the past, the present, the future, and some hyperlinks

it occurs to me that nearly every post i make starts out with "when i was thirteen" or "i did this when i was nine." how lame is that? from now on i hope to blog in the present, and maybe in the future too. so here are things that have happened to me in the past week, and a few things to come in the week to follow:

1. i got inscaped, which really isn't much, but it's nice to know that people like my poetry. there was a release party that i wasn't planning on going to until i was asked to read. so i read. the best thing in the magazine, though, is a story called "the instinct to climb a fence." it's about a kid that gets mauled by a bear.

2. i saw burnt reynolds & his hot bones play at kilby court. i love those guys. on the way up to salt lake i told jessica she should come to the show, and she did. i love her too. she is such a pleasant person to talk to and be around.

3. i ate at pete's lunch with joey and newlin and two people whose names i remember but am not sure how to spell. pete's lunch is a place i spotted when i first moved to provo, and i have been longing to go there. there are few things i love more than a legit diner. i got the denver omelette and i am shocked to say that it may top the veggie omelette at andy's in highland falls, NY. honestly, the only thing andy's has that pete's doesn't is homefries. homefries will always trump hashbrowns. then i had a bite of newlin's chicken fried steak, which also delicious. however, it is impossible to find a better chicken fried steak than the one found at the tip top in san antonio, TX. actually, it is impossible to find a better diner--period--than the tip top. good lord.

4. for a while i was considering becoming a vegetarian. it made sense: i don't eat a lot of meat to begin with, and i discovered that vegetarian proteins are not hard to come by (and i was getting a lot of them). but then i had a bite of that chicken fried steak. then, today, i was watching that diners, drive-ins, and dives guy eat brisket. and i thought of the bottle of rudy's barbecue sauce in my grandpa's fridge that can only go on barbecue. then i thought of my grandpa, who owns a meat plant, and grills me a steak practically every sunday, rain or shine. so i decided that i will never be a vegetarian, and got some skirt steaks from the freezer at the meat plant.

5. i picked up horses, by patti smith, on vinyl at gray whale. i'm not a particular fan of gray whale but i worship patti smith.

things to come:

1. i have an art history exam tomorrow. turns out i'm not so bad at those. i got a 91 on the last one. here are a few reasons why i do all right on these exams: (1) i'm pretty good at remembering names and dates. (2) it is an essay question. (3) it is not given in the testing center. i have mentioned before that the testing center gives me the willies, and this is still the case. i had to take a midterm in there last week and my heart started pounding as soon as i opened the door.

2. baking. the last thing i baked was a hot milk cake with fudge frosting. this is my comfort food. it fills a 9x13" pan and i intended to eat it all, but i only got like four pieces before my roommate ate the rest. anyway, it's been at least three weeks since i last baked, and that is far too long.

3. loaning out my copy of trout fishing in america, which is my favorite book. i've written all over it. i've written not one, but two term papers about it. the reason i'm nervous is because the last time i loaned out a book i really loved, it was lost. i don't hold it against the guy but it was on the road, and i had written all over that one too, and it was nice and bent and worn and soft. also, i'm pretty lenient when it comes to loaning out my stuff. i don't ask for people to give books back until they've read them, movies until they've watched them, etc. unfortunately, i often loan things to people shortly before they move.

4. doctoring some t-shirts. i have a huge collection of t-shirts but only a handful are actually wearable. for example, i used to buy only youth-medium t-shirts from michael's and draw on them with fabric sharpie. youth medium t-shirts show my tummy and my ill-fitting jeans fall below my hips. i used to find this attractive. these days, not so much. other shirts are just too big. the graphics are cool but the shirts themselves need cuttin and sewin.

5. reading more essays and nonfiction. the last nonfiction work that i devoured--i mean, really enjoyed--was the feminine mystique. that was like four years ago. right now i've read half of an essay collection by wendell berry and a handful of food essays. then i should probably finish fear & loathing in las vegas, which is not non-fiction, but pretty autobiographical, and highly enjoyable.