Random Facts and Mind-ness

I am often made fun of (thanks Wratch and students) because I can't concentrate on any one thought at a time. If you ask me what I'm thinking about, be ready for a list. It takes serious effort on my part to really sit and absorb an idea for more than 5 minutes. Meditation is excruciatingly hard for me, especially since I get mad at myself for not being able to simply be. My thoughts are like quick capture snapshots and are generally random, so writing them out requires further explanation here. The following is a part of my list right now:

1. This is litmag crunch time and this year's staff has made an exceptional magazine, especially when considering that this is their first attempt. The design has a 1960's Mod mini skirt (photographed in black and white) marries Mr. Frank Lloyd Wright theme which turns out to be a very cohesive, honest, visually stimulating union. This collaboration is due to go to the printer next week which is an exciting time for the litmaggers but a stressful time as well (especially when InDesign is saving files to random places on the network. Stupid InDesign! Stupid network!). Temp U (Temporary Utopia, the magazine release party) will be held at a really cool, really red firehouse turned modern art gallery here in town (thanks K-Flo!). All are excited BUT there is work to be done!!! (So staff (specifically "Anne" and "Tina"), stop secretly reading this "illegal" blog and get back to work!)

2. I saw Borat last night and laughed so hard I cried. I think the only redeeming quality I gleaned from seeing this film (other than my mother is wrong (and she shouldn't see this movie); bodily functions ARE humorous) is prostitutes have feelings, too. I think Borat deflated some of the brain cells that I pumped up at the salon on Friday. I do, however, think that those who go and see this movie have probably already identified or recognized the political and satirical statement that Sacha Baron Cohen is trying to make about our country (unless they are the drunk frat boys who are only in the theater for the naked bits). Don't know where I'm going with that...

3. I read an article in The New Yorker by Robert Gottlieb called "A Lost Child." The article is about a French child prodigy named Minou Drouet. Minou Drouet is known for her astoundingly mature poetry that she wrote when she was only eight years old. She survived, at eight, a horrendous plagiarism scandal and a brutal media bashing, and now lives her life in seclusion, timidly vowing never to make her life public again. Here is an excerpt from the article about a letter Minou wrote before she gave-up on the world. It contains beautifully haunting imagery:

"Perhaps the most extraordinary [letters] are those addressed to her friend Philippe, who's fifteen and has sworn to marry her when she grows up, and with whom she's made a pact: they will always think of each other at exactly eight in the evening. This is from the last letter that appears in "Arbre, Mon Ami": 'My darling, it's eight o'clock, our eight o'clock. You remember the night when you said to me, in our cedar, 'I love you so madly that if you want I'll go and find you the moon.'... Philippe, at the eighth stroke of eight o'clock I plunged the silver crystal you sent me into the sea, at the place where the moon trembles, and I held it out to you, the moon, that living petal in its crystal cage. And I threw back my head and held out my hair to you, my hair in which you so loved to bury your face, it was the color of sad water and tasted of salt, and its tendrils were saying to you: You're loved.'"

4. What am I going to wear to the Joan Jett show? I think I need to go shopping for some liquid black eye-liner, fish-net stockings, one hell of a sex kitten dress (rock n' roll!), red boots, and maybe something in leopard print (?).

5. I'm hungry.

6. I have 130 Stranger tests I need to be grading instead of blogging. They're essay ones (Why do I do this to myself?! Stupid integrity!... I miss multiple choice...). Also I need to read "Fra Lippo Lippi" for IB. I love Browning. I love creepy, twisted dramatic monologues. Oh yeah, and I need to grade the character analyses from the IBers. I seriously need to stop being frivolous... I'm stalling...I want to clean the house instead...

7. I wonder if it's going to be cold today (cold meaning 50 degrees Fahrenheit in my neck of the woods). (still stalling)

8. I'm hungry (still)