Whatever they drank in Ancient China probably would make a man out of you.

From the keyboard of AC2, at 3:00am on a Saturday/Sunday.

So, being the huge nerd that I am I was obviously perusing Cousin Mabry's (Salsa Dancing Cousin? Is that the name we came up with for you? I don't remember. It's 3am and I'm sober.) books on poetry she had checked out from her local, Colorado library, looking for suitable wedding wordage, before the lot of us headed out for her Cousin Bachelorette in College Station.

My favorite of the books? Definitely Bartlett's Poems for Occasions. There are poems in there for just about every occasion, probably including 'becoming a woman'. My favorite, however, was a poem from ancient China entitled "Drinking Alone with the Moon". The text is as follows (and is possibly even better than my epic love poem I Love You More Than Socks):

Drinking Alone with the Moon

From a pot of wine among the flowers
I drank alone. There was no one with me-
Till, raising my cup, I asked the bright moon
To bring me my shadow and make us three.
Alas, the moon was unable to drink
And my shadow tagged me vacantly;
But still for a while I had these friends
To cheer me through the end of spring. . .
I sang. The moon encouraged me.
I danced. My shadow tumbled after.
As long as I knew, we were boon companions.
And then I was drunk, and we lost one another.
. . .Shall goodwill ever be secure?
I watched the long road of the River of Stars.

Li Po
Chinese (701-762)
Translated by Witter Bynner

I don't remember what official occasion that was filed under, but if you find yourself having the occasion of being emo and drunk while alone, then this is certainly the poem for you! Pretty much when I read it I just imagine characters from Mulan stumbling around so blind drunk they can't find their own shadow. I'll make a man out of youuuu!

The promised photos of the Cousin Bachelorette, etc, will have to wait until AC1's return from glorious Costa Rica where she is currently vacationing while I hold down the fort at the BDH. Whence she returns I'll force her to upload all photos recently gathered so we can live vicariously through her. Unless you're on vacation too. Then I'm not sure whether to be flattered that you're reading this on your vacation or chastise you for not going outside. GO OUTSIDE. Unless you're sunburned. Then get you some aloe vera gel, and not with any lotion in it either. Trust me. I'm really pale and I know my shit.

Anyway, in the meantime I can post photos of me coding my thesis in crayon (the things I do to get myself to work, seriously) and you can. . .not be jealous of that at all, really.

Let's get down to business
To defeat the Huns*
Did they send me daughters
When I asked for sons?
You're the saddest bunch
I ever met
But you can bet
Before we're through
Mister, I'll make a man
out of you. . .

Sing it with me now. (That one's for you, Derek Todor.)

-AC2

*In this rendition, substitute "Huns" with "Thesis" except that really fucks up the rhyming scheme. I'll work on it.