June Thoughts

Dear Fauchon,

My latest serious thought: 

I recently watched David Foster Wallace’s commencement speech for Kenyon College. I had read some of his stuff before because he is hailed as one of the 20th century’s most influential writers, and I had it on my list to watch the commencement speech, but never got around to it. After coming across a Jason Segel interview for his role as Mr. Wallace in The End of the Tour, I was reminded to now get around to it. In the speech, he talked about a couple of selfless concepts as it relates to being “educated.” Coincidentally, I also recently started thinking about how one’s attitude towards life dramatically changes when one takes the focus off themselves like volunteering / having a kid / getting a puppy.

Though doesn’t volunteering / having a kid / getting a puppy still have some elements of selfishness? After all, one is choosing to do something selfless for the sake of various potential selfish reasons. Maybe it makes one feel better or one thinks puppies are cute. Anyway…

My second-to-latest serious thought:

My lower back has been hurting and Advil and sleep isn’t fixing it. Weed helps a little, as does your mother’s elbow, which she uses to massage my back (she says my left side feels like filet mignon and the right side feels like minute steak). Getting old sucks.

My new favorite phrase that makes your mother laugh:

“Rump steak, grump steak, I hate rump steak.”
Why? For no reason other than we had rump steak one night and I thought of

What Kili is good at and not good at now:

She’s good at sitting, eating strawberries, patiently waiting when a treat is put in front of her, rubbing the side of her head along the building’s entire hallway floor (apparently it’s a leaving-your-scent thing), sleeping in contorted positions, getting strangers to come up to talk to us, lying down in the middle of the sidewalk during a walk.

She sucks at going down steps, going to sleep during the day, being gentle with her sharp teeth, eating ice cubes.