April showers while we’re gone

kgb

It’s that fourth month already, the one with all the rain and sun showers.  My mother’s birthday is coming up in a few weeks, but more immediately in le scroll de bon anniversaire is this big ol’ shindig happening this evening.  The coolest thing is that it’s not only a birthday party, it’s also a zombie party.  Nothing says “you’ve gotten old” like festering skin hanging off your cheek, or having a few nubs, stubs, or stumps.  I think I’m gonna go the whole ‘super-chic’ zombie look, like I was the homecoming queen in 1960.  That could be a lot of fun getting made up for, especially if I could pull off looking like one of my eyes had been eaten out by a crow at some point during my slow decomposition.

Oh, I’ve gotten even more excited just thinking up ideas!

Beware the ides have marched

kgb

Reading a bit of Shakespeare at the moment for a class of mine.  Despite the queasiness that sometimes accompanies thoughts of my reading Romeo & Juliet, Hamlet, and Macbeth in high school English class, these days I’ve a renewed appreciation for these Elizabethan prose.  Word play is delightful, especially when thrown together with a rather strict adherence to rhyme and meter.  Gotta hand it to Billy, he didn’t mess around, not a bit.

I’m really tempted and would like to use more Shakespearean expressions in my everyday conversation, not only because I’m a huge dork, but because I’m perpetually fascinated with language and its evolution from one form to another.  That language isn’t a static thing, despite its necessity in, well, most everyday-commonplace interactions, is cool and kinda strange.

So, yeah, I would that my queries be answered.  Perchance I’ll consult a man of sagacious mien.  Yeah.

Wherein I speak of the clipping rate at which the semester is passing

kgb

It’s Wednesday already.  And, even more strangely, it’s also February.  I feel as if I never quite got the reigns on January and it’s run off without me.  What really gets me is when I start thinking about it like, “January of 2010 is already over… We’re a twelfth of the way through the year.  Oh how time passes at such a clipping pace.”

Well, that’s the nature of time, I guess.  I’m also getting to the halfway point of my college career.  Four years isn’t such a long time, after all.  Elementary school definitely distinguishes itself in my memory as going on for ages and ages.  Our grading terms were broken down into 6-week stretches, with 6 of them in total.  For a kid that’s basically infinity.  Then I’m thinking about Russia, how I’ve probably been gone from there for nearly 6 weeks, and that’s already becoming a historical artifact in my mind.  It makes me sad to think of it, but what can I do?

Experience quite possibly is one of the weirdest aspects of this whole big whatever (we’ll call it existence for simplicity’s sake), and I don’t really know how to make sense of it.  But, here I am, listening to the cello over internet radio, thinking it’s quite a lovely thing to be able to do, and so I’ll just enjoy it.

Snow Country

kgb

Lately I’ve gotten the images of the 1950s Japanese film Snow Country in my mind.  The past few days have had unrelenting snow, but not in the blizzarding way.  Instead it’s been a steadier, calmer precipitation, which happens to lay several inches over the course of a day.  Going outside fills me with some happiness and excitement, a lot of it to do with the feel of the crunching snow under my feet.  My shoes don’t have thick soles, so I can actually detect the sensation of the snow twisting up underneath as I step, and I get inexplicably giddy.

I’ve also been reading up on the Heian period of Japan.  It’s thoroughly fascinating stuff, if you like to read about the ridiculous habits and lifestyles of the overly privileged, and I certainly do.  As I’m reading, I sometimes think that I should really despise these people for their shallowness, but I just can’t, because when it boils down to it I want to be able to spend hours crafting the perfect letter according to the season and experience, making particular note of paper weight and color, and the proper accompaniment in the form of some seasonal flora.  How charming would that be?

2010

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I’m not sure why it occurred to me to think of this, but January is the only month always preceded by the old year.  February, March, April, May, they’re all flanked by the current year.  Not that there’s much significance to it, I guess, just a funny little observation on the whole human activity of keeping time.  The purpose, more than anything, is a need for simplicity.  People’s minds just don’t work well enough (or aren’t trained to work well enough) to keep time without some occasional demarcation.  For instance, we could continually come up with a new name for the next month, eliminating the whole concept of years, but it would be cumbersome and difficult then to keep accurate records.

But I digress, it’s a new year.  So far it hasn’t been exceptional one way or the other, but it really isn’t fair to judge at the moment.  I’ll give the year 2 more weeks and reach my decision then.

The last day

kgb

Another year end has arrived.  Aught nine has been good, overall.  Finished a year at school, got halfway through another while studying abroad.  I could try to be all poignant about my experiences, but I’m feeling too tired for that right now.  So, I’ll probably take a nap and wake up in time to ring in the new year while sipping on some bubbly.

Happy 2009. Happier 2010.