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April 22, 2006
when a day feels right
I'm in Phoenix (Arizona). After traveling nearly 12 total hours yesterday, I crashed at what was equivalently 2:30 a.m. in New York. By 7:00 a.m. local time, I had already had two cups of freshly made Melitta drip coffee, read a dated issued of National Geographic featuring an article and pull-out map about the sun, it's composition, it's behavior, temperatures, and flares, and the several earthbound devices in place to measure same (from a variety of countries, possibly the most interesting feature of the story being the compilation of information from these several sources), and an article about the cocaine growing trade/regions of Columbia (which merits a separate post), showered, dressed, checked e-mail and was ready for next activity.
Had lunch in Mexico (the country. Shopped along the local tourist strip, with its relentless assault of hawkers, including small children selling 4-piece mini-paks of chiclets and the gaudy bracelets their parent trusted them out the door of the touristy "jewelry" shop with. Ventured off the tourist square in search of a local grocer. Found same, where a very pleasant middle-aged woman who spoke not a word of English graciously worked through my gesturing and VERY limited Spanish to sell me a small block of fresh farmer-style cheese (for which I'm certain there is a name and if you know what it is, please post it here....), for all of $1.10 American. Wandered through the sidewalk vendors and happened on a PURPLE gauzy skirt/top combination for which I am certain the vendor got the better of the bargaining (which is to say, I didn't bargain much - I just wanted it), and then ventured back to another stall with many hanging leather purses where I bought a black leather hobo purse, nearly identical to the tan one that is my favorite that I acquired in the Mexico pavillion in the World Showcase at Disney World about 21 years ago (did better on this one - got the vendor to knock off a whole $4. whoo-hoo.) Accompanied my mother to the pharmacy where she acquired about $1,000 (retail) worth of medications for about $230, skipped across the border where customs guy scanned my passport through this slick little counter-top reader but looked not once at my several bags or asked about their contents (damn - I knew I should have bought that tequila!).
Came home and contemplated the re-arrangement of the two main living spaces in my mom's house, did some of the moving, made a very cool salad using the fresh cheese we bought, along with some of the asparagus we bought from a corner vendor in the same little town in Mexico, watched a bit of TV, and crash-o.
I don't know whether it's because I spent so much of my life in this time zone, or whether it's the occasions that bring me here, but I am more awake and vibrant at 5 am here on less than 6 hours sleep than I ever am in NY after it doesn't matter how many hours sleep. Somethin's up there.
But for now, it is so wonderful to feel energetic and productive, and to feel at the end of the day that its beginning was a lifetime ago.
yeah. that's a good day.
Posted by cageyer at 12:14 AM | Comments (2)
April 12, 2006
i've been everywhere
A couple of weeks ago, I participated in a mini-seminar at work (these are professional development sessions required of folks who teach in our program who aren't full-time faculty) on the subject of preparing students for digital writing - or something like that. Anyway, we worked with iMovie. I had never used iMovie before, but with a little instruction and an example to follow, it was really quite easy. Soon I had my own little three minute movie about my travels around the country.
Antje Duvekot has this great song called "Long Way." It's about traveling, about being everywhere. I love it for many reasons, but in this project I came to realize that I could illustrate it with my own photographs of my own travels. My movie project wasn't really good at doing that, but in the doing of the movie project I came to see a bigger project, one that told the story in a less linear way, a way that more matches the sentiment of the song, a way that feels more like being "on the worn out heels of Kerouac". So tonight I was going through my photo box - the one that begins after I was single, after I had a new life in front of my, after I was heading out "into the great unknown." And I came to realize that I have been to some really beautiful places. I've seen spectacular sites, vistas, landscapes, waterfalls, lakes, mountains. I can flip through the pictures and remember where I've been, how much I've seen, how much I enjoyed the trip, how I'd like to do it more, and again.
There are a few states in the union I have not yet traveled. But just a few. I've been all over the map, and it really is a long way to Michigan/Washington/Tennessee and back. Really.
Posted by cageyer at 10:44 PM | Comments (0)
April 08, 2006
Too many
Maybe it's because I really believe it's going to be spring now, or maybe it's because I feel my life focus changing in a significant way, but right now I feel encumbered with an overwhelming sense of too many.
Too many clothes I don't (or can't) wear.
Too many books I haven't read, don't have time to read, but can't bring myself to part with.
Too many papers unwritten.
Too many books on too many reading lists that I can never hope to do justice to.
Too many ideas about what might be possible in the two-three years ahead.
Too many discouragements about life's realities (not the least of which was the $.10 per gallon increase in the price of gas overnight yesterday).
Too many bills, too many looming expenses, too many things I don't have the money for.
Too many times I want to sit down and write, and too few spaces (mentally and physically) to do so.
I've never been much of a minimalist, but right now I have a strong desire for a nearly empty closet, a few sparsely populated drawers, and large open space with select pieces of furniture, a modestly stocked pantry and a nearly empty refrigerator. In a former life community I inhabited, we called such a lifestyle "traveling light" - as in: if you want to travel fast and far you have to travel light. I guess I've got a travel itch, cuz I really want to lighten up.
Posted by cageyer at 11:38 AM | Comments (1)
April 07, 2006
Toast to the Northwest
Husky fans and other locals should definitely check out this great event to benefit the Husky Marching Band. (You'll recall that in my early Husky days, that wonderfuly year when they went to and won the Rose Bowl, my favorite spot in all the world was three rows behind the band, right smack in the middle - great days...)
The whole event looks like a great way to spend a day, try a wide range of great wine and learn more about wine in general. And the buffet not only sounds mouth-watering but is downright cheap eats.
I can't be there this year, (though I might buy a ticket anyway just to support the band) but y'all go without me and have a great time, okay? I'll catch up with you next year.
Posted by cageyer at 09:52 AM | Comments (0)
April 04, 2006
Wine Reviews.2
Here's an interesing little piece on the popularity of Pinot Grigio (aka Pinot Gris) and the differences between the two, which are more questions of origin and style than grape. In an online pizza trade magazine, of all places...
Posted by cageyer at 08:16 PM | Comments (0)
fishin' in Syracuse
Had a lovely dinner last night at the relatively new Bonefish Grill in Fayetteville. In a town where Red Lobster is considered a good seafood place, I have to admit I wasn't expecting much. I was very happily surprised.
Bonefish Grill was founded in January 2000 in St. Petersburg, Florida. If you look at their finder map, you can see they've grown rapidly all over the eastern part of the United States, with a few outposts west of the Mississippi, including 2 in the Seattle area and one in the Tri-Cities area in eastern Washington. (Now, I'm not saying this place will send Anthony's or Arnies scrambling for customers anytime soon, but they'll be right in there with those fine establishments).
Anyway, check out the menu, particularly the section on grilled fish. The regular options all sounded good, but since Grilled Halibut was on the special sheet, that's what I had - and it was perfectly cooked. The island rice, which you can see in the pictures, was also good, though I thought it could use a bit more salt. But that might be because we started the meal with the Bang Bang shrimp - and WOW are those ever good! Fresh shrimp, not battered, but quickly deep fried to a light crunch, and then stirred into this wonderful remoulade-like sauce with just the right amount of cayenne in it. Yumm-o. My partner had a combination of grilled shrimp and scallops with au gratin potatoes. He said both were very good.
The wine of the evening was a King Estate Pinot Gris. It was bright with a nice citrus note, very light and pleasant, and paired excellently with the fish. Now, it was expensive, and not until I looked them up did I realize they are an organic winery, which accounts for the difference in price between it and some large vat production. It was nice, but I think the spicy shrimp might have affected my appreciation for the subtler notes of the wine. I'd like to try it again, but haven't seen that label anywhere else in town.
So, seafood fans, take heart (and money...it's not the cheap dinner), there is now a place you can go for really good fresh grilled seafood right here in orangeville.
Posted by cageyer at 07:27 PM | Comments (0)
April 03, 2006
45?! Nuh-uh.
Well, yeah, it's true. I'm 45 years old today. Who'd have thought I'd ever be this old? (not me, that's for certain).
I spent a whole lot of my life never getting past 18 - not in the sense of party-girl or teenage slacker or anything like that, but rather never living up to my potential, always feeling like I had never finished growing up, never felt like I had the authorization to be the success my abilities suggested (or screamed, depending on the day) I should be. Part of that was dropping out of college the first time. Part of it was never going back. Part of it was just never choosing it, never daring to step out, to see myself as more and better.
So nine years ago today I decided to do whatever I had to do to get back to college. I never imagined that decision would bring me here. And but for certain people, and a certain class that began on my birthday seven years ago, it wouldn't have. In those years, I have finally learned to see myself as a grown up, finally been able to come to grips with being childless, even when so many of my colleagues are either new parents (scroll down a bit to see pictures of the little cutie) or parents-in-waiting (though they have experience with son Ph), finally able to understand that the friends I make here do not make me, and when they or I leave here we may or may not continue and that's okay, finally able to look out to the future and not feel like there's a huge gap in my life, my soul, of unaccomplished goals.
I thought I knew back then how much college meant to me. I know now that I didn't really know. And every day, when this PhD program seems interminable, and living poor grinds on me, and I can't get my head, act, or words together, I remember that for the first time I am choosing, that I have selected the career for the second half of my life, and all that I invest in it will be worth it -- or I'll leave it, too, with no regrets. I will have done the thing that mattered the most to me, and when the next thing that matters the most comes along, I won't be afraid to pursue it.
And that is probably the best present of all. Happy birthday to me.
Posted by cageyer at 09:35 PM | Comments (4)