i've got a feeling this year's for me and you

blizzarding, etc.

To cope with yesterday's blizzard, it became necessary to hole up with David and Jeff for legendary snowday festivities. By noon, we were at the grocery store picking out items for the day's various meals: cheese quesadillas, scallops wrapped in bacon, lemon chicken with capers and rice pilaf. Over the next 24 hours, some things happened: hot toddies, wine, lots of eating, a mildly disgruntled scrabble game, Fishing with John (the Willem Dafoe and Jim Jarmusch episodes), collaborative poems, several snowy laps around the house in intervals, snow angels in the middle of Route 9, passing out to Scrooged, waking up severely hungover but pretty blissful. I can't imagine a blizzard better spent.

Tomorrow, I head off for an epic 2.5 weeks in Michigan. After that, 5 days in Portland (the Oregon one) visiting B. Slagle. I am excited and anxious for all prospects. Fingers crossed that the forecasted big snow dump tomorrow doesn't result in an airport slumber party.

living patterns

It's getting to that point in my life when I'm really starting to notice my stunted, childlike habits. This is mostly because I've realized how many of my friends have grown-up apartments and grown-up cooking skills, and how much time I spend marveling at both.

I'm bad at these things. I live in an elderly woman's wood-paneled basement with nothing on the walls. Every mismatched piece of furniture I own came free from the side of a road somewhere, except for my couch, table lamp, and bed, which were free from other sources. I don't have a dresser. I like the idea of cooking, but am riddled with anxiety about it enough to not actually attempt much of anything. I cook pasta and canned sauce or pierogies when I'm feeling adventurous. The other day I had a mini-crisis in the supermarket when I had to convince myself not to buy frozen burritos. Granted, my eating habits have steadily improved over the years, but still. These are not "grown-up" things.

And then I think about my grandma, whose apartment was a complete disaster zone and whose culinary pinnacle was making chrusciki (a very simple polish pastry) maybe once a year. Everything else she ate came in the form of a Schwan's frozen dinner that "the Schwan's man" would deliver to her doorstep in bulk every couple weeks. I suppose everything evens out somehow, and I love you grandma, but this is not what I want for myself.

In closing, I will maybe try harder. Though it doesn't help that I share a kitchen with two women who have far superior cooking skills and who, whenever i enter the kitchen, call me "Sandwich Queen" or not-so-cleverly quip, "well, I'm glad someone is using the toaster oven."

installing values everywhere

Values by installation? Sign me up. Seems like a much more permanent solution to things.

Also, I think writing letters to Elvis might make us all feel better. Let's try it. Ready, go.

it's a place i'd like to be

[Galaxie 500 - Tugboat]

When I was 17, I started swapping mix tapes with a girl in San Francisco. The first one she sent me had this song on it. It's still one of my favorites.

two variations

VARIATIONS ON A THEME BY WILLIAM CARLOS WILLIAMS
-Kenneth Koch

1
I chopped down the house that you had been saving to live in next summer.
I am sorry, but it was morning, and I had nothing to do
and its wooden beams were so inviting.

2
We laughed at the hollyhocks together
and then I sprayed them with lye.
Forgive me. I simply do not know what I am doing.

3
I gave away the money that you had been saving to live on for the next ten years.
The man who asked for it was shabby
and the firm March wind on the porch was so juicy and cold.

4
Last evening we went dancing and I broke your leg.
Forgive me. I was clumsy and
I wanted you here in the wards, where I am the doctor!

...

VARIATIONS ON A THEME BY RICK MORANIS

1


2


3


4

some delights

Partly because I finished reading Thermal Delight in Architecture by Lisa Heschong (which is fantastic), but mostly because I found a stash of firewood and kindling under the stairs, I decided it was time to christen my fireplace. I think I like my apartment more as it gets colder outside; there really is some kind of thermal attraction going on here. So I suggest you read this book and build a fire, maybe at the same time.

adrian munsey - the lost sheep

happy halloween, etc.

I gave my students Halloween candy at 9 this morning. Later, they made jokes about people dying in Iraq. Mistake?

Otherwise, I'm excited 'cause this is thriller, thriller night, and no one's gonna save you from the beast about to strike.

having a coke with you

I read some poems in front of people last night. I haven't done that in a very long time. The sequence revolved heavily around Catholicism and outer space, which wasn't entirely planned, but I guess that's the way it happens sometimes.

There's nothing quite like sharing work with a room of people you admire and having it turn out that they might admire you a little, too. I'm trying to learn how to handle that.

In other news, here's Frank O'Hara: