Birthday Week, Full Flower Moon, Open Books, Seattle’s Japanese Garden, and More

Me at 53, with Crabapple Blossoms

Birthday Week with Full Flower Moon

This was my birthday week, and it was pretty quiet, although we did a small family dinner celebration with my little brother and my nephew and his family and Glenn took me out to see The Devil Wears Prada 2 and we did a downtown Seattle visit to Open Books, The Seattle Japanese Garden, and Fran’s Chocolates for birthday treats, including a chocolate fig (which is amazing and I highly recommend). I also got two fillings (boo! do not recommend) and struggled a bit with writing/health discouragement.

But I was happy to pick up a few new books at Open Books, chat with Billie the owner, and see the Seattle Japanese Gardens before they close for construction this summer (during FIFA) including razing the iconic azalea rock wall we took a picture with below (for accessibility reasons, but still sad). We don’t get down to Seattle very often, and we definitely will be avoiding it during the World Cup, so it was good to go on my birthday. Devil Wears Prada 2 was great and the theater we went to was nearly empty (pre-May 1, which was the official release date). For a first movie experience after the pandemic, it was nearly flawless—a good movie that I actually had thoughts about (should publishing rely entirely on billionaires’ favors? I felt like it had a lot to say about the fate of journalism and publishing that also applied to poetry), great seats, a really nice local theater, the only thing I was sad about is that we missed out on promised swag by like one or two people.

Full Flower Moon

We had a beautiful full moon right on my birthday, too, and we had lovely sunny weather, so we got out and gardened and Glenn power-washed the deck, so we were ready to entertain. The full moon always gives me insomnia, and this one was no different. I was thinking about an interview with Meryl Streep about the first Devil Wear Prada and how she was thinking of retiring from acting when she was offered the job at 56. I am 53, so it made me think about when we retire as artists. I’m not making the kind of money Meryl is, and I’m much less in demand. If I retired, there probably wouldn’t be as much of an outcry as there would be over Meryl (who was not only great in Devil Wears Prada 2, but if you’ve seen her, she’s terrific in Only Murderers in the Building). It’s surprising to me that she was thinking of retiring but then spoke openly that she did the movie that was so beloved because of the large paycheck it afforded.

Goldfinch notices camera

I’m also thinking about retirement because Microsoft is offering early retirement packages next week. Glenn still loves his job and enjoys working, so it’s not very attractive to him yet. They’re doing it to invest more in AI and less in humanity, which seems depressing. I guess poets can work until they die or decide to do something else, and we definitely won’t be offered a nice paycheck to quit, and AI may try to take our jobs anyway.

This week EcoTheo re-ran a photo I took for them a while ago, and Rattle re-ran an older poem in their newsletter. So it was nice to be remembered in these ways on a week I was feeling discouraged and thinking about quitting.

And I’ll be reading in support of Catherine Broadwall’s book launch for Aftermath at Vermillion in Capitol Hill on May 5!

Anyway, I hope your beginning of May is as pleasant and free of AI-replacement as possible. And stay away from those billionaires (unless they really want to support the arts!)