Tag Archives: dartmouth

Frazzle

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Today has been “one of those days,” starting bright and early at 3:30 in the morning. The smoke alarm went off, you see. But just once, just long enough to wake us up and startle the hell out of us. We got up and wandered the apartment, checking each smoke alarm, checking each room, even checked outside the door to see (and smell) if anything was amiss. Nothing. Just random alarms going off. (Batteries checked out fine, by the way.)

Woke up late, stumbled out and signed all sorts of papers that Mickey put in front of me, all concerning moving stuff, I am assured by her. I read my mail, read my fourms, and then tried to figure out whether or not I hallucinated an email that I thought I’d received the day before when I’d checked my mail at my parents’ house, but now apparently was nowhere to be found, nor even registering in the email logs as ever existing. I am, to say the least, disconcerted.

This all left me very scattered, as we drove north to mail and fax what we needed to mail and fax (on the bright side, we are now fully committed to the move and have lined up movers fully, contracts signed and all). We finally ate some food around 5 over at Ramunto’s, and then came over to Collis, where we have sat since, reading and chatting with Eli, Megan, and Megan’s friend Ernie (whom is in from Iowa).
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Hanover, Pretty Red Dress

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Let me explain to you something about the past few days:

For the past several months, I’ve been feeling very rushed, very stressed. This is partially because I took more onto my plate than I’d ever had before, and I felt a bit overwhelmed. Finally, after easily six months, things have started to fall away as “done.” The past two weeks I started to feel a bit more like I was in control of my life again.

The downside of this is that the feeling is starting to have lasting effects, namely killing my motivation but good. Today, I sat around reading manga online until 3 in the afternoon, before finally showering off (and I’d felt the need for it since the previous night). Mickey and I then got up and picked up some boxes to pack some of our more moisture sensitive materials in (like books). While out and about (not in a boat), we got a call from my parents, who wanted to see my blue hair. So we went to dinner with them, over at Lui Lui’s…

Which gets us to the red dress mentioned in the title of this entry. There was a tent sale, you see, in the parking lot of the restaurant, which we meandered through after eating. Mickey managed to find a really nifty red dress that she really likes (and is now wearing), for about 50% off. There is a certain humor to seeing my wife (whom I am constantly looking toward to get permission to spend money) reverse the roles and look at me for the approving nod on the purchase.
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Ponderance

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Sitting in Hanover again, on the veranda of Collis Center. Four columns form a semicircular support for the roof above, a roof that is not necessary today… there is, in fact, not a single cloud in the sky. The air is still and warm, and there are conversations on either side of us (Mickey, Eli, and myself have just finished dinner).

To my right, two female college students are talking about their boyfriends, and fears about them. I am largely uninterested, but it bears note nonetheless.

To my left is a conversation among four students (three guys and a girl clutching a computer keyboard set up for Korean), talking about computers, their woes on the devaluation of their previous machines, the failures and tribulations of what they have now… and how they plan to upgrade soon.

I can’t blame them, I’m much the same way. I love my computers, don’t get me wrong. That said, I do very much want to get the new machine, and often go through the same justifications I’m hearing now. One of them is apparently going into the Air Force next year, and there I lose interest in the conversation.

I am thoroughly stuffed, burping gently, after eating an entire order of chicken lo mein and a kappa maki (cucumber roll). I still haven’t finished my drink from coffee, but that’s fine… it is a sipping drink if there ever was one. It’s super-caffinated, so much so that you can taste the caffeine in every sip. Take a large chai and add a shot of espresso and you have this drink. An interesting blend, but I don’t think I’ll get it again.

I’m getting dehydrated again, I can feel the early warnings in my chest and my mouth, feel the warmth at the back of my tongue. I guess I need to start carrying a water bottle again. Moving on.

As I walked out of Dirt and sat down on the bench outside, I noticed a book on the bookstand belonging to Left Bank Books out on the sidewalk. I immediately looked at Mickey, eyes pleading for the okay, and thankfully received the go-ahead: the National Gallery of Art’s collection of Alfred Stieglitz photographs, published in collaboration with Bulfinch Press. High quality reproductions, nice large book… lists at $75, picked it up for $40. Awww yeah….

Of course, what’s even cooler is that I actually SAW that exhibit down in Washington DC this past fall.

The Fourth Day

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An interesting day that was a non-day.

Today was mostly spent lounging about, catching up on email, reading essays (Bradbury, Zen in the Art of Writing), and chatting with folks that I hadn’t heard from in a while. Around 6 Mickey and I went out to coffee in Hanover, where we caught up with Eli and Megan, with whom we hung out for most of the night.
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Thought Buffet

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I just spent a week in DC, with Mickey, which was a great deal of fun, even if I did get into a funk towards the end. I don’t like it when I get that way, especially when it causes people who care about me to become concerned (like Mickey). But that is over and done now: I’m back up in Vermont (well, Dirt Cowboy at the moment), and she’s down in DC, working. I’ll be heading back down there in November, though exactly when is yet to be determined.

When last I wrote (on the 15th), I ended because my friend Richard suddenly showed up after not seeing him for a year and a half. Or at least I thought it was him. (I was right). Hopefully, he’ll be around more now that he knows the Dirt is open in the evenings.
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