Last Days of 50, Catching Up on Pop Culture, Reading This Week in Seattle, Tulip Festivals, Risk vs Reward and Knowing Your Limits

Last Days of 50

It’s about a week until my 51^st birthday, so these are the last days of being 50! Glenn took me up to the tulip festival a few days ago to celebrate, hence some beautiful pictures of tulips, on days when we surprisingly had really nice weather—sunny, windy, not too hot. I have been feeling my age—or maybe it’s an upper respiratory infection I’ve been fighting for two weeks, MS, or my anemia—anyway, I haven’t had much get up and go, honestly. It doesn’t seem very rock-n-roll.

Being a little down—with the addition of some car travel time—allowed me to consume some modern culture. I listened to Beyonce’s new “country” album—though I would call it more a mashup of country, folk, gospel, and blues, and hey, I loved listening to it (and actually hearing Beyonce’s voice for a change—it’s a surprise to hear her voice mixed so that you can actually hear with warm timbre). And of course, listened to Taylor’s The Tortured Poetry Department Anthology—only really loved one or two of the songs, like “Florida” and “Clara Bow,” unlike the way I instantly loved Evermore. Also, I was expecting more poets to show up in her album! I also watched the new Dune part II, which while something of a spectacle, had very strange pacing—a problem with the first Dune as well. Now, I’d love to see David Lynch’s original five hour cut that never got aired years ago. The whole book (and movie) is a pretty straight- up metaphor for countries battling over oil in the Middle East, along with a strong critique of religions in general. Of course, it was written in the seventies, and those themes were everywhere then.

Reading This Week in Seattle with Jack Straw Alumni

In a rare real-life appearance this week, I’m reading with the Jack Straw alumni in downtown Seattle Wednesday night at 7 PM at the Jack Straw Cultural Center. I’m only reading for about ten minutes, but my book will be there so if you haven’t gotten a signed copy from me yet, this is a good chance! I’m also doing an online appearance the next day for a class, which should be fun. I just need some energy back!

Tulips and Risk vs Reward

As I said, I’ve been feeling a little under the weather but Glenn took me for my birthday up to the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival. Afterwards I couldn’t make my legs work for a while (an MS thing—when you push yourself, stuff stops working) and I was exhausted, but today I was so happy I experienced the beauty and the sunshine and the positive experiences interacting with people and the art show (women artists on forests) at the Museum of Northwest Art and seeing all the flowers and one field of scented tulips (?) and the hyacinths and apple trees and yes, the pictures are wonderful and fun to take, but sometimes it pays to take a little risk—in my case, making my MS symptoms a little worse—to experience something that makes you happy and your life better. Risk vs reward, another lesson?

As I get older, I need to learn to practice self-care, acknowledge my limits, and also, when to take a shot at something that might be a little bit hard. It’s hard to know the exact right balance. If any of you have all the answers, let me know. Anyway, I think I will enjoy feeling like a real poet again this week.