Thursday, January 31, 2008

the worst . . .

. . . week ever. Included being sick, a bleeding bird, falling down a flight of stairs, and turning in my notice to my apartment. Hah! Take that apartment living! No longer will I be subjected to the randy behavior of my once-a-week neighbors. No longer will I be irritated at 3am by your cacophonous flow of inexplicable traffic past my window. No longer will I be subject to your domestic housecalls by burly police officers in triplicate. No longer will I suffer the neglect of beige carpet on my psyche. No longer!

Assuming, of course, that I get the house.

So the bird. Buddha picked a blood feather. He had blood dripping off his beak, all over his foot, and there it was, a huge (bird-sized) flow of blood on his wing. I, naturally, freaked. Called vet.

Me: My bird is bleeding!

Office Person: Do you have any corn starch?

Me: Who the hell cooks with corn starch these days?

Office Person: Better bring him down right now.

Once at vet's office, he'd stopped bleeding. Of course. He did get a nail trim though. Phoebe got a wing clipping. Vet told me not to worry about the feather plucking. Not much I can do about it, despite my new Bird Talk magazine that filled me with hope that one day little Timmy would walk again! No - wrong mag. One day little Buddha would let his feathers grow! What can I say? He likes the naked look.

Um, falling down the stairs. Yeah. I have the bruises to prove it. Not going into detail. I think I have told you too much already. Let's just say, it was through no fault of my own, and I wasn't drinking.

On top of being a bit under the weather, this has all basically served to reinforce my belief in long, extended vacations.

(All misspellings are the fault of Blogger. The button won't work. Figures.)

Sunday, January 27, 2008

4000 . . .

. . . dead American soldiers and counting. When did we get over 4000? I didn't even know this until I was watching Face the Nation this morning. Seems that the war has dropped off the radar lately with the recession. Carolyn Kennedy endorsed Obama. Just the other day I was mentioning how he reminded me of JFK. The energy, the youthful boyishness with a twist. I still cannot decide between candidates. I doubt I am the only one. The thing is, I would support either Hillary or Barack. Fully. With Hillary we get Bill. With Barack we get to watch those two adorable kids grow up. (Yes, I know, that is not an equal comparison. Get off my back already.) Still interested in the support that Ron Paul has with the general public, and still baffled why on earth this man selected to run in the Republican party. Except that as a GOP candidate he has a better shot. He should just pull a Ross Perot.

Heath Ledger is dead and Amy Winehouse is in rehab. What is it about talent that pulls some people under? (This is a rhetorical question.)

Poem accepted the other day. A fabulous publication. Two friends in it as well, and honestly, I have no idea who else. Will announce shortly. What pleases me is that it is a poem that I took huge experimental risks on in workshop last semester. Then I switched it back to a more Jenesque style. But they accepted the wild version. Giving them the option of the other, and we'll see which they prefer.

House hunting this weekend - there are some really amazing homes in Wilmington. And then there are the not so. . . But it is time to get out of the apartment, to get a house with a yard. Dogs! Lots and lots of dogs! I'm excited. The cats. . . not so much. Dakota would prefer to live a dogfree life. (Speaking of which, I think I may have found a way around that pesky tattoo quandary. More on that later. Maybe.)

Off to write.

Saturday, January 19, 2008

trying to write this . . .

. . . without sounding, well, how I can sound. There's this commercial. About how you can pay your taxes if you are an illegal. They give you a "number" and you can file your taxes like the good American you want to be. While still remaining illegal. Am I the only one who questions this?

Oh, and apparently the American dream is to pay taxes.

Twist: I am so for taxes. That's right. I think everyone should pay. I think the poor shouldn't have to, the rich should pay more, and the middle class needs to stop whining (I can't, sniff, afford my four thousand rent and still go out to Olive Garden every night!). Um, socialism, not that bad. You know, caring for thy neighbor. Whatever. It is way too early to start in on the religious right wingers. I haven't even had my coffee. I usually try to wait for the second cup before I intentionally start to offend.

Good morning!

Friday, January 18, 2008

po-blogs . . .

. . . so I was adding websites for my poetry students as additional resources, and it occurred to me that out of all the blogs I frequent, only two are consistent about posting on poetics: K. Silem Mohammad and Reginald Shepard. (Links added to the left.) Surely there are more out there in this vein, and I invite you to kindly send me in their direction. (I should also add that the resources for my students do not include my own blog, but rather Blackboard for those of you in the know of academic networking.)

And, yes, it also discourages me with this blog, because ultimately I want to open discussion of poetical matters as they are pertinent to my own growth. So what am I working on now? Ideally, my thesis. I am halfway through the program, with one full semester before I have to start pulling it together. I am not worried about it the way I was before. Basically, I have a million poems. (Not really.) I figure I'll just pull out the poems that seem to have a conversation going on with each other, arrange in a way that feels conceptual to a mood (am I even writing in English anymore???) and naturally this will all happen the night before it is due to my advisor.

Please, don't burst my bubble. Let me live in this fantasy for a bit.

Seriously though, we are looking at Levis in workshop. (I think Levis is going to follow me the rest of my time here. This is the third time I've been 'exposed' in grad school to his work, and I am not complaining. I wasn't ready for him in undergrad. There was something off putting about his poems and how they think. I couldn't wrap my mind around them. I was too enraptured with Phil Levine.) The difference with this reading of Levis is that we are looking at his body of work, and how he evolves from the first book to the posthumous one. More on that later.

Once again feeling the push and pull of poetry versus fiction. I am very excited about this short story I am writing. Not because it is fantastic and great, but because I am actually enjoying the writing of it. Usually, I dread the act of writing fiction. (But not poetry - it pleases me to write in that frame of mind.) But this story is working well for me in term of pleasure. Which is what it is all about right?

Long weekend. Already need it.

Monday, January 14, 2008

changing . . .

. . . the blog's focus. From now on it is going to center around my failing relationship with my car. The thing is, we've been together for a while now. Going on eight or nine years. And I guess I feel like it just isn't meeting my expectations anymore. Moaning and groaning when I turn it on. (Which is usually a good thing, mind you.) But this new sound is more of a wailing, chuga chuga chuga. The type of sound really old muscle cars make - you know the type. No paint, dents from every angle, the sound of the car arriving ten minutes before the actual visual....

I hate to break up, but these sort of things can happen. When you're on a first name basis with your mechanic, well. . . therapy may no longer work.

Teaching in ten minutes. Komunyakaa. Yes, he rocks. It's okay to say it.

Friday, January 11, 2008

school . . .


. . . has finally started. Thank God. I was about to go out of my mind. As all procrastinators can attest, I do better with structure.

For some reason, I really want an orange.

That's all I've got.

Friday, January 04, 2008

rats! . .

. . . climbing up my chair. They are so cute. Seriously folks. Need to post a picture here. Mason currently going for the wallet. (I'm onto that game - rats know money. That's all I'm sayin'.)

So - one rejection, one acceptance. Will let you know about the acceptance as soon as I send the contract back. My first ever contract, and my first ever acceptance via letter. Was that ever weird. In a so-good way.

Obama won the Iowa caucus! How intriguing. I personally have yet to decide who I will vote for, but you can believe they won't be from the Republican ticket. Not that I fully support the Dems either. But they are way less evil.

Computer is fixed! This thing I have been dreading (long lines to talk to my own personal geek at Geek Squad, having to leave my precious writing and all the other crap for an extended period of time, getting it back only to find they erased all the precious writing but spared the crap, having to take it back sometime mid-semester and the nightmare goes on. . . ) but it was all fixed in ten minutes. Insane. Seriously. It now works. So here is what I learned: if you have Vista, and you have iTunes, the two do not always work well together. They have a patch. Which you can't find online. Which you must go to a geek to get. But go. Seriously. It takes five minutes. Okay, ten. Whatever.

Must write syllabus! Must get books! Must establish office hours! Must find office! Is there furniture yet? Will I really and truly have a cubicle? A place in which to leave my backpack while I teach so I feel all grown up and not like some impostor? (Funny the things one wants in order to fully do one's job, but never even thought about until one is actually doing the job.)

Must also reorganize apartment. Too much poetry stuff hiding upstairs, too much clutter downstairs. Pointed out to me the other day and I must say, I agree wholeheartedly. There is a well defined pathway around the house. It would help if I could keep my bike outside, but since I am rather fond of it, I think I will keep it inside. Bikes have a way of just walking off in my neighborhood.

Back in Wilmy, by the way. Excited to be so. Things fabulous in Chatty also. Had a lovely Christmas. Very marvelous to see the dogs.