Today, I had a very strange realization in a very not strange situation. The situation was choosing to work for a girl that I do not know tomorrow; only three hours, but I have somewhere else I should probably be for the last one of them. I knew this when I said I would work for her. The realization was that even seemingly minor decisions like this one can have a life long impact on the turn of events in one's life. It is like a role playing 'choose your own adventure' book. I suppose I will have a better idea tomorrow how much sway it will really have on the turning of events in my life. I am a bit apprehensive, to say the least.

Homecoming actually felt like it, finally. I went back to JM for the football game and I could have hardly wished for a better experience. Stunning, really, I spent most of it by the fence by myself. I shivered a whole lot, but it was the sincere shivering, not the "hmm, I think I am a bit chilled" shiver that is gone as soon as it arrives, no, no. This was the teeth-a-chattering-my-back-is-going-to-be-so-sore-tomorrow-because-it-is-all-tensed-up-right-now kind of shivering, and I think I needed it. Hopefully a foreshadowing of the up and coming winter. It was so nice to have the realization brought to me that I am still in certain people's thoughts. I always figure that as soon as I leave them (or vise versa) they would have better things to think about, and they do, but they also somehow squeeze me in there somewhere as well, and that makes me feel... hmm, let me put it this way. I thought that it was more like I got packed away, like an old prom dress (you know, the one you found on the floor in your favorite thrift store. It was red like Dorothy's slippers and just as sparkly. It fit you like a glove, and even thought it had that hideous, flopsy bow on the back, you got it anyway.) in a long-ago hauled away trunk that wound up in the recesses of the attic of their minds. A fond (rarely recalled) memory.
I have pictures that I still need developed from my boundary waters trip, but for now, here are snapshots in words, as depicted by a very dear friend of mine.

"waterfront"

off the highway, seagulls flee at our arrival
we step out from under our canoe and stretch our legs
along the shore
a group of roller bladder's race past noiselessly
we three, separate, spread along the rocks
before the line of tall silver waves.
one, sturdy feet planted on a rock, face in the wind
the other, crouched in front of me, turns her head back over her shoulder
and as she does i mark this the beginning.


"pistachio nut pudding"

under the trees is no place to make enemies-
hand me a spoon before night comes.


"horseshoe"

later, when the sun had left her eyes
she turned to me with only water and the
absence of wind
no mistaking it now, she had said
referring to the semicircle shape of the island.

-lisa monsen