amazing how one phone call has generated so much press...and so much hope
fingers crossed and heart a-flutter

a terrible, unsettling dream: i thought it was a snow-covered rocky hill... i was sliding down, bottom-first, pausing occasionally as the snow thinned into soil. with every new slope i realized that it was an enormous mountain..

that i would never reach bottom

f's phrase of the month, in response to my threat of doing something "very unpleasant" to one of her incompetent colleagues:


even thinking of it makes me completely satisfied; you don't even have to act on it...

filled with terrible thoughts today, and worry and fear

waiting.

i don't know if age is progressively making me more emotional, but i'm terribly touched by everyone's notes and wishes and overall loveliness.. i spent half the day near tears

thank you

f's phrase of the anniversary

"1825 days...that's a lot of days"

گل من،
after all this time, it still feels brand new

i hesitate to write about our new home until the title is officially transferred. i will write, then, about our neighbourhood, which is apparently home to half of the higher education department of OUP Canada

being a lover of food, i particularly enjoy the fact that there are many places to eat. different places. organic places. bakeries. cheese. bakeries. coffee shops on every corner, and not just starbucks.

being a lover of convenience, i will mention that the streetcar is just across the street. and, despite the slightly unpredictable bus schedule, i have not once been late. my sister, brother-in-law, and the two "cutees" are minutes away. grocery, drug & hardware stores, multitudes of local art galleries -- all just around the corner or down the street.

being a great lover of quiet, i'm happy to say that there is no highway noise, despite the fact that it's quite close by. there are no condominiums and none of the traffic they cause. there is the city, with its normal city sounds (although perhaps more motorcycles than i expected).

and being an even greater lover of cats, it's astounding to see so many of them on our street, each more beautiful than the next and almost always visible.

but more than anything, i'm happy that you're happy; that you need not take the subway; that you are above ground, in the daylight, and reachable; that there's always somewhere to go...i love to see you smile about this; it gives me peace

عشق من

there is not one word in any language to describe how utterly beautiful you are

and how much I love you

تولدت مبارک

...terror this morning when, for some time, i couldn't remember my gmail password

when i was in hebrew primary school, i assumed that every story we read in the Torah was a work of pure fiction

i was very surprised, later on, to discover that some of the persons and events described were real

Владимир Семенович Высоцкий

four years before i was born, Vysotsky died and left behind him the fabric of a changed land; a changed generation

my dad emailed me to say "it's 33 years since his death" and i felt the tides of life return to the moment i first heard his voice

RIP, our Achilles

...

Я при жизни был рослым и стройным,
Не боялся ни слова, ни пули
И в привычные рамки не лез,-
Но с тех пор, как считаюсь покойным,
Охромили меня и согнули,
К пьедесталу прибив "Ахиллес"

عزیزم

تولدت مبارک
wishing all the best

our little monkey
light of our lives
is 7.

may she always be young at heart and warm our own with her presence

f's phrases

... of many months

shortly after having some weed:
i'm going to be pretty cute in a few minutes

on philip seymour hoffman:
in half of his movies he's not wearing pants

on the term "professionalism":
they mean, how to be a proficient ass

here, which we found together

here we raised our dooneh, together. here we brought your sisters and expanded our family. here maryam sat, for months, inside her portfolio. here parvaneh began her million-and-one hobbies. here our little monkey became a little monkey. here we heard about your father's accident. here we wept. here we battled our obnoxious, juvenile, loud-ass neighbours. here i saw a monster cicada hanging on the window screen. here i broke various objects of sentimental value. here i learned that we don't always have to call a plumber. here we fondly remembered beautiful Eglinton, where we met. here we watched epic marathons of lord of the rings, six feet under, game of thrones (I). here we ate ice cream on the balcony to avoid the monkey's protests. here, where on every wall and door the same monkey etched strategically-placed scratch marks to protect us from coyotes.

here we were snuglous. here we read Pooh.

home is any place where the three of us are...
but i will really miss this one

"there haven't been any publications since god-knows-when...

...and that's a 'phrase of the day' by itself"

جان دلم...

...

i think...

i think i heard a russian folk tune played on a steelpan this morning..

...

i, myself, am not gay. but i do share my life... my heart... with a same-sex partner. and while we ourselves don't support the institution of marriage (as anything more than a legal contract)--and despite the fact that gay marriage has been legal in canada for quite some time--i wept as if it were a personal matter when i heard about the striking down of DOMA

i thought of my parents, too, and wondered how they felt

some time ago, we jokingly suggested moving to spain, getting married, and buying a villa. my dad's question was not "why married?" as i expected.

it was "why spain?"

for now..

i guess i'm using the old reader, google+ and feedly...

how can i say this... how so much has changed in so short a time
how i still expect, even now, to wake from this terrible silent dream
how i wish i could find the nerve to call