I'm in need of poetry this morning

since feeling is first
who pays any attention
to the syntax of things
will never wholly kiss you

wholly to be a fool
while Spring is in the world

my blood approves,
and kisses are a better fate
than wisdom
lady i swear by all flowers. Don't cry
--the best gesture of my brain is less than
your eyelids' flutter which says

we are for each other:then
laugh,leaning back in my arms
for life's not a paragraph

And death i think is no parenthesis

--e.e. cummings


Columbus
Once upon a time there was an Italian,
And some people thought he was a rapscallion,
But he wasn't offended,
Because other people thought he was splendid,
And he said the world was round,
And everybody made an uncomplimentary sound,
But he went and tried to borrow some money from Ferdinand
But Ferdinand said America was a bird in the bush and he'd rather have a berdinand,
But Columbus's brain was fertile, it wasn't arid,
And he remembered that Ferdinand was married,
And he thought, there is no wife like a misunderstood one,
Because if her husband thinks something is a terrible idea she's bound to think it's a good one,
So he perfumed his handkerchief with bay rum and citronella,
And he went to see Isabella,
And he looked wonderful but he had never felt sillier,
And she said, I can't place the face but the aroma is familiar,
And Colombus didn't say a word,
All he said was, I am Columbus, the fifteenth-century Admiral Byrd,
And, just as he thought, her disposition was very malleable,
And she said, Here are my jewels, and she wasn't penurious like Cornelia the mother of the Gracchi, she wasn't referring to her children, no, she was referring to her jewels, which were very very valuable,
So Columbus said, Somebody show me the sunset and somebody did and he set sail for it,
And he discovered America and they put him in jail for it,
And the fetters gave him welts,
And they named America after somebody else,
So the sad fate of Columbus ought to be pointed out to every child and every voter,
Because it has a very important moral, whih is, Don't be a discoverer, be a promoter.

--Ogden Nash (of course! who else?)

Yay for sloth...and for all that is not sloth

If there were an online quiz on "Which of the seven deadly sins are you?" (I'm sure there is one, or lots) I wouldn't have to take it. I know which one I am. I know which one I like the best.

Sloth.

Besides being a fun word to say, it's a lot of fun to practice.

I've spent a particularly slothful day today. Such is the curse of not having classes on Thursdays...and Matt skipping his classes on Thursday (again!) doesn't help. Since I've done this before I knew I could end up with feelings of guilt for wasting a perfectly good day (even though I've come to expect this, or at least to not be surprised at it), today I'm going to prove to myself that my day was worthwhile and not misspent. Not just "I did this or this or this"--I know what I did. That's not very interesting. I want to know what I enjoyed.

Of course I'm going to have something from an IM conversation:
Me: In this book [the novel I'm currently reading for my own amusement] a plane gets blown up by a surface-to-air missile. I thought of you. :)
Matthew: It's so sweet that you think of me when you read about surface-to-air missiles. (I wonder what Jenn would think of that...) :) What book is it?

Al came over tonight and was playing with our cats. I forget cats are a novelty to other people; I've gotten used to thinking of them as diabolical. At one point she caught one in her arms and kept him there. This often takes some effort. "You're going to stay here with me for a while," she said. "I'm going to subject you to my affections." I smiled at that, inexplicably fond of the idea of people (or things) being subjected to other people's affection. Whose am I subjected to? Who do I subject to mine?

I braved the cold to check the mailbox today expecting bills, mail for other people (who may or may not still live here) or junk, but getting none of that. There was only one envelope, and it was a card for me, from my grandma and grandpa, for Thanksgiving.

I added Dairy Queen to my healthful diet of Cheetos, the last of the Peanut Butter Captain Crunch (but I think Jenn's hiding another box, she'll be all right), pizza and Coke. I practiced my recorder, and Al says I can now not only play the song recognizably, but faster than she can sing it. I'm not surprised; I like fast (and loud) music. I heckled "Will & Grace" for a while, then went upstairs because I figured I was not just annoyed but annoying Katie and Al, who liked it. I was silly. Allison and I sang auf Deutsch, and kicked leaves around my yard in the dark. She did a great silly walk. I chatted with both her and Katie about ecology tests and sleeping rhombuses--or rhombi?