Oh Yeah . . .

I'm workin' today in Fairbanks . . . it's raining. Sweet deal. We pulled down the huge maps in dispatch and they're going to put up new ones. Sweet deal.

"What If This Road"

What if this road, that has held no surprises
These many years, decided not to go
Home after all; what if it could turn
Left or right with no more ado
Than a kite-tail? What if its tarry skin
Were like a long, supple bolt of cloth,
That is shaken and rolled out, and takes
A new shape from the contours beneath?
And if it chose to lay itself down
In a new way; around a blind corner,
Across hills you must climb without knowing
What's on the other side; who would not hanker
To be going, at all risks? Who wants to know
A story's end, or where a road will go?

~Sheenagh Pugh

I completed the application process for grad school today (the interview). Like all interviews, I left feeling the weight of all that was not said. This weekend I went to visit my grandma in Nebraska. Nebraska is beautiful and blooming and full of lovely old houses that beg to be made homes. Overall today I felt . . . scooped out. Like a crispy potato skin that hasn't had any filling put back in it. I guess maybe that's better than a stuffed zucchini though. /c: Maybe it's time for bed.

There is a great deal of difference between an eager man who wants to read a book and the tired man who wants a book to read.

G. K. Chesterton (1874-1936)

'Home' is a funny thing . . .

. . . a more fluid concept that I would have imagined. I head back to Alaska on Wednesday, but now, more than ever, I am convinced that anywhere on this earth has the ability to become as much of a home as this earth is capable of. Man! I can't wait for heaven!

At last

"Beyond the Wild Wood comes the Wide World," said the Rat. "And that's something that doesn't matter, either to you or me. I've never been there, and I'm never going, nor you either, if you've got any sense at all. Don't ever refer to it again, please."
Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows

I am delighted to report that I am done with significant traveling for at least . . . I don't know. I'm hoping at least a month. This month I'm applying for grad school. We'll see how this works out. God is good, I'm counting on Him taking care of all of the stressful parts.

Back Home Again

Safe and sound. Why do I have so much stuff?

Cold Quesadilla

I am sitting in my apartment eating my dinner of cold quesadilla while a group of Korean workmen knock a hole through the outside wall of my kitchen/entryway. I asked Mr. Lee (a very wonderful man who works at Like) if they couldn't wait until I was gone, and he assured me they had to do it today. I leave in a day and a half.

I'm also getting a new student today. I reminded Mrs. Kim that I'll only be here today and tomorrow, and she just said she knew. [Here I shrug my shoulders and remind myself that the way to make it in Korea is to be the river and not the rock.]

*Sigh*