Paul Attinello

Category: Everyday

  • Fragments of the day

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    by

    paulattinello
    in

    Acquisition and maintenance One of the somewhat pathetic aspects of my life – not just in the past five years of English exile, but since I was started to lose faith in my creative abilities and future career, at the age of seventeen – is my tendency to spend much (and I mean: much) of…

  • … a good night

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    paulattinello
    in

    Last Wednesday, after a long day, I went out with Patrick to his favorite pub; we talked to acquaintances of his who turned out to be charming, intelligent and friendly, went on to a club, and stood around on the outside balcony (recently expanded for the newly exiled UK smokers) until closing time at 3…

  • A beautiful light

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    paulattinello
    in

    The light, not yet dusk but getting there slowly in this far northern clime, is beautiful. It’s been a real summer for weeks on end, which is rare here. I’m not completely incapacitated, at least not for blog-writing, but have been in a sort of reactionary hibernation after traveling – although I’ve been back for…

  • work… ing

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    by

    paulattinello
    in

    meeting. meeting. meeting. angry clash. meeting. meeting. meeting.home. uninterested in much. trying to do real work on paper for next week.meeting. meeting. lunch in staff room. meeting. meeting. meeting. meeting. home. DVD player is broken, can’t play movies. Trying to tell me something?meeting. meeting. meeting. meeting. meeting. meeting. So, these seven habits of highly successful…

  • Good things

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    paulattinello
    in

    (a) A second meeting with Melinda, the psychologist from the HIV clinic and my friend. (There was a long delay between our first and second meetings this time, because her mother died; when we were walking out we paused in the summer sunshine and she told me, tears in her eyes but calm, about her…

  • Apologies; and rambling

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    paulattinello
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    My apologies for not posting this week… frankly, my thoughts and experiences have been too fragmentary, and too dark, bitter, repetitive, to be worth putting into even this miniature form of public presentation. Continued rage over promotions, or lack thereof. Anger at students, who are being incredibly dilatory and irresponsible, in a way that feels…

  • Therapeutic

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    paulattinello
    in ,

    One way to get past sullen dullness is to do things, to make things, to have something to take care of. Two window boxes with herbs: parseley, sage, rosemary and thyme – and basil, as it happens; some new plants, plus the three rather tired ones I’d had in the windowsill all winter, all of…

  • Time: imposed, imagined

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    paulattinello
    in , ,

    Sleeping too much, drifting: probably my thyroid is off again. Since Duisburg: several busy days, mostly administration, and a conference day; a lot of floating anger about promotions, ambition, respect; all among the strange long days of Spring in the far north. Those are the more sharply defined moments in what has felt like a…

  • Lose an hour

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    paulattinello
    in

    Normally I am annoyed to lose an hour in spring – and elated to gain one in the fall. It’s not just getting to sleep late (my schedule is such that usually I could do that anyway), but the larger association with how I manage my life – I’m kind of full of the White…

  • Brighter

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    by

    paulattinello
    in

    It’s that point in spring, at this northern latitude, when the days start getting longer startlingly fast, and I wake at 6:30 am with the day already begun and sunny; and the students cheer up. I predict a relaxed funeral for V. on Friday as a result – something more like a wake, which is…