Month: August 2006

Quitting

It wouldn’t be so hard to quit if you rolled your own! 😉

also, it’s a sad time for literature; Naguib Mahfouz died, leaving behind a great body of work. His novel Children of the Alley was a given to me by someone special some time ago, and I enjoyed it immensely. It was an epic tale, as Mahfouz’s life seems to have been, as well.

And one final comment: an Iranian woman who can afford a trip into space ought to be punched for being so morally negligent. Investing that much money in the well-being of her home nation would, without a doubt, save lots of lives and improve the quality of living for lots of people. Dubya might say that jamming democracy down the throats of Arabs will help to combat terrorism and prolification of WMDs, but I’m much more convinced that having access to meals and healthcare will calm folks down a little bit. I was gonna ramble on a lot more, but I should do some work.

Sleeping Alone

Some nights I sleep alone,
not because there’s no one here with me in bed.

She sleeps next to me in my bed, but I know
that she’s thousands of miles away, on the other side
of an ocean, with people I don’t know.

I do know their faces, because she’s taken
out albums and stacks of loose photos;
for the first few minutes, she’ll explain
who they are
where they are
how she misses them.

I miss her as much as they do, or more,
when each of them smiles as they
whisper to me that she belongs to them.

They remind me that she has a life already;
I’m only here for comfort
until she can be with people she loves again.

170K

Odometer reading 170k

I’ve really been slacking on the blog lately; sorry.

I’m still working on getting accustomed to the new job and new city. Or maybe I should say new state. In California, a “smog check” is required before licensing a vehicle. I finally got ’round to getting my Honda checked yesterday and I failed. Tomorrow morning I’ll drop it off at a shop that comes highly recommended from one of the guys in the office to see how much it’s going to cost me to get it legal. Ugh. I was on the verge of deciding to sell the thing and buy a motorcycle (as I considered before). I might’ve considered it more seriously if I wasn’t still making payments (I don’t want to deal with the hassle of arranging to get the title from the bank and pay off the note). I’ll try to hold off on any major purchases, especially since I’m helping my little cherry blossom get a brand new Yaris. (She’s coming to visit over Labor Day, by the way!)

In other news, I’m also working on reapplying to Antioch. I’ve got a feeling that I’ll have a better shot this time around. I’m going to update my personal statement and submit a significantly revised portion of Never Enough. Continuing my education while working a dream job would be almost too good to be true. Let’s see if they bite this time.

More Will Be Revealed.

My Rooms

I posted pictures of my rooms in LA for your viewing pleasure. More decoration to come, in both I’m sure. I started to post some new poems on doublemuse the other day…I’ll let you know how that project comes along…

Pictures from the Drive Out

I’ve posted pictures of my drive out as well as a few of my dinner with family the night I left C-U.

The drive out was mostly pleasant, with exception of a break-down (the car, not me) in Omaha. Fortunately, or fortuitously, I was able to spend more time with my cousin Rich, a very interesting guy. We discussed life, politics, religion, and spirituality, all while waiting for the mechanics he’s worked with for the last twenty years to fix the parts that I thought I saved so much money on before.

Chatsworth is very nice so far. 80 degrees feels about like 65—at least in the shade, anyway. I’ve spent my time so far trying to find my way around both on the bicycle and in the car, and was able to hang out for at least one evening with some guys that I met while I was out for the Conference. I’m looking forward to starting work tomorrow, when I won’t have to worry about finding non-constructive ways to handle all of this free time to which I’m not accustomed.