A Living Good-Luck Charm, Feijoada, Svetlana Boym and Lego's

With a title like that you better sit down if you're going to read this post. Relax, cebar un mate, pour a glass of lemonade. EPIC POST!

I have a good friend whom I think is very lucky, here's why. Our university bookstore has a wall with a sign above it that reads "Foreign Language Reference". Under the sign is a bookshelf where they display books used in previous courses that, for some reason or another, they decide to keep and sell at a discount rather than send them off to somewhere else. For the literature student in Spanish, this is Mecca. Most the books that end up on these shelves are novels or collections of poetry or short stories (In many other languages as well). I once nabbed just about everything Mistral wrote from this shelf and paid only 50 cents, wicked awesome.

The books are 20% off as soon as they hit the shelf. The next calendar year they go down to 50% and 90% off the following year. For a long time I've had my eye on these two books:

One of the books originally sold for $140 while the other sold for $110. Ouch. They teach the Fernando Pessoa class in the Portuguese section regularly so the books never reach the 90% discount level. One day I was buying books with my friend when he suggested we inquire as to the discount on the Pessoa books. I knew they had just gone down to 50% so I eloquently said, "Nah". He said it wouldn't hurt, and he was right. The person in the textbook office told us the Obra Poética was 90% off. Nice, I bought one for my dad too. This was a joyous occasion of course. We told our colleagues in the office; one of them got the same discount just before two other friends were denied the 90% off because the employee we talked to "had made a mistake". Oops!

Flash forward a year, I find myself once again browsing the discount section and I remember my friend saying, "It can't hurt". So I pick up a copy of Obra em Prosa and walk into the textbook office with Pessoa and Machado de Assis under my arm. Lamentably the latter was not very cheap, but once again Pessoa was accidentally 90%. I called my friend and he had me pick a copy up for him. Like a Buñuel film, the experience uncannily repeated itself a year later. We again returned to the office to report our triumphant purchase to our colleagues. As before, they were denied the 90% because it was an accident, although a somewhat serendipitous one in my eyes. $250 worth of Pessoa for $25, my friend is a good luck charm.

He came over for dinner tonight, the feijoada was excellent and the cheesebread was light. Unfortunately, I forgot to eat salad. (Segue)

Svetlana Boym wrote a cool book titled The Future of Nostalgia. She's Russian, she speaks Spanish, and she writes about memory, does it get any cooler? Plus, the title of her book could quite easily pass for the name of a good band, a Tarkovsky remake, or a failed Disneyland attraction (does anybody else remember beating Tron?).

Among the many ideas Boym discusses in her text are Creative Nostalgia and Reflective Nostalgia. Reflective Nostalgia tends to be paralyzing, one longs for the past, and does not act. "Creative Nostalgia reveals the fantasies of the age, and it is in those fantasies and potentialities that the future is born" (351). One remembers the past, acts for change, cool things happen. Professor, where are you going? Back to the future man, back to the future.

When I left my parents to come home after the break, I brought my last box of stuff that had been stored at their house. Among the ruins of my memory were many trinkets gathered during my travels, misadventures, and mischief. I also had some cool things my friends picked up on their andanzas. I decided to display my rediscovered stuff along with items already above my desk.

(ITEMS SAVED FORM OBLIVIAN AND ADDED TO THE COLLECTION: Pin from Russian military - Cold war relic; Lighter used to explore the caves below Blarney Castle; Two rocks (one blue one purple) from the coast of County Kerry Ireland; One can Highland Haggis - it was quite good; Mao lighter from China - postmodern communist kitsch (it's not just a capitalist phenomenon); Marching band pin from the Rose Parade; California License Plate; High School Graduation tassel - yes I'm that old; Grand Prize winning Pinewood Derby)

However, the most prized reclamation was my Lego collection. Actually, it is the conjunto of my collection combined with my brother and sister's Lego's as well (If you guys want them back you're more than welcome to them). After dinner I invited my lucky friend to "play Lego's", and play we did. I haven't had that much fun in a long time. I think it was a mix of Creative and Reflective Nostalgia. It was good times. Here are the results of our build.

My freind made the forklift and I made the jeep, which was my favorite kit as a kid. Both have working steering wheels and the forklift mast tilts forward and back so the driver doesn't spill the load, RAD! My daughter even played for a bit and we built a desert island abode with neon flowers and a jail cell, every three-year-olds dream home. Thanks for indulging me man, it was late 80's early 90's fun, which is always more innocent and light hearted than contemporary fun.

We're not done yet. Just so I don't have to post for another month, I would like to announce that my three bookshelves are officially full. Is that a bad thing? Nah, my sister said I could have my parents' old bookshelves when they remodel the basement. Perhaps with some shuffling and reorganizing I could fit a few more books, but for now let's call this omelet done.

 If you're reading this you get a gold star! Thanks for playing along, I hope you enjoyed the EPIC POST.