Holidays go by quickly, as if they don't want to hang around. My life seems to be happening at warp speed.
Lisa and I start our two-month summer fellowships tomorrow. It's hard to believe it's actually happening. Like most things in my life, this fellowship started as an obligation to my mom - shrouded in vague, emotional shadows - to perform the impossible.
I'd like to become a doctor but it's no milk run. And while ambition is powerful, it isn't magic. Yale has advisors to guide us but my mom, who has one Dr. daughter already and a son in med school believes her every suggestion is sacrosanct. She's usually right, but still (shrug) , I'm here.
My mom did have one good idea - going to France over vacation. Peter got to meet my Grandmère and I got to visit with some of my cousins - those spoiled-rotten, monied members of "the fancy" - who have no ambitions, no goals and no self-worth other than their momentary possessions. By the time Peter and I left, I was itching to get back to work.
You only get one chance at life and if you're lucky you're good at something. Think of all the people who were born in the desert - who would have been the greatest swimmers or skiers ever - but never had the chance to try. I'm chanell.
Lisa and I are at my sister Annick's 10th floor,4-bedroom apartment, in Boston. I don't think she stays here anymore. She's engaged, and my bet is that she's living at his place. At first, she pretended that wasn't true, that she was just thinking of staying there while Lisa and I we're here.
Ok, I thought to myself, but why is everything in the fridge brand new?
"Where's your cat? " I asked, like a detective reeling in a crook.
"Ok, " Annick admitted, "you exposed my dishonesty, " she said with a laugh.
Lisa and I'll have this apartment to ourselves for two months. It's a feeling that's joyful, selfish and marvelous. We can see the hospital where Lisa and I will be working from Annick's balcony - it's that close. Annick bought this place because she's a doctor in residence there.
I got in from Paris yesterday. I'm jet lagged and toey about tomorrow. I doubt I'll get much sleep tonight. Even though I'm making a great display of calm, idle boredom, Annick knows better.
"Are you guys nervous? " She asked.
Lisa immediately declared "Hells, yes! "
I was thinking of holding strong, but after a second, I mumbled "Yeah."
I'm really hoping I'll be good at this fellowship business.
.
.
slang…
the fancy = the very idle rich
chanell = lucky
toey = nervous, edgy
Nice narrative. Enjoyed reading. Great language skill. Simple but effective
Your glosses on post-millennial slang are helpful, and they're giving me confidence that I can read the new generation's work. When I came across the word 'channel, ' I had a feel for it. I hazarded a guess that it meant something like PROPITIOUS CIRCUMSTANCES. Your gloss proves I wasn't far wrong.
Sorry to say, my comments do not appear in the order I made them. Evidently those packets of data were routed in divergent ways on the Web, some more roundabout than others. They ran a race and arrived in a different order than when they started.
Yeah. I forget what I'm doing and hit return - but the allowed messages are pretty short anyway
Maybe 'idle' reading is undisciplined activity. But maybe it's also like a middle finger toward systems of hyper-discipline.. Maybe idle reading helps to keep the pour-able state in circulation. To contribute to such an entrancement would be no small thing.
hmm.. what? The idle rich are just thoughtlessly partying forever. How fun (NOT)
I suppose people since ancient times have been making themselves quasi-bionic with systems of hyper-discpline. But nowadays the professional careers have really upped the ante on that.
I read that someone, in the 1940s could go to college and with a masters degree know pretty much all there was in most disciplines. Today that's impossible..
This poem has not been translated into any other language yet.
I would like to translate this poem
Clay gets kneaded and put in the kiln one way or another. Those in the fancy set, after a couple of twists, will find that commiting oneself to a pretzel shape is also strenuous. Materialism requires more material.
Oh, they twist away - see, their spineless