CHRONICLE OF FOURTH FORETOLD

1. I woke up at 7am with an aching back. Same old holiday, same old back.

2. By midmorning I watched with interest The Championships' semis pitting Shuettler with Nadal. Shuettler and Magnus Norman were the first ATP players in the top 100 I ever saw play in person - when they did the early rounds at the then Lipton Open (Key Biscayne) more than 10 years ago. I remember Shuettler scolding a ballboy for not beeing in his proper spot prior to play, and when he was called for foot fault, he asked the linesman, Which foot?

3. When the game was over, I started ruminating on what my brother told me 3 years ago. Nadal will beat Fed on grass before Fed could beat him on clay. That could very well become true this year, even if people here know I'll be rooting for Fed.

4. I texted my fraternity brods that I could not make it to our 4th of July reunion in Upstate NY. J texted back, "You suck" - and I guess I really do. After all I was the brains behind that reunion and even offered to drive them around Manhattan. And I love reunions.

5. By noontime I was starving and the ref couldn't help me. Nothing was in there but bottles of water, condiments, vegetables that were beginning to ice, a big bottle of kimchi past expiry date, and a plastic container full of spaghetti sauce (but no pasta on sight). When I was a kid I used to drink lots of water whenever I was hungry and there's nothing to eat. I tricked my tummy way too often I got ulcer. Can't trick tummy now. Tummy got bigger. Tummy growls mad when hungry. One time when I was by H's (my sec) desk and asking her to do something, my tummy growled. She laughed. I said "Shut up"! She said, Are you telling me to shut up? No, I said, I'm telling my tummy to shut up.

6. I headed straight to Barnes and Noble and strated drooling on their panini. When I got there I went to the 2nd floor CDs section as I thought of Evil Urges which was reviewed on NPR. None. I looked for Clem Snide. None. So I just picked Herbie Hancock's cover of Joni Mitchell's songs featuring name singers (Tina Turner's track was fantastic), and U2's greatest songs covered by African artists. Then I went down to the poetry section and chanced upon an anthology of poetry by American immigrants and ethnic minorities. There was a piece by Jessica Hagedorn (I think it was called called Filipino Boogie), but I particularly liked Sherman Alexie's Vision (2). Alexie is Native American, and there is no better way to learn Native American history than by reading his poems and short stories.

7. Then I got my panini and tummy quieted down.

8. At night it rained. I was wondering if fireworks have wicks, and if wet wicks do light up.

9. At exactly 9 o'clock, while still raining, fireworks swooshed up the skies. Green, lots of green, purple, yellow, the requisite red, white, and blue. The display went on and on and the rain went on and on.

10. I looked at my tummy and thought, What do I know about tummies, what do I know about fireworks? What do I know about anything?