Diminuendo of Winter Break

Winter Break in Review (12/17/2004-01/17/2005)

Friends Made: 2
Friends Lost: 1
Friends Recovered: 1
Friends Missed: Many

Beds Slept In: 6
Families I Stayed With: 6
*It’s amazing how beautifully dissimilar each family was. It’s equally astounding how despite the great disparity in how each family lives life; each family believes their way of life is absolutely correct.
Miles Traveled: 1,500

Best Christmas Photo: No Question
Best Gift: Single Cup Coffee Maker
Worst Gift: Email meyer.sarah@gmail.com if you really want to know

Number of Emails: 304
How Many to This Wild One: 100+

Books Read (more or less): 15…they’re listed on side
Best Book Read: The Accident (Eli Weisel)
Worst Book: 9/11 (Noam Chomsky)

Best New Word: Cosmopolite (someone who is comfortable in all social settings; a Renaissance man of sorts)
Best Neologism: Rice-O-Meter

Best Movie Seen (theatre): Spanglish
Best Movie (home): Before Sunset
Movie I Still Need to See: Phantom of the Opera
Worst Movie Seen: Finding Neverland (sorry girls…Depp failed me on this one!)

Most Listened to Album: August and Everything After
Most Listened to Song: Dear Chicago and/or Anna Begins
Least Listened to Album: New Day at Midnight (dammit Corrie!)
Best Lyric: Everytime she sneezes, I believe it's love

New Years Resolutions Made: 1
New Years Resolutions Kept: 0

Opportunities to Spend Two Years in Central Europe: 1
Opportunities to Spend Two Years in Central Europe Accepted: Pending

Worst Idea: Attempting to hit the deer with my Jeep
Best Idea: Visiting my old apartment (Dallas)

Best Day: Yesterday at the lake
Best Night: Downtown wild goose chase
Worst Day: ??
Worst Night: Downtown wild goose chase…the Hilton part

Blogs Written: About 30
Best Blog: Snowfall and Diminished Sevenths Dec. 29th, 2004 (excerpt below). It was in response to criticisms of my blog, from time to time, not being “funny”.
Worst Blog: Please…

Hours Spent Missing San Marcos: 0
Hours Spent Reminiscing about Houston: 2
Hours Soon to be Spent Driving Back: 3

Times Heartbroken: 7
Heartbreakers: 3
Heartbreaker I Keep Going Back To for More: Herself

Hugs: 100+
Kisses: 4

Moments Feeling Lost: Many
Moments Not: Few
Current Feeling: Hopeful

From Snowfall and Diminished Sevenths:
Back on course; deep breath…
Analogies aside, my point is this: this online journal is part comical, part political, part satirical, part autobiography, part condemnation of modern life, and part fairy tale. The only adhesive factor I can offer is that all these parts form a bigger picture, seen through the keyhole of these eyes.

Another digression; exhale…
To put this musically: a jazz solo is not limited to a particular key per se, but rather the improvised notes shadow the particular chord being played at that point of the succession. To me, life reflects a jazz. The rudimentary chord progression is ascribed at birth (class, gender, ethnicity) the weight of which is nearly inescapable (note I said nearly).

The solo, however, which we are free to improvise, is composed of notes which are light as feathers. It’s when the notes, in all their capricious nimbleness, gather, build, crescendo, and splash down on the chords of life that beauty emerges.

Pull it together; sigh…
Following the metaphor, it becomes clear that some of these entries are anchored down to a somber diminished seventh (loss, regret). But other parts of life hover joyfully above a C major, free as birds to soar on wings of happiness.