Yellows and reds and browns and greens is leaves dancing on the subway grate.

Sometimes no matter how much you sit at your desk and try to read Ricoeur on interpreting a text, all you can hear in the back of your mind is “hermeneutics, hermeneutics, hermeneutics,” like so many literary theoricians chanting at an age-old ceremony honoring semiotics or something. When that happens, what you need to do is put on Ute Lemper singing “Mein Herr” as you goosestep around your apartment: “Don’t dab your eye, mein Herr / Or wonder why, mein Herr / I’ve always told you I was a rover. . . .” Then when you calm down, you can have some sweet, sweet papaya to celebrate.

Picked up from the P.O. today a cheery yellow box come all the way from Hvar. Thanks, Ames!!, for the gorgeous sachets of homegrown lavender and the bags of crazy-style Croatian candy. Total blast from the past, bringing back the smells and tastes and feels of late spring in Dalmatia.

From a postcard I wrote myself on one of those lazy island afternoons:

May 20, 2003. It’s a lucky day when you run into a friend at the top of the Fortressa Spanjola & then sit in the sun with her as she eats her breakfast of a roll spread with melted Milka strawberry-yoghurt-flavored chocolate; then when you get a ride in a little yellow Zasti to Pokonji Dol, where you rent a big umbrella for 10 kuna, listen to the waves retreat over shiny white pebbles, then head into the cold, clear water and hope the small black fish don’t come for your toes; then when you find some Schokobananen in the grocery store; then get home in time to see great lightning electrify the sky, and smell the rain on its way.

In search of a fun time in Midland, Michigan, on Saturday night, we were advised to pile into our Alamo rental and drive to Bay City instead. Rock on! Bay City Rollers T-shirt, here I come. Maybe it’d even have a screenprint of a pair of roller skates or something on it. Alas, Bay City had this to offer: a glass of vinegar merlot, a bacon and cheese salad, a nonworking jukebox, and a bachelor party intent on introducing their plastic blow-up doll to us. Happily, Bay City also had this to offer: a lesson in playing pool from Maria and D.; a brownie with vanilla ice cream, and raspberry *and* chocolate sauces on the side; gossip; and lots of laughs with the girls from school.

Sometimes you update your new blog almost daily for two weeks, and then you send forth a note telling all and sundry to go check it out, and then that day the blog host crashes and takes all your funnies with it. Rarrr.