“Finish every day and be done with it. You have done what you could;
Some blunders and absurdities crept in; Forget them as soon as you can.
Tomorrow is a new day; You shall begin it serenely and with too high a
spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense.”

— Ralph Waldo Emerson, writer and philosopher (1803-1882)

Excerpted interview with author Sherman Alexie, from 1/5/97 issue of the New York Times Magazine:

Q: True, but you’re clearly angry, especially at whites who try to “connect” by immersing themselves in Indian culture. How would you have whites treat modern Indians?

A: No. 1, recognize that we are sovereign entities, with absolute political, social and economic rights on our land. No. 2, that’s all I care about. Other than that, leave our culture alone.

“I opened the drawer of my little desk and a single letter fell out, a letter from my mother, written in pencil, one of her last, with unfinished words and an implicit sense of her departure. It’s so curious: one can resist tears and ‘behave’ very well in the hardest hours of grief. But then someone makes you a friendly sign behind a window… or one notices that a flower that was in bud only yesterday has suddenly blossomed… or a letter slips from a drawer… and everything collapses.”

— Letters From Colette

“There are three things in life that are fun to watch: a rippling stream, a fire in the fireplace and a Zamboni going around and around.'”

— Charlie Brown

“Women might be able to fake orgasms. But men can fake a whole relationship.”

— Sharon Stone

One of my girlfriends e-ed this to me, when I was having a cruddy day. It’s a good one to re-read from time to time.

WM

“Someone will always be prettier.
They will always be smarter.
Their house will be bigger.
They will drive a better car.
Their children will do better in school.
And their husband will fix more things around the house.
So let it go, and love you and your circumstances.
Think about it.
The prettiest woman in the world can have hell in her heart.
And the most highly favored woman on your job may be unable to have
children.
And the richest woman you know,
she’s got the car, the house, the clothes….might be really, really lonely.
So, again, love you.
Love who you are.
Look in the mirror in the morning and smile and say
‘This right here is what I got, and it ain’t half bad.'”

“When angry, count four; when very angry, swear.”

— Mark Twain, “Pudd’nhead Wilson’s Calendar”

“It’s not often that someone comes along who is a true friend, and a good writer. Charlotte was both.”
— E.B. White

I think of this poem now, because the spiders have taken over our yard, our house, our basement. The Queen Anne’s Lace is in full bloom; the blackberries are ripening. It smells like fall, and it’s August first.

“You Are As You Are”
— by Rumi

“You do not resemble anyone.
You are not the bride or the groom.

You do not fit in a house with anyone.
You have left the closed-in corner
where you lived. Domestic animals
get ridden to work. Not you.

You are as you are,
an indescribable message on the air.”

I’m glad the sky is painted blue,
and the earth is painted green,
with such a lot of nice fresh air
all sandwiched in between.

(anon.)

Well, well, well. When there are no kids at my house, it is extremely quiet. Also I got a little lonely. But not too lonely! Hockey God took me to Sal’s for dinner (salmon for me, veggie lasagna for him). We’ve been going to Pause non-stop, and why? Because Pause kicks ass. We love Pause. But Sal’s is alright, too. Then we drove over to Vancouver, Wash., to see “Knocked Up,” the new film by the “Forty Year Old Virgin” Guy.

(That’s how I refer to him, cuz I can never remember his name. FYOVG.)

(His real name is Judd Apatow.)

Hockey God thought it needed a major re-write. I thought it was funny as hell. We were both right.

WE SLEPT IN. We had tamales, potatoes and fresh fruit salad for breakfast, and a pot of coffee. We got the kids from mom’s (they had a great time, of course), stopped by the library, went out for lunch, now Hockey God’s off to his game. They may win, they may lose, they may push the other players down. It’s hockey, it’s hard to say.

Perfect day today. Perfect weekend.