KjB

(Mason requested definitions. Good idea!)

Previously:
I’m working on a naming project for a particularly colorful hip-hop artist’s clothing line, and in my search for words with dark, colonial, lively, foppish, and slightly dangerous connotations, i’ve come across a large number of things that I absolutely need to use in conversation. I love increasing my vocabulary. If my attention span wasn’t so damningly short, i’d read the dictionary.
Anyway, here’s some words I particularly loved from the search:

• Sambucus (a black variety of elderberry)
• Sub baccara (under the black rose. An even more latinized version of “sub rosa” - the tradition of putting a rose over the doorway to a room where a secret meeting was being held)
• Atramentous (relates to blackness, ink)
• Crucified Rose
• Gematria (Hebrew numerology found in the Qabalah)
• Prester (To kindle or burn, to blow up. A meteor or exhalation formerly supposed to be thrown from the clouds with such violence that by collision it is set on fire. A lot of these are alchemy terms, by the way.)
• First matter (to alchemists, just what it sounds like. the primordial initial form of being. the first element)
• Son of the sun (put simply, “man”)
• Mortuum (as “caput mortuum” it means “death’s head” - a useless substance left over after a chemical reaction)
• Icwr or Ichor (the blood of the gods)
• AaPhR + MIM (earth + water. My personal favorite from the alchemy research)
• mettle (courage. fortitude)
• penumbra (a curved, partial shadow, like around an eclipse)
• Havelock (that flap that hangs down over your neck on desert hats)

some words i like:

The picture is of happiness, the story not. Happiness is a garden walled with glass: there’s no way in or out. In Paradise there are no stories, because there are no journeys. It’s loss and regret and misery and yearning that drive the story forward, along its twisted road.

-The Blind Assassin, Margaret Atwood

I haven’t had much to say lately. It’s a function of business and frazzledness and apartment-painting and car shopping and travel. And I’m not big on apologies, especially to a readership of, oh, I think maybe four. So whatever.
anyway - when i have little to say, I tend to default to the narrative list. So, here it is:
Travel: I’m in indiana at the moment, awaiting a wedding. My first-cousin Erin will tie the knot this afternoon in true german small-town, indiana-style. In a little Lutheran church with a short ceremony, with an evening to end, as tradition mandates, at the Sunman Legion Hall. The DJ will spin all the traditional wedding fare (chicken dance, macarena, shout, maybe a couple kanye west tunes (I can only guess about that, really. I’ve not been in the wedding circuit for years). There will be ham and roast beef and canned vegetables. There will be cake and a chocolate fountain. And then, there will be my mother and grandmother bickering over how the flowers were a bit too pink, and how the cake table was too far to the left. There’s already been a fight over my grandmother’s dress. Apparently, to my grandfather, she looked too “Dutchy” in it. It was a bizarrely creative insult, and she was understandibly upset. After I asked my grandfather, “In 60 years of marriage, have you learned NOTHING?”, I then asked him what the hell “Dutchy” means. Apparently, to him she looked like a Dutchman in the dress. It’s the only explanation I got. Geesh.

Transportation: I love my BMW, but it needs so much work. And the Volvo is a loaner that needs to be returned to its rightful owner. So, because I have occassion to need to leave the perimeter periodically, a while back (like January) I started looking for a new mode of transport. I’ve heard good things about Toyota Tacoma pickup trucks, and always like to have the option to haul large things (my motorcycle being the most obvious one) around without having to ask for a ride, so I had my dad start looking for one. Indiana is a great place to buy cars. The economy is a bit different than in atlanta, prices are cheap, and my dad knows a guy who reconditions salvaged vehicles. So..long story short, I bought one today. It’s a 2000, maroon-colored Tacoma. 4-wheel drive (which i didn’t want, really, but the price was right). 5-speed transmission. And big-ass tires that will be replaced as soon as necessary/possible. (I do not need ‘wilderness’ tires…regular ones will suffice.) I’m excited. Now I just need to figure out how to get it to Georgia.

Work: going swimmingly, thank you very much. Lots to do, lots to learn about, lots of great projects in the works. Compared to the last job, incredibly satisfying. Now. Let’s just hope they want to keep me around when Juliet returns, and I’ll be all set.