Journal of a Sabbatical

April 6, 2001

stuck at the beginning of time

Today's Reading: A Visit to India, China, and Japan in the Year 1853 by Bayard Taylor

Today's Starting Pitcher: Tomo Oka

It's Opening Day at Fenway Park and I'm listening to the Red Sox vs. the Tampa Bay Devil Rays on the radio - actually all the radios in the house are tuned to the game so I can move around and do chores without missing anything. BiB emails me in the second inning when Manny Ramirez hits a three-run homer to tie it up. He's watching it on TV on the Armed Forces Network. BiB that is, not Manny Ramirez. Enjoying a quiet sibling camaraderie moment across thousands of miles, 6 time zones, and all that Bosniac-Kosovar-Serbian-Croatian-Albanian-Hungarian stuff.

It's getting darker and darker outside as the rain moves in. I'm working like mad on revising the beach grass opus for Donald while listening to the game and willing Tim Wakefield to be fabulous. I like Tim Wakefield. I want Jimy with one m to put him back in the starting rotation. Poor Tomo Oka. It's tough being a phenom - to be young, gifted, Japanese, and the Opening Day starter at Fenway. Talk about pressure. After the three run first inning he was actually pretty good. Too bad he only lasted 4 innings and didn't qualify for the win. I assume the win goes to Wakefield. I should check the scoring on the MLB web site but it's too darn busy so all I get is "that document contains no data". I do not like the new totalitarian MLB web site. Why can't teams have their own anymore? Anyway, the rain is coming down now and I'm stuck on beach grass at the beginning of time.

It's one thing to know what a BTU is and quite another to be able to name four characters from Fraggle Rock. Yes, I won yet another bag of coffee from Starbucks for answering the trivia question. Clearly my mind is way too full of useless information. That was yesterday. I have not ventured out of the house yet today so don't know what the trivia question is and besides that I now have three sample bags of Starbucks House Blend, which is a little too mild for my taste.

Snippets of dialogue for the movie version of this journal:

István: Why aren't you wearing a jacket?
Me: I'm hardy to USDA Zone 5.

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István: It's too bad you don't speak Hungarian. You have such a great sense of humor Marti would like your jokes.
Me: Szerenék heljet foglalni Moszkvába.*

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Zsolt: reels of list of developing countries in need of conservation assistance
Me: "Where is Meecro-Guatamala?"

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Me to Kevin: "I am not an old hag, I'm a crone."
Lizzy: "What's a crone?"
Me: "An old hag."