donne fishing...
wow. it's only been a little over a week and i'm already posting again. you three that read this maudlin blog shouldn't allow yourselves to become spoiled with such an overabundance of good writing. i assure you, there are others out there. but, to get on with it, the last week has been a week of ups and downs, seemingly like the many that preceded it. the high point for me was probably the continued forging of a new friendship with ryan, nearly seven years my junior, who also calls himself a writer and who has already succeeded in bringing out my inner nerd (not terribly difficult, though) through something called dagorhir. it's sword fighting (not real swords, unfortunately for the coolness factor, but fortunate because i tend to be rather attached to my limbs) and it rocks. i also had a birthday on tuesday, which was... another birthday. a quarter of a century. my, how far i've come (sarcasm, there, if you were wondering). it was a fairly lonely day, just until it was almost over. kyndal was gracious and made me some sweets, all while patiently fielding my grumpiness, then a few of us watched "love actually," which always cheers me up. i don't really remember the rest of the week, except for bits and pieces. most people went home or elsewhere for the holiday weekend, so it's been fairly quiet the last couple days. i was able to make love to the piano for about two hours straight on saturday, then eun jin and ho jong, two korean students here at the house, and i made beef bulgogi along with shrimp and cinnamon-chipotle eye of round for supper, which was amazing.
a few started trickling back in today (or yesterday, sunday, now), and we took it easy with a night of movies. kyndal was over again and we watched "no reservations" (with wonderful music from philip glass), then i talked them into watching "wit," one of my personal favorites. i love that movie because it is very well written, very well acted, and has half a dozen layers of meaning while keeping things fairly simple but disguised cleverly with words. it's about death and the meaning of life, featuring john donne's tenth holy sonnet, but most importantly it's about faith. i think we take our faith for granted because, when it comes down to it, faith is all about saving us from death. and this college professor, who is so wrapped up in the paradoxes and arguments and trying to figure it all out, almost misses the point about what salvation and a hope for that salvation really is. it's about not fearing death, and a consolation that death is only a pause, a breath between this life and the next. but many of those who watched it were fairly rude about it, thinking it boring and ridiculous, with comments like, "is she dead yet?" floating around every few minutes. made me kinda upset, actually. this is one of the reasons why i don't want to be a writer. i love movies/books like that. they are the kinds of things i would write about, the things i think people need to hear, and most of the people there thought it was ridiculous. it makes the writing seem so pointless, like it would fall on deaf ears or blind eyes. i need to hope that not everyone is like that. i think it might do me some good to get out of columbia.
prayers for aurora and her family, please. tough times. i was able to talk to her on the phone today for the first time, but i do wish it had been under better circumstances.
well, i should get some sleep. my apartment is a mess. i'll clean tomorrow. busy day, though. hope you're all doing well.