March 31, 2009
while this title might seem like an apt reference to my serious lack of posting lately, it is in fact the affliction that has befallen me for the last week. i am croaking along by now, well enough to make myself understood by my 80 students, but not well enough not to pay the price afterwards (hot tea and silence de rigueur).
i lost my voice upon landing in brussels last week. i flew out there for a week over spring break. planet’s sister has been taken ill with the same disease that killed planet (planet = nickname of best friend who died of breast cancer 2 years ago). i wanted to be with her for so many reasons, but many times it felt like we were both visiting a very cruel ghost. the ghost of her sister’s -my friend’s – killer, the ghost of her struggle, the ghost of her boredom (chemo is sooooooo boring), the ghost of her. and then sometimes the ghost was gone, and we used the strange parenthesis offered by her illness to go to the movies at 11 am, eat way more than we should and make all sorts of inappropriate gallows jokes.
the last time i lost my voice was at planet’s funeral. it started going during the funeral, when i couldn’t stop crying, sobbing all the way into the car that drove me back to planet’s empty home, empty of her and full of mourners who would all get very drunk that day, the day during which i lost my voice.
i lost a lot more than my voice that day, and it better not mean anything that i lost my voice this time. this better just be a freaky coincidence or some psychosomatic response. it just better not.
February 3, 2009
Facebook is the new meme producer. I was tagged with this “25 random things about me” task, which my friend C more accurately described as “25 things that are not random but are about me” (she inspired today’s title, she is way good at those things).
In order to shake things up a bit and not let the dearth in posting run completely dry here at galainoregon, I reproduce my list for your enjoyment. For the American grammaticists among you, I was taught English by the English, and consequently spell that past tense of irregular verbs such as LEARN with a T. You say learnED. I say learnT. Let’s call the whole thing off.
1. I like making lists, but not necessarily this kind.
2. I met the man of my life at the Newark airport luggage carousel.
3. I vacillate between wanting to change the world and wanting to change my world.
4. I have never learnt how to play chess.
5. I like True Blood on HBO. I really like it.
6. I wonder what Graham Greene would have written about our current world.
7. Pinot over merlot, sour over sweet, dark over milk, but tea AND coffee, no compromises.
8. I’d rather wear sneakers.
9. Sundays are for the NYT x-word puzzle.
10. My mom and I once dreamed of owning a bookstore together.
11. My grandmother was a great gardener and I am sorry I did not inherit that trait from her.
12. My dad speaks 6 languages, and I did inherit that trait from him.
13. I miss my best friend.
14. I care about manners and grammar (perhaps more than I should).
15. I learnt to swim in Rio.
16. I learnt to drive in Brussels.
17. I like royalty cookie tins, miniature Atomiums, polka dots and stripes, and skulls (but not real ones).
18. I would like to spend one year in Sweden, and then another year in Japan.
19. My desk is always quite messy.
20. I am still deliberating over an iTouch vs a new iPod. Help!
21. I am wedded and committed to my Blackberry.
22. For an historian I have a pretty bad memory.
23. I read maps quite well, but give very bad directions (confuse Left and Right).
24. I just finished writing a book.
25. I love skype, facebook, email and anything else that makes distances smaller.
