By Walt Whitman
When I heard at the close of the day how my name had been receiv'd with
plaudits in the capitol, still it was not a happy night for me that follow'd;
And else, when I carous'd, or when my plans were accomplish'd, still I was not happy;
But the day when I rose at dawn from the bed of perfect health, refresh'd, singing,
inhaling the ripe breath of autumn,
When I saw the full moon in the west grow pale and disappear in the morning light,
When I wander'd alone over the beach, and undressing, bathed, laughing with the cool
waters, and saw the sun rise,
And when I thought how my dear friend, my lover, was on his way coming, O then I was
happy;
O then each breath tasted sweeter—and all that day my food nourish'd me more—and the
beautiful day pass'd well,
And the next came with equal joy—and with the next, at evening, came my friend;
And that night, while all was still, I heard the waters roll slowly continually up
the shores,
I heard the hissing rustle of the liquid and sands, as directed to me, whispering,
to congratulate me,
For the one I love most lay sleeping by me under the same cover in the cool night,
In the stillness, in the autumn moonbeams, his face was inclined toward me,
And his arm lay lightly around my breast—and that night I was happy.
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It was even hotter on Friday than it was on Thursday. I know that we are not alone, but that didn't make it any less excruciatingly unpleasant to be outside -- it was a balmy 102 degrees where I live, whereas it hit 105 at Dulles Airport twenty minutes away. Instead of going running with his track friends, Adam went to California Tortilla with them instead. Daniel thought he had plans to have lunch with my father, but he'd never confirmed that with my father, so my father made other plans and I took Daniel to the (ridiculously crowded and not cool enough) mall for lunch instead.
After I took Daniel to driver's ed, I stopped at Tiara Galleries to see the unveiling of the winter Brighton jewelry line -- they were having a Christmas in July party with snowman cookies and Hershey's miniatures wrapped in Christmas colors, and Brighton is going to release both a penguin bead stopper and a polar bear charm which are adorable. Plus their air conditioning made me linger and look at all the new Vera Bradley paper goods. Then I came home and posted my review of the animated Star Trek's "The Eye of the Beholder", which is not going to win any awards for originality or characterization, though it has another big red sea monster.
We had dinner with my parents -- deli, I had half a bagel with egg salad and half with walnut raisin cream cheese, which is perfect in this weather -- then came home and watched the first half of a PBS special on royal weddings from George V to the present which I am absolutely kicking myself for not having recorded even though they glorified Princess Margaret to a ridiculous degree. Then we watched Torchwood, in which Jack acted quite a bit like the old Jack -- go ahead and yell at me, he was never the prince of monogamy and I absolutely howled at -- spoilers -- the conversation between him and Rex: "You weren't impaled." "You should have seen the other guy...oh, Rex doesn't like his jokes too gay." "No, Rex doesn't like men in their 40s acting like they're in their 20s." I love Gwen and Vera.
Younger son drew a penguin. Here's some more photos from the Asian festival last weekend at Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens:
Fannish5: Five Fannish Lines in the Sand (i.e., things in fandom you are inflexible about).
1. Male bonding at expense of female characters (see: Sherlock etc.)
2. Woman falling for (attempted) rapist (see: Buffy the Vampire Slayer etc.)
3. Taking stories away from smart woman character for "attractive" woman character (see: Star Trek: Voyager etc.)
4. Giving a character a family member to be killed off (see: Doctor Who, Torchwood etc.)
5. Rabid misogyny using era/fantasy setting as excuse (see: Game of Thrones etc.)
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