Shuffle

Sometimes, switching my iTunes on shuffle is the right answer: when I'm feeling a little down or disconnected or I've spent too much time roughing myself up, it's nice to take a tour through my subconscious. Dear Kjerstin, the moral usually ends up being, you have pretty good taste in this stuff. Slash, remember when you loved U2 and the Chili Peppers? :) Slash, your friends are so cool.

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Last night I was driving up Hwy 6 when a ferocious winter/spring storm hit. At the same time night did. What was keeping my mind busy as I was trying to decipher yellow and white-striped lines and keep a safe following distance was Natalie Doxey's discomfort, when we were small, in talking about hail. Mormon girls with Utah accents toeing around swearing and ambiguous vowel pronunciation. When you were little did you use to say "quote" before swear words when relating stories--"She called me quote an ass unquote"? We did it all the time. If I remember right, I used to repeat quote to distance myself from the swear, if it was really bad ("quote quote quote quote the f-word" or whatever). Kids win.

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Utah is sort of incredible. Arches? Does that really exist? I drove down for a quick hike/mental health break yesterday and was reminded how incredible this state/world/universe is.

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I am considering, again, dropping out of my life. Yes I only have 2 papers and my thesis to go. But. That feels like a lot to ask right now. Shouldn't I just leave it behind in order to follow my life goal? Of...baking cookies or saving orphans or something? Isn't that a viable narrative to follow? (You don't really have to answer this question. I'll whine about it for a second before I buckle down and get it done.)

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My sister Rachel is having a baby! Her youngest is almost 6 and last word on the topic was There is no Way in Hell (hail). Delightful. They're good folks and they make handsome, well-adjusted boys with loads of personality. I'm looking forward to our family expanding.

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Best of the Week: I am very glad it's over. I invested some good time in organizing a conference the English GSA put on with the English Department which happened on Friday: well attended, apparently, and relatively hitchless. And then it was over!

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Tattoine. Jeremy Messersmith.