Friday

Tomorrow it's two weeks until Christmas eve, so I'm glad I got some shopping done today.

I also made some Christmas cards - made color copies of ATCs on nice paper and they came out quite nice I think!

Max has a chess tournament tomorrow - a practice tournament. He beats me at chess about 90% of the time. I wonder if this is an indicator of how well he will do tomorrow? Or am I just an incredibly horrible chess player?

I had coffee with Daneen and talked to Janine on the phone. Janine says it snowed all day yesterday in Iowa City. I want snow here! Janine is far away but - like all real friends in their absence - she is always with me.

Daneen said I should write a crown of sonnets, since I've been writing sonnets. A crown! It sounds kind of tricky but I may just try it in January. Then it could be a January tradition? I have been working on a poem that is not a sonnet.

Daneen was nominated for a Pushcart prize too, so we congratulated ourselves.

Janine told me about Like Wind Loves a Window, a book by Andrea Baker. She says she loves it. I'm going to look for a copy. Words and images together - now how could that be bad?

I learned today my mother's favorite animal is a polar bear. Polar bears are one of my favorites too! Who knew?

It's 9:30, probably too late to make Christmas cookies. But it's exactly what I feel like doing.

Maybe tomorrow.

We are getting our tree tomorrow. And maybe a small one for downstairs. Two trees! Who knew?

Line from an Andrea Baker poem, found here:

We are damp with life at the edges of our own enclosure

Indeed.