You don't look a day over 99

Happy 100th Birthday to the NYC Subway system!

Here's a cute article on the matter:
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/27/nyregion/27subway.html

You were there when I was 3.5. I remember watching the landscape of Queens whiz by the 7 train as my parents schlepped me into the city for the first time.
You were there when I was 12, up far to early on a Sat. morning to take an exam that has impacted every day of my adult life.
You were there when I was 16, exhausted, tired, and spent from having stayed at school far to long rehearsing, studying, hanging with the girls, figuring out ways to get into clubs...
I missed you when I was in SF.
I longed for your convience and the window you provided to the diversity and mayhem of NYC living.
You've changed, you've grown, and you're a bit more expense now...but I still love you.
I raise a glass to you NYC Subway. May you live on and on.

How about these?

I don't know...maybe these express my personality a bit better.

http://secure.checksinthemail.com/product.aspx?lineid=7&productid=886

Do I dare?

http://secure.checksinthemail.com/product.aspx?lineid=128&productid=1312

I do need to order new checks soon...but do I dare?

Would you still respect me in the morning?

Spitfire?

Spitfire indeed.

I was described as a "spitfire" four times last week. I'm beginning to notice a trend here.

And if a performance of Bernice Johnson Reagon's "The Temptation of Saint Anthony" visits your city, I highly urge you to see it. I've seen A LOT of performances in my short life and this one has moved into my Top 20 all time best.

Thunk for the day

If God is love
And our bodies were created for love
Then you coming into me
Will bring us both to the divine

- from The Temptation of Saint Anthony
libretto & music by Bernice Johnson Reagon

Oct. 20

Thanks to all of you for your lovely birthday cheers! They made me happy!

Sorry that things have been so quiet here and in my general communication. I've been very busy - in really good ways - but busy none the less. But isn't that my natural state of affairs?

Anyhoo, in celebration of my birthday - here is a poem for you.*

*And before y'all get all upset that I'm depressed or anything, please realize that this is A POEM, meaning it is art, meaning it is fiction, meaning don't read so damn much into everything.

Now, for the poem. Enjoy.

10-20-75

Today I am 29
An insignificant birthday
Lacking the function of 30, the indulgence of 21
I am too young for Ajima
My belly still flat and shrunk
I do not feel protective when children trip or fall
Yet, I am too bold and without shame for Agashee
I do not cover my mouth when I laugh
I will correct you if you are wrong

I am nameless and wedged

I whisper prayers for my mother – Umma
Run my bleeding, cracked fingers through my only physical resemblance to her
My hair – fine, slack, uncombed
And wish that I can give her what she wants above all else
Ringing, happy, unguarded wails of Halmunee – Grandma
“Halmunee, I’m hungry.”
“Halmunee, tell me a bedtime story.”
But I will never admit this to her
It would only compound her desire and emptiness


There are so few pictures of you as a child…Umma remarks

As though it were my fault
To be born in transit
Across an ocean, a continent, a lifetime
Childhood memories consist of
Picking roaches off of bare legs and arms
And government cheese distributed in 12”x4”x4” logs
Orange, stinking, and delicious
A distant life then that imagined on this day
Off a ill-paved road in Chon-Ju
In a hospital that had yet to discover the wisdom of disinfectant
29 years ago

All as well, since you are crying in nearly every one.


One Zero Two Zero
The rhythm and symmetry appealing to my artistic aesthetic
A good number – round, divisible by many others
2, 5, 10, 20
Easily broken down into smaller, more manageable components
Simplicity imbedded in wholeness
Balanced
Indicative of my Libra constitution
Indicative of me

Acck!

I'm busy! Busy Busy! But good busy.

I'm also gimpy...but I'll tell you later.

Vote

I know I don't have to remind you to Vote on Nov. 2nd...but just in case you need a little coaxing...Check out these commercials (these are the ones I participated in last month.)

http://www.apiavote.org/mediacenter.htm

What's up with the angle of the camera? Not exactly flattering!

Why I don't want to marry a Korean guy

Reason No. 18 - I don't need another Korean mother.

I've already got one.

Korean mothers and women of a certain age (Agimas) have a way of saying things that can punch you in the gut, kiss you on the face, and make half your brain explode in 20 words or less.

This is one of my favorites that I hear frequently from my mom:

"Oh, your so pretty right now. We have to get you married soon because once you turn 30 your ovaries will shrivel up and you'll get wrinkled and dried up and ugly."

I kid you not. I hear that about twice a week. My favorite part is "your ovaries will shrivel up."

I do not need another Korean mother paying me similar "compliments."

Here's a bonus "wisdom from Bo's mom"

"You're so picky. I don't care if the person you marry is a little shorter, dumber, and not as successful as you. Just as long as you can tolerate him and he can give you babies. That's all I care about. "

Thanks Mom! Now I know where I get my great self-esteem from! That's my problem! I'm looking for love when in fact I should have been looking for tolerate.

Ah vel...you gotta love my mom. She's cute.

Starting a Collection

I'm starting a collection

TO BUILD THE WORLDS LARGEST MEGAPHONE

Why?

So that I can stand up and say

"STOP! STOP!!! We are all human beings! STOP!"

Who's with me?

Read these two books...just not at the same time

People's History of America by Howard Zinn
&
Hegemony & Survival: American's Quest for Global Dominance by Noam Chomsky

Both are great and present some thoughtful, alternative views on politics and widely accepted social theories and models. However, do not make the unfortunate mistake I made this past month and read them at the same time. It's very depressing and demoralizing when taken in a one-two punch.

Can I move to Australia now?

I think I have to go and watch 'Sound of Music' to pep myself up again.

Excess Capacity

Ever find yourself bored - excess mental capacity up the wing wang and nothing to do? Here are a few suggestions to excise that boredom:

1. Sign up for Wordsmith's Word of the Day and bring a little texture to your speech. Here's a word to start you off: schadenfreude - deriving delight from someone elses misery. (Like when you snicker at someone who tripped on the sidewalk. Admit it, you've done it before.)

2. Learn to bake a pie. I prefer strawberry-rhubarb, thank you very much.

3. Paint a picture and then convince people that it's abstract art, not a lack of talent.

4. Start a Blog!

5. Apply to grad school on a whim. Come on, everyone else is doing it. You don't want to be the only kid on the block without an MA/MS/MBA/JD/MD/PhD/MPH/MSW/EdD/MFA and $100K of low interest debt, do you? Do you?

6. Run for city council!

7. Write a self-serving, thinly veiled fiction/semi-autobiographical novel about how difficult it was growing up in America as a woman/person of color/first or second generation immigrant/learning disabled/child of a divorce/appalachian or southern born/poor/excessively rich/physically disabled/mixed-race/got two mammas (or pappas)/child prodigy/child with a famous, abusive or distant parents and how this left you emotionally stunted, confused and ultimately led down a path which included drug abuse, spousal abuse, and living penniless in a ditch on 39th St. and 10th Ave during the economic recssion of 1980 until you found god or a kind prostitute and now you are a fully-realized human being with 5 children (two of which are Chinese adoptees) and live a simple life with the reformed prostitute in a bamboo house you built yourself on a private island off of Fiji. Watch as the novel is heralded by various enclaves of disenfranchised populations but never creeps past #958 on the National book sellers list.

8. Grew up white, male, middle class, two parents, and well-adjusted? No problem! Write said novel anyway, get it all wrong, still recieve critical accolades for attempting to write a novel with empathy and compassion and win Pulitzer Prize. (Who ever said I was politically correct?)

9. Make a video audition tape for a reality TV show.

10. Drink the recommended eight 8oz glasses of water and then go to the bathroom every 10 minutes for the next 5 hours.

I promise I'll be in a far more serious mood next time around. I think it might have been the doughnut I had this morning.