Alaska: a teaser

So! I have returned from the land of the midnight sun with entirely too many activities/adventures/pictures to put into a blog entry. I'll just select a few pictures, and hopefully do a follow-up entry later.

Alaska has a bunch of beautiful flowers in the summer, it turns out.

And there are glaciers in Alaska!

And more glaciers! I am dazzled.

And foxes!! Taking home ground squirrels to the kits!!

summer?

I'm not sure about the title, as this will be rather brief, and I've been rather poor at writing lately. This is because, as per usual, I've over-committed myself and do entirely too many things. I think that's how I like it, though.

Anyway, in celebration of my upcoming vacation (first paid vacation ever!) to Alaska (!!!) and since I've been talking about it for about 3 years... I bought a new camera!! It's funny how it can have over 5 times as many megapixels, over 3x the zoom power, etc. etc. and still be less than half the size of my previous camera. Oh, technology.

Thus I give you a (brief) photo update of my weekend-ish:

I went to two post-baptism (Catholic) fiestas this weekend. They mostly involved sitting around and eating lots of good food, watching small children jump around in those jumpy-air-houses, pinatas, drinks, and speaking lots of Spanglish. I also managed to find the Women's world cup finals on during today's party and sat around with the ol' Mexican dudes to watch some futbol, yay! USA lost in PK's to Japan, by the way: it was an intense final. Above is my co-worker, her daughter, and I.

And this is my cute little cantaloupe!! I'm very excited about and proud of my garden; on Friday I picked eight summer squash. mmm. It was fun to be able to send my parents home with produce from my garden in exchange for produce from theirs! (They were here for a brief visit.)

Another co-worker. I thought the strawberry in the lower-right was a flower at first. Strawberries are much better tasting. Especially when covered in chocolate. (Remember the part about eating yummy food?)

I also played some sand volleyball with frisbee friends, ate lunch with my parents + family friends, went to church, and took an exam this weekend. I have no photos of that. It was rather brief. The test was step 3 of 4 in getting certified to be a court interpreter. That is, if I pass. I think something like 80% of people fail it. It went better than I thought it might, but I'm making no hopeful guesses, because I don't know how they grade and I definitely missed some sections/words... I will be extremely put-out if I failed, though, since the test costs 100 dollars, I can't take it again until February or March of next year, and I missed a frisbee tournament/chance to hang out with my sissie to take it. Obviously I still filled my weekend, but given the choice I will opt *not* to pay money to take tests I have a good chance of failing... We'll see--maybe it will all be worth it.

And, as is also per usual, I have been less brief than I intended, and successfully put off picking up my room. I've also been sitting in an extremely uncomfortable position for no apparent reason and now have a neck cramp. Time to sign off.

BLOOD DIAMONDS

I met a man in the parking lot

sitting in his parked car

he told me stories

talked of his life

his death

he's died more than once

showed me his scars

bullets, entered here

cut out there

He showed me pictures

child soldiers

a village of burned bodies

children, charred

skin peeling away from their fragile frames

and mud

digging in the mud

men, boys, next to each other

next to other men and boys,

dead

covered in mud

naked

mud on their eyes

in their ears

on their penises

but still digging, the men and boys

looking for diamonds,

its the only way to stay alive,

digging, all day

you stop, they shoot

digging

maybe a mango for lunch

well, breakfast, lunch and dinner,

the same

green, not ripe

Maybe your best friend,

he finds a diamond

puts it in his pocket

or maybe mouth, safer

thinks he'll run,

buy his way away

free

winks, makes a sign like "shh"

you look away, scared

digging, digging

Then it's there,

the barrel at your head

then a gun is in your hand

you look up to see your friend

gun at his head

shaking his head, no, no

they're yelling at you,

kill him, shoot him

he is a cheater, a liar,

he must die

you saw him take a diamond

shoot him

or we shoot you both

now

You don't even care

dying

you've been dead before

your family is dead

you saw them shot

you were dragged away

to the rebel camp

in the cold jungle

what is it to die?

better

it doesn't matter

But you pull the trigger anyway

they kick his body in a ditch

in the mud

kick you in, too

dig

You dig

around your dead best friend

no tears

no feeling

just keep digging

that's all

He tells me,

looking at the green field

at students, playing

volleyball

soccer

running

I cry, he says

to look at this

You don't know what you have here

they say this boy is twelve,

he shoves a picture at me

look, is he twelve?

no, he is just a boy

the caption says the boy's name, 12, in Congo

fighting with Rebel forces

he shoulders an AK-47

peering into the distance

they are ten dollars there, he says

he is talking about the guns

people here, they say they like to shoot

I laugh

you like to shoot?

I'll take you to a place

where you can shoot

free guns, free bullets

shoot whatever you want

see if you like it

like to shoot

I cry, he says

people, they don't know

they wear diamonds

bling

and black people!

they have no idea

some don't care

they wear it anyway

But it's blood

those diamonds

they buy

they are blood diamonds.


© lindsy r. glick 2011

the best use for business cards

So sometimes while at work I get little Ideas and I scribble them down on little scraps of paper, or my business cards, since I don't really give them out to anyone, anyway... They're usually little phrases, or ideas to expound upon later (which never happens), or short poems, something related to the music I'm listening to at the moment, and sometimes utterly invented. They've been floating around my purse, and in order to get rid of the clutter, I'm going to just type them up here, and throw away my little paper scraps.

* 'Round here, the wind blows so strong you turn 'round and look the other way. 'Round here you've got to stand up straight, and walk into the wind. If you don't you end up facing away, missing life, blowing by. 'Round here you've gotta look the wind in the eye.

* "I pledge my life to the World of Disbelief, where I belong." -Sum 41, "Walking Disaster"

* -pdf's, doc/docx, problem loading flash, 15" screen, shadows telling time on windowsill

* The Ballad of the Desert and the Sea...

* Opposites attract -> but what happens when there's a barrier between us?

Miss you, but can't live with you... meant always to be apart.

* to go out walking, in the sun

to go out walking, without shoes

to go out walking, anywhere with you

walking in my sleep, walking in my dreams

wake up, and you're not walking anywhere with me

* I Can't Believe I Bought a Lint-roller, and Other Corporate Sell-out Stories [Hehe, this one I actually want to make into a children's book; it would scare children into following their dreams. haha!]

Behold! I have found my vocation

in the midst of a (very good) introduction to Smoke and Mirrors, a collection of short stories by Neil Gaiman. And it goes like this, "...I wondered about where stories came from. This is the kind of thing that you wonder about when you make things up for a living. I remain unconvinced that this is the kind of activity that is a fit occupation for an adult, but it's too late now: I seem to have a career that I enjoy which doesn't involve getting up too early in the morning. (When I was a child, adults would tell me not to make things up, warning me of what would happen if I did. As far as I can tell so far it seems to involve lots of foreign travel* and not having to get up too early in the morning.)"

Ha! Perfect! Making things up, foreign travel, *eating delicious toast and drinking good coffee in the mornings, and not getting up to early in the morning! I added that bit about the toast and coffee, because I think it's a good one, and clearly fits with the rest of the job description. Besides, I already do said ritual on a nearly quotidian basis, so I'm part way there already!

But really, I do think I would love to write... now I just have to figure out how to somehow "become a writer" because, uh, it doesn't seem the sort of profession that one just applies for, generally... (And yes, I realize that if I actually have even semi-serious ambitions regarding writing I should, probably, write a lot more in general. Even here, blogging, because I clearly have not been prolific of late. Hmm...

In other life-vision-related news, last month I also had a flash of vocational inspiration and applied to Doctors without Borders. I thought just maybe my handy skills (um... Spanish? and, uh, construction and radio communication? I tried...) would be just what they needed in some lovely "underdeveloped" country in Latin America or something. It was a good thought, and really, it seems about perfect... but apparently they don't need me, at least not now. Hmph. Maybe I should study something medicine related?

So many options...

But before I do something crazy like go back to school (ugh) I want to be pretty sure that I want to do X thing for more than a few months/years.

And right now...

I'm still feeling pretty gypsy.

So maybe I should make more things up, do lots of foreign travel, and not get up too early in the morning. (¡¿Right?!)

i will never be obsessed with anything, because i am always obsessed with everything

Sounds very Wilde-esque, I know. (How do you turn names into adjectives, anyway? Are there rules for that? Wildonian?) Back to my point:

Because of my rapid fascination with almost anything, I have a great many interests, very few of which get seriously developed. Take sports: I've played/ran/done volleyball, basketball, track, soccer--if only intramural, ultimate frisbee, climbing, gymnastics... and I'm anywhere from terrible (soccer) to fairly decent, but never have I been really great at any of them, nor do I expect to become so.

And then there are all those other things I like to do... dance, music, woodworking, cooking, sewing, painting, drawing, writing...the list goes on and on. As I said, obsessed with everything.

Yet because of this, I will never specialize and become an "expert" at any... (a friend pointed out that, "specialization is for insects." and thus I need not strive for such a thing.)

I'm convinced that the only way I'll ever become a pro salsa-dancer is just to dance, dance, dance. Or a "real" writer: I must write ALL the time! But I get so distracted by all the other things I want to do/learn! I suppose this is the axiom we learn from the "Jack of all trades, master of none" idiom. Which I like to do a gender reversal on, with a comical outcome: "Jill of all trades, mistress of none." Not exaactly the same connotations, eh?

Anyway, back to learning a Dispatch song on Mom's guitar...

a word of advice to my 20-something friends

Do not read the introduction to your IRA packet. It will depress you. Their intention, I'm sure, is to make you feel secure in your investment. To feel good about the many years ahead of you in which you can plan, save and think about your future and your some-day retirement. Relax, you've got anywhere from 40-45 years left to ensure that your retirement allows you to live comfortably and securely. FORTY TO FORTY-FIVE YEARS?!?! ¡Madre de Dios! I quickly ran a mental projection of myself after reading those words...and predicted approximately 12 career changes and 8 major geographical moves. Okay, maybe not quite, and time passes really quickly, and things happen and people make connections and put down roots and settle down. That may well happen, I recognize that as a possibility. But can we just take it in 2-3 years steps at a time for now? I CANNOT THINK ABOUT 40 YEARS FROM NOW! That's not to say I refuse to start saving money, on the contrary, I'm all for it, my account's already set up. Just please don't try to comfort me by talking about something 4-5 decades away. I am kind of a gypsy.