Snap.

Reverse Sponsor-A-Child.

From the website: "We find an appropriate sponsor family from the other side of the disparity divide, either in North America or abroad. We work with nonprofit organizations to find sponsors who know firsthand how affluence in one place can fuel poverty in another."

More on this later. My interest is piqued. I can't tell if this would be just what some kids need (on both sides of the class divide -- prejudice and class chips cut both ways) or the kind of thing I've heard BC Dean Brinton Lykes disparage as "going to see the poor in their natural habitat." Either way, the discomfort is almost palpable.

In the meantime.

I don't do so well with things that have turned sour, gone south, nosedived, spun out of control, taken turns for the proverbial Worse. I should clarify: I don't do so well in the precise moment at which things turn. I get shaky. I immediately have to fight the urge to cry or be vindicated. I stop talking, which is equal parts blessing and harbinger of worse woes to those who know me best. (One does not want to argue with the silent me.)

In the long run, I fare much better. So what if my plants died because they got too much sun in the place to which I moved them? So what if my car fails emissions tomorrow? So what if I don't pull the grades I'd like to this semester? So what if my laundry is scattered like tiny little cotton corpses across my room, clean though it may be? I won't remember it next month, let alone next year, unless it's to laugh at the ridiculous things that happen to me (my CAR GOT EGGED!! If you have seen my car, you know that that actually might improve it a little bit. Who eggs a rust bucket?).

Somewhere along the way, I usually manage to get a grip on reality and hold onto what's important. What I've been learning lately is that I desperately need to be a bit more forgiving, a little bit more gracious, a little bit more understanding of these kinds of imperfections in me and others "in the meantime," between what's happening right here, in the Now, and what will be worth remembering Then.

the most wonderful time of the year

Some days, I can't imagine a world without eggnog.

Age with grace.

I'd forgotten that my school notebook came with us to NYC for the Darfur Rally a few months ago. To my delight and surprise, my notes from Secured Transactions gave way to these "storytime" gems from one of the the six-hour bus rides we took that day:

"If C files UCC-3 prior to 4 months, the priority date is the date of filing UCC-1. If C files UCC-3 after 4 months, there are two priority dates: the initial FS's filing date (UCC-1) governs collateral D had or acquired up to that 4-month date; the UCC-3 filing date governs all collateral acquired after the 4 months."

(turning page)

"One big snot went perilously into Jesus' presence."

November

Nosebleeds at Celtics games with friends new and old
May-day weather in my birth month
My mother and her friends out gallivanting in my city
My brother, modeling tonight...!
Making one good car out of two bad ones for my sister, soon to arrive back in the U.S.
Borat, at long last
Afghani food for dinner
the INA coming into focus slowly as studies progress
the reemergence of Stephanie Ayer, and

looking forward to December.

(With regard to The Swell Season, the management recommends "falling slowly," both as a means of walking down stairs, into hope, loving one's Irish-mutt heritage, and finding a cushioned veranda upon which to sink with books in hand anticipating moonrise. We've still got time.)