It's strange to me as I look around the web at the people I know but don't know and the people I most admire and the people I'm drawn to without explanation, that we've all mentioned being touched by Steven Soderberg's Academy Award acceptance speech in one form or another.

And then there are other everyday people who I've mentioned it to and gotten a shrug of a response in return. They suddenly speed up the rest of the conversation to safely pass the idea of what he said, like navigating a two-laned highway.

And I feel like that's telling me something that I already know deep down, but sometimes choose to ignore.

A gentle reminder.

Dear Larger-Force-Higher-Energy-Fates- Something-Bigger-Than-Me-Dare-I-Say-God...

Thank you for creating Stephen Malkmus. It completely makes up for that whole Matt Dohy debacle in high school.

...Kristen

Last Friday I called Erika for some reminder lessons on making sushi ("Spread the rice to the left and right edges, but leave room at the top and bottom.") And since we were in the spirit, I asked her if she wanted to talk about our June 2002 trip to Japan.

"Kristen, we leave for Spain in two weeks. Let's concentrate on that."

But for some reason I don't want to concentrate on it. I want to forget about it, pretend as if it's not happening, trick my expectations into taking their very own holiday, apart from the Southern Mediterranean coast.

"Spain trip? What Spain trip?"