The One Ring Wants to Be Found
Funny family story comes back around after only 27 years.
My oldest brother was kind of a high-school heartbreaker, and in return, had a vengeful ex-girlfriend throw away his class ring during his junior year in 1981. My parents were upset, but he could never figure out where it had gone.
Cue music: a young boy in Knoxville recently was building a fort in the woods, and came upon a shiny object with a name engraved on it. He put out a Craiglist ad and contacted the high school name on the ring. The high school tries to track down my brother, unsuccessfully. (His name is apparently fairly common in Tennessee.) But, someone at the high school tracks down my father in Ohio.
Here’s the story about a very honest young man who went through a lot of trouble:
http://www.wbir.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=67308&catid=8
Moral of this story: Hmm, I’m not sure. But it makes me feel kind of warm and fuzzy.
Ork! Woke up this morning and Shakepeare the cat was hissing, yowling, and limping, so first thing after we wake up, we load up and get to the animal hospital. He’s fine, our little furball just sprained his ankle and knee, so they doped him up, charged us hundreds of dollars for exam and x-ray, and sent us both on our way. PS I think the vet’s digital x-ray equipment is better and faster than any x-rays I’ve ever been given.
We voted in Southern California. Our polling place had no line at 2 PM. Two of the volunteers were high school girls with big hair serving community service hours for a DUI. I know this because they were complaining loudly about it while I tried to make decisions about Veteren’s funds and Animal rights (for, and for.) The other two poll vounteers were very nice older ladies. I’m pretty sure they weren’t in for DUI community service, anyway, but you never know. There were no machines, no curtains, just little boxes on top of music stand-type things with old-fashioned paper ballots. I like those better, anyway. They remind me of the SATs.
I’m hoping for no more excitement. Oh, and our cable went out, just as I sat down to get an election update. Good times.
And oh yeah, go see this:
http://mfrost.typepad.com/cute_overload/2008/11/vote-vote-vote.html
Had a lot of fun last night at the Poetry International reading at DG Wills bookstore in La Jolla. The MFA students working for SDSU’s literary magazine were bright and interesting, and Ilya Kaminsky is always a kick. Got to meet the next New Issues poet on the rise, I think – Jericho Brown, whose first book, Please, is passionate and bluesy, plus, chock-full of persona poems! He read one last night in the voice of Janis Joplin that was terrific.
I read a poem from issue 12 about Amaterasu, the Shinto sun goddess, and a couple of others. (Even sold a book – to a couple of fellow Buffy fans 🙂 One of the other readers had a few poems about translating Japanese, which I thought was fascinating. In fact, I was genuinely impressed with nearly every reader, and besides that, the people just had what I think California people might call “good energy.” It feels like perhaps I’m finally finding the literary folks of the San Diego area, slowly, maybe, but getting there. Still, there’s no Open Books substitute.
Also, a health note: a bit of constant sore throat and cough, it seems, is par for the course in October, even for die-hard San Diegans, because of the Santa Ana winds, so at least I’m not alone in that. A couple of people last night, my ultrasound tech, and countless others have told me that locals always get sick in October. I had to fire Dr. Botox Barbie (which means another round of paperwork and records fun, sigh) but found a very good doctor at the urgent care office next to my apartment complex, and thanks to my best-ever-Seattle-hematologist, the hardest working doctor ever, have an appointment with a new GP recommended by the head of UCSD Medicine. How’s that for a referral? I’m ready for a health boost!
I’m teaching persona poetry this week in my class and am happy to see that my students are really enjoying it. The power of persona 🙂
I went to a wonderful reading last night at the Casa Romantica reading series. It was a beautiful venue – I got there late, so it was dark and foggy, but during the day the venue has glass walls that look over the ocean. Sandra Alcosser gave a wonderful reading (despite a broken back – talk about a tough poet!) as did Joy Manesiotis, who read Sappho-esque fragments.
Back for some more tests this afternoon, an ultrasound, nothing painful or involving needles, thank goodness. Think good thoughts for me.
And wait for the Great Pumpkin. I’m pretty sure this is the most sincere pumpkin patch, I mean blog…Do you think the Great Pumpkin gives out poetry prizes too?
You never really know a town til you’ve been to its ER, I say. I got to visit this weekend. A new town, a new set of health challenges, this time, stomach trouble, sigh. More blood to draw, more scans to schedule. The hospital also confirmed that I had had pneumonia while I was in Port Townsend, probably for a long time, without knowing it. My lungs still have blockages! I have been breathing easier since I’ve been here, but apparently I’m not all the way better from that year-long trip to lung-trouble land.
On the plus side, I’ll be joining the reading for Poetry International on Nov 1, where Li-Young Lee will be reading as the feature! Fun stuff. As long as I can walk and talk, I’ll be there, baby!
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.
