in my CD player... Ella Fitzgerald Best of the Gershwin Songbook

on the page... Martin Amis's The Information

today's temporarily skewed perspective... When Jim called today he mentioned that his brother, Conor, had been hiking the Appalachian Trail since March and was going to finish in about two weeks. I can't figure out how this fact escaped his emails over the past five months but I quickly called up Conor's AT Journal site to catch up on twelve states of hiking. After I'd been reading them for an hour or so, I found myself thinking, "Wait? He had another zero mile day? Two late starts in a row? Is he backpacking or slackpacking?" And then reality would come into view again quickly: I get winded walking up a few flights of stairs and I'm going to criticize Conor for taking a day or two or three off in the middle of a six month mountain hike? Am I certifiable?

in my comment field... "The earth has music for those who listen." William Shakespeare ...thanks, Laine ...I love that people are now send me unique quotes in emails... more, more!

hyper- sentimentality... maybe it's just my mood, but the strangest things have been making me sad lately... take, for instance, the most bizarre one by far: the man who serves the lunchtime entrées in the cafeteria at work makes me sad, because no one ever stands in his line... everyone's too busy getting deli sandwiches or something from the grill and he just stands there looking longingly at all the customers that have snubbed him. I won't let Todd talk about it when we go down to lunch because it makes my heart pang with sadness

glimpses of Ithaca... new postcards from Ithaca: hot truck and swimming hole, sinking sun