Happy post-Thanksgiving! I’ve had a cold and been grading. I know, too much fun – you’re jealous!
Ring in the new…
Peter put up a post about the first decade of the 2000’s being the “decade from Hell.” Although there have been some good things to come out of it, I’m going to go ahead and put it on my “not favorite decade” lists. Now, the 90’s – there were some good times. The music was loud, everyone was optimistic, and I remember that I always had too many job offers on my hands. (Of course, I was a techie-type then and not a poet-seeking-teaching-positions.) Plus, I was healthier!
I haven’t been so excited to see a year end in a loooong time. In 2009, I must have had a dozen trips to the hospital, my first ever broken bones, a no-exaggeration near-death experience with pneumonia, some other unpleasant firsts involving viruses and an amoeba, and the fact that I spent about ten months, between broken bones and multiple sprains, in crutches. Yes, it’s been a bit depressing. I don’t want to complain, but Universe, if you’re listening, I could use some good news and health in the new year! Let’s hear it for 2010!
Trying to shop local for Christmas this year (except for poetry and obscure books.) Locally-made Napa Valley candy, honey, olive oil, etc. Haven’t put up our tree yet, but hoping to get a chance to do it soon. I’m ready for some Christmas cheer! I’m in the mood to sing carols, watch sappy holiday specials, and rattle some noisemakers.

Jeannine Hall Gailey served as the second Poet Laureate of Redmond, Washington and the author of Becoming the Villainess, She Returns to the Floating World, Unexplained Fevers, The Robot Scientist’s Daughter, and winner of the Moon City Press Book Prize and SFPA’s Elgin Award, Field Guide to the End of the World. Her latest, Flare, Corona from BOA Editions, was a finalist for the Washington State Book Award. She’s also the author of PR for Poets, a Guidebook to Publicity and Marketing. Her work has been featured on NPR’s The Writer’s Almanac, Verse Daily and The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror. Her poems have appeared in The American Poetry Review, Poetry, and JAMA.


