Yeah, so most of you know me well enough by now to understand the pattern by which my entries appear... I will go through a month or two of lots of long entries maybe six times a day and then I will write nothing for a month or two and return. This also applies to email, so for all those neglected, I can't really offer my apologies, because I am sure I will do it again. Intensity to hiatus. It's my cycle.

It is actually a strange time for me to come back, because I am unemployed and sick. The first condition will probably end in two days (j'espere!) and if it doesn't, then I will drag myself to a Sonic Drive-in or a Wal-Mart or some such other employment for those at the ends of their ropes and continue to search until something better comes along. Right now, my boyfriend's salary very nearly covers the bills, but next month, the first payment on our school loan is due, and it will stretch us. But, like I said, I think I will be gainfully employed by Saturday or Sunday. The second condition will abate whenever one of my family members can sweet-talk a doctor into writing a prescription without actually seeing me, since the deductible on my dad's health insurance (bless the irate man, he still carries me) is like $250. I've exhausted every holistic possibility I can afford, taking regular vitamin-C and Zinc and drinking lots of fluids, but the bugs in my throat persist.

Last night I was simmering with fever and could not sit still, would not go out, and had no desire to eat or exercise or draw or... *gasp* even read. Luckily, after taking some pills to sleep, I woke, was productive, and my Schopenhauerian will-to-life returned with mediocre force. I ate a sandwich and finished Lolita. I feel terrible about the way I read the last hundred or so pages, though, because I know my eyes avoided some of the monstrously beautiful sentences of Nabakov's out of just laziness. Just another great book to add to my "Read Again" list. I finally finished reading the first volume of The Gulag Archipelago and its lessons lurk everywhere. In forcing open my eyes, it made my world that much brighter and less comfortable... something I've got to thank it for. I've also just recently read The Consolations of Philosophy by Alain de Botton (not of Boethian fame). It was a really light look into the lives and applied philosophies of six men: Socrates, Epicurus, Seneca, Montaigne, Schopenhauer and Nietzsche. I think I like the lesson of Epicurus best: contrary to the modern definition of his philosophy applied, Epicureanism is the basic will to satisfy three basic physical needs (food, shelter, clothing) simply; married with the desire to fulfill three psychological aspirations (friendship, freedom, thought) with an equal degree of zeal. Yeah, if only we all did that. It reminds me of a passage in Camus' first novel, "A Happy Death," where a crippled man tells a robust one that money buys time, and time buys freedom and thought. Damn. Do you know of any other authors who became progressively more optimistic as they wrote and grew older?

I've also recently read about half of the Decameron. Wow. If you are intimidated by its date and title, you shouldn't be (at least not on those counts). You might want to be wary of the completely unorthodox and rowdy sexual escapades that this book swims in. Or, like me, you may not ;).

I am taking a couple of classes this semester, French and Drawing (all I could afford and still loads of fun). A couple of weekends ago my drawing class took a field trip to the Hispanic Cultural Center to see their Chicano art collection which now houses Cheech Marin's personal collection (a couple from Nicholas Cage's collection are also there). Despite some rather unfortunate sponsorship (Clear Channel and Target) it was a really great show, lots of fun and not overbearing and stuffy like some shows around here can be. Vincent Valdez' "Kill the Panchuco Bastard," George Yepes' "Axis Bold as Love," (actually, anything by George Yepes) one painting by Alex Rubio of this insane bird... I can't remember the name... and anything by Vincent Valdez... those were my favorites. I think it might be worth mentioning for those who know of him that there were also selected works by Gronk in the exhibit, including a multimedia (audio, video, visual art) of a performance piece that he did in Albuquerque some time ago. Some work by these artists is available online through the site above and also, selectively through some commercial print sites... with Rubio's work being the most difficult to find on the web. The selection of paintings on the Chicano project's site is pretty disappointing except for the Valdez, Yepes, and Gronk... it was definitely not a selection of the best the show has to offer. Anyway, if any of my readers are in the Albuquerque area, I would recommend a trip to the HCC to see this exhibit. It is certainly worth the three bucks for admission.

I think I will quit for tonight, I don't want to egg my sickness on by depriving my body of sleep.