couple things. travelling some - new york city (karaoke funeral, bbq penguins, etc.), rochester, swarthmore (yale house memorial day bash), swarthmore (commencement.) my fourth swat grad weekend - 03 04 06 07 - listening to all of those speeches always makes me both nostalgic and also feel like i didn't quite get the 'correct' swarthmore experience, as they eulogize it. because i only did/learned/absorbed some portion of the invaluable things they describe, not all of them. or maybe it really is because the swarthmore they conjure doesn't (of course) really exist for anybody. i liked jenny keith's the best, not just for how much mileage she got out of a potentially corny but actually resonant metaphor, but for recognizing that different students, like different members of the same family, each have unique experiences of the college. i always feel funny for those students, sitting at their commencements, listening to those speeches, whom i know didn't have the fuzzy and idealistic swat experiences being described, much more than me.

didn't have a great view to see martha as she walked, but she was wearing the earrings, made by yoga sara, that i gave her the night before, at brasserie perrier (right next door to my grad wknd restaurant, alma) (best thing i had was i think my roasted beet tricolor salad, though the cucumber-ginger-lemon-gin "ale" was yummy too.) she seemed to be holding it together on lack of sleep better than i did - but then she barely had the opportunity to let her emotions take over with all the running-around senior week class officer organizing and campaign management; i followed her around on her errands for an hour or two on thursday, in the zone, telling the story backwards. now she's off in amsterdam, or maybe beyond by now. europe for two months three days after moving out - barely time to regroup but maybe just as well that way.

i do wish i'd been able to interact with her more substantively between now and then, but that pretty obviously wasn't going to happen, so it's ok. as i wrote to her in a repurposed swarthmore college thank you card (originally bought for my high school grad present thankses), we're now going to be in the same life-stage for the first time since possibly elementary school. looking forward to it. i do regret that i didn't think of the beatles when i was tinkling some ivories at her and kristin's post-commencement luncheon party at the meetinghouse (best part of which was doing high school musical with cousin zoe). of course, i should have played "martha my dear"! and if i'd thought of it, i also would have played "in my life." what a song.

it's summertime, of course - that's the big news - in basically every way except actually (meteorologically, culturally, socially, institutionally.) spring is the shortest season because it's measured from the end of snow to the beginning of mugginess, which never lasts three months anywhere i've lived. fall on the other hand (by the reverse measure) is nice and leisurely. maybe that's why i've always had such a tough time putting a finger on the spring months (from a distance, march and may always seemed interchangeable), while october is eternal. on my game for once, i made my summer mix starting just at the tail end of memorial day weekend, and finished up a coupla days ago. that's where all my blog energies have gone, for that week.5 at least. you can listen to it now, at mincetapes or mincepace, and i've just manufactured the first round of mass-packaging for it, so you can get your own copy, with or without a bonus disc, depending. i'm quite happy with it, anyway - it sort of reveals me to be weird. i can't claim to understand it.

and the summer society is happening, so i'm psyched. i keep meeting these people, with their warehouse art lofts in old kensington or whatever you call, with varying shades of completion and webreality [AMMS, PIFAS, MSC], waitresses, teachers, mural artists. they admire each others work. maybe that's what i need? i'm a dj. if i had a car i could be a drummer? (i have a permit, again, as of.) or else, they have some tracks online that i should check out. walked with david guinn to his, parked over on baltimore and 47th, and said we were collecting faces - no. amassing recognitions, and if we were more efficient the whole city could be collapsed in about no time. emily told me upwards of twenty times in quick succession that she was going to write me a check, is that okay? (yes, and she already gave it to me, it's made out to "ross." i forgot her birthday present.)

and everyone's on myspace. get over it.

friday was "dangerously hot," so cory and i went inside, to the fabric workshop museum (1/2 exhibit; no fabric) and the masonic temple, and we almost got to go to the top of the city hall tower but we were a few minutes late because we got some pretzels and blueberry (frozen) yogurt at reading terminal. i did go to the pma, and looked mostly at indian animal paintings instead of japanese landscapes. walked around barefoot on the delightfully varied surfaces of the medieval/asian wing until a hesitant guard offered: "i'm not sure whether we have a policy on shoes...but i believe they're supposed to be worn. we don't want you to get a splinter, and then decide to sue the museum. i think that's it. we don't want you to get blood all over the floor. it's the blood reason."

so i sat on the steps (not on the side of the steps!) and somebody behind me said "that was a good tour" - then i figured out he meant my t-shirt, phish summer '97 (ten years!), which i wear, um, subversively? (not ironically!) oregonian multi-instrumentalist (self-described), in town (malvern) for computer training, has a band with the guy from the (tequila) champs. cool - i always feel self-conscious wearing that but i wear to force myself to try to not feel self-conscious. it's a complicated game that i don't always win. it's inspired by matt rubin.

i have my fingers in so many artistic pies, says that guy. oh -that reminds me -really, i didn't mean to make this a transition until just now, honest, i made a strawberry-rhubarb pie last week. my dad scolded me: "rhubarb pie, ross!" ok fine. i got some more 'barb, so pretty! slender and pink, at the fair food farmstand. i'll make a straight-up one - when? maybe in wanakena. waste of freshness. oh well. good fruitscrap sorbet too - straw/blueb/mango; i won't tell you the secret part, because it tastes better if you don't know.

well there you go. every day i say 'time to blog' and now i did. grandparents can stop grumbling, for a while anyway.

i think, new plan, i will see daft punk at red rocks.

this is why
this is why
this is why