They can't be forced

I picked up my new glasses today! They fit right out of the box and are close to my eyes, just like I like them. Though my eyesight does seem better with them, they didn't have all the effects I'd hoped for. For example:
They're not rose-colored! I don't see things in a different light. It doesn't all look better in the light of day. I see it more your way than mine. It's not a new point of view. I can't see clearly now because we haven't had enough rain for it to be gone. I still can't see past my nose when it comes to certain things, yet I see all too clearly the errors of my ways. The larger picture is obscured by the trees.

Thankful

I called from upstairs, "Quick - let her out! I know it's my turn, but you're closer to the door!"

"You heard that all the way up there?"

"Yes. Now move it, that wasn't just any old lab fart, that was foreshadowing."

"Code-switching among 3-4 languages and privileging one or two of 'em really globalizes the ol' discourse!"

Why, yes, I am mocking myself and you.

"You live in a world of symbols...

...every little thing you see or hear or otherwise experience is like a metaphor for your or someone else's internal state."

"Nuh-uh," I denied. "My world is an understudied text of varied literary styles, yet it belongs to no movement in particular. It is richly emblematic and contains many subtle references to other texts and their authors. And that last thing you said wasn't a metaphor, you know... I mean, I'm sure sure you do know, but it was actually a simile...'like or as'... What? I'm just saying."

"Hey, can you make recipes like fancy mashed potatoes?"

I had about 49 things going through my mind all at once, so with my monitor and affective filter both down and my internal editor on coffee break, I answered quickly and with incongruous JohnHenryesque braggadocio, "I can make any fucking recipe you put in front of me."

A lesser athlete would have...oh yeah, I already said that one.

Ran, 42, neighborhood.

I heartily mocked the first Californian I saw jogging while talking on his cell phone. In fact, before I became the cell phone's #1 fan, I thought everyone who had one was pathetically self-important. Now, with the zeal of a late-adopter, I certainly feel incomplete without mine. And I took it along on today's jog so I wouldn't miss an important phone call verifying whether today or tomorrow was Sushi Lunch.

To save some time, I decided to jog right around here, and it was pretty good. But - I almost turned back several times, though. OK, I almost didn't even start after I ran over my left pinky toe with the recycling bin. I hit its most sensitive spot and for a few minutes the pain was whimper-inducing. But I kept going. The sideache that ensued shortly thereafter made me forget all about the toe, though. I heard Coach Bagley's helpful suggestion, "Just run it out, Hecht, it won't kill you!" so I kept going. Then I got behind a garbage truck, whose noise drowned out my music for quite a while. I hate running without music, so I changed my route and kept going. Something still felt wrong with the music. Investigation indicated that the earbuds were in the wrong ear. I corrected the aberration and kept going. When I was almost done, I felt a few drops, but stopping didn't even cross my mind. Unless it's a torrent I run, rain or shine. After a couple of minutes I noticed the glint of red in my right hand. I ran a little more, then started to feel guilty. While I do consider myself the Chuck Norris of the 20-minute mile, my cell phone probably isn't as quite as tough. I wanted to finish, and since I'd already sacrificed a phone to Tlaloc last year, I tucked it into my sock. A little uncomfortable, but not enough to stop me. I do realize that the real Chuck Norris would have stuffed his phone down his underpants or right up his butt to keep it dry, but I'm not really as hardcore as I like to think I am. That more experienced California cell phone jogger probably would have bought a special water-proof case for his phone, but the best I could do would be to put it in ziploc. But I think I'll just leave mine home next time and make sure I confirm Sushi Lunch in a more timely manner.

I continue to hope that researchers will annouce breakthrough findings that increase the number. (19 Nov.)

But the micro-articles persist in reporting that "one glass a day" is beneficial to our health.

Bulb out...(18 nov.)

...looking up words like coranvobis, mirífica, somorgujar,escolapio, tafilete, insuflar,ergástula y deuterógama (woman who gets married a second time)

He looked half latino, medium build with glasses and dark, messy hair and my heart skipped a beat when he...

...got into his car and vacated that prime parking space near the crosswalk.

Her look cancels out any initial off-puttingness of her name.

And Autumn Sky's sound and charming way of engaging with her audience made me forgive the excessive use of whistling and "ba-da-dum". I'll buy/download anything she makes available.

"Gee, Val, it's kind of...depressed, isn't it?"

As we cruised the streets of Vallejo over 11 years ago my mom really tried to keep her comments and questions about my new town neutral and diplomatic. I could tell she was thinking, "We got off the rez so you could eventually move here?"

Depressed, yes, but at least now we're not that different from the rest of the towns of this country. I know it's not the best place in the state Bay Area County immediate 20 mile radius, but I've come to love it for its unique ghetteaux style.

"We should think about expanding our operations," I said.

"Subsistence laundry isn't really working for me."

Yesterday I decided to lie down for a 20-minute nap at 6:30...

...and I did indeed wake up at 6:52. Just 6:52 this morning.

Google it! Some of the more interesting Google key terms that have led hapless researchers to String of Lights (9/08-11/08)

"best prostitute ever" sent 1 total visits
""well + read + book + club" -brothas" sent 1 total visits
"strings of parking lot lights" sent 1 total visits
""if you've got the dinero" lyrics" sent 1 total visits
"i am written all over you" sent 1 total visits
"valery loves me blogspot" sent 1 total visits
"www putos y putas. com" sent 1 total visits
"nude dickens fair" sent 1 total visits
"airline sized bottles of gin" sent 1 total visits
"gran puta" sent 1 total visits
"heart shaped string lights" sent 1 total visits
"wat was sor juana ines de la cruz?" sent 1 total visits
"mla chupacabra" sent 1 total visits
"put your hand where i can feel the" sent 1 total visits
"where to buy le bad mother fucker wallet" sent 1 total visits

Collateral Learning:Useful Skills and/or Facts I Picked Up in Grad School

• Deftly tracking prey in a full parking lot and, in a splendid display of "survival of the fittest" at work, skillfully swooping into the space they've vacated before the other vultures do


• Doing so while eating sushi


• No matter what, there's always enough time and money to go for coffee/a beer/sushi lunch


• Like tortillas and beans, the proper combination of Cheez-Its and fruits can keep you going for hours


• If you put it on your credit card, it's free!


• Knowing that the declaration, "My writing's going really well." is usually absolute bullshit


• No matter what, there's always enough money for books


• Catching a quick nap in a sitting position with eyes wide open


• No matter what, there's always enough time to check my Facebook


• You actually can make Top Ramen in a coffee pot!

Top Ten Reasons I Like Having a Facebook

10. I participate in at least one aspect of American [pop?] culture.

9. I'm in good company.

8. Updating my status lets people know what I'm up to when I've been out-of-touch.

7. Updating my status lets me practice crafting aphorisms.

6. Updating my status is sometimes as close as I'll get to writing micro-cuentos/micro-stories.

5. It has all kinds of "What kind of - are you?"/"Which character from - are you?"/"If you were a color, which one would you be?" kinds of quizzes.

4. It has e-mail.

3. It has chat.

2. I get to read the clever, charming statements of my friends and....

1. ¡I get to see their tiny pictures!



P.S. While I wish to protect the identities of my Facebook friends, I seem to have no compunction about exposing the faces, etc. of someone else's friends in order to illustrate the tiny pictures function. He'd posted the image on his Facebook tutorial site, so maybe it's fair-ish game...

Needless to Say

• "Vallejo is so ghetto!"


• ATM machine


• incredible insight

How many more of these can we come up with?

Blog Re-frito #4

From the blog I had prior to these...

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 2006
Volver, resolver

BlogTemplate
Escribo desde: la casa
El tiempo: hace un calor sorprendiente
Estoy luciendo: algo que no me hace "lucir" para nada. En los últimos días he mirado como doce capítulos de What Not to Wear y estoy convencida de que nada me queda bien. Pero no estoy convencida de que mirar WNTW y otros programas al estilo sea necesariamente malo. He sacado varias ideas, y realmente la imagen es lo que hace que la gente que encontramos en el mundo nos tome en serio.
Conmigo: Karl, Stella, Paloma (en su camita al lado de la cama)
Estado de animo: un poco cansada, pero noto que desde el día que empecé a tomar vitaminas no me canso tan facilmente.
Libro(s): Montones de libros f-off de autoras al estilo Olivia Goldsmith y Helen Fielding, pero he empezado a leer para las clases. El libro de buen amor, de que recuerdo casi nada. Y los primeros dos artículos del reader (comprado por $104.50 por internet). Pero tendré que re-leer por lo menos dos veces el segundo porque la autora se llama Anna Brickhouse ("She's mighty mighty, just lettin' it all hang out...") y la letra de la canción impidió que me concentrara bien en el texto. ("Yeah, she's a brick...house. She's the one, the only one, who's built like an Amazon.")
Música: En este momento de la vida, los boleros y otra música tipo nostalgia (JAJ, Vicente Fernandez, Chavela Vargas, María Dolores Pradera, Agustín Lara, George Jones)
Vi a: Aparte de los de siempre...a nadie
Hablé con: " "
Antojo: piña
¿Qué pasó hoy (y qué pasó varios días antes si no he escrito
en mucho tiempo): ejercicio, mimar mucho a Paloma y Stella
Imágenes: estacionamiento en Kaiser. ¿Por qué se pone tan cabrona la gente cuando conduce por una de estas estructuras?
Personas que se destacaron: Una pareja gay, muy elegante en el Starbuck's de Albertson's

posted by vhecht @ 10:03 PM
0 comments

Yes, I do have thoughts about the election results.

Bulb out...awaiting 8.

However, I will say that among family and friends, I think I was voted Most Likely to Forget to Vote.

She taught me to read early and often.

Ni en sueños me atrevería a reseñarlos. But if I were to give my reviews, they would be an animated photo of my clapping hands.

This extremely well thought-out, informed, informative, insightful and carefully written book is also absolutely delightful! For example, reading that a whole lexicon-mexicon- homosexicon of gay-referent phrases has been built around the number 41 after the 1901 raid was fascinating. I seriously considered cutting my run short today in its honor. When it came down to it, though, I couldn't stop. But I did make the 41st minute really count. I cued up the gayest song on my Shuffle and ran it really hard. And I'm going to vote really hard tomorrow against the number that has become linked to sexuality and social control in California, 2008...

And for pleasure, for grounding, for reassurance, for direction, for connection, for solidarity, for support, for agreement, for inspiration, for focus, for remembering where I came from...

"Wear your inside out."

This morning I chose to hear the lyric from "Mercy Street" spelled like that because lately as usual I've been thinking about my inside a lot. As someone who values authenticity in whatever emotional shape it takes, the above appeals to me as a command or a motto. But conversely, as someone who often wishes to avoid inflicting my internal state onto the world, it also serves as a warning. My outward appearance can't always be a manifestation of any inherent qualities and more often than not, it shouldn't! In spite of myself, however, I quite often look exactly how I feel. Or how/who I am.

"OK, now be completely, brutally honest," I demanded. "Uh-oh..." she replied, suddenly feigning an intense interest in the childrens' clothing we passed on our way to Shoes. "I'm serious, it's reallyreally serious!" I continued, "Do you think I should go back to shorter hair?" She was quiet for a moment. "I think," she proceeded with caution, taking refuge behind a rack of adorable little sweaters, "you either need to get it cut shorter or if you're going to keep it that length, take the time to do something with it..." "Yeah, that taking time thing probably realistically isn't going to happen." "Mi'ja. Right now you look like an absent-minded academic." Inside out, indeed.



¡¿Absent-minded academic?! ¡But I'm supposed to be a pirate!