etcetera

[nibot]

There is nothing like an impending departure to make one preëmptively nostalgic for a place. I feel that now for Rochester, and, I dare say, it is wonderful. I thrive on nostalgia, to a fault; usually it is sweet but sometimes it is debilitating. It is a treat to be nostalgic for the present.

* * *

Yesterday I spoke with my advisor-to-be at Caltech. "See you in January," he said. "See you in January." It seems funny that it is that easy.

The plan is to leave Rochester in mid-December and roadtrip out to the West Coast, via the South and maybe even through Las Vegas. I have never driven across the country, and it is something I've long wanted to try. It will be an adventure, to be sure.

* * *

I didn't go to Pittsburgh. I missed the Rochester premier of Shortbus. I wish I could write.

* * *

Impending departure is also a good motivator to get out and do all those things you wanted to do but thought you'd have infinite time for. I remember it well when I was leaving Sweden and suddenly had to triage all the would-be-adventures. We went to the Memorial Art Gallery on Thursday.

Maybe I'll disappear from school for a week and drive, via Québec, to Halifax. That I would very much like to do.

* * *

I am envious of Ryan (four), and I miss him. There were false starts (we call them trial runs), but he did ultimately make good on Moving To South America. I hear as much from him as you do (very little), but the latest word is that he and Lisza live now in Buenos Aires. He's doing something at the University there, making money web consulting/programming, renting a nice apartment for $300 per month. I don't know what Lisza's doing. Earlier reports mentioned teaching english and managing a hostel.

Footloose random adventures in an exotic country sound very appealing. Where I Want To Live has been very much on my mind lately.

If Ryan and Lisza are still in South America in a year, or maybe a year and a half, then Bree and I will visit. My Government- and University-sponsored travel has endowed me with sufficient frequent-flyer miles...

Two years ago this weekend Ryan and I took an awesome destination-unspecified roadtrip that took us to Vermont and Montreal. Nostalgia, rampant.

* * *

I am at the public library right now. I always park myself at the tables adjacent to the Travel section. I have three books in front of me:

• The Fourth Coast
• The Anthropology of Turquoise
• Louisiana: The Deep South (Lonely Planet)

Comments

[rudybang.livejournal.com]

Before you go, you MUST go see Robert E. Marx (http://www.roberternstmarx.com/)'s work on display at the First Unitarian Church on S. Winton. He had a show at the MAG that was phenomenal, Considering the Voluntary Absence of God, some of those prints and the quotes associated with them are at this show, but certainly not enough to capture the essence of that past show. Anyhoo... hmm... have you seen Searching for the Wrong-Eyed Jesus (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0389361/)?

18 months of winter

[jlam.livejournal.com]

At first i figured it for demented male bravado, when i saw you a bar hopping and walking around the Rochester winter in a t-shirt. Then as summer began here you departed for a chilly Chilean winter in an unheated apartment and catch a winterlong cold. Now as summer approaches there and winter returns to the northern hemisphere you plan to move to Germany. Do you know something the rest of us don't?

[erinmack.livejournal.com]

Amen to the first sentence of this. I'm glad you'll be in California, mostly because I know that a season is unlikely to pass without you visiting Berkeley. I'm eating a tamale from the farmer's market right now and it is one of the best things I've ever tasted. I think there are yams in there, and definitely black beans, but most of all the sweetest corn I've ever encountered. I love the Saturday market.

I really want to see Shortbus - I love that one of the characters is a "non-orgasmic sex therapist". John Cameron Mitchell is a fucking genius.

[pixieza.livejournal.com]

I ate one of those tamales today too. So tasty!

[erinmack.livejournal.com]

I suspect that what you actually had was a tamale from Flacos, who serves them warm from their booth. I got a package of four prepackaged ones from a vendor at the other end of the market. Flacos ain't nothin' to sniff at either, though, mind you, though they do get a little too spicy for me...