Spring Break

Made big plans for spring break today. More later (or after)...

Peace Corps

Just submitted my Peace Corps application. What a relief. In three to four weeks, I'll recieve more information about the process. I'm still waiting for one of my references to submit their form. More to come...

Hearing: At Dawn by My Morning Jacket

CMV Hero

I was at the Red Cross the other day giving blood and the Nurse asked me if I knew what the sticker on my Red Cross card meant. I of course don't speak Red Cross so the initials CMV Hero meant nothing to me. Apparently, CMV causes a mild fever in people with a healthy immune system, but usually no further problems. It can be a more serious infection, however, for people with compromised immunity, often leading to encephalitis and viral pneumonia. Once you have been exposed to CMV you are CMV-positive - about 80% of the population is CMV positive - and you can't go back to CMV-negative. The Red Cross screens all new blood donors for CMV antibodies, and designates those that are CMV-negative as "CMV Heroes" because of their ability to help special patients, like infants, cancer patients, transplant patients, and others with compromised immune systems who need CMV-negative transfusions. I have debated lately if I should keep giving blood (so far, I've have a false positive Hepatitis B result, low iron count, and a severely bruised arm); however, knowing that I'm helping patients that maybe couldn't get the blood the needed is enough that I'll keep going. What I don't look forward to is sometime in the future coming in contact with CMV and having to watch the nurse take the sticker off of my card.

Gloomsday

Friendships crumble while new possibilities surface. I ran into Stephanie at Barnes and Noble yesterday, she seems to be doing better after a bout with several things best left unsaid in the blog realm. We're going to get coffee next week sometime - we are both impulsive and the idea to setting up an "occassion" doesn't sit well with either of us. New Eric and I talked yesterday. He was driving down to Indy so he couldn't come out to Hank's with the Saturday Night Club. Speaking of, everyone was out of their shell and the crowd was larger than usual - it was one of those moments that you see nf the season finale of sitcoms - everyone ends up at a location and there are plenty of laughs, private conversations, and singalongs. Lots of Indigo Girls and REM. My friend Eric from the Barnes is leaving to hike the Appalachian Trail on Saturday - it was nice to see him before he leaves: though he may have a going away party on Thursday. He had a nice write up in Sunday's paper about his trip. I ran into Photog Sarah again - we are going to get together sometime soon and she's going to teach me how to use my camera for my trip instead of just relying on the automatic functions.

Hearing: I'm Wide Awake It's Morning by Bright Eyes
Reading: Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace
Finishing: Peace Corps Application

If you want something, ask for it.

Things still needed for my trip:

Insect repellent (high percent DEET)
Duct Tape
A Sport Watch
A Place to Stay in Minneapolis
A Place to Stay in Albany
Booking a Trip on the Wils Cave Tour
Booking a Trip to Alcatraz

Hearing: B.B. King on NPR
Surfing: The New Brooks Article
Finishing: The Antrim Novel (check previous post)

If You're Feeling Sinister

"There are things you do because they feel right & they may make no sense & they may make no money & it may be the real reason we are here: to love each other & to eat each other's cooking & say it was good." ~ brian andreas

Spots and Places

Met Eric yesterday at the Brooks lecture. We used to live two floors apart while at Read but didn't meet until yesterday. Funny, hopefully we'll become friends and start to hang out more.

Today I was reading at Henry's when a stranger, Sarah, introduced herself, asked me what I was reading, and invited me over to her table. Her friend Rachel is an English major at IPFW and Sarah is studying Photography. We all shared the common interests in music, movies, and books. Though they tended more towards feminist art, and while I consider myself a feminist, I think that the movement, like all movements, have become too extremist, too reactionary against every perceived slight. Anyway, I hope to see them again sometime. How is it that sometime to private, reading, can spawn so many public meetings?

Good Night.

Primer

The best movie of 2004, Primer, is finally coming to Cinema Center Tech. It opens this Friday - I can't wait to see it again and try to understand it.

Boring, Boring Blog

Reading: Elect Mr. Robinson for a Better World by Donald Antrim
Hearing: () by Sigur Ros
Watching: Indiana lose to Fucking Vanderbilt!

The Unconsoled

Finally finished Ishiguro - bewildering stuff though it didn't leave me as fulfilled or quite as curiously dioriented as Cody's Shooting the Heart. Both books make an effort to disorient the reader though for entirely different purposes. The rest of this post is taken from listed website and I think summarizes the book aptly. I can't say I didn't enjoy the book, though I can't say otherwise either.

From the start of The Unconsoled, Ryder, the narrator, is continually placed in precarious positions because he is living a ruse. Ishiguro says this is a metaphor for most people's lives. He uses themes of self-deception, distancing of families, disappointment in relationships, the tension of not fitting in, devalued ideals, and words unspoken. The characters remember, see themes in their past, become convicted over the wrong they have done, and try to forget it all so they can live with themselves in the future. Ishiguro points out, "You need a little bit of self-deception to give you the courage to carry on in life if you've discovered that you've done a lot of things wrong. It's no bad thing. There's nothing you can do in that situation except try and cheer yourself up a bit."

from http://www.leaderu.com/marshill/mhr05/kazuo1.html

Blue Jeans

I ended up at Henry's last night. After a couple of friends left to go back to their house I stayed and continued to read Unconsoled, I really enjoy reading in crowded spaces. All the overlapping conversations and music actually help me concentrate more so than a silent apartment. Plus, I get to feel like I'm out and about even though I don't particularly enjoy the whole weekend "being out" scene. Stephen eventually dropped by and we had a nice conversation. He was busy thinking of insightful questions to ask David Brooks, since he has to interview him for the school's paper. I was busy thinking of insightful heckles that I could yell when I go to the Brooks lecture next Thursday.

Today Gwen and I hung out at the Fly for a while then we went shopping for items that I still need for my road trip - plastic shovel, whistle, matches, rope. We then went to IPFW and I tried to teach her how to drive a stick. When Andrew tried to teach me last summer it turned into an absolute disaster; Max was laughing in the baskseat most of the time unless he was getting thrown forward which would make him laugh even harder. I felt like I was destroying Andrew's new car. Of course, two weeks later I drove up to Michigan and bought my Miata and drove it home without any more practice. Maybe the best way to drive a stick is just to do it: there's not a whole lot of practical application to driving around a parking lot dodging light posts and medians.

I'm tired and little sad for some reason. Maybe not sad, just anxious. Anxious for the school year to end, anxious to start my trip, anxious to meet people, anxious to feel the wind in my hair as I explore our nation's backroads and idiosyncrasies, anxious to fall in love again.

Hearing: Dear Catastrophe Waitress by Belle and Sebastian

Road Trip Itinerary

I'm taking a 10,000 mile road trip this summer. I'm leaving June 5th, the day after graduation, and returning on August 18th, the day before my first required teaching day. Here's where I plan to go; what I plan to see will come at a later date.

Fort Wayne, Indiana
Chicago, Illinois
Madison, Wisconsin
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Wind Cave, South Dakota
Grand Tetons, Wyoming
Yellowstone, Wyoming
Glacier National Park, Montana
Spokane, Washington
Seattle, Washington
Redwood National Forest, California
San Francisco, California
Death Valley, Nevada
Las Vegas, Nevada
Grand Canyon North Rim, Arizona
Arches, Utah
Denver, Colorado
Santa Fe, New Mexico
Deming, New Mexico
Carlsbad, New Mexico
Houston, Texas
New Orleans, Louisiana
Montgomery, Alabama
Athens, Georgia
Arlington, Virginia
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
New York City, New York
Providence, Rhode Island
Concord, Massachusetts
Lowell, Massachusetts
Hanover, New Hampshire
Burlington, Vermont
Albany, New York
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Cincinnati, Ohio
Memphis, Tennessee
Little Rock, Arkansas
Kansas City, Missouri
Omaha, Nebraska
Dubuque, Iowa
Fort Wayne, Indiana

Reading: The Epic of Latin America by John Crow
The Unconsoled by Kazuo Ishiguro
Hearing: Has Been by William Shatner
Surfing: Subtropolis in Kansas City