Prompt: Describe Your Brain, or, I Keep My Macaroni in a Giant Plastic Teddy Bear, and I Think I'll Miss It When I Move OutT

I keep my macaroni in a giant plastic teddy bear-
That's not weird, I swear-
he opens up his brain and pours out my dinner.

I wish my brain would pour itself out
to be cooked and turned over by boiling water
tumble tumble
soften
smush.
Sometimes I think my thoughts
are macaroni in the pan
floating around
bubbling,
getting softer and
softer until they're
overcooked.
mush. But mostly
burned to the bottom of the pan,
because my hands are tied
and I can't stir.
But in the end
my mind is more like
Chop suey,
frozen vanilla,
dentures, flubber,
a million degrees above Fahrenheit,
two below Celsius,
and entirely me.
I know so, because I don't remember who I am,
and I am very forgetful.

Rooftop Jam Jars, Tip Top Stars

The much waited for arrival of summer has indeed...arrived.
There's that sort of lazy, walk-to-the-cornerstore-because-you-can feeling that you get. Although, that could be situationally specific. Miller's drug has cheap vitamin water, by the way. :]


Sometimes,
I drink water out of a wine glass, just to feel classier.
It doesn't necessarily work,
but I like to think that it makes the water taste clearer and crisper and less like chlorine.

There are times when the stars
seem brighter and clearer and crisper, too.
But those times, when I'm drinking the stars,
I'm drinking from screw-rimmed clear Mason jam jars,
and the water touching my lips is lightning.

People Helping People Makes Me Happy, or, An Ode to Wonderful People 1

Today is an ode to the unrecognized Wonderful People, Capitalized like a title, because it is.
A lot of things go into making a store, a city, a church, a world go round. I spent the morning working with the wonderful people of Grace United Methodist Church.
Over a year ago, my church's youth group got involved with Grace United's Third Saturday luncheons. Every third Saturday of the month, a team from Grace United (or from our youth group) makes a meal to serve to anyone who needs it in the community. The room is always full, and twice as full in the winter, when the weather is cold and money is scarcer. The meal is given free of charge, and all of the workers come of their own accord. I can't even begin to explain how it feels to stand serving food to a person who lives day-to-day, not knowing if they'll be able to eat or not, living in a shelter, or with a family. That's what hurts the most to see, is the families that come in with armfuls of children. There's not very much space in the basement, where the luncheon occurs. But strangers and friends willingly rub elbows, share laughs, and get a good hearty bite to eat. The courage it takes to live lives like many of these people do is incredible. The stories that they have to tell are just as incredible, and I can't explain how much I look forward to serving them that one day a week.
But that's not the only time a month that Grace United comes to life. The church, whose congregation is comprised primarily of the older generation, runs a small thrift store out of part of the basement. They get all sorts of donations, but everything is marked very low. The store sees a lot of business from the same people who come to the luncheons, who are looking for essentials like clothing or just little things to make their abode look nice. I've recently started working here, and I've met so many incredible Wonderful People. I'd encourage anyone in the Bangor area to stop by! If I'm not mistaken, a good deal of the proceeds from the shop goes to the luncheons, so it's an unstoppable loop of goodness. Everyone who works in the store is a volunteer, and they work really really hard to make it nice, and also accessible to those with low income. Even moreso, the relationships that form around the store are great. It's a bit of a nice routine. I see lots of the same people when I work, and I've begun to learn names. Just the other day, a man came in saying that he had hit a spot of trouble, and that someone from the store had said that they had some clothing for him and also some sun tan lotion. It's these interpersonal relationships that bloom that make things like the Grace United Thrift Store so wonderful.
Wonderful People. They inspire me.

*P.S. Yesterday's picnic was a wonderful success, as was night disc, which was followed by the first fire and s'mores session. All in all, a very lovely day. Posting soon.

An Abstract Post, to be Replaced by One that is More Sensical.

Today is a (hopefully) picnic in the brief burst of sunny weather.
Sun and weather.
The above is an example of Hendiadys. English finals, anyone?
Tonight, then, will be full of light up discs, and not falling in the hole in our park while we play past the sunset. There's a hole in the middle of our park, and it's something of a joke between all of us. It's a bit of a sixth sense, now, to be able to tell where the hole is in respect to yourself, without looking. Funny how being in an environment for so long will do that to you.

*Note: I made up the word "sensical". If the word "nonsensical" is proper, how come "sensical" isn't?
Also, once, during a debate round, I used the word "Genociding" by accident. It's not a verb, as the judge kindly pointed out to me.
Made up words make life more fun. Even if you're the only one who uses them.

A Bit of Biking Frustration, and Untied Shoelaces

Yesterday, biking in the wonderful downtown of Bangor in the rainy weather, I found it difficult riding behind people. My conclusion is that it would be wise for me to invest in a bell for my (already tricked out) bicycle. If I am not mistaken, the law as it exists in Maine requires bicycles to be ridden on the road. I've only recently (as in within the last year or so) begun to use my bicycle for transportation, as opposed to recreationally. Learning to ride with traffic is very difficult, especially when you are not a serious biker. I'm still not entirely sure what the law states concerning speed and where I can ride on the road. What I do know is that on many roads, there is not a wide margin to the right of the white line, which requires my riding closer to the yellow line, for safety's sake. Yesterday, riding in the road downtown, I was honked at and passed very quickly by someone (incidentally, who had their phone out texting on the steering wheel) in a car. This has happened before, and I generally hop onto the sidewalk for the rest of my ride. But see, here it gets a bit confusing. After being yelled at by someone outside of the library last year to, "Get off the sidewalk!", I decided that I ought to only ride on the roadway. Either I don't have a clear understanding of the law, or the citizens and motorists around me do not. I can't seem to find a raw wording of the law, does anyone know it?My moderately tricked out bicycle.
It used to be my grandmother's.

In any case. As I was riding (on the sidewalk, now), I found myself behind two nicely dressed young men. Later on, I realized that they were Mormons, making their routes and evangelizing. But as I tried not to run them over, one of them turned around and very kindly told his friend that I was behind him. As we waited for the light, they pointed out to me that my shoe was untied.
We wouldn't want you to crash!
I do usually crash when my shoes get untied. I just thought I'd share this. They were quite thoughtful, and it got me thinking about how we behave towards strangers. Just some food for thought.

So, the overall message for today: Make room for the bicyclists! They're people too!

Utils, and A Step Towards the Meaning of Life

I lied. I am going to tell you a bit about why I do what I do, and why I've done what I've done.
Let's start this way: I play Ultimate. It's also known as Frisbee, Ultimate Frisbee, or Disc (more often than not, it's just called disc by its fanbase.), and is by far the most badass sport on the face of the planet. Haven't heard of it? Wikithatshit.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultimate_(sport)
If you've clicked that link, scroll on down to section six, "Spirit of the Game."
It's the idea that people ought to be fair. Players ought to have a mutual respect, and maintain a true friendliness for all other players. That's how disc is. C'est ca.
Take it one step further, up to the Eutyls level.
I have misspelled the word "Util", it seems.
A Util is a term in economics, "referring to the total satisfaction received from consuming a good or service" (Answers dot com). That's Utils.
Eutyls is Frisbee. It's the Ultimate "club" (If you'd call it that) where I play, and it's the ultimate Ultimate club, as far as I'm concerned.
The originating idea for the club was that one ought to play for the satisfaction of the game. Forget the score. Don't be afraid to lose track of points. Just play.
C'est ca.
A few weeks back, when doing a school project on Ultimate (I love it when we get to pick our own topics), I was looking at the philosophy of Spirit of the Game. And I came to the conclusion that we shouldn't just govern ourselves in such a way during games of Ultimate, but all the time.
That's part one.
Part two is a little less complicated.
Look to the little things. Every person, every single action around you, and every thing around you has a purpose, has a motive, has something miraculous about them or itself. Notice it. Marvel in it. Lather, rinse, repeat.
Learn to smile.
And find the ordinarily extraordinary things in your Everyday.
I want to spread the idea. Why not use the internet?

Today, My ADD Brain, Or, The Actual Start to an Old Blog, or, The First Post is Always Bizarre.

I've had this blog set up for a bit.
It's probably time to start posting on it, right?
No plans, no layouts, no promises to the reader. Just life. Deal?

So it's fair for me to let you know
that today is feeling like matza bread on my tongue
and rain.
Today is rainy, finally. We've gone a good few weeks with no rain, and it's making the grass rough, the ground bumpy, and the frisbee field just a bit dusty.
Today is also the start of a four day week of school. Even with just seven days left of school, summer is like a carrot being dangled over a donkey's head. I keep plugging on towards it, but somehow, it's always juuuust out of reach.
Today is a day for similes.
I've always sort of wondered what it's like to be a kid out west, like my second cousins in California, and to have school sessions so different. They get out in May, and begin in August. It seems awful strange, and a bit like a wasted summer.

Study hall is boring, and it pushes my ADD brain into full swing. So I make obscure comparisons, a blog post, and I pick my brain until I can come up with something to say.