This One Time… #2
July 14, 2009
There is nothing wrong with complete madness for a period of time
This one time, I drank so much I thought I was going to die. It was a particularly mischievous night and I was kicked out of the student union. The above picture personifies the revelry of a single night at Keele.
I am twenty three years old this morning.
This one time, we went to London. It was the weekend of my birthday. My friends woke up really early to blow up tons of balloons and put them in my bed while I was sleeping. Laura had baked me a cake and it traveled with her all the way from Stoke-on-Trent to London!
"Here's to just doing this thing!"
This one time, we all went out to the Keele student union with glow bracelets on. We made a promise to give away all our bracelets to attractive members of the opposite sex. It was the Anti-Valentine’s Day bash. My friends gave them away I think, but I simply lost most of mine.
Making Wise Choices in Poetic Wonderland
July 11, 2009
The current issue of Poetry Magazine is unbearably good. Just what I need. It’s currently doubling as my journal as well. The poems by Tony Hoagland stand out in my mind:
One poem will make you bigger.
The other poem will make you smaller.
Drink and/or eat them.
Strange creatures in a garden. Also known as peacocks.
Hailed, or: The Universe Must Think It’s Being Funny
July 11, 2009
(For those who don’t know, one of the really fun and positive things about my trip to England was the development of a relationship with a lovely Frenchman. Now add an oceans worth of distance and a six hour time difference…)
It’s simply amazing what inanimate, obscure things come to life right before your eyes once they become relevant to you. Two semesters ago, in a poetry course I took, we discussed what it meant to be hailed. The act of being flagged down, being tagged and marked by your influences… Or I suppose, by what you let influence you.
Garrison Keillor is a bit of a champion to my English major heart; I’ve always looked forward to the old timey Americana anecdotes and music on his radio show. In celebration of Bastille Day, the kind and humorous folks at A Prairie Home Companion put together a show called “Vive La France.” This aired as I was driving home from work this evening. I was okay with it. Until a sad and sweet song in that flighty tongue came on. I was in that moment, truly appreciating my near total ignorance of the French language until Keillor chimed in at the end:
“That song was for all the expatriates who, upon returning home can no longer find at home what they had when they were abroad.”
The more I believe the universe to point and laugh at me, the more I want to rise above. So keep it coming:
In the video store ten minutes after Mr.Keillor’s hailing, my mother pointed me in the direction of a movie called The Fox and the Child. The story of an unlikely friendship between a girl and a fox (!)! It’s exactly the kind of thing I would love to see, but upon further inspection, I realized it was a French movie. Oh, ha ha ha, universe. You think you’re clever?
I no longer take every little obscure coincidence as a “sign” of some kind I suppose, but damn if that wasn’t a silly and ironic hour in my day.
We used to have a dog that looked like Garrison Keillor...
This One Time… #1
July 6, 2009
Do not ask the ice lolly man for directions.
This one time in Liverpool, Magdalaina asked the ice lolly truck driver for directions to our hostel. He talked for a long time and ended up leading us down an alley. This was before we knew about Magdalaina and her somehow endearing ability to misinterpret directions.
Laura and Magdalaina show you where it's at.
This one time in Liverpool, we trekked all over the suburbs looking for the Beatles sites. We started at Penny Lane and got lost around Sefton Park. It was cold, wet and nearly impossible to catch a cab, but once we did, our cabbie took us to Strawberry Field and told us about how Paul McCartney rode in his cab twenty years before!
Liverpool Cathedral
Dirty RAT!
This one time in Liverpool, we found a Banksy piece by accident in Chinatown! We also saw a lot of stained glass and neon at Liverpool Cathedral. The Cathedral is so massive, it really makes you consider the influence of Catholicism at the time. Did you know the architect who designed the cathedral also desined those charming red phone boxes all over England? Now you know!
