January 2000 January 1999 January 1998 Rachel's Daily Diary _________________ Monday 31 January 2000   5 18 pm pst   [ current events ] I returned from the store when I was picking up my mum's boyfriend's birthday present for my mum, to find her watching the television. An airplane has crashed in the waters off Malibu and no survivors are apparent. And the sunset is so beautiful. My heart goes out to the families who lost someone tonight. And the world keeps spinning.

And now for updates on my life (because I somehow think I will want to know when these things happened when I am fourty): my sister's mother broke up with her husband, so my sister and her mum are once again living on their own my sister turned 14 on January 28th my dad went to a conference this weekend on "opening the heart" I am being the laziest bum about finding a job My mom made me a sandwich today, one of my favorite luttuce, tomato, and mustard ones. Only the thin bread slices couldn't handle the massive chunks of iceburg and tomato she piled on. My mum is very gourmet, and makes food with lovely presentation. But this sandwich was something else. She screamed with laughter when I told her I was going to take a picture of her creation.

11 15 pm pst   [ salt and sand ] This month's collab topic for Connected Recolections is old wives' tales. I believe that soup is good when one is sick. I believe that eating fruit [and garlic] keeps one healthy (an apple a day...). But I have yet to find an old wives' cure for hiccups or crying prevention for cutting onions that actually works. My favorite old wives' tale is that a pinch of salt will help the water boil faster. There are those who an a dribble of oil to their water when making pasta -- they say it prevents the noodles from sticking together -- but I only add salt. Any beginning chemistry class will teach you that salt does not make the water boil faster, but rather slower. Salt raises the boiling temperature of water, causing it to take longer to come to a boil, but cooking your food faster once it is there. So adding salt is a good thing, just for a different reason.

This month's collab topic for Writing in the Sand is "Have you ever seen a ghost?" I have not. But I thought I saw the doings of one when I was in elementary school. I went to spend the night at a friend's house. Her parents had a large piece of property, with stables and a ring for horseback riding. We we inside doing something (I can't even remember who she was anymore). Her older sister came in with her friend, and said they had seen a ghost by the ring. We went down to investigate. There was a print in the sand, a palm with long wavy fingers. i tried to duplicate it. I determined that it could not have been made by a human. The sister and friend had said that all of the jumps in the ring had been upright one minute, and then knocked over the next. To support their claim, all of the jumps were indeed knocked down. I don't remember anything after being in the ring.

I can barely recall those events. They appear through a thick veil, like a Marlene Dietrich film by Josef von Sternberg [I am thinking specifically of The Scarlet Empress (1934)]. And yet I remember how the excitement turned to terror by night. I had nightmares for more than a month. I always slept with the light on as a child, but the brightness of a bulb could not eradicate the image of that handprint in the sand. I remember it to this day. I can see it clear as my hand in front of me. That handprint is etched in my minds eye forever. My memories are the ghosts that haunt me. They are with me always, and they pop out from behind corners and surprise me. So I have seen a ghost. I have seen ghost of old friends and events, places and occurrences -- my history.

two years ago today: "... we discuss the potential of cows (via their methane emissions) to contribute to the green house effect. I share with her the main problems with film theory (especially as applied to documentary film)." * * * one year ago today: "There was a bit of an emergency closing down one of the facilities, but it seems to have been settled now." * * * one month ago today: "Dear reader in the year 3000," * * * <   yesterday   |   month   |   tomorrow   > ~   back to Rachel's Daily Diary   ~