Welcome to My Genes…

father

mother

these photos just showed up in my inbox. how did i turn out so normal?

How Simple and Frugal a Thing is Happiness…

-nikolas kazantzakis

it’s been a simple and happy weekend.

i went to the gorge on friday with friends from eastern, and it was great – i sent a 5.7 and 5.9 (toproped), and made it about halfway up a 5.10b on two attempts. most importantly, though, i had a really good time. the weather was beautiful, and trees have finally turned. i also found a baby copperhead coiled in nathan’s rope, and of course picked it up and played with it. unfortunately, my camera was dead by that point. but i swear it happened. anyway, a few climbing photos, all taken on the 10b:

then i met up with my brother in richmond and had dinner at sonny’s barbeque (amazing), and also bought a few brews. miller chills – i feel like they are a girlie beer and i shouldn’t like them… but i really do. mmm.

also (i almost forgot!) i got some really exciting news this week… i entered an undergraduate poetry competition with the publisher sarabande books awhile back. i got a phone call on thursday night, and found out that one of my poems, “in october,” won first place! i can’t post it here, because that might be a copyright issue.. but i’ll be glad to email it to anyone who is interested. anyway, i am really honored and excited. sarabande has published some serious writers, including charles wright and louise gluck. i will be heading to louisville next sunday to accept the award at a party hosted by the publishers. fun!

right now, i’m at work in the anthro lab and trying to get caught up on reading before the week begins.. this mostly involves studying for my ENG 230 midterm. i’ll leave you with a wonderful zora neale hurston excerpt i just came across:

“… I feel like a brown bag of miscellany propped against a wall … Pour out the contents, and there is discovered a jumble of small things priceless and worthless. A first-water diamond, an empty spool, bits of broken glass, lengths of string, a key to a door long since crumbled away, a rusty knife-blade, old shoes saved for a road that never was and never will be, a nail bent under the weight of things too heavy for any nail, a dried flower or two still a little fragrant. In your hand is the brown bag…”

Something Old, Something New, Something Burnt, Something.. Real Burnt.

so i almost burned our house down last night. i put a teakettle on to boil and forgot about it (it’s whistler-thingy never did work). when i smelled something burning, i went into the kitchen to find all the water boiled out and melted plastic bubbling down the sides of the kettle from the handle.

so i took it off the burner and tried to do some damage control.. but sadly, nothing could be done.

needless to say, i bought a shiny new kettle. this one whistles.

kerri with sad old kettle:

shiny! new kettle:

Dunlow/Quentin/Mapfumo

• dad took me bouldering in dunlow on saturday. it was great! i think i scared the shit out of him. actually, it scared the shit out of me a little, too. but i felt really awesome. and i had no idea there were rocks like this on my dad’s job! documentation:

• i enjoyed my weekend enough that i didn’t even start on my paper for american lit, due at 8:00 this morning. brad took me to the EKU climbing wall on my way home, which was more awesome, but didn’t get me back to centre until real late. so i had to stay up all night to write a crazy paper about quentin compson from the sound and the fury. i think it turned out alright.

• this evening i saw thomas mapfumo in concert at the norton center. he fuses traditional melodies from zimbabwe with western instruments and is really amazing. check out his music here (you can listen for free – i’d especially recommend “kupera kwevanu” and “vechidiki”).

i think that’s it for now! it’s about time for me to collapse and sleep for a few weeks.

Southern Accent

i am lying in bed with pickles and wednesday and i honestly feel alright. i can’t think of anything that would make me happier at the moment. being here always settles me.

my dogs; my loves

climbed a maple tree. dad is taking me bouldering in WV tomorrow!

: )

Finding Wisdom in Faulkner (Emphases My Own)

“i was a kid then. i believed folks when they said they’d do things. i’ve learned better since. besides, like i say i guess i don’t need any man’s help to get along i can stand on my own two feet like i always have.”

Remember

Raw umber,
burnt amber, blood for ocher—

red that smells
like rust or copper.

A cup of smoke,
disaster’s mother. A dust of powder
crusts his lover.

And now another.

Art, too somber—
add some water. Make it softer,
but consider:

love won’t last and
after lust, a loss of trust,

the stronger dyes
will linger longer.

Every Passing Minute

is another chance to turn it all around.

i’ve said things for a long time. now i mean them. i’m tired of feeling like this.

Coming Home to a Place I’d Never Been Before…

i miss colorado. like, really really really miss it.

i just watched a slide show of my photos from the summer.. and it hurt, i miss the place so damn much.

next summer cannot come quickly enough.

“I Need a Phone Call. I Need a Raincoat.”

it’s been a rough week. it’s rainy and i feel aimless and alone. that’s a hard thing to admit, but it’s honest. and i have been feeling very honest lately.

i made a good mix the other day.. i just put my itunes on shuffle and dragged over songs that i liked but that weren’t already attached to any other memory. the results:

counting crows – have you seen me lately?
johnny cash – southern accent
guster – mona lisa
ben kweller – commerce, tx
talking heads – and she was
badly drawn boy – summertime in wintertime
belle & sebastian – me and the major
andrew bird – action/adventure
beck – all in your mind
counting crows – raining in baltimore
afghan whigs – somethin’ hot
modest mouse – the stars are projectors
cat power – ice water
pedro the lion – magazine
camera obscura – books written for girls

..i like making playlists this way. although they might not seem very well thought-out, they quickly make themselves memorable.

i haven’t done much in the past week besides schoolwork.

i also tried two of the many many seasonal ales that pop up everywhere this time of year. the harvest moon pumpkin ale from blue moon brewing company is amazing and i’d highly recommend it – full and slightly bitter but with a great finish and, underneath, that blue moon sweetness. goose island’s harvest ale, however, was not so good. i thought it was thin and skunky. i’m fairly picky about beer, though.

i also just watched a film adaptation of elfriede jelinek’s the piano teacher… it was certainly well-acted and shocking, but i’m still not sure of my opinion on the story as a whole. it is good portrait of dysfunction, either way. of course i needed something light after that, so i watched the latest episode of the office (did i mention that i’m holing myself up in my room and doing nothing all weekend?). i’ve really fallen in love with the show (mostly jim) and i’m probably going to buy the first three seasons when i get some money, just to catch the few episodes i’ve missed.

here are some other things from this week:

the sun sets on grant street.

pretty eva cooks spaghetti at 3 a.m.

i told a friend recently that this life is far too beautiful to not be okay. and i believe it. it’s just hard to remember, and hard to do the right things.

“there’s things i remember and things i forget.
i miss you… i guess that i should.”