gone living

I grab the bones and I let 'em fly.
so come 2 come 3 come 4 come 5 come 6 come 7 come 9
it doesn't matter to me now
'cause I've got all kinds of time.

The Mountain Goats, "Hello There Howard", from their album "Hot Garden Stomp"

lately i've been feeling like i'm back in college, with organized fun being the order of the day interspersed with occasional bouts of studying. i've been learning how to identify fish i see while scuba diving, working on new hobbies, and discovering/rating long-lost songs on my iPod (which has been a wonderful process of rediscovery, like bringing a library's worth of books packed into a space the size of my hand. lauryn hill is the latest artist i've only now just taken the time to really listen to -- and yes, i know that i'm years behind the pop culture zeitgeist on this.)

as i write this now, i'm sitting next to a window on the ferry from ko tao to ko samui, watching the sea spread off into the horizon without a break.

one thing i've been thinking about is the world cultures class i took in college, whose media component included a long video series from the early 80s about cultures from around the world, filmed on location in various places around the world, complete with a world-travelling narrator. i never forgot watching these videos in a dusty dallas classroom, half-dozing in the afternoon sun, never guessing that i'd actually end up going to visit most of these places several years later.

i don't know what the future is going to bring after this, but right now i'm glad to have the time to do a lot of the things that i've always been meaning to do. including just enjoying the world around me.