is

You are all about tomorrow. The moon has your name

memorized: the curl of your back, your face, an open book.

— Vona Groarke, Tonight of Yesterday

Just spoke to my parents about Turin. My dad literally said "I'm hungry" right after I informed them, and my mom questioned the ways and means in which I will finance my trip. Before I said some smart-ass thing like "prostitution" or "loansharks" I realized that irony is a trait I inherited from only one side of the family. It's like, "Son, we want you to develop as a person, but not like this, because of reasons. Anyway let's change the subject."

Money is, like, totally dumb and lame. Also I am incredibly mature and thoughtful and the paragon of filial piety.

That said, I would like to remind myself that I need to emancipate myself of all my limiting factors, because these limiting factors have been limiting me for the past 20 years — 20 years marked by limits, the factors of which I would like to be emancipated from. (Thanks, I also have remarkable logic and a terrific knack for sentence construction.)

I am so fazed by the idea of "scholarship" and "academia." It's such a weird but obvious thing to pursue when one forgot to develop a useful skill as a child, like carpentry or stone masonry. Another thing that's weird is how people take me seriously when I mention "librarian" as a potential career path. Maybe I should just sign on with NLB and be the assistant curator of the "This Months' Picks" shelf, and perhaps I will lead a fulfilled, self-actualized life.