and then our exile

it is a sad fact of the times that although i have had the exam questions for a week i still finished them this morning, when they were due. left wuddistan at 10.27am and made it to campus in ABSOLUTELY RECORD TIME, it was due at 11 and i made it with four minutes to spare. when i say this to people their expression blanks, they wonder how it is possible. it is an art, to avoid traffic radar locations, to try not to savage the vehicle. raced into the one empty parking spot by st.stephen's, ran to buijs's office - shook hands, and then, walking back with someone from the class, half-listening to what she was saying while hoping not to be ticketted, noticed a skinny black leather jacket, greasy blond hair, looking at the car. as i got in, to drive to the mce, he came closer - "this isn't a loading zone. this is a parking lot. there's a designated parking zone over there." "yeah? on the other side of the building there? oh - sorry then. next time." though of course i knew that. but away, ticket-free, further evidence of Grace.

today, until sharp shooting pains in my left foot, 2k around the ice arena.

every two months i go to alhambra books and spend 20$. this time, though, had been away longer, so spent more. end of exam splurge. conversation with the owner, told him i'd be back in two months...but, along with the 75%-off sale at the university bookstore and a stop-off at value village, from today (and it is decadent, i know)(and i have run out of bookshelf space. the shelf around my room? all full.)(wa'lhamdulillah)(and that i no longer have time to read is irrelevant):

> magister ludi: the glass bead game - hermann hesse
> under western eyes - joseph conrad
> if men lived on earth - harry thurston
> ulysses - james joyce
> the plague - albert camus
> the house of the spirits - isabel allende
> the carrier - jamal mahjoub
> the cossacks - tolstoy
> the favourite game - leonard cohen
> the tin flute - gabrielle roy
> lady with lapdog and other stories - chekhov
> the miser and other plays - moliere
> the faith and practice of al-ghazali - watt