Interstellar Galactica
Lately I've been wearing my hiking boots a lot, especially to work in the store. I've had them since the age of thirteen, and they thus are the longest lived foot-carapaces I've ever owned. Part of the reason I've been wearing them, is because they are so exactly molded to my feet that my feet thus do not slide around. They are hugged snugly, and my step is light, rather than plodding, like I feel the rest of my shoes do to my gait, with the exception of my converses. And admittedly, I've been wearing them because they remind me of home, and all the exploits I've had in them. It sounds strange, but I've been really fixated on my hiking boots for the last week, and everything they embody to me. I wrote a poem about my hiking boots, I've been talking about them with random people, and now I sit and wonder what the significance of them being in my mind so much is, because really, it's so material. But at the same time...what they represent is adventure, discovery, travel (I've always travelled in them...they've been everywhere man...) and squishing through muskeg. I love the smell of muskeg. So kill me. I have an old Heaney/Muldoon poetry section from my Irish lit class, and I've half a mind to just drive out to a patch of muskeg, walk around in my hiking boots, and read all his bog poems again. That would be fantastic. I wrote an essay on the irish bog poems once-- it was the first time any prof had ever told me that I could make a Masters project out of something I'd written.
Really though, I just need to get away from here. I've decided to take my vacation time in September, rather than the end of August, because Semene is leaving on vacation the same time I'd intended to. As well, Vanesser has been working a lot of extra hours lately, and hopes to have a vacation with her son sometime in the end of August too. Additionally, I was talking to my mom this morning (making peace, essentially) and she informed me that my sister-in-law was really counting on me coming in September and painting the mural for the baby's room. So...rather than two seperate complicated vacations, I'll just do it all in one go. I doubt I'll spend the whole time in Nevermatter Land though, that would drive me crazy. I have a feeling though, that I could borrow a vehicle from my brother and take a personal road trip to wherever from there though, if I wanted. I think I might drive to Washington and get to the beach for a bit. I was at Save-On today and stood by the lobster/crab/mollusc tanks for an unnaturally long time and just thought about the ocean and how much I loved the pacific beaches for being so much more colorful than Atlantic ones. [1]
Today, I thoroughly enjoyed being single. It was completely freeing to not constantly be thinking about another person, what another person thought of you, or all the muss and fuss. It was also nice to just "be."
In other news....J-dawg and I saved a kitten yesterday. She's a wretchedly small little thing (12 weeks at the very most), and is still too terrified to come out from under my dresser, though, mercifully, she has been eating when I'm away, and using the litterbox. It was like "baby's first steps" when I found out she actually used the box while I was at work. As for being under my dresser, at least I know where she is now. All of this morning, while getting ready to go to school, I was looking for her, and couldn't find her anywhere, which freaked me out [2]. And yeah....turns out she hadn't really gone anywhere. Anyways, the security guard found her in the stairwell [3] last night and punted her outside, and we coaxed her (hauled her) out from under a car. If anyone wants a kitten, please let me know, because I can absolutely not keep her. Of course, I'm tempted, because I love cats, but it's just not feasible. I could get kicked out of my building (sort of...although I could pull strings, it's not worth the risk), and I just can't afford it, timewise, or monetarily. But she's super cute, although she seems somewhat unused to human contact past "the bad kind." I was thinking of maybe finding temporary lodgings for her until I go to Nevermatter Land, and then bringing her with me in a repeat of "the incredible pet present suprise! (re: Elaugh), but I'd be too worried about her fate around the rotteweiler.
But anon...to bed, to bed.
[1] To a certain degree. The tidal pools are really what I'm talking about. I could spend hours exploring them, and on the Atlantic, only the really dramatic Fundy tides yield a lot of interest to me (i.e. guarantee that there will be something
in the tidal pool to look at, though, more often than not, things are just swept away and you have to run after them and catch them. On the Pacific side of things though....it's easier to find anenomes for one, and crabs. And not just rock crabs, but hermit crabs. Ok, I'm not phrasing this well at all. Basically, you can find the same things in either place (though they differ obviously by virtue of water temperature/location etc.), but it's always been my experience that it takes a LOT longer to find everything you hope to see on the east coast, as opposed to the West, where you can find things all in one spot, and often more than you bargained for.
[2] "What if it dies and we don't find it before it starts to smell?" Perhaps this is going too far, but I'm sure you see where I'm coming from.
[3] This is the frequent, if not only, purpose of our stairwells--to dump kittens-- other than smoking pot in them.