May 28, 2004

12:29 p.m.

A Little Rain

It's raining in Connecticut today. My new phalaenopsis is enjoying the front window, along with the struggling jasmine and the ivy and the christmas cactus and the philodendron -- no, no, it's not a philodendron, it's that other one that looks like a ph. only the leaves are streaked with yellow. Forgot the name of that one. Anyway I picked up the orchid yesterday because a) I used to have a couple and really enjoyed them, and b) it reminded me of Will. One of the freelance things he does is to draw orchids for botanical magazines. (Hey, baby, wanna draw my orchid?)

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I spoke last night with a professor friend of mine from U.Conn. I hadn't talked to him since some time last year. He was in the hospital for two months over the winter with pancreatitis, and after a couple of bouts and some surgery, he's feeling better now. It's not over; there's another polyp they might remove this summer. He wasn't strong enough to have it done the last time.

Polyps, man. One of Rose's ovaries had to go because of them.

Anyway it was great to talk with him finally. I think we should visit before too long. Time has a way of stealing years.

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I'm about to go onto the Victoria's Secret website to see what kind of deals they have. This is because of the sale catalogue they sent me last week. It reminds me of Billy Collins's poem, "Victoria's Secret," from his collection entitled Sailing Alone around the Room. I won't reprint it here because the book is worth every penny and you should just buy it. But he's sitting there trying to write poetry, while all these models from the V.S. magazine are staring at him with various come-hither-type looks, and they each have a story and an attitude, and some peculiar relationship to the writer -- and all the while he still manages to describe in designer's detail everything they're modeling. It's quite cute. Anyway, all I can think of in relation to the babe on this cover is, "Hey! I can't close my mouth. My lips are just too bi-i-i-ig. But that's okay, because it's all about my lacy ASS."

Well, thank heaven there's Billy Collins.

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The birds are making our parking lot sound like a jungle. If I close my eyes I can almost imagine that I'm already living near the woods. I don't have a thing on the books today. Too wet to ride, so it might just be a movie day, and a good way to pamper the puzzling, slight lower back pain I've been having. I was also going to say it's quiet downstairs today, but Galina is yelling at the moment. I feel so sorry for her, but it also makes me a little mad. The other day we spoke on the stoop again, and her boys were right there playing with their bubbles, and she was going on about how she had wanted kids, and now that she has them she doesn't want them, has no freedom, they're such a pain, etc. Alex is probably not even two yet, but Arkadi is nearly seven and I can't believe he doesn't understand that his mother is saying she wishes he'd not been born. It's just not right. Argh. I have an easy life.

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Well, there would be more except the sound isn't working on my computer when I run videos now, so some troubleshooting is required. Diagnostics Girl to the rescue.