Some Thoughts On Stamps

Two Haikus, A Limerick, and some thoughts from the perspective of an addict of stamps.


Haiku:

Is it that a stamp
Can bring me to Nirvana?
Yes, That is the case

2.
I buy you in sheets
Sometimes in excessive rolls
But you complete me

Limerick

There once was an addict of stamps
Whose friends never gave him the chance
To beat his addiction
Which was an affliction
So he retired as a seller of lamps


and finally...

Stamp glue, so divine
Leaving a trace of mint
or lime
Where would I be
Without your adhesive?
It seems that life
Would not be cohesive
In the morning,
Around eight or nine
Paying the bills,
My life isn't
Until my taste buds
Finally grace you
Life is so much better
When I can taste you
Then I find that I am fine
Oh stamp glue, so divine.

Robert Frost makes my Fall

Into My Own

One of my wishes is those dark trees,
so old and firm they scarcely known the breeze,
Were not, as 'twere, the merest mask of gloom,
But stretched away unto the edge of doom.

I should not but beheld that someday
into their vastness I should steal away,
Fearless of ever finding open land,
or highway where the slow wheel pours the sand.

I do not see why I should e'er turn back
Or those that should not set forth upon my track
To overtake me, who should miss me here
And long to know if I still held them dear.

They would not know me changed from the him they knew--
Only more sure of all I thought was true.


-Robert Frost

Holy Hell! An Update!

For anyone who has enough spare time to dabble around this thing, I apologize. I acknowledge my lack of diligence in updating. It's slightly pathetic.

So what has happened?
Goodness gracious, what hasn't happened?

The rest of the tour this summer was the most exhausting/exhilirating/exhuberant/exhsomething experience of my life. I hated it at times, I loved it most times, and I want to be on the road again. Sadly, college has once again gotten the better of me.

So in the past few months I have gone from being completely broke and completely happy and carefree to being well payed and overworked/exhausted but driven. I figure, I've got one more semester of this and then I am o-u-t and off into the world. I'm okay with that.

Tony is in Africa, so that's something. I would like to voice my general enthusiasm for that kid. I have never felt/watched myself develop while I was in a relationship like I did with him. Prior to him I felt like every romantic endeavor I had was just part of the process of breaking myself down. For the first time I found myself in something that was building myself back up, and I'm a better person because of it. Hats off to him for going to Africa for two and half years. It'll be interesting to see what man he has grown into when he gets back.

A few weeks ago my cousin Jennifer passed away. It was completely unexpected and traumatic. Also, my first brush with death, and it left me quite shaken. I've come to the conclusion that death is a deep heavy breath for those left behind, a breath of exhaustion. It's also terribly personal and not a subject I care to disclose too much information about on the www.
Let's just say my foundations were stirred, and I'm in the process of repair.

My creative writing minor was probably the greatest idea I've ever had. I'm in four english classes right now, a french class, and media ethics. I've decided writing is an venture I will be in pursuit of for the rest of my life. If I hope to never reach the day where I feel my writing is sufficient and completely refined, because that will be the day I've lost my passion for the written word, if that makes sense.
One accomplishment I am incredibly proud of is the alliance I forged myself over the summer with alot of really great authors.
Books I read this summer (and recommend to the masses)

The Fountainhead
The Book of Laughter and Forgetting
Extremely Loud, Incredibly Close
Dandelion Wine
Self-help
Chronicle of a Death Foretold
Dharma Bums
Love in the Time of Cholera
The Great Gatsby (again)
The Book of Laughter and Forgetting
What is the What
Best American Essays
A Good Man is Hard to Find (and other short stories)
Love
Down and Out in Paris and London
The Prince of Tides

...I think I might be missing a few, but that's the most of them.
It was incredible. I miss having that much free time.

More later, I promise. It's just that I have a big day tomorrow and should probably hit the hay now.

Des Moines, Iowa

I just realized that I had the power to update this and let everyone know what is going on.
So, I'm on tour with my band right now. We have made our way from the safety of our midwestern harbor in Muncie, and three days along we find ourselves in Des Moines, Iowa. I don't believe I had ever been in Iowa before this day. There is nothing like this experience, and I'm not going to give a blow by blow, but I am incredibly proud of where I am at right now. I'm with five of my best friends seeing America in a way that I never thought possible. We all know that this is going to change us, we're going to grow together, in such an authentic way that I doubt it will ever be possible to articulate.
Our first show was in Lombard, Illinois, which is in DuPage County, north of Chicago. Ironically enough, I used to live in DuPage, and it took me about half of the night to realize where we were. It was kind of surreal to be so close to such old stomping ground. I've always been understandably tenative of the Chicago area after living there, but Lombard welcomed us with open arms. We played in the basement of two of the members of Anchors, Balloons, and incredible and amazingly friendly band that would fit in seamlessly in Muncie. The crowd was incredibly enthusiastic and interactive, clapping in places people had never clapped before, and cheering and singing along; as a collective, they became an honorary member of the band. The result was euphoria.
After bonding with them the next day (we crashed on basement couches) we made our way up to Milwaukee. I had only ever been to the Milwaukee zoo before, when I was 12, and a misplaced Polar bear made an incredible impression on me. Needless to say, I didn't really know what to expect out of Milwaukee.
After a misadventure of trying to find the house of Emily, one of our hosts of the evening, we settled in, and we witnessed her Husky, Pablo, howl.
I had no idea that animals were capable of producing sounds like that. Howling sounds nothing like it does in the movies. White Fang had nothing on Pablo.
After an INCREDIBLE vegan dinner (thank you thank you!) we went to the bar that we were playing. Drinks were free, numbers were dialed, and performing went incredibly.
It's an honor to have been so well received so far.
Right now I'm in an incredibly dark bar in Iowa.The second band is playing, we're next.
Tomorrow is my last day of twenty-dom.

I hope Nebraska is ready for us.