White Bread

I'd like to think of days in Salem as wasted, but today was actually quite well spent. Trip to the capitol city on the amtrak train-listened to a book, got to watch the birds and the valley stream by. Lots of birds-I've spoken of my affinity for birds previously on this blog, but I can't help but come back to them. Hawks and owls and falcons and herons seem to pop up a lot in my life, and every weird little bird moment adds something...maybe that's why people take up birdwatching, but I feel like trying to make them happen loses the best part, the fateful part.

So Salem's still a pit, but it's like a pit trying to break free-walking along the mall today, with its manicured gardens and turrible statuary, there was still that lush, verdant smell in the air. And the trees were breeding-little puffs of seeds all over, like a snowstorm. It's hard to hate a place that ugly when it decides it's going to be beautiful, even for just a day. Also, I saw boxwood bushes, immaculately trimmed, with stones set on top of them. Rebellion flowers in the most unlikely places.

And I've got to hand it to my dentist, and to dentists the world over. Most doctors, you smoke, you drink, you're overweight, they give you a half-hearted lecture and that's it. Dentists man, dentists are hardcore. They must pull out all the true-believers in medical school and tell them "Look, you're too...intense...to be a doctor. How do you feel about teeth?"

And lastly, for my dear mother who I got to see today-those of you reading this who haven't had the pleasure of my mother's company, you're missing out. Next time she's in capella, say hello. She's friendly, just like her son.