Nourishing and substantial books read recently: The Kiss by Kathryn Harrison and The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion.

These are both memoirs by women of ferocious intelligence and lucid, brilliant prose. Both women write about losing their bearing - Didion when her husband of 40 years dies suddenly while their only child is comatose, Harrison when, in her 20s, she is seduced by her estranged father.


ReadingThe Kiss was a bit like reading Bastard out of Carolina, only a little harder, since I knew it was a memoir. I'm not quite sure what to say - it was such a raw read. Raw but artful. Harrison like a dentist carving away the rotten part of a molar with a slim silver sicle.

The Year of Magical Thinking is the third book of Didion's that I've read. I'm in awe of her essays - Slouching Towards Bethlehem and The White Album make me realize how adolescent my own writing still is. The Year is good writing, but I read it for what it shared about what it feels like to lose a partner/friend/husband. Close deaths and mourning have not yet intruded closely on my life, but they will, someday. That much is certain.

Made this today, for Grandma C in Albuquerque. She sent a lovely card and also a honeymoon contribution before the wedding.

A few weeks ago, a box arrived in the mail, return address: no name, Portland, OR. Inside the box was an intricately carved wooden vessel. No card, no explanation.I learned from M.Fish that this was from her mother, who, upon learning that Chris & I'd just married, decided to send us a present.

This is a scan of the thank-you card I made her.

I made quite a few thank-you cards for wedding guests. I did not scan any of those, but I'll be archiving future efforts here for shultz and gurgles.

Yesterday the official letter from Syracuse arrived, as did the official letter from the Fulbright people. Both were adressed to Chris, but he asked me to open the one, so I opened them both. I fried fish for fish/rice/arugula burritos, and as all of the parts of the burrito assembly line were ready, I burried both letters under ceramic dishes and corn tortillas.

I had two helpful coversations, one with Mom, who assured me that either decision was going to be a good one, and one with Mary, who asked me, all other considerations aside, what did I want to do?

Chris came home, we ate, talked, drank wine, smoked cigarettes, wept, weighed the benefits of both experiences for both of us. Tried on "We're goin' to Georgia" for size and it fit a lot better than when we substituted "Syracuse."

And so.

We go! More ltr.

Well, here is how things are, and how they will go.

If Chris gets a Fulbright, I think we will go to Georgia. If not, we will go to Syracuse.

Syracuse ended up being a good city to spend time in. Much smaller than, o, say, Seattle, but infinitely larger and more real-feeling than Oxford, it felt pretty good after 2 days of variously driving aimlessly and being shown around.

We started out at an awkward B&B in the neighborhood of "Little Italy," and from there went to poke around in the pleasant, but isolated-feeling pocket of Armory Square, where a walkable portion of Syracuse's downtown has been economically resucitated. There are good restaurants and some bars there. The store-fronts of designer shoes and menus priced in whole-dollar amounts made me feel bleak and poor. I couldn't imagine living there, I felt slightly under seige as I do in Oxford. (Me=jerk?) It was the Saturday before Easter, and few people were out & about. We had dinner at Ambrosia, where the Sushi & Italian menu made my eyes water. (The food was *really* good, though).

We also walked out of Armory Square and north a bit, into a part of downtown by Clinton Square (Clinton Park?), where there were large windy spaces and tall, ornate bank buildings. Lots more restaurants, closed. Streets sunny, empty.

Drove east on James street into Eastwood, walked into the Palace Theater and looked into the repeating reflection of selves in round mirrors on opposite walls. Noted the walkable downtown initiative. http://walkeastwood.org/ (Cool).

Went back to the B&B, discovered this very, very interesting website: http://www.syracusethenandnow.net/ put out by the Preservation Association of Central New York. ((Huh!))

On Sunday, we met with one of the CW Professors, B.Smith, who gave us the nickel tour of SU. The Creative Writing program sounds really, really good, and many of the things that the University is doing -- trying to influence downtown redevelopment & such -- piqued my interest. Oh, and there is an alt-weekly -- one of the oldest independent (er, alternative) papers in the nation, apparently. The New Times.

Visited a few neighborhoods where a lot of students and grad students live, all happily less, well, intense than Oxford OH off-campus student haunts. I think Chris and I both have a tiny crush on Westcott, and will probably try to find an apartment there if we can.