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December 19, 2009“How can I know what I thinkuntil I read what I write?”WROTE FORMER TIMES COLUMNIST JAMES RESTON,quoted by Anna Quindlen in her final “Life in the 30s” column, in December 1988, and again by Judith Warner in her final “Domestic Disturbances” column in December 2009.“Why do you not participate more in class discussions?” asked an English professor who admired my papers. Because writing is how I think about things. I don’t do so well on my feet. One idea does not follow another in any logical manner. I can’t arrange my thoughts quickly and coherently enough to talk about them without babbling and tongue-tripping. IN WRITINGI give myself all the time I need to consider and express things, and don’t have to write in sequence—just whatever’s on my mind at any given time. Then I take all the time I need to arrange the thoughts in some kind of order that makes sense to me. Word processing was made for a mind like mine. My typed and handwritten notes were a jungle of tangled vines, arrows criss-crossing each other pointing to other paragraphs, other pages. I also remember back to the days when architectural offices would literally cut and paste specifications. I’m glad those days are over, even if the charm and mystique of priceless “manuscripts” are now a thing of the past. UP IN THE CLOUDS,I read Warner’s column on my way back east for Christmas. Virgin/Google are making a holiday gift of free WIFI through January 15th. Too bad Amtrak trains don’t offer WIFI (Swedish ones do)–I’ll be days without. And by the way, I’m not answering my cell phone on the train 1/4 to 1/7/10. I prefer to be “lost” in America. VIRGIN FLIGHT 406 SF TO LA
Early a.m. at SFO
Leaving San Francisco
Between SF and LA
Approaching LA
Los Angeles EVER WONDERwhy you don’t feel the speed of an airplane like you do a car? According to fire4511 on answers.yahoo.com, “You do not feel the movement because your points of reference are the plane and the ground. Everything in the plane is moving as the same speed as you are, so there is no sensation of movement there. If you look out the window at the ground, you are so high up that your normal points of reference look so small as to be unusable. You are going 350 mph, the room around you is going 350 MPH…You feel ’speed’ based on physical clues.” VIRGIN FLIGHT 406, LA to NYI’m 33,122 feet up in the air at the moment, between Los Angeles and New York; it’s -62 degrees F out there; we’re going 551 mph; and I’ve 2017 miles to go before I sleep, which I have not since Wednesday night. Lorrie’s airport van picked me up at 4:15 a.m. Friday—was up till then packing and cleaning for my cat sitter and I’m still wide awake after a Starbuck’s Peppermint Mocha at LAX. I thought it would be cool to post and distribute a column from high in the sky, but ‘snot going to happen. My pictures are not uploading, saving the file is a crapshoot, and I’m at 24% and falling battery power. BROOKLYNAfter nearly 36 spaced-out hours without sleep, I succumb around midnight, anticipating the Big Blizzard of ’09, awaking every so often to see if it was snowing yet (no) and I now await the storm at my Brooklyn hang, Tea Lounge on Union St. If I’d flown today I’d have been fucked. I DON’T KNOW HOW, WHY OR WHENbut I feel I will be moving to New York. It’s creeping up on me. You have to be in a certain frame of mind to make a cross-country move, which frame I am not in, because the timing’s not right. Unfinished business with the city by the bay, but I foresee a day I won’t mind leaving it behind. Perhaps I won’t know what I think until I read what I write about it? As I pack up to leave, a dandruff-sized sprinkling of snow has begun to fall…Happy Solstice Blizzard, y’all.
The author misses her kidz! ------------------------------------------------------------ I don't wish to be boastful
Where can I go for feline cuddling in Brooklyn? copyright Alexandra Jones 2009 |
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