Ten.One Hundred & Ninety-Six

1. Open eyes. Remember that it's Friday.

2. Bring butte, water, brown sugar, a little bit of salt, dashes of cinnamon and a teaspoon of vanilla to a boil, then stir in oats. Bake. This is what I make on days I don't know what to do for breakfast.

3. Coffee plus list-making. Hunting down a ramen recipe. Tomorrow is soup night and the theme is Asian. Must also think of wine pairings.

4. I relisten to Isabel Wilkerson's episode of On Being as I drive into the city. The way she talks of The Great Migration—it is making me think of all of the men and women who left the homes the new in search of a new kind of freedom. A freedom they had to define for themselves under the racism they experienced. It makes me think of the ingenuity, creativity, and courage of black people in America. Of all immigrants in America. 

5. "The heart is the last frontier." - Isabel Wilkerson

6. Today's interview is on the south side. The woman is large in stature and in personality. I realize that she is my mother's age but doesn't look like it. Her smile is infectious. She's *really* smart. And by smart I mean that there is something behind her eyes that only some people have and she has it. 

7. Nikki Giovanni and her obsession with space. And how she keeps called #45 a fool. It must be that certain age that causes you to lose all filters.

8. Daydreaming of warmer days. 

9. I am convinced that I'm a little more rooted in myself because of the amount of time I've been able to spend in conversation with black people this past month. I underestimate the importance of being with those who understand you—not because you are black, but because there is a common history and an unspoken language. And because even if we didn't grow up in the same kinds of neighborhoods or in the same kinds of families, we are all still black people who have grown up in America and that is something no one but another black person can understand. 

10. I think I'll try again.