Lent

It's March. It's Ash Wednesday - "because I do not hope to turn again", etc.

Laura now has a part in the play Max is in, "The Little Mermaid." She will play the Queen, the mother of Prince William. Prince William is played by Max - I can't wait to see them on the stage.

I am playing the part of the mother who will help kids get into their costumes at all performances and bring stuff for the cast party. I found out I got the part today! It must have been my head shots!

It's March, which means winter term will be over soon. This is a good thing, I think.

Max was doing an imitation of a yoga teacher today. He must have overheard some of my yoga dvds - he had the calm, quiet voice down perfectly. He was lying on my yoga mat doing funny poses. He said, "okay, now put your left foot into your right ear." It made me laugh.

Kite Runner

It is Saturday and I have finished The Kite Runner. It's the best book I've read in a while. I learned things about Afghanistan I never really knew before.

I worked a little today on the new Caffeine Destiny, which is going online in the middle of March. I'm excited about it.

If you have ever wondered if they make scented candles that smell like Chai tea, I can tell you that they do! I bought three Chai tea scented candles yesterday.

I planted two Oriental poppies in front of the house today. I guess it is not too early to plant perennials.

This summer I am going to plant garlic from The Terretorial Seed Company and dahlias from somewhere else.

Wednesday

Max is working on making a giant peanut out of clay. It's the visual for his school project, a report on George Washington Carver. Carver invented peanut butter!

I was observed today in one of my classes. It went fine and I'm glad it's over! We are talking about rhetorical analysis these days.

Olena Davis is reading here in March!

These days I notice bare trees with many birds congregating in them. I know robins don't migrate for the winter, but they seem to be returning from somewhere .

The two green canaries that I saw outside last summer a few times are still around. Last summer when I saw them I figured they had escaped from someone's cage and would not survive out of the cage for long. But this afternoon I saw them again. They were on a lawn with about fifteen robins. I called Michael and said, "the canaries are still alive!"

It seemed a hopeful sign.

Random Thoughts

I have graded all those papers! My brain is slightly underfunctional at the moment, but the grading has been completed!

Barbara Guest died.

It is supposed to get super super cold here tonight but no snow.

I am going to a yoga class tomorrow I think.

I have no idea what to make for dinner but I'm trying really hard not to go to Taco Bell.

I am listening to Stan Getz.

Apparently there has been some massive explosion on "All My Children". Amy and I have no idea what has happened, we shouldn't even care we haven't watched in ages, and yet ... we care. We must write the show producers to say: please don't let Erica's hair get messed up! Do what you like with her 156th husband, but please, SAVE THE HAIR!!!

I don't teach tomorrow because of President's Day. My kids, however, have school.

Yes!

Sunday Night

It's Sunday and it seems I have quite a bit of grading coming my way this week. What better reason to blog!

The Girl Scout cookies have arrived and we have 107 boxes in our house right now. More accurately, we have 103 unopened boxes and four opened ones. I love the thin mints.

I went to a yoga class today. I haven't been in a yoga class since the one I took for about two weeks with Zanni when we were at PSU. The PSU one had about forty students I think. Today's class had four students. I really liked it.

Max got a baseball helmet and a bat and balls today. He's getting ready for Little League.

New York City has more snow than they've ever had!

Caffeine Destiny is closed to submissions right now. I made a note of it on the web site. And I set the submission email to autoresponse, so if people send things to that email they get an automated "we are not reading submissions right now" email. I need to get through winter term before I can start reading submissions again. The new issues gos online in late February or early March.

I finished The Birth of Venus. It was alright, but I can't say I'd wholeheartedly recommend it.

I can, however, recommend In The Absent Everyday by Tsering Wangma Dhompa. I have been reading it this weekend.

Full moon tonight. I am going to go get in the hot tub now and look at it.

Spring is Like a Perhaps Hand

The Grammys start in fifteen minutes, and I promised Laura I would watch some of them with her.

I am reading The Art of Describing by Svetlana Alpers. Mark Doty referred to it in his book and I have heard it mentioned in a few other places. It is about 17th century Dutch Art. The copy I have is used and highlighted in yellow - no doubt it belonged to a student in some Art history class somewhere. It's nice to read it and know I don't have to highlight - I can just enjoy. It seems to be saying something about the difference between Italian Renaissance painters and the Dutch painters - how they were written about and what the painters thought about their painting. But I have just started it.

Yes spring is making noise - little throat-clearing noises - but nonetheless noise! Crocus are blooming and daffodils, while not blooming, are definitely taller than they were a few weeks ago. We have had a respite from the rain.

Last night I had one of my classes listen to three different versions of the song "Satisfaction" (thankfully the Britney Spears version was not one of them). I put them in groups and had them talk about the differences. It was a way to start talking about analysis - I worried they would think it was a strange thing to do, but they really seemed to get into it.

I started a poem today.

Here comes Laura, up the stairs! Two minutes until Grammy time! How many of the artists will be ones I actually listen to?

Here's the e.e. cummings poem:

Spring is like a perhaps hand
(which comes carefully
out of Nowhere)arranging
a window,into which people look(while
people stare
arranging and changing placing
carefully there a strange
thing and a known thing here)and

changing everything carefully

spring is like a perhaps
Hand in a window
(carefully to
and fro moving New and
Old things,while
people stare carefully
moving a perhaps
fraction of flower here placing
an inch of air there)and

without breaking anything.

Sunday Morning

Today is Michael's birthday. We are going to see the Fantasticks at Portland Center Stage - it's the last performance.

Today is also Christopher Guest's birthday, as well as William Burroughs. So Michael is in good company.

Holly tried to convince us last night that Brokeback Mountain is a great movie. I haven't seen it. I do know it's taken from a short story written by a woman, and the screenplay was written by a straight couple. Would the script be any different if a gay man had written it? I don't know.

I made a cherry pie for Michael's birthday.

We have an addition to our gnome family. He carries a lantern. Some myths say that gnomes roam at night and during the day turn into toads; other myths say sunlight turns them into stone.

The word gnome derives from the Greek gnosis, meaning knowledge. Some say gnomes hoarded knowledge like treasure.

Others just like how they look in the garden.

Groundhog Where Is Thy Shadow?

He saw it. Six more weeks.

But the daffodils are coming up! It's time to prune the roses. Who put that groundhog in charge anyway?

Last night I read Still Life With Oysters and Lemons: On Objects and Intimacy by Mark Doty. It's a short little book, but it's really beauifully written. He talks about 17th Century Dutch Painting, and seeing and still life. I shall elaborate at a later time - class starts in a little over an hour.

I am now the proud owner of a red Kitchenaid tea kettle that whistles! It was just what my kitchen needed. And I was tired of heating water in the microwave every time I wanted a cup of tea.

We had more rain in Oregon in January than we've had in thirty years.

Tonight I'm signing up Max for Little League Baseball. Saturday we're going to the Fantastics!

Shall I tell you what I'm going to have for lunch? Would that be exciting? Ah, the life of a blogger.

Saturday

Bill and Jane have returned from Egypt! I have a lovely gold piece of jewelry that has my name written on it in hieroglyphics.

So far I have made the chocolate pudding, watched March of the Penguins and finished another egg poem. I was thinking about my egg poems when I was watching March of the Penguins.

If you've seen it, you know that when it is time to mate, the males walk very very far to their breeding grounds. They pick a penguin to make an egg with. The females lay the eggs and take off. They walk back to the ocean and get food to bring back for the males who are sitting on the eggs. The males go for almost three months without food while the females are gone. They all huddle together for warmth. Some of them die. The eggs hatch while the females are gone. Some of the male penguins die. Some of the penguin babies die. Some of the females don't come back because they get eaten in the ocean by sea lions.

While all these events are taking place, it is very very cold.

But most of the females return -- en masse -- and the females and the males cry out to each other and when cries are recognized, families reunite and the babies and the males finally get to eat again.

While watching it, I thought, how sad to be a male waiting for a female who, unbeknownst to you (because you're a penguin and can't really know things except instinctually which isn't really the same as knowing now as it?) has been eaten. Do those widowed/orphaned penguins starve? No doubt. Ah, cruel nature.

I have been reading Try by Cole Swensen this weekend. And The Shape of Reason by John Gage. One is poetry, the other is rhetoric. Also read Allure magazine, and a really intriguing student essay about being at a meditation center that had some pretty strange rules.

I'm going to go see if the kids want to play CLUE now.

Carpe Weekend!

This is what I think I am going to do this weekend:

make chocolate pudding watch Gilmore Girls with Laura straighten my office walk with my dogs spend time with Michael when he is not studying run without my dogs play chess with Max plan next week's classes read more of The Birth of Venus track down more Frank Lima poems start a poem or finish one listen to my new Liz Phair cd I bought today pick up my Dad and stepmom at the airport - back from Egypt! make ATCs knit sleep in tomorrow watch Mr. and Mrs. Smith with Michael watch Bleak House with Michael until all those British accents make me tired and I fall asleep watch March of the Penguins by myself vacuum

I'll let you know how it turns out.

This is the last weekend I will be the age I am. How old am I? When I was a kid I looked forward to Friday nights, because The Brady Bunch was on at 8:00, Partridge Family was on at 8:30, and Room222 was on at 9:00. Friday nights ruled!

That's how old I am. I'm into it!

Wednesday

Lots of paper grading is coming my way.

Michael killed off one of his blogs, and I have to confess I've thought once or twice lately about stopping this one. I wonder what that would feel like - to stop blogging. I've gotten kind of used to it. But to not do it - I spend about twenty minutes twice a week, but still - would something take its place? Would my sock drawer be more organized? Or something even better?

Well, for now, for today, I am here.

I talked to Janine today. The connection was kind of bad and for the first time she seemed ... far away. However, there will be new Janine poems in Caffeine Destiny!

Last Friday I wrote a poem called "Egg in Repose" and have started another one called "Egg Abstracted" and still another one called "Egg, Incubated". And the new issue of POETRY arrived today and what did I see? A poem by Deborah Warren called ... "Song of the Egg". It's in the air I tell you - eggs!

The book I'm reading The Birth of Venus , which takes place in 15th century Italy, has taken a new turn - the man the sixteen year old narrator has married has turned out to be gay. It's Brokeback Mountain Venus!

Back to the papers.

The Party's Over

It's three o'clock in the afternoon and Laura is sleeping on the couch downstairs. The slumber party guests departed a few hours ago.

Near as I can figure, none of them slept last night. I went downstairs at 2:30 a.m. to tell them to go to bed; they were all up and walking around and giggling. I heard voices downstairs at about 6:00 a.m.

This morning Laura showed me where they'd signed their names on the plastic party tablecloth for each hour they were still up. There were little post-it notes on the tablecloth: "up at midnight", "up at 2:00 a.m.", "up at 3:00 a.m.", "up at 5:00 a.m." with their signatures underneath. It looked like everybody signed for each hour.

Max contributed to the party by buying a motion detector spy toy that allows the user to record a message and then hide the motion detector somewhere so when someone walks by a disembodied voice starts speaking. At first he recorded "Hi Laura! What are you doing?" in a very spooky voice. We heard it go off many times, but never really in the vicinty of the girls - I think it was more entertaining for Max then anyone else.

Then he decided to keep it in his own room when he went to bed; he recorded a message that said "Hi Max! How ya doing?" and put it on top of his desk, so that when he got up in the morning it would surprise him. And it did.

I just got home from a run and when I walked in, the motion detector said, "Hi Mom, Dad and I went to watch the game, Laura is downstairs sleeping." So it has its functional uses as well.

The girls made a time capsule and buried some stuff in the front yard.

When was the last time you stayed up all night - not because you couldn't sleep, not because you were being kept up by a fussy baby, not because you had a deadline - just to see if you could? Just for the joy of it?

Who's up at 3:00 a.m.? Come on, sign the tablecloth!

Wednesday

Laura turns twelve tomorrow. I am making her a cake tonight. We ordered a cake at the store today for her slumber party. The store-bought cake will be shaped like a turtle. Laura loves turtles. One of her cousins sent her a Gilmore Girls poster for her birthday. It arrived today and Laura was thrilled.

Max beat me at chess twice this afternoon.

The term has begun in earnest. I will get papers tomorrow from one of my classes, and papers Friday from another class.

My advanced composition students are going to be reading "Against Cool" by Rick Moody. In preparation for that, last night I asked them to come up with a definition for the word "hip". Most of them came to the conclusion that something was hip if it was trendsetting or popular in a way that was socially acceptable. It was a fun discussion.

Christine Hume will have a poem in the new Caffeine Destiny. I am hoping the new issue will go up by the end of next month. I will call it "Spring 2006", in the hope that this will make spring arrive sooner.

I really cannot believe that as of 4:00 a.m. tomorrow morning I will have a twelve year old daughter.

On Laura's first birthday we gave her a big orange stuffed Elmo. On her fourth birthday we gave her Little House on the Prairie paper dolls. In kindergarten we gave her a desk. In first grade we gave her a Britney Spears CD, among other things that I can't recall.

It gos by fast.

They Might Be Giants

Today Laura and I went to a yarn store and then a craft store. Then we shopped for decorations for her slumber party next weekend. She is going to be twelve Thursday. She is very into the Gilmore Girls.

I am knitting a poncho. I like the yarn, although I stood in Michael's craft store yesterday before I put the yarn in my cart, thinking for several minutes, am I really a poncho person? I don't think I had one the first time around, in the 70's, when everyone had them. I want to knit a sweater but I really don't think I'm ready to tackle a sweater. So I'm going to knit the poncho and if it looks stupid I'll just wear it inside my home. Or something.

I listened to an interesting pod-cast yesterday about giants. I guess some people think there really did use to be giants living on earth. I was sort of in and out of the room while I was listening to it, but one of the theories about Stonehenge is that it was built by giants. But then I also heard something on the podcast about "aliens" and Biblical references to giants. I guess I will have to go back and listen to it again. Or just be content with a vague awareness of the possiblity of ancient giants.

I did learn - and this I'm certain they said - that dragonflies, in prehistoric times, had wingspans of like five feet or something.

This was a Discovery Channel podcast, by the way. In case it sounds flakey. It's not - those Discovery channel people are experts!

I am taking a break from the Lowell letters and reading The Birth of Venus . It takes place in 15th century Florence.

I'm redesigning Caffeine Destiny's home page. It's whiter.

I have been simultaneously submitting poems like mad since the new year began.

Rain, Birds

It has been raining an awfully lot. I read in the paper it has rained 23 out of the past 24 days. I believe it. The rain is fine when I'm indoors. And it makes the flowers grow, etc.

Classes have gotten off to a good start this week. My students all seem interesting, interested, and ready for the term. But it's the first weeks of the term, when everyone is feeling the love.

Max has a part in the Little Mermaid, he just doesn't know which one yet. He will know next week. Laura is going to assist in the production.

I read somewhere online - but I can't provide the link because I can't remember where - that scientists have turned up evidence that prehistoric man was often attacked by birds. They learned this from marks their talons left on ancient monkey man skulls or something. So, clearly, there's a precedent for Hitchcock's Birds. Perhaps it's stored somewhere in our collective unconscious. So keep that in mind - those finches in your backyard have ancestors that wanted to eat your ancestors, and left evidence of it on their skulls. It kind of sheds a whole new meaning to the term "bird-brained", doesn't it?

I am still reading Lowell's letters. Tomorrow I only have one class to teach so I'm hoping I will have some time to write.

Graham Foust will have a poem in the new Caffeine Destiny.

I am looking forward to chocolate and E.R. tonight. I am not looking forward to driving in more rain.

But I am looking forward to Spring's flowers, and keeping those birds in line.

Monday

Friday is fun to say twice. Monday is a day that you just say once, and then you sigh ...

I am already tired of the constant rain. Not a good sign this early in the winter.

We saw MUNICH and it was quite good. Speilberg captured the 70's, and it was well-cast. Also made a good point about the endless Minotaur's labyrinth aspect of terrorism.

Max is trying out for a part in THE LITTLE MERMAID tomorrow. He walked around the house this evening with his arms stuck out straight in front of him. He said he wanted to see what it would be like to go around your whole life with your arms stuck straight out in front of you. He did this for about five minutes.

Today is my nephew's birthday. It's also Joan Baez's birthday.

Laton Carter will have poems in the new Caffeine Destiny, which gos online next month.

There are daffodils coming up in my front yard, crocus coming up in the back yard. There is a five pound container of black oil sunflower seed on my table that is meant to feed birds with, once I get it into the bird feeder. Once the bird feeder gets hung somewhere in the yard.

However, both Christmas trees are down and all the decorations are put away. Progress!

Except I'm still drinking out of my Charlie Brown Christmas mugs. I'm just not ready to pack those away yet.

Friday Friday

I think we are going to see "Munich" this weekend, if our babysitter is available.

The first week of classes are over. Next week the term starts in earnest, as four other classes begin with me as the teacher lady.

I am still reading the Lowell letters. I don't know a lot of the small details of his life, and it's kind of fun, not knowing the "back story" as it were. He's at Yaddo, he's not at Yaddo, he's married, he's not married. T.S. Eliot this, Elizabeth Bishop that. And I know he was manic depressive, but you don't really see that - so far - in the letters. However, in college I read a story in the Village Voice about Elizabeth Hardwick and Robert Lowell, and I know a bit about that marriage. So when he mentions "this girl Elizabeth Hardwick I met", I know what he's in for.

He also mentions Randell Jarrell a lot, and I was thinking, no one really reads Randall Jarrell anymore. Or John Crowe Ransom. At least no one I talk to. You never really see their names mentioned.

I ordered something from the Betty Crocker catalog today. The Betty Crocker catalog is like porn for people with domestic tendencies. I ordered cheery red kitchen towels with the days of the week stiched on them, and fiestaware bowls. I was disappointed to see instructions on the order form to "please write carefully in black ink. Your order form is machine scanned." I guess I had this idea in my head that Betty Crocker herself opened each order, read it carefully, and then had the Keebler elves pull stock from the shelves to fill the order (I know Keebler elves are Nabisco and Betty Crocker is General Mills, but still). Another myth shattered.

I like to bake more than I like to cook. I am trying to fight the urge tonight to make chocolate pudding. It's Friday, right?

My father and stepmother are on their way to Egypt.

Two things I wanted to do today were finish a poem and run three miles, and I did both. I ran three miles in the pouring rain. Don't tell my mother. There is this hill between mile two and mile three that is my nemesis these days. Some days it surrenders easily, other times it's a bitter fight all the way. At least I have an Ipod. Today's tune that got me up the hill: "Jet", by Paul McCartney and Wings.

The poem is called "Down at the Heels in the Ditch". I just like the way it sounded ...

Dead Kennedys

One of my students wore a Dead Kennedys t-shirt to class today. I asked him if he had ever seen them. He said no, I said "I have". We talked about it after class. I told him I'd seen them in 1984 or so - when he was probably not even born.

So then he asks, "so were you like really into the punk scene?" Yikes! I thought, this must have been how my grandmother felt when we used to ask her to tell us about living in San Diego during World War II.

And the thing is, I thought about it more later, and I can't even remember if I did see the Dead Kennedys in Eugene in the 80's. I don't know if I just know people who saw them so then I appropriated the memory or what. Maybe I should aim higher - start telling people I saw the Sex Pistols at CBGB's. Who's gonna know?

Last night I felt overwhelmed with the start of the new term, feeling like I had no idea how to teach composition. Spent way too much time thinking about it.

But then about ten minutes into class today, it clicked. I was back on the horse.

I like the students in my class that started this week. More classes start next week.

I am reading Robert Lowell's letters and enjoying them. I can't really point to any specific thing he's said that has overwhelming signficance; I just appreciate the sense I get of what his life was like. Residencies at Yaddo, working for the Library of Congress. Running into T.S. Eliot in the elevator (somewhere), visiting Pound in the hospital. And of course the letters to Elizabeth Bishop. Good stuff.

The current controversy in my house is the question of how much Rita really does enjoy wearing the dog sweater. Does she lick you on the face to say "thanks for putting this stupid sweater on me! I LOVE it!" Or does she lick you on the face to say "for the love of God, are you trying to kill me? Get this *#$@ sweater off of me! Do I look like a $*@!! poodle to you?"

The thing is, I'm starting to think Laura might be right. Maybe she does like wearing it.

Note to A: Ran three miles today!

Dog Sweater

The term starts tomorrow at one of the schools I teach. The class starts at 9:00 a.m. I have copies of the syllabus and schedules. The sweater I'm wearing tomorrow is in the washing machine. I even know where the shoes are that I'm going to be wearing - I think. I got a haircut today. I'm ready!

Laura and I went shopping today. She wanted to spend her Christmas money. Old Navy had many things on sale, including a dog sweater that Laura thought would be perfect for Rita. Poor Rita. She looks cute and slightly pathetic in it - she's not a poodle or a dachsund, so it just seems insulting to make her wear it, although she doesn't protest. I took it off her at one point this evening but Laura insisted on putting it back on. I may have to hide it.

Still working on those resolutions. Our outdoor lights are down. The tree is still up but I've stopped plugging in the lights.

It was great to see Zanni in her bright orange coat today.

I am enjoying writing 2006 on various documents. It has a nice ring to it.

I Will Return All The Farm Equipment Soon

I learned today that the Babylonians were the ones who started New Year's resolutions. Their most common resolution: return all borrowed farm equipment.

I was thinking of some resolutions this morning, but then saw all of them on various "the most common resolutions" lists on the internet. So will have to be more inventive.

I read an interview with Jack Gilbert in the Paris Review yesterday; he said when he had a year when he was unsatisfied with his poetry writing, he would write one hundred poems in one hundred days. I want to know more about this: did he really do this, or just try to? Should this be a resolution? I am thinking about it ...

Here is a poem by Jack Gilbert:

Tear It Down

We find out the heart only by dismantling what
the heart knows. By redefining the morning,
we find a morning that comes just after darkness.
We can break through marriage into marriage.
By insisting on love we spoil it, get beyond
affection and wade mouth-deep into love.
We must unlearn the constellations to see the stars.
But going back toward childhood will not help.
The village is not better than Pittsburgh.
Only Pittsburgh is more than Pittsburgh.
Rome is better than Rome in the same way the sound
of raccoon tongues licking the inside walls
of the garbage tub is more than the stir
of them in the muck of the garbage. Love is not
enough. We die and are put into the earth forever.
We should insist while there is still time. We must
eat through the wildness of her sweet body already
in our bed to reach the body within that body.

Awfully Serious Caffeine

I changed my template for the New Year and then realized it is the same template that Alison at Awfully Serious uses. So maybe I should change it to something else ...

I made sushi for New Year's Eve. My house is pretty clean.

I got an email today that my poem, "Prayer", from Redactions was featured on Verse Daily on Christmas.

I love to make New Year's resolutions. I may post some of them.

High Society

It's 2:30 and I'm still in my bathrobe. No, I'm not sick. I've been working all day setting up an online class for next term. It is slow going but I think I'm making progress. But the holiday slacking off is drawing to a close, I fear.

This morning I watched about an hour of High Society, a movie from 1956 with Grace Kelly, Frank Sinatra, and Bing Crosby. Music by Cole Porter. I recommend it.

Today's collage is from an ATC swap I'm participating in. The theme is "birds" so how could I refuse? I made six and I will get five back, in mid-January. The last time I participated in a swap I didn't receive any cards that I liked as much as the ones I'd sent out - I don't know if that means I'm an egomaniac or what.

I organized my office last night. I decided alphabetizing the poetry books would be more of an exercise in procrastination than anything else, so I just grouped them all together. It was interesting to come across the books of poetry I bought this year, thinking I just had to have them. I think "The Clerk's Tale" by Spencer Reece and "Profane Halo" by Gillian Conoley were probably the ones I read the most from. I was reading some of Tessa Rumsey's "The Return Message" last night and I am going to spend some more time with it. I really think you have to own a book of poetry for a few years until you really get to know it well.

It's been a while since I read a really great novel. I started "On Beauty" this summer because everyone raved about it, but really, I found it rather dull. I didn't finish it. I've almost finished "Dad Sad He Saw You at the Mall", by Ken Sparling, which has bad reviews on Amazon. I like it though - the narrative is very disjointed, but it works for me. I think the last good book of fiction I read and finished was The Girl with the Pearl Earring.

We are having a New Year's eve party, so come over! And Monday I believe I'm having breakfast with Zanni, Daneen and Michele. Zanni and I can have a contest to see who will blog about it first.

I am going to go run three miles now.

Boxing Day

Listening to Mozart on WNYC-FM. More Mozart in 2006, please.

Max said today, "the day after Christmas is the happiest day of the year."

It can now be told - I'm into knitting! Couldn't mention this before since I was knitting a scarf for Michael for Christmas. I don't know how much knitting 2006 will bring, once the term begins. And will I ever progress beyond the simple scarf?

I bought new running shoes today at the mall. It has been quite a few years since I went to the mall the day after Christmas, and it will be many years before I do that again. It is the unfortunate truth that out in the world beyond my cozy house, it is no longer Christmas. People are trudging through the mall looking decidely un-Yule like.

So I was pleased to return home and find it's still Christmas. The tree is still up, the carols are still playing, and Christmas candles are still burning.

Michael gave me diamond earrings for Christmas and I think I won't ever take them off.

I am reading Alan Alda's memoir, "Never Have Your Dog Stuffed." It is engaging and a very quick read - I started it this morning and I think I should finish it by tomorrow morning. A good choice for a holiday read!

Janine sent me some awesome poems. I started a longer poem today, "Blueprint". I like it. I finished three of the sonnets last week.

My four-year old niece insisted the stuffed pink horses I gave her for Christmas were unicorns. I asked her how she could tell they were unicorns. She said "because they have fur." I said, "don't horses have fur?" She said, "unicorns have MORE fur than horses."

Of course.

Merry Christmas!

Chrismas Eve

My favorite Christmas story

I am Erica Kane

Someone is trying to prove Adam Chandler is crazy so they can take control of his business or something and some stuffy distinguished gentleman is telling Erica he's in love with her, but Erica doesn't trust him and is telling Tad Martin to please continue his surveillance of this man.

I have no idea what's going on in Pine Valley, but I try to watch at least a few episodes of All My Children while I'm on Christmas vacation. It's a tradition! And I'm so thrilled, I took the Which All My Children Babe Are You Most Like quiz, and the results said I'm most like Erica. Of course!

Kids had the day off from school but I think they'll have school tomorrow - I hope so, I have shopping to do. Laura wrapped lots of presents today. Some of the lights are off on the tree. My bed is unmade, but I did 45 minutes of Tae-Bo today - much to the dog's chagrin (no walk no walk ruff ruff we are going to sleep some more ruff ruff)

I made cookies today for the kid's teachers. Russian teacakes, very easy. Cream a cup of butter with half cup of powdered sugar. Add half a teaspoon of salt, a teaspoon of vanilla and two and one fourth cups of flour. Roll into balls and place on an ungreased cookie sheet. Cook at 375 degrees for about ten minutes. Then you roll them in powdered sugar when they're done. Very good and very easy.

I need to start class planning for next term but I'm putting it off. Next week!

Cecelia sent me Laton Carter's Leaving, which won the Oregon Book Award for poetry this year. I'm enjoying it - it reminds me a bit of Doreen Gildroy, who I've mentioned here before. Here's some lines from one of my favorite poems in the book, "Between":

It doesn't consume me. Or if it does, not
entirely. As much as I'd like it, I'm
not outside myself: where she sees me.

Self-consciousness, alone, protracted,
is eventually a form of vanity. I want seeing into things
not to dislocate me. And it's that: want.

Christmas is Coming

I got poems back today from a magazine that has had them since June. But they asked to see more - and you know, I really think they meant it. So I will send them more.

Slowly getting Christmas cards out. I read today that in the 19th century, the British post office used to deliver cards on Christmas morning. I wonder if that's true. Also, postman in Victorian England were called "robins" because their uniforms were red.

There's just no way around it, Christmas is rapidly approaching. A week from tomorrow is Christmas Eve!

However, I just vacuumed the upstairs so I'm feeling like everything's under control. Amazing what a little vacuuming can do.

Bohemian Like You

Max has just informed me it's 28 degrees outside. I believe him. I'm going for a walk with the dogs right after he leaves.

We saw the Dandy Warhols last night at the Wonder Ballroom. They were great! I'm glad we went. I have to say I think I liked their concert better than Death Cab for Cutie's, even though Courtney seemed to get a little too wrapped up in the droning sound his guitar can make at the end of certain songs. I am putting them on my Ipod so I can listen to them on my walk. I like bands who are aware of the fact that they are putting on a show! Performers. I didn't buy a t-shirt but now I'm wishing I had. Now I want to see Dig!, the film about the Dandys and another band.

I believe I saw Jonathan Nicholas from the Oregonian at the show last night, so I'm going to email and say, was that you? Was he there because he loves the Dandys and has posters of them all over his office? Or was he on assignment? What is his favorite Dandys song? I'm thinking maybe "Bohemian Like You" - hey Jonathan, ME TOO!

I revised one of my sonnets yesterday, but now it's stuck at twelve lines. I wrote another one really fast yesterday. I am going to try to have a set of seven done by the time the semester starts again - January 9. I want to send them out, I've decided, but they have a ways to go.

Enrollment seems to be going up in all my classes for next term. This is a good thing. Next term I will be teaching more classes for the second or third time than ever before - meaning there is only one class that is entirely new to me. The others I have taught before and I think that will make for a better time for all of us.

Laura and I are going caroling with her Girl Scout troup this evening, at a retirement center. I will try to get Max to go with us.

I want to learn Latin. Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum viditur.

Okay, I told myself last night I was going to walk every day of winter break from here on out. So off I go, into the freezing cold. If you don't hear from me, come look for me. I promise I won't try to lick any frozen flagpoles.

Wonderful Life

We saw the one-man performance of It's a Wonderful Life last night. Mark Setlock was fantastic, and the set was great - all of the key locations from the movie on one stage. Dinner afterwards and then dessert at Papa Hayden's. A lovely time!

I bought a pair of three inch black high heels last night - the highest heels I think I've ever worn! I feel very glamorous and a little Anne Sexton-ish in them. A little hard to walk in, but worth it when you're out on the town! (and don't have to walk very far).

Max lost the first three games he played in the chess tournament - but he was playing against middle-schoolers (who obviously know the game of chess a little better than Max's mother). Then he decided to play in the "Intermediate" category, rather than "Advanced", and he won the next four games. I have never been in a school cafeteria while fifteen chess games were being played at the same time.

I worked on some sonnets this weekend, and decided I don't want to write a crown of sonnets, because the last line of one sonnet becomes the first line of the next, which sets up the rhyme scheme, and I don't want the rhyme scheme dictated that way. However, I'm taking the number seven from the crown, and I'm going to write a seven sonnet sequence. Most lines in my sonnets are ten syllables, but they're not iambic. Yesterday I checked out the Penguin Book of the Sonnet from the library. I couldn't figure out at first where I had gotten the rhyme scheme from, but now I see that mine are French sonnets. Mais oui! I realize I may decide to abandon the rhyme scheme entirely at some point, but I'm not ready to do that just yet.

Laura and I walked three miles with the dogs yesterday. I have no excuse not to walk three miles again this morning - I have the time. But I am drinking coffee out of my Charlie Brown Christmas mug, and thinking of things I might do instead.

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.

It's Been 25 Years, and I Still Miss Him

Christmas Carols

When I was a kid, we had a Simon and Garfunkel record that had a song on it called "Seven O'Clock News/Silent Night". Simon and Garfunkel sang "Silent Night", while an anchorman read the news - it was the 60's, so the news was about Martin Luther King, and the Vietnam war, and Richard Speck, the man who murdered nine nurses in Chicago in 1966. I always found the juxtaposition of the two tracks - the news and a Christmas carol - chilling.

And I've discovered a new, 21st century take on it. Open your iTunes and start playing Christmas music. Then open your Internet browser and read Drudge Report or CNN or MSNBC or another news site, while the Christmas music plays. Do it now, then come back ....

.... weird, isn't it? It's great if you just need a break from all the holiday cheer and want to freak yourself out a little. Pretty sobering. I'm trying to find the perfect song/news story combination. Listening to Tony Bennet sing "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" while reading about the man who was shot in the Atlanta airport was especially sad.

However!

Tonight after I picked Laura up from Girl Scouts we drove around a little and looked at Christmas lights.

I recycled a lot of paper tonight. It's amazing the amount of paper a writing class generates, every term. Handouts and rough drafts and quizzes oh my.

It's very very cold out, but I think the dogs may actually become depressed if they don't have a walk soon. I don't know how I'll be able to tell if they're depressed, because all they do is sleep anyway. But I am beginning to sense the reproach in the way they sleep, especially when they lie right in front of my office door so it's hard not to trip over them. It seems to say, we would be enjoying this sleep a lot more if someone had taken a mere fifteen minutes out of her day - we're not asking for a three mile walk, we know it's cold, we know you're busy - to walk us.

So off I go.

No More Classes

Last class met tonight. Now it's just finishing up the grading. Term is breathing its last breaths, oh almost over yes.

Dogs are coming in and out of my office, panting and looking around, circling the room, looking anxious. They do this when they haven't had a walk in a few days. They wonder, will it be tonight? Yes it's cold, but it's been two days! Take pity on us! We're dogs, what else do we have to live for?

I think I need bifocals. Reading while wearing my contacts has become rather difficult. But I could be imagining things.

I checked out a bunch of poetry books at the library today, including Olena Kalytiak Davis, Bin Ramke, Joshua Beckman, and Terese Svoboda. All but the Svoboda I've read before. And Kenneth Burke's Philosophy of Literary Form, which I know I will not read cover to cover but will perhaps peruse. Yes.

Max needs the computer to look up ESPN stats.

Here's a little Svoboda for you - whoever you are, reading this - from her poem "Pilgrim's Progress":

You run toward a light,
a cartoon idea?
Running forces its burning,
fuels its whiteness.

Such light capitalizes:
All Good as in a cafe.
Each lifted sole
is a moon left on.

Sunday

Today I'm responding to the rough drafts of research papers by my upper-division students. They are interesting papers, but I am looking forward to sitting and reading something that I don't have to quickly formulate an opinion on, for the purpose of providing "feedback" to the writer.

The craft fair was fun. I bought some soap. Lots of crafty stuff that seems slightly overpriced, but nice to look at. I can't imagine those crafters support themselves with their wares. I wonder what their day jobs are.

Laura and I went to a toy store. I bought a present for my niece, who is 4. It's pink!

I wrote yet another draft of a poem.

The best way to listen to Christmas music is to load all your 134 Christmas songs onto your ipod, and then press "shuffle songs", so Christmas songs are interspersed with all your other music on your ipod. It keeps you from going crazy with the Christmas music. But you still get to enjoy it. Like this:

Bob Dylan song
O HOLY NIGHT
Iron and Wine song
Jo Dee Messina song
WHITE CHRISTMAS
Shins song
Decemberists song
HAVE YOURSELF A MERRY LITTLE CHRISTMAS
Stan Getz song
Beck song
HARK THE HERALD ANGELS SING

It's great!

First December Posting - Rabbit Rabbit

I never remember to say "rabbit rabbit" on the first day of the month. But I know it's good luck.

I have finished reading all of the essays for one of my classes. Tomorrow I move on to rough drafts of research essays for another class. But the end is in sight.

Tonight Michael and I are going to watch "Persuasion". Tomorrow Laura and I are going to Riches at Rimsky's, which promises lots of crafts by local women artists. I may not buy anything, but I like the Rimsky-Korsakoffee house, and sometimes craft fairs are fun!

I have downloaded all of my Christmas music on to my IPOD, exactly 134 songs. I like the song "Love's What You're Getting for Christmas" by Bobby Sherman, just for its nostalgic appeal. When I was a kid we had a compiliation of Christmas music, that I believe was put out by a gas station chain, and that song was on it. I think I've mentioned childhood memories a few times lately - it must be something about the holiday season.

I am very eager to read something that is not a student essay. However, I have discovered that requiring freshman comp. students to use semi-colons and dashes and colons in an essay actually does give their writing more sophistication. It's like making someone write a sestina - interesting things happen! So, even in freshman composition, form shapes content.

Right now I'm burning votive candles and listening to Cecelia Bartoli sing something from Don Giovanni.

Should I ask for the collected letters of Robert Lowell for Christmas? Or would I not find his letters all that interesting? I don't read him much anymore, but I like reading poet's letters. A.K. Weatherhead, my favorite English professor from my undergraduate days, always had great stories about Robert Lowell. And I can still remember the way Weatherhead would recite the last line of Lowell's "Skunk Hour": "and will not scare." I have the letters of Elizabeth Bishop, but I've only read parts of them. I've read all of Anne Sexton : A Self-Portrait in Letters, more than once. I think I almost like her letters better than her poetry.

Okay I just found this excerpt from a letter Lowell wrote to Ezra Pound, and yes I believe I do want to read more:

I am 19, a freshman at Harvard, and some relation, I don't know what, to Amy Lowell. All my life I have been eccentric according to normal standards. I had violent passions for various pursuits usually taking the form of collecting: tools; names of birds; marbles; catching butterflies, snakes, turtles etc; buying books on Napoleon. None of this led anywhere, I was more interested in collecting large numbers than in developing them. I caught over thirty turtles and put them in a well where they died of insufficient feeding. I won more agates and marbles than anyone in school, and gradually amassed hundreds of soldiers; finally leaving them to clutter up unreachable shelves. I could identify scores of birds, at first on charts, later it led me into nature. Sometime overcome by the collecting mania I would steal things I wanted.

Good stuff.

Next week new poems will be finished - I can feel it in the air.

No Snow, Band Concert

I decided I really didn't like yesterday's atc so I took it down... I need to make some more.

Also need to finish some poems - have too many drafts lying around.

However ... NO SNOW. It was just a cruel joke on the part of the newscasters. It was a slow news day, they were tired of talking about Iraq, someone got the idea in the Wednesday morning staff meeting: "let's tell everyone it's going to snow!". Flurry of newsroom activity. Sending reporters to distant suburbs - or at least, convincing the viewers that's where they were. I imagine all of them were standing in the parking lot of the news station, looking bundled up and chilly, when really they'd just stepped out for a smoke break and someone handed them a microphone - "pretend like it's freezing!"

I will not be so trusting next time. I'll believe there's going to be snow when I see it on my lawn.

Laura has a band concert tonight - her first. She looked sweet in her white blouse and black skirt. It reminded me of when my mother used to have concerts. The same outfit. I know this could only happen in a totalatarian state, but wouldn't it be cool if everyone wore black and white, all the time? Everyone.

More of my students know the flight number of the plane that went down on the T.V. show LOST than who Bush's Secretary of State is. How do I know this? We played a game today (next to last day of class, remember - besides, it was educational!) The questions were all grammar and punctuation related, except the trivia questions which teams had to answer correctly in order to gain control of the game (I won't go into the rules, because I made them up in about 5 minutes). Students got very excited! They acted very offended when I asked them where Bing Crosby was born (Tacoma!). They didn't know who he was.

They also didn't know who Bush's Chief of Staff is. But they could name all five of the Spice Girls.

I am going to miss my students.

Snow Watch

The possiblity of snow has this house very excited! I have been checking the weather forecasts online and on television every hour or so. I wonder what it's like in parts of the country where snow is a more regular occurence - like Illinois. I imagine they don't interview children there on the five o'clock news and ask them about what they might possibly do if it snows, like they do here. Or perhaps they do.

The term is so close to being over. I'm switching into high grading mode here - lots of essays to read. But then, it will be winter break, and no classes until early January!

Janine sent me an awesome poem today. It must be in the air this week - poems from Zanni, Janine and Cecelia. It makes me want to clear the decks and get busy!

I want to wake up in the morning to a backyard full of snow. I even mentioned it when I said grace tonight at the table - I prayed for snow! We don't say grace every night, but at least once or twice a week.

When I used to say grace growing up, we would all hold hands - and I do that now with my family. The only difference is when I was a kid, my sister would try to dig her nails into my hand so hard that I would scream out during grace. Most of the time I was very stoic and didn't make a sound.

I'm not sure why we used to do that to each other. But it's a nice memory.

Tuesday is fennel day

I decided to get adventurous with vegetables this evening and bought fennel, chard, celery root, eggplant and leeks. I ate some of them. I think the chard is definitely a soup kind of vegetable.

Took a walk with the dogs tonight. Since it's not yet December, the frequency of Christmas lights in people's yards is a little past the novelty stage. It's fun watching the progression from now until Christmas, as more and more yards add lights until the neighborhood becomes a frenzy of blue lights and inflatable things that get knocked over by the wind and look better in the Sunday ad insert anyway. And really, I don't think a six foot leering plastic snowman can really spread as much holiday cheer as a small shrub by the front door, covered with white lights.

There's no WAY that this is REALLY Laurel Snyder. Nobody looks that good after just having a baby. Yes, I'm fairly certain, she hired a model to play that part.

Joshua Clover and Joel Brouer review poetry in the New York Times. I smiled when I read Joshua's "Poetry often stands accused of being prose laid out funny".

Tomorrow my freshman composition students have to write an in-class essay, a rhetorical analysis.

Many geese overhead lately, making lots of noise. I wonder if they are trying to tell me something.

Monday is Zanni Day!

It's Monday and all I feel like doing is putting up Christmas decorations! Laura helped me put a pine garland on the railing in the living room, with red and gold ornaments. Very festive!

My friend Zanni had a poem accepted at the Iowa Review! I have a picture of Daneen and Zanni on my bulletin board - I will have to get her to autograph it when she's here at Christmas, now that she's going to be ... famous! The atc today is one I sent Zanni last week - except I added a little hand charm to it, after I scanned it.

Laura and I saw Jo Dee Messina in concert last night - we were in the sixth row! It was a great concert.

This is my last week of classes at one school, and the next to last week at the other. I scraped ice off my car last night at the Max station after the concert. I would like to stay home today and build a fire.

Michael has a new blog - check it out at Fortress 'Merica.

Thanksgiving Eve

I made two pies today. I'm making another one tomorrow. The pecan one I made today, sadly, burned.

I also made pumpkin bread with chocolate chips in it.

I bought a hat so I can walk in the cold. And black velvet Isaac Mizrahi pants. So now I"m stylin'!

I made this page today. It's pretty simple, but I'm just enjoying messing around with a bigger space than an atc. This is a cool site about altered books.

I was reading Lucie Brock Broido last night, and remembering once when Janine told me, "All I feel like doing is going home and reading Lucie Brock Broido".

If you are reading this I am thankful for you.

My daughter is sitting on the floor as I type this. I think I'm going to see if I can get her to watch "Pride and Prejudice" with me - the Colin Firth version I have on DVD. She was kind of curious about the one that's in theaters now, but I think the Colin Firth one is better.

Yay! She's agreed to watch it. More later.

Art Journal

Last night I started an art journal. I bought one of those basic black Strathmore sketchbooks (with my Michael's craft store 40% off coupon). I covered it with patterned paper and some other stuff, and then covered it with packing tape, which, as Michael reminded me, is a very easy way to laminate something! The cover is shown here!

Then on another page, I stamped my face and eye stamps all over a page, and wrote "Susan Denning" on all the faces and "my book" underneath the eyes.

Today I did this other page, also shown here, which is birds and Venus on top of a music background, and then a music transparency on top of that, attached with brads.

It's fun!

I have no more teaching this week. I think I may actually watch Oprah here in a few minutes. I haven't watched it since Mom was here this summer. It's about all I have energy for right now, although the dogs are hoping a walk happens! Yesterday on our walk there were four mallard ducks swimming in this big puddle that is at the edge of the field. The dogs startled them and they flew away. Also in the puddle - pumpkins. Just a few strays, left over from the pumpkin patch at Halloween. They looked sort of forlorn. Holidays are so fleeting.

And an albino squirrel was spotted yesterday by our far-flung correspondents in Central Oregon!

I am thinking when I go to revise the sonnets I will probably end up abandoning the rhyme scheme. But still fourteen lines. I am liking the whole "fourteen lines" thing.

Laura is at Max's school right now, demonstrating to some grade school kids how to make turkeys out of pinecones. I told her to bring one home.

Max made a turkey in preschool once, out of a flowerpot. I'm going to try to find it.

Am Not

... avoiding my papers! It's called a BREAK. So I can still be somewhat lucid in my comments.

Actually, the papers are interesting.

As it's nearing Thanksgiving, I will say that I am thankful that there is a large field near my house, so that even though I live in a 1970's suburb, it still has a pleasant semi-rural feel to it (at least when I'm directly in front of the field) and at this time of year I can still walk at dusk past the field where anywhere from fifty to hundred Canada geese gather, and with a scarf wrapped around my head pretend I am a Russian peasant Sasha, hurrying home through the dark with my dogs. (What are some good Russian names for dogs?)

I'm relatively sure my neighborhood look nothing like Russia - and yes I realize there are probably no Canadian Geese in Russia - but it's amazing what a scarf around one's head can inspire.

And there are the Greater White-Fronted Geese in Russia, and no I did not further delay going back to my papers in order to add this link after I'd written the rest of this posting!

My daughter went to a church overnight with a friend of hers last night. They carved a nativity scene out of SPAM. Is this a Lutheran thing?

My son watched a lot of football this weekend. And when I told him this afternoon, no more football games (at least not until tonight - right now he's watching the Chiefs game), he went outside and talked to himself while holding his football, and then came back inside and read the sports section. Today the Oregonian published the Civil War football game final score for every year since it started. I think Max read every score from every game, because he pointed out a typo to me in one of the years, and also pointed out two years - in the 1930's I believe - when the final score was tied at zero.

Okay I'm going back to the papers.

Saturday Already

Death Cab for Cutie was good. I have been listening to them a lot this week.

I've also been listening to WNYC-FM online. I heard "All Things Considered" at 2:00 p.m. today, three hours earlier then it plays here. But nothing I heard on All Things Considered seemed any more exciting, three hours earlier. A lot of political grandstanding these days about pulling out of Iraq. However, I like it when the radio guy announces the temperature in Central Park.

I have many student papers to grade this weekend - and I can only do them in batches of five or so, and then I have to stop and do something else (like this).

The bad sonnets are getting better. I'm going to pick a few to work on over Christmas break, and turn (hopefully) into not-so-bad sonnets.

I am enjoying Mark Yakich's Unrelated Individuals Forming a Group Waiting to Cross. And hooray, he will have poems in the next issue of Caffeine Destiny - in February sometime.

The paperwhites I've been forcing are starting to bloom in various locations around the house. I have been trying to keep myself from playing Christmas music, although today I found a photograph I'd taken of a Snoopy ornament on our tree one year. I put it on the refrigerator. Christmas before Thanksgiving is fun.

Jimmy's Talking Flute

I am one hour away from the Gilmore Girls - yes, it's Tuesday! I only watch it because my kids like it - really, that's the only reason. Really.

Tomorrow night I'm going to see Death Cab for Cutie with my sister!

On my NPR Pop Culture podcast they were talking about the DVD releases of Sid and Marty Croft's Saturday morning t.v. shows - like Lidsville and HR Pufnstuff. I don't know if I could stand to watch those shows again (although I did find a funny web site about a short lived "World of Sid and Marty Kroft" theme park, which opened and closed in Georgia in 1976). The NPR story said there were veiled drug references - the smoking mushrooms, the "lid" the PUFnstuff - well it was the '70's, but that seems a bit silly. And they are talking about the possibility of a big screen version of Pufnstuff. No. Just please, no.

If you are under thirty, the previous paragraph will mean nothing to you. Nor the title of tonight's posting.

I know On Beauty was nominated for the Booker Award, but I am skimming the end. I just don't care about any of the characters in it. And there's scenes with professors and students that are just, silly. Conversations unlike anything I've heard between professors and students.

I am, however, enjoying the Bride of Science. Ada hasn't really arrived yet, except for a brief reference to her in the beginning. Right now it's about Byron and Lady Byron and the catastrophe of their wedding.

The bad sonnet of yesterday had a line in it I actually liked.

Tonight after class was over I walked out of the library building and the sky was a deep Maxfield Parrish blue. And I heard geese overhead. The moon followed me all the way home.

3:00 Sunday

It's 3:00 p.m. on Sunday and I'm not dressed yet! I talked to Janine for over an hour today and then started grading papers and getting ready for classes tomorrow.

Tonight we are going to see Pride and Prejudice, the play, in downtown Portland. First, dinner at Jake's Grill. I am looking forward to it.

I told Janine I missed being in workshop sometimes but I'm not going to join a new one until Zanni returns and Daneen graduates. I would rather work with people who I know - and whose work I know - already. Zanni send me some poems!

Max has been practicing his speech on Alaska for school. I think I know the beginning of it by heart:

Mush, mush! What do you think of when you hear those words? I think of Alaska, home of the midnight daylight.

Or something like that. He delivers it well.

I have a new table in my office - it's six feet long and I no longer have to grade papers on the floor or at the dining room table. Thanks to Michael! I also have a nice big space to work on collages (come on over to the dark side, Zanni - you'll love it!). I am going to make an altered board book over the holidays. Or just a board book, if I can't strip the surface off the kid's board book I have. I bought a copy of "Transparent Art" and it was very inspiring.

Janine is learning a lot. I think we probably won't live in the same town again, but I'm glad to know her.

I am going to write my bad sonnet for the day (it IS teaching me something - I know the rhyme scheme without having to think of it anymore...).

Then get ready for Elizabeth Bennet! (the entire text of Pride and Prejudice can be found here .

Embossed

I made six ATC's today! I had fun with some embossing - you pour embossing powder onto an image right after you stamp it, while the ink is still wet. Then you pour all the powder off that hasn't stuck to the image. Then, you heat it over the toaster, and the embossing powder melts, and you have a raised, stamped image.

I am starting to want a bigger area to work on, maybe one of those "fat books" I've seen. I'm interested in altered books too. I bought the new issue of Somerset Studio, which was inspiring.

I'm listening to Rosemary Clooney, a CD Michael bought me last year that I haven't listened to much. Michael's playing poker tonight in North Portland. I still don't get what "the blind" is in poker. I told him he looked very intimidating in his all black outfit though!

It's nice to have a day off from teaching, to think about non-teaching things. I need to grade papers this weekend. Friday we discussed David Mamet's essay "The Rake".

Max and I went to the library today - he is enjoying "The Great Brain" series. I checked out a biography of Lord Byron's daughter, Ada Lovelace, called The Bride of Science. Lord Byron's wife did not want Ada to grow up to be a poet like her father, and she was immersed in science and mathematics at a very young age. I can't tell you any more about her because I haven't read much! I think it will be interesting, and something new to think about.

I was listening to podcasts today while I was making my atcs. Laurel Snyder had an interview with Richard Peabody, the editor of Gargoyle. They were talking about blogs, and it was kind of funny. Richard wonders who is reading all these blogs if there are so many of them. I also listened to the NPR Pop Culture podcast. They had a story on the saxophone - the woman said "the saxophone has had a tremendous impact on classical, jazz -" and other types of music. She lost me at classical. The saxophone's impact on classical music? I just don't buy it.

And last but not least, I made butternut squash soup today. It called for leeks and fresh ginger - but I didn't have any fresh ginger so I used a few teaspoons of pumpkin pie spice, and I was quite pleased with the results! Kids wouldn't eat it, of course, but still.

I am going to try to write (a sonnet? we'll see) tonight after the kids go to bed ... But right now, Laura wants the computer. And Max is very excited about the Blazers game - right now, they are up by three!

My mother and I laughed on the phone today. That was funny. Is that laundry folded, Mom?

Wednesday

Driving my own car again. It is nice to be reunited with my car's cd player. I have been listening to a lot of Tori Amos lately.

So, my thought is, if people can write a novel in a month - no doubt, a very very bad novel, why not try writing a sonnet a day? If you weren't trying to do it well, I mean. Just trying to write one a day. A rhyme scheme but not necessarily iambic. Would you learn something from it, or would it just be silliness? I wrote one today - and it's truly awful, but that wasn't the point. I was just trying to write within the rhyme scheme of ABBA ABBA CCD CCD. I will write another bad one tomorrow. And see what happens...

I received these cool Shakespeare's women transperencies and mythological goddesses transparencies. I am going to have fun with them Friday!

Classes were fun today. We talked about how writers can convey emotion. I have discovered, however, that many of my students do not like reading David Sedaris. They think he's boring. That cracks me up.

Michael and I are going to see Pride and Prejudice this weekend - the play. I'm looking forward to it.

I've taken a break from the Zadie Smith to read Kira-Kira. My daughter just finished it - I read some of it to her, but she finished it the other night, and told me I should read it. I am enjoying it - it's about two Japanese girls growing up in Georgia in the 1950's.

Mondays and Tuesdays are hectic hectic, then Wednesday rolls around and the week gets a lot easier. Especially when there's no school Friday.

New Dress!

I was so inspired by the lovely Zanni's new dress that I got one too! What do you think?

My car is in the shop, so I've been driving a white Mercedes with a US Navy decal on the back. I feel quite regal, although a little less flexible, behind the wheel of such a classic car. I do think drivers hesitate when they see me coming!

Karen Volkman has some awesome sonnets up at The Boston Review.

There was frost on the ground this morning; the rainwater on top of our hot tub was frozen! My daughter is looking for her gloves.

Yesterday was long, but classes felt somewhat successful. But the most fun I had yesterday was watching Shaun of the Dead, a British spoof on the whole dead coming back as zombies thing. Watching the zombies hobble around London, I was somehow reminded of the rioting by the very much alive French citizens.

No classes Friday - for my kids or me!

Weekend

A very wet weekend! My son's team played their last football game of the season, in the pouring rain. Unfortunately, they lost. My daughter's soccer team played their last game as well. It wasn't raining. Unfortunately, they also lost.

I finished planting all the bulbs. Now the only thing left to do is wait for spring.

My daughter and I saw "Elizabethtown" last night. It wasn't as bad as some critics might lead one to believe.

The new Caffeine Destiny is up, with Gillian Conoley, Laura Mullen, Betsy Wheeler, Michael Quattrone, and Scott Malby.

Hey, I found out this weekend I was nominated for a Pushcart Prize!

This posting is very "one sentence per paragraph" - ish. I will no doubt have more to say as the week progresses. If not, I will find someone who does and quote them here.

Candy

It is a truth universally acknowledged that if you go trick or treating and acquire a large amount of candy, and if you have a little brother, who also went trick or treating but either a) acquired considerably less candy than you and/or, b) ate most of his candy the morning after Halloween, you will inevitably have some of your candy stolen by aforementioned little brother.

Also, if you claim to have more candy stolen than was actually taken you could end up, after re-distribution, with more candy than you had before, but only if your mother feels sorry for you, and only if your brother is not smart enough to point out to your mother that you are just CLAIMING to have more stolen from you than was actually taken, in an attempt to garner more sympathy and more candy.

And if your house is in dire need of vacuuming and the kitchen table is cluttered with groceries that have been unloaded from the car but not yet properly put away, your mother may be less amused by the situation than she might be otherwise, but if she acknowledges the inevitably of the crime (only to herself, of course, and her devoted readers - to acknowledge it to you and your brother would invite unending rage and a more prolonged ending to the tears that both you and your brother have called upon, you to express your moral outrage at having the candy taken from you that you worked so hard to acquire, coming in from trick or treating to eat a piece of pizza, and then returning out into the cold night to trick or treat some MORE, your devotion to candy being yes, that profound, yes, that entire, and your brother to express equal outrage at being accused of taking much much more than was actually taken, because he only took "like one bag of M&M's") it might provide her with some amusement, two days after Halloween, on a Wednesday that feels very much like it should be a Friday.