I was going to have dinner way before now, but then my mom called to say how much she likes the Feist cd that I sent her. She really likes the Feist cd! Isn't that the best? And then we had another of the weird chats where I feel like I'm passive-aggressively asking for money even though I'm just mentioning how I have to save money, and no please don't transfer money to me for clothes shopping, for crying out loud. Like we do not have oodles of debt. They are maybe free with the money because lots of people are quitting at my dad's work, and so he was given a raise, for kicks. Which is nice, but he is sort of sad because he would like to quit too. But what a pain to find a new job at his age. Man I get tired even thinking about it. Imagine how he feels, being so old and all. Goodness he's old. And then I was talking with my dad about the hurricane/flood and poor response and generational poverty and racism and, what, why? So backed right out of that. Then we talked a long time about my poor phone reception.

So my dinner ended up way later. I don't know why I'm talking to you about this. Clearly, I am having a mental blog-filtering problem.

Oh, I wanted to say: some good New Orleans related news is that Alex Chilton from Big Star, who had been missing for a few days, turns out to be alright. I would have been very sad if it had been otherwise. Big Star's album Third/Sister Lovers is one of my very favorite albums. I want to say it's like a depressive's lullaby, but no that's not right. If you don't know it, let me know and I will hook you up with tunes. I resisted all caps on the last part of that sentence, but it was hard.

Oh, I had my first pre-student teaching day. I am tired. Tomorrow is another one, and the day after. Question: Do you say the pledge of allegiance anymore? Would you, if you were put in a situation to?

I am strangely strongly missing the kids I aided for a couple years ago, who now are starting second grade wherever they may be. I wonder what they look like now.