Whatnot
Warning: Long stream-of-consciousness entry impending, fresh out of chronological order.
Was just poking through j7y's LJ, which among other things contains some photos from alumni weekend (including one of me), and was reminded (by an earlier entry of his) that near the beginning of that weekend we found a mysterious few lines carved in the wooden side of a sofa in Hallowell basement lounge. The few words we could make out vaguely rang a bell; I thought "Yeats?" and then used my Treo and Google to look it up. Turned out, indeed, to be Yeats's Leda and the Swan, which I don't think I understand but which is full of great images and language.
Various bits of other news:
Had another counseling session this afternoon. It went well, I think, though I'm not so sure what I'll want to talk with her about next time (in two weeks). Today's session confirmed that I was lucky to happen across this doctor; she provides just the right mix of listening carefully and sympathetically and making suggestions and providing examples from real life. That last is a comfortingly familiar tactic, being one of my usual approaches to talking with someone about issues they're dealing with; makes me feel at home, and since they're well-chosen examples, they also provide me with some useful insights. Nothing earth-shattering, just food for thought, and the occasional useful tool/technique to take with me. I told her that that was helpful.
The week's gone by in a blur. Haven't been sleeping well—was getting three or four hours' sleep a night for a while, going to bed exhausted and then waking up wide awake after just a few hours. Last couple nights I've had more like five or six hours, which is just about enough for me if I weren't already operating on a significant sleep debt. It's making me a little crotchety and a little braindead. And a lot tired. I'm hoping getting more regular exercise (biking to and from work) will help. (Though it's a little disconcerting to have left my shiny new car sitting in the driveway all week.)
When I got home on Sunday night there were two answering machine messages from Rob S, saying he was in town. (Btw, general note to anyone trying to contact me: cell phone is more likely to reach me than home phone these days, in general.) I called him back Monday morning to tell him I was sorry I'd missed him, but it turned out he was still in CA. After a brief amusing bit of confusion (I identified myself simply as "Jed," and the connection was fuzzy, and he thought for a moment that I was Jed B.), we made plans; he came down my way that evening, we had dinner and talked (mostly about the house he's thinking of building in northern CA), and he stayed in the guest room, and then I took him to the airport in the morning, and sat in rush-hour traffic most of the way back. But hey, I've got a Prius, so at least the engine was off for most of that time.
Anyway, Rob went through some old boxes of stuff he'd left at my apartment years and years ago, which have been sitting in my garage since I moved here. He got rid of most of it, but found some photos from a trip to Japan that he'd thought were lost, and some CDs and other assorted whatnot. And the wooden elephant complete with tall canopy and ornamentation that's now sitting on my desk next to my computer; maybe someday I'll post a photo.
What else? Had a couple nice evenings with Lola. (Thanks again for picking me up @ airport!) Was shocked by the fact that my house was utterly clean (except for my room) when I got home; Kam had hired her parents' housecleaning person to come and do a thorough scrubbing top to bottom. Way cool. (Thanks again, Kam!) Also startled to see Kam's geodesic dome in my back yard (she'd told me it was there, but the reality of it was still startling outside the kitchen window); may post a photo of that sometime too.
Oh, hey, while I'm thanking people: Thank you, Mary Anne, for the luggage! M gave me a smallish rolling suitcase (the kind that apparently fits in an overhead compartment even though it always looks much too big for that, to my eyes), and though I've always been dubious about that kind of luggage, I think I'm hooked. It was nicely compact, very convenient, easy to drag around. I like it.
(M also gave me a nice sarong, which I haven't had the nerve to wear in public yet, and a little stuffed elephant from Sri Lanka. Lots of elephants in my life lately.)
I keep being distracted (he said, in a phrasing that attempts unsuccessfully to evade responsibility) from all the stuff I should be doing: magazine backlog, filling out total-loss forms for old car, doing taxes, ordering sofa, sorting through important papers, paying bills, etc. I open up iChat for a quick hi to Kam (who's out in Boston this week), end up chatting with four different people for about an hour. Stop by irc for a minute and likewise encounter fun and interesting people. Tomorrow evening, dinner with Naomi; Saturday afternoon, Mark & Juan's wedding in the east bay.
Meanwhile, Dan posted an entry about Guys Read, starting by commenting on Kate's entry on same subject, and I had one of those "start a quick comment but realize that it's blossoming into a long journal entry and decide to hold off on finishing it 'til there's more time" moments.
Really I think that's how I'm feeling about a lot of stuff. Holding off on finishing it (or dealing with it at all) until there's more time. More emotional space. Looking for a still quiet calm space in which I can start to try to work through stuff. Only probably last week is the closest I'm going to come to finding a still quiet calm space for quite a while, and it was such a relief that I still couldn't bring myself to cope with the difficult stuff.
Anyway. This kind of entry can go on forever; think I'll close here. But may post a couple other things I've been writing up the past few days. Then magazine, then sleep.