That’s right; I’m still sick :( I’ve tried everything I could think of, from actually taking medicine to color healing to drinking lots of orange juice, to tea, to lemon juice, to gargling with salt water….
Please, does anyone else have any suggestions on how to get rid of this hacking cough?!
Thanks!
Not a lot of time to write because I’ve got homework to do but:
MUSIC
The Weakerthans : I just saw their live show last night and it was amazing! They manage to be both depressing and optimistic at the same time, and their lyrics are just poetry. Go see them if you can, if not, try to get some of their music!
MOVIES
”My Best Friend’s Wedding” : Classic love story, plus you can’t go wrong with Julia Roberts.
BOOKS
”My Place” by Sally Morgan : I’m reading it for my Australia World Cultures class, but it’s actually an engrossing story about an Aboriginal girl growing up in white society.
Shallow water in a round red pool
Splashing face streaked with tart tears,
Bury your hands into the spot where
Foam flecks flicker and the sea
Meets the shore.
Water is adaptable,
Coalescing into any shape,
Space.
What if water could feel?
It stings
Your hands after you’ve been out in the snow.
It whispers
Drip-drops from the faucet
Late at the night
My feet turn sudsy in the rain.
Waves break like hearts at high tide,
It sloshes, steams,
slurps, crashes,
and careens,
It labors
Hail bits and ice chips
Clatter like marbles
In the mouth.
Do you walk barefoot
In torrential rain?
Feel the skin of your toes squeak,
Squeaky clean.
It sounds like absolution.
But water costs money;
Reservoirs clang empty.
I used to take hot baths and pretend
The water was lava.
I used to catch raindrops on my tongue
And worry about the effects of acid rain.
Let’s kiss underwater because
Thermal lakes in Hungary
Leave sulfur stains.
Water is the universal solvent.
With the big swine flu scare and the normal flu making its rounds, I’m taking every precaution that I can to keep from getting sick. When I woke up this morning with a slight sore throat, I knew the battle was really on. Check out these four ways I’m trying to keep illness and bay, and maybe start employing these strategies daily to ward off infection before it sets in:
1) Bulk up my body on vitamins. I don’t like taking pill vitamin, so I’m drinking a whole lot of orange juice, water with lemon, and eating lots of orange/yellow fruits and veggies.
2) Gargling. Either with salt and warm water or with Listerine, gargling helps to kill the germs lodged in the back of my throat. Twice a day is the common prescription.
3) Engaging in non-stressful activities, or trying my best not to get stressed out by what’s going on around me.
4) Honestly believing that I am not sick, and that this is a minor setback, which will be gone shortly.
Be healthy!
I had my first poetry class the other day, and we had to write a poem (based on Joe Brainard’s I REMEMBER). You should try it; start with your earliest memory, just let the phrases flow without thinking about what you’re writing, and make sure to keep with the format! Here’s my version of the poem -
I remember saying that Rudolph would guide Santa’s way through the clouds. I remember I’ve seen myself say that in a home video. I remember wordless lumps in throats during kisses. I remember forgetting how to hold a pencil. I remember mailing letters back to the sender, unopened. I remember going to McDonalds with my parents every other weekend. I remember that every time we went, I thought that one day they’d die. I remember thinking a ghost lived in the walls of my grandparent’s house, and that a terrorist living in the basement. I remember my Winnie the Pooh baby blanket; I still have some shreds. I remember an old man, hand hovering above mine, energy shooting into my palm. I remember trying to see auras; I still can’t. I remember kissing a girl; it felt just like kissing a guy. I remember looking up during an eclipse. I remember looking back down before I saw anything because someone had warned me I’d go blind. I remember learning Braille incase I ever went blind. I remember getting splattered with bugs on a rollercoaster at night. I remember eating a sour cream and onion cricket. I remember nearly throwing up afterwards. I remember my mom tying white bows in my long hair. I remember seeing my grandma being fed through a tube. I remember whipped cream on my tongue feels like air. I remember the burn blisters on his fingers, the feel of his hands on my thighs. I remember that first, awkward time. I remember blood being taken in a hospital. I remember screaming for it back because it was mine.
Robotic appendages
spread sporadic
speak syllables,
alliteration
reiteration
alignment of the particles
in the base of the
spine
send sparks, like
gamma rays and
radiation
flirtation
sinking under the
skin
waiting for an error
message in the
motherboard,
virus.
If you live in New York, you’ve heard of Williamsburg, the growing trendy neighborhood that’s become the go-to place for the fashionable, fake indie kids… otherwise known: hipsters. Never having seen it for myself, I enlisted my best friend Jo in an exploration.
First things first, we had to figure out where exactly in Brooklyn we could find Williamsburg. After being directed to the wrong place multiple times, we finally realized that we were over thinking the problem. The solution was simple: two stops on the L train, following the easy-to-spot young, plaid-wearing hipster crowd.
We emerged from the subway a little underwhelmed. It didn’t look all that different from the Bronx, only, the buildings were smaller and there were more stores that focused on natural and organic products. A thrift shop sat right on the corner; we browsed, but didn’t find any treasures. We walked three blocks in one direction, saw a few artsy (and expensive) boutiques and some cool eateries (lots o Asia), and then the area became residential. Three blocks in the other direction, and the same thing happened.
So, we ate some food, browsed here and there, and then took the L train back into the city. Williamsburg had one of those “we’re all really cool here” atmospheres, and I don’t think I would really fit in; I’m not “scene” enough. But I will give it this, there were lots of cute guys, even though they were the kind that never really look at non-fashion-conscious girls like Jo and me.
Here are some pics from our adventure:
I’m sure you’ve heard the predictions for 2012. One theorist says that the magnetic poles of the Earth will break loose and re-align, but now North will be South and South will be North. I haven’t done enough reading to know whether I believe this guy or not, but that’s not the point. The point is that magnetism doesn’t only exist on the land, but also between people.
It’s that tugging sensation you feel when you see someone you’ve (probably) known in a past life, and that really strange comfort you get when you’ve just met someone but somehow you can tell them everything. It’s the way two bodies can fit together, just so, tiny grains of sand clinging together on a foam-soaked beach.
And sometimes, when you find that magnetic someone you’re attracted to, you just can’t let them go. You’re stuck to them; you want to be around them every single minute of every single day. You want them inside your veins. Trust me, I know the feeling.
But I have news! You need to let your poles re-align, sometimes. You need to separate, to take breaks from each other, to remember which way is South and which way is North, to remember who you are and what you love to do. Recently the bf and I had a talk about this, how we were spending too much time together (pretty much all of our time). When we spoke, I didn’t really see a problem with it. After spending the last day and a half alone, however, I realize that there were so many things I wanted to get done but was putting off, like cleaning my room and writing new blog posts. Like listening to Xavier Rudd. Like reviewing Hungarian vocabulary.
And now that we’re re-aligned to ourselves, it’s time to come back together into position, and meet up again tonight and spend the night eating dinner, painting Warhammer models, and watching Weeds (good series. My recommendation of the week, along with Joss Whedon’s Dollhouse. I’ve only watched the first four episodes, but it’s pretty kicking!). So remember, take time for yourself. Your other half will still be there after you’ve re-aligned.
As for whether or not the world will still be here after the poles align, well, who knows. *shrug*
Okay! So, I’m using Windows Live Messenger for the first time to update my blog, which seems convenient, and makes uploading pictures and things either (although I was hoping it would help me improve the layout and it doesn’t --- could that be because I’m using blogger? Would this be different if I hadn’t already set the thing to be compatible with blogger? Maybe I’ll try that next time).
This is a test.
Windows Live Messenger is pretty convenient, and it sort of has to be, competing with AIM (not as good; I keep the old version because I hate all the new ones), and sites like Twitter and Facebook. The world-wide web is getting immensely inter-connected and I’m not really sure how I feel about it. Even my parents update facebook all the time! And then when I think I’ve gotten photo comments, it’s really just my family dialoguing back and forth about something underneath one of my photos :(
Anyway, test concluded! Let’s try to add a picture and post!
So far, I think the best software to blog with is on a MAC, but since I don’t have one, and even if I did, wouldn’t have the $100 a year you need to be a part of the program thingy, I must be grateful for what I do have: WLM. Yay.
