High, I’m back.

This major high hit yesterday afternoon. While I was waiting for my last class to start, I was reading a fellow teacher’s blog, and was reminded of one of my favorite sutras:

Undisturbed calmness of the mind is attained by cultivating friendliness toward the happy, compassion for the unhappy, delight in the virtuous, and indifference toward the wicked.

A few moments later class started, and the world shifted its axis just a bit. I can remember only one other time in my life when the feeling of transition was an acute, physical sensation. It’s a little like tapping the pause button on life for an instant, a feeling of being completely present and completely detached at the same time. And now, NOW. This has been building for a couple of days. The weather is not just warm but almost hot, my belly issues seem to have resolved themselves after five months, I have been wide awake after five or six hours of sleep, and I have to remind myself to eat. Something else is sustaining me right now, and it is very, very good.

Joy!:

I.
When I got home last night there was a huge, leopardy looking slug on the front step.

II.
Today I went out looking for a new notebook. I used to always have a notebook with me – leaving the house without one was like leaving without pants. For the past ten years, though, my love of minimalism has been at odds with my love of recording every damn thing in the universe, so most days I rarely have more than my wallet and keys with me, and maybe my phone if I feel like being accountable. Almost every time I go anywhere, some part of me thinks about the fact that I no longer carry a notebook. (The fact that this is possible is a nice reminder that my life is very, very simple.) So, I’m relenting. I am going to start carrying a notebook again. This decision launched, of course, an old familiar event for me: The Quest for The Perfect Notebook. Rather than detail this quest, which anyone who knows me at all can probably imagine, and will probably roll their eyes while imagining it, and which I don’t really need to record because I’ve been through it so many times, I’ll just say that after four stores I decided to stick with the little notebook I’ve had sitting in a drawer for a while, but I did get some new pens.

This decision also opens some other possibilities. There is the obvious: I need something in which to carry the notebook, so there is accessorizing. And, if I am carrying some kind of bag with me, I can put other stuff in the bag, too. Like a book. Or a camera. I have been meaning to take a picture of the POPTRONICS sign near the Federal Hill studio since I started teaching there, but the pictures on my phone aren’t very good. A picture of that slug would have been great, too. Also great is having an excuse to buy a new, funky little camera – time to use that gift certificate from my father.

III.
When I opened up the aforementioned little notebook, I found this:

Genesis of the most fun job ever.

IV.
While I was out and about, the guy in the car in front of me used hand signals to indicate he was about to change lanes. Here in the land that turn signals forgot, this is very exciting.

V.
I am now the proud owner of a big book of NYT crossword puzzles, and the time to do them.