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Sunday, November 21, 2004

 
11:12 AM: thanks [#] [0]

happy thanksgiving, everyone. we're finally off to colorado after a sven sickness last night delayed us this morning. i can even be thankful for that. :) see you in december!

Saturday, November 20, 2004

 
9:18 AM: leaden [#] [0]

sven & i read the cheeriest poem last night in poem a day (yes, kelsey, we're still reading it! though we're about a week behind):

The Leaden Eyed

Let not young souls be smothered out before
They do quaint deeds and fully flaunt their pride.
It is the world's one crime its babes grow dull,
Its poor are ox-like, limp and leaden-eyed.

Not that they starve, but starve so dreamlessly;
Not that they sow, but that they seldom reap;
Not that they serve, but have no gods to serve;
Not that they die, but that they die like sheep.

thanks, vachel lindsay! sometimes poem a day isn't a good idea right before bed. :) of course, we read this the same day we saw the angel episode "billy," so we were all full of meh, anyway.

Thursday, November 18, 2004

 
10:05 AM: happy commuters [#] [0]

happy itunes coincidence: as i got off the bus to psu, the ipod randomly shuffled to tori's "happy workers." :)

the 17 bus is a nice little walk i can take with sven and it drops me off two blocks away from smith student center, which is where oit/irs is located (oit=office of instructional technology; its=instruction & research services). it didn't even make me carsick, though i still can't read or work on eliot. but i found myself missing csusm & usc, when i could be at work in 15 minutes. it's taking about an hour to get into my office now, which is like driving from pueblo to colorado springs. i did that commute for a time while i was housesitting and it gave me some time to myself, some space for my thoughts to spool. today, for instance, i was reminded of when michael & i were walking to get a movie the other night and we went past the large church on salmon. i don't quite have it down yet, but this is what i wrote:

stained glass at twilight
bare tree with
leaves aflame

hive meeting today. yipes! i never thought i'd have to really implement my own process. :)

--
(btw, kelsey, don't think i haven't noticed you trying to stop smoking. and rob, too! go you!)

Tuesday, November 16, 2004

 
10:19 AM: dresden max [#] [0]

last night sven & i went to the dresden dolls concert. they were quite good: just a piano and a drum (and the woman had a smoky voice), but you could tell they loved to play with each other. first opening act, the diddy bops, were delightful, too, but the next axct, count zero, was a typical thrashy opening act.

took the max into work today, from 122nd to pioneer square. uneventful and even sort of pleasant, but i am unable to read in travelling vehicles (and i forgot my ipod today). on thursday i'll try the 17 bus. fortunately i still have a whole lot of all-day tickets from the chinook book. but the briefcase is a bugger: i love it and got it from a freecycler, but the strap is too thin for the laptop load.

Saturday, November 13, 2004

 
11:13 PM: writer's harvest [#] [0]

the writing workshop was great! not just the actual workshop (though that was good, too), but the use of our studio was just wonderful. i'm so glad we offered our space, which holds 8 writers quite comfortably and could easily hold 11 a little less comfortably. and the warm reaction to the artist's way group i'm having here in january was gratifying: i know not all, if any, of these people may actually -do- artist's way, but at least they were enthusiastic and didn't stare at my blankly while i talked about it. several even volunteered to put up some flyers for me. i hope this is an auspicious beginning!


(from left to right: joanne, sven, gretchin, bob, colleen, renee. not shown: nelly or soulenee)

Friday, November 12, 2004

 
9:01 PM: studio studio [#] [0]

holy cow! the studio looks a lot more studiolike! (just don't open the door to sven's computer room. :) we're hosting a writing workshop tomorrow at the studio so we had to so a lot of stuff we had been procrastinating about (not that there's not more to do, of course) and rearrange all the furniture. it's even got art now!

i don't know how we'll rearrange it when the workshop's done. i'd still like a comfy space to hang out when only one of us is doing art and the other wants to hang out, but so far our attempts to do that have been awkward and not very comfy. if we keep the big empty area which will serve us well during artist's way sessions, what do we do during the times it's not artist's way? where do we put the calligraphy table? do we move sven's writing table to the house? will that keep him from using the studio as much?

Wednesday, November 10, 2004

 
8:41 PM: on being careful what one wishes for [#] [0]

so i definitely have work through psu for a few months (through february at least), and i'm surprisingly less enthusiastic about it than i think i ought to be. almost depressed, in fact. i can totally use the money, and i'm glad i've done a good enough job for them in the past that they want to hire me in a more consistent manner, but i'm in a position i wasn't sure i wanted to get into again, and i'm worried about disappointing everyone.

i'll be doing part-time online course development and faculty webct support, as well as using the process i developed to get their learning objects into hive. but i am doubting my skills. maggie reeeaaaalllly prefers developers with master's degrees (and even better if they have phds), and i worry that it will be almost immediately apparent i can't play with the big kids. i liked the special projects division better, when there were no expectations and discrete beginnings & endings. also, i haven't had to work with people or in a cubicle for a year and half, and i worry i've lost whatever skills i had to work with colleagues and *shudder* faculty.

and the timing makes me sad, as it will clash with artist's way, and we thought it would be a good time to give youthlib.com another go. and i already feel like i don't have time to breathe; how will i add more?

the good news (as if "paying job" wasn't enough): i have to go into campus for an undetermined amount of hours each week, but i can set my own schedule and ratio of home/work hours. and there's a teeeeeeesy chance i could get benefits with this position.

anyway, i'll start monday. then i'll go to colorado. then psu has finals week. then the coast at new year's. and the very next day, the winter term begins. no breathing room at all. into the fire with me.

Monday, November 08, 2004

 
9:33 PM: non-fiction [#] [0]

so i went to see "fiction" in seattle w/ leopoldo, which itself was quite good and had a lot of complexity & layers to it. but the play was sandwiched between a lot of other events, too:

* going to a birthday party for leopoldo's friend aaron, whose daughter read me the dragonology book
* meeting leopoldo's very cool mother
* brunch at the very busy but tasty portage bay cafe
* walking along the montlake trail, and getting to see the whole drawbridge process from directly underneath the bridge
* exploring all four levels of the act theatre, including finding the one unlocked door to the catwalks
* visiting the new seattle central library (where the entrance to the meeting rooms is like walking down someone's throat)
* picking up tea for leopoldo at post alley
* dinner at the slow service but hip & tasty alibi room

also, we began saturday w/ an audition at the mission theatre which was cold at 8:30 a.m. after rehearsing my line i looked at the side, anyway! and when i heard my voice bounce from the walls of the theatre i thought, "nooooo! that's not how it's supposed to sound!" but by that point, i had said the line and was leaving my well-marked, well-lit spot between the two pieces of blue tape. well, at least the headshot sven made for me was supercool. it made for awkward conversations with leopoldo during the trip though, since he's one of the casting people. :)

Friday, November 05, 2004

 
10:10 PM: arwen comes to lothlorien [#] [0]

michaelmas just got a cat! linda found a stray but allergies required her to find the cat another home, and michael, who has fortunately not been permanently scarred by amelia, adopted her and named her arwen. i met her last night, and she seemed to settle in immediately. i think she'll be a good companion. congratulations, michael & arwen!

in other news, i've been working on reassembling my theatre resume for a few days now and sven & i actually did headshots today so we can audition for a local zombie movie tomorrow morning. this is complete overkill and i don't even expect to be cast because i'll be out of town for two weeks during thanksgiving, but is the first step towards my larger goal of wanting to audition for local theatre, which i've been feeling completely blocked about. so hooray!

and maggie contacted me about part-time work at psu over the next 2-3 months! i'm worried about the trips i have scheduled over thanksgiving & new year's, but if they can be worked around i'll probably take it. don't know what i'll be doing yet, though...

Tuesday, November 02, 2004

 
11:49 PM: candied yams don't vote [#] [0]

oh, i'm sad. i haven't been this sad since colorado's amendment 2 election. it was as i said: if we don't know who the president is by the end of the night, it will go to bush.

when we dropped off our ballot today, we got all the way to the library before we realized someone had removed -all- of trixie's poetry magnets and put them on the hood! (except "do not drink" which was added to the roof).

Monday, November 01, 2004

 
1:59 AM: and now.... [#] [0]

sven is 33!