some May places
Lately, it seems like it is all about travel. By the end of this calendar year I reckon I may well have airplaned around more than any time before, putting the "mo" in mobility.
-Dateline – Boston----
And airplanes, yes. But then that means, inevitably and also, airplane magazines. The American Way magazine (and it is so the American way) has ads that completely dumbfound, and make me wish the word “outsource” never found its way anywhere near common usage
Globalized by habit of purchase, sure, I outsource customer service to India. I outsource my sneaker manufacture to Indonesia, apparently for ‘good’ reasons and the worst reasons both. But I’m supposed to “outsource my personal life” too? At this point I fear for the woman in the picture, and for anything left in this world that might be considered personal.
It is freaking cold here in Massachusetts in early May. I walk past an unoccupied Citizens Bank ATM upon de-planing with a receipt sticking out of it, just asking to be taken. Is this personal information? Clearly yes and clearly no. In a culture where ones' salary is the simultaneous source of both pride and careful secrecy, it is a record of both anonymous and highly specific transaction counted down to the cent.
Withdrawl: $201.50. Balance: $184,618.34. I realize I live an entitled life, but clearly others are living an E n t i t l e d L i f e.
Maybe I’m feeling a little grumpy for no good reasons. Emotionally roly-poly times make it so that an afternoon in the Boston Public Library is a free form of therapy.
You can sit there and read, zone out, and take in the exhibit on printing and typography on the first floor (nice). It tells you things you already know, but that is OK; it’s often best to be reminded:
Perusing the stacks and all sorts of patterns jump out. go to the foreign book section, for example, and note how the German language books are stacked compared to the French ones.
hmm...
…
Members of the hometown crew are doing fine. the baby is learning new words, and more importantly all the animal noises. it is like old McDonald’s Farm at C. and A.’s house that way.
>
Take the red line to Cambridge to find that B.w. knows where breakfast is at. The Brookline Café serves up the eggs Florentine needed to Fortify you for a walk around Fresh Pond. For the body, thems good eats.
-In Kackalak----
And D. comes down to visit for the weekend! such visits in spring compliment the wisteria on its purpleness and floppiness; the sun in its tenacity well past 8 pm. late day light like that means K. and S. may possess the native intuition of knowing when to go swimming at the quarry. it is a salve and antidote, a nice word from a stranger. perhaps it's important to remember we lived immersed in water for the first nine months, after all.
(quarry's edge)
...
It isn't $184,618.34, but our Lakewood household still had money left over in the collective pot from the yard sale in the spring. So the four of us spent it. Every last quarter. in quarters. How much does 30 dollars in small change and another 30 in small bills look like? it looks like a waiters nightmare at the sushi restaurant. but you like him, he likes you all, and you leave a big tip for that kind of service (although unfortunately in unrolled coins).
-There is here, Chicago.o.o.----
It is a fine place. let’s call it home, shall we. A new apartment is found surrounded by the glories of cheap and excellent vietnamese food. of public transport coded in your favorite color. now that is what luck is good for, exactly that sort of thing.
I picked up a Hungarian cookbook (they eat noodles for dessert!) and a New Orleans one as well (they eat everything with 2x the amount of cream) at R.’s yard sale. I laid claim to copy of Darwin and of Voltaire, but for now they will stay well stored in the R. bunglow basement (I swear, I am coming back for them!)
South Side apartments of friends have a quality of light and space that makes you want to eat grapes and stare happily out the window all morning at nothing but the occasional European Starling.
As for wildlife, S. and I saw three rabbits in Millennium Park, and I spied a fox in Graceland Cemetery from by window seat on the EL. That all seems very auspicious. Like Aesop is cooking up a fine little fable of the time spent. Hopefully I am the Tortoise and not the Hare; the Ant and not the Grasshopper; certainly neither the Scorpion or the Frog. fingers crossed.
...
And it is airplane time yet again. I just found my passport after some rummaging.
better pack a snack.
-Dateline – Boston----
And airplanes, yes. But then that means, inevitably and also, airplane magazines. The American Way magazine (and it is so the American way) has ads that completely dumbfound, and make me wish the word “outsource” never found its way anywhere near common usage
Globalized by habit of purchase, sure, I outsource customer service to India. I outsource my sneaker manufacture to Indonesia, apparently for ‘good’ reasons and the worst reasons both. But I’m supposed to “outsource my personal life” too? At this point I fear for the woman in the picture, and for anything left in this world that might be considered personal.
It is freaking cold here in Massachusetts in early May. I walk past an unoccupied Citizens Bank ATM upon de-planing with a receipt sticking out of it, just asking to be taken. Is this personal information? Clearly yes and clearly no. In a culture where ones' salary is the simultaneous source of both pride and careful secrecy, it is a record of both anonymous and highly specific transaction counted down to the cent.
Withdrawl: $201.50. Balance: $184,618.34. I realize I live an entitled life, but clearly others are living an E n t i t l e d L i f e.
Maybe I’m feeling a little grumpy for no good reasons. Emotionally roly-poly times make it so that an afternoon in the Boston Public Library is a free form of therapy.
You can sit there and read, zone out, and take in the exhibit on printing and typography on the first floor (nice). It tells you things you already know, but that is OK; it’s often best to be reminded:
Perusing the stacks and all sorts of patterns jump out. go to the foreign book section, for example, and note how the German language books are stacked compared to the French ones.
hmm...
…
Members of the hometown crew are doing fine. the baby is learning new words, and more importantly all the animal noises. it is like old McDonald’s Farm at C. and A.’s house that way.
>
Take the red line to Cambridge to find that B.w. knows where breakfast is at. The Brookline Café serves up the eggs Florentine needed to Fortify you for a walk around Fresh Pond. For the body, thems good eats.
-In Kackalak----
And D. comes down to visit for the weekend! such visits in spring compliment the wisteria on its purpleness and floppiness; the sun in its tenacity well past 8 pm. late day light like that means K. and S. may possess the native intuition of knowing when to go swimming at the quarry. it is a salve and antidote, a nice word from a stranger. perhaps it's important to remember we lived immersed in water for the first nine months, after all.
(quarry's edge)
...
It isn't $184,618.34, but our Lakewood household still had money left over in the collective pot from the yard sale in the spring. So the four of us spent it. Every last quarter. in quarters. How much does 30 dollars in small change and another 30 in small bills look like? it looks like a waiters nightmare at the sushi restaurant. but you like him, he likes you all, and you leave a big tip for that kind of service (although unfortunately in unrolled coins).
-There is here, Chicago.o.o.----
It is a fine place. let’s call it home, shall we. A new apartment is found surrounded by the glories of cheap and excellent vietnamese food. of public transport coded in your favorite color. now that is what luck is good for, exactly that sort of thing.
I picked up a Hungarian cookbook (they eat noodles for dessert!) and a New Orleans one as well (they eat everything with 2x the amount of cream) at R.’s yard sale. I laid claim to copy of Darwin and of Voltaire, but for now they will stay well stored in the R. bunglow basement (I swear, I am coming back for them!)
South Side apartments of friends have a quality of light and space that makes you want to eat grapes and stare happily out the window all morning at nothing but the occasional European Starling.
As for wildlife, S. and I saw three rabbits in Millennium Park, and I spied a fox in Graceland Cemetery from by window seat on the EL. That all seems very auspicious. Like Aesop is cooking up a fine little fable of the time spent. Hopefully I am the Tortoise and not the Hare; the Ant and not the Grasshopper; certainly neither the Scorpion or the Frog. fingers crossed.
...
And it is airplane time yet again. I just found my passport after some rummaging.
better pack a snack.
posted by andrew s.yang at Tuesday, May 24, 2005
1 Comments:
of all of the things to memorize, it does not surprise me that i haven't been storing the entire contents of your blog in the part of my memory that can be immediately accessed. maybe you were feigning shock that i forgot you saw a fox so i'd re-read this and finally give you those books? at least you don't have to worry that i'll eat them!
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