Lovely, dry, Thursday

What am I up to today?

• Nursing some sore muscles due to rowing last night (first time back on the water, lo these many weeks). The river was full of CRAP: branches, logs, cans, and at least one bloated, smelly, dead rat.


• Avoiding all the reviews, blog posts, and general press about Superman. I want to be totally unprepared for what I see—or at least keep expectations low. I'm a Superman fan in a general way. I loved the first two movies (with Christopher Reeve), but skipped the last two. Back in the day, on the recommendation of my comic book store guy, I got the Superman graphic novel that came out in the mid-'90s, but that was the last time I read a Superman comic. (I probably still have it in that box in the backroom with the Spirit re-issues. Why don't they make a Spirit movie?)


• Wondering at this absurd entry in my guestbook:

  eynwfsbu jpsybim ocnz mlidw afwrjolp oqxmin robswfiul
  
  from fzigrqpa mbgjzx

  Hey! Maybe it's from Mr. Mxyztplk!
  
  The guestbook gets a lot of spam (which I delete) that usually directs you to the spammer's website. But this is just gibberish. Email and URL are filled in (not shown here), but the email address is "test@test.com" and the URL doesn't resolve. It's so peculiar, I haven't decided whether I'm going to take it down or not.


• Translating a letter into Spanish, with work-friend Diego's help. Perhaps you remember my "little sister" (not my actual sister)? I haven't seen her for weeks (months, really). It got harder and harder to make plans with her and I finally called the Big Brothers/Big Sisters coordinator to tell him that I didn't think things were working out. I said I would make time for her if she still wanted to get together, that less frequency was fine (preferred, actually), but that I didn't have time to take on a new kid. He said he'd talk to her, but I never heard back from him. That was in May. Recently, I've been missing the little sister and wondering if I should get in touch with her. A friend suggested, some time back, that I resolved things with her so that she didn't feel abandoned. I decided a letter would make more sense than a phone call because 1) it is devilishly hard to raise her on the phone and 2) my Spanish is so-so at best and much worse over the phone. Today, I asked Diego if he would help me translate a letter into Spanish. He agreed and I think it turned out well, but it was hard work (for him). Some English phrases don't translate well, but he figured it out and the final result is short, kind and to the point. Want to read it?

  Querida [little sister],
  
  Hace mucho tiempo desde que te he visto. Perdóname por no haber comunicado más seguido. Le pedí a Jorge Bustios que te platicara para saber come estés, pero no me contestó.
  
  Parece que estás muy ocupada en estos días con tu iglesia y con tus amigas—me parece muy bien. Estoy muy contenta ver que estás disfrutando de la vida aquí en los E.E.U.U.
  
  Me ha gustado mucho conocerlo a ti. He visto mucho en ésta ciudad que no hubiera visto sin haberte conocido. Por ejemplo, cuando paseamos por los jardines de la Casa Blanca o cuando vimos el barco militar en Alexandria.
  
  Si te gustaría reunir en el futuro cuando sea, me encantaría. Pero si sigues ocupada, entiendo perféctamente. Cuando te guste llamarme, el número es 202.555.1212.
  
  Con cariño,
  Jamy



• And last, but not least, I am not getting much work done. Shocking, I know.

Grateful for: slow days.

Drop me a line.