it's been a while since i read a book that really fed my soul. i used to give myself so much time when i was at kenyon, reading positive things and meditating three times a week at one point...long walks and talks with my friends who are real friends, soulmate type friends. god, i miss kenyon so much sometimes. lately i am either at work or sleeping or getting intoxicated in some form. i've been getting a lot accomplished, but i haven't been doing much thinking.

so i read a book called (don't laugh) the simple life, a collection of essays from a variety of people who practice frugality in the modern world. i realized that if i want to make it in chicago, i need to be one whole hell of a lot smarter about my finances. so i've been clipping coupons, balancing my checkbook--kind of, buying less crap and calling in owed money. i saved $42 in two different shopping trips to staples, by using reward money from my mom's business purchases and combining the coupons from our sunday paper with some coupons donated by my mom's friends. god, that felt good. i even went to the mall and got a bra, three pairs of socks, and a sterling silver necklace for only $24 by using combined $10-off coupons. shit. and now i am on the lookout for salvaged things...today we got in some new sugar shakers at work. i saw my boss unwrapping them to wash before their first use, and i noticed that they were wrapped in some sturdy-looking paper, almost like waxed tissue paper. i said that if she was going to throw that paper away, then i would take it for wrapping breakable items, since i'm already starting to pack. she said i should go ahead, but it wasn't all that type of paper...i looked, and i absolutely could not believe what i saw. purple stripes, florals, blue willow, abstract prints....every sheet of paper was totally different. so i took them all. as we pondered why the company that makes plasticware would bother to wrap them so nicely, i got it. that paper probably has unnoticeable imperfections, and was probably sold at salvage price to a company that needs packing materials. and i am going to use some of it as packing materials, sure, but some of these patterns are so gorgeous i would wrap gifts in them, or use them as filler for collages. i am so psyched. synchronicity is finally working its way back into my life. i am going to be reading again, all the time, and i will be filled with thought as i was before. these last two years have been instructive, to be sure, but i do not belong here.

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speaking of people who do not belong: tomorrow night i am taking boy-from-work (black, from detroit, kissed him on the fourth of july, calls late at night--you know the one, right?) to hear my cousin (has lived in hebron for three years, baghdad for a year, wants to serve god through resolution of violent conflict) speak on her experiences. i am pretty excited about this, too. i'm bringing the bodies to her talk. i hope it's a good crowd. when she spoke at my church people got pissed off because she condemned the current administration for human rights abuses, and this is before abu ghraib got out. so it should be a lively talk. i am going to be living about six blocks from her in a month! oh my god! i am so freaking excited. anyway. so this will be my first real planned outing with boy-from-work. i've thought about movies. i know he hangs out at a local club but doesn't drink alcohol more than a couple times a year, but i don't think it's my type of place so i haven't gone. don't get me wrong, i am still waiting for frank, but i think it would be good fun to get to know a completely new and different type of person. we have a lot of fun at work talking about films and music and iowa and whatnot, so maybe i will have fun with him yet.