Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Dancing Girl Press Lineup for 2011-12

I'm excited to see my chapbook title ("Blue Trajectory," also the title of this blog, not coincidentally) in the Dancing Girl Press Lineup for 2011-12.

Looking forward to the fall!

Also looking forward to the spring and summer in between.  Winter, on the other hand, does not agree with me, although it is growing on me enough to be tolerable.  I do find snow and even ice storms pretty and inspiring to look at, and sometimes a long weekend spent mostly indoors, writing, cooking, napping and watching movies, is kinda nice.  This last weekend was one of those, and the back-to-work transition has been tough.  The caffeine never quite kicked in today.

But then I'm always sleepy in the winter.  All in all, if winter were downsized to half its length and the rest were split between spring and fall, I would be quite happy.  Even the humid Washington summer could handle another week or two tacked on, I think — at the beginning, not the end.

Sunday, January 9, 2011

What a Weekend

I got some really wonderful news on Thursday.  My first print chapbook, Blue Trajectory, will be published by Dancing Girl Press as part of its 2011-12 series, with the date tentatively slated for this fall.

I am pretty excited about this, so excited in fact that I remained cheerful on Friday even upon learning that our furnace is broken and needs replacement, and that the replacement won't be arriving at our house until Monday.  After looking at the weather forecast, though, I started to get a bit apprehensive about my prospects of not freezing to death...

Well, before long, I was looking up pet-friendly hotels by the beach and was once again high on life until learning that the one with the jacuzzi was booked and the rest tended to be highly insect-infested, based on the consumer reviews.  I guess it wasn't surprising that hotels that allow pets have insects or that the only pet-friendly hotel in town with a jacuzzi was booked, given that there is a new casino complex opening in town this weekend.

However, my mood was restored when my partner exhibited his latent HVAC  prowess and came up with a temporary fix for the furnace that involved a little rigging and him keeping an eye on it for the few minutes that it's running.

So, all in all, things are well in my little world, although I was deeply saddened, not to mention freaked out and angry about the shooting incident in Arizona yesterday... another reminder that the polarizing, incendiary political language is damaging our country.  Sure, the guy is obviously a deranged individual. But it's not enough just to say that.  He is a deranged individual in the context of Arizona circa 2011.  I hope what happened will make people come together to reflect, but in light of recent trends, I'm afraid that's not what will happen.  I really hope I'm wrong.

Monday, January 3, 2011

Resolutions

As a kid I made at least 20 each year.  Now I am more realistic, and just barely managed to come up with nine:
  1. Write stuff in this blog, like this, even if it's silly, because that is what a blog is for.
  2. On the other hand, take breaks (whole days, if possible!) from the Internet now and then, because sometimes I suspect I am losing touch with three-dimensional reality.  Also, the iPhone.  It's neither a wedding ring nor a medical bracelet and shouldn't be treated like either.
  3. Reach out more to friends and engage in simple kindnesses to acquaintances, even if it means risking occasional failure.
  4. Worry less about deadlines and goals in terms of how they may validate my existence and enjoy more the process of getting there.
  5. Cook food from scratch more often, or ever.
  6. Clean the house more, because doing so always makes me feel better about life in general, and besides that, I'm less likely to trip on things.  Also, be more responsible in general (although I didn't want to jinx that one by giving it its own number ;) 
  7. Learn to play the Moonlight Sonata.
  8. Read more books, and less random Internet miscellany.
  9. Write more—poetry, fiction, nonfiction.  Write better, sure.  That's always the goal.  But, especially, write more, since the one has a way of leading to the other.
Happy New Year!