No words

From the Transportation Security Administration:

Traveling with Crematory Remains

We understand how painful losing a loved one is, and we respect anyone traveling with crematory remains. Passengers are allowed to carry a crematory container as part of their carry-on luggage, but the container must pass through the X-ray machine. If the container is made of a material that generates an opaque image and prevents the Transportation Security Officer from clearly being able to see what is inside, then the container cannot be allowed through the security checkpoint.

Out of respect to the deceased and their family and friends, under no circumstances will an officer open the container even if the passenger requests this be done. Documentation from the funeral home is not sufficient to carry a crematory container through security and onto a plane without screening.

You may transport the urn as checked baggage provided that it is successfully screened. We will screen the urn for explosive materials/devices using a variety of techniques; if cleared, it will be permitted as checked baggage only.

Some airlines do not allow cremated remains as checked baggage so please check with your air carrier before attempting to transport a crematory container in checked baggage.

My father

Yesterday morning I stood shin-deep in seawater on the beach in Milford, Connecticut, dropping fistfuls of my father’s ashes in the Sound. I watched all that’s physically left of my father wash away in the water and sand. It became suddenly clear to me that that’s all there is when a life ends, and it is very right and proper to send ashes out to become part of the natural world again. I’m not sure anymore whether an Afterlife exists, but it’s comforting to know that at least my father is being returned to the sands and the sea.

I am resting at Ara’s apartment in Baltimore today, and tomorrow I return to Chapel Hill. I have an urn with the rest of my father’s ashes with me. I will keep it until I can go back to California, to add him to the beaches there that he loved so well.

And now I’m selling my clothes

Here – http://shop.ebay.com/merchant/basilgildersleeve

Tell yr friends.

Thoughts while riding the train north to Connecticut

I remember when I was half as tall as I am now the three of us took the train from San Diego to somewhere beyond Kansas City, my mother, my younger sister, and me.

I remember using the toilets on the train, bleary-eyed and knocked from side to side with the movement of the train cars on the tracks. When the toilet flushed I could see daylight, I could see the hot desert ground rushing beneath the train.

Did they really flush to the ground like that? It seems unallowable, but that is a truth that I remember.

Fancy zine is now available

My zine is done, and if you would like a copy, please send money via Paypal to rsdchen@gmail.com in the following amount as appropriate:

USA – $2.75
Canada/Mexico – $3.50
Everywhere else in the world – $4.00

It is 14 full pages of hand-drawn paper doll clothes based on my actual clothes, plus style interviews with some of my friends. I had a lot of fun making it.

Where the Wild Things Are

I just watched the trailer for Where the Wild Things Are, and I got goosebumps, and then I almost cried.

What an excellent choice of song for the trailer! They edited it for maximum goosebump inducing, I think.

That’s the end

Today is my last day at this job, and I realize now that I should have come up with something clever to say to my coworkers in response to the pleasant “What are you going to do next” queries I’ve been peppered with all day, something vaguely plausible but utterly ridiculous, something like, “I’m going to New Zealand to pick apples for the next six months.”

Instead I’ve been telling them how I’m hoping to collect unemployment for a bit until I can find a job, and I mention a few of the projects I’m going to tackle, like cleaning the grout in my shower, painting a wall in my living room, building a raised garden bed. The people close in age to me nod their head in understanding. I guess we’re all used to instability in our employment histories. The people more established in their jobs look slightly unsettled. I’m trying to treat this unemployment thing like it’s no big deal, like it’s something I can easily handle and work through because, like Audra used to say, “Fake it till you make it.”

I do not want these CDs anymore

I am about a week away from unemployment, and I have listed some CDs for sale on ebay, merchant name basilgildersleeve.

I also have a bunch of other CDs that aren’t worth listing on ebay, these are the kind of CDs you see in used bins all the time. If you need to fill in some spots in your back catalog of musical knowledge, you might like some of them.

Should you be interested in any of these, I would love to sell them to you for roughly the cost of shipping. Thus I would like to sell them for $2 for the first CD, plus $1 for each additional CD, shipping to the USA only. I will also ship to outside of the USA, but the price would be more due to the increased shipping rates. Please email me if you are interested at rsdchen at gmail dot com.

The list of CDs available for this low low price:

AC/DC / Highway To Hell / Atlantic
Tal Bachman / S/T / Columbia
The Beach Boys / Pet Sounds / Capitol
The Beautiful South / 0898 Beautiful South / Elektra
Chuck Berry / The Great Twenty-Eight comp / MCA Records
Bis / Social Dancing / Grand Royal/Capitol
Björk / Homogenic / Elektra
Blur / Special Collectors Edition / EMI Japan
Blur / Unlucky For Some / Some Australian bootleg? Released by ABS
Billy Bragg & Wilco / Mermaid Avenue / Elektra
Bernard Butler / People Move On / Creation/Columbia
Catatonia / International Velvet / Warner Bros/Vapor
Catatonia / Way Beyond Blue / Blanco y Negro
Churchbuilder / Patty Darling / Shelflife
The Clash / S/T / Epic
Coldplay / Parachutes / EMI
The Cranberries / No Need To Argue / Island
Creedence Clearwater Revival / Willy and the Poor Boys / Fantasy
The Crooner / Heaven Airlines / Shelflife
Derek and the Dominos / Layla / Polydor
Ani DiFranco / Living in Clip (live 2XCD) / Righteous Babe/BMI
DJ Shadow / Endtroducing… / Mo Wax
DJ Shadow / Preemptive Strike / Mo Wax
DJ Spooky / Creation Rebel / Trojan
Dr. Dre / The Chronic / Interscope
Donovan / The Hurdy Gurdy Man / Epic
Drugstore / S/T / Honey/Go!
Echobelly / Everyone’s Got One / Rhythm King
Elastica / The Menace / Deceptive/EMI
Missy Elliott / Under Construction / Elektra
Enigma / MCMXC a.D. / Charisma/Virgin
Eurythmics / Touch / RCA
Fat Boy Slim / You’ve Come A Long Way, Baby / Astralwerks
Aretha Franklin / I Never Loved A Man the Way I Love You / Rhino
Aretha Franklin / Lady Soul / Rhino
Franz Ferdinand / You Could Have It So Much Better / Domino
Frente! / Marvin the Album / Mammoth/Atlantic
Garbage / S/T / Almo Sounds
Davíd Garza / This Euphoria / Atlantic
Marvin Gaye / What’s Going On / Motown/BMG
Gene / Drawn To the Deep End / Polydor
George Gershwin / Gershwin Plays Gershwin: The Piano Rolls / Elektra
Groovie Ghoulies / World Contact Day / Lookout
Juliana Hatfield / Hey Babe / Mammoth
Don Henley / The End of the Innocence / Geffen

Special Collection: Lady Librarian DJs

Today is a gloomy, cold day, and I am a gloomy, cold girl, but I made a flier:

This weekend I…

- held baby chickens in my hands.
- took a walk out in the wind and the sun with my boyfriend and my dog.
- drove to Southpoint to see The Watchmen and drove right back home upon learning it was sold out.
- learned how to play Settlers of Catan.
- lost at cribbage.
- got paid to DJ.
- was made to feel beautiful.
- spent hours lazing about.
- failed horribly at making biscuits.
- daydreamed.
- went to the farmer’s market.