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Friday, January 30, 2004

 
5:29 PM: [#] [0]

ANNNNDDDD......! the new burning man theme has been announced! (i got my ticket solicitation yesterday.) 2004 is "the vault of heaven." it figures that the cool celestial theme would be the year i suspect i won't be able to go! damn it! :( quick, quick! i need a scholarship (and more not working; you know, as long as i'm wishing, i might as well wish big. :)

 
4:42 PM: [#] [0]

#1 on "the weirdest spam i have ever received" list, from Tom <mcman98@yahoo.com>:

"Dear Safety Harbor Middle School,

God bless you for the beautiful radio I won at your recent senior citizens luncheon. I am 84 years old and live at the Safety Harbor Assisted Living Home. All of my family has passed away. I am all alone now and it's nice to know that someone is thinking of me. God bless you for your kindness to an old forgotten lady. My roommate is 95 and always had her own radio, but before I received one, she would never let me listen to hers, even when she was napping.

The other day her radio fell off the night stand and broke into hundreds of pieces. It was awful. She was in tears. She asked if she could listen to mine, and I said fuck you. Thank you for that opportunity.

Sincerely,
Edna Walters"

so i ask, in all sincerity: wtf?!

 
11:15 AM: [#] [0]

wow! big bright giant rainbow outside the window! :D one side looks like it ends at elephant's deli; the other between 21st & 20th.

which reminds me: i've been meaning to say that i wish someone had told me that there are two secrets to dealing with the portland rain:

1. get a crushable hat and carry it everywhere! easier than an umbrella and it keeps the rain off your glasses.

2. don't work, or work from home. :) seriously, there's more sunlight here than you would think, but it happens in phases throughout the day. when you get to see it, it's great. if you go to work in the dark and come home in the dark, i could see how that would be really depressing.

the payoff, of course, is these gorgeous rainbows, green-ness, and weather variety (but let's not talk about the mold, eh?).

Monday, January 26, 2004

 
2:08 PM: [#] [0]

hey, i got PAID! *sings* thank you, psu! (and thank you, seeger! may your cats live long and well.) and i got another project from them, too, to keep me busy until february 9.

last night i went to the crystal ballroom w/ leopoldo. what a neat place! i wish they had an 80s dance night: i can dance to anything, but not everyone feels that way. :)

Sunday, January 25, 2004

 
4:06 PM: [#] [0]

"we are the stars, the dust of explosions, cast across space" (joy atkinson)


benjamin arthur dunfee hall was born yesterday! congratulations mph & alison!

if you are overwhelmed with the enormity of such an event, wander around the poetry labyrinth of 10 lunas for a while, untangling the threads of pregnancy & birth.

if you tend to get morbid on occassions such as this, you may read "my son, my executioner."

Friday, January 23, 2004

 
4:39 PM: [#] [0]

and happy national handwriting day!

 
11:06 AM: [#] [0]

when i didn't see updates on mph's blog and when i hadn't seen him on ichat for a while, i knew he was having his baby! and i was right! no news yet, but i'm so excited for them!

somebody came to pick up fred today, though sven reminds me his name was originally joe! joe the little evergreen tree! doh!

Thursday, January 22, 2004

 
8:54 PM: [#] [0]

another random update: saw dan in centralia (hi, dan!); merchant of venice (whoo! yowza!); finally new episodes of angel; someone from freecycle has agreed to take joe the christmas tree and give him a good home w/ fresh air & soil; STILL no payment from psu; rob & kyrie have a wedding blog; orion sure is setting a lot earlier; artist's way w/ sven tomorrow; youthlib.com meeting tomorrow.

Sunday, January 18, 2004

 
8:43 PM: [#] [0]

three, count 'em, three packages of trader joe's homemade tortillas (two are in the freezer). with god as my witness, i shall never go without them again! everything else just makes my tongue cringe.

 
2:54 PM: [#] [0]

we're waaaaay behind on poem a day. i blame sven. :)

january 12: sasha moorsom, "don't be literary, darling"
january 13: emily dickinson, "my life closed twice before its close"
january 14: pastor niemoller, "first they came for the jews"
january 15: elinor wylie, "prophecy"
january 16: edmund spenser, "my love is like to ice"
january 17: juan ramon jimenez, "i am not i"
january 18: rudyard kipling, "gertrude's prayer"

Saturday, January 17, 2004

 
7:27 PM: [#] [0]

zupan's is going to start closing at midnight! noooooooooo......!

[update: mph smugly notes that his zupan's will continue to be open 24 hours. hmph.]

Friday, January 16, 2004

 
10:26 AM: [#] [0]

is it friday already? i'm on my way to centralia today to see dan, but first a brief overview:

rob's housewarming party, three nights of angels in america w/ leopoldo, psu analysis finished, first artist's way meeting w/ sven, ichat av expired.

Sunday, January 11, 2004

 
4:00 PM: [#] [0]

today's poem from poem a day is thomas hardy's "the voice." on my way to corvallis now.

Saturday, January 10, 2004

 
5:30 PM: [#] [0]

a surprise visit from rob & rob's fiance, kyrie! they were up here looking for dresses & invitations, of which they were only able to get invites chosen & ordered this round before running back to corvallis for a jeweller's appointment. they took me out for a late lunch (for them) and an early dinner (for me) at miso happy; i might be involved in the wedding party and might address envelopes or do other calligraphy-related things for them. then i went to zupan's and on my way home had to help a little old man find his apartment because he couldn't remember where he lived. then michael, sven & i went to pizzicato for dinner & finally got confessor to work with our airport! (michael has it restricted by mac address. doh!)

today's poem from poem a day is robert browning's "meeting at night."

 
11:43 AM: [#] [0]

yes, it's finally time for the holiday present round up!

* michaelmas: ipod recorder, language visible
* sven stocking: nuts, tangerines, a bag of peppermints, chocolate coins, raspberry bonbons, a small glazed porcelain dish, silver hair comb, and a spatial puzzle i'm afraid to actually take apart
* janis: $25 gap certificate
* julie: $25 amazon certificate (with which i bought three artist's way books to prep facilitation...)
* sdfc: a handmade book for being on the board of directors! *swoon*
* dad: bahklavah, calphalon pot, check
* grandma: chex mix, slippers, sweater
* leopoldo: dahlia's vase[s]
* sven: gorey 365-day calendar, chocolate-covered cherries, star lamp, mirror (a handmade book of poems!)
* kelsey: poem a day
* monty: a pair of blue & grey argyle socks
* rob: the pharmicist's mate
* sandy: the rose inside, a rogue lemming pullover(!)
* lori: into the silent land
* dean/leeann, maggie, michaelmas: icard

thank you, thank you, thank you all for the thoughtful and personal gifts! you might notice the holiday CarDs are still on my todo list, but they'll come, oh, they'll come....

Friday, January 09, 2004

 
8:34 PM: [#] [0]

rob called. "you're going to have an interesting reaction to what i'm about to tell you."

and, yes. i did.

because rob's GETTING MARRIED! and wants children! just two weeks ago, after he moved out of mel's place, he told me i should smack him if he even considered dating another girl; he wanted a whole year without another entanglement. he thought the time to himself would be good. and then, three days ago, he made plans to marry someone he works with. i am shocked. and hopeful for them. and plan on smacking rob on sunday, which is his housewarming party.

today's poem from poem a day, which rob will likely appreciate, is william meredith's "accidents of birth."

Thursday, January 08, 2004

 
6:32 PM: [#] [0]

i signed the form to liquidate one of my retirement accounts today; it will go in the mail tomorrow. then i'm doing some credit card balance shuffling. yeesh. i feel icky now. trixie is my scariest budget item, then rent, then credit cards. psu is showing no signs of paying me yet, and i'm sure the city-wide shutdown isn't helping.

today's poem from poem a day is sara teasdale's crushing "moonlight": "The years will make me sad and cold/It is the happy heart that breaks."

Wednesday, January 07, 2004

 
3:25 PM: [#] [0]

holy cow! is that.... sun? *gapes*

i was scheduled to go over to leopoldo's tonight, but portland is still in the midst of the snowy shutdown, and after taking out someone's mailbox last week, i'm inclined to stay home. sven experimented with different modes of transport down the hill outside of his house today, but strangely enough, i have yet to venture into the white stuff myself, not even to retrieve the mexican cocoa i left in the car returning from new year's on the coast.

today's poem from poem a day is john berryman's "sonnet 115" ("it was a good evening, an evening to please,/I kissed her in the kitchen -ecstasies-"). though all the easy links i found had typos. :(

oh, yeah: michael says i talked in my sleep last night, something about a birthday and holidays. he says he doesn't remember me doing that before.

Tuesday, January 06, 2004

 
4:02 PM: [#] [0]

one of my new year's resolutions was "read at least one poem a day." i have two ways to accompish this: to use poetry daily's "today's poem" feature, or to use a gift i got for xmas, poem a day (thanks, kelsey!). when i can, i do both, but together they make a good backup when i don't have one or the other. :) i'd like to keep a copy of the text from poem a day on packetwarp, but in the meantime, today's poem is shakespeare's "sweet-and-twenty": "Trip no further, pretty sweeting/Journeys end in lovers meeting" and "What is love? 'tis not hereafter/Present mirth hath present laughter".

lots of snow! i missed the first big storm in portland while i was at the coast, but this round began last night, though it's now changed into something more akin to freezing rain ticking irregularly against the windows. (some of us might call it "ambiguous precipitation.")

everybody's got a snowday today, it seems: michael's working on spycraft materials, dan is shoveling the sidewalk, leopoldo is playing unreal tournament and finishing season 3 of buffy, sven & alex are hanging out watching firefly. burnside and 405 are almost empty & i saw a couple of people skiing down king street. i suspect michael & i will watch some buffy tonight, too, after i finish getting my mail & reading to manageable levels after a week away.