Daily affirmations of a word mercenary
And so, still no Internet access at home. Stupid Comcast fucked everything up yesterday and despite Andreas taking the morning off to be there for the installation, they made a scheduling error and decided they couldn’t come until later. This means no web access at home until this weekend, but on the plus side: free installation, which is cool. And honestly, I have so much sorting and unpacking and organizing to do that it’s probably for the best that I don’t have my digital opium to distract and sedate me.
Last night while putting away books, I unpacked my journal bookshelf. It holds my paper journals from the last 12 years or so, and as usual I couldn’t help but crack one open. I read an entry from May 1997 which cracked me up. It included a discussion of how my then boyfriend (now dead junkie ex-boyfriend) was trying to convince me to try DMT. “He says that for a few minutes you lose all sense of time and are ‘lost in eternity with your true self.’ Jeez, what would your true self do stuck in eternity with only itself to keep you company? Supposedly it’s pretty life-changing. But hasn’t my life changed enough already?” Ultimately, I decided it had because I never did try it.
I also flipped through the little book my parents put together upon my high school graduation. Everyone who came to my reception wrote a little blessing for me in it, and they’re all very telling. My mother wrote about how I should watch out for the temptations of vapid cosumeristic society. My grandmother wrote pleasantries right out of a yearbook, wishing me all the best, etc. When I got to the page from my father, I remembered to myself “Oh gawd, this note always used to make me cry, all through college. What a sap I was!” Then I reread his words, and naturally started blubbering all over again. He hits every sentimental note possible, including a sad segment about finding an abandoned kite of mine. Clearly, I’m still a sucker for my daddy’s nostalgic prose. Come to think of it, this recent poem of his almost made me cry, too.
Lots more unpacking and shuffling around the house still to do. I’m debating whether I should hang my old indian bedspread from 1995 on the wall in my office. Dude, it’s trippy! The rest of the house feels pretty grown-up, but my office with its My Little Ponies, dorm-colored walls and lack of furnature feels like I’m barely out of college. The bedspread would sort of fit in perfectly.
Oh and PS: my 30th birthday is less than two weeks away. If you’re itching to provide a prezzie, time’s a-wastin’!

Hey there. I'm Ariel Meadow Stallings, a native Seattleite who's written my way up and down the Left Coast. Electrolicious is where I post daily randomata, but I also write for a living. My first book, Offbeat Bride, was published last year.
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Dawn
May 4th, 2005 at 6:26 pm
Why does being a grown-up and all of its trappings (jobs, offices, houses, children) make us feel like we have to give up what we loved as kids? It bothers me that we treat that which we loved when we were younger as trivial when we’re adults, but it wasn’t trivial then and it’s still not trivial now. Your dad can make you cry because what he said then is just as important now. Some things endure. Sometimes I feel like I spent my twenties trying to give up childhood, but once I traded that all in for middle-american 30’s, I missed it. If you love the bedspread, hang it! Maybe it still fits, after all.
Maria
May 4th, 2005 at 6:32 pm
Awww! My Little Pony! I always wanted one but my mother always thought them evil and faddish (somehow her logic eluded her when it came to Smurfs memorabilia, however). I say hang it up and display proudly! I shall keep up my shrine to Hello Kitty myself. One is never too old for things one loves. Even if it’s a mouthless cat.
mokulau
May 5th, 2005 at 3:31 am
Your Dad is a poet! Amazing stuff!!! I love the one about you when you were 8 years old. Wow! And the beach poem. I have to read more of it…what a sensitive Dad you have. Talking about sensitive: What is up with that nightmare ponies?? One week after purchase my friend and I just didn’t know what to do with them anymore. DUST COLLECTORS! Please (!) take a picture of how you display them. I might regret cutting them into pieces back in the 80s.
allie
May 5th, 2005 at 4:52 pm
Oh wow, DMT- eeks, now THERE is a strange drug! I never tried it either, but about 2 years ago I had a group of friends who were pushing this on me like there was no tomorrow! They would lay on beds all whacked out in the “secret room” and all talked about the varying degrees of buzzedness they experienced after smoking this. Apparently it was supposed to be a “window to your soul”…..
What.eva, because most of them had such negative mental repercussions days later that I don’t know anyone who huffs the stuff anymore.
db
May 6th, 2005 at 11:20 pm
Good god- has comcast set up shop there too? I thought they were strictly a Philly thang…Due to similar scheduling gaffes, I’ve recieved no less than 3 free installations in 3 different residences form them over the past few years. TThis indeed means that they suck much. This also means that I’ve moved too damned much.
marie b.
May 7th, 2005 at 8:08 am
i love flipping through my old journals - i, too, recently came across mention of an old (unrequited) love, and spent hours giggling over how i’d devoted myself to such a twat.