Straight No Chaser

Quotation Marks

zaire's at that age where every bird is a "chicken," where it's important to announce the color and quantity of every visible object ("two lellow bananas!") and where the compliments are abstract but charming, and flow freely. he told my dad, apparently unprompted and just within my earshot, "i like shannon. her smells good."

that was the high point of my day. other than that we ate lots of gum drops and watched about twenty bite-sized segments of 101 dalmations, drew pictures of soccer balls and sorted a basket full of beanie babies by species ("yook! a chicken!"). no wonder his mom is exhausted all the time. i took a two-hour nap after he left, and then chad and i went to the movies, and just now i called delta. signed on for another day at home. thank god. i totally wasn't and wouldn't have been ready to leave at eight o'clock tomorrow morning, packing- or otherwise.

i'm being a little antisocial tonight, but what else is new? i found my kokopelli journal and started copying in entries for strange, whose class is my only reason for not booking my flight even later. i found my threader earrings, the ones that lace through all three holes, and a pair of triangular studs with bright blue stones. i found the sleigh bell marcus left in my pocket just before christmas last year. i found an invitation, addressed to me, to a holiday potluck dinner at the home of a preschool classmate i haven't seen since preschool. i found my retainer (but i'm still not wearing it). i found addie's benne candies and josefina's moccasins.

i found a survey.

1. take five novels from your bookshelf at random.
2. book 1--first sentence.
3. book 2--last sentence on page 50.
4. book 3--second sentence on page 100.
5. book 4--next to last sentence on page 150.
6. book 5--final sentence of the book.
7. make the five sentences into a paragraph.
8. feel free to "cheat" to make it a better paragraph.
9. name your sources.
10. post it to your journal.

"It is related--but God knows and sees best what lies hidden in the old accounts of bygone people and times--that long ago, during the time of the Sasanid dynasty, in the peninsulas of India and Indochina, there lived two kings who were brothers. 'Well, Gilchrist, it seems you might be the winner after all--' That did it! 'I'm sure he'll be a great help,' called Milo as they drove across the square. We lay side by side on an old mattress, stained and smelly, for hours on end, and talked and talked, making plans for the kind of lives we'd live once we were free and rich as Midas. It didn't matter in the end how old they had been, or that they were girls, but only that we had loved them, and that they hadn't heard us calling, still do not hear us, up here in the tree house, with our thinning hair and soft bellies, calling them out of those rooms where they went to be alone for all time, alone in suicide, which is deeper than death, and where we will never find the pieces to put them back together."

book 1: husain haddaway's the arabian nights
book 2: eugenia riley's the great baby caper
book 3: norton juster's the phantom tollbooth
book 4: v.c. andrews' flowers in the attic
book 5: jeffrey eugenides' the virgin suicides

(all selected from the stack on my night table.)

and another, for good measure.

ten firsts:
1. best friend? veronica from montessori
2. screen name? ellingtoni210
3. piercing? lobes, in infancy
4. crush? lucius from beauvoir
5. cd? jamiroquai's traveling without moving
6. car? stefan, my nissan altima
7. love? marcus
8. stuffed animal? ruffles the yellow elephant, who turns twenty-one this december
9. pet? angelfish the angelfish
10. word? "zeeber" (zebra, i guess)

nine lasts:
1. alcoholic beverage? an appletini last february
2. car ride? dropped chad off at eli's two hours ago
3. movie seen? saw ii
4. phone call made? to chad--"you left your glasses in the car"
5. cd played? regina carter's pagannini after (before?) a dream
6. bubble bath? 1993, granna's house
7. time you cried? monday
8. kiss? slightly earlier on monday

eight have you evers:
1. dated one of your best friends? no, but it sounds awesome!
2. been arrested? yes
3. skinny dipped? yes
4. been on tv? yes
5. kissed someone and then regretted it? yes
6. had a sex dream about someone? yes
7. had sex? no
8. walked in on your parents having sex? no

seven things you are wearing:
1. victoria's secret top
2. victoria's secret bottom
3. "spelman"-emblazoned pajama pants
4. silver stack rings
5. round amethyst pendant
6. glasses
7. rubber band on my wrist

six things you've done today:
1. played with zaire
2. colored with zaire
3. changed and dressed zaire
4. watched cartoons with zaire
5. drank soy milk with zaire
6. screamed violent, imaginary obscenities at the checkers employee who carded me at the ticket window, thereby making us late for our r-rated movie

five favorite things:
1. green
2. tofu and vegetable fried rice with egg and scallions
3. "naima"
4. after the hug and before the kiss
5. "jose chung's from outer space"

four people you can tell almost anything to:
1. marcus
2. meg
3. krystle
4. chad

three choices:
1. black or white? depends
2. chocolate or vanilla? depends
3. hot or cold? hot

two things you want to do before you die:
1. really and truly succeed at something; actualize some concentrated subset of my passions
2. sex in the forest

one thing you regret:
1. not saving a few of those jellybeans from the airport for the flight back to atlanta