xmas

Hi. This is the first I've used this blog to blog but this is just to say that I won't be updating for a while. After Christmas, I'll be moving West for grad school. Once I get settled in and maybe get a computer hooked up, I'll be back with writings from the west coast. Until then, enjoy whatever holiday you feel like enjoying.

moving

The first step to moving is to clean the place you’re leaving. Get rid of everything you don't want to take with you. All of the clothes that you haven’t worn in years, those can all go to Goodwill. See what friends want what books you’ve read. Give away everything you can. And the rest, get a big trash bag. Throw away old papers, old socks, old posters, anything that can’t be used. Get your life small enough to fit in the back of a car. Forget the TV, forget the collectibles, forget everything that you’ve surrounded yourself with. Forget anything that won’t fit.

driveway

It’s four in the morning and this man is already shoveling the snow from his driveway. He’s already worried about his morning commute. The commute that doesn’t happen for another three hours. He’s running his car, defrosting all the windows, making sure the headlights aren’t covered. His hands are stained white from all the salt he’s throwing around the car, on the sidewalk. His driveway is bare and ready and he goes back to sleep hoping it doesn’t snow any more.

the old man

There’s an old man that lives four houses down and the neighbors think he’s crazy. When he’s out walking or checking the mailbox or sitting on the porch, the parents in the neighborhood make small talk with him. They make small talk so that later they can call the other neighbors and laugh together. They ask him about his late wife and the old man tells them that he was never married. The parents, they tell him that they remember seeing her in the garden out back, the garden that’s now just weeds and grass and three or four dying tomato plants and the old man just bunches up his face and continues walking or checking the mail or sitting on the porch. The parents make sure to remember all of it for their phone calls later.

Any kid brave enough to talk to the old man, that’s when they’ll learn the most amazing things. That’s when the old man will talk about his travels and tell any kid brave enough how interesting and scary the rest of the world really is. He’ll tell any kid this because kids don’t ask about wives or grandchildren. Kids don’t care about those things.

When the kid brave enough to talk to the old man sidesteps up to his porch, the old man offers lemonade and sugar cookies but the kid isn’t interested in that. Every story starts out the same for the old man. He starts, “Did your parents ever tell you that…” And this story, this one goes, “Did your parents ever tell you that there are dogs in Mexico that can teach you Spanish.” And the kid sits in the chair next to him. This is how this kid knows so many things that his grandparents don’t.

the boy

The boy knows things that his grandparents don’t. The boy knows that when the tree leaves turn inside out, the tree is telling everyone to get inside, that it’s going to rain soon. The boy knows that Mr. Rogers can hear you when you answer his questions. The boy knows this and he knows they don’t.

His grandparents are inside, one watching her stories, one in the basement, and the boy sits on the stoop and watches ants eat a watermelon shell. The boy knows that these ants can understand him. He tells them to hurry and get their fill. That when his grandma is done with her story, she’ll come and throw them away. He tells them to take some home with them. They say thank you.

joshua

Joshua and Joshua are in the living room pretending that the space under the coffee table is the Bat Cave. In the Bat Cave, there’s a plane and motorcycle and a car with cardboard bat ears taped to the end. Upstairs, on the top of the coffee table, Bruce Wayne doesn’t have his bat suit on. He’s lying on the hardwood floor, waiting for Joshua and Joshua to decide who gets to play Joker.

Joshua and Joshua are cousins and their parents are in the other room talking about a funeral and what time they should get there and how nice it is to see each other but how they wish they could’ve visited under different circumstances. In the living room, the Joshuas are trying to remember who was Joker last time when a mom yells to Joshua Edward to get ready to leave and one Joshua yells back and they both decide that they’ll play when they get home.

diner

This old man has been listening to everything we’ve been saying. He’s pretending to read the paper and lifting his head any time he hears something new. We’re talking about hotel prices and routes and what it’s going to be like when we get there and after every sentence, the old man looks up, right at me, and then down again. More coffee and more cream and more talking for the eaves dropper. Before we leave, he lifts his head again and tells me he knows a lot about Los Angeles. This old man with crossed eyes and missing teeth, he leans forward and asks me if I know what movie was shot there. He’s grinning and asking me if I ever heard of Alfred Hitchcock. And if I ever heard of Alfred Hitchcock, have I ever heard of this movie, “The Birds.” That movie, he says, was filmed in Los Angeles.

snow day

Every kid is gathered around the television biting their fingernails, waiting for their school to be called. Outside the snow keeps falling and every kid knows that's a good sign. On the television, on the news, the weatherman is saying how this snow will continue throughout the day. He's saying that they've already had a number of school cancellations and to keep watching the updates, scrolling on the bottom of the screen. The kids keep watching. After every commercial, before getting back to regular reporting, a jingle plays and a penguin dances and new school cancellations are reported and every kid takes one more look before getting ready for school.

trip

Find every book on tape you can. Anything that will make the time go faster. Something funny or something with characters and different voices. Find new music and old music and anything you can sing along with. Find enough to fill thirty-five hours. Measure every book on tape in miles. You’ll need 2,396 books on tape.

money

Now everything has a price tag. Every trip is about gas, is about food. Every night out is about covers, is about tips. Everything is measured in bills, in coins, in charge cards. Every chance I get I check my bank account and regret spending any kind of money.

snow

The wind is blowing hard and the snow is falling sideways and it might never hit the ground.