Monday, October 6, 2014

October 4th, I closed some blinds

pool-like reflections, seen from Jam's window
Dear October,

I wonder whether you mind when people close their blinds. I closed some blinds today because I think it’s weird when blinds are open at night, since it’s so easy to see inside if your lights are on! It’s weird for me when I meet people who don’t mind that at all. Since I’ve gotten here though, after I turn out all the lights, I tilt the blinds so that I can see the city outside from my bed. It’s a really nice way to go to sleep, and a great way to wake up. From my window I can see the first yellow tree of the fall, and the yellow is spreading slowly to some of the trees around that tree. It’s so gradual but so exciting to see the change from here. I wonder how quickly you’ll change.

You may not have been able to see much of it, as I closed the blinds at some point, but I worked with friends today, and then we took a break and played our traditional group-game of cards. My friends were very silly, which made me want to be sillier, and afterwards we sang loudly to disney songs and maroon 5 and thai songs that only two people could understand. We also did squat jumps, because it’s tiring and fun to do. I went to one meeting for martial arts, and that plus kicking is the most valuable thing I learned there. Squat jumps are just what they sound like—you squat, then jump, and pull your legs up with you. You should try to do 20 of those.

Earlier in the evening, a bunch of us were working in Jam’s living room. Jam was drawing boxes, and Tar, Boo, and I were working on separate design assignments. Suddenly Jam asks, should I cook noodles? Boo says yes, because everyone likes noodles, and anyway instant noodles are quick and smell good. A few minutes later, Jam is standing in front of the kitchen sink, facing away from us, apparently still contemplating. Boo asks us about one of her compositions, and we talk about moving things into corners and the word, “suspicion”. Taryn mutters to herself and occasionally says something aloud like “WHY is this—“ and I plug some nice calming music into the stereo. From the kitchen we hear, “Did Kevin use all the garlic?” And there’s Jam standing in the same place, looking at the cabinets with her hands on her hips. She contemplates. “But that was a lot… There was still like, half the garlic in there!” I finish a few letterforms for class, and Boo calls us over again for feedback. Half an hour later, we hear sizzling and there’s this gorgeous steam rising from the stove, and everyone smells food. Tar gets up to see what Jam is doing, and in a little while Jam brings over a big bowl of flat wiggly noodles with mushroom and onion and beef. I’ve never seen noodles shaped like those, but they reminded me of the tentacles you see under jellyfish. So Boo is looking at the noodles, so Jam asks if she wants some, and Boo says, yeeees. Jam puts another bowl right under the lamp we’re working by, and the steam rising from it is glorious. I tried to record it but caught it a little too late. Tar asks if she can have some noodles as well, and so do I, and Jam brings over a few plates and chopsticks and places them on the table. We've been eating for a while when Tar says,

"You know, when you said you were making noodles, I thought you meant instant.”

“Yeah, I was wondering why you were standing there for so long, thinking about it. I thought, it’ll just take 3 minutes.“

“—And then when you were asking about the garlic, I was like, wow, she’s getting fancy with those instant noodles!” Tar and Boo laugh and high five, laughing over “the extent of their cooking skills.”

“And then we see you at the stove with REAL noodles.”

Ha,
Indigo

(song of the day: Lost Stars by Adam Levine - one of the songs we sang, except not acoustic. this was after singing a bunch of disney songs)

1 comment:

Laura Mills said...

I love your descriptions in this post! Everything is so vivid and beautiful! Ahh I'm just so happy you're doing these with me! And your friends sound awesome :) I'm glad you get to have days like this, and that its not all stress and homework!