last night i watched the lunar eclipse. it was minus 20 out and i didn't want to dress in my whole winter warm ensemble to witness it. i didn't watch it from front to back, all 4 hours of it. i set the timer at half hour intervals; piled on my coat and my boots on top of my lounging clothes--which consist of a cami and some slinky gauchos--and took my grandfather's old field glasses out to see what was going on in the sky. when i saw the first bite of darkness into the moon i was so excited i got s. out of bed to take a look. he was unimpressed. "i've seen hundred of eclipses" he declared. i really doubt this since i don't think there have been hundreds in his lifetime. however, he is sick and a little delirious, so i'll let it pass. the last eclipse i saw was a solar eclipse, which are by far more dramatic and exciting, but that was back when i was a young kid. so long ago, it exists almost as much as a fragment of my imagination or perhaps might be fact. i wanted to take a picture of it, but s. said it wouldn't be worthwhile it would be a small dot in blackness. i know he is absolutely right, but i wanted to try anyway. i busied myself with gazing at it instead, trying to get the optimal focus through the binoculars. through them it became so close it was if i could reach up and grab it out of the sky. with each 30 minutes that passed it became more noticeable and slightly more sensational. i watched until the the shadow passed all the way across the full breadth of it, shading it a brownish shade of orange. i never fail to be awestruck by these sort of events. i just can't help myself. the girl in me gets all giddy.
