I made it through another July 12th.  Five years ago, Aunt Julie died of ovarian cancer.  A month and a half later, we left New Orleans for higher ground.  Five years later, several family funerals later, and--get this--two college degrees later, I made it through the day without any giant emotional outbursts--a first for the date ( Read more... )

After having decompressed from school being out for a while, had a lovely week of fun in Cincinnati, and reading fyshmom 's return to blogging bit, I'm going to start writing on here somewhat.  I'd like to have a smaller, less public outlet than fb for my thoughts, but still in a forum where I'm writing (theoretically) to more than myself, but fewer than ( Read more... )

In the context of the orange satin thing in the spare room which I'll be wearing next week at the hooding ceremony to commemorate my earning my master's degree ( Read more... )

It's been so much easier to post status updates and a couple of tweets than it is to sit down and write a blog post. This is so much more private--who knows if anyone will actually read this ( Read more... )

The idea of writing a grand narrative is a bit daunting--if you want narrative, look at my pictures on Facebook.  To start in the middle, then, I was reminded in my reading last night of the reading and speaking Shakespeare workshop we did in Stratford.  My first week was in Stratford, and was quite organized and scheduled--four plays, lectures and ( Read more... )

I leave this coming Saturday, July 4th,  at 2:30 pm, arriving at Heathrow Sunday morning around 7-something.  I'm feeling excited, anxious, nervous, and a bit scared.  I really enjoy flying, but I've never flown this far before.  I have books to read, knitting (with wooden needles, which are allowed), a neck pillow, and an mp3 player in my backpack ( Read more... )

It was long, and tiring.  Friday night we went to Sevierville to Mark's grandmother's visitation at the funeral home.  We stayed away from the open casket.  I met some of his relatives I hadn't met before, whom I really liked; I was particularly interested in learning who the woman with the discreet om necklace on was--she and her husband, and ( Read more... )

So, in the past week:

• I had a long talk with Uncle Rick, who's been given a prognosis of a year with lung cancer
• Mark's grandmother died Tuesday (his Aunt Chris was the one who found her); we're going to see family in Sevierville tonight, and graveside service tomorrow
• Jay Lake, an author Mark follows, announced on his blog that his cancer has ( Read more... )

Either Adorno's getting easier, or I'm getting used to it.  I think it was a bit of both--this chapter was on ethics after Auschwitz, so the subject matter was a bit more concrete--or at least had more ties to concrete things than previous chapters.  I have finished my reading for Thursday's reading group, which is a relief to have finished.  Last ( Read more... )

I finally found a gift to send to Uncle Rick to help him get through chemo--I just ordered him a travel mug emblazoned with "fuck cancer" across it.  I found it cheering; I hope he will, too.

I started the novel Remains of the Day last night; I should be done with it this evening.  It's on the MA reading list, and is a delightful change from Adorno ( Read more... )