In a rut. 


Still. 

I can't seem to do any meaningful work these days. Every time that I try to sit down and compose some pages of my research papers–all due in about two weeks–or an easy essay, I stare at the computer screen dumbfounded, writing paragraphs that are independently good but which don't make any sense together.

Granted, I really haven't tried very hard to actually sit down and work over the last week as I've been eating a lot, playing with Juli and Paul and spending a lot of time with my visiting grandmother ("babcia" in Polish).

I've been spending a good amount of every day over the last week with Babcia. I even interviewed her on video for about two hours on Saturday. I've done that before for projects, but this interview gave me some footage of her singing some old folk songs and reciting some poetry from her school days–she worked only through grade six, of course. We discussed her childhood, her struggle throughout the war (raising two babies in the forest whilst the Nazis and Soviets duked it out in Death Valley, right near her town of Jasliska, which is along the Polish border with Slovakia), and making it to and in the US. She loves talking about things like this, so it's only smart to get some of it recorded for posterity.

Babcia's not only fun to be around, but she is very insightful too. She made a comment after church on Sunday when I asked her what she thought about the protestant (Presbyterian) service that she had just attended. She told me, verbatim, "What kind person means what kind religion." She meant, of course, that individuals more than dogma and scripture guide the way in which a religion is guided and how it is regarded.

Isn't that just the most enlightened statement that you've heard all month? It was for me.

So, Babcia's presence is my excuse for not getting jack-crap done.

I won't be able to leverage that excuse for long, though; she's leaving on Saturday.

And oh, won't I find a ton of time to waste–or, rather, spend–with her until then. 

Posted: Tue - November 29, 2005 at 12:58 PM          

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