on break

1:52 pm on Thursday, April 17th, 2003

Now I’m on break, which is really great even though it means I end up with a lot less human interaction. My mom and brothers are in Lubbock (why?) and dad doesn’t come home until six, which means I don’t have to be civilized for a while. I think I’ll be sitting around and alternating between Salman Rushdie’s Step Across This Line and Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky’s Manufacturing Consent.

I tend to try for quality here, which makes my writing style a bit forced, I think. Merle’s place is generally superior. I’m missing her. Withdrawal symptoms take the form of cynicism and chocolate.

I’m not too socially competent, now that I think about it. The kind of person that I could call up and invite out usually doesn’t interest me, and the kind of person I really like is pretty well-established and unattainable. I still feel like I’ve got a life back in Michigan and am just sort of skimming the surface here in Austin, which is pretty sad, considering I’ve been here nearly a year. Then again, I’m usually pretty happy, I’m involved, my grades have taken a hit but I’m still getting mail from colleges. I think I’m just hung up on my complete inability to get out on weekends. Where do I want to go, anyway? With whom? Look, I can still be grammar-sensitive when confused!

My mom dragged me to some speech by a Polish guy yesterday about his experiences when deported to Siberia. He was refreshingly devoid of self-pity — quite an accomplishment, considering how terrible two years in a concentration camp at thirteen must have been. He was a funny, sanguine, anecdotal guy, a real success story, and it was a good thing to listen to.

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