I Am Supposed to Be Grading Papers

Look, it's the new WITS director at Literary Arts! That's Portland's own Mary Rechner.

The new Deschutes Brewery in Portland is just like the one in Bend. Sort of.

Monday I start my marathon training. Wish me luck.

I brought home some cactus. Tomorrow Max has a baseball game.

I have no quote for the day because I'm supposed to be grading papers.

Here I go.

Quack

There is like four baskets of unfolded laundry in my basement. Maybe five.

I haven't called my mom in like two weeks.

I finished When She Was Good.

Monica is getting ducks! I'm very excited for her.

Very Smart Kids and Queen Cows

The picture is a Rauschenberg painting. I hope he is having fun, wherever he is. Rest in peace!

Max and Laura are very smart kids. I know because they showed Michael and I at their student-led conferences at school tonight.

I am reading When She Was Good by Philip Roth.

Baker City was fabulous. The streets are gorgeous there - wide streets and mountains in the distance. People leave their bikes unlocked on the sidewalk. It's true, I'm not making it up!

I have been reading about cow etiquette. It's really fascinating! There is always a queen cow. Cows who are higher in the social heirarchy don't have to walk as far for their share of the grass.

Leaving Burns, Heading For Baker City

There they are, at the Harney County Libray.

Burns is flat, quiet, pretty.

My motel room has a desk with drawer handles made from bent horseshoes.

You can hunt antelope here in the late summer, by the Malheur River. And elk. Maybe that's where some of the heads at Central Pastime came from. We went there last night. There was a big buffalo head which was kind of cool except of course I felt sorry for the buffalo.

I go now in search of birds and coffee. Then on to Baker City!

If We Reach Idaho We've Gone Too Far

I'm leaving for Burns this morning with Charlie and Lee. Jeff is already there! Robert's on his way.

I have never been to Burns. I have Diet Coke and Oreos in my car. And soon, a full tank of gas.

Wish me luck!

May Day

So you know what that means! But if you don't remember, refresh your memory here and here.

I need to make more collages! I haven't made any in ages.

Next week I"ll be in Burns and Baker City. This weekend I'm running the Eugene Half-Marathon.

Tonight I'm going out to dinner at Jake's with my husband of 18 years.

I love him.

The View from My Hotel Balcony

I'm in Astoria this morning. Last night Tom Blood, Monica Drake, Susan Fletcher and Kristian Williams read at the Cannery Pier Hotel, where we're all staying.

Their work is all very different, but somehow it all comes together in an interesting way. Monica's book is about a girl who works as a clown, Tom's a lyric poet, Kristian's book is about government torture and Susan's book for young adults takes place in the Middle East. It always happens in these readings that I notice connections, even in work that seems very disparate.

The picture to the left is Tom at the reading last night.

I'm spending the next hour or so trying to finish some of my own poems for poetry group Sunday! Then I'll explore Astoria a little. On foot! And drive down to Newport for the reading tonight.




My internet connection seems intermittent. I'll post this now, while I can! (the ship was passing by my room so I took a picture of it)

Friday It Is!

Do you like my Yoda title for this posting?

It is Friday. I'm going to the Oregon Literary Coalition meeting at Marylhurst today.

Michael and I are going to Sometimes A Great Notion on Sunday.

Max has a game tomorrow and it might snow!

I got up early this morning and worked on my poem which is nearing completion.

Next week I'm going to Astoria and Newport with the Oregon Book Awards Author Tour.

One of Laura's fish may have had a baby fish.

Marjane!

Well she was lovely. I really enjoyed her visit!

Michael is re-doing our kitchen. He took out a cabinet today that had been between the dining room and the kitchen. So now there's plenty of light in the kitchen. I wonder how it will all end up!

Yesterday the office was closed. I wrote drafts of two poems. I made lasagne for dinner! That was a treat as I hardly ever have time to make dinner anymore during the week. And Max has baseball practice several times a week and doesn't get home until 7:00.

Sunday poetry group is meeting at my house.

I am going to read Joe Sacco. Marjane mentioned him.

Katy Lederer will be in the next Caffeine Destiny. I asked her two years ago. She remembered!

Two to Go!

In our event parade! Lucille Clifton will be here Sunday, and Monday it's Marjane Satrapi!

Elizabeth Gilbert was amazing. The audience was mostly women! It was a great evening.

I need a new book to read. I'm between books, although I have seen books I want to read and by this time next week I should be reading something!

Laura will be a cheerleader next year! And Max is switching to the tuba.

I have to clean my office. Tonight Battlestar premieres.

It's National Poetry Month but I have yet to write a poem in April.

Gilbert and Clifton and Marjane oh my!

It's a busy next few days for me!

I'm looking forward to all our events.

We had a great time in Leavenworth, and it snowed!

I haven't been on Facebook much. The new term started. So it's a busy time but it's Spring!

Happy Birthday Debbie!

Max's baseball season starts Saturday. Tomorrow Laura has cheerleading tryouts.

Happy Easter!

Edward Hirsch will be reading here in Portland on Monday, March 24th. Please leave me a comment if you'd like to see him!

The kids are on spring break. I'll be on spring break after Tuesday.

I read last night in Salem. That was really fun, and Dad and Jane came and that made it even more fun.

It was great to hear Cecelia read.

Always very reassuring to look out in the audience and see Michael. To know that even if I totally make a complete fool of myself, he will still like me.

Mom coming up tomorrow. Happy Easter!

Holy Week

It's hard to believe Easter is a week away.

I started reading A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers last night. I like it. The narrator is learning English, so at the beginning the English is halting.

Stephen Sondheim was here last week, with Frank Rich. It was exciting to meet him. I have been listening to Sondheim tunes ever since.

Tomorrow is poetry group, and then I'm at the Multnomah Library, for the writer's resource fair. Giving out information about the fellowships and the book awards.

It's raining and I need to take a shower.

Michael is done with school!

Seven Notebooks

I am reading Seven Notebooks by Campbell McGrath. It's poems and prose and I'm really enjoying it. I'm also still reading The Theory of Clouds. Clouds and notebooks!

Laura and I saw the movie The Other Boleyn Girl today. That was fun. We shopped a little too.

Debbie sent me a scarf she made and a shawl. They are both lovely and I like to think of Debbie in her studio apartment in Manhattan knitting her niece a scarf. How sweet. I have been wearing the shawl tonight while I look at student papers. It's a nice deep burgundy.

How I Love a Three Day Weekend

What I've Done So Far This Weekend:

Went to the Spotlight dance competition in Oregon City, where Laura danced with Carlea. We left the house very early and it was very foggy on our way to Oregon City. Laura and Carlea were good, one of the few hip hop dance numbers at Spotlight. The rest was tap and jazz and other stuff. I thought Laura and Carlea were the best.

Picked up Girl Scout cookies that people ordered so I can give them to them!

Saw Pinback with Michael at the Wonder Ballroom. We enjoyed it. But after hearing them play for a while the idea of sitting down really appealed to me, and I was glad that Michael felt the same way. We left before the encore. But what we saw was great.

Ran 5 and a half miles.

Thought of titles for unwritten poems on my run but haven't written them down yet.

Met Daneen to talk about our new writing group. Poetry! It was just Daneen and I today at the Bipartisan Cafe, but in two weeks we will be at Daneen's house and there will be more of us!

Dyed my hair.

Watched the first Battlestar Gallatica miniseries, that we own on DVD. Now I want to watch the entire series. I love Laura Roslin.

Read some of the Theory of Clouds. I read some of the 2004 Best American Poetry because Lynn Hejinian edited it and I saw her last weekend so I wanted to remember who she picked for that edition.

Read some more of a friend's book so I can write a blurb for it.

Here's your Gertrude Stein excerpt for today: A light in the moon the only light is on Sunday.

Tomorrow I have another day off! Thank you Presidents!

Happy Valentine's Day

I am supposed to be grading student papers. Here I go.

Flowers for valentine's day! Lovely lovely flowers.

I am making creme brulee.

A poet I like asked me to write a blurb for her upcoming book.

Another poet friend has a new book out and it's sparkly and fresh.

I admit it, I have book envy.

Laura has a dance competition this weekend. Max has Little League tryouts.

I am writing a poem this week. I will finish it soon.

Li-Young Lee is coming next week. To the Newmark. I will be there too.

I have papers to grade. Here I go.

Your Gertrude Stein quote for the day: A vegetable garden in the beginning looks so promising and then after all little by little it grows nothing but vegetables, nothing, nothing but vegetables.

Sigh.

Dead Fish Museum

Wow it's been quite a week for books and me (I can say that because this is MY blog).

Mary Oliver on Tuesday! She read and talked about writing. Tonight, just around the corner at the Heathman, Charles D'Ambrosio read from The Dead Fish Museum and talked about writing. He is working on a novel, and I thought he said some interesting things about writing essays and writing stories. If I was a loquacious blogger I'd talk for several paragraphs about what he said but you know by now that's not my style. I saw him. He was good.

I have signed books by Mary and Charlie now and I like getting books signed by authors. I like what Mary said about showing up to write every day. Charles is pro writing programs! Go writing programs! Meet other writers! Connect! Teach each other stuff!

I have been playing this stupid stupid game on Facebook where you put things in your pack and then you also steal them from other people and you get points if you make sets. I allow myself 10 minutes or so doing this every few days, although Saturday, when I first started playing it, I think I spent like 20 minutes. It's kind of like an aggressive GO FISH card game. I think it also can be seen as a kind of metaphor for something having to do with consumerism.

If you're not too tired to think in those ways, which I kind of am right now. Plus it's kind of trite to say something is a metaphor for consumerism because that's like so easy. Except Ratpack (I think that's the name or something) is about GETTING STUFF, so I don't think it's entirely off base. But maybe too obvious.

My office is a mess. I ran three miles today and I have been working on a poem this week that I'd like to finish a draft of soon.

My dogs want their walk.

Persepolis!

I saw Persepolis this afternoon and I loved it. I'm going to read Persepolis I and II.

I finished Pillars of the Earth! It is the longest book I think I've ever read.

You are not supposed to feed puppies cupcakes but sometimes you just can't help yourself.

I have been messing around with Facebook, but I'm not sure what it's for. If you take away the hugs and the pokes and putting stuff on people's walls, what's left? A poet sent me a virtual strawberry and encouraged me to send one back and then the message said, "together, we can fight global warming!" So I sent a few others to "friends" and it seemed funny and also, kind of sad. Because it really won't fight global warming. But maybe it was meant ironically. Or maybe it's just a Facebook fun thing to do, when you need time off from fighting global warming.

Tomorrow I have the day off (from work I mean, not from fighting global warming, as I spend very little time actually fighting global warming, although I do recycle and sometimes take public transportation).

Max has a chess tournament this weekend.

When I turned 5 I celebrated my birthday at a Farrell's in Eugene. I also celebrated my 21st birthday in Eugene. I remember when I turned 35 I thought I was SO OLD. Ha!

When I was three, I think, my mom made me a cake from a magazine recipe. It was like a bear or some kind of animal and our Siamese cat ate the ears off it. The ears were like gingersnaps or something.

Michele said something very useful today about my poetry manuscript. Because the idea of putting this year's poems, and all the poems to come, back in that first manuscript, making room for them somehow in a manuscript that I feel very DONE with, doesn't appeal to me at all. And she asked me if it was done and I said, yes. She said, then it's done! And I should just believe that it was going to get published eventually and the new poems go in the 2nd book.

So! It's done. It'll get published and then I'll already have a 2nd book well on its way when that happens. Funny how I couldn't just tell myself that and still needed my thesis advisor from 4 years ago to tell me that and somehow give me permission! Well! Thesis advisor, it's just a never-ending job.

It also reminded me of a conversation I had once with Michele when I was in school and she asked me how I decided if a poem was "done", and I said, uh, well if someone publishes it, I guess. Lame answer I know. She said at the time, oh so then you let someone ELSE decide?

Reb Livingston's rant on her blog made me smile.

Debbie your book is on its way to you!

I received this book today!The web page that displays this book has been permanently bookmarked in my web browser for almost two years, as I've been thinking about buying it for a long time. And then I opened a present today and there it was!

Wherever you go, there you are!

New Issue is Up!

The new Caffeine Destiny is up! Check it out.

I have been having fun on Facebook.

Laura's hair is now a very pretty red.

I want it to snow.

I'm almost done with The Pillars of the Earth. It's been a long read, but it's good!

Some Things I Did Today

I ran three miles, over to Hendricks Park and back to the hotel room.

I ordered a nice meal but didn't have time to eat it. Cecelia brought it to me later and I ate it even later in my hotel room. But I didn't have silverware in my hotel room so I ate it with my hands.

I went into Track Town Pizza just to be nostalgic. Didn't get any pizza.

Cecelia, Track Town Pizza, Hendricks park - I'm in Eugene!

With the Oregon Book Awards author tour.

More soon, from Portland.