Overscheduled but Happy on a Rainy Weekend
This morning I woke up early (at the crack of a very grey dawn) to Skype-meet with a class of students in New York state (hi Dustin’s class!) and frighten them with stories of learning to shoot a gun in Tennessee when I was seven and the sexual connotations of the joystick. When will I learn to be more appropriate? Then I sped down to physical therapy (where my PT person recommends socializing less to relax my jaw and help it heal – whoops!) and then raced home to change and meet my friend, rising star Sci-fi/Fantasy writer Felicity Shoulders, for coffee in downtown Seattle. I just got home from a rainy, traffic-y drive after stopping off at our poetry bookstore, Open Books, for a copy of “Mentor and Muse: Essays from Poets to Poets,” which looks fantastic.
Then I got the welcome news that Redactions had nominated my poem, “She Justifies Running Away, from the newest issue 13, for a Pushcart Prize. You can read all of this year’s nominees from Redactions here: http://redactions.com/pushcart-poems.asp
Now I think I will have a hot bath and some cider while simultaneously catching up on some bad tv and reading magazines. Tomorrow I go into downtown again for the 3 PM Crab Creek reading at Elliot Bay Bookstore with contributors Erin Malone, Kevin Miller, Peter Pereira, Michael Schmeltzer, and Martha Silano. A lovely group, I think you’ll agree!
The miracle of good wishes, sunshine, and very heavy-duty antibiotics mean that I am feeling much better today and not downing the last of my inhaler every ten minutes. Hope that improvement continues, as husband G is going out of town and my mother is coming in for a visit tomorrow! Reminder: do not ignore bronchitis symptoms. Especially if it is something that requires antibiotics!
Good news today – Redactions literary journal decided to nominate my poem, “Why I Write About Japanese Mythology” for the Pushcart Prize. Thanks guys!
In good news not pertaining to myself, my poet friend Natasha was the featured poet today at Rattle:
http://rattle.com/blog/2009/11/it-is-fair-to-say-by-natasha-kochicheril-moni/
So, what with the broken foot, the sprained right hand, and various bumps and bruises from another (!!) fall this weekend, we decided it would be best to cancel our journey northwest-ward for now and my reading up in Pasco for Columbia Basin College, which I really regret. What timing to have an accident or three!
I blame gremlins. Sneaking around, tripping me up…just in time for my trip! Boo! I will miss you Gwen, Felicity, and Seattle-friends! But I do plan on rescheduling a trip up to Seattle soon…
Trying to think of places to send a review-essay, and gearing up to write a conference proposal, another review, and some course-work for my upcoming class in April. Lots of work to do, and without the distracting use of my right hand and foot, well, I should be able to squeeze it in. Another week or two til I can do weight-bearing exercises on my foot! I’ve never been in such a hurry to progress to the next step of physical therapy before! I’ve been getting lots of good advice from my little brother, who broke his foot a number of times (among other things) in his quest for Shaolindo-black-belt-hood. His advice? It takes four weeks for a bone to set. Until then, rent lots of engrossing tv shows on DVD, and maybe play some video games. You can only read so many hours of the day – I go cross-eyed after about four hours these days. Also? There are a lot of nerves in the foot. Which is not such a good thing when you break a couple of bones. Like the opposite of reflexology. LOL.
Got my contributor’s copy of Redactions in the mail yesterday and looking forward to seeing Sentence’s new issue soon too (if they got my new address…it’s hard for lit mags to keep up with my many, many moves…)
