A Conversation We Would Probably Have If You Could Have One With Me
You: So! Andrea! What’s been going on?
Me: Oh hey! You know, nothing much, about the same.
You: Really, the same?
Me: I mean, okay, not the same as it was like, six months ago, but the same as it was yesterday. School is done, it was just a one semester intensive, so I’m doing what you do when you’re trying to figure out what’s next after shaking things up in your life.
You: What’s that mean?
Me: Mostly lots of walks on the beach. Higgins, lately.
You: Uh huh.
Me: I like to watch the surfers and I’ve met some really great dogs.
You: That sounds nice.
Me: It is! I love being so close to the ocean. It’s been interesting observing how much the surf changes in only a day or two. Sometimes it smells a lot saltier and I don’t know why.
You: Huh, weird.
Me: Right?
You: Okay, but really, what are you doing? Are you staying in Maine?
Me: For now, yeah.
You: It’s just funny that you’re staying in Maine when you always said how much you hate winter.
Me: I mean, I still do! It’s not my favorite time of year. But everyone keeps saying how amazing it is in the summer and I’d really like to be up here for that. Plus, a bunch of people from school stuck around and I have nothing tying me down, so I figured why not.
You: The stuff you made in school, can I listen to it?
Me: Yeah, I guess if you’d like to you can listen to what I made, go ahead.
You: And the job thing, where are you with that.
Me: I’m applying to things, waiting to hear back, you know, doing the job thing.
You: Totally, just wasn’t sure what was going on there.
Me: I mean, I think it’s okay that I don’t have all the answers this second.
You: Of course, of course, I’m just… curious.
Me: I’m excited to see what’s next, even if I don’t know what it is yet.
You: And I’m excited for you!!!
Me: Aw, thanks. Anyway, that’s where I am, at least for right now. What’s going on with you?
You: Nothing much, about the same.
Me: Okay, well, good talk.
“Getting Through”
Like a car stuck in gear,
a chicken too stupid to tell
its head is gone,
or sound ratcheting on
long after the film
has jumped the reel,
or a phone
ringing and ringing
in the house they have all
moved away from,
through rooms where dust
is a deepening skin,
and the locks unneeded,
so I go on loving you,
my heart blundering on,
a muscle spilling out
what is no longer wanted,
and my words hurtling past,
like a train off its track,
toward a boarded-up station,
closed for years,
like some last speaker
of a beautiful language
no one else can hear.
— Deborah Pope
Hey, I really appreciate that you opened this email/clicked this link/made whatever technological choices that lead you here. There’s probably mistakes and I apologize for them with a ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. Links to my social and website can be found below. If you’d like to buy me a cup of coffee here or here, I’d be very very grateful. <3 <3
YKWIM #87: Getting Through