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Tuesday, January 30, 2007
StarThere's no doubt I'm a star. I'm flashy, full of hot gas and destined to burn out someday.
I am also a comet, keeping my fanny always to the cold side of the sun. I'm an asteroid too - A great hulk
of rock tending to stay at rest until acted upon by some outside force. Like yesterday. Yesterday
this igneous lump of womanhood really shook up this town, acted upon by coffee and dark chocolate. Ever seen a space
rock clean a fish tank, cook spaghetti, load the dishwasher, fold three loads of laundry and stir tequila into lime all at
the same time? Simply stellar!
Monday, January 29, 2007
Sister, 2Hi Sis! Been thinking about you and missing you a lot lately. Writing a new song inspired in part by you,
one about you running around Janeville Beach giving everyone wedgies. Even to strangers! Just kidding - a
song about missing some one who's far away. Hope it turns out well because you are a
very inspirational topic.
Gotta go pop some Advil and close my eyes for 15 minutes.
Love you!!!
Saturday, January 27, 2007
I sold these forks on eBay a couple years ago. Nice photo, eh? In retrospect I was
perhaps a bit hasty to have auctioned off the nut bowls too but we never used them. I hope
whoever bought them is happy tonight.
7:38 pm
Thursday, January 25, 2007
Thursday Thirteen, Edition 4Thirteen Things Jannie Did Yesterday...
1. Grocery store by 6:35 a.m. (Not my regular shopping time but Kelly had
requested swedish meatballs, pineapple and Pringles for
her lunch.)
2. Kelly to school
3. Jazzercise
4. Home, recording for Motorcycle Cop rough mix
5. Chord / lyrics charts for drummer and guitarist for next week's sessions
6. Emails, emails, emails
7. Housework? No.
8. Kelly from school
9. Ballet class
10. Target
11. Voice exercises on way home
12. Dinner
13. American Idol
13.5 Alseep by 9:45
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
MESSAGE TO JAE
JAE! My e-mail's all messed up today and Time-Warner's
being very naughty with phone tech support but I'll be in
touch as soon as I can. (Or leave a message on my Guestbook because I can
access that fine and dandy.)
XOXOXO
CocoaI wish I'd never heard of cocoa, almost ruined me when it fell into the bacon fat at The Great Canadian Cook-Off
hosted by my 5th husband, Mel. Just kidding.
Let's try this again.
We smelled it in Grenada. Brought back souvenir bags of small balls of it for all the guys at the
office. Saw the beans drying on racks in the hot sun up the mountain where telephone and electricity wires will hopefully
never intrude. Up and up past the banana jungle and barefoot women washing red cotton dresses in streams.
Past the happy children waving. Us in an excursion bus like pale aliens with our cameras, sunglasses
and hats. Ghosts as white as the snow we'd have to battle again in a week.
Tina on the island of Grenada 1998, demonstrating the time-honored tradition of cocoa processing by hand
Sunday, January 21, 2007
YouthToo bad I
didn't spend more
quality time
with my youth
before it
up and left me
for some one
ten years younger
Saturday, January 20, 2007
Saturday Photo Hunters... Theme:
5:20 am
Friday, January 19, 2007
Bunny-Show-And-Tell-And-Serve-Snack "Special Day"
12:48 pm
Thursday, January 18, 2007
WorryDearest Jae,
As you may have read from my post yesterday, I was so worried my writing on your word would not be inspired enough
I carried said word around in my pocket all day without looking at it, waiting for the perfect literary mood to
hit. Actually, I don't have many worries except for making sure the past-due electricity for the house gets paid.
(Today!) And I have to organize all the car titles and contracts into the 31-day folder I bought last
week. I do admit I worry my arms will fly off while I'm driving or my eyeballs will roll onto the floor at
the ballet next month. Or what if a loud toot escapes me in an un-crowded elevator? Or hard times befall
us and I end up like The Pianist desperately scrambling on a bitter winter's day for any kind of tool to open a can of indeterminite food?
Could be pickles. Could be beans. Could be tomato soup. Sustenance, sweet sustenance
I took for granted every day of my life until the SS yanked us from our beds. What if it does turn out to be beans
and I have uncontrollable flatulence while I'm playing adagio in a quiet parlor duet with some buxom
cellist from Vienna? Oh my God, the shame! I'll never get a gig in this town again.
Love Always, Jannie-Bo-Bannie
Thursday Thirteen, Edition 3Thirteen Things Kelly Wants To Have At Her 6th Birthday Party (Only 209 days away!)
1. The last piece of cake if there's some left over
2. Any left over goodie bags
3. Bunny theme, all kinds of bunny decorations
4. Flowers on the tables
5. Invite Grace, Amber, Julia, Carly, Erika, Ali, Hannah, Anna, Mommy,
Daddy, Cinderella, Snow White and Ariel
6. Invite The Funsters to play
7. Have the party at Gatti-Town
8. Play the Horse game 20 times
9. Have ten gallons of food
10. Have ten kinds of drinks
11. Wear a bunny costume
12. Have doll cookie cutters in the goodie bags
13. To invite so many kids you won't believe how many there is!
Wednesday, January 17, 2007
6:18 pm
Mystery WordThere's a mystery word in my left pocket. I still can't believe I've main-
tained the willpower to not peek at it since I printed it from Jae's email hours ago. What can it
be?! Umbrella? Lazer? Fluff? Broomstick? Fondue? All quite
unlikely given the number of nouns there are to choose from. I'm not really in the mood to write now but
later I'm sure after I unfold Jae's little
gem of an object writing word and sit quietly with my Moleskine, a geyser of amazingly literary-worthy and heart-wrenchingly poetic prose with overtones
of Hemingway and Jane Hamilton greatness will gush from my Pilot Precise V7. Jumbled heaps of creative images
strung as never before in the history of this language! Yeah, when I get more in the mood I'll write.
Tuesday, January 16, 2007
Snow Day Walkies
The Garage That
Jimmy Built
6:42 pm
Snow On The Palms
After 5 and 1/3 long years she
finally gets to play in snow.
Meanwhile 3500 miles away her new cousin is denied such snow frolic.
2:45 pm
Monday, January 15, 2007
Freezing RainBring it on. Bring it on. Bring it on. Bring it on! Soon. Don't you know I haven't
seen any in a coupla years? And no snow for three. Gonna whiz on sneakers down our
carless street in my hat, scarf and mitts (mitts, where are my mitts? Shoot.) Hands in pockets
I guess. Betcha I won't fall once. Impossible with 26 years professional training in snow and ice. Gonna
glide. Fly. Breathe in the fresher than fresh coldsmell and rosebite. That wake-up
slap to the face. Bring it on! I'm ready.
Saturday, January 13, 2007
Saturday Photo Hunters Theme : "Technology"
8:03 am
Friday, January 12, 2007
LuckWas it luck or steam that brought the postman to this moment? Still in his pyjamas at four
p.m., teabag sleeping in his cup. Blame it on all the things he couldn't say to his only child as she
left for California yesterday. One day the baby crying four times
a night, next the lady with thick dark curls catching the sun just so, her left boot upon a Greyhound's running
board, waiting for the man in front to wrestle his suitcase through the door. Sailing off, as she's
supposed to. Luck. Luck or the steam that rose from his coffee cup the night he and his lady conceived her.
Had they gone home earlier from the party or stayed out an hour longer there may never have
been the child. All so unlikely. But also the only way things could be.
Green Grape Pilferer
3:17 am
Thursday, January 11, 2007
Thursday Thirteen, Edition 2Thirteen Things I Will Never Do...
By Kelly (aged 5 for those of you who don't know.)
1. Pick a petal off a rose
2. Use a sharp knife by myself
3. Put soap in my eyes or mouth
4. Break a glass (if I can)
5. Kill anyone
6. Hit somebody
7. Push anybody
8. Use the printer by myself
9. Forget my manners
10. Try to break a flower vase
11. Push Mom off the chair
12. Take a stick and whack you on the head
13. Mix up dates on the calendar
Wednesday, January 10, 2007
BorderThe border is royal blue. The sky powder. The sea streaked with forgotten wishes from a scrapbook
of tear-stained minds. Soon we'll go searching for Milk Duds or Almond Joys or Hershey's Dark and sit in our knitted
cap of a car, rinsing down the taste of lesser chocolate with red wine while watching the gulls try to outsmart
each other. Do some gulls starve? I've never really stopped to think about how gulls die. Or pigeons.
Or whales. I do know many arctic wolves won't survive the winter, I saw a documentary last year. The
fittest, they say. Around the royal blue border is a frame of supposed brass. Avalon, framed for the crime of looking
so pretty.
Tuesday, January 9, 2007
Gymnastics: Show Week
3:40 am
Monday, January 8, 2007
Ash (3)Some hot hot places come down to smoke and this wrote Joni. Yes, after the prick of love-drug
flush has faded and our pupils resume normal dialation, only a few of us ever get to
the real thing. Say two people are falling in love, definite court and spark. Will
one in 5 of these couples still be together after 10 years? One in 10 after 20? One in 25
after 50? And not just together, we're talking happily together. Happy enough he still holds the
door for her and brings her flowers. And she still smiles as she pours his tea, sings "Zippity-Doo-Da-Da-Zippity-Yay" while
she folds and puts away his undies.
Ash (2)Sycamore maybe? Mahogany? No, too dark. And the varnish ran
away with the spoon.
Ash Hair: Medium ash blonde
Skin: Minimum melanin
Eyes: Maximum blue
Saturday, January 6, 2007
Sarurday Photo Hunters ------ Theme: "Memory"
I remember the promise of endless summer in the smell of hot dogs and new beach balls the June day Aunt
Sue snapped this picture when I was five and Patty four. I remember the taste of that candy necklace
too and later the lazy trance of warm sand through the hourglass of my cupped hands.
(As a kid I pretty-much always felt ugly but looking at this old photo, I think I may actually have been kind
of cute - even mixing the stripes with plaid!)
1:45 am
Friday, January 5, 2007
Glass ----- (You should probably X-Ray yesterday's post on "Alien" before launching yourself into this one.)And what if when Bob The Alien finally space-ships me home after 14 real time minutes away in Queens, no
one in my family but me can see him and Jim considers sending me on a long, long, long weekend jaunt to
Bellvue. Then Bob The Alien leaves without cleaning up - let alone replacing the glass he smashed from
the circle top top window and I learn my home-owners doesn't cover alien invasions so the Farmers rep and
I get into fisticufffs over the phone and he ends up with a black eye and and cancels our policy and 5 minutes
before the insurance with a new company is supposed to take effect, Bob The Alien zips back from Whatever Planet and
sets fire to our house and the only things that survive the blaze are the bud vase Jo gave me for my 35th birthday, the
angled vacuum cleaner attachment and my $5 brand-new-to-me refurbished Dell keyboard? Then what?
Cookie Muffins
9:02 am
Thursday, January 4, 2007
AlienWhat if I'm happily object-writing away here at this $5 brand-new-to-me
refurbished Dell keyboard and Bob The Alien crashes his donut-shaped spaceship through my circle top window onto
the pink bedspread, forces me at laser-point to take him to Queens to meet Elmo and Miss Piggy and promises
a four hour visit (including transport,) will only take two minutes in real time? And what if Kelly and
Jim, after frantically searching for me that two minutes, call 911 to put out an A.P.B on me? And
what if Bob the Alien likes New York and Sesame Street so much (especially The Count because Bob The Alien only has two
teeth too,) he makes me hang out with him an extra six or ten hours, which will be a total of 5
or 7 minutes I'll be missing? And what if Kelly, sure I'm gone for good, starts crying and never stops?
What the hell's going to happen to this family? Damn you, Bob the Alien.
Thursday Thirteen, Edition 1I know I don't have the blogroll up yet but here goes anyway for starters.
Thirteen Things I Like About Jim...
1. His eyes
2. His grin
3. His laugh
4. His whistle
5. His taste in music, jazz. (Except the elevator-ish versions, of course)
6. His patience with Kelly
7. His even-temperedness
8. His love of good food
9. His mathematician's mind
11. His work ethic
12. His dancing
13. His gravity-defying buttocks
Wednesday, January 3, 2007
One Happy Bunny
8:16 pm
Tuesday, January 2, 2007
ForceWas I too much, too soon? Presumptious. Stupid. Forward. Inspired and pure of heart
of course and only hungry for poems I could sink my bones into but probably too much of a force for the old
poetry guy, (or anyone new I'd like to impress back.) Am I now the kind of pariah I'd cross the
street to avoid? Someone who smiles too much? Back off, back off, back off into the gloom again.
Remember my first year in university - how I skipped most classes and put on 20 lbs? Remember how I wrote dark poems
in the back pages of my Poli-Sci final exam instead of who conquored whom and when? God, it was great writing those
poems. Great having the balls to write that stuff and hand it in at the end of class. Professor ran into
me ten years later and asked was I still writing poems. I loved him for that.
Monday, January 1, 2007
FrenchI piss myself off for not knowing French better. Just now my club-foot brain limped
staccato over each hot coal of a phrase by Maurice Nadeau. Jerked roughshod over his June
ruts on the buck-board seat of a whored-together
buggy with my arms crossed tightly to keep my breasts from bruising on familiar words that twisted to elbow
me in the gut just when I thought I had them pinned. Why can't I glide in French? In English Jannie's so
nimble over the candlestick. Why didn't I know anything when I was 18 or 19?! I could've saved up and in
just a year or two had enough money for the Sorbonne, or at the very least lived a year in
Paris. Should I go back to that poem, transcribe it with my Precise V7 on my
finest linen in unhampered hand? Then will I pull the poet's mind into mine? Finally untangle
his knots? Darn, it's worth a try.
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