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Monday, September 5, 2011

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I feel like writing about mundane stuff right now. I read a book, I watched a movie, I went to a show. I don't know if I'm trying to capture the little things that make up my life, or if there's something to it that helps me keep the bigger things at bay. The bigger things are questions without answers, but these individual components are ordered, specific, measurable.
  • I'm trying to get through movies that buddies at work are assigning me because they're aghast that I haven't seen things like Kill Bill or The Big Lebowski. This brought to you by the same gentlemen that suggested Fight Club. (Please.) I say they get one more chance, and then I'm back to watching Parenthood and Step Into Liquid over and over.
  • I went to see Hall & Oates at a charity benefit the other night. I was a mild fan in the 80's, and the setting for the show was fairly intimate, so I thought I might have fun. I did - it was a great time; such beautiful voices and such an iconic sound. My favorites are Wait for Me, Rich Girl, Family Man, and Say It Isn't So, but I recognized and enjoyed almost every song. It's all so 70's and 80's. Also, Everybody's high on consolation? Swoon.
  • I met a friend at the Farmer's Market on Saturday, which was such a pleasure. Yummy tamales, fresh veggies, Ruby Jewel ice cream sandwiches - all outdoors, sitting in the sun. It's the first time I've been to the market this year, I'm ashamed to say. I'll be back soon.
  • Google tells me that today would have been Freddie Mercury's 65th birthday. He's a hero of mine, and I love any reason to put on my favorites (including Somebody to Love and Save Me). What a talent. 


  • I dusted off the sewing machine finally this weekend and made a cute little messenger bag complete with a flap and everything. I need some webbing for the shoulder strap and then I'm done. I'll post a picture when I finish. 
  • I've spent a ton of time lately napping by the pool or doing lazy laps. The sun and I get along very well.
I'm also reading for the first time in forever. It feels so good. I'm currently working through West of Jesus by Kotler, which I've been eyeing for some time, but I've avoided because it has the word "Jesus" in the title and I have no interest in crazy. Some review or something finally convinced me that I do not think that word means what I think it means (get it?). Either that, or I just got really desperate for another great surf book.

Well, this is one great surf book. Right now he's trying to describe how surfing is just different, and he says that in a recent Australian census, 70k people listed their religion as Jedi. And how, when he was trying to figure out how to ride a tube, an experience he likens to walking on the moon, a friend gave him the Yoda-esque advice: "Do or do not. There is no try." He says, "And, perhaps stranger still, not thirty seconds after I had been told to do or don't do, I did."

That means so much to me. The book is totally capturing the mystic/voodoo/unexplainable part of surfing that I love. And the author's experience of improving not through skill alone but through the shedding of resistance is something I can relate to and that is helping me believe that maybe I can continue to improve as well. It feels great.

5 comments:

  1. Nothing prosaic about the mundane.

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  2. Freddy Mercury: WOOT! He is awesome. But I share your friends aghast-ness (new word?) at your movie ineptitude. You telling me you didn't like Fight Club, but the dated Parenthood is a-ok?? GAHH! Love your descriptions of surfing. Sounds like a good book. I'll have to check it out!

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  3. The Dude abides.

    Glad you are having some fun!

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  4. I think if I had told Vahid I hadn't seen either of the Kill Bill's it'd be grounds for breakup. Good thing I bought them for him on Blu-ray.

    Sometimes the mundane little things are wonderful to write about because it's like "see this is all the good stuff in my life" instead of the big questions without answers.

    Yay for the Farmer's Market! I haven't been there in a few weeks to loaf around and eat and I think that that needs to happen again soon. I kind of miss being on campus.

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  5. That Freddie Mercury sure could grow a rocking mustache.

    Glad you're finding time to revel in the little things. I myself am clinging to the last rays of summer with every inch of me, hoping the heat and opportunities to swim and hike and be dry (or, well, happily sweaty) keep presenting themselves.

    Miss you and think of you often.

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