Like I Have Time For This?

Sara just tagged me for another meme. I’m pretty sure it’s a different meme, but even if it’s the same one I did earlier this week (see 7 Random Things About Me) I don’t mind doing it again. Here’s the instructions she posted on her blog:

Each player lists 8 facts/habits about themselves. The rules of the game are posted at the beginning before those facts/habits are listed. At the end of the post, the player then tags 8 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know that they have been tagged and asking them to read your blog.

1. Up until about 4 days ago, I couldn’t pronounce the word “meme.” But now I can. (Thanks, Katherine!)

2. I ate WAY too many pistashios today, and right before dinner time, too. I’ve been incredibly thirsty ever since.

3. I still haven’t taken down the streamers from my 4-year-old’s birthday party last month. I really should get up and go do that, but instead I’m gonna finish this post, and by the time I’m done, I will have forgotten all about those pink streamers hanging from my dining room window.

4. I’m a Law & Order junkie. If I could just stay away from the USA network, my house would be a lot cleaner and I’d get more writing done.

5. I once memorized all the lyrics to Arlo Guthrie’s Alice’s Restaurant, even the part where the sergeant talks.

6. I used to bite my fingernails so bad that they were practically nonexistent. Then I got some of that nailpolish that tastes TERRIBLE and it worked! I was able to grow my nails long and take good care of them for years. But now that I’ve got little ones, I keep my nails as short as can be.

7. When I was in middle school, my family lived in the same neighborhood as Jaqueline Kennedy O’Nassis. I used to run into her sometimes while walking in the woods, and my sister helped take care of her horses. She was a really nice lady.

8. I still haven’t decided exactly how I’m gonna pre-order Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Amazon? Or Borders?

Okay, so there’s eight more things about me.

I’m gonna tag Katherine, Heather, and Weaver. I’d tag Robinella, too, if it would bring her out of retirement (hint, hint). And thanks to Sara for tagging me.

Okay…here goes the meme thing.

1. I don’t know how to pronounce meme. Is it “mee-mee”, or is it “mem”?

2. I’m left-handed.

3. I graduated summa cum laude with a degree in History and Political Science. I’m also a member of various honor societies, including Phi Beta Kappa. In fact, I was one of six juniors in my college class invited to join Phi Beta Kappa a year earlier than usual. The first thing I did after the Phi Beta Kappa induction ceremony was to teach my husband (then boyfriend) the secret Phi Beta Kappa handshake even though he was not a member of that organization. But don’t tell anyone okay?

4. I’m currently between favorite ice cream flavors. For years, my favorite ice cream flavor was Breyers Mint Chocolate Chip. And it had to be BREYERS — none of that fake green colored mint chocolate chip, if you know what I mean. But this year Breyers changed their chocolate chips to something that tastes processed and waxy and fake, and it’s JUST RUINED. I’m at a loss now, as to how to handle my mint chocolate chip ice cream needs, and I’m secretly hoping that eventually Breyers will realize their mistake and go back to their original chocolate chip recipe — kind of like when Coke tried to sell that New Coke crap a few decades ago to compete with Pepsi and everyone complained so they went back to their original Coke syrup and that’s how we ended up with Coca-Cola Classic. So, if anyone hears about Breyers Mint Chocolate Chip Classic, please let me know.

5. Lord Voldemort and I share the same birthday. But other than that, we have absolutely nothing in common.

6. I am a published poet. I have one poem published in an anthology and stacks of other poems that need to be sent out for publication. The reason I haven’t sent any poems out is that I suffer from Cover-Letter-Itis — a tragic condition in which every time I try to write a cover letter to accompany some of my poems, I collapse into a catatonic state of fear. But I’m working on it.

7. I quit smoking last summer, and this spring I discovered that none of my summer clothes fit. I had to go up a pant-size. I was a bit depressed about that until I went on my annual writing-retreat last week, where all my fabulous poet friends told me that my weight gain served me well. That I no longer looked so scrawny. That now I look…get ready for this…JUICY! That’s the ultimate beauty of hanging out with poets. You get so much more than the standard “yeah, but it looks good on you” kind of compliment. So, I’ve been wandering around since then, reveling in my apparent JUICY-ness.

Life is good.

So, there you have it, 7 random things about me, right off the top of my head. Thus ends my first “mee-mee” or “mem” or whatever it is. And now I shall tag: Robinella, Ami, and Andie. And a special thanks to Katherine for tagging me. That was fun.

Well, I’m back!

 What a trip! The best one ever. And I’ve been going on these things for almost 10 years now. Maybe it was because it was all women this year. No men. None. Except for that nicely tanned young man who came on Saturday and gave us all hour-long massages.

No, I’m not joking… we really did have a nicely tanned young man show up on Saturday and give us all massages. It’s the first year we’ve ever done that. And we’re thinking we’ll make it an annual event. Like, why didn’t we think of THAT sooner?!?

Other than that, we wrote poetry. We revised previously written poetry. We ate roasted asparagus and shrimp with peach-cocktail sauce. We ate complicated salads. And stuff with curry in it. Teriyaki salmon and more asparagus. We walked in the desert and watched the sun go down behind the mountains.

And we talked. Deep into the night, we talked in ways only women who know each other well can talk. These are the women I’ve known for years, the women who feed my writing. And what’s funny is, some of them, I’d only see once a year at this retreat, even though we all lived sort of near each other. But we’re all at different places in our lives, and only fully connect at this little 5-day retreat. And when we’re up in the Baca Grande country, we’re totally connected. It’s strange magic. But necessary magic.

This is how I mark my years. With each Baca trip.

So, one year ends and one begins in my strange and utterly cool life. And can I tell you how much I’m looking forward to this next one? Something tells me, it’s gonna be a GREAT one!

What’s that, you ask? Did I miss you? Of course I did! All of you. Did I think of you while away at the Baca? Um, yeah…kind of… for a while on Saturday morning… but then it was time for my massage. Did I mention that this cute little tanned thing showed up and gave us all massages? Oh. I did. Okay. Just making sure.

Well, I guess I should go find some dishes that need doing.

By the way, my mother-in-law was here at my house for the week, so I have this kitchen floor clean enough to perform open heart surgery on now. Maybe after I’m done doing some dishes, I’ll spill something on the floor, get everything back to normal around here.

Going to the Baca is grand, but so is coming home again.

Back when I lived in Colorado, I used to go on a poetry-writing retreat every May. When we suddenly had to move to the east coast this year, I thought surely that would be the end of my decadent annual trip into the Sangre de Cristo mountains with a bunch of other poets where for five days, we’d all sit quietly and write to our hearts’ content, eat the kind of food that toddlers don’t like, and sit around the lodge in the evening listening to the coyotes wail and just talk the kind of talk that poets talk when they’re not writing.

But guess what? They called me a few months ago and said: Are you still coming to this thing or not?

And I said: HELL YES, I’M STILL COMING!!!!!!!

So, tomorrow, I fly west to the place that still feels like home, and after a few hours of driving I’ll find myself back in the Baca Grande, with my good old friends who taught me everything I know about poetry. We’ll write, drink coffee, talk over simple meals, and maybe dance a little bit in the desert sage that owns the land out there.

There’s no Internet access there, (and cell phones only work if you go up to the roof and dangle precariously over the edge of the wall and wait for the bars to light up.) So consider me out of commission until next week, people.

But before I go, a little housekeeping.

You may have noticed I added a picture of myself at the top of the screen. That’s me. Or at least, that’s what I look like when I take my camera and sneak out behind the barn and aim it at my head in a feeble attempt to simultaneously get an “artsy” shot of myself while masking the growing number of chins I’m sporting these days.

(When I was MUCH younger I used to sneak out behind the barn with a six-pack of beer and a deck of smokes. But alas! Those days are in the past. Now it’s just me and my feeble camera. Hoo boy! Here comes 40!)

I figured I put so many pictures of the family up here, it’s only right to add one of myself. So, there it is.

Also, a dear, dear friend has requested that I start listing what I’m reading. I guess I’ll get around to doing that formally in the sidebar at some point, but not today. It took me almost an hour to figure out how to get the picture and accompanying text to work right. So, until I figure it all out, here’s a small list (in no particular order) of some of the fiction I’ve read recently. I’m not linking to Amazon because I don’t have time. So, you’ll just have to go there and type it in the search box yourself. Don’t worry. You CAN do it.

The Hours, by Michael Cunningham
The Time Travellers Wife, by Audrey Niffenegger
The Road, by Cormac McCarthy
Alias Grace, by Margaret Atwood
Empire Falls, by Richard Russo

So, if you’re totally distraught over the fact that there won’t be any new posts here for the rest of the week, pick up one of these titles. They’re all good reads. I’ll do a more complete listing when I get back. Promise.

Until next Tuesday, then.