Recent Happenings in Dr. Write-ville

Back to lists:

1. I went to the Utah Arts Fest, where I read, friends of mine read, and Hightouch got a much deserved Arts Award from the Mayor (actually she got it from the Mayor's Chief of Staff who happens to be dating a friend of mine, but that's another story) and I had some important sightings. Let me list them here: the woman who punched another woman at the Son Volt concert last year (I saw her twice! with her kids!); the lead singer of the Purbats; a comedian with tons of tattoos that we recognized from Last Comic Standing. He's from West Jordan, but whenever he was on screen it said he was from West Jordy. Now that's comedy!
2. Went to Idaho. It was hot, but less hot than here, and fun. We did some hiking, and some swimming, some tennising, and more important, some eating of burritos from the taco truck and some drinking of the beer at the local brew pub. Also saw a grad school friend who just bought a house for $98,000. Anyone want to move to SE Idaho?
3. Two other cool things from Idaho: in downtown Pocatello they put pavers around downtown with quotations by local authors on them. They are about to do another round, but I missed the deadline. Maybe next time! I walked in to a coffee shop and there, there!, behind the counter was the man who had been my boss at the Starbucks on Queen Anne in Seattle. What, pray tell, was he doing in Pocatello? He opened a coffee shop there. His sister and brother live in Pocatello. Weird!
4. Middlebrow finished a big backyard project. He dug and hurt his back and sweated a lot. I helped a little. It's almost done (we need more gravel), but already I have that feeling of accomplishment, though I didn't really do anything.
5. Tomorrow: tennis! (playing. and maybe some watching. Wimbledon is nearing conclusion...)

And that's all for today.....

Clarity Lite

All of you know that I recently ran a big crazy race (because I won't stop talking about it). I think I hurt my waist (if one can hurt one's waist, then I did), but that's not what I want to write about. No, I want to write about the general sense of happiness and well-being that has come over me since the race. Actually, I think it started with the third leg of the race. I went into it with the attitude of well, this is the last one, how bad can it be? because soon it will be over. But I have to say that the third leg was my favorite.
First, because it was the third leg, I didn't feel like I had to run fast. I just settled into a rhythm and stuck with it. It helped that my rhythm also allowed me to pass a few people.
Second, the leg started at Rockport State Park in the dark. But not in the real middle-of-the-night dark. It was more the sun's-about-to-come-up dark. So I ran into the sunrise, farm land on each side. Horses, grass, barns. Wow. It was beautiful. And I just felt happy to be running in the morning in such a beautiful place. If not for the race, would I ever have run exactly there at that time? No.
Third, and maybe this is the endorphins talking, but since I got back (well, to be honest I'd have to say that it's really since I woke up Sunday morning after a good night's sleep) I've felt a little more calm about most things. I don't worry so much about not writing, I don't worry so much about the future or the past.
There's nothing like a big crazy race to help you live (or run) in the present moment. It's still difficult, of course, but I have to say I haven't been plagued by the self-doubt that is usually my constant companion. I haven't worried that I'm a total fraud (until I typed it just now. Now I'm worried about it).
In any case, my general level of anxiety about most things (including exercise) has subsided. I'm loving riding my bike around and swimming.
Peace out!

New Bicycle

Middlebrow got me a new bike for our anniversary. If you want to see my actual bike click on "Daisy 3" (the orange and yellow one). Mine has a sweet basket too. Middlebrow has promised to take a picture of me on it, hopefully with a baguette in the basket. And I'll be wearing a skirt, looking all French and shit.
Since I got my bike (on Saturday), I've taken to riding around the neighborhood in the evening. Son likes to ride too, and he's getting pretty good about watching for cars and being safe.
But what I love most is riding around the neighborhood without a helmet. And wearing a skirt! Now, I know I'm supposed to be safe, but really. I'm only riding on side streets. And riding down the street with the wind in your hair at night. Well, it really reminds me of being a kid. I'm not going anywhere. I'm just riding my bike up and down the street. And around the block. I even rode my bike to a reading in my neighborhood tonight. I've also promised Son that we'll ride our bikes to the gelato place in our hood some evening.
I think the Cruiser, as a bicycle type, might help restore the fun in exercise. I've ridden quite a bit in the last few days, just toodling around.
I think toodling is my new favorite form of exercise.

Done. And done.

I have a million hilarious quips about the Wasatch Back relay, but suffice it to say that I finished. It has got to be one of the friendlier races I've run, with participants spraying water on hot runners and cheering each other on. I love my fellow runners (go Van 1!) and we really had lots of fun. So the two words to describe the Wasatch Back: fun and torturous. Even the relaxing parts (showers, sleeping on wrestling mats with 100s of other runners in a high school gym) had their torturous aspects. Such as lying there not really sleeping knowing I had to get up and run in 3 hours. 2 hours. 1 hour. Etc.
My hardest leg was 8.5 miles of some uphill and mostly downhill. On pavement. Totally exposed. At 6 pm. I ran about 19 miles total in the course of 23 hours. My fastest pace was 9 minute miles for the first leg of the race and my slowest was 10:54 for my last leg of the race.
I would love to tell you all about it, except I must eat some chips and salsa (or "dinner"), drink a beer and go to bed. It will be the first night I've slept in my own bed in three nights.
We finished the 180 mile race in 32 hours 36 minutes 38 seconds. We like symmetry. We rock!!
And I'm still alive. So it's all good.

Recent Obsessions

1. Robyn: Swedish pop star. Why? Unknown. I heard about her on Fresh Air, and then I downloaded her music for running. My favorite is "Be Mine!" She swears a lot. As in "I should have seen it comin'/ I should have F*@%in' known." But somehow it's more powerful when I'm sitting on the couch, drinking white wine, surfing the net while Son plays with the neighbors.
2. Bald Men: Is it just me getting older or are bald men getting sexier? Or is that sexy men are getting balder? Witness one Michael Chiklis, who has been sexy for awhile. Bruce Willis is sexy when bald. But isn't he just sexy? (Don't think about his politics! which may be suspect!) I know there are others, but mind has just gone blank. I'll get back to you on this one.
   
3. Wasatch Back Relay: Why the fuck am I doing this? Okay, I know why. Because one agrees to be part of a team, and then one has to. I haven't been training enough and I've been drinking too much wine and eating too much, but what the hell. I'll finish. I know I will, because I have to, and, if nothing else, I have a strong sense of obligation. And also, I have learned in the years I have been me, I'm mentally strong even if I am weak of the flesh.
   
4. My unwritten novel: I think I'll write a book called The Novel I'm Not Writing. Then at least I'd be writing. But Sleepy E is in town, and he of the hypographia gave me a bit of a pep talk (spurred on by Middlebrow). I also got some inspiration from Walter Mosley's book This Year You Write Your Novel. In general, I just need someone to tell me, with infuriating regularity, You can do it. Just do it, you stupid fuckhead. But maybe in a nicer way.
   
5. Chris Noth: this picture. Enough said.
6. Plot: I like mysteries. I want to write a lyrical novel. Who the fuck am I? And why am I swearing so much?
   
7. Other people's sex lives: Do other people have more sex than me? Probably. Do they also have house cleaners and no children or at least nannies and are they having sex with the nanny? Maybe. Are they less neurotic about their non-wage earning "work"? Definitely. Let the dust bunnies reproduce. I'm in the basement "writing."
8. Writing: is the same as number 4? Yes. See number 7 under neurotic.
   
9. Not deserving all the wonderful great fantastic awesome gifts of the universe: do I need to go to therapy again? I haven't got time! See number 7.
   
10. Summer: hiking. going to the pool. not writing. Whatever. It's summer!
    

Author Photos: Good, Bad & Hilarious

I've seen some bad author photos. And I do not want to be the subject of those. I was going to post some (of other people, of course), but then I thought that was too mean. So here, for my small blogging universe, I offer some candidates with tag lines. Judge for yourself.


Dr. Write is grainy and maybe sleepy? Her eyes are not exactly focused. But she remains in good humor. Her hair looks good for once! She is grateful for her friend's skill with the camera. She doesn't really look like this. In any case, this is just her head. She has a body too, but she doesn't want you to see that.

Dr. Write looks dreamily into the future. In the original of this photo, there was a huge bottle of wine that had to be cropped out. Is her bra showing? Well, at least it's not a nipple. She's looking across the table at a book editor, sending subliminal messages such as "publish my book" and "don't eat the duck pate."


This is Dr. Write's usual pose: mouth open. But usually her eyes are also closed. Where is she? She doesn't even know the people who own this house, she just climbed over the fence to use this chair and the deck. And maybe to steal some beverages. Can you see her tonsils? This might have been right before the police showed up.

Waiting: Over!

I received two pieces of good news this week. An embarrassment of riches.
#1: I was selected to go to London next May with the Study Abroad program.
#2: My collection of short stories was accepted by a publisher. I received an email, so it feels slightly unreal, but I trust the author of said email, so I believe in it. But it will feel more real when I get a letter or a contract.
Now I will drink coffee and steep in my good news.

Waiting

Most of our lives is probably spent waiting, and while we wait, we do things like read. Or surf the internets.
I only mention it because I'm in a colossal bout of waiting right now. Dup-de-doo. (Imagine me twiddling my thumbs.)
Also, I've been really impatient lately at the additional waiting that accompanies life, like waiting in line to pay for things, waiting to get a card, waiting at stop lights, etc etc etc.
I also wanted a new post, because that book one was confusing. The upshot was, I've read some things for school, and some things I started and didn't finish, and other things I haven't read at all.Actually that's most things. If you ever see a book and think, "I wonder if Dr. Write has read this..." the answer is probably no. Middlebrow is on this "read really, really, really long books" kick (which he is just about to start...any day now).
Meanwhile, I think I'll watch a movie.

Books

Since all I seem to be doing is reading or making lists, this meme from Otterbutt, who is somewhere close by, but whom I haven't seen in at least a week!!
Some of these wouldn't let me bold & underline, so you have to take what you can get.
So, I bolded ones I read, underlined ones read for school, and italicized ones I started but did not finish. Some I question why I read in the first place. Memoirs of a Geisha? Though I know why. I told people that I thought it was bad, then I got taken to task for saying that because I hadn't read it. So I read it. And you know what? It was bad. Some books you just know are bad without reading them. Why read them and waste your time?

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
Anna Karenina
Crime and Punishment
Catch-22
One Hundred Years of Solitude
Wuthering Heights
The Silmarillion
Life of Pi : a novel
The Name of the Rose
Don Quixote
Moby Dick
Ulysses
Madame Bovary
The Odyssey
Pride and Prejudice
Jane Eyre
The Tale of Two Cities
The Brothers Karamazov
Guns, Germs, and Steel
War and Peace
Vanity Fair
The Time Traveler’s Wife
The Iliad
Emma
The Blind Assassin
The Kite Runner
Mrs. Dalloway
Great Expectations
American Gods
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
Atlas Shrugged
Reading Lolita in Tehran : a memoir in books
Memoirs of a Geisha
Middlesex
Quicksilver
Wicked : the life and times of the wicked witch of the West
The Canterbury Tales
The Historian : a novel
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Love in the Time of Cholera
Brave New World
The Fountainhead
Foucault’s Pendulum
Middlemarch
Frankenstein
The Count of Monte Cristo
Dracula
A Clockwork Orange
Anansi Boys
The Once and Future King
The Grapes of Wrath
The Poisonwood Bible
1984
Angels & Demons
Inferno
The Satanic Verses
Sense and Sensibility
The Picture of Dorian Gray
Mansfield Park
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
To the Lighthouse
Tess of the D’Urbervilles
Oliver Twist
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
Dune
The Prince
The Sound and the Fury
Angela’s Ashes : a memoir
The God of Small Things
A People’s History of the United States : 1492-present
Cryptonomicon
Neverwhere
A Confederacy of Dunces
A Short History of Nearly Everything
Dubliners
The Unbearable Lightness of Being
Beloved
Slaughterhouse-five
The Scarlet Letter
Eats, Shoots & Leaves
The Mists of Avalon
Oryx and Crake
Cloud Atlas
The Confusion is this
There is Confusion
Lolita
Persuasion
Northanger Abbey
The Catcher in the Rye
On the Road
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Freakonomics : a rogue economist explores the hidden side of everything
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance : an inquiry into values
The Aeneid
Watership Down
Gravity’s Rainbow
The Hobbit
In Cold Blood : a true account of a multiple murder and its consequences
White Teeth
Treasure Island
David Copperfield

Austin: The Morning After

This is my artistic abstract photograph of Dale Watson playing at The Continental Club. It was mounds of fun.











The outdoor seating of Jo's Coffee on South Congress. I love the metal! This is where I had my celebrity sighting.











Suzi took me to Smitty's Market in Lockhart, Texas. You buy the meat right from the cooks in a very hot! outer room where, regardless of outdoor temperature, there is an extremely hot fire burning for them to cook the meat. You can get an avocado and they give you white bread. No forks, people, you eat with your hands. I think it was the greasiest sausage I've ever had. I also had an Arnold Palmer.





This is the interior of Smitty's Market, where you get your sides (potato salad, beans, avocado) and drinks. It's cash only. I love the signs. Also, you can get beer if you want and ice cream for dessert.










An interesting building in Lockhart, Texas


















The replica of the Oval Office, cerca LBJ. I didn't get a picture of it, but there was a cool phone in a drawer. And a wooden console that housed three small TVs. Maybe so he could watch all three major networks at once?







All in all, the trip was a smashing success. I am glad to be home, where the temp is 73 instead of 93, with no humidity. I also slept like a baby. I was glad to see MB and Son also, though Son wasted no time getting up to his old tricks of not falling asleep until after 10 and not wanting to wear appropriate clothing for school. But he also couldn't do anything because he was so distracted by the books he's reading, about which I cannot complain.
I will now begin my post-vacation regimen of rice, vegetables and water. A vacation filled with barbecue, beer and wine means cleansing.

Austin Update: Celebrity Sighting

This morning, at 6:45 a.m., Suzi picked me up to go kayaking. We had a lovely paddle in Town Lake (saw some turtles, blue fish, and aggressive swans). Then, of course, we went to Jo's for some protein and caffeine. I am quickly becoming addicted to the Austin tradition of the breakfast taco. Yum!
While we were sitting there, next to the Hotel San Jose, who should come out of said hip, cool hotel but Luke Wilson. I kid you not. He's cute. He was wearing sun glasses and I tried not to stare.
I should also add that I went to bed last night at around 12:30. I went with Don and Martin to The Continental Club to see (or hear) Dale Watson. It was only $5 and it was so much fun! They played lots of oldies, like Merle Haggard and Charlie Rich. It was great! I had three beers (A Stella, Negro Modelo & a Lone Star) and, aside from being tired this morning, no ill effects. I had lots of fun watching all the folks swing dance and country two-step. I was quite impressed with the young, hip looking men who could partner dance. Apparently it's a thing in Texas, and I have to say I think it's a positive trend. I like men who can dance while still looking cool with their messy hair, skinny jeans and Chuck Taylor's.
All in all, Austin is a smashing success. Thanks to Suzi, who has taken me to all the cool local restaurants and the distant barbecue place and the hip coffee shop and the cool bar. And Don who took me to see live music. Tonight we are going to a Tapas place and a place called the Broken Spoke, where apparently there will be an accordion band. Yee haw!
Also, after my presentation (what presentation?), I am going with my colleague David to the LBJ library. I have never been to a Presidential Library before, so I'm looking forward to it. Apparently there is a scathing letter from Goldwater that I'm to keep an eye out for. If it doesn't thunder and rain tomorrow, I may get to go to Barton Springs again. If not, I will probably just go shopping, which is its own consolation.

Keep Austin Sweaty

Here's a pic of my friend Suzi and colleague David at a bar in Austin called Mean Eyed Cat. It has a Johnny Cash theme. It also, like many Austin bars, has cool outdoor seating. And imported beer for like, not that much.









Here are Suzi & I in front of the sign. You can't see it, but it's still kind of hot.












Here's Middlebrow and I at The Salt Lick. It was amazing. What else can I say.












Our food with the beer we brought from home. The Salt Lick is in a dry part of the county. It's BYOB.


















Blooming cacti in front of Suzi's house












I'm having a good time in Austin, although it's hot. And humid. We saw the bats. We swam at Barton Springs (best time ever!) and we've had nothing but great food since we got here. I love the cheap taco stands. Yeah cheap tacos!! And frozen sangria. Like a wine slurpee. At a taco stand! And cheap beer. Etc!!
But also I miss home. And Son. He's little. He needs me! (Or I need him. Same thing!)

What I've Been Doing (Not that You Wanted to Know...)

• Reading about Writing (This Year You Write Your Novel by Walter Mosley)
• Reading Other Things (textbooks, Pale Fire, blogs)
  
• Writing (or trying to write or at least sitting downstairs at my desk)
• Riding the Train (and reading on the train)
• Seeing Movie ("Made of Honor" yes, I actually saw it & I liked it!)
• Eating (fish tacos that I made, salad, banana muffins)
• Sneezing (while running, sleeping, and so on)
• Not sleeping (is it the allergy medicine?)
• Reading to Son (still on Harry Potter 5, which, magically, seems to be endless)
• Cleaning (who really wants to mop the kitchen floor? But it needs to be done!)
• Doing Laundry (this really is endless!!)
• Exercising (well, I didn't do this Sunday or Monday. But today. Today!)
• Downloading & Listening to Madonna's new album "Hard Candy" (some ridiculousness, such as "my sugar is raw" !? but I laugh every time I hear JT say "Ma-Donna")
  
• Going to the Pool (I took Son to the pool yesterday. The indoor pool. But still.)
• Thinking about packing for Austin
• Signing up for things on-line
• Wondering when my new swimsuit will arrive by mail
• Fretting
• Oh yeah! Being happy about not winning a book contest, but being one of 5 finalists (that's a first for me, being a finalist. The not winning part I've been doing for awhile)
• Dining with friends (that's tonight)
• Going to Austin (on Thursday, so I'm out for at least a week, but if I have wireless at my hotel, I'll blog!)
  

Updates from Week 2

• Episodes of TV shows watched: 4 (2 Samantha Who?, and one Gray's Anatomy, even though I gave it up...oh! And Idol)
• Long Meetings Attended: 1 (and it was three hours! And it was still going when I left!) I hereby give up meetings for the rest of the summer!
• Appointments with students: 3 (two with the same student, one was my mistake the second she didn't show up to, plus an email from another student who wants to meet but I don't want to....)
• Movies watched: 1 (Leatherheads at Brewvies with HighTouch)
• Exercise done: 1 run, 2 swims (all done grudgingly. I'm burnt out. Burnt out!)
• Writing = Despair: I've done nothing. Noooothing. I read some of the novel I started five years ago. That's right. Five years!! Lame-O, with a capital Lame.
• Poems written: One. And here it is. Wala!

Poem in Which I Defend my Dislike of Vampire Novels

Maybe I don’t like vampire novels because I’m afraid of needles

or maybe it’s because I don’t like blood or the idea of holes

in my neck, or anyone else’s for that matter, and maybe I don’t like

vampire novels because, generally, they read as if they were written

by vampires, in the dark, in rooms cramped as coffins, with little or no

sunlight, no happiness, no hope for a life free from black clothing

and steak tartar, and I don’t have anything against the goth look, in fact

I like black, but the prose! Those novels are written as if

it’s enough just to have the vampire: he’s a vampire! or she’s a vampire!

but in any case there’s a vampire! and that’s it, no further need to explain.

A friend wrote a vampire novel, but it wasn’t scary, in fact, I think it was comedy,

and all I remember was that the vampire worked in catering or played tape ball

and that seems like the only valid use of a vampire in fiction, if he’s not, primarily,

doing vampire stuff, like stalking girls who are pale to begin with, or biting

women’s necks and draining them of blood, which seems unrealistic, frankly, given the sheer

volume of blood in even one single person, and I don’t like that vampires

are so much like mosquitoes, which, to my knowledge, no one has ever written a novel

about, why can’t mosquitoes be main characters? They like to suck blood

and they hang around at night, in the dark, being annoying in much the fashion of vampires,

where’s the novel about a mosquito who falls in love or the mosquito who can’t

die but instead breeds in the dank water of Okefenokee and falls in love only to kill

the one he loves (perhaps with malaria)? It’s a story we’ve heard before,

the vampire plot. John Gardner said there are only two stories: someone goes on a journey or a

stranger comes to town. Most vampire novels are both, as in a vampire

(the ur-stranger) comes to town and then everyone goes on a journey. But aren’t vampire

novels about our fear of the body? Aren’t vampires just another metaphor

for death and sex and the unknown? I’ve seen the vampires, and I tell you,

I’ll take my chances with sex and the unknown.

My famous step-father

My mom and her husband taught in Myanmar for several years. Last year, he taught in China, near where the recent earthquake occurred. Apparently, with the recent natural disasters in both places, a TV station in his area found out and he was featured on the news. Watch the clip here.
And if you have any extra money, make a donation to an international relief agency. Thanks.

Mothers' Day Movie Marathon

My friend and I planned a Dance Movie Marathon and accidentally had it on Mothers' Day. I didn't know it was Mothers' Day when I picked that day, but we ended up having it yesterday anyway. It was perfect, actually, because I believe that on Mothers' Day one should be entirely free of any maternal duties. Son and MB gave me the "Juno" soundtrack, which I love.
My friend made delicious chocolate chip cookies, and I made enchiladas (the sauce was amazing!!). We walked to the store for ice between movies 1 & 2, and we made some margaritas for movie 3.
The movies were supposed to start at 1, but we had some technical difficulties, and I was a bit late. By the end of the night, we were one whole movie behind. We started around 1:30 and ended after 10. It was so worth it.
The line up:
Footloose. I hadn't seen this in so long, that I'd forgotten Sarah Jessica Parker was in it. Also, it's weird to watch it so close to where it was filmed. All the girls had Idaho hair as far as I could tell (but I guess it's also Utah hair). Also, a colleague was in it, though we didn't see him. But he was there, somewhere.
Breakin'. I'd never seen this, and it was very dated, just as Footloose was. But the dancing was good. I think the white girl wasn't a very good dancer, but what do I know. Loved the 80s outfits, such as the leotards with belts and ripped shirts. It kind of made me want to watch Flashdance. I think my favorite part was the young Ice T.
Strictly Ballroom. Again, it had been ages since I'd seen this. I think this might have been the only truly good movie in the line up. The father is hilarious in his solo dance scenes. And the hair!! This made me want to learn to dance so I could do the Flamenco, which is what I think they did. Shows how much I know about dancing.
Save the Last Dance. I had never seen this one, and I liked it. I liked the inter-racial romance thing it had going on. Also the dancing (in the bar at least) was good.

Some weird convergences: "True Colors" was featured in both Strictly Ballroom and Save the Last Dance (I think... it was in two different movies anyway). Also Save the Last Dance featured a shout out to Turbo and Ozone, the dance stars of Breakin'. All the movies featured the "outsider" or "loner" against the mainstream. Most of the movies used either class or race issues to explore this mainstream/other plot line. And as Lis pointed out, the makers of Step Up 2: The Streets had obviously studied Breakin'.
Also, having watched these four movies I now understand that most of our problems can be solved through dancing. (And by "our" I mean whatever group you belong to: young people in rural Americans, white people, ballroom dancers, racially divided groups of people in Chicago, etc.)
I now think that I should have a movie marathon every Mothers' Day. Maybe next year it will be movies featuring teachers and/or English teachers. Maybe Dead Poets' Society, Stand and Deliver, Dangerous Minds, Freedom Writers, Mr. Holland's Opus. Any other suggestions for themes and/or movies?

What I've Been Doing: Week 1

Though this week doesn't really count as Week 1 of vacation (I didn't turn in my grades until Monday), it is the beginning of vacation. So what have I been doing?

1. Cleaning the bedroom (mopping floor, dusting, cleaning the door, more dusting)
2. Purging (old running shoes, clothes not worn in decades, Son's too small clothes)
3. Cleaning downstairs (so far I've only recycled a lot of paper and shredded some stuff, but the desk is visible, if not quite usable)
4. Watching stuff ("Shut Up & Sing," "Monk" on Hulu, "I'm Your Man" while I cleaned downstairs)
5. Eating French Fries (made in the oven, with yummy aioli, so good)
6. Going out to lunch (I've only done this once, but I think I'll do it again!)
7. Thinking about writing (I like to have a fresh start and a clean desk)
8. Making lists in my head (called "things to do" & "things not to forget")
9. Worrying (self-explanatory?)
10. Drinking (wine, beer, Izze sodas, iced tea, lemonade)
11. Laundry
12. Reading (two books finished today! Onward & upward!)
13. Getting organized (at least in my mind)
14. Having my blood drawn (this is in my top two things I hate the most & I can't remember the other one. Plus I have a big bruise now)
15. Oh, I have been running. And I swam once. And my knee hurts. So there's that)

I hope y'all have been as wildly unproductive in the first days of summer vacation as I have. I'm looking forward to it being hot enough that the pool opens.

On the Death of a Neighbor

I think this one is self-explanatory. I didn't know what to do, so I made muffins and wrote this poem.

When I came out of my house, he would be there
I had to stop myself from saying always
in the mornings, after snow or rain, there

Then suddenly he’s disappeared, he’s nowhere
and I will have to find another way
to come out of my house and find him there

More than fences & sidewalks that we shared
the simple waves or funny things he’d say
in the mornings, after snow or rain, there

And how to tell my son he won’t be there?
Hola Fernando! my son would wave
When he came out of the house, his friend was always there

My son pretends not to, or doesn’t know how to, care
but soon enough he will find his way
in the mornings, after snow or rain, there

His being gone surrounds us everywhere
No other day will be just like today
When I come out of my house, his absence will be there
in the mornings, after snow or rain,

...and Done!

I submitted my grades this morning. Let the flurry of student emails reading "D??" begin. Sigh.
And so begin my ambitious summer plans. So far I've dusted under the bed and the dressers and mopped one-fourth of the bedroom. I wiped down the door and door frame. I subtracted all the transactions from our checking account. I'm listening to the new KRCL. I'm trying to get rid of T-shirts I haven't worn in the last year. Why does that seem so hard? I'm also looking for new storage options for my shoes. It's probably time to mop another part of the bedroom (trying to clean the floor without moving the bed into the hallway, which would involve taking it apart. Just not worth it). I may dust the dresser, but then I have to go swim in order to recover from my weekend which involved standing in one place for 5-ish hours and running 10 miles (half up hill!). And my arm hurts.
Watched "Juno" finally. Loved it!

My Six Word Memoir

Did I really just say that?