Jordan, ‘10

Hey there,

My first final project is completed, my friends, and I am exhausted.  Yes, yes.  I deserve a break, but I won’t get one until June 27th.  And even then I have to wait two weeks to find out how I did on all this stuff.  I swear all my hair will have fallen out by the time I get back to Richmond.  But bald is in right now, right?  hehe.  Sure it’s sexy, but I think I want a little left over for the tropical fish on the Great Barrier Reef to nibble on when I go snorkeling. 

 Anyway, a few minutes ago I completed my 50% final essay for Victorian Crime Writing.  And, surprisingly since it’s due tomorrow, I think it’s pretty good.  Writing about Sherlock Holmes can be frustrating, let me tell you.  There are so many stories and each time I write about a different aspect I feel as if I’m going to confuse one criminal for another and my teacher will read it and have to flip back to that short story.  She’ll scratch her head and say, “Hmmm, I don’t remember Selden wearing a mask on his face.”  Because he didn’t.  No, no.  I didn’t make those kind of mistakes.  I just hope my argument is logical and coherent.  If I can get away with that, I’ll be very happy with myself.  And an A couldn’t hurt.

 My next final is on Friday and I start that studying adventure tomorrow.  That final is worth 70% of my grade.

 This weekend, though, I took a lovely long break on my black rock at St. Kilda.  Yes, yes I know I should be study, study, studying.  But it was 75*F out on Sunday!  How could I pass up an opportunity like that?  I didn’t even need my gloves, sweat shirt, and hoody to be warm.  There were no waves and it was an extreme low tide which means that I could see the sand on the bottom and it was stained the turquoise green of the sea.  Three exciting things happened there that made it one of the best days in Melbourne so far. 

First, a man in a full-body, black, leather motorcycle outfit walked to the rocks, climbed down to the water’s edge, and released eleven bunches of yellow flowers into the still water…and then he left.  As little ceremony as that.  And here I was thinking I could just jump into the water–it looked blessedly refreshing.  But I guess better not…at best he’s fulfilling a personal goal and at worst it’s like one of those roadside flower displays marking the place where someone met their end.  Only this one was taken with the tide.  Well, actually, it floated in my direction and then just laid there in front of me for a good thirty minutes (and formed a gigantic M) before moving on and then coming back again when the tide moved in the opposite direction toward the shore.  It was a spectacular beginning to a vividly wonderful day.

Second, I am now a part of St. Kilda.  Or at least I left a piece of myself there.  Well, okay.  It was a few drops of blood.  And it was accidental.  But anyway, when the flowers drifted back by my spot, I decided that I wanted one of the flowers for my journal.  So I climbed down onto this particular rock covered in mussels and tried to reach my hand out without toppling into the water.  But I couldn’t reach it.  So I took off one of my shoes and used my toes to fish out one of the bundles from the water.  Each of the bundles was made up of fifteen or twenty little flowers so I took one of the little flowers (ever so respectfully) and returned the rest of the bundle to its watery bed.  In the process of bringing my foot back in, however, I accidentally stabbed my big toe on a piece of sharp dry coral on the top of the rock.  Yes, I’m brilliant.   Anyway, I went chumming for the day.  If there weren’t any sharks before then there were a few minutes later, hehe.  It was bleeding pretty well so I didn’t want to put my sock and shoe back on, so I slowly (very very gingerly) maneuvered my way back to my rock and cleaned it up with a spare napkin I happened to have (don’t ask me why I had one, I certainly couldn’t tell you).  Along the way back to my rock, however, I found an amazing colorful shell.  It’s pretty flat but still one of those coiling ones and the inside is the color gas makes when it’s on the street–all rainbow sheen.  Beautiful.

 Third, I saw a ten-ray starfish as I was leaving the pier for the day.  The sun was setting and I figured I should be getting back.  At first I thought it was a big piece of coral and the surrounding coral made it look like it had sharp ends.  But no, it was a starfish.  Gorgeous it its big, multi-armed glory.

 blue light and the sensation of sensation,

Jordan

Quote of the week:

“Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth.”  - Henry David Thoreau

“You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in every moment.” - Henry David Thoreau

“It’s not what you look at that matters; it’s what you see.” - Henry David Thoreau