Saturday, December 31, 2011

New Year's Eve

Laura and I went to see The Muppets today.

I am reading The Sense of An Ending by Julian Barnes and enjoying it.  Max gave it to me for Christmas.

Going out tonight but I doubt we'll stay out until midnight.

Going to make some resolutions! I'm looking forward to the new year.

Monday, December 26, 2011

Boxing Day Burning the Old Year

Boxing Day! I love boxing day. I have watched three Fred Astaire movies since Christmas. Which was just yesterday. We had a good Christmas!

The photo is a picture of Aslan, the lion from the Chronicles of Narnia. My friend had this drawing when we were kids in Corvallis. Her mom had an artist draw it for her. It hung in her room when we were kids.

Last summer when I went to see her she gave it to me.  A few months later she died.

I am thinking about not keeping it.  Sometimes I think about just burning the whole picture. It sums up a part of our childhood that is now, well, gone. She's gone and her mom's gone and I'm here.  I wonder if it's not helpful for me to hold onto it.

I remember a few years ago calling this same friend around New Years, and telling her about that "burning the year" ritual. Where you write things on pieces of paper - things about yourself that you want to say good bye to in the New Year - and you burn them.  I did that that year. It's a fun ritual, but most of those things I burned that year are still with me.

So there's that!

I am reading The Leftovers.  I'm off all week and I like that!










Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Coffee's Important!

  I've pretty much abandoned this blog but am posting a little sporadically on Caffeine Destiny Tumblr . I will probably start posting more in the New Year there. Or I might return here. I can't decide which one I prefer.

This has been a strange autumn. My grandmother died, my best friend who I'd known over 40 years died, one of our dogs died. Then exactly a month after my best friend died I fell while running and broke my humerus and had to have surgery.

Life continues though and I am still looking forward!

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

In Southern California!

Took this yesterday at a beach in Encinitas

Sunday, April 03, 2011

April Is Poetry Month

Ada Limon is posting poems all through this month, with Jennifer Knox and friends. Check it out.

I'm also attempting a poem a day, but they are very much drafts and not fit for even a little public consumption.

I'm reading Cutting For Stone. I like it.

I made this collage today.

Sunday, March 20, 2011

Find Me on Mead Hunter's Blog

Happy Spring!

The irrepressible Mead Hunter (pictured at left) featured one of my poems on his blog this week. Thanks Mead!

Cheese party last night! Turning in grades today.

Sunday, March 13, 2011

Tsunami Warning Sunrise

I was so pleased to spend time in North Bend with authors Carol Ann Bassett, Henry Hughes and Jennifer Richter!

One nice thing about leaving North Bend before dawn is driving Highway 38 at sunrise. With the mist and fog hovering over the pastures, the Umpqua River on the roadside, and the elk, cows and sheep in the early morning light - it was all quite lovely.

Except for having to leave my hotel room at the crack of dawn! Thank you, people who own the Reedsport gas station on 101 who opened early so people like me could get gas. They had two pit bulls and pit bull puppies in the office - I didn't have much contact with the dogs, though.

After the gas station, and after I turned on to Highway 38, I stopped at the Sugar Shack Bakery (pictured above). It was just getting light when I left there.

Turns out the warning was just a warning, and by the time I'd reached the Denny's in Albany (in the clothes I'd slept in), I wasn't all that worried about tsunamis anyway.

But my thoughts are with the people of Japan. I can't imagine the terror so many people there must be living through right now.

This morning I ran the Shamrock Run and this afternoon I folded laundry and watched Bright Star, the movie about John Keats and Fanny Brawne. I feel grateful to be able to engage in everyday, normal activities, when across the Pacific it's an entirely different story.

Monday, February 21, 2011

Manzanita

We had a great time on the tour to Manzanita. A quick trip with some great people. (Left to right, Lisa Ohlen Harris, Me, K.B. Dixon, Emily Chenoweth)

I want it to snow SO BAD. I feel like this is our last chance for a really great snow storm this winter! However it seems like the only times it ever snows it is totally unexpected. So I'm skeptical, but HOPEFUL.

Sunday, January 16, 2011

Country Wrong

I saw the movie Country Strong last night. I liked it EXCEPT for the ending. How can Gwyneth sing that she's "country strong" and then give us that kind of ending? I shall not elaborate in case you are reading this and want to see it. If you like country music you'll like the movie.

Laura's birthday party was last night. She turns 17 Wednesday. I loved that there was a girl there who had known her since kindergarten, and someone who had been friends with her since she was younger than kindergarten!

I got an acceptance from Filter Literary Journal today. That was great news. Every issue is hand made!

Last night I had the weirdest dream. It is very boring when people talk about their dreams so stop reading if you don't like reading about dreams!

It was one of those dreams where you are in your bed, and you wake up. So I was in my bed, I woke up, and one of my teeth had fallen out. I took it out of my mouth and showed it to Michael, but then the tooth unfolded into a skull.

Then our house just started filling with people, mostly family members in various stages of their lives - so my son Max was there as a toddler but also an older kid, and my dad was there, in his 30's or 40's, but then there was also my Dad at his current age, walking around too.

And I realized, "I must be dead!" and I got worried in the dream because the dream was going on for so long I thought, this might not be a dream! I saw my friend Peggy there too. I hadn't dreamt about her in ages. At one point I had this small brown dog that I'd adopted and I thought maybe it had caused my death so I put it outside.

That was my dream. My friend Peggy died around the time Laura was born, so I think that might be why I dreamt about her. I hadn't dreamt about her in years.

I thought about it later today and I thought it was a dream telling me to lighten up about getting older. Because my house (life) is full of so many great experiences. And I'm still waking up alive! whew.

However I will not be adopting any small brown dogs in the future.

I'm reading GREAT HOUSE by Nicole Krauss and it's amazing! Perhaps the title of the book influenced my dream too some how.Great House: A Novel

Now I'm going to watch the Golden Globes red carpet!