Poets in the Park, Crazy Weeks, and Focusing on the Good

It’s been a crazy week –  bad news all over the television, heat waves, giant layoffs at Microsoft (where I used to work and husband G. works now) and helping my brother move in down the street (a good thing, but still stressful). But one of my coping mechanisms for dealing with a lot of bad stuff is to try to focus on 1. things I can actually do something about and 2. the small positive things that are happening around us.

So, tomorrow is the Redmond Poets in the Park Festival, held in Anderson Park. I’ll be reading at noon with the two other Redmond Poet Laureates (Rebecca Meredith and Michael Dylan Welch) if you want to catch me! There will a bookfair, lots of other fun readings, and best of all, it’s free and it’s supposed to be slightly cooler (in the seventies rather than the nineties!) Plus, free coffee with haiku! A lot of friends will be there, and it will be good to catch up. I love having poetry in my own backyard! (Click here for more info and a detailed schedule: http://www.graceguts.com/poets-in-the-park)

One of the things Glenn and I scheduled months ago to celebrate our anniversary/his birthday was buying tickets to a concert – we try to go to at least two rock concerts every summer, because Seattle has a ton of good ones. This time it’s OK Go – known for their cool music videos – at Neumos downtown. Maybe we’re getting too old for hipster Capital Hill music venues, but we’ll try to blend! Ha! Is this a quiet week ideal for going to a concert? Probably not, but we’re going to go anyway!

So, I did have some good news this week – a lit mag I’ve been trying to get into for over ten years sent me news that I’d made it to the next round of editors – something I’d never done! I was excited until I second-guessed myself and started thinking “is this even something I should get excited about?” But, in poetry, there are really so few big wins and so many discouragements – so I think I’m going to go ahead and be happy. At least if I get a rejection, I’ll know two poems made it into the final rounds! So, cross your fingers for me!