Fevery and nauseous today. After a jaunt over the water Saturday to see my dear island-bound friends (45 minute drive, 30 minute ferry ride, 20 minute drive) and back, through lashings of cold wet wind and driving rain, I started feeling – not surprisingly – achy and chilled. But it didn’t go away and I spent all yesterday in bed with nothing but crackers and ginger ale. Still not better, which makes me sad, because I really wanted to go see Rebecca Loudon do her reading tonight at Hugo House. She is one of my favorite local poets, and I haven’t seen her read in ages. Blah! Fie on this frail immune system of mine!
But aside from that, I am feeling very blessed. For one, the aforementioned island poet friends – a lovely group that has stuck by one another for several years, and continues to rah-rah one another on every success. For another, Kelli A. showed me her copy of 32 Poems (Now in Perfect Bound!) on the back of which Deb Ager kindly printed a cute little ad for my book, Becoming the Villainess. And Eduardo also gave a little shout-out for my book on his blog this weekend, which I was very cheered by even in my current nauseous state! Thanks E! These little things really add up, especially when I haven’t written a line of poetry in a couple of weeks, much less sent anything out, and I start feeling like I’m not really a writer, etc. The kindness of others can not be overvalued.
Now I’m going to go crawl back into bed.