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SubscriptionsSites I Read
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| I've been reading Cold Mountain. I found it in a stack of things people had left behind in the dorms after graduation. I think I'll be finished with reading it later tonight, maybe tomorrow morning.
I never really grasped the concept of giving thanks before every meal. To be honest, there never seemed to be very much reason to be thankful. The effort that it took to get the food for me was minimal. However, after reading this book, I am starting to understand just where the source of such gratitude has come from.
100 years ago, it must have been freaking hard to make a meal. You have to grow everything. Not only that, if you wanted meat, you had to go out and KILL it and then butcher it and take care of all of the itty bitty bits by yourself. Making food was not easy. For the amount of effort I make (which amounts to me saying something to a stranger and handing him or her some money), I would probably be dead at the age of two. So for a chicken breast, salad and dessert, the effort necessary must have been extraordinary. So yes, I think under those circumstances, I would left my voice to the heavens and give grateful and undying thanks for the plenty before me.
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| I must say, I am very much enjoying my time in the nation's capitol.
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| A few days ago, I ordered some screenplays for the West Wing on LINK+. They came today and I was, frankly, as giddy as a schoolgirl. If you know me, then you know that I am absolutely crazy about Aaron Sorkin. I think he's one of the best writers of the 20th and 21st Centuries. He's definitely the best screenwriter in my opinion. The West Wing, well let's not even get into that. But for all of that, I've never actually ever READ anything by him. I've watched it on TV and heard the diaologue, but I've never actually READ, with my eyes, anything he's written.
So I got an email today and the library that the books had arrived and I went to pick them up and I was thrilled to see that they were huge. I honestly can't think of another moment in my entire life where I was as happy. I really don't think I will ever be as happy as when I was walking to my favorite spot on campus with my iPod and one of the books. I sat on the bench and I started reading.
And this is what I realized. This was a special time. The producing and filming of the West Wing was really a once in a generation time of absolutely amazing creativity that has never been equalled since. I truly and sincerely believe there is nothing on TV that has come close to matching the wonder that it is, even Studio on the Sunset Strip. That really was a wonderful time. And then I got to thinking, if there was ever a time to be a screenwriter, that was it. In my memory and judgment there hasn't been another time when a product of such wonderful quality has been produced. It is sad to think that it has passed. But that is the way of all things that are good, they pass on.
I'm gushing here, but it is absolutely true. I read lines in here and I just am in awe of the creativity, thought and power that generates such writing. It brings you to your feet with its confidence and delivery. It is...marvelous. I really don't know why nobody else strives for this quality of genuine and ernest intelligence. It seems sucha shame. Hundreds of millions of dollars poured into television, and nothing this good.
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| I've been watching these video podcasts off of iTunes from the New York Times. It's called Vows and its married or engaged couples talking about how they met and the story of their engagements. It's pretty interesting actually. One thing I've been surprised with is how, consistently, people who get married have known each other a very long time, but not continuously. Couples would meet randomly over the course of several years before starting to date and etc. Perhaps it is the new modern condition to come in and out of contact until everything works out. But I had always imagined meeting the woman of my dreams and basically going straight from there. But maybe things are different.
It's definitely not the normal thing to do, listening to other people's engagement stories. But I'll tell you what: listening to people talking about their engagement, coming together, falling in love. This is a good. I mean, there's really no way to look at these stories and not see the good in it. A new life, together, is being celebrated. I think that's the cool thing about getting married, starting a family. It's a new life. A new course. Everything is hopeful (hopefully). Not every marriage is like that of course, I know. But the one's that get presented on the NYTimes, they tend to be well to do young professionals, college educated, smart and articulate. The very picture of a happy modern family.
I finally finished writing thesis. It's strange. There are all of these books and papers scattered and piled up all over my room. And now I don't need them any longer. I have files and folders that are done with. Things are done with. Its another thing to be shelved into the past. That box is starting to get big.
I was watching a monster movie and thinking that now along with falling out of an airplane, I also don't want to be eaten by a monster. So now that is two ways that I don't want to die. But that's not it. What's perplexing is that now I'm suddenly someone with, not one, but two ways of dying that I do not wish to experience. There was a time, and it didn't seem that long ago, when I had none. But here I am. Lists just keep getting longer. Restaurants I like. Books I enjoy. There was a time when all of these things were blank. Not anymore.
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| There is something very special about the road trip. No where else in the entire world really do you have somewhere like the United States where you can drive from one end to the other with such ease. Barring horrible hitch hiking serial killers and roving zombie hoards, the only fault in a road trip calamity is usually your own (ie, getting lost).
So what of it? I think one of the coolest things about road trips is: you can travel a million miles away from where you are and still find things that are the same. Don't get me wrong, but there are things that are still going to be different. Accents, the weather, the taste of the water while brushing your teeth, these will indeed be different. Other things though, will be the same. The way a sidewalk looks, English, driving on the right side of the road, red stop signs, the dollar being accepted.
I remember being stuck in New York waiting for my flight to London. I needed Chapstick or bleed horribly from my lips. And I knew I would be able to it in the convenience store of the airport Ramada Inn I was staying at.
When I went to different countries, different things would be taken away from me. I wouldn't understand people or I wouldn't feel clean. I had no idea what I was eating. I thought I was being ripped off by the exchange rate. Of course, the fact that I was travelling and the feeling of accomplishment and personal growth from it far outweighed the negatives - the negatives were just the price that had to be paid. But the nice thing about roadtripping across America is that the negatives are so low, they are almost non-existent. Ok, so it snows in some places and I might get run over by fast walkers on the East Coast trying to get somewhere warm really fast, but I do believe that I can make my way around wherever I am if I have some street signs, a map and these wits.
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