date: 02.10.2003
entitled: "knorks, foons, & spives"

the back of my retinas are burned, from drying my recently arrived, shiny flatware (that's silverware, for all you peasants & laymen). as i washed my silverware, which had been painstakingly packed along with dishes and other odds and ends by my mom in michigan, memories of my college years and my former, wonderful apartment in east lansing came flooding back. i recalled the many evenings eating dinner with my friend and roommate christine, and the dinner parties she threw. the glint of the fork, as i held it in my hand, moving it back in forth in the light so it sparkled, reminded me of how luxurious life was then. this is only in terms of material possesions, of course, but i guess luxury doesn't exist without materiality (poor jamaicans don't realize they live in paradise). the fact that this fork had been through the dishwasher cycle hundreds of times while living in that apartment, and now it would reside in cheap cabinetry in an undersized, overpriced apartment. the fact that it had been used at a normal sized kitchen table, and even in front of the fireplace on occasion, and now would be placed on a small (yet quite chic) cafe table. as i placed it in the silverware holder in the drawer (the lone drawer in our kitchen), it somehow seemed out of place. when we moved into this apartment, we purchased silverware at the dollar store, and have been using it the entire year. this silverware was so cheap, you could see how they had stamped and cut it, and it would even begin to cut into your fingers with the correct applied pressure to cut something tough, like pita bread. it reminded me of something an 8th grader would make in metal shop, with its dull lustre, thinness, and bent tines. no, i even knew 8th graders who would have done a much nicer job. as i put the rest of the newly arrived, strange silverware away, i couldn't help but think about how different life is here, as compared to the midwest. Normality goes through a great shift between the two regions. i notice so many things that people do here within a days time that people in the midwest would just scratch their heads at, or completely misunderstand the meaning or intention. and vice versa when i visit michigan. being someone who is so intrigued by human behavior, i was very smart to move to this city.

song stuck in my head:

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