What is the root and where do the branches go?

some items

I am reading all of the Harry Potter books this summer. So far, I have read more than 1/2 of the first book in 4 short days. I am on the path to ~~SUCCESS~~

I've been going to queer Kundalini yoga class on Thursdays and really enjoying it. Enjoying it so much so that I wanted to take an additional yoga class, at a yoga studio in Austin. Guess how much classes cost? $17.

I honestly thought that was a joke. How can so many people have yoga bumper stickers on their cars if it costs $17 per class?


That was an example of one joy and one woe.

misery

I can't tell if I am a pathetic sick person or if I am just very sick.
I don't think it matters because my experience is misery.

Unbreathing, cloudy-minded, heavy stomached, misery.

items i am doing

MMMMM this beer is so good! Sarah got 4 of them for us the day I found out I got accepted into graduate school and I bought a single the other night at the co-op. YUM. Highly alcoholic, beware! But that's what makes it taste so good (seriously.)

I just re-read this dystopian childhood book. I have recently also finished other depressing tales of humanity: Never Let Me Go and The Handmaid's Tale so maybe I should stop.

Lars, have you done anything besides consume items with long-bearded men on the covers?

Why, yes. 

I stopped eating glutens for 5 days in solidarity with my sister. I did some handiwork about the house today, went to Home Depot, gave a training at work, ate a hot dog, and now I am watching the Red Sox/Yankees game.

I am currently collecting my favorite poems to type up and cover a wall of my apartment in. Do you have any good ideas?

THIS IS A TRAP

I haven't blogged in a while. I found out this morning that this person that I knew of on the internet, who is a beautiful trans queen, was found dead yesterday. A quiet sadness has come over me, and I wish I had the day to process this travesty. Yesterday was Kia's birthday, too. My friends lit lanterns & floated them into the sky for her.

This year was the first time I realized I may die one day, or my sister may die one day, and we won't go together.

I've been more afraid of death in the past 6 months than I have been in my whole life.

"I believe in living.
I believe in birth.
I believe in the sweat of love
And in the fire of truth.

And I believe that a lost ship,
steered by tired, seasick sailors,
can still be guided home
to port."

-Assata Shakur

 Is this poem appropriate? I don't know. I've been reading it over & over the past few days. I'm going to cover a wall of my next home with framed poems. 

 

"Leading a life that you don't feel the need to end is a privilege.

grrlyman:

Most of my life I felt like I couldn’t last another day. There were dozens of times that I slept and didn’t think I would wake up. I woke up multiple times in hospitals, feeling like my choice was taken away from me. Today, I fear death, because I’m so happy in life. I am so lucky, and so privileged. I’m grateful that my attempts failed. I mourn those who slipped away, but I respect their difficult decision."

 

8 minutes

possible ideas:

• the time it takes to properly brush your hair
• silent calls to your phone pen pal
• meditation on what 8 minutes means
• 100 espresso shots
• replaying the most intense million dollar question on "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?" each night
• hands, shoulders, knees and toes, knees and toes
• slowly building up the perfect ant colony (system of tunnels in carpeting)
• reinstating beenie baby school
• doing nothing 
• laughing at me
• making comix
• burning all previous summer plans that we NEVER COMPLETED
• writing your op-ed piece for the Old Stonebridge Times
• perfecting "Greensleeves" on the keyboard
• petting Selena (the beta)
• chipping away at the closet wall between our rooms
• texting dad
• I DON'T KNOW WHAT ELSE.
• oh making a sweater out of brooke's fur. 

am I getting closer? 

Reading List

I have 7 months to do EVERYTHING in preparation for graduate school.
That means:
-packing, moving, finding a place to live, figuring out how we are going to move
-making a quilt (for warmth)
-having a lot of fun in Texas
-riding my bike
-and maybe most importantly, reading all books/texts that I will either need a refresher on before starting school, or books that I just want to read in my spare time.

So, here's my current reading list:

-Sexing the Body by Anne Fausto-Sterling (read this my first year of college and did not get it. at all. i'm getting it now.)
-History of Sexuality/Discipline & Punishment, by Michel Foucault. Maybe I'll just like consider biopower.
-Texas Tough by Robert Perkinson
-Still Brave, the Evolution of Black Women's Studies, (Some of Us Are Brave 2.0)
-The Handmaid's Tale, by Margaret Atwood (working on this now)
-Hardboiled Wonderland and the End of the World, Haruki Murakami

Building that bibliography. There are a lot more, I'm sure. Kelly, do you have any suggestions????