a little glimpse into a conversation between two 5,000 miles apart

"Happy Birthday, love. Are you going to do anything to celebrate?"

"I bought a new calling card and am calling you, Shannon."

"A conversation with me is your birthday present to yourself?"

"Why not?" he replies.

The long-distance relationship

"But how can you stand it--the sadness of being separated all the time?" the girl asked her friend.

"It's true, the goodbyes are terribly hard and make for my least favorite days. But the hellos ... ahhh ... the hellos ... nothing to describe them. The best flavor of ice cream, the warmest blanket, they are."

Venetian palazzo on lollipops

I wondered on the commute to work this morning if Architects, and those in the building-creation business, keep notebooks. You know, journals, binders, blank pages filled with random thoughts, inappropriate drawings, quotes from those who inspire.

Then I read this article.

“The new museum resembles a die-cut Venetian palazzo on lollipops,” Huxtable wrote at one juncture. Somehow, this silly yet articulate description answers my question.

Motivation

"I am constantly listening to Beethoven. Even now, I hear Beethoven. He is always playing. The symphonies are always on," said the triathlete in an interview regarding the music in their ear buds.

in bed. new book in hand. good opening quote. g'night.

And Allah said: I am with the ones whose hearts are torn. --Hadith Qudsi

This is the opening quote before the prologue of novel "American Dervish." I think this book may be fabulous. And I have yet to get past the quote.

Missed the boat

It's ok that I did not make it on the ship. I would have been back state-side by now, and in a mild depression missing him terribly. This way, life goes about with the same rhythm and routine, and loneliness creeps in the usual, predictable ways, where I do nothing but close my eyes and repeat, "Soon. Soon. Soon."

Scent

She smelled exactly like Paris, even though she had never been. Still, the perfume was as sweet and as foreign as an alleyway in an ancient metropolis.