Going Home
This will be brief, as I’m still on vacation. Last summer, before moving out to Spokane to hit the snooze button on the alarm clock of life (i.e. go to grad school), I got drunk and stayed out till 5 AM every single night with very few exceptions. I’ve been back in the Midwest for a little over two weeks, playing kickball, breaking into and getting kicked out of swimming pools, riding bikes through rush hour traffic without a helmet, eating my friend’s “prescribed” Vicodins from time to time, writing fiction, watching TV, and getting drunk almost every single night. And I’m exhausted – I have no idea how I did it last summer. So basically, this post is a confession and an apology for having not Barked the last few weeks. The Midwest is a dangerous place for hedonists who know better; I can’t wait to return to Spokane and be an adult again. Next week, after spending a weekend with my 94 year-old Satsangi grandfather who lives in Kansas, I’ll be posting about the grandfather essay (or grandmother, father, mother, etc.) and trying to figure out how in the hell one can make such an essay fresh and unnarcissistic and about something. Or maybe I’ll write about how much I hate the word ‘about,’ because I have such a hard time figuring out what my essays are about, which frightens me. I miss you all.
I can’t wait to hear more about your new essay projects. About sounds so matter-of-fact in one way, but also exciting when it gets broken: a bout.
yes! Because it is a battle to find Aboutness!
I like “a bout” too! Hooray for boxing references!
You cutie-pie rock-lover.
Rocks are good! I’m editing Rocks and Minerals of Colorado right now! You’re still at the College of Mines, right? (DO YOU GET MINER’S HELMETS?!?!?!? If so, amazing.)
Speaking of, that reminds me of an old line about the Pittsburgh Pirates. Just before the start of the season, they summarized the team as saying: The team has a future so dark you need a miner’s helmet to see it.
Also, is your school’s mascot a dead canary? That’d be fun, albeit gross.
You’re our mascot. You are alive and breathing well in our icon. Don’t you have to come visit to see the rocks you’re editing?
My fiancee and I will be heading out west for honeymoonland (not sure exactly where yet), so if we’re out to CO, I’ll send you a note, yeah?
YES!
[...] Edmonds brought up something in his last post that I’ve been struggling with, too: Aboutness. When does a piece of writing cease to be a [...]