Subway

I love the subway. I saw a girl on the train yesterday who had grown her hair past her knees. She had it in one long braid. My dream at the age of 10---to have Rapunzel hair. When she stood up to exit the train, the end of her braid brushed against my knee. Also, in the morning, I sat across from this high school age boy in a bright pink shirt. He was very cute and sweet looking. Later in the day, on the way to the doctor's office, I saw the same kid. I recognized him because of the shirt. There are two kinds of people who ride on the subway--those who are nervous about getting out of the subway car in time and so make you stand up before we've reached the stop and those who wait until the last second to get up and out. I am the latter. I like to think I'm tricking people who think they can predict what I'm going to do next. You know, because so many people are watching and all.

I didn't go to my class last night b/c I had two appts., but I did ask the teacher for the writing assignment and she sent it to me. I've been trying to write for 10 minutes each morning, just for two weeks, just to get back in the habit. Her writing exercise is as follows:

Use one of the following to "kick off" your writing, whether directly as a
first line, an epigraph, or as an theme/idea behind the scenes. Feel free to
modify the line in any way that's helpful, for instance, changing "I" to
"he" "she" or a name, changing tense, or even adding or substituting words.

". . . I have been practicing
a new way to say hello and it is fantastic."
(Matthew Rohrer)

"The only legend I have ever loved is
the story of a daughter lost in hell."
(Eavan Boland)

" It is winter
and the stars are hidden."
(Eavan Boland)

"How on earth did it happen, I used to wonder."
(Eavan Boland)

"Because it turns out the world really is a hospital,"
(William Olsen)

I picked the first line and wrote this piece that seems to be from the point of view of a business man. The other free write I did on Tuesday morning was called "The Cat Lady Cometh" and is about someone who decides to give up any hope of ever meeting anyone and just keep getting
more and more cats. Just like in my real life!

Tonight, I'll be attending my first grad class at Temple, something about displacement and Toni Morrison and the diaspora and all that other academic jargon that I've been away from for several years now. I read the introduction to our theoretical text and felt myself getting dumber and dumber. It reminded me of my first grad class, Queer Theory and how I couldn't believe it when someone said, "And all of this just springs from the primordial ooze of the subconscious mind, right?"