the week's not even over yet and i've already lost my phone twice. until tuesday this had never happened to me before. it's such a strange 21st century phenomenon that we carry around dozens and dozens of phone numbers in a small device, information that is vital to our social wellbeing and communicational livelihood. we don't memorize these numbers anymore. i don't know my own mother's phone number. it's crazy. luckily i found it both times, the next day. phew...
my grandmother is turning 84 years old tomorrow. evolution is closed all weekend so i'll be able to celebrate at her house in westfield. i think i'm going to go back to new hampshire with my mom afterwards and spend the weekend up there, unless i can find a way to burlington. i think i need a little breathing room from this valley that is beginning to fill up with 18 to 22 year old bodies again. sigh...
Friday, August 31, 2007
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
embracing change and mutual aid
you can feel the air changing on the streets of northampton as calendars prepare to turn to september. some mourn the end of summer, while others embrace the potentiality of fall.
yesterday, cirilia finished moving her things out of my apartment just as mike and jenn began moving there stuff in. i rearranged my room in anticipation of the couchsurfers who were arriving by bus in the afternoon. i now have sailor's amazing bed in the windowed nook, while the futon now lives across the room on the other side of my desk. it feels much cozier now.
valerie contacted me nearly a month ago through couchsurfing.com, explaining that she would be travelling from colorado with her daughter sofia who is starting at smith college and that they would need a place to crash the night of the 27th. how cool is that? i enjoyed showing them around northampton and smith campus. they came to erika's soy party and received a very informative orientation of the five college area from kelley and amelia (who brought some pretty amazing spicy peanut noodles with tofu, i must add!). sofia learned to never attend frat parties at umass or drink northampton water without a filter. i think she'll do well here even without the fake id valerie wanted to get her.
i was able to say goodbye to them this morning when i returned from holyoke. they were sincerely grateful for the hospitality and valerie offered me a photo her boyfriend took and a giftcard to the local healthfood store. ah, mutual aid...this is what i live for.
yesterday, cirilia finished moving her things out of my apartment just as mike and jenn began moving there stuff in. i rearranged my room in anticipation of the couchsurfers who were arriving by bus in the afternoon. i now have sailor's amazing bed in the windowed nook, while the futon now lives across the room on the other side of my desk. it feels much cozier now.
valerie contacted me nearly a month ago through couchsurfing.com, explaining that she would be travelling from colorado with her daughter sofia who is starting at smith college and that they would need a place to crash the night of the 27th. how cool is that? i enjoyed showing them around northampton and smith campus. they came to erika's soy party and received a very informative orientation of the five college area from kelley and amelia (who brought some pretty amazing spicy peanut noodles with tofu, i must add!). sofia learned to never attend frat parties at umass or drink northampton water without a filter. i think she'll do well here even without the fake id valerie wanted to get her.
i was able to say goodbye to them this morning when i returned from holyoke. they were sincerely grateful for the hospitality and valerie offered me a photo her boyfriend took and a giftcard to the local healthfood store. ah, mutual aid...this is what i live for.
Friday, August 24, 2007
ready for it
the summer is beginning to feel like a distant memory even though it's hot again today. i think i'm ready to change things in my life. maybe try to settle down a bit. i never got around to answering those questions for the ak press job. the idea of moving to california just isn't that appealing to me right now. perhaps i'll feel differently about the situation come january.
being back on cape cod was nice, even if it was just for a couple days. it was great to see jared again and to rock out to east coast tremors at the beachcomber. i like going back but i feel so removed from the cape especially now that my mom lives in new hampshire.
now i'm back in northampton, my home. it feels right--for now.
i'm ready for the possibilities of the fall...
being back on cape cod was nice, even if it was just for a couple days. it was great to see jared again and to rock out to east coast tremors at the beachcomber. i like going back but i feel so removed from the cape especially now that my mom lives in new hampshire.
now i'm back in northampton, my home. it feels right--for now.
i'm ready for the possibilities of the fall...
Thursday, August 09, 2007
crazy day (chapter 2)
i called to erika to see if she was still looking for a place to live for september. she told me that she's moving into liz's old apartment on pleasant street with kate who was subletting my room from me march-may. good to know. the search has begun...
we hadn't hung out in a while so erika and i made plans to get dinner in amherst. i told her about all the crazy shit that was happening. i wanted to call my stepmother, who's an astrologer, to see if something out of the ordinary was happening with the stars or something. i was convinced that our trip to amherst would bring about something ridiculous like a run-in with my ex, and i was ready for all of it!
strange things did happen. it's almost too much to explain, really. i found myself running down south pleasant street in search of a special person who had just messaged me from outside of antonio's. on the way, i ran into leah and ned. "today's is so crazy! where are you guys going? freshside? my friend is waiting for me there so i'll see you in 10 minutes!" hugs outside of bueno y sano before running back for a much needed dinner. i think i ran into every person i know at freshside. the guy who gave me the bike that broke earlier in the day walked by and i ran outside to talk to him. all the dots were connecting. the ice coffee i drank at work was making me a little loopy on top of everything. i was also starving. we waited in the sweaty dining room forever until our food finally came. i inhaled a heaping plate of vegan pad thai and felt a little more stabilized. then we went on a shopping spree at newbury comics. what's going to happening next? i was up for anything.
not much else happened. i did convinced erika to stop by whole foods so i could visit my crush that works in the front end. it was about 9:30 at this point and pretty dead there. i had seen my other paralyzing crush at work earlier and it was all coming full circle. a crazy day, indeed. i went home and finished my mango flavored water, called christa, and listened to the new shellac album. i needed to stay in, take a deep breath, and let my body slow down. the day was over.
we hadn't hung out in a while so erika and i made plans to get dinner in amherst. i told her about all the crazy shit that was happening. i wanted to call my stepmother, who's an astrologer, to see if something out of the ordinary was happening with the stars or something. i was convinced that our trip to amherst would bring about something ridiculous like a run-in with my ex, and i was ready for all of it!
strange things did happen. it's almost too much to explain, really. i found myself running down south pleasant street in search of a special person who had just messaged me from outside of antonio's. on the way, i ran into leah and ned. "today's is so crazy! where are you guys going? freshside? my friend is waiting for me there so i'll see you in 10 minutes!" hugs outside of bueno y sano before running back for a much needed dinner. i think i ran into every person i know at freshside. the guy who gave me the bike that broke earlier in the day walked by and i ran outside to talk to him. all the dots were connecting. the ice coffee i drank at work was making me a little loopy on top of everything. i was also starving. we waited in the sweaty dining room forever until our food finally came. i inhaled a heaping plate of vegan pad thai and felt a little more stabilized. then we went on a shopping spree at newbury comics. what's going to happening next? i was up for anything.
not much else happened. i did convinced erika to stop by whole foods so i could visit my crush that works in the front end. it was about 9:30 at this point and pretty dead there. i had seen my other paralyzing crush at work earlier and it was all coming full circle. a crazy day, indeed. i went home and finished my mango flavored water, called christa, and listened to the new shellac album. i needed to stay in, take a deep breath, and let my body slow down. the day was over.
crazy day (chapter one)
yesterday was crazy. i'm not even quite sure where to begin, but to say that something larger than me was at work. a force beyond my control. it started in the morning when i received an e-mail from ak press informing me that i have moved on to the second round of their application process:
"We have narrowed our pool of applicants to a smaller group...of which you are a part."
so...good news. i just need to respond to a slightly intimdating list of questions which includes an explanation of my interest in anarchism. gulp....then if they like my answers i'll be contacted for an interview, at which point i can begin stressing out about whether i should move to california.
after checking my e-mail i rode my bike to work in the oppressive heat, arriving just in time to start my shift. my first hour on the clock was also the last hour at evolution for my coworker who just happened to be hired at food for thought books last month. they hired her instead of me and now i was sort of replacing her at my new job. coincidental, no? i learned all of this the day before when i saw her at food for thought. now here we were working together for an hour. while washing dishes i told her about the e-mail from ak press. "what is ak press?" she responded. fuck.
but the craziness hadn't even begun.
biking home from work on the bike trail between florence and northampton i thought about how i should get a new, more reliable bike that fits me better. the one i've been riding for past couple weeks was from the pedal people bike lab. it's pretty rickety, thoroughly rusted, and junior sized. the bike trail ends and morphs into state street which leads directly to my building. just before i reached the intersection with main street my subpar bicycle responded to my thoughts of its inadaquacy. the chain broke in half and i just glided for about 20 feet. i stopped, got off the bike and carried it to the metal fence in front of the church and laid it to rest. i grabbed the lock and walked the rest of the way home.
when i reached my apartment there was a couple of text messages waiting for me inside my phone. one was from my roommate informing that she has decided, after much deliberation, to move back to amherst at the end of the month. this was a possibility ever since she moved in so it wasn't a shocking surprise or anything. but now it was urgently official: i need to find a new roommate in less than a month.
to be continued...
"We have narrowed our pool of applicants to a smaller group...of which you are a part."
so...good news. i just need to respond to a slightly intimdating list of questions which includes an explanation of my interest in anarchism. gulp....then if they like my answers i'll be contacted for an interview, at which point i can begin stressing out about whether i should move to california.
after checking my e-mail i rode my bike to work in the oppressive heat, arriving just in time to start my shift. my first hour on the clock was also the last hour at evolution for my coworker who just happened to be hired at food for thought books last month. they hired her instead of me and now i was sort of replacing her at my new job. coincidental, no? i learned all of this the day before when i saw her at food for thought. now here we were working together for an hour. while washing dishes i told her about the e-mail from ak press. "what is ak press?" she responded. fuck.
but the craziness hadn't even begun.
biking home from work on the bike trail between florence and northampton i thought about how i should get a new, more reliable bike that fits me better. the one i've been riding for past couple weeks was from the pedal people bike lab. it's pretty rickety, thoroughly rusted, and junior sized. the bike trail ends and morphs into state street which leads directly to my building. just before i reached the intersection with main street my subpar bicycle responded to my thoughts of its inadaquacy. the chain broke in half and i just glided for about 20 feet. i stopped, got off the bike and carried it to the metal fence in front of the church and laid it to rest. i grabbed the lock and walked the rest of the way home.
when i reached my apartment there was a couple of text messages waiting for me inside my phone. one was from my roommate informing that she has decided, after much deliberation, to move back to amherst at the end of the month. this was a possibility ever since she moved in so it wasn't a shocking surprise or anything. but now it was urgently official: i need to find a new roommate in less than a month.
to be continued...
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