Whoa! Best of Web nomination

Hey-ya, I just got an email alerting me to my nomination from LITnIMAGE-- my deranged love poem to Saakashvili has been nominated for the Dzanc Best of the Web Anthology! Super happy time. (Sorry, I think Eunice from SSTLS is rubbing off on me, that book IS so super sad and so super funny, truly frightening and hilarious at once. That's an incredible feat and why I love satire.)

NYC this weekend!

On Friday I'm going up to NYC to see Anne Carson deliver a lecture at The Philoctetes Center. My husband and I are staying the weekend. I'm so excited to get out of town! And it's Halloween weekend-- an extra bonus.

I've been finding it hard to concentrate on writing. I've blamed that on a lot of things, but mostly attributing it to feeling so underemployed at work. I try to make the most of it, but it seems pointless.

Man, don't you miss the old days when I would have just gone ape-shit about it on my blog? Let it all out? I guess those days are over. A new maturity? Perhaps.

Damn, though. I just sound depressed.

Mountains and other naturally occuring things

Hooray for a weekend of walking the woods. Hooray for Berkley Springs, Katie F and Katherine O! Woodpeckers, chickadees, prehistoric mud ponds, the most poorly marked trail ever-- numbers? what do these mean?-- earth dog, green bean's long lost brothers, Jazz Masters and crayfish. Yes.

Also, reading A Super Sad True Love Story and loving it!

Get ready for Helloing!

small post

I had a peaceful weekend. I met a super friendly Matt Bell, heard him read about a mechanical messiah, was captivated by Joanna Howard's lyrical internal meter and got drawn in by Brian Evenson's "Wind-Eye." Wind-eye is the Norwegian word for window in English. I love how one word can grab someone and make them create a story.


Then, Chris Toll held mass on the 11th floor of the Bromo Seltzer tower. The room was white and full of afternoon sun. There were benevolent armchairs. Joe Young brought us "When Light becomes St. Paul" and a discussion followed. I brought original sin and some stuff about taproots. I thought it was a good pairing.

I slept and woke and played Irish music on my mandolin. I bought my cat a jungle-gym igloo. I bought him catnip, but will dispense it carefully because I read cats can give themselves brain damage because they have such little self control when it comes to inhaling the herb.