Wednesday, April 11, 2007

Of course today would be the day that I forget my scarf, for the first time since probably October. I was so tired this morning that I walked out the door juggling keys and gloves and school bag and by the time I realized my neck was bare I was down three flights of stairs and out the door. So I went without it - the morning was mild anyway; I figured I'd be fine. Then around nine o'clock it started to snow and snow and snow until the blowing and squalling were so bad that school was dismissed early. And there I was, with snowflakes blowing down my collar getting snow in my shoes (the ballet flats of course...who needs boots on a lovely mid-April day?) scraping three inches of wet slush off my car at 4:30 this afternoon (school may have been let out early, but I'd stuck around, possibly subconsciously hoping that if I waited long enough it would all melt away. Plus some students stopped by to chat, an I really love it when they want to spend time in my room outside of when it's required...kind of my warm fuzzy on a cold, blustery day...and then the teacher with whom I'm teaching a really cool joint unit where my kids write scripts and her kids make them into movies came over to finish some planning, so if I were one to make a long story short, I'd say I was unavoidably detained, but we all know that's not how I do). Anyway, I'd better not get sick.

And spring break has happened, but after all the photo captions on facebook I don't really feel like writing any more about it. Most of the bases were covered anyway, but a few things escaped the camera, so I'm going to mention them, in list form, mostly just so I myself don't forget about them some day when I'm old and absent-minded. One: The used book store in Georgetown with creaky stairs and lots of old encyclopedias where I bought a collection of six Italian novellas (one is Calvino...score!) and a Best American Essays from 1997. Two (these are in random order, by the way): Kramerbooks, which seemed to stocked all the interesting and obscure books I've ever wanted to read (I bought a JD Salinger and added about eight others to my Amazon wish list). Two-and-a-Half: Gus our third-generation Swedish waiter at Kramerbooks (because it's also a fantastic restaurant) who was already mentioned in the photos but never actually captured on film. Gus didn't mind that we sat at his table forever chatting, but he did imply that we were big fat losers when he took away our plates and told us, "Quitters never win." He also brought us delicious mimosas, fine waffles and pancakes (though the waffles were comparable to something I could make any day of the week in the South Quad cafeteria) and kept our OJ glasses full. Three: Is there a three? Perhaps mixing amaretto sours with an ice cream scoop to measure out ounces instead of a shot class is noteworthy. And the diner we tried on our very first night in the city was definitely a highlight, though the waiter kind of pushed us out at the end - it was worth being rushed for a really great sandwich, I think. And s
omething must be said about the way Kat sang, danced, and generally recreated many great scenes from Avenue Q on our way home from the Ethiopian food after the symphony.

I guess I'll add on to the list as other minutia resurface in the ol' memory. And I really ought to leave some stories for Julie to tell too, so we'll just stop here for now, as I am off to bed to sleep a solid eight hours in order to fend of any possible chance of catching the consumption after my cold-neck-wet-feet fiasco this afternoon. Achoo!

6 comments:

Professor Howdy said...

Hello!
Very good posting.
Thank you - Have a good day!!!

S said...

Six Italian novellas?

Grey said...

Bless You!

S said...

A bit jealous and incredulous, but also a tad curious about their specific titles. In English translation or Italian? (If in Italian, that may lead to a bevy of changes in our rapport.)

Also, you question the modernity of 1964? But you and I are oh so postmodern.

S said...

Other than Calvino, the only one I really know anything about is Elio Vittorini. He wrote Conversations in Sicily, and was imprisoned in the early 1940s for his involvement in communist and anti-Fascist resistance groups.

S said...

I opened my copy of Calvino's Fiabe italiane today and randomly happened upon his remarks on Elio Vittorini's death in the timeline presented in the introduction. Sparing you the Italian, here is what he had to say:

"It is difficult to associate the idea of death--and, until yesterday, that of illness--with the figure of Vittorini. Images of existential negativity, fundamental to so large a part of contemporary literature, were not his; Elio was always in search of new images of life. And he knew how to evoke them more than any other."