Friday

Well it's been a busy and weird week, but it's Friday.

The Oregon Book Awards finalists will be announced Monday.

I started Pastoralia by George Saunders the other night and I've been enjoying it.

Tomorrow Laura has a soccer game in Sandy. I think Max and Michael might go to the PSU football game tomorrow night. It's the last weekend of September - hard to believe.

Here's a Stafford poem for all of us tonight:

For My Young Friends Who Are Afraid

There is a country to cross you will
find in the corner of your eye, in
the quick slip of your foot—air far
down, a snap that might have caught.
And maybe for you, for me, a high, passing
voice that finds its way by being
afraid. That country is there, for us,
carried as it is crossed. What you fear
will not go away: it will take you into
yourself and bless you and keep you.
That's the world, and we all live there.

—William Stafford

Football

Last night we had a little adventure and drove out to Estacada, which we had never driven to before. Michael, Laura, Max and I watched the Estacada football team get stomped on by the Gladstone Gladiators. One of Laura's counselors from Outdoor School is a cheerleader, and Laura wanted to see her cheer. High school football is fun to watch, especially on a crisp fall night. Finding our way back to Portland in the dark was a little confusing, but we made it! I was thinking it would be fun to drive to a different small Oregon town every Friday night to watch football. Or maybe just once a year, pick a different Oregon town. Or maybe just go once to Estacada and then not go anywhere else, but remember how much fun high school football games were when you were in high school, and how they still are fun to watch. And then go to the high school that is actually in your neighborhood, three blocks away, and watch games there.

Max has a football game today, and Laura has a soccer game starting in 40 minutes. Which means I'd better get moving!

Michele mentioned yesterday that Marianne Boruch is coming to PSU for a reading, and maybe even a craft lecture. So last night I ordered In the Blue Pharmacy: Essays on Poetry and Other Transformations by Boruch.

Sunday Daneen and I are getting together to talk about poems. Yes.

It's Official

I'm old.

How do I know this, you ask? Well. I was in a store today and I saw the latest issue of Grand, a magazine about being a grandparent. Donny Osmond was on the cover, with his new grandson.

Donny Osmond is a grandparent!

He was a teen idol when I was Laura's age. I used to buy Tiger Beat so I could get pictures of him. Holly and I used to watch the Donny and Marie show on Saturdays.

And now he's a grandparent.

It's official.

Wicked

We saw WICKED last night at the Keller auditorium. It was great, and we all enjoyed it! It's interesting to take a story that everyone knows and then imagine some other stuff about it (okay so that's not super insightful critical commentary, but it's Monday!) The sets and costumes were really amazing and very green. I like how they made up words. Dancing Through Life!

I saw Daneen and Zanni today (hey look, Zanni, I blogged about it first! But you can give the fashion report). It was great to see them and I hope Zanni returns to the Pacific NW soon. Yes! I think Zanni would make a good Professional Urban Cowgirl. We'd call her P.U.C for short! Then we'd just start calling her Pucky, and about ten years from now we'd forget why, but it wouldn't matter because she would always be our Pucky.

Max's team lost their first football game, but it was close.

Ploughshares has a blog, I discovered today.

Today is September 11.

We Recall 7th Grade

Anyone remember seventh grade? Did you like it? I can't remember if I liked seventh grade. I do remember when our Social Studies teacher read us all of Longfellow's Evangeline, and warned us he might cry at the end and then he kind of did cry.

Thanks to Josh Corey's blog, I found this - she talks to poets about what it was like to have their first book out. The Andrea Baker one was interesting. And Tony Tost didn't know what his book cover would look like until he saw it on Amazon!

Nico emailed me about the poetry bus. It's coming to Portland!

It is too hot I wish it were cooler.

Laura started seventh grade today. Our thoughts are with her.

Michael and I watched Elizabeth last night, the Helen Mirren one. I wonder if they would mind at my new job if I began to speak in the royal we all the time. Or at home; what would my family think?

We believe they would think we were freakin' weird.

September

Max starts fifth grade today! Laura begins seventh grade tomorrow.

Very sad about Steve Irwin. Laura and Max used to watch Crocodile Hunter all the time.

Last night I couldn't sleep so I started Veronica by Mary Gaitskill. I haven't read her in a while; I'm liking this book. I also read the new Poetry, which had an interesting article by John Barr on the state of poetry in America.

The only first day of school outfit I can remember very well is a dress I wore in Palo Alto - I think it was sixth grade? And the knee socks that went with it.

Summer went fast.

Camping! (Part Two)

Camping at Timothy Lake was fun! Here is the lake!

It's late, and I want to do something besides sit in front of a computer screen. So this is brief, but the lake looks pretty, doesn't it? I had fast food for lunch AND dinner. That kind of a day!

But it was decidedly cooler today, and I loved that.

Okay Zanni, continued ... Book that changed my life? Collected poems of Jorie Graham, Portrait of A Lady (though I'm not sure how), Sometimes a Great Notion, Ashbery's Self Portrait in a Convex Mirror.

Book that made me laugh? Marc Acito's How I Paid for College. Yes indeed.

More soon.

Camping!

We are leaving for our family camping trip to Timothy Lake tomorrow! We are sort of packed! I can't wait.

Max is on two football teams; the 4th and 5th grade team and the 5th and 6th grade team. He will be playing twice a week, and he is excited. He looks so cute in his football helmet and uniform.

I nominated Janine Oshiro, Laton Carter, and Cecelia Hagen for Best of the Net for their poems in the Spring 2006 Caffeine Destiny.

Laura gets home tonight from a visit to Sisters.

Zanni - on a desert island I think I would want Portrait of a Lady and Gerald Stern and William Stafford and Jorie Graham and Sometimes a Great Notion and YOGA journal, since I'd have lots of time to do Yoga. Am I allowed to say more than one? If I had to pick just one I'd choose some huge anthology. I will respond to the other ones soon.

Ricky Bobby

Talladega Nights was funny, sort of. It was funny in many places, and then just kind of slow in other parts. But it was fun to go to a movie with Max, and Saturday morning we kept mentioning lines from the movie and that was fun as well. Shake and Bake! Help Me Tom Cruise!

I was listening to Podcasts today - because looking for interesting podcasts is more amusing than grading papers (and - see above paragraph - I'm all about the fun!) I didn't know Nora Ephron's parents wrote the Desk Set. I learned that from the New York Times Book Review podcast. There is The Billy Collins Animated Poetry Series, with poems read by him with a video to go along with it. I watched "Forgetfullness", which was cool. I found these on I-tunes.

Tonight we are going to make sushi and watch Cache.

Laura left for Sisters today, with her two cousins. The house will be quieter this week.

I found out last night a poem of mine will be in the second print anthology of the Notell Motel people, The Bedside Guide to Notell Motel, due out in January 2007. The link takes you to info about their first one. My poem doesn't mention sex, or motels. No one even kisses in it! I guess that wasn't a requirement, though, and for that I'm most appreciative.

Donuts

Today there were donuts in the kitchen at work. I know I know - thrilling subject, right? But there's just something so sweet about half of a donut on a plate of donuts. You can just imagine the internal struggle the person went through - I want a donut no I shouldn't have a donut. Okay half. I'll have half. Of course, it's possible the people who cut the donuts in half (by the end of the day there were quite a few of them) have no donut issues at all, and just weren't hungry enough for a whole one, but I doubt it.

I had one. And a little more than a half of another one.

Max is reading Pride and Prejudice. I thought he might not quite get it, but I asked him about it and he seems to be understanding the plot. Mr. Darcy is arrogant, he told me. I read a little of it with him last night.

But just so he doesn't become too high-brow, I'm taking him to see Will Farrell's new movie tomorrow night.

Last night Michael and I watched The Squid and the Whale, with Jeff Daniels. It was good and really sad. It reminded me a bit of The Ice Storm, although it was set in a later time. But there was something about the tone of both movies that seemed similar.

I have many papers to grade, but I'm going to pace myself.

Now He is Ten

Max had a good birthday! His presents included a guitar tuner and tickets to the Who in October - he and Michael are going. His birthday party was Friday and four of his friends spent the night. I think they went to bed by 3:00 a.m.; I know they were up by 7:00.

Christian Hawkey sent me poems for the new Caffeine Destiny, and I'm looking forward to having the new issue online!

Laura bought fake fingernails yesterday at Claire's. She told me it's hard to type with them.

I start my new job tomorrow. I have been trying to organize my office and my closets these past few days.

Last night I started reading "I'll Take You There", a novel by Joyce Carol Oates.

The light has shifted some, and it seems like fall is on its way. But not quite yet!

My sunflowers have all bloomed and are now falling over. I am thinking of trying to dry some of my tomatos - in the oven. Or maybe I'll just freeze them.

Seattle!

Okay, this is not the perfect Seattle collage, but it's a start ...

Seattle was fun! We went to the Seattle Zoo, and Volunteer Park, and to the Space Needle! We all went to the top of the Space Needle. It was a clear day and the view was fabulous. I have always had a very distinct memory of being four or five and having an Orange Julius at the top of the Space Needle with my mom.

Except, as it turns out, that never happened. I don't know where the memory came from .

While in Seattle I also went to Open Books, a bookstore devoted exclusively to poetry. I bought Joshua Beckman's new book, a book by Matthew Zapruder, and a book by Barbara Guest.

Max turns 10 on Friday. He is excited and that is an understatement.

Rice-a-Roni

The summer is going by fast now. I have been reading Marc Acito's How I Paid for College and enjoying it. I was a bit of a "theater person" in high school myself, so as they say, I can relate to it.

I talked to my mom on the phone today, and told her about my new job. Those of you who know me, know what it is. If you don't know, email me and I'll tell you!

Max has guitar lessons today and Laura is at the middle school painting a mural with her Girl Scout troop. She was great at the Rock and Roll Camp for Girls Showcase at the Baghdad Theater last Saturday. My daughter the rock star!

I need to weed in sections of the back yard. The sections where my flowers live. However, I have managed to avoid that for the past two days by making jam, taking advantage of Albertson's killer "going out of business sale" (I now have enough boxes of Rice-a-Roni and Kraft Macaroni and Cheese to make it through at least a few weeks of a terrorist attack or other unforeseen "can't leave the house to buy food" event), and grading papers. And sort of folding laundry. But just sort of.

The Beach!

Yes, as promised, it's the "I went to the beach this weekend!" blog entry. Because ... I did! Stayed at Amy and Scott's new house in Neskowin. It was lots of fun and I saw sea anemones. The weather was great.

This coming Saturday we are going to Seattle. We're going to the Space Needle and the Zoo, and Open Books. Our hotel has a pool, so I hope it's nice weather.

I haven't been writing much poetry - I never get much writing done in the summer. But Daneen and I are going to start meeting regulary to talk about poems, starting next week. That should be good incentive!

This summer has gone by fast, but it's still summer! It's only August. A new Caffeine Destiny should be up by the end of this month - that's the plan!

I have been reading short stories by William Trevor - and Rolling Stone Magazine!

Run Off

Amy and I ran the Cascade Run-off yesterday - 9.3 miles. I finished, and I didn't walk any of it, so I'm pleased. I was, however, last in my age group and finished before 10 other people. But 9.3 miles is pretty far. I'd like to run a half-marathon next. But not a marathon!

Laura started her Rock and Roll Camp for Girls this morning. Max has a new crew cut, thanks to Michael. It looks good!

This weekend we are going to the beach for the Moore Cup, and next weekend we are going to Seattle!

The term at Washington State is almost over, and I have a few papers to grade.

My sunflowers are blooming. They are already showing back to school ads, but I'm ignoring them. August is still summer, and it's not even August yet!

Zanni is on her way to Squaw Valley, and Janine is driving back to Iowa. I'm here - and it's hot out!

Martina!

Laura and I went to see Martina Mcbride in concert last night. It was a great concert!

Michael, Laura, Max and I went to see Pirates of the Caribbean yesterday. I enjoyed it. I can't remember enough about the first one to compare the two of them.

Yesterday we also went out to breakfast - we woke up and the power was out!

I read Steve Almond's latest short story collection this weekend, The Evil B.B. Chow and Other Stories. My favorite story was about a boy who hits a kid with a baseball bat - which sounds awful, and it is, but the story was told well. I read My Life in Heavy Metal a few years ago. I know he's written a novel with Julianna Baggott, where they take turns writing letters back and forth - as characters in the novel.

Tomorrow Laura starts a week of Girl Scout camp - it's a day camp, and she's a program assistant this year. Friday night the P.A.s get to spend the night.

I have many green tomatos on the vine!

Prairie Home Companion

Laura and I went to see Prairie Home Companion tonight. It was $4.00 Monday at Cinetopia on Hawthorne. I liked it a lot; I was worried Laura might think it was kind of boring, but she said it was "pretty good." Meryl Streep seemed quite different than her role in Devil Wears Prada. There was a lot of good music in it, and Lily Tomlin and Garrison Keillor. I used to listen to Prairie Home Companion all the time when I lived in Eugene.

Tomorrow we are driving to Mill City to pick up Max and his cousin Alex and bring them back to Portland. It will be fun to see Max again.

Tonight I read Jonathan Franzen's essay on the novel that was published in Harper's in 1996 and everyone talked about. I finally read it! I liked the quote from Don DeLillo that he included in it: "writing is a form of personal freedom. It frees us from the mass identity we see in the making all around us."

Our Far-Flung Correspondents

Today, Tori is in India, Max is in Central Oregon and Holly is in New York City.

Today is my mom's birthday. We went out to Shari's for breakfast this morning - Laura, Elise, Mom and I.

Last night we went to see The Devil Wears Prada. I enjoyed it; Meryl Streep was great. Turns out Michele G. and John were sitting right behind us!

Today we are going to McMinnville to celebrate Mom's birthday. Amy has a temporary houseguest, in the form of a calico kitten.

Happy Birthday Diane.

Superman

Michael and I took the kids - Laura very much against her will! - to Superman yesterday. I enjoyed it more than I thought I would. I think Anthony Lane was right, however - the actor who plays Superman seems like he's doing an imitation of Christopher Reeve playing Superman.

Friday night I went out with Janine, Daneen and Zanni. Janine's in town for most of July - hooray! I thought it was funny we all showed up with black shirts on. We went to Mint, a place in North Portland. I wish Janine and Zanni still lived here, but I think perhaps Zanni might move back - at least to Oregon? - after she graduates. Can't stop thinking about Janine's red shoes - and gold hoop earrings. Maybe I'll write a poem where they make a guest appearance ...

Sending a poetry manuscript to Tupelo Press tomorrow. Daneen lit the fire under me!

Keats

The Oregon State Beavers won the College World Series! Michael and Max watched the game.

It has been hot here. Too hot to go running.

But it cooled down tonight around nine - finally. Cool enough to take the dogs for a walk, anyway. The lavender is in bloom in Portland! I noticed it everywhere tonight - and in my own backyard.

I have been reading Lug Your Careless Body Out of the Careful Dusk by Joshua Marie Wilkerson and enjoying it very much! And he will have poems in the new Caffeine Destiny, hooray.

The words on the woman in the lower left hand corner that can't be read very well here are:

The poetry of earth is never dead:
When all the birds are faint with the hot sun,
And hide in cooling trees, a voice will run
From hedge to hedge about the new-mown mead;

by John Keats, from On the Grasshopper and the Cricket.