GO IN PEACE. WE WERE BLESSED TO KNOW YOU.

I don't know, I have been hearing these sorts of things too much of late. 2013 was supposed to be the Year of Less Death but someone's not holding up their end of the bargain.

There was a time when I thought I loved my first wife more than life itself. But now I hate her guts. I do. How do you explain that? What happened to that love? What happened to it, is what I’d like to know. I wish someone could tell me.

― Raymond Carver, What We Talk About When We Talk About Love

Last night I found two gray hairs, one after the other. They are neighbors and, though I've only been aware of their existence for a day, I've grown rather fond of them. Later I was social--I laughed! I chatted! I mingled!--but it was ultimately tiring* and not what I wanted** so that's that.







*because of whispers to Brady to please wait ten to fifteen seconds then rescue me from an uncomfortable conversation, because of mumbled lies about a non-existent super serious boyfriend

**my bed, my down comforter, my space heater, Ys

The problem with getting eleven hours of sleep is that your body has a hard time forgetting how lovely it feels to be well-rested and wants to recreate the feeling nightly.

I truly do dislike every single thing about winter.

WITH TIRED EYES, TIRED MINDS, TIRED SOULS

Yesterday was long and "important."

So to celebrate when it was all over, I reneged on every plan I had made and slept for twelve hours to make the headache go away.

Western communication has what linguists call a "transmitter orientation"--that is, it is considered the responsibility of the speaker to communicated ideas clearly and unambiguously. Even in the case of the Air Florida crash, where the first officer never does more than hint about the danger posed by the ice, he still hints four times, phrasing his comments four different ways, in an attempt to make his meaning clear. He may have been constrained by the power distance between himself and the captain, but he was still operating within a Western cultural context, which holds that if there is confusion, it is the fault of the speaker.

But Korea, like many Asian countries, is receiver oriented. It is up to the listener to make sense of what is being said.

--Malcolm Gladwell, Outliers

Communication has never been my strong point. It's snowing in April.

I canNOT write a personal essay.

I am TIRED of this city.

Today in class, a student dismissed Cesaire's Discourse on Colonialism because it was "too angry." What nonsense!! There is much to rage about in this world and it was so very refreshing to read a text that is not intellectualacademicbullshitbabble. Why aren't we more angry?! !?!

Conversely, the Valentine's Day edition of This American Life is something that everybody should hear.

On the day after a snow day, no one goes to class (give an inch, take a mile).