Almost Thanksgiving…

If this causes you to think about holiday shopping, then check out Kristin Berkey-Abbott’s excellent list of poetry books to buy:
http://kristinberkey-abbott.blogspot.com/2009/11/books-with-spine-for-your-holiday.html
and poetry chapbooks:
http://kristinberkey-abbott.blogspot.com/2009/11/chapbooks-make-great-stocking-stuffers.html

If you’re thinking about applying for a residency, Susan Rich give some tips at her new blog:
http://thealchemistskitchen.blogspot.com/2009/11/artist-residencies-what-you-should-know.html

And, if you want to know what I’m doing, we’re celebrating quietly as our families are out in the Midwest and most of our friends in the Northwest. I’ve ordered some duck, as there’s no point roasting a turkey for two, and I wanted to try something different. (Probably serving with a cranberry-cherry sauce on top.) Also on the menu: cornbread stuffing with dried cherries and pine nuts and maybe a little duck confit, a delicata squash baked with cranberries, and a mini pumpkin-cheesecake. Probably that’s already too much for us, and I haven’t even counted a potato or green veggie dish!

Remembering what to be thankful for. I love seeing the trees with their orange and red leaves against a sharp blue sky – I missed fall while I lived in San Diego (too sunny and desert-like – plus a lack of trees) and Seattle (where we’d have one day of fall, then a rainstorm knocked down all the leaves, then we’d start nine months of rain.) I am thankful for a steady stream of sunny days in between rain showers here. I’m thankful for all the kind back-channel notes I received about my post on being childless, from people with children and people without. I’m thankful for poets and for people who read poetry. I’m thankful for friends who don’t forget about me even though I keep moving away, and for friendly gestures from new acquaintances. I’m thankful for writing, thankful for some employment, thankful for my husband who has been an extra super-superhero as I’ve been on crutches most of this year (broken foot, sprained ankle, then another sprained ankle after that…) and he has been on housekeeping, cat-caretaking and grocery-shopping duty. I’m thankful I survived the scariest bout of pneumonia I ever had this year. I’m actually really thankful that a new year is about to begin, hopefully a better, healthier year, a year full of promise and opportunity.