Seems like I've been to busy enjoying life to make some time to sit down and write this out. Work's been busy still--there's this project we've been (collectively?) working on for about two weeks that is nearing completion, and that will give me back some of my breathing space there. It's not been bad, but I haven't had the time to read and/or that I like.
Saturday I went to the Daegu Arboretum (sp?) and had a picnic while reading Toni Morrison'sSong of Solomon. Ji Hye (Jenny) was at work in Pohang until the afternoon, so we weren't able to meet up until 6p or so. So I went to the tree park and enjoyed the warming weather, despite being stared and wondered at profusely at the very Korean park I had found myself in. Honestly, I sometimes feel like I know exactly what it's like to be a celebrity. For example, I happened to pass a school that let out at exactly the time I was walking to the tree park, and hundreds of middle-school and early high-school aged kids stopped their conversations to stare and comment about my passage in the street. Many of them waved and attempted a feeble hello, but more were in awe at my mere presence in their world. It's actually a feeling I enjoy at times, but it's the constant attention and my inability to shut it off when I'm sick of it that sometimes gets to me when I'm tired on the subway or walking hurriedly home after a long day. Anyway, Jenny and I met up for dinner, choosing a Japanese place. For dessert we found a gelatti place, and we began a hand of poker before we were told it was not permissible on the premises, so we had to relocate to our favorite wine bar a few blocks away. We shared a bag of chocolate popcorn that Vicki Parman had sent me while we whiled away a few hours chatting and playing poker. But Jenny was quite tired from her first week at work, so we left by midnight.
Sunday I went to a farm with some coworkers. It was a plan several weeks in the making and a good opportunity to enjoy some Korean traditions in a rural setting. I enjoyed lots of activities there that I'd never experienced (or hadn't in a long time)--riding in the back of a pickup, digging out veggies from a field, making some kind of rice krispie treats, herding and collecting rabbits, picking strawberries and eating them right off the plants, smashing rice with a hammer, playing jokku, and chopping wood off a block. It was a good day. See my Facebook album for more explicit details.
Watched Watchmen--not that impressed. Too many unexplained phenomena turned me off to the story--it was never clear which part to take at face value and which part to enjoy as fictionalized. Been writing a bit of poetry each week--getting happier with the results. Hope to actually crank out a short story some time this month. Nothing special coming down the pipe this month, but the next one will be busy. Weather's been good, as has everything else. More details as they happen.
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