Alone Again, Naturally

Alone Again (Naturally)
Gilbert O'Sullivan
Words and Music by Raymond O'Sullivan

-the # 8 song of the 1970-1979 rock era
-was # 1 for 6 weeks in 1972

In a little while from now
If I'm not feeling any less sour
I promise myself to treat myself
And visit a nearby tower
And climbing to the top will throw myself off
In an effort to make it clear to whoever
What it's like when you're shattered
Left standing in the lurch at a church
Where people saying: "My God, that's tough"
"She stood him up"
"No point in us remaining"
"We may as well go home"
As I did on my own
Alone again, naturally

To think that only yesterday
I was cheerful, bright and gay
Looking forward to who wouldn't do
The role I was about to play?
But as if to knock me down
Reality came around
And without so much as a mere touch
Cut me into little pieces
Leaving me to doubt
Talk about God in His mercy
Who if He really does exist
Why did He desert me?
In my hour of need
I truly am indeed
Alone again, naturally

It seems to me that there are more hearts
Broken in the world that can't be mended
Left unattended
What do we do? What do we do?

Alone again, naturally

Looking back over the years
And whatever else that appears
I remember I cried when my father died
Never wishing to hide the tears
And at sixty-five years old
My mother, God rest her soul
Couldn't understand why the only man
She had ever loved had been taken
Leaving her to start with a heart so badly broken
Despite encouragement from me
No words were ever spoken
And when she passed away
I cried and cried all day
Alone again, naturally
Alone again, naturally

重庆森林（Chongqing Express）

不晓得哪天开始，每样东西上面都有个日子。
Someday, somehow, things come with an expiration date.
沙丁鱼会过期，面包会过期，连保鲜纸都会过期。
Sardine will expire, bread will expire, even Glad Wrap will expire too.
我开始怀疑这个世界还有什么是不会过期的。
I am wondering is there anything on earth that will not expire?


其实失恋很平常，不用哭！
Hearts break easily, don't cry!
我也尝过失恋，
My heart was broken,
我去跑步，跑得浑身大汗。
and I went jogging.
眼泪都蒸发掉了，怎么还会哭呢？
Ended up sweating all over and no tears to cry.


其实了解一个人不代表可以得到他。
Knowing a person doesn't mean having a person.
因为人是会变的。
People change.
今天他喜欢凤梨
Someone who likes pineapple today
明天他可能喜欢苹果。
may like apple tomorrow.

在一九九四年的五月一号
A woman says Happy Birthday to me
有一个女人跟我说了生日快乐
on May 1, 1994.
为了这句话，
Because of this,
我会一直记着这个女人。
I will always remember this woman.
如果记忆是一罐罐头的话，
If memory is canned,
我希望这罐罐头不会过期。
I hope this one will never expire.
如果一定要加个日子在上面，
If a date must be added onto it,
我希望是一万年。
Let it be 10,000 years.

Last Summer

Shining sun burns green leaves of the trees outside the window. It is summer again.

Has it already been one year? Those days when I was busy preparing HDS Orientation 2005 with my lovely friend Shauna seem to be just yesterdays. We started our work with so many worries and finished it "exhaustedly". :) It was, however, the most exciting and valuable summer I have ever had.

Being an Orientation coordinator? A person like me should not take a job like that. If you know me before, that would be the first thing comes to your mind when you hear about it. So do I. That is why I submitted my application at the last moment. Although I have already had another summer job offer from Lamont library, I thought I might need to do something different and more challenging. I learned to speak publicly after I graduated and worked as a journalist, but somehow I lost the ability again after I came to the US. For two years I had been as quiet as or maybe quieter than I used to be because of the language.

Fortunately I had many good floormates like Ashlea, Ben, Haymin, Fletcher, Xavi, Donavon... who had created such a good environment for me to practice and improve my spoken English. Even though, I still could not imagine how I would have done with my job if I did not have Shauna as my partner.

I first met Shauna at summer language program in 2004. We both enrolled in French and were in the same discussion group. I still remember the first time when she introduced herself. We also had a study group but I did not join because I had to work in the library. When the new semester started, I saw her again at Professor Sarah Coakley's class. I did not expect her to remember me but she did. We had very few chances to talk since we were not in the same section. At HDS it is not unusual if you talk to someone you never met before and find out that s/he is actually your classmate.

When I knew that Shauna would be another coordinator, I was sure that we were going to have a great summer because we already knew each other. She is the kind of person who would try to make everything perfect and never be stingy with her congratulations on other people's accomplishments.

We did almost everything together even though we seperated our work. When we were editing the Orientation booklet, we had the idea of taking a photo together instead of having two individual photos in the booklet. If you look through all the previous booklets, it is the first one that is been put in this way.

For the whole summer, we stayed in our "windowless" Orientation office at Divinity Hall. Every day, we stepped in the office with a lot of stuff in our minds and left with no less. There was so much pressure. But when you have a good friend to share with it, things would not be that bad. That is what I had learned from last summer.

Roommates

Believe me or not, I am having the best roommates of my life for the last 11 years. Although I know I am not making a good roommate myself, and I am always the trouble maker among the three of us.

My roommate said I am one of that kind of person who will never really grow up. I have to say that he is right. I know I am acting like a child sometime, or maybe most of time. This is my way of living a life, my reason of getting to know someone or becoming a stranger to someone. I made some stupid choices, did some stupid things (even though I wanted to do well) because I was childish. I will say sorry if what I am doing actually exceeds my capability and might annoy people, but I will not regret for trying to do so.

Having these two roommates is one thing I will never regret for. My feeling is that I can't image having anyone of them being substituted by someone else. I might be selfish, but I am lucky.

Neighbourhood

I had thought that my roommates in Boston were noisy enough. I was waken up by some rock music from one roommate at midnight then I had to ask him to put on his headset, I heard another one was having a quarrle with his girlfriend then there was nothing I could do but putting on my ear plugs. There was once when they made such a noise that freaked out some girls living downstairs. They called 911, then the noise stopped right away. The aftermath is that whenever I met the other two girls, they thought I was one of the guys who made that noise.

Even though, they are not that bad comparing to my new neighbourhood. I am not a racist, and I do know a Mexican girl who is very nice. But I have to say I do not like them much, especially during weekends. My first weekend night at here, a neighbour had a party which I supposed would end no later than 1 am but did not finish until 4 am. Since then, every weekend one of my Mexican neighbours produced some kind of noise. I can not and I do not want to blame the music, but no matter how good the music is, nobody would like to hear it at midnight when they feel so tired and just want to sleep, especially for my roommate who's been having sleep problem for more than 3 years.

I went to talked with the people in the house, I called 311 to make several noise complaints. Things just kept going even after the police had come. I don't know why even the warning from the police didn't make them stop. It freaked me out. What's going on with them?

Back in Boston

I am already back in New York actually. But somehow I still feel like continuing what was in my mind the first night I went back to Boston, or more specifically, when I was lying on the sofa in Rockefeller Hall lounge.

That is the place I know not less than my dorm. I remember I spent lots of nights during the winter and summer breaks watching anything on tv to practice my English while I was all alone by myself or some Tuesday or Wednesday afternoons watching Champions League to cheer me up when I felt so tired after classes.

Sitting there always reminds me my first Christmas in the US, since I finished my first final paper at HDS on Christmas Eve. Although it was very late at night and I was almost exhausted by the time the paper was done, I still went downstairs in the lounge and watched tv for another two hours. whatever I had watched, there is just no way and no reason to remember.

......

[So tired and sleepy...]