in our apartment

so I did my part and un-lost the scarf and pin I left in the other apartment. another person did his part by stopping by this morning to un-lose his backpack, but we still have a game and a pair of fingerless gloves, still lost to their owners, on our couch.

lost and found

an allstu campus security sent out this morning
(old man winter ain't done yet):

Message-ID: <20090130155943.78884e9q7e3i17k0@webmail.kenyon.edu>
Date: Fri, 30 Jan 2009 15:59:43 -0500
From: C-- B-- <b--c@kenyon.edu>
Subject: Is your head, neck or hands cold?
Lost & Found at Campus Safety

Numerous winter hats, (guys & gals), neck scarfs, gloves & mittens have been turned into Campus Safety. If you are tried of being cold, come claim your stuff. You are going to need it cause old man winter ain't done yet!!!!

whatchamacallit

someone lost a small red nylon pouch. a cellphone case? a change purse? if it's yours and you want to un-lose it, it's hung by its strap on the lamppost outside the music hall. it's a cheerful thing! it looks like a tetherball, or a balloon put out to announce a party.

everything detachable

it's that time of year! the cold time of year when everyone loses everything. too many things detachable, naturally fragmenting. the Democrats threw a rager last night and this morning there were several panicked emails sent out by the people in charge of the party, begging people to come back and claim their belongings. I know the coat room at Weaver must still be a small, room-sized sea of forgotten coats, mis-matched gloves and lost scarves. someone lost their hat. someone else took home the wrong jacket, ill-fitting and navy blue in the morning light, not black after all. I bet at least one girl started the evening out in high heels, and left in a borrowed pair of boots. it's a lovely and completely solvable mess, the mass-losing: go back and un-lose.

glove, confession

so... someone lost their glove a while ago, and I picked it up. it was dark, we were on our way to the Cove (it's a bar) and inebriated, but still good people, so it wasn't a strange decision to pick it up, at the time. the unfortunate part was that I forgot about it, didn't send an email, and just found it on my bookshelf the other day. so... if you lost a woman's glove for the left hand, slate blue and lined with thinsulate, possibly sometime in October, I know where it is, and I always intended to help you un-lose it.

sweater

someone lost a sweater. it's been in Bailey 25 all week. I haven't touched it, so I do not know if it is a man's sweater or a woman's sweater, but it is navy blue. crewneck. cable knit. it's in the back row, fallen against the wall of the slide projector booth.

ID

ok, girl, seriously? you lost your student ID at least a week ago, because that is when I found it. you lost it in the snow outside of Peirce. you are lucky these cards are brightly, verdantly green, because the color contrast caught my attention. also, you are lucky, because I immediately sent you an email, telling you that you had lost your ID, that I had it and where you could pick it up. so... seriously, girl. come get your ID. come unlose this little green card. It has your face on it, your name. It has your birthday on it, and a picture of Kenyon in summer.

clip

ok, by now I'm pretty sure I lost that clippy thing that I like. you know, for my hair. I thought it would turn up after I unpacked my suitcase more thoroughly, but it hasn't. I lost it.

Snowmen

I know that I have made many snowmen, though I have forgotten all but the first. After weeks of waiting for our first real snow, it finally happened. (My sister and I, growing up in Southern California, even confused frost on the ground for snow.) But eventually, it finally happened. We immediately put on coats and mittens and rushed out-doors. We built a snow-Abraham Lincoln. But alas, all the rest are gone, forgotten.

houses lost

Yesterday while reading, I closed my eyes for a few minutes, going back, walking through all of the houses in which I have lived, but parts are missing: the basement stairway in Wayland, MI; the laundry-room and bedrooms (besides my own) in the first house in South Holland, IL; the basement, my parents and sister's rooms in Grand Rapids, MI; the study, and my parents and sisters rooms in Lakewood, CA; and the entire house (the first one) in Bellflower, CA, apart from the living room.

Sunday, edges

well, I lost Sunday completely. nearly five hours in the digital lab can really knock out an evening. I noticed something when I was fumbling homeward in the dark last night: the arctic blast has subsided. it's just not that cold right now. last night the air was so warm, it was humid. the melting of the snow gave the drifts halos: penumbrae of visible moisture. I'm above freezing too, the tepid air softening any ambitious edge I'd lay claim to. don't really want to go to classes, request letters of reference. just want to take a walk in the tropical 35 degree air.

the will

I've lost the will to be social this week, to be active in that way. Took a walk tonight, and it's all as it's always been: they are going out to bars, and they are getting into cars. I have seen them with my own eyes. The inauguration is coming up. America, please help them.

cold

I swear to god, I must have lost some nerve endings, because today, with a glorious high of 3 degrees Fahrenheit, I loved the outdoors. I loved the clarity of the air at sunrise, the brutality of the light blue shadows cast by the branches of trees on the fresh, dense snow. It's dangerously cold outside, but it's beautiful, beautiful.

the plan

today some focus slipped away. I thought I was set on moving to New York, but if Teach for America asked me right now where I'd most like to be sent, I'd say South Dakota. I'm carving an emergency exit out of the back of the plan.

karaoke

tonight I lost my head at the local bar. karaoke night and $.50 pbr's. some frat guy tried to sing 'like a prayer,' and it was suzanne's birthday, and that was the song we'd chosen, and so... I'm not an exhibitionist, but that's not always in evidence.

house

This one may not count so much, as I was very young, but I've forgotten the first house I lived in. One time, in a dream, I conflated some images from a home movie with my impressions of a house down the street from where my parents now live. I realized that whenever I try to remember the first place I lived, I recall this imaginary house, these fake rooms.

cake

today I lost track of time and took the cake out of the oven early. the surface was bubbling and not ready for frosting. I felt as though I'd lost some knack I'd always assumed was innate.

softball

today I realized that although I played softball for fifteen years, I have nearly no stories to show for it.