About Clouds

Yesterday the Sixth Wilbury posted a quote from the greatest book ever written, The House on Mango Street. She pulled out the part about Darius and his clouds, which made me remember that I had written this little poem about that same kid, Darius and his clouds, about 2 years ago when I read that book. Here goes

Darius

A boy was named
Darius
because his mother
liked the sound.
We learned on the playground
that he knew God.

Darius was the boy
who chased us
outside of school,
who pulled our hair,
but ducked away
before we reached
for him. Darius.

On Friday, he stood
on the blacktop, easy
with his hands hiding
in his pockets.
He looked away from us
and we felt our breath
slip into ourselves,
just before he pointed up
to a single cloud.

He’d pulled
a single cloud
from that piled air
and called it God. We looked at Darius,
noticed his eyes
for a first time,
heard the deepness
in his voice,
and believed him.

Twice in one day

What's come over me? Basically a snotty cold which I've just plain ole succumb to and have ended up glued to the couch with kleenex, my laptop, and way too much TV. It's not fair, but tonight, something funny actually happened. And of course, I do tell...

As many other 20 something girls I know, the show Felicity tugs at my sick heart strings. Remember, girls? Remember watching this show like we would figure out the answer to why our boyfriends were not hot, dark men like Ben and were definitely not mysterious enough to follow across country? Well here I sit, still watching this show, a little happy that I found it on the upper cable channels tonight. Will's in the kitchen being the oh so excellent person that he is cooking his whining housemate dinner, and he says, "What are you watching?" which was a loaded question, both out of curiosity and disgust because Felicity was in the middle of one of her break-up-with-Ben scenes (How many times did that really happen? It feels like at least 20), and the husky Ben voice mixed with wheepy Felicity was a little gross sounding. So I reply, "Felicity?" He's quiet, but I know more will come.

Some time passes here...

From the kitchen, "Who's Felicity?"

I say, "Keri Russell?," knowing as an old Felicity fan that there's no way I can really explain who Felicity is, I mean she's this complex, wandering soul type of person who can never make a real decision without at least bringing 3 people down with her before she decides to "Trust herself," which somehow makes those other 3 people happy for her, which really is unrealistic, but so entertaining to the high school girl still secretly hiding in my house.

So Will, still stirring something, says, "So the shows about Felicity. What all the boys want to be with her or something?" And I answer, "Well yea, it's complicated see." And he cuts me off before I can get into the true explanation of WHO this Felicity is, which is pretty much salvation for us both, don't you think??

On being a grown-up...

"It's times like this when someone is talking to you like you are a grown-up that you have to be careful not to pick your nose or dig your drawers out of your butt."

"Well, that's what being a grown-up is like. At first it's scary but then before you realize, with a lot of practice, you have it under control. Hopefully you'll have lots of time to practice being grown-up before you actually have to do it."

--from The Watsons Go to Birmingham--1963 by Christopher Paul Curtis, one of the many kids' books I read in order to pursue my career.

Cheers! and a big Hurrah! to all the other grown-ups!

Cayce Chronicles

"I snuck what was left of my father's chicken into a napkin when Aunt Nora came to the table and got everyone's attention: Did anyone want to dance "The Hokey Pokey"? My mother did. She and Aunt Nora walked off with their arms linked.
I spotted them with Rebecca on the dance floor as I made my getaway. The bandleader was singing, "Put your right foot in, and shake it all about," and the three of them did it along with everyone else, without thinking, as I did, Why? Why would you put your right foot in and shake it all about?"

--from The Wonder Spot, Melissa Bank

As stories I've told before about the neighborhood I live in go (see some December posts about Christmas yard decorations)...there's a new one that got me laughing this week. So sometime around April or maybe May, Will and I decided to get a tent (not a camping tent, but a 10x10 easy-up to provide shade) to put in the backyard and we put mosquito netting around it b/c the backyard is sort of similar to a big stagnant pool of water, meaning really that the mosquitos love it and especially me when I'm floating around in the big pool of water. There's not water, REALLY, but it's a nice comparison. Since then we've spent some time out in the tent eating after we cookout and such, and the experience is always pretty pleasant considering that the Mosquito Super Kris Buffet is closed to the public. About 2 weeks ago, I came home from a short beach trip, and lo and behold! the neighbors had a tent too, minus the mosquito accoutrements. Now the third house down from us also has a tent, but from the window at my desk I can't exactly see the placement of their tent and have no idea whether or not they bothered for the mosquito accessories as we did.

Apparently though, the idea of a tent to block the sun was new in good ole Cayce, and by gosh we're bringing the modern times right on into this town!

Honey Asilomar, my road sister name

And in other news, on the road trip down the 10 my road sister, Flakey, and I were harrassed by a truck full of redneck boys. Apparently, people "holler" out the window at girls in places other than good ole South Carolina; they even do it in the desert. Since the 10 is covered in nothing but small shrubs and mining mountains, it's a scary thing being "hollered" at by stupid boys in their big truck so I decided it was time for a *HP, which doesn't exist in California. Flakey, my good pal, has the bright idea to look in the handy atlas for a "help-there's-scary-guys" number. So we call the CA tourism number and Flakey talks to a lady about how gross these boys are and we get a number to call, but apparently the boys figured out our plot to have them hightailed by some CA Highway Patrol so they left and then it was just Flakey and Honey in the Jetta still cruising down the road.

Other things have happened like eating nachos, going to gross bars named after noxious gases, sitting on ice cubes, pissing off little brothers, the list goes on and on. Overall, the road trip update cannot be truly experienced via the blog. We'll have to go out for a beer and a night of storytelling instead.

If I ever figure out how to post pictures on the blog, I'll do it, but that might take a little more inquiry than I'm up for. Happy days people!

Shoop shoop shoooby Doop

It's finally over, the whole first year of teaching chaos. Yay for me and everyone else involved in that silly endeavor. And hooray for the other people about to embark on it. Just 2 more years and I can go back to school too...whew! what a relief!

In T minus a day and a half (T minus means minutes left or something so I hear) I head out to the western parts of the country for a little R&R and P&D&E and F&F. See if you can figure those out.

And an update on other things...mark your calendars the wedding date is set for July 8th, originally June 24th, and let's hope the place hasn't booked the 8th yet. That's a whole year away which is a really long time in my opinion to get ready for a day, one day, a single day. We've discussed eloping, letting Elvis marry us in Vegas, and all those things that seem somewhat more exhilarating than all the months of planning. Hmmm...one does like to dream! I don't think it'll ever happen, thus I'll just make the most of the traditional route and have as many laughs along the way as I can muster. It, too, shall be fun.

Impressive

I'm very impressed by all the recent updating by the bloggers. If I was YOUR teacher, I'd say fantastic! excellent! spectacular! all ending in an exclamation point because of just how wonderful you are, much like 8th graders who do something great and then lean in ever so slightly hoping to get one of those exclamations from someone. You're cooler than 8th graders though because most of your hormones have settled.

Ever noticed how difficult some words are to text on the cell phone? I have decided that the word "tomorrow" is most time consuming. You know if you need a letter on the same key, you must wait that obligatory 3 blinks of the cursor before being allowed to type the next letter? Well in "tomorrow" there's the 'o' and then wait for the 'm' and then wait for the 'o' then do a quick 'r' and wait for another 'r' and then the 'o' and 'w' are quick no problem type jobs. But wow that's a long one to type. I often want to write 'tom' rather than 'tomorrow,' but often think my reader might think i'll see my friend Tom later. I don't even have a friend Tom; I used to though. I don't know where he is anymore. Hmph.

An update on my teaching career. I have T-5 days and counting. What does T minus ____ mean anyway? What's the T for? So just 2 full days and then 2 half days and then 1 work day and then I dance myself right out of that building in a little celebration jig. And that means, just T minus 7 days before I head out on the Plane Trip/Road Trip of the season. And there are a few reasons that this will be so.
1. 2 plane trips = lots of by myself with a bunch of strangers time
2. reuniting with 2 old friends, one for 2 weeks, one for 4 hours in the airport?
3. Monterey
4. San Francisco http://www.ramadaplazasf.com/main/rpsf-home.htm
5. Food & Beer

Yes, 5 is good.

So this might be the wedding site www.woodfieldinn.com
What does everyone think???