vaatasime just üle pika aja telekat. olümpiamängud. ühel hetkel avastasime, et kommenteerime üksteise võidu mõnda eriti tobedat reklaami (sellest võib ju veel arugi saada) või vigursuusatamise puhul ühte väga lahedalt sõitnud võistlejat, kes aga kaamerate ees käitus veidi liiga edevalt (raske muidugi öelda, et kust läheb piir edeva ja liiga edeva käitumise vahelt). ühesõnaga, ei tahtnud magama minna, leides telekast peamiselt vaid negatiivseid asju, seega mõtlesin oma päeva läbi ja sain vastukaaluks kuhjaga väga kenasid asju:
1. juba mitmendat päeva äratab meid hommikul üles ere päikesevalgus, ilm on siin amherstis juba nädal otsa nii päikseline ja kuiv ja kevadise lõhnaga. raske uskuda, et homme tuleb ärgata selle talve ühe suurima lumetormi tähe all, nagu ilmateade hoiatas.
2. väga mõnus hommik voodis lugemist. jeffersi isa kinkis meile "newsweeki" aastatellimuse, mul oli hea võimalus kõik numbrid alates jaanuari algusest läbi lapata. avastasin, et ei jaksa ega tahagi enam peaaegu midagi teada lõputust ja üha absurdsemast iraagi sõjast, aga lugesin läbi kõik filmidega seotud artiklid.
3. värskendav jalutuskäik amhersti ühte lahedasse kohvikusse "rao's coffee". kuigi atmosfäär linnas on noortepärane, haritud ja roheline, on amherst siiski päris tilluke uus-inglismaa armas linnake. "rao's" on aga võimalik see tillukeselikkus ära unustada ja tunda end nagu igas teises new yorki, chicago, londoni, berliini jne lahedas kohvikus. see oli omapärane tunne.
4. ilusat laupäeva õhtut ähvardas ohustada jeffersi kadunud kinnas. istusime autos, ta andis need minu sülle hoida ja kui tal neid vaja läks, oli üks lihtsalt täiesti ja lõplikult kadunud. eks kindast oleks lõppude lõpuks ka ükskõik olnud (kuigi need said alles 3 nädala eest eesti käsitöö poest ostetud), mulle ajas aga hirmu nahka asjaolu, et üks asi saab niimoodi lihtsalt õhku haihtuda. kinnitan, et otsingud olid pikad, aga leitud see vaene labakinnas ka sai. küsimus jäi siiski õhku: kuidas satub üks asi autos kõrvalistuja sülest tagaistme alla, eeldusel, et kõrvalistuja end seejuures peaaegu üldse ei liiguta?
***
reasons why today was great:
1. after a lazy morning and some professorial work (me) and opera program notes writing (triin), we took a nice walk to rao's, one of the nicer coffeeshops in amherst. along the way, just at the place along the road where there is an expansive view of the mountains and where dozens of shades of brown and gray intermingle, triin started reminiscing about the saturdays of her childhood: her grandmother vilialda would come by their apartment after making a bicycle trip to the village store. she would sit with triin's mother and gossip and visit over tea. also on saturdays, triin's mom would bring her and her sister marvi a
sarvesai (a saaremaa croissant) and
limonaad (sugary soda). triin would sit at the table with her mother and grandmother and pretend to be engrossed in her weekly treats, when in fact she was relishing her moments of admission into the world of the grown-ups she so admired. afterwards, when she could prolong her
sarvesai eating and
limonaad drinking no longer, she would have to leave the table, at which point her mother would admonish her not to repeat anything she had heard to the other kärla children, acknowledging the fact that triin had indeed been temporarily and, i imagine, quite purposefully admitted into that grown-up world. somehow, the memory of those rituals, habits, and rites of initiation and transition resonated today.
2. yesterday we dealt with our mobile phone situation by moving into the new social category of having a "family plan." i guess that's like the "marriage tax," only in reverse. anyway, being a proud and stalwart finno-ugrian, triin wanted a nokia phone. sprint, as we quickly found out, is phasing out its relationship with nokia, so they are hard to come by. we drove down to sprint's branch in west springfield on the rumor that there were nokias there. we were assisted by a young russian woman who was most puzzled by the fact that triin wanted a nokia because of course nokias can't handle mp3s and can't send video and can't dispense breath mints. so there was some tension that was exacerbated by her asking us what language we were speaking, which i feared might lead to some sort of "pribaltika" comment. but it didn't. and alas, they didn't have any nokias there anyway, only a display model, which makes a lot of sense. so last night, i spent a truly pleasant 45 minutes on the phone with a man in sprint's outsourced customer service megaplex in the philippines. a moment thomas l. friedman would surely love. this man repeatedly reminded me that i was lucky and that he was happy to make us a "family." and triin's finno-ugrian nokia is in the mail.
3. if you happen to be in the greater amherst-hadley area in the coming weeks, you might want to exercise measured caution when driving through the target parking lot. triin is learning how to drive on our scion with standard transmission there most evenings, and there is some occasional bucking bronco action going on. but it's all sinking in and she is a prodigy and we're soon going to venture out onto a quiet, depopulated country road. watch out markko märtin!
minu emal on täna sünnipäev! isal oli 11 päeva tagasi sünnipäev! seega- palju-palju õnne ja rõõmu ja tervist sünnipäevaks, mu kallid vanemad!
