Dance the night away!

so full of stuff today, I virtually HAD to get a stupid blog

EEK! I still am shocked I did it. I can't call other people bloggers now, bc I AM one. Okay, I won't let it define my life, but I had such a delightfully fantastic day (and I did almost want to insert more adjectives in there, it was just that good) that my goal after I arrived home tonight to trusty old laptop was 1) stop posting on other peoples' blogs, just get your fucking own, you baby; and 2) needing an outlet bc too much happened today that my brain will exhaust itself if I try to rely on "memory"--which I don't have too much of anymore for various reasons.

Before I start, I want to explain my 1) weird URL address; and 2) the title of my blog. I figured if Will can pick an obscure word as his URL and doesn't get too much shit for it, as long as I had a reason, I can call it any goddamn thing I want. Actually, I didn't have a reason until I was forced into picking a completely bizarro (i.e. foreign) word; I tried to do my initials, then variations on my own name, but the Blogger rejected all of these. ?? So we arrive at: einfuhlung, which is a German (hooray, Marcus, I actually KNOW a German and he might marry Maura!) translation of the word empathy. I got this from a book my mom was reading in Paris, then Grimaud, and now that she's finished with it, I can't wait to start it. It's called Field Notes on the Compassionate Life by Mark Ian Barasch. Now, normally I shun any book my mom tries to get me to read, primarily bc of her profession(s) as a psychologist/teacher/CEO group facilitator (?yeah, that last one is awkward, I just have no idea what her actual title is?). I have a shelf full of Our Bodies, Ourselves; Finding Out What You Want & HOW to Get it; and Loving What Is, all of which I have only browsed through, mostly bc I feel obligated to. Granted, the human psyche and personal relationships are her forte, but that's just not my area of interest, especially when I pick up a book. I know these things are covered in literature anyways, 22 years full of "woman-y stuff" giftings, and I know where my taste lies--not there. But I want to quote from this book bc it's essentially what I want to say, someone just said it first and better:

[Einfuhlung]...a term coined in 1903 by a student of aesthetics named Theodore Lipps. He was searching for a way to express the strangely intimate emotional connection that arises between a viewer and an onstage performer. He used the example of watching an acrobat stepping across a high wire, that moment of breathless suspension when audience members gasp as if they themselves were teetering on a tightrope; the sense of, as Lipps described it, "I feel myself inside of him." Lipps defined empathy as an "inner participation...in foreign experiences." Cognitive scientists refer to this ability to read another's feelings, thoughts, or intentions as a "theory of mind." --p40

I love that his name is Lipps, and I love this idea, bc this is where I feel like I am at this point in my life. I know, I know, Eurotrip, blah blah...but honestly, I have never felt this level of intense emotion in my whole life. And I love it! I'm obsessed with it. I know it can't last forever (I don't even know if it has to do with medication, planetary alignment, alcoholism, post-travel wanderlust, etc.) but I know I want to remember feeling this way for the rest of my life. So that's why I'm blogging. Not really for anyone else, though it is incredibly fun to read other peoples' and post and whatevs, but something has been happening with me lately that I can't stop thinking and I can't stop writing. So I'm going with it.

As far as why I named it what I did, here is one of the great things that happened to me today. Maura, TK (Mr. Kwilosz) and their friend John came and picked me up at the apartment of Le Chris and Dave (double redheads! yowza!), bc I was stuck there and had to get home [more on this part of my day later]. We dropped Maura off at her sister and brother-in-law's new house, and me, TK and John drove to LGP(La Grange Park? I feel like Ben Hoffman right now: no time to waste, everything must be shortened to acronyms!) in the Kwilosz's new (ish) Ford Explorer they just bought. The guy who had it before them left all his cds in there, a lot of good eclectic mix cds of totally mismatching songs. I heard the beginnings of Van Halen and I was like, oh leave this! Needless to say, they weren't too into listening to VH. Completely understandable...for them. It turned out to be a whole cd, and TK tossed it back at me, saying I could have it. AND it wasn't just a mix cd but the best of Van Halen, vol. 1, a disc I've wanted forevs but never got around to buying it or asking for it to be burned. !! I almost died. So, this dropped into my lap today and I've been listening to this cd all day. Realization #1: if I lived as a trash-whore groupie on the Strip in the mid-to-late 80s and could potentially marry any metal rocker (bc I'm just that slutty and into hairspray), here is who it would be. On the basis of musicianship, no one ELSE even comes close to Eddie Van Halen. I almost pissed myself in the car today listening to his completely recognizable guitar intros, and yes, I was air-guitaring. Which sucks, bc I totally have NO idea how to play. I'm starting to look pretty convincing though. Maybe Air Guitar Nat'l Championship 2006? We'll see. However, he looks like a human version of Gollum. I know he's older now and has had pancreatic cancer, etc., but yikes, he wasn't even down the street from good-looking in Van Halen's prime. And who wants to compete with David Lee Roth? Exactly. But Eddie got (and lost) Valerie Bertinelli, so plus fifty for him. If I am marrying someone on fuckability, it would be Sebastian Bach of Skid Row. He's not so much a rocker, nor even metal, but he had really fucking long hair, knew how to belt a love ballad, and wore lots of tight leather pants (hottt!). Don't forget, I'm still trash-whore groupie circa '87 so I'm betting I marry Sebastian and go to Van Halen concerts still. BTW, I DO know where Sebastian Bach is today, so please don't remind me again of his embarrassing descent towards Ricki Lake and marijuana legislation. I guess if they could be combined into one person, that would be my ideal! But, until hybridization of humans comes into being, I'll have to settle with marrying a normal, with faults. Or skip my birth control pills "accidentally" and trap him into marriage, bc we all know that's what girls want to do, right Tommy? So I'm way into Van Halen...right now...again. And I didn't mean to reference the song, so sorry if the Crystal Pepsi commerical is running through your head.

Uh oh, this is turning out to be one very long blog post. I might have to do more tomorrow at work, if it's not too busy and I can sneak using the computer for non-bookstore-related things. I.e. emailing, blogging, shopping online, googling random shit. Oooh, I can't wait to do all of those things tomorrow and be back in my store! I'm going to sign off now, bc I just got a fucking drool hit from my roomie Mulligan who basically is waiting for to go to sleep so she can pass out. You didn't think you'd get through this post without one mention of Mulligan, did you? Ah hah hah, I'll probably mention her in at least every one of my blogs, sometimes multiple times.

oh here is something "final" that also sums things up nicely for me:

"We write to taste life twice."
--Anais Nin

byeeeee

posted by SES @ 1:03 AM