December 04, 2004
to-do list for the weekend of december 4, 2004
- feed the cat, DoEasy style
- make instant coffee, same thing
- turn dishes to be washed into next week’s project
- measure the speed of light by melting chocolate in microwave oven hotspots and measuring the distance between globs
- brush up on iceskates blade sharpening techniques! find my tuque
- light up a fat candle and calm down with all the fireplace talk
- write a little poem
- hello, flame
red tiger ready to pounce
- have black russians, with a movie in the middle
- sunday : not talk about work ever again. call mom and share last night’s dreams instead, if we can recall at all - what’s up with all this wandering in labyrinthic highschool buildings? does it ever go away? listen for her wisdom
- read until bedtime
Posted by nathalie at 11:21 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
October 23, 2004
the pleasure principle
In every book I have read, the elements for a successful surprise-party are as follow :
- A stack of records
- A stack of liquor
- Dancing guests (on the couches, under the furnitures, on the piano, on the balcony, in the bathtub, in the corners, around the stereo)
- Explosives (for the grand finale)
I would say that in good company, #1 is the only prerequisite, because books are filled with exaggeration. Still, sometimes, they make us worry when we should not.
Tonight is my friend K’s birthday party. She worries that it won’t be all that, and I worry about people close to me finding my blog and scoffing at me for this and that, so let’s call her Josef K from now on, who is celebrating not her birthday but a wedding anniversary. I got her a little red suede pouch filled with flasks of beauty and cleaning products. She thinks we should get a plan going, in fear of guests pacing around and being bored. I picture it from here, she says. Having no set plans means that sooner or later, guests will turn their nose up, and their mouth downwards,
- I’m bored with everything! Anyone’s any ideas?
- Remember you’re not as empty as you think!
- This party definitely lacks organisation…
- Let’s take some furnitures home, as compensation.
I still think we should not get plans going. Schedules are for the workweek; on weekends I’m good for nothing, sweet nothing. Having no plans leave all doors open to possibilities, such as smearing war paint on our face and go wild in the streets! Or just stay inside quietly, but still with the possibility of painting our face, etc. Maybe it has nothing to do with what is called the pleasure principle but if you asked me to explain it anyway, this is the idea I would try to convey.
Posted by nathalie at 10:38 AM | TrackBack
April 03, 2004
hello
If there were initiations to hearten a timid chomper, I wonder what would mine be. Recalling a dream, maybe… Or three things that make me happy at the moment :
1. The many entries I have read, by friends and strangers alike, that have resonated with my thoughts, and made me wish to join in. I propose myself to assemble the links that I enjoy reading, on a list at the right, and leave my own words here, instead of scattered in my head. Thank you to Jacob who have teleported me in no instant into the great scary world of MovableType! wee.. I predict this summer to be slow at work, at least to do the best I can for it to be so. The gauges and measures we use are unreliable in the summer anyway. But even if many clients come in, I will strive to keep a leisurely pace.
2. And soon, we can be outside on a warm night. Tonight we move the clock forward, then the parks reopen and it’s my birthday! Finally, the sun will appear behind the mount Royal, after 6 months of darkness. It has always been this way, but still catch me offguard every year… When it all becomes grassy green and yellow, no matter how fleeting, I just love to go on about it.
3. What could be the third thing..? I will choose a recent dream.
There was a man in a store, handing me a book. The cover was very colourful, a girl with tangled hair, standing in a muddy field; How Nathalie fought the dragon. The man explained to me that the book was about archeology finds in our hometown. I listened and enjoyed, even though what he said made no sense. In reality the book was about the recurring dreams I had from age 3 to 6, of a dragon chasing me around the house, me running in circles, scared senseless.
It was not a dream of waterslide parks or mountaintop glass cities, my preferred stand-bys, but it made me feel assured and never quite faded. Something else for me to confuse with real life memories, in old age. I could have picked a real picture instead.
There is one of me as a teenager, breaking up a glass bottle against something I mistook for a new boat. The photo is in an album at my parent’s house, and though I couldn’t say why, is a reminder to myself of writing with a care, not an intention.
Now I must go pickup food and prepare old poems to regale my guests with tonight! Just kidding…I wouldn’t do that, anywhere but here.
This poem is called Devotions, and was written ages ago by a taciturn man, Rimbaud.
To Sister Louise Vanaen de Voringhem: …
I guess I like it because of its dramatic, sincere tone, and silliness too. I figure it is about masturbation. Thank you for bearing with me as I am breaking into my new weblog, hopefully I don’t harm my templates too much in the process.