line of the day

-- Did you hear about Morris?
-- What?
-- He kicked the bucket.
-- Oh, wow, how? He slipped? Wait, don't tell me... he did not see it in the dark?
-- Jesus, you idiot, he died!
-- Oh, my God, that too? Talk about bad luck!...
-- Oh, Lord!.... You attack at dawn, don't you?

evening

Cold evening November
Moist fog swirling
It spreads inside

Some depth, some breadth
and the past comes back
whispering or howling

Fragments, scars, hurts, time past
Faces, bangs, smiles, cries
Episodes, cracks, leftovers
Of lives that roared and passed,
Gone, maybe for ever, tomorrow will tell

Now it is weightiness and dampness
A breath in the thickening fog
The beast is still alive but asleep

discovery

She looked again at the man her sister had loved for twenty-five years. Indeed, she could see why. And he was so approachable, why did nothing ever developed? He was married but there had been a time between marriages when it could have happened. The age difference, the professional connection, probably...

She found herself eager to ask, to make him talk, and she was taking it all in. It did not help that the weather and the scenery were beautiful, exalting in fact... Yes, she could ahve, she would have... she almost could NOW! But let's refocus, too much to do, too much pain, too much fatigue, losing her compass points.
Charming, he was charming, just simply charming. Under other circumstances.... she had to muster her linguistic skills, and talk to him the right way, but the language barrier was a bit much now with the overnight flight, the new country, the fatigue, the awful hurt lingering in her. She was here for her sister, and that sister, the surrogate mother, would be ruthless if there was any interference on her turf, her BIG sister's turf. Let go of it, she told herself. Coffee, shower, rest, God help me! She went back to looking at him, helpful, handsome, attentionate, why aren't more men like this one?... Who was doubly not hers, anwyay. "Wonder what his wife looks like? Is like? Sis said he was not a superficial, appearances type (on top of it all!), his wife is not a looker but hyper-bright, and they are great together, really a team, a real couple, she had said. The way it should be... Yeah, it fits. He's got brains, too."

"OK, recompose, back to the task. God, this is going to be hard. You come to say the ultimate goodbyes, put your big sister to rest forever, and your emotions, your entire being is astir."
She could feel herself slipping. Too tired.

Yeap, it was so, move on. But she understood her sister now.

Fatigue stream

As the fatigue fogs up everything, the day rises, light timid at first then bright and shiny, hurtful. The mind emerges slowly, the mind fog lifts, the fatigue recedes slightly with coffee, some lucidity and awareness return. Another day to slog and fight through the slop of twenty hours or so. Insomnia's weight, insomnia's long-term burden that crushes eyes, emotions, brains, people, everything and then eed to shake it all off and restart again, and again, and again.

To A friend's blog feeling lost in a foreign country

This was quite a profound, well-written reflection. We need to tip our hats to N*** for a brilliant, well-thought, well presented, and graceful blog. Preceding you (albeit in the reverse direction) in this dual-/multi-cultural path if emigration/immigration, I can testify that there is an "after." It may be NOW that the hardest times for acculturation and finding "home" (YOUR home) take place. But you will. There are clearly delineated areas where one or the other culture takes over and the overall is a mix, maybe uneven. For example, one might be: socially, politically, an American--linguistically: a mix--poetically: French --in prose either-- professionally: French--for practical/daily life: American....

You are getting there, especially if you are a linguist, to begin with. The hard times will make you stronger, more able to know where you stand and to stand up on top of more tests of/from life.

Hang in there, it is the famous crisis of the 13th year, after that... things are smoother....

Keep fighting the cancer, you WILL survive.

Hugs

laugh of the day

junk email message in my junk folder:


"Orgasmic love for men: the Jack Rabbit Vials"........

no comments

Medical racket

I have met a doctor who meets for "medication checks" with his patients, only to check what you need and "how you re doing", 15 mniutes flat and then you are out with a new prescription for prozac, zoloft, and/or what have you. A fully legal, licensed provider. No time, no interest, except for cordial business relations. That's not a doc (although he will listen if I force him to), that's a businessman and a legal dealer, period. Will try to change that (him), but this is a full example of what is wrong with our medical system (one of the things wrong...)

expect gas to go back up for two months now

Expect the price of gas to go back up for two months now, as our darling oil companies and the execs go for a mad, last rush to make a few more billions before the party is over for four years... Unless... they try to behave to salvage what they can, keep their golden parachutes (which the Europeans are abolishing, by the way), and in the long run, make even more money out of our pockets. Amazing that when the republicans were in trouble in the polls, the cost of gas went down, to... help..
Those people do not stand united with us, folks, We are are their platinum meal ticket is all....

The Plot Thickens: Llama quandary part 2

So, you don't look a gift horse i nthe mouth, which allows you to discover horses' patootes, OK! Now the Llama, southern hemisphere animal, is known for spitting rather than equine rear end manifestations of the same bad manners. So do they say that you should or should not look a gift llama in the mouth (dangerous) or the in the rear end. Probably the mouth, i.e., "don't look a gift horse in the mouth" (the safe end) and "don't look a gift llama in the derriere" --whcih means that in both cases, you are sent to check out the dangerous end.

One last difference, as mentioned earlier, look at your llama counterclockwise, you could get screwed wrong, otherwise....