its not April yet, but you can smell it from here...

it. is. bea. utiful. outside

i would love to be posting something clever for you to read, but the sun is shining, and its warm out at the same time. and all in buffalo, too.

it is clothes-shedding warm out, the kind that sneaks up on you when you're wearing a few layers. i love it.

now that its here, i'm going to go sniff spring.

catch you on the flipside.

Sir Gawain

yesterday was the first day of spring.

usually its today, but this year it was yesterday. something about the mathematical imperfections of the earth's revolution around the sun, i don't really know, but voila -- spring comes a day early.

i was born the day after spring, so i suppose its appropriate that my Gram called me today to wish me a happy birthday. by the numbers, it doesn't come until tomorrow.

but then, i've always looked at the 21st as my honorary birthday anyway. it is the equinox, you know; the day the sun starts to his journey out of the ditches of the underworld to reclaim the sky. it is also the beginning of the Attic rites in ancient Greece, where they 'sacrifice' victims who are then brought back to life, symbols of the sun, of returned vitality. i was born on this day.

it is fitting that i just got over another throat infection; that the worst of winter should be bookended with my illnesses (and recoveries) as if to say "you made it, but don't forget how close you came..." winter, illness, death; white throat, white snow, white skin. all the while i have been wearing green, like a banner, to remind myself of spring and that yes, indeed, it is eventually coming; green for st. patrick's day, green for the equinox, green for my birthday.

i wear green; a green p-coat, a green bandana, a green fleece. it makes my eyes bloom, changes them from brown to hazel in the sun. i won green out of the hollow parts of the year, the parts that challenged me, that brought me down to die, i thought. i go out of the barrow of that year with my life, and a kink in my neck, wearing green like a garter.

out of the hollow, on a horse, and into the sun; it has come back to greet me, and i go to meet it.

a day early, the day before and the day after spring, my first day of the year, the first day of my life, of the rest of my life, and of every year; a day early, but the day after spring, thank you Gram;

happy birthday to me.

i fought the law...

i don't really feel like making too big a post about it right now, but for those of you who are curious:

i got off incredibly light with nothing but a $380 fine, a 90 day suspension, and a special class.


and that is unheard of.

i can finally breathe half a sigh of relief.

off to do midterm work.

blogging about blogging...part II...

...mostly as a way to avoid doing real work or solving problems in my life...

so, anyhoo....thanks to girish, for checking out TokyoBlog and coming back and letting me know about it...glad to see someone taking a chance...

well, i promised to address the rest of the sidebar, and as a man of my word (mostly), so i shall:

Dead Blogs with Good Writing:

OnceInoticedIwasonfireIdecidedtorelaxandenjoythefall --
not only is it a dead blog, it no longer exists on the web. which is a shame. the gentlemen to whom that blog belonged to was a gifted thinker, who writes essays now for some kind of online journal or magazine. i forget his name, and i forget what the journal was, and i am too lazy to look it up right now. i will find out for you and make an update, even though i'm pretty sure you won't care by then anyway.

Belle du Jour --
the online diary of a call-girl in the UK. her blog is still up, though barely running, as she is writing now for some newspaper in the UK and is also working on her second book. she is a charming, witty writer...rather frank, as you would expect someone in the sex-trade would be...but she can take the most shocking scenes, words, and situations and make them into poetry. there is one post that is gross on a bodily fluids level that she makes seem almost...sweet......weird. but worth checking out.

BellaNovel --
oh my god, just read this lady's writing. just pick anywhere in the novel and read a few paragraphs. words that lock and unlock and dance and stand up on end, and balance and shatter and crush like an incoming tide. its beautiful. who is this woman? where did she learn to write like this? its not human.

Guys Whose Blogs I visit Whom I Haven't Seen in Person for Quite Some Time:

Brian Emerson's "Mystablogy" --
bri was my best friend in highschool. he was Catholic, and i was Evangelical...so i brought him to REAL church and cleansed him of his evil Catholic ways. he went MIA for awhile, and turned up married and an adult, and living in Cleveland with his own house and his own wife. and he's reconverted to Catholocism in the meantime. which i am proud of him for. and he writes about that on Mystablogy; and about So. Euclid, his new hometown, and how he wants it to be a better place. and about his house. and other things of a religious/philosophical nature. he is the kind of person who are my favorite kinds of people, both high-minded and salt-of-the-earth. think of him as your blue-collar priest.

FredSchrock --
easily one of the driest witted fellows i have ever met. he is a guy from my Canisius days...for those of you who don't know, that was my first and failed attempt at college...at which i was more interested in hanging out with a fun-ass crew than getting schoolwork done. and could you blame me? check out some of the funny on Fred's blog, and see what the hype is all about. Fred isn't just funny, he's got a special cortex in his brain devoted to humour, which is wired like a mental reflex. also: check out his newly revived radio show, now in podcast format, with this next blogger...

(yes, the) Joe Ferguson --
Joe Ferguson. long lost joey. i can't even count how many times this kid moved away and came back to buffalo...mostly because i count it as severe childhood trauma and it pains me to relive those memories. eventually joe came back, and he and Fred and Bri and i went to make up part of what was affectionately called the "Nerd Herd"...and he has grown up to become a virtuouso science guy/musician, and a presence more valuable than diamonds, apparently. i believe it. go check out his blog...and the link to his album "Take It from Me"...independant music at its finest...

Ed Snyder, the BMOC --
"B-, B-M-O-C, is driving me/quite carefully (consciencsiously!)"
Ed Snyder is the BMOC...to you knaves, that's Big Man On Campus. but you'll address him as BMOC, because he will whip out German on your ass, and you will bleed and cry, and run home to your mother and she'll tell you that you should've known better.

and that's where the blog links end, and thus, so doth mine rant.

i'll check in again this week with some news.