the last embassy
enjelani's journal archives

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29 June 2002 (Saturday)

meeting moonpuddle

I'm feeling all warm and fuzzy.

Spending the weekend with my dad; flew down to where he works and we're driving back home tomorrow, making a national park stop for some hiking along the way. Turns out Moonie lives a stone's throw from Dad's commuter apartment (well, fifteen minutes' drive), so we dropped by for an hour or so earlier this evening. She even called Mr. S, who apparently frantically showered before coming over for the momentous rendezvous. Made me feel better about frantically brushing my teeth before coming over, myself.

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posted by enjelani @ 10:08 PM PST [ link ]

28 June 2002 (Friday)

weighing in, under god

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

- from The Declaration of Independence of the United States [emphases mine]

The main problem, as I see it, is that we don't really know what we mean by religious freedom -- whether we want to revise the original intent behind the Constitution.

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posted by enjelani @ 05:21 PM PST [ link ]

27 June 2002 (Thursday)

well, "less" mundane...

I am working from home today. I am being productive. This is an oxymoron. Particularly bewildering because I am feeling wholly unmotivated, but here I am, steadily crossing things off the to-do list.

Reflection X, however, can kiss my patootie.

Okay, somebody is going to have to teach me to play D&D. I am often the one-girl-among-guys, and my taste in men has always run toward the geeky, which means just about everyone I hang out with these days knows the game through and through. Plus Ms. Slithy-Tove, who I am convinced is my great lost love across the sexual-orientation divide, revealed yesterday that she spent her high school years rolling the dodecahedron die. And playing an elf. Ooh.

Soren says I scratch myself vigorously while I sleep. How embarrassing.

posted by enjelani @ 12:29 PM PST [ link ]

26 June 2002 (Wednesday)

mmm, domesticity

In accordance to the new program, I cooked dinner for the first time in the apartment tonight. Vegetable and wild rice pilaf with grilled lemon-garlic chicken. Almost tasty. I am not so handy with the mini-grill, just yet -- the results tonight were more like latex than poultry.

Now I'm sitting in my kitchen listening to Mozart quintets and eating peach ice cream made by the neighborhood shop on the corner, which happens to've been voted best ice cream parlor in the city several years running. I love my new home.

Thanks to Soren I have seen two -- count 'em! -- movies in the past three days, both of which star Tom Cruise, and both of which are quite good. Soren and I poked holes in Minority Report's plot all the way back home, but it's definitely worth seeing (if nothing else, for those autopilot cars that go up the sides of skyscrapers!). Vanilla Sky is still haunting me a whole 24 hours afterward, something that's only happened with a rare handful of films. And I think I've got a crush on Penelope Cruz.

Something less mundane next post, I promise.

posted by enjelani @ 10:35 PM PST [ link ]

practical babble

The catch-22: Shouldn't quit job #1 until I've secured a steady stream of work with job #2. Securing a steady stream of work with job #2 requires having a lot of time to meet with all sorts of people all over the place during business hours, which is only made possible by quitting job #1. Hence the bind I'm in.

Meanwhile, I'm contemplating putting myself through intensive lifestyle-change training, so's to have the right habits in place when I become a pauper. Example: this business of eating all my meals in restaurants. Not sustainable on my future salary. I will learn to eat home-cooked leftovers. Of course, this involves having halfway edible home cooking to begin with. Hmm. Will have to work on that.

I'm also thinking that (gulp) downgrading to dialup may kill two birds with one stone. No hefty DSL bill, and with crawlingly slow downloads I may just give up this websurfing addiction.

posted by enjelani @ 03:10 PM PST [ link ]

25 June 2002 (Tuesday)

on matrimony

Sorry folks, I'm bloggy today.

So this article, about reviving the institution of marriage, has got me annoyed. Look. If the issue is kids, I'm willing to bet any kid with a loving family is in pretty good shape, whether the family consists of a single mother and lots of cool neighbors or a gay couple who adopted or the conventional mom-and-dad thing. It's the commitment of love that makes the difference, not your tax filing status.

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posted by enjelani @ 06:07 PM PST [ link ]

my private mythology

Last weekend I discovered a new character in the slowly unfolding epic in my head: Enjelani's sister, Malagenya. It seems she's an archetype, representing all those who hunger for greatness and never find it, who learn to find peace with themselves despite a fruitless burning ambition. Grace in failure. I'm a little troubled about the timing of her appearance in my imagination -- why now, I wonder? Who is she?

Malagenya, she said. Her eyes were filled with tears. I did not ask for this. Do you understand? I did not ask for what was given me to do, to become. Do not envy me the journey ahead.

Then Malagenya wept with her. She drew her sister close and kissed her hair, and in that deep black summer night it seemed all the Mairai poured forth in sorrow.

Forgive me, Enjelani, she said. I do not envy you. Your story is not my story. I understand this. All your pain, if you would have me bear it, I would. All your joy, if you would have me share in it, I would. But you will be walking this road alone. I understand. Your story is not my story.

Enjelani touched her sister's face. Forget this, she begged her. Let go of this wish, this fervent desire. I will be haunted by what must come to pass; why should you be haunted by what can never be? Forget that you ever wanted to be chosen.

But Malagenya shook her head. It runs in me as the blood runs, she said. I can never forget. Sai dan mi'ahmei. Vi'aet ma sai.

posted by enjelani @ 02:22 PM PST [ link ]

photos (bad ones)

I'm not even going to make pretty little cropped previews the way everyone else does, seeing as it was 1) old grainy expired film, 2) an autofocus camera that didn't autofocus, 3) automated scanning courtesy of the developer, and 4) me as the photographer, for chrissake.

Mr. ECheng in his infinite generosity has lent me a point-and-shoot digital, though, so the situation will hopefully improve.

painting tables.
the endless hour.
in dreams i can taste you.
come winter he found it flooded, and could not cross.
the failure of translation.
hurry, cinderella.

posted by enjelani @ 11:28 AM PST [ link ]

24 June 2002 (Monday)

boing boing boing

Sometimeslifehappenswaytoofasteventhoughit'sdoingwhatIalwayswantedittodo
andIjusthavetotrustthatIdidenoughthinkingbeforeItooktheplunge

posted by enjelani @ 03:45 PM PST [ link ]