A Star Among the Silences, Rings

December, I’m dark
before dark, each day.
The brief tears sting
but clear my eyes
Please don’t tell me, don’t cry.

Lately I am tired of words,
worn out from all the living I do in them.
There are some things only the body can do.
The body only knows how to say what’s true.

But both are best, words and body, like
lying on the ground underneath the stars.

My only one, hold your radiance to me,
try to light me, carry me someplace
bright in my own body.
Do it with your body, its heat & its light, weight.
Love, illuminate.

Darkness, Darkness

Everything is great, wonderful actually, and yet I am surrounded by darkness and hardly a soul is within touching distance. It is always like this for me at this time of year. Often I spend the hols crawling around on the floor crying. Then I go to a party. I expect it now. But it is still dreadful. Candles everywhere today.

Today I am making bath bombs, a Cheryl Wheeler tape for Deeb, and then some tea to drink while i sit with some of my old writing notebooks. Last night, on impulse, before the three parties I attended, I unboxed all my writing notebooks (since age 15) and all the journals of my adult life ( I'm on book 90 now, I think). I glanced through a few, and was amazed at how time itself revises memory. Also how confused I was during times when I wasn't doing what I wanted, what I should have been doing. Vicious cycle.

"I grow like a plant without remorse & without stupidity toward the hours loosened from the day pure & secure as a plant without crucifixion toward the hours loosened from night." — A. Césaire

Sad news

I just got word that one of my favorite people in the world, and one of the most accomplished musicians I've ever known, Al Tinney, has passed away. Al Tinney played with Charlie Parker, Ruth Brown and other greats in New York City before returning to Buffalo to raise a family. I first met him when I was 12, at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery jazz series, where he played weekly with Emile Latimer, Sam Falzone, John Bacon, Jr., Carol McLaughlin and many others. Al was a funny, gentle, beautiful man who loved music, children, and hugs.

For the last few years, Al has been fighting emphysema. It broke my heart to see him carting around his oxygen tank and still smoking cigarettes. Please, don't smoke.

We love you, Al. Peace and Godspeed. You will be deeply, deeply missed.

What a Difference A Day Makes

Yesterday I thought maybe I could buy the house I've been eyeing in Allentown, the one with the yard and mother-in-law cottage. I thought maybe I'd kicked the cold which has been coming on all week. I thought maybe, well, all kinds of juicy collaborative things. It was a long cloudy day.

Today the sun is out, but I don't qualify for a mortgage because they don't believe in how well one can live on a part-time job plus freelance income. I have the significant sniffles, and feel sorta lonely.

But I do have Lemon Zinger tea and thai lemongrass chili noodles and Sudafed and work to do which is useful in the world. Blessings, all.

And I do love me some Marlys paper dolls!!

Cold Turkey

I had the great privilege, and the best time, playing the 15th Annual John Lennon Tribute at Nietzsche's last night. The fun continues tonight, so don't miss it.

Joe Todaro and I sang "Two of Us" and "I'll be back". Most people know us as poets, so it is fun to surprise and, hopefully, entertain. We had great fun. It is our first musical outing in Buffalo together, though we did do Johnny Cash's "I've Been Everywhere" back in summer of 199 in San Francisco. Frankly, it's much more exciting to share a stage with many of Buffalo's incredibly talented musicians, including Michael Meldrum, Rick McGirr, Nelson Starr Greg Klyma, Mark Dixon and many others. As the song goes, we danced till a quarter to three...

...and slept till noon. There's more fun coming down the pike in the form of a visit from one of my favorite people, Cliff Eberhardt.

The First Snow

No, not really the first snow, but the first proper snow, and the Bills game was amazing too--great satisfaction to watch the Miami Dolphins shiver, clutch--and it is so quiet tonight now, only 7 pm, plenty of time to let the dog out to play and to heat some warm wine.....

Between the time I went to play darts and now, 3 inches fell....

Mariah was like, wow, for me?

Terrible, lovely driving home with the radio on, so slow....

When the lights go down in the city...

and the sun shines on the bay....

My friends make art...

and I write poetry....

Those Balance Bars just aint doin' it....

I just placed a take-out order at the venerable Santasiero's for an eggplant parm with a side of spaghetti and two meatballs--one for me, one for the dog. I've been away from her for two many hours today & expect every pen in the house to be munched. I don't blame her. She's also fond of the empty tofu container.

You mean all that corporate funding isn't buying our war for us?

"Let them march all they want, so long as they continue to pay their taxes." --Attributed to Alexander Haig, US Secretary of State (1981- 1989), commenting on demonstrations by anti-nuclear weapons protestors.

Did you know 46% of your tax money funds war? Um, and that's okay with you?

National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee
http://www.nwtrcc.org/

War Resisters League
http://www.warresisters.org/piechart.htm

http://www.tea-circle.com/sctfp/anon-violentworld.html

http://www.nonviolence.org/archivedsites/resource/mtap.htm

http://www.commondreams.org/views02/0412-01.htm
nice article/overview from commondreams.org

Fall fantasyland....

The park, the steet, entirely carpeted with leaves.

All mad love for the d-o-g....

"We are the lotus kids, better take note of this for the story..." --Red Hot Chili Peppers, "Midnight"

I worry a lot about politics, and what I can do to make the world better. I only believe in what is done with the body, by which I don't mean talk: I mean demonstrate, note, march, knock, drop bombs, run, rape, starve, shoot.

I'm not here to vote any party line: I'm here to make a life out of what has meaning for me. For all the beating of my political heart, this is the truest truth and the closest I have right now to a manifesto.

I'm over 8,000 words into the novel, but have decided it is not a novel idea, but a short story. To make myself feel better, looked at the other novels I've written and was incredibly soothed by the word count on each.

I didn't sleep all night last night, not till 7:30 AM. I couldn't say why, but now I wonder if it was the mirror I had leaning up against the wall--had brought it in from the hallway while dressing for my reading last night. At any rate, I was awake at 4 AM typing up a sexy little story I wrote at the end of my time in SF. Might need it next week....

The reading with Tika Milan was intimate and excellent. Truth and beauty, indeed.

"I am certain of nothing but the holiness of the Heart's affections and the truth of Imagination."--John Keats

More on where I've been....

Ludus Perpetuus (GNE fanzine)
GNE fan tee (hee hee!)
...and it's National Novel Writing Month and I only have about 6,000 words so far.

VOTE!Vote, vote, vote, vote, vote, vote.....

Please vote. I truly mean it when I say that any positive change of regime this election feels to me like our last best hope. I saw Bowling for Columbine yesterday and I'm feeling pretty unamerican. Since I'm totally anti-gun, I guess I'll vote out my agression.

Seany, this link's for you....
***

Very interesting thread at the fabulous 3WA on Money...."Do you need money to feel secure about your life? If so, what -- if anything -- do you feel you can trace this back to? If not, why do you think that is? What makes you feel secure?"

I know, it's excessive...I also take way too many books out of the library. And I have a notebook for each last, little thing...

I have started a new blog: Writing Prompts.

Here are the others. (First thing you have to do is admit you have a problem....)

Poet's Pantry
Rust Belt Blog (infrequently updated)
Consumption by Celia


I also contribute to:
fogblog
haiku at jillennium
Composite Buddha

Stop me before I blog again!

Halllooweeeeeeen...
Rosie the Riveter commands all. She can do it!

Poor Smitty...a woman's work is never done.

Some of the best pumpkins ever...

I did this one....

Bianca and Grizzly, who passed this year, showed up....

This one took six hours. Wow....

Celia is...

celia is a fantastic cuban singer

celia is the Computer Enhanced Language Instruction Archive

celia is rock

celia is a good restaurant in milwaukee, wi

celia is a band in sweden

I trust all you good people understand how much this sucks for librarians, and for all of you, too. USA Patriot Act: Librarians Keep Quiet. Think we roused too much rabble for Michael Moore? Did we help too many people find answers to questions? Do people still think we shush patrons?

"THE USA PATRIOT ACT allows the FBI broad new powers to check borrower records, Internet use and any other materials that could help track client reading histories (it also applies to booksellers and could be used to obtain medical records). The law contains a gag order threatening librarians with criminal prosecution if they tell anyone of the FBI visits. (Celia notes: this includes your boss, the legal counsel for your library, and your personal lawyer.) The FBI must get a warrant from a judge, but the standard is lower than probable cause. And the evidence, too, is secret."

A silly joke for the season...

Q: Why can't witches get pregnant?
A: Because their husbands have halloweenies.

Tis the season of the true warm wine. I made the winecorkboard I have been dreaming of.

Tis the season of the thinnest veil, a time for the truths of the bones, a time to acknowledge and then release what is dead. It is very sad. It is very freeing.

Here's my costume from a few years ago: a dead beat poet.

Pictures to follow of this year's....

Pre-Halloween weekend, but we are already begining...

I swear the trees are singing.

I carved my pumpkin last night.

I went to Dia De Los Muertos on Allen Street.

I met a hottie. I think he said his name was Harlan Sza-something.

What is your tarot significator?

Quiz
created by Polly Snodgrass.

WATER OF EARTH. Mommy! Well, you could be. You are good with plants and small creatures such as children. You're very generous and basically great hearted. You probably make mad whack cookies and are good at managing the household; also businesses. You'd make a good tax person, book keeper, gardener, massage therapist, etc. The ever domestic and practical one, you can stretch a penny and make ramen noodles go a long way.

In the morning of the world

In the morning of the world,
there is the dawning of the sun
dancing across the silent earth
to begin the slow awakening
of each and every thing.

In the morning of the world,
there is the singing
of birds and peaceful women.
the day itself birthing.

In the morning of the world,
while I am still dreaming,
there is already so much happiness
I’ll wake up grateful for it,
even if I missed it
one more time.

Shadow Culture

In my search for a plan (protesting globalization is not enough, individual action & demonstration are not enough) I came across this piece of sanity:

The act of asking for less, not more, is a radical act – far more radical than it's ever given credit for.

If you don't believe me, ask yourself why, after modern history's most appalling act of terrorism, the President of the united States of America would tell his people to keep on shopping or the terrorists win.

Here's why: consumption keeps the system standing. Take away consumption, and you need to come up with a radically different system.

Hallelujiah! Jubilee!

I really appreciate Alex Massie's take on life after thirty. Also it is reassuring to realize that my sense of caring less about certain things is not freakish by-product of a rough year. (Not this year, the last one, which is why I was starting to be alarmed by it.) It's not that I feel good about caring less. But the girl I was at 15 couldn't live in the world she saw. It's the same world now, folks, and worse in many ways I could not envision even in my lurid adolescent despair, but I do live in it and my life is often very excellent. Hallelujiah! Jubilee! It is extremely heartening to realize it is not simply circumstance or attitude which makes happiness.

I also gain strength from an adage I keep bumping into: Adversity does not build character. It reveals it.

Too bad they didn't archive all the information we used to have access to before 9/11.

"The University of North Texas Libraries and the U.S. Government Printing Office, as part of the Federal Depository Library Program, created a partnership to provide permanent public access to the electronic Web sites and publications of defunct U.S. government agencies and commissions. This collection was named the "CyberCemetery" by early users of the site."

The fabulous Mary Prankster are coming tomorrow to Nietzsche's! Don't miss it!

"Fuck me fuck me fuck me fuck me
I am Ernie's rubber duckie
kiss me kiss me kiss me kiss me
let's break out the tits and whiskey!"

New entry, full of big beautiful autumnal pictures, can be found here.

A must-have: The James Brown Rubber Ducky. "I feel good!"

The President's real goal in Iraq. [via addonizio]. What are we to do?

"This war, should it come, is intended to mark the official emergence of the United States as a full-fledged global empire, seizing sole responsibility and authority as planetary policeman. It would be the culmination of a plan 10 years or more in the making, carried out by those who believe the United States must seize the opportunity for global domination, even if it means becoming the "American imperialists" that our enemies always claimed we were."

Learn to be in darkness, said the poet. It was nearly all she knew. Even so, true, true, true.

a lil haiku up at jillenium

What I did today (the unexpergated version)


Listened to car talk,
had coffee,
made granola from scratch,
washed dishes,
wrote in journal,
walked dog,
checked email,
made oatmeal, ate oatmeal while watching america's test kitchen,
dressed & got stuff ready for workwent to peace vigil,
went to work,
checked email, defragmented work hard drive,
worked reference desk,
answered maybe 25 reference questions,
ate tiger's milk bar,
checked email multiple times & blogged,
read OLJs,
3WA,
played GNE, chatted with Jill,
ate noodles, chatted with colleagues, talked to Joe,
went home,
talked to Kteela,
walked dog,
checked email, downloaded songs,
alphabetized CDs,
bathed dog,
did dishes,
cleaned out closet & got rid of 2 bags worth of clothes (frankly, I am 33 and the jeans I wore ten years ago aint makin a comeback),
made dinner,
watched The Big Chill
,
took a bath,
checked email,
blogged....

There will be corn also: Smoove B archives.

This is the best thing I've seen on why the US should not proceed in war against Iraq. Stark has it right.

Free at last!

Hotmail can bite me. Oh yeah, they already did--only allowing me to block a few of the millions of spammers in the world, bombarding mw with pop-up ads, servers frequently down (no upgrade has ever improved my emailing experience), and failing to deliver a great deal of my incoming messages last week. They are still trickling in, 6, 7 days after they were sent...

So tonight I spent nearly 4 hours transferring my address book by hand (beacuse Hotmail sucks & has no export option). It was interesting to ponder each person & each name as it went past. Some of these addresses I've never used; at least ten, I'm sure, will bounce back. Still, I'm hoping to get some updates out of my friends, who are as near as 4 blocks away & as far away as the UK.

I keep telling you...

...Mercury is in retrograde.

Game Neverending...

Am already an addicted alphatester. Wow, what a game. Here's some tips & stuff I found whilst trolling:

Natalie's Tips for Game Neverending [pixelkitty]

Um...yum. [nws]

Okay, I promised an update.

I am wearing silver fingernail polish and purple toenail polish. I didn't sleep till 4 AM last night because I had coffee at 4 pm, stupid after days off coffee. Days with no coffee occur only when I am sick--in this case, feverish & feeling overrun with germs.

I am better now.

I got the Sims Unleashed & like it lots. I am happy Mark Driver updated after, what, a year? I've been meeting people (by which I mean men) and having interesting conversations. Then I go home & hang out with my dog.

I signed up for Game Neverending. I cancelled my extraneous phone services because I hate Verizon & even more hate paying them a crazy-making $90 per month. I am rockin' out angel style at my job & get thank yous, wine and marriage proposals along with my job satisfaction.

Really not much to report but this: the leaves are beginning to turn, beginning to fall. I go about in sandals and barefeet whenever possible. I like my life.

Zonker's always had it right.

This piece has it all, if you weren't already paranoid enough. I feel helpless, helpless, helpless.

Stickernation (hosted by the incredible unamerican) has sweet deals for making your own stickers. I think "I love my cunt blood" is my favorite, although I might not put it on my car fender....

I've also been thinking about New Orleans, where hurricane parties are all the rage...

Right now I'm too broke even to get myself to NYC, but really I want this vacation. "It's like everyone just sat down together at a meeting and said, you know what? Let's just make freaking everything beautiful."

More on rights we've lost since 9/11.

Changes In Legal Rights

Some of the fundamental changes to Americans' legal rights by the Bush administration and the USA Patriot Act following the terror attacks:

FREEDOM OF ASSOCIATION: Government may monitor religious and political institutions without suspecting criminal activity to assist terror investigation.

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION: Government has closed once-public immigration hearings, has secretly detained hundreds of people without charges, and has encouraged bureaucrats to resist public records requests.

FREEDOM OF SPEECH: Government may prosecute librarians or keepers of any other records if they tell anyone that the government subpoenaed information related to a terror investigation.

RIGHT TO LEGAL REPRESENTATION: Government may monitor federal prison jailhouse conversations between attorneys and clients, and deny lawyers to Americans accused of crimes.

FREEDOM FROM UNREASONABLE SEARCHES: Government may search and seize Americans' papers and effects without probable cause to assist terror investigation.

RIGHT TO A SPEEDY AND PUBLIC TRIAL: Government may jail Americans indefinitely without a trial.

RIGHT TO LIBERTY: Americans may be jailed without being charged or being able to confront witnesses against them.

– The Associated Press

New Poem

The language of this life pleases me. There’s a lot of silence
in it, and then the mention of things happening: longing,
healing, the rain.

I’m floating a little, petal in a puddle.
The mind is strong but badly wanting.
This boredom a curse, a haunting.

What else in this day?
I rattle it to find out.
Too tired to make choice or plan,
the minutes till midnight fewer than
the fingers on my hand.

A hollow is starting in me;
it is stopping me.

I’ll leave a little after you arrive.
Heart, a tiny hive. A slave
to the money you left on the bar,
your empty glass, your rain-wet jacket.
The way you turn,
away.

This air full of crows and sirens.

Shocking as it may seem, there are actually many ways in which the Bush Administration can be likened to Hitler's regime...and of course you know how the Bush family supported the Nazi regime financially for over a decade. Some of this information is very disturbing, some just fluff, but all of it means we must pursue information, read carefully, make our own judgements and vote whenever possible.

The American people lost the right to elect their president when the U.S. Supreme Court commited a coup d'etat by approving the stealing of the presidency by George W. Bush.

The 11/14/01 announcement that any person designated as a terrorist by the President is to be placed under the control of the Secretary of Defense and not allowed the aid of US or foreign courts.

Persons are being held in American prisons without being allowed to contact their attorney.

The consultations between persons in American prisons and their attorneys are being monitored by "justice" officials.

Men, women, and children can be murdered without compunction--as at Ruby Ridge and Waco--and the person ultimately responsible for these "police-state" atrocities will be promoted to become the head of the agency guilty of these crimes.

My digital library gets some press....

Atari History site! (I have been playing Centipede instead of updating. My cricket game is also improving. But proper updates are coming soon, rest assured.)

Origami Boulder artwork. Hilarious.

Terrorist cell block seemingly discovered just outside Buffalo....

The Cow of Plenty

These library quotes are pretty great.

"To be literate is to possess the cow of plenty."
-Motto of the Madras Library Association

lAST nIGHT...

I rocked the righteous mike at the "Last Night I Had The Strangest Dream" event at Nietzsche's. MANY poets, artists, musicians came up to raise money for the Western New York Peace Center. Mcarthyizm played, Many Fried spoke, Kristi Meal read ("peanut butter and jelly and fuck me"..."The arms of the trees move and I take it personally.") and Susan Peters read and sang, and it was a good time.

I read my Kali Yuga poem, two poems by Allen Ginsberg ("Hum Bom" and "After the Big Parade"), "Wisdom Tooth" by my friend Kazim Ali, and I sang part of Patti Smith's "People Have the Power".

Art by Bonita Z....

Lovelyday.

Happy because the breeze is light & cool & I am wearing a shirt I like & dancing to the CD I made for Emile (Richie Havens [I knew that was Emile drumming on Freedom at Glastonbury 2002!], Spearhead, Angelique Kidjo, India.Arie....) I made this CD and then devoted an hour to collage for the cover.

It feels so good to make things, just cause you want to. Their having a decorative purpose is satisfying too, but I love the feeling of making something, especially to give away, just because I can. I'll give it to him tonight between dart games, between glasses of bad red wine, between songs.

I'm also happy because I have been engaged to teach Writer's Circle again at City Honors. This is an afterschool writing group, mostly high school poets, which I attended as a student, then resurrected and ran for 5 years. I've now been away from it for 5, a full generation of kids. I've missed it terribly.

Another perk of coming home has been running into my old students. Nearly without exception, they still have writing as a part of their lives. This is all I ever wanted.

You know I love my life online. I love reading Kris' journal entry about her house, written just as I am pondering home ownership. I'm so grateful someone else is taking pictures of Western New York skies. I even love re-bookmarking my favorite pages to see if they have icons. I am loving icons. (Thanks, Jill!) Have you rebookmarked my page recently?

Have you checked out all the flavors Ben & Jerry's makes now? The Honey and Vermonty (maple syrup) ones are most intriguing to me. Even more interesting, perhaps, is the flavor graveyard. I don't generally eat much ice cream but I have all these Working Assets coupons & it's supposed to be wicked hot here the next few days, so....

Okay, I caved and pre-ordered The Sims Unleashed. This interview tipped me over.

One of my favorite poets/people, Kim Addonizio, writes this week about her musical ambitions. They ring a bell for me. I'm well known as a poet, also have mad librarian skillz, but at home I find myself practicing songs I could do at open mikes with a friend playing guitar, or sitting in just for one song with my local jazz band. (some of the songs: Suzanne Vega's "Caramel", Bob Dylan's "Up to me", Richard Thompson's "Persusion", though I'd have to fix the key into something singable.)

I've sung a fair amount in public, from chorus and performing ensembles from 5th grade on, all-girl punk bands when I was in junior high, with various folk singer songwriter friends, and with the Immoral Girls in the late 90's. When I arrived in San Francisco, Joe Todaro and I played one memorable open reading at Yakety-Yak's where I performed Johnny Cash's "I've Been Everywhere."

But, like Kim, I really am a poet and don't want a band or to cut a CD. I just want my musical part to show a bit more, to be able to share it, participate when I can.

What revolution are You?
Made by altern_active
Huh, who'da thunk it? bnf.

I think I am in love with this book: Dictionary of word and phrase origins, by William and Mary Morris. Do you know where the phrase hunky-dory comes from? I do!

I think Punk Walrus is my new hero. Here is his very reasonable rant on How Not to Flake. (Instructions at the bottom of the page.)

Expect links on Thursday nights. Tonight I am amusing myself with Moby's journal (especially like his Photos). Other celebrity journal links can be found here. RuPaul's blog is pretty fun also.

I am loving this thread. But I do not yet have a title for my own superpowers. Care to propose one?

I am participating in a new blog, Joe Todaro's Composite Buddha (aka The Big Room). For me, it is a perfect outlet for some brewing things I have been seeking a way to articulate. Thanks, Joe!

What a good weekend this was, surprising me with its pleasures as I had planned nothing in particular. I read at Nietzsche's for Tim Baldwin's birthday, mostly stuff straight fromt he notebook, but which went over well. Neighbor barbeques which went late & featured live improvised music....babies, dogs....I went to the zoo for the first time in years with an entourage of toddlers. I had friends over to watch the inscrutable Woyzeck. Now I've a craving to see My Best Fiend again, Herzog's tribute (?) to Klaus Kinski.

These days also brought the gentle realization that the summer is ending, and that I am happy here, back home. I see that I am already woven back into this community of artists, musicians, teachers, people who like to gather and cook and drink some wine, who like to pass the baby & let the dogs play, who are eager to recommend the best book they've read recently.

Ode to the Neighbor Pup

O Rosie! My friend beyond the fence,
I hear the jingle of your tags from a distance.
Such torment! While The Woman types or sleeps,
I am denied your perfect company.
Soon, the shadowy spectre of a monster called Work
Shall separate us even further.
How I long to romp with you, chew upon you!
My yummy, thewy companion, our reunion will be a feast
Of fur and spittle. Yours in endless rambunctiousness, Mariah.

Kongs & Bones

First night alone on the Reference desk at the library..it do sound sexy, don't it? No diggity. For the record, I am behind the desk, but that sounds so unfriendly. Actually it's very quiet and pleasant, the sound of typing and thinking.

I hid both yummy and fun things about the apartment for the dog to find after I left, and I hope she is entertaining herself with these rather than by strewing my decks of playing cards about the place or nibbling on my copy of the out-of-print Lion and Blue.

The other day I said to a friend, "I wish there were something Mariah could do to entertain herself while I am out, like reading."

My friend, who has a rather psychedelic mind (or what is left after imbibing select psychedelics years ago), "Said, oh, maybe there is!"

"You think?" I queried.

"Maybe you could make a tape of yourself reading to her, and telling her she's a very good doggie."

Not bad, I thought. I haven't, yet. Meanwhile, it's Kongs & bones.

Links of the day:

Photomontage: great art, daily. E-cards, too!
Kong pet toys. Includes recipes!
My dream machine....
Hair fetish items...

Can you tell I'm in an acquisitive mood?

Here are some pictures from the past week:

Meeting friends unexpectedly at Art Fest:

My sweet poochka.

Mariah's new toy. Her best bud, Rosie, has the same lion. Yay Amvets!

Fresh flowers make me happy.

Elmwood Art Fest

This is where I'm spending my weekend. Come on down...I am in love with my neighborhood. Ironically, having sensate SF longings: peanut tofu curry from May Cahn in North Beach, a stroll through Chinatown, a few games of Galaga, an 80 cc ride home.

I am reading:

Empress of the World, Sara Ryan
Between Angels, poems by Stephen Dunn

and rather compulsively cleaning my house. I think cleaning helps me think I'm settled in. This going-to-work thing has rocked me a little.

Mariah and the Dragon

It is so hot here, 90 in the city today with 42% humidity. This evening, walking the dog, I went through every sprinkler on our street, giggling like mad when the spray hit my shoulders. Mariah wanted none of it, but it was truly marvelous on my human skin.

I like my block a lot. It has all kinds--lounge singer two doors down, a girl who sits by a tree or on a wall to write in her journal, young teachers, students, older folks, lots of happy dogs. Everyone noticed that I came back from vacation a little early; everyone lit up with true joy when I reported that I have a new job.

Did I tell about the job? No! Just before I went on vacation, I had an interview was a part-time reference librarian position at E.H. Butler Library at Buffalo State College, just a mile or so down the road. Mind you, I have many friends there, in large part due to the fact that my mother worked in Bibliographic Control (Cataloging) for many, many years before retiring. BSC is also where I attended elementary school for 6 years, at the then very stimulating, rather experimental College Learning Laboratory School (Campus West--now the Buckham Campus School).

I'm pleased and proud to reportI was offered the job on the spot, and begin orientation on Thursday. Its a good job for me, academic and helpful, comes with benfits and the natural perks which come with college libraries--good stuff to read, lots of periodicals, esoteric reference questions, Interlibrary Loan privleges, special projects. All this plus benefits!

Ugh, my pad thai has chicken in it and is not spicy. How lame. Never again.

An Experiment

I'm experimenting with maintaining this site with Blogger. I am having FTP problems at the moment, but that shouldn't stop you from enjoying an update, so here goes....

More Peace and Quiet Than I Am Used To

So, I was on vacation for a few sweet, very relaxing days. Mariah and I were hosted first by Sarah and Dave at their cabin on Crane Mountain, in the beautiful Adirondack Mountains of New York State.





Their daughter Isabelle is three and a delight, though frightened of my sweet and gentle dog who merely wished to sniff her feet.





Mariah had a glorious time, anyway, running leashless everywhere.



After two nights in their blissfully quiet cabin (which has running water [culled from a nearby spring] and only a bit of electricity), I drove tiny roads through NY, VT and NH till I reached the Huberman homestead at Sunset Lake, in Greenfield, NH.





We did their rituals, many of which have been going on since Anne was a baby, approximately 60 years ago. We had breakfast on the dock by the boathouse. We paddled the canoe around the lake at dusk. We had a sauna (pronounced the proper Swedish way, sow-na) and cooled off in the lake.





We also caught a little, early bit of the Perseid meteor shower. You may recall I saw some of Leonid shower from my roof in San Francisco last year. Lying on a dock in a rural place where the Milky way is visible as a matter of course beat that experience to pieces, but I am grateful for any glimpse of starlife.