Event: Happy Birthday, John McCain.

What is on its way?

And will we be ready if it arrives?

Diary: August 1996.

This month struck me as I climbed out of a dizzy and wonderful summer. This summer I had participated in the restaging of The Seventh Dream at Flint Youth Theatre, attended the Reynold's Young Writers Workshop in Granville, Ohio, came back just in time to see the Smashing Pumpkins in concert with my best friend, got a crush on a girl, took a trig class at Mott college, played Friend Hare in FYT's version of Bambi, and started dating a 16-year old named Lori. And all this was before August.

August got off to a rocky start.

First, I broke up with Lori on my birthday. She attributed this to very selfish and sitcommy motives which I will not connect to a full explication, except to say that while my motives were pure (we had nothing in common), I could not have had worse timing. But what was I supposed to do; we'd only been dating for about two weeks. This led to only the second major argument I'd ever had with Paul since we'd become friends six years before, but we patched things up pretty quickly. Lori seemingly forgave me too, though there was an Act II to follow later that winter.

Second, one day early on in the month, my mom decided to drive out to Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp to pick up my brother and sister and to hear them in concert. On the way I was reading the Hopes and Dreams guide to the University of Chicago. Now I knew that I wanted to go to college in Chicago, but I'd always had a strong pro-Northwestern bias because I'd heard such rave reviews of its theater department. I almost wrote off the U of C at once, because I heard that there were stringent core math requires there, and ever since I'd flunked math twice (for marking periods) in eighth grade, math left kind of an icky taste in my mouth. All this changed when I picked up Hopes and Dreams. The rhetoric was entirely different from anything I'd ever encountered before, and the stress was on the enterprise of learning and critical austerity. It conveyed a hunger that encompassed and went beyond the more straightforward practicalities of almost every other school I considered, and yet it still seemed more grounded in the realities of the world than some of my other choices: Sarah Lawrence and Kalamazoo. I had a nice conversation with my mom about all this, and by the time we got home, late that night, I felt as if I'd made up my mind already.

Third, some of the kids from that play and I spent the end of the summer driving around, playing Capture-the-Flag and drinking slurpees all over the Carmen-Ainsworth school district. It was an odd combination of people, myself, Bree, who had also been home-schooled, Josh the homophobe, another Josh the Überqueer, Demetrius who loved Madonna, Jessica the Republican, Perrico of the baseball bats, and at least a couple other strange and odd characters.

Summer felt more and more perfect the further it progressed.

Where were you in August 1996?

Gloamane 7, 31.

- PLACE OF THE WEEK -
Wikipedia: Nigeria

- QUESTION OF THE DAY -
How can I rebuild this blog's readership... right now it's getting about 10 hits a day, which is about 10% of what it was getting when I stopped blogging last December. I would like to start recovering this. Any suggestions?

Gloamane 6, 31.

- LINK OF THE WEEK -
USA.gov: Back to School

- QUESTION OF THE DAY -
What city would you choose to host the next Democratic National Convention?

Event: EXTREME census.

The Flint Journal: Annual census tally seeks those usually left unseen; Volunteers walk Flint streets searching for homeless.

Body: We have faith and hope, but where is charity?

A point of frustration.

The Catholic Catechism is quite explicit in stressing the importance of charity, even relative to other virtues:

1826 "If I . . . have not charity," says the Apostle, "I am nothing." Whatever my privilege, service, or even virtue, "if I . . . have not charity, I gain nothing."103 Charity is superior to all the virtues. It is the first of the theological virtues: "So faith, hope, charity abide, these three. But the greatest of these is charity."104

But Parish bulletins, which ought to be a wonderful place to learn about opportunities to give/volunteer/donate/contribute are almost always devoid of such opportunities, unless it's, say, ministry to the sick. Don't get me wrong; these things are important. But there always seems to be room to write about outreach opportunity, films and picnics, and so on. The same goes for bulletin boards and catholic websites.

My own experiences have taken in three parishes in my current neighborhood (Uptown, Chicago), but I've also found this to be true as a general trend when I've gone to church in Flint and New York.

What I wonder is, given the stress on the unique importance of charity as a virtue, why aren't churches working harder to provide information on opportunities to give?

Gloamane 5, 31.

- PICTURE OF THE WEEK -
Water over water. (Nigeria)

- QUESTION OF THE DAY -
In what ways are you going "back to school" this fall?

Event: Who I'm looking for in the Democratic National Convention.

I'm hosting company this week and Urbantasm research (in the form of the Chicago Jazz Festival) will be intruding into watching live coverage of the Democratic National Convention. Which is a shame, because I'd really like to see it as it happens.

Here's who I will be trying to check out, in the moment or after the fact:

MONDAY, AUGUST 25TH
- Michelle Obama
- Maya Soetero-Ng (B. Obama's sister)
- Craig Robinson (M. Obama's brother)
- Jerry Kellman
- Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr.
- NEA President Reg Weaver
- AFT President Randi Weingarten
- IL Atty Gen Lisa Madigan

TUESDAY, AUGUST 26TH
- Hillary Clinton
- KS Gov Kathleen Sibelius
- AZ Gov Janet Napolitano
- PN Sen Bob Casey Jr.
- AFL-CIO President John Sweeney

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 27TH
- Joe Biden
- Bill Clinton
- NM Gov Bill Richardson
- MA Gov John Kerry
- Chicago Mayor Richard Daley

THURSDAY, AUGUST 28TH
- Barack Obama accepting the nomination.

There's more than enough food for conversation as it is...

Gloamane 4, 31.

- QUOTE OF THE WEEK -
"There is no greater calling than to serve your fellow men. There is no greater contribution than to help the weak. There is no greater satisfaction than to have done it well."
- Walter Reuther

- QUESTION OF THE DAY -
We now transition from the Olympics to the Democratic Convention. Are you watching? Who are you most eager to see?

Concept: Some Weird, Cool, Perplexing, and Beautiful Things About Lollapalooza.

Almost a month tardy, but whatever:

* FRENCH TOAST WITH COFFEE FOR BREAKFAST EACH MORNING BEFORE HEADING OUT.

* THE EVERPRESENT SCENT OF... UP... INCENSE.

* THE PROFOUND LACK OF AT&T PHONE RECEPTION DESPITE AT&T WAS THE FESTIVAL'S GREATEST SPONSOR.

* GETTING CAUGHT IN A RIOT.
The most dramatic and newsworthy item of the day was the intrapunk warfare at Rage Against the Machine. I met up with friends for this event about an hour ahead of time and at least three hundred feet from the stage but it was still shoulder to shoulder and knees to knees, and it only got more and more crowded. Forty minutes before the show started I left to grab a bite and almost didn't make it back in. Twenty minutes before the show I started to feel like I was near the front of the line for a particularly scary roller coaster. The show itself was, for our vantage, dizzying but not overwhelming. There were scattered crowd-surfers and extemporaneous mosh pits. At one point a youngish twenties boy plowed into our group and a friend of mine plowed him futher into the crowd, only to be set upon by the boys much larger and scowlier friend. We narrowly avoided a fight there. And then there was the refrain of Zach de la Rocha to "move ten steps back," only occasionally and grudgingly obeyed when he threatened to cut the set short. Just out of out line of vision, and undiscovered until later, a group of several hundred fans listening outside on Columbus Drive had stormed an access point that opened for the CTA, and managed to get past the police. So nobody really knows how many people were there, but it was more than eighty thousand.

* HIPPIES.

* STOPPING IN STREETERVILLE ON THE WAY TO THE FESTIVAL ON DAY 1 AND GETTING MY SUCCESSFUL DRUG TEST FOR MY NEW JOB: NOTHING'S GONNA STOP ME NOW, 'CAUSE I JUST DON'T CARE ANY MORE. AND THEN:

* READING THE MYSTERIES OF UDOLPHO WHILE WAITING FORTY-FIVE MINUTES IN LINE TO GET IN ON THE FIRST DAY.

* HIPSTERS.

* DUST.

* KIDZAPALOOZA.

* KIDZ.

* YES: MYSPACE STILL SUCKS.

* MISTING TENTS.

* THE OCTOPUS PROJECT AGAINST THE BAR.
I decided that, at least once during the weekend I wanted to be front-and-center for a cool band. The targeted performance was The Octopus Project, which performed on the midsized Myspace Stage at 11:30, just a half hour after the gates would open. I arrived at Grant Park before opening that weekend, and when admission started, they blasted the theme to Star Wars followed by Chariots of Fire. I basically ran through the park until I came to the stage, just in time to nab one of the very last spots against the barrier. It was a great choice... the crowd probably topped out at about 1,000, but the band still gave an all-out performance. They gave everyone up front tube balloons which we inflated and let go at one moment during the first song. The band chronically traded instruments, of which there were many, both of the guitar- and antique-electronic-variety, and I got to bop my head with some truly devoted fans of the Austin music scene. And the best part was when the girl started playing the theramin. As she prepared it a hush fell over the crowd, and it had this beautiful, haunting sound, though it looked like an air harp performance more than anything else. It was definitely worth it, and was such a positive experience that I attempted a repeat later that morning. This resulted in:

* DANCING ON THE BIG SCREEN FOR THE BRAZILIAN GIRLS.
Brazilian Girls came out as a sort of vaudeville-tinged Eurodance with tons of bass, and they were great. I showed up a half-hour early and applied the strategy of "move up to the stage and in from the side." This was a necessary approach because the show drew probably 7-8,000 people, but I managed to make the third row and hold a spot down for Jessica. We danced (as did everyone else) and there I was for about six or seven seconds, ten feet high and moving above the teeming masses on the largest plasma screen you've ever seen.

* SWEAT.

* PEOPLE WEARING LITTLE CLOTHING WHO, BY AND LARGE, COULD GET AWAY WITH IT.

* THE FACT THAT THE FOOD WAS ACTUALLY NOT THAT EXPENSIVE, AND SURPRISINGLY GOOD.

* BEING WITH TRUELOVE!

* THE LAKE BREEZE.

* THE INGENUITY OF CAPITALISM, WHICH OF COURSE, WILL WEAR OUT HERE EARLY ON.

* SHOCKING SKYLINE VIEWS (INCLUDING ONE OF THE PLACE WHERE I NO LONGER WORKED) INSPIRING THROUGH SLEEP DEPRIVATION AND SENSORY OVERLOAD.

* AVOIDING DEHYDRATION THROUGH THE CONSUMPTION OF GALLONS OF WATER, FOLLOWED BY A PREDICTED NUMBER OF TRIPS TO THE BATHROOM.

* SEEING FRIENDS, EXPECTED AND UN-
We saw Amber and Hallie and Rocco and Sam and Joe Bolte and Emily and Will and even others. Sometimes, finding people was back-breakingly hard, even when you'd set a time and a place in advance. Sometimes, you'd see someone you knew, even if you thought they were out on the East Coast.

* HOW MANY OF THE PERFORMERS WERE NON-WHITE.

* HOW FEW OF THE CONCERT GOERS WERE NON-WHITE.

* NEW DISCOVERIES.
I actually bought music for Gogol Bordello, the Ting Tings, the Go! Team, and the Octopus Project. I will probably be making an investment in Brazilian Girls and Saul Williams sometime in the near future. My favorite thing about Lollapalooza was probably the opportunity for discovery. Most of the bands here were amazing, none of them sucked, and we saw about thirty over the course of the weekend: Holy Fuck, Lupe Fiasco, Gnarls Barkley, Mates of State, Margot and the Nuclear So-and-So's, Dr. Dog, MGMT, Toadies, Chromeo, Blues Traveler, K'Naan, The National, Grizzly Bear, Booka Shade, Cansei de Ser Sexy, Spank Rock, Girl Talk, Magic Wands, and DJ Bald Eagle. I never would have known them if they hadn't all been in the same place at the same time, all doing their truly unique thing.

* THE REBELLIOUS VIBE THAT PERMEATED THE CITI STAGE.

* BESTING SUNBURN WITH A TON OF SUNSCREEN AND A WELL-ADVISED JUNGLE GETUP.

* K'NAAN GETING PISSED OFF WHEN THEY CUT HIS MIC AND FLICKING OFF THE CROWD BEFORE KNOCKING OVER HIS EQUIPMENT IN A TANTRUM.

* OLD FAVORITES.
The Radiohead set had a bit of serendipity to it, as fireworks scheduled to launch off Northerly Island perfectly coincided with the performance of "Fake Plastic Trees," and cut off at the perfect moment. I heard everything I wanted to, with "House of Cards" as gripping as I expected, and I never would have guessed "Everything In Its Right Place" to be a foot-stomping hand-clapping crowdpleaser, but it was, and of course there were crazy lights throughout. But my favorite moment was the showstopper: an accelerated and schizophrenic version of "Idioteque" which the band bleached in orange and green all across the screens. Thom dissolved into guttaral slam-sounds and then all of the sound stopped, and we all went home. It was sweet.
I personally thought that the Nine Inch Nails set got off to a kind of slow start. He definitely dropped bombs with early renditions of "March of the Pigs" and "Closer," but the pace slakened with same (not unpleasant) instrumental takes off Ghosts which all faded in and out, wordlessly, and had the feel of a slow moving jazz jam session. However, the spread and heaviness built again later on, leading into and through the encore. "Head Like a Hole" was jaw dropping and the whole crowd basically sang the entire song. But the highest point (and one of the quietist) was the two minutes Reznor spoke with gratitude to the crowd, about how he had participated at hte First Lollapalooza in 1991, he was surprised to still be alive, and playing at the same festival after all that time. Th set was gently manipulative, as we all thought that the exciting part of the show was over early (disappointingly so) and the crowd didn't seemed that inclined to rock out, having outgrown this about six years ago. But... he worked from behind and under us, sneaking back in when we didn't expect it, and when her croaked in those crazy, caging, deceptive lights onto a dark stage for a penultimate rendition of "Hurt," ack. It was amazing and heart breaking.

*SHOWING UP LATE TO THE GO! TEAM, BUT HAVING NINJA'S FACE SUDDENLY APPEAR ON A MASSIVE SCREEN WITH BOOMING BASS AS I WALKED ACROSS THE PARK.

*EPHEMERA.
Turning thirty during while the Brazilian Girls was strutting across the stage was more mind-blowing than any other birthday conceit I could have worked up on such short notice.
I talked Sam into finagling a ticket for the ultimate performance.
I bought a bunch of hippie shit.
I registered to vote in Illinois.

*THE EL RIDE HOME.
Two hundred hipsters riding the red line.
At Fullerton I said, "Hey, Zach de la Rocha's signing autographs down on Fullerton."
They laughed, as much as hipsters do.
We got home well after midnight.
The next day, I got up early, and went in to start my new job.

Diary: August 1987.

I have several specific memories of this month, but only a few of them are certainly correct.

This was the summer, if I am remembering correctly, when I took Judo lessons on the Eastside with most of the kids from my block: there were Stanleys and Teslars and Lameres there. I never did very good; never got past the white belt, actually, but the structured time together helped us to not hate each other so much. Jeff was always my worst enemy, and he had momentarily become my best friend. But all of this was from July. So here's what I remember of August:

At the beginning of August I became obsessed with skateboards, because the tough kids down on Tuscola - Daniel Tesler and Josh Spencer - they both listened to Michael Jackson's Bad, and said that it wasn't as good as Thriller. Jeff agreed with them, and though he was younger than me, I was happy to have a fresh start with these kids. They didn't care about Star Wars as much as I did, but they knew about Michael Jackson, and I did not, and I liked the way the music sounded, and anyway, the skateboards were fast and rattly.

So I asked for a skateboard for my birthday.

The birthday party was a little low key, because I just invited Jeff over for a sleep over. My parents got me a skateboard, but it wasn't of the thrasher variety, painted with skulls and zombies and flames like my friends. It was, in fact, a Bill the Cat skateboard, which was far edgier in meaningful ways, though of course I didn't appreciate this at the time. No matter: Jeff bought be a bunch of decals and stickers of robots with rotting faces and the cybernetic undead, and maybe even an AC/DC decal.

For my party, we rode up and down Gold Avenue, which was a little rough on a skateboard, because the road hadn't ever been repaved that I remembered and the asphalt was always pretty bumpy; things you might not notice on a bike, but make a difference with a skateboard. We stayed up and played Double Dragon, and watched that movie about the kid who goes to Space Camp (I really don't know what the plot was though) but Jeff fell asleep before the end, and it was probably around two or three in the morning before I went to sleep.

I have a lot of assorted images from the rest... mainly other parts of town; car washes and Mexican restaurants, but I can't remember if I saw these then or if I'm coalescing other memories, simply because the seemed to fit the mood. This was a month when I was interested in being "tough" because I equated it with "intensity," but I really didn't know much about what either meant.

Where were you in August 1987?

Gloamane 3, 31.

The week was a reasonable amount of fun, but not ultimately all that productive. Which is unfortunate, because I had really hoped for it to be productive. I did finish the non-conical gospels book which I have reading, made some inroads on congruence arithmetic, and kept up with exercises, etc. On Saturday, Barb threw a birthday party and everyone was supposed to bring a work of art... I read from The Mysteries of Udolpho, Lisa from her soldier's biography, and Reinhardt read his own work. Barb showed a shadow puppet play, and everything else we saw was cool, from Arrested Development to mating slugs. Yesterday I went to the evening mass at St. Ita's for a change of pace, and caught some of the Olympic's closer. One major event down, another - the Democratic National Convention - to go. Also, I have family visiting from out of town.

- NEWS OF THE WEEK -
New York Times: Anxious Party Hopes to Show Strong Obama.

- QUESTION OF THE DAY -
Was Joe Biden a good choice for Obama?

Lauras 34, 31.

- PLACE OF THE WEEK -
Democratic Republic of the Congo.

- QUESTION OF THE DAY -
Who wins, Humphrey or Chicago?

Lauras 33, 31.

- LINK OF THE WEEK -
UNICEF.

- QUESTION OF THE DAY -
Who wins, Google or googol.

Body: The Non-Canonical Gospels

For Urbantasm, I've been reading up quite a bit on theology, eschatology, and the occult. John Bridge considers himself to be the antichrist, and the novel deals quite a bit with religious themes, particularly concerning the nature of space and infinity. It's been very fascinating, because there's an automatic tension between a lot of these texts, even though they are widely separated in terms of how and why they were composed. The Catholic Study Bible and Lee Strobel's The Case for Christ make cases that are automatically critical of, for example, the non-canonical gospels, and the tension between various modes of fortunetelling and the Catechism is well documented.

I personally accept the arguments for why the canonical texts are such, and why other accounts were not included. In fact, reading these texts makes me particularly grateful that they are not a foundation of our faith, since they are frequently misogynistic and tend to restrict salvation to a narrowly definted elect. Many deemphasize the principle of forgiveness and access to grace. It would seem that the canonical gospels, even if they are considered not as religious texts but as social referendum are both more stable and inclusive, and I'd like to think that this is at least part of the reason why they were ultimately selected.

All this said, however, the non-canonical texts are fascinating... they're fascinating in their diversity and their imagery. The Christ they depict is often more violent -- I was dimly reminded of Tetsuo from Akira -- and the scenes are often apocalyptic and psychedelic. This is the scary looking god with the red eyes in the stained glass windows at St. John Vianny's in Flint:

Jesus said, "This heaven will pass away, and the one above it will pass away. The dead are not alive, and the living will not die. During the days when you ate what is dead, you made it come alive. When you are in the light, what will you do? On the day when you were one, you became two. But when you become two, what will you do?"
- The Gospel of Thomas

Another time he took me and James and Peter to the mountain where her used to pray, and we saw (on) him a light such that a man, who uses mortal speech, cannot describe what it was like. Again he took us three likewise up the mountain, saying 'Come with me.' And again we went; and we saw him at a distance praying. Then I, since he loved me, went quietly up to him, as if he could not see, and stood looking at his hinder parts; and I saw him not dressed in clothes at all, but stripped of those (that) we (usually) saw (upon him), and not like a man at all. (And I saw that) his feet were whiter than snow, so that the ground there was lit up by his feet; and that his head stretched up to heaven, so that I was afraid and called out; and he, turning about, appeared as a small man and caught hold of my beard and pulled it and said to me, 'John, do not be faithless, but inquisitive.' And I said to him, 'Why, Lord, what have I done?' But I tell you, my brethren, that I suffered such pain for thirty days in the place where he touched my beard, that I said to him, 'Lord, if your playful tug has caused such pain, what (would it be) if you had dealt me a blow?' And he said to me, 'Let it be your concern from now on not to tempt him that cannot be tempted.'
- John's Preaching of the Gospel

But the best (in terms of interest), and the worst (in terms of a responsible thesis), is the Infancy Gospel of Thomas:

3:1 The son of Annas the scribe was standing there with Jesus. Taking a branch from a willow tree, he dispersed the waters which Jesus had gathered.
3:2 When Jesus saw what had happened, he became angry and said to him, "You godless, brainless moron, what did the ponds and waters do to you? Watch this now: you are going to dry up like a tree and you will never produce leaves or roots or fruit."
3:3 And immediately, this child withered up completely. Then, Jesus departed and returned to Joseph's house. (4) The parents of the one who had been withered up, however, wailed for their young child as they took his remains away. Then, they went to Joseph and accused him, "You are responsible for the child who did this."
4:1 Next, he was going through the village again and a running child bumped his shoulder. Becoming bitter, Jesus said to him, "You will not complete your journey."
4:2 Immediately, he fell down and died.
4:3 Then, some of the people who had seen what had happened said, "Where has this child come from so that his every word is a completed deed?"
4:4 And going to Joseph, the parents of the one who had died found fault with him. They said, "Because you have such a child, you are not allowed to live with us in the village, or at least teach him to bless and not curse. For our children are dead!"
- The Infancy Gospel of Thomas

Lauras 32, 31.

- PICTURE OF THE WEEK -
Octopus!

- QUESTION OF THE DAY -
Who wins, the infrared or the ultraviolet?

Lauras 31, 31.

- QUOTE OF THE WEEK -
"God does arithmetic."
- Carl Friedrich Gauss

- QUESTION OF THE DAY -
Who wins, the squid or the whale?

Lauras 30, 31.

- Interesting week. Lot's of ups and downs, but in the the end, more ups than downs.
The dominant part was definitely my Orientation at NMFF; this is going to be the most serious job I've had to date, partly in the sense that the training / benefits / expectations are more comprehensive and sharply defined than anywhere I've worked before. But my position at the Laser Vision Center is also nice because of the variety of tasks I'll be doing and the familiarity I'll be able to develop with the procedure. And... there's the benefits.
On Wednesday I participated in the "In One Ear" series at the Heartland Cafe. It was an open-mic night, but the quality of performance was very high. A lot of slam poetry and music... I was the only person reading prose. It was a very long evening, with the readings going until after one in the morning, meaning I was exhausted the next day. And... the Heartland charged me $6 for a shot of Jack, which doesn't seem like a reasonable price, considering that's a third of what the bottle costs, and it's usually about the cheapest whiskey you can buy. I digress.
Friday was the Feat of the Assumption. I watched that Maggie Gyllenhaal movie, Happy Endings.
I was determined to actually have a relaxed, laid-back weekend this time, although I heard the roar of the jets at the Air and Water Show all weekend long, and it went nicely (and neatly) with the olympics, which was usually on the TV. Basically: Perfect for the middle of summer.

- NEWS OF THE WEEK -
Another very heavy news week.
For a change, I'll go with this.

- QUESTION OF THE DAY -
Who wins, the iceberg or the boat?

Lauras 27, 31.

Somewhat lately added:

- LINK OF THE WEEK -
The Huffington Post.

- PLACE OF THE WEEK -
Cleveland.

- QUESTION OF THE DAY -
Which Fraggle is the best Fraggle?

Lauras 24, 31.

- PICTURE OF THE WEEK -
Lake Victoria.

- QUESTION OF THE DAY -
HMO or PPO?

Lauras 24, 31.

- Yesterday was training at Northwestern, and we spent much of the day reviewing our benefits package, which is more complicated and comprehensive than any I've ever seen before. This is going to be both the most involved and serious day job I've ever had. It's good for being a responsible adult and husband; as always one has to (aggressively) carve out the time for writing and research beyond this.

My research plan for Urbantasm has held for over a month now, though I am behind in a few key areas. Basically, I'm up on researching similar media (uber-long novels), and on the math, but I'm behind on prosody, and there's a theological component that will have to be engaged to credibly assert that the main character is the/an antichrist that I just haven't sunk much time into yet. I passed a quiet evening alone last night, working on all of this, which is illustrative of my schedule always. It is essential that writing and research be fun, because by the time I've accounted for my job and my writing career, I've devoured fourteen or fifteen hours of the day. Even walking to the bus and while I'm exercising: I'm reading/researching.

- QUOTE OF THE WEEK -
"Dorothèe wept again, and then, taking up the veil, threw it suddenly over Emily, who shuddered to find it wrapped round her, descending even to her feet, and, as she endeavoured to throw it off, Dorothèe intreated that she would keep it on for one moment. 'I thought,' added she, 'how like you would look to my dear mistress in that veil; - may your life, ma'amselle, be a happier one than hers!'"
- Ann Radcliffe, The Mysteries of Udolpho

- QUESTION OF THE DAY -
Are you watching the Olympics much this week?

Lauras 23, 31.

Life continues to be vivid. After Lollapalooza and my 30th birthday coinciding (I literally turned while jumping up and down a few feet from the stage during Brazilian Girls, and then wrapped up the night with a fist-pounding set by Nine Inch Nails) I was ready for everything in the world to change. So it did.

On Monday I went in for my new/old caterpillar-to-butterfly job, and Sean did a great job training me all week. A lot of the faces I'd been looking forward to were gone, though, but all of our doctors are still there, Andrea and Pam and Steve and Vicki and Felicia, and a lot of my friends from Ophthalmology. After work, Sean and I grabbed a drink, and I got home with plans to accomplish all sorts of things. Of course, the sky opened up and went psych while I was standing outside the laundry room digging around in my pockets for keys I didn't have. I had to run back to the apartment soaked, just to find that I had left all the windows open. It turns out that some tornadoes did touch down locally, but nothing inside city-limits.

On Tuesday, we held the latest Tuesday Funk, and one of Reinhardt's friends was a sound technician, so the amp was working better than it ever had. We had a crowd of two dozen, and I really think this series is building into something special.

Wednesday was a good day.

On Thursday I finished early and ended up sitting on the beach reading The Mysteries of Udolpho.

Friday night, Amber threw a party, and Saturday was another shindig. I spent Sunday recovering and getting all sorts of other stuff done.

It's been a good week. Scratch that. It's been one of the best weeks.


- NOTES ON TODAY -

It is the feast of St. Claire.
It is the end of the Dog Days.


- NEWS OF THE WEEK -

I could go with the most important, or the most shocking, or the most artistically devastating... it's been a busy news week. But this is the one I like best.

- QUESTION OF THE DAY -

If you could be an Olympic caliber athlete in any sport, in which would you like to compete?