Chimera Song Mosaic
Sunday, June 25, 2006
Emirates is a nice airline. They stuffed us with delicacies like lamb meatballs, eggplant rataotuille, veggie quiche, and lots of chocolate. They were some service servings, and they keep offering sandwiches and candy and fruit throughout the flight. I didn't quite get enough water, toughs, but that's my fault. Also, all of the movies are on demand, like 100 of them, and I watched a Hollywood fluff glut of four "films": Aeon Flux, Aquamarine, Pride and Prejudice, and I forgot the other one, it was so subpar. Okay, P & P is not strictly Hollywood, but it was a pretty sad effort, especially compared to the BBC classic version. Also, there were films in so many different languages, lots of Bollywood, also stuff in Tagalog. Did I mention the decor? Soft pastels!
I don't expect this is very interesting, either, but I'm excited to write it. Nothing stimulates me quite like travel. I guess it has been mainly non-eventful, except for the unexpected night last night at JFK airport hotel (not, inconvieniently enough, in the actual airport). Well, I just snaked (again!) at a free buffet for Emirates travelers in transit, and this guy totally made a stalking attempt. He was a puny guy. First he started by bumping into me a lot in line. Then when I sat down, he sat down at the next table. Then when I unexpectedly moved, he jumped up and tried to follow, but it was getting really obvious, even for a stalker. So he finally sat with his friend and left me alone. Well, I haven't seen him since then, and I hope I don't. I don't think I handle that sort of this properly, like my passive girliness just doesn't cut it. When he was bumping into me in line, I felt like, saying, "Don't touch me!" but I hate coming off as paranoid (not that I don't now). I think a simple stern look would have been perfect.
If I haven't mentioned this before, check out my poems starting today (if it is Monday, which I suspect it is) at No Tell Motel. I'm going over there now to check them out.
Well, I'm excited to be here, and I'm very happy to be seeing Lance in a few hours. Then I'll probably crash since I haven't leapt much (too excited about the movies to do it on the 13 hours flight). Mostly I'm feeling so good because this is what I am meant to be doing.
Ps. Just when I was thinking I could sit here in this central coffee spot forever, happily typing away until boarding time, they just moved me to clean the floors. It's like a 300 square foot patch of wood floor, and this guy is driving around on one of those big zamboni loooking floor buffer things.
Thursday, June 22, 2006
Okay, next most recent snake was in the pond (or maybe that was yesterday, which would make it sooner, but whatever); my mom decided it was a water moccasin. Not a casual thought! It was huge and probably ate the tiny teal duck that is missing.
Next to the last snake, the one that I found curled in a duck's nest. We had been watching this duck tend her nest for weeks, this after being gang raped by the mallard drakes, which plucked her nape dry. Anyway, she was a good mother, even though the dogs stared at her. So this one day, like a week ago, I go out there to check on her, and she is fretting in front of the nest, and one of the eggs is yellowish pink with studs like tiny cloves. I thought I was tripping, but no; that was an egg a curiously red-speckled snake had swallowed. He was working on another one, but there were still several more to be saved. I figured he would wait and disgust his meal like my snake, Phred (not a snake hater! I raised Phred the boa from a baby), would do, but no; by the time my mom and I got out there, he had finished them off, so we finished the snake off with a blunt hoe (bludgeoned).
I feel slightly bad about killing the snake, expect this duck had put a lot of effort into her eggs, and she was very upset. Also, if it were a water moccasin (I don't know about that oink part, but the rest of the snake was dull yellow), we don't want to encourage that. After it was over, I found a lone egg that some other duck had squeezed out in a fright. I picked it up with two branches and put it into the empty nest. After a few hours, she went back to the nest, but a couple of days ago I found it was empty once again.
Then there was the snake in the garage: a nest of finches were learning to fly one day, and I came home to a frantic chirping. Lance and I moved a couple of buckets and found a smallish snake rounding on a tiny fluffy birdlet. Lance scooped up the snake (carefully), and we put him in a Ziploc in the freezer, thinking later we would discern what kind. But this wasn’t the right thing to do, apparently, because since then it’s been nothing but snakes.
I’m going to Qatar in a few days, so I’ll be writing from there. Also, some poems are appearing next week, Monday through Friday, at No Tell Motel.
Also, HAPPY BIRTHDAY, LARS!!!
Sunday, June 04, 2006
