privy to them? Did the writer sit at a desk or write standing, stooped over, ripping the paper off the pad as s/he straightened? Is Ana the third party who has broken up the marriage or the former partner? Should the friend be in quotes as in, often referred to as a friend but actually a suspected lover? And what is this feeling, untouched by the aggravation of divorce? The only thing I can be sure of is that being right doesn't seem to change a thing.

THE LISTS

to do class: Write JM recommendation. Make grades spreadsheet.

to do work: write a draft of the p of i section.
done! read bourdieu, khan. I am writing sections of the larger theory section. Neetu says the theoretical org is working. I still have to work through Goffman and set up some more complimentary dichotomies.

to do life: Pay down debt (currently $2,326.09). Procure dog. Redo taxes. Figure out Amazon.com problem. Repot ginko tree and cactus.
Really, I'm letting all this slip, no? All I managed to yesterday was cut my nails and dirty a ton of dishes trying to scrape the charcoal off of the crust I'd let burn while heating up a leftover sandwich.

to do blitz: sarah, marilyn, giulia, irmary, mariana, dar, nv, robin, fl, ek, sf, marzena, thérèse, hen, dorith.
blitzed! diane

Netflixed: Stomp the Yard. Loved it. The plot is uninteresting, but it does justify the intensity of energies--although you could argue that people want to win competitions because they take pride in their artistic achievement, not necessarily as a way of resolving personal emnities. And the dance sequences are beautiful and energetic and parodic and clever and intense and plentiful. I've sent it back, but I already want to watch (parts of it) again.