Friday, June 17, 2005

To be blunt

In an interesting development, I went to the movies tonight with neighborhood friends, but could not really actually make myself go in through the movie door. This had never happened to me before. Typically I see a door – I go through it.

We had been eating dinner earlier and I knew it was coming – that inability to go through the door. So I left.

One person in this group said to me -- I know how it is about doors and June 15ths, so you go right ahead and return home and I’ll check on your attitude about doors after the movie.

As my earlier post indicated, I think, I did not much like June 15th. Something happened on that day that was perhaps the lowest of low points for me. I cannot explain it now, but someone told me later that they would analogize it to seeing your name spelled out on a gravestone. I think that is an apt characterization.

My previous post was meant to correct the impression that this week (and especially June 15th) has been calm. I have a handful of people living far away whom I care about deeply who should not think that the days flew by in some kind of enchanting bike ride, with a tickled tattoo and a smile at Bluephies. The post below was really, more than anything, for them.

How to write… kep said it well when he reflected how Ocean seems to convey an over-simplification of a mood sometimes (a friend emailed me this thought as well recently, even as I really mean for Ocean to be more bland these days). I suppose I am more frightened than ever of conveying something incorrectly. Still, I remain vague. I have been variously told by so many now that I am being oblique, elliptical, etc. I’m sorry – I do not know how else to write. It is my way.

How well do you know your Ocean blogger?

A quiz, to test how closely you’ve been tracking this blog (or perhaps how tedious it has become to barrel through it ever since kep left and I took up with B) (correct answers are highlighted for the clueless):

1. which photo from today creates the perfect image of where I am at:
a. this one (in my backyard so bright, cheerful, smiley, so... ??) Posted by Hello
b. this one (I keep it in my office year-round. today it just looked so ... me) Posted by Hello
2. which June 15 is my favorite ever, of all time?
a. 2005
b. some June 15 between 1953 and 2004

3. how many Poles does it take to drink a whole bottle of wine in one evening?
a. Poles prefer vodka
b. one

4. if I were to look out front, what would I see?
a. a beautifully kept up front yard with perennials springing forth in rapid succession
b. something that someone described today as a nightmare, or jungle or maybe it was a disaster, tended to by a person who has basically given up.

5. which word best describes my mood these days:
a. lugubrious
b. sprightly