La Conner and Woodinville Fall Scenes, Seattle Poetry Readings, and MS
- At October 21, 2018
- By Jeannine Gailey
- In Blog
- 0
La Conner Autumn Scenes and MS, the Least Wanted Visitor
I ended up in the hospital after this day trip, but it was an absolutely gorgeous visit to La Conner, so I thought I’d post some of the photos anyway.
That’s MS for you – it acts up when you least expect it, it kind of messes up your holiday plans and fun, and is basically like a really unpleasant friend or relative that shows up when they are least wanted. (To be fair, this hospital trip, the MS could have been combined with a food allergy reaction, so…) I was so sad that Selma Blair announced she had MS today, but she’s being very brave. Her experiences sounded shockingly similar to mine – vague symptoms for about ten years, the clumsiness, the memory problems, worsening things like legs and hands not working – and an MS diagnosis at 46 – mine was at 44 – when the average age for women to get diagnosed is much younger, usually in your twenties and thirties. There is no cure, and the treatment options are scary, full of unpleasant side-effects, and not very effective (typical effectiveness rates hover in the 30 percent range, and all of the side effects resemble chemo.) I’m not saying this to frighten anyone, or to trumpet self-pity, but I hope to encourage more awareness about MS so we can get more funding for research, treatments, and cures.
Anyway, we don’t get that many beautiful sunny days in October, and it was a good day to remind ourselves of some of the unique beauties of the Northwest.
We saw herons, bald eagles, deer, seals, and snow geese! We visited a ton of farm stands and stopped into the Roozengarde Gardens (off-season, it’s empty and gorgeous.) Wish you were here!
Local Poetry Readings
Seattle never lacks for poetry readings, but since I was basically in the hospital overnight that knocked out a whole day of doing anything besides recovering. Tomorrow (Sunday, the 21st) there are three readings at the same time – a Raven Chronicles reading, a staging of Claudia Castro Luna‘s Killing Marias, and the Floating Bridge winners reading. I’m sad to miss the first two, but excited to go see my good friend Natasha Moni who’s reading from her Floating Bridge prize-winning new chapbook, Nation, tomorrow at Elliot Bay Books at 3 PM (a wonderful bookstore, but not very handicapped-friendly.) I haven’t socialized much since the latest flare, and even now I’m kind of worried about how normal I’ll seem, if I’ll have the energy to have a conversation afterwards, or stand long enough to chat with folks normally. I’m a very social person, so I’m excited to see my friends, but still a little anxious. It is funny how many things happen here on the same day – you can’t complain there aren’t enough choices for literary events here. Anyway, I hope to see you there!
Woodinville in the Fall
Since I’ve been taking it easy, I haven’t gotten out much since the hospital, but I wanted to document some of the beauty of ordinary fall days in Woodinville – local wineries, visiting deer, and changing colors. The one thing I didn’t snap but should have? A vineyard walk of a fully-costumed Wookie holding a wine glass.
Anyway, even with the bad things that happened this week, I couldn’t help but notice how beautiful the place I live is. I am thankful for that. I am thankful for poetry readings and deer and changing leaves, and for nice EMTs and ER nurses who know how to put in an IV the right way. I am thankful for the good days, and well, on the bad days, not as thankful, I’m just hoping to have as few of them as possible as I learn to manage my crazy health issues. I did write poems this week, send out poems, and even voted in the midterms! I started reading Murakami’s new novel, Killing Commendatore, at the hospital, and Glenn and I played Murakami bingo with the first two chapters: a missing wife, cats, mysterious dreams, pasta cooking, too many descriptions of women’s breasts, a preternaturally charming 13 year old girl: check, check, and check. I’m noticing the new poems I’ve been writing don’t go in the sixth book – they have a different tone, different subject matter, different mood. This means I have to start thinking about organizing the new poems pretty soon…