Category: Uncategorized

Today on my porch I was drilling holes in PVC piping. Listening to a podcast piped into my ears. Falling into a rhythm of cutting, drilling, wiping away the bits of dusty white plastic. And then an animal droned my head. A female rufous hummingbird, no ruby-throat but still dressed in jewel tones, dusty soft […]

I’m sitting right back where I was last summer now, sitting in the same room with the cheap wooden desk and the grape vines shading the window. (It only now occurs to me in the second summer of living here—maybe dolmas? The second-floor grape vines are decorated with strings of beads, errant earrings and pendants hung there […]

These are the sorts of moody-snit things I write while I’m on the subway, and really aggravated about being on the subway. I grew up in the woods! 1. The miles go by with no markers Except the flash of my window across them And several million lanky people Who I will never meet Have the same […]

“This is weird,” said my mother-in-law. “Good weird, or bad weird?” I asked, lifting a wooden spoon to my own lips for the millionth time, just to check. “Just…weird!” she said, scrunching up her face. But then she took a bowl from the cupboard, ladled herself a portion of my Saturday project, and curled up […]

My family is an adventurous bunch. (This past weekend, on a single day, I went kayaking with manatees and flying in a 4-seater plane with my aunt, uncle, and little cousin. Some people plan for retirement, my aunt plans to sail around the world. Everyday stuff for this clan.) I wouldn’t trade it for anything. […]

Thanks to a vivacious ancient Greek dead guy named Seikilos, we have access to a piece of music that was popular nearly 4000 years ago, according to this post at the History Blog. I wonder about Seikilos. About his character. How he walked and held his drinks. We have this song because he had it […]

“Animals are classified as follows: 1. those that belong to the Emperor, 2. embalmed ones, 3. those that are trained, 4. suckling pigs, 5. mermaids, 6. fabulous ones, 7. stray dogs, 8. those included in the present classification, 9. those that tremble as if they were mad, 10. innumerable ones, 11. those drawn with a […]

Earlier this month I followed my boyfriend/dolphin researcher colleague Eric to the Brazilian state of Bahia, where we stayed with his friend/whale researcher colleague Marcos. Marcos and Eric met me early in the morning at the airport in Salvador. I changed into comfortable clothes in the car, and we went straight to the beach, where […]

I know I haven’t blogged in awhile, and there’s a reason. I finished up my summer at VOA, and immediately hopped on a plane to Bahia, Brazil. It’s been a shenanigans sort of week. Here is a gif set of my boyfriend, Eric, and our amazing host, Marcos. These photos brought to you by some […]

I haven’t talked much about my boyfriend on this blog, mostly because I love him so much that I figure writing about him would make everyone hate me. That might be a risk I’m willing to take, so here I go: He’s a scientist who studies dolphin calls, and I would like to become a […]