Email from Frances: 09.12.08

Hi! I'm Kerri! Anne! A lover of words, felt mustaches, puns, porters, pretty (recycled) paper, pine trees, pugs, (alliteration, and) well timed cinematic montages. I think in t-shirt slogans, quote movies like it's my job (it isn't), and really do believe Moby-Dick surpasses all the hype. I probably think you're pretty neat.

I also like email.

You lose yourself, you reappear
You suddenly find you got nothing to fear
Alone you stand with nobody near
When a trembling distant voice, unclear
Startles your sleeping ears to hear
That somebody thinks they really found you

A question in your nerves is lit
Yet you know there is no answer fit
To satisfy, insure you not to quit
To keep it in your mind and not forget
That it is not he or she or them or it
That you belong to

Although the masters make the rules
For the wise men and the fools
I got nothing, Ma, to live up to

My eyes collide head-on with stuffed
Graveyards, false gods, I scuff
At pettiness which plays so rough
Walk upside-down inside handcuffs
Kick my legs to crash it off
Say okay, I have had enough, what else can you show me?

And if my thought-dreams could be seen
They’d probably put my head in a guillotine
But it’s alright, Ma, it’s life, and life only

-Bob Dylan from It’s Alright Ma (I’m Only Bleeding)

I knew the Red Pyramid had just been reopened, or was about to be reopened, though I didn’t know why they called it Red. I wanted to ride on a horse through the desert. I wanted to see if this man–slight, with brown teeth, wide-set eyes, a cop mustache–would try to kill me. There were plenty of Egyptians who would love to kill me, I was sure, and I was ready to engage in any way with someone who wanted me dead. I was alone and restless and both passive and quick to fury. It was a beautiful time, everything electric and hideous.

-Dave Eggers, from Another