voyage number one

this evening i will be headed south...way down south. i'll be in costa rica for a week, spending some time with some relatives. i'm making the flight from lax to sjo with my aunt L---. i don't call her "aunt L---", never did. just L---.
it's been eleven years since i've been down there. now that i'm older i hope i can have a more enriching experience. maybe, subconsciously, i want to discover myself through seeing my mom's history. she was born there.
maybe i feel a little displaced. like i know my family history through stories, not experiencing it or seeing the places my parents knew as kids. i am a stranger to their childhoods. i guess i just hope for a glimpse of something meaningful, enlightening, healing, etc.
what's more likely to happen is just a lot of hanging out, drinking coffee, eating mangos, and trying to communicate with my family in spanish.

fischerspooning

before i begin the important part of this blog, i must share with you the little "walk down memory lane" i'm having right now. weezer. that's right, the self-titled album. it makes me play air guitar until i actually think it looks good.

on to the real reason i am breaking the blogging silence: fischerspooner
if you don't know what i'm talking about, figure it out stat.

i'm going to their show at the house of blues in anaheim with B--- and C---. B---just told me that he knows two of the newest/replacement members. i guess they used to live out in santa barbara and played in a local band called brightlife. all of which, of course, is awesome.
i hate to be a victim of our world's obsession with rock stars, but i can't help it.

i've been waiting for a great show to go to, and i think this might be it. it's been a while, and most of the good shows around here are when i'm going to be a-travelin'.

readings

i can't handle committing to a real job in this stage of my life because i know i'm moving on soon. but i need money, so i signed up with a temp agency. i've been working as a receptionist for a bank with few clients that actually come in or call. with all this time sitting at a desk i've actually gotten a lot accomplished. in my two point five weeks of work i've read a lot of books, essays, stories, magazine articles, and newspapers. i also briefly tried to play on www.ourcolony.net (which is, disappointingly, a treasure hunt of riddles that award your team with abstract photos of the new xbox...like i care). now i've gotten bored enough to think that a blog is a good way to spend my time. all that to introduce the books i've read recently and think you should read too.


housekeeping -- marilynne robinson
the god of small things -- arundhati roy
the secret life of bees -- sue monk kidd
blue shoe -- anne lamott
the joy luck club -- amy tan
the hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy -- douglas adams
the liar's club -- mary karr

continually reading:
collected short stories of roald dahl -- roald dahl
a people's history of the united states -- howard zinn

listening to in my car:
u2 - how to dismantle an atomic bomb
her space holiday - the young machines
garden state - soundtrack
pedro the lion - control
"i don't know" mix
"hip hop usa" mix

sighting two

friday, i was waiting in line at the bank, guessing to myself which customer would be done first and listening-in on conversations. i looked at the old man all the way to the right, who was wearing a gilligan sailor hat, bermuda shorts, and white sneaks with socks pulled up. he looked both lively and really old, like he just came back from taking his great-grandkids out sailing. and i couldn't stop staring at the right side of his head, at the hole that was once surrounded by an ear. it sunk into his head like an ant-hole, looking like it went on forever. there was only a small part of the ear left, eighth of an inch wide, right at the top, and extending with the expected dips and curves of a normal ear. the skin around the ear hole was very pink, like a scar from a burn. i bet it was blown off during a war. or maybe it was a fourth of july fireworks accident from childhood. i wanted ask him the story, like i would have if he was my grandfather, taking me out for a sail.
maybe my next sighting won't be of lost body parts...

sighting one

i was walking downtown yesterday and stopped at a light, waiting for it to turn green, when i saw a man riding his bike down the road. it took me a few moments to figure out why he caught my attention. first, he was riding fast, and then i noticed a crutch somehow suspended on the handlebars. i had a sweet thought that he was returning home from buying the crutches for his mother who just had surgery or something. and as he rode past i noticed that only one leg was peddling, and where the other leg should have been, there was just a cut-off pant-leg flapping in the wind. i wonder if there are many one-legged-cyclists.

done did it

i guess i've succumbed to the blogging trend. i would like to thank A--- for the encouragement to make this pathetic step into the world of typing about yourself. we'll just have to wait and see where it goes.