Desiderata

:)

It's a Saturday and.. I'm sitting in my room. How strange. Now that track is over, Saturdays are once again free for me again. I might start track earlier next year, and maybe not do swimming? But I'm not sure.. I was most valuable freshman (I have a spiffy plaque =P) and I also want to be fast at swimming again. I'll decide next year, after taking inventory of how academics are treating me.

I ran at conference championships yesterday (SCIACS) for track. I didn't run as well as I had hoped to, but I suppose that's okay, because I really haven't been training very much at all - I've been busy with lab and chambermusic some days, and other things. And it was hot :(. Alec came to watch, and it was fun to see him again. When I asked him if he liked my hair, he said yeah, and then Chris started talking about how he had asked me earlier in the day if I had changed the color a long time ago, and then Alec looked more closely and realized that it was indeed different. He thought I was talking about a haircut, but that's silly, since I've seen him since I got it cut during spring break. My hair actually looks like copper highlights in addition to lighter tips. People will probably put up pictures at some point.

Internal roompicks were today - I'm rooming with Joy (my current roommate) again next year :) We're living in Avery again next year - we got our first choice room, which is pretty central in the house, and even larger than our current room. I got a very high pick and the people above us chose other rooms, so we were pretty stoked. OCA picks are happening later, and then people are also trying to get back into Avery through the external lottery - I hope they get in.

Tonight is Blacker Interhovse, and another party. Yay for sunny days.

I did something today that I haven't done in a very long time.

While waiting to meet up with a friend for lunch, I ventured into Barnes and Noble, and just looked around. I had about 15 minutes, and Chris had strongly recommended reading Dune, so I tried to look for it. Then I realized that I didn't know who the author was, so I called him up and asked. Frank Herbert - I shall remember that in the future. I read no more than 2 pages of the book, and then it was time to go.

When I returned there later, I ran into another friend from highschool (how random!) - she was waiting to meet up with her mom, so we had a very brief exchange, and then parted ways.

I milled around, walking through all the shelves of books, trying to decide what type of book I wanted to read. I picked up Dune again, but then started thinking about all the other books that I've started but haven't finished. I actually picked up Anna Karenina again last night after getting home, and continued reading it earlier today. Some of the descriptions in that book are amazing, and make the book so captivating. But I digress. I ended up looking for Atlas Shrugged, a book I put a dent into during this past summer, during incubations and other slots of free time while at Stanford, and then put away for a while and didn't start reading again until very recently.

I found it, and then just sat down and read for a while. I suppose it's not something to write home about - generally you don't hear "Oh, I sat in a bookstore and read for a few hours" in response to the question "what did you do today?" but it was a lovely experience, and it was very enjoyable. The quiet energy, the barely noticeable soft music playing in the background, lots and lots of books... there's just something about bookstores that makes me happy.

Oh man, that's so early (or so late, depending how you think about it).



You're the time of day right around sunrise, when the sky is still a pale bluish gray. The streets are empty, and the grass and leaves are a little bit sparkly with dew. You are the sound of a few chirpy birds outside the window. You are quiet, peaceful, and contemplative. If you move slowly, it's not because you're lazy – it's because you know there's no reason to rush. You move like a relaxed cat, pausing for deep stretches that make your muscles feel alive. You are long sips of tea or coffee (out of a mug that's held with both hands) that slowly warm your insides just as the sun is brightening the sky.

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncaa/highschool/news/story?id=3111847&lpos=spotlight&lid=tab8pos1

That's intense.

Look, the trees
are turning
their own bodies
into pillars

of light,
are giving off the rich
fragrance of cinnamon
and fulfillment,

the long tapers
of cattails
are bursting and floating away over
the blue shoulders

of the ponds,
and every pond,
no matter what its
name is, is

nameless now.
Every year
everything
I have ever learned

in my lifetime
leads back to this: the fires
and the black river of loss
whose other side

is salvation,
whose meaning
none of us will ever know.
To live in this world

you must be able
to do three things:
to love what is mortal;
to hold it

against your bones knowing
your own life depends on it;
and, when the time comes to let it go,
to let it go.

Odi et Amo. Quare id faciam fortasse requiris.

Nescio sed fieri sentio et excrucior.