Birthday/Who Dat Weekend!

I had the best birthday weekend & what made it even better was that the Saints won the Super Bowl!  Who Dat!

Saturday night @ Cafe Adobe:

Strawberry Margarita. . . Yum

W/ the Out-of-Towners: Matt in from San Francisco & Eddie G. up from Corpus Christi

Me & Jeff

Party People

The After Party @ Boheme

Sunday @ Antonio's w/ my family was followed by my Super Bowl Party, complete with my Dirty Coast t-shirt

and, of course, SAINTS awesomeness:

What a great weekend!  Now I'm off to make macaroons for my Comp II class tomorrow (we're reading the Ibsen play A Doll's House and it's a key detail of the plot).

Pink Goodies!

My package from the Pink Swap (my partner was Kirby over @ Good Gals Inc.) arrived today.  Look at my goodies that were waiting for me on my doorstep just in time for my birthday:

I've already been snacking on a few of the Valentine's Jelly Belly beans and wrote a thank-you note to Kirby on the adorable Hallmark brown & pink houndstooth blank note cards.  I can't wait until she gets her package from me!  Several of the items went to support the Susan G. Komen foundation, which is a cause I very much support because my aunt died from breast cancer in 2000.  I finally found the perfect gift box to put it all in (from Target).  Without giving her goodies away, here is glimpse at the gorgeous gift box:

Isn't it pretty? I want one for myself!

Birthday Girl

When I was a little girl, two of my big sisters, Lisa & Lynne, would celebrate their birthday all week long: discos, dinners, and who knows what else they did circa 1980.  Now, it's my turn: it's my birthday week!  I'm turning 30something, which I can't possibly believe.  However, after a rough start to my year (month-long bronchitis, fractured ankle, lesson planning, etc. etc.), I'm looking forward to this sure to be weekend of birthday awesomeness.  Here's the plan:

Saturday night birthday dinner w/ friends @ Cafe Adobe:

followed by a Sunday lunch w/ family @ Antonio's:

and, of course, by 5:30PM on Sunday, I will be in absolute Who Dat-ville watching the Super Bowl w/ Jeff (+ maybe a few friends).  I'm not a crazed sports fan by any stretch, but I LOVE me some NOLA!

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Speaking of The Big Easy, The Crescent City (don't say New Or-Leans) or whatever moniker floats your boat, if you want your NOLA fix (and the fever has been high over at my house), check out these:

NOLA.com

WWOZ.org (best NOLA online radio ever)

FAUBOURG TREMÉ: The Untold Story of Black New Orleans

Literary New Orleans

Dirty Coast

Where Traveler New Orleans

The Gambit

and to help rebuild, visit:

Make It Right NOLA

St. Bernard Project

and you must see the new HBO Series, Treme:

WHO DAT!

31-28, Baby!  Who Dat!

The team that had no home five years ago after Hurricane Katrina ravaged its city and the Superdome overcame a slew of mistakes in the biggest game the Big Easy has ever seen.  I love me some NOLA:

and, of course, beignets & cafe au lait from Cafe du Monde:

Laissez les bons temps rouler!

Exquisite Birthday Pink

Fun Student Activity: The Exquisite Corpse.  I used this as an icebreaker in my Creative Writing I class today and everyone loved it!  It's great practice for collaborative work and to get the creative "juices" flowing.  Here's what they came up with:

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I love birthdays: friend birthdays, family birthdays, pet birthdays (ok, this is an exaggeration) and yes, my birthday!  I will be 30something in a few weeks and plan to celebrate it twice: one with dinner with friends @ Cafe Adobe and one with my family @ Antonio's.  Two of my friends will be in town for the shindig and I'm looking forward to seeing everyone I love and catching up over good food & good conversation!

I never, ever, expect birthday gifts (but I love to give them!)  However, I do have "dream" birthday gift wishes:

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I received my SLAH Davistown Magazine Rack in the mail today.  I've been needing a small magazine rack in the living room for quite a while and I love this one:

I bought it off ebay for around $17 and it retailed for $54.95.  Quite the bargain!  It was brand new in the original box, too!  I have subscriptions to every kind of magazine possible: from Poetry to Marie Claire to  The New Yorker and St. Anthony Messenger.  They will all fit nicely in this rack.

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I finally got my partner for the Pink Swap!  It's Kirby from over @ Good Gals, Inc.  I'm excited to "meet" someone new and exchange goodies!  I have almost everything ready to send her except I have no idea about gift boxing.  I want something that is decent sized and pink-themed.  Anyone have any ideas on where to go to look for something that will fit the bill?  I think presentation is half of the fun, but, alas, I'm a better planner/buyer than I am a gift-package-er.  Help!

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Day 1 of school down and it killed my ankle!  By the time J. picked me up from teaching (I can't comfortably drive, yet), I was near tears.  I can't wait for my ortho appointment on Friday to see what can be done to alleviate the pain.  I really hope I don't have to have surgery, though some PT would be nice because I'm still having mobility issues and am walking like a wino.  I'm sure me limp-staggering into my Creative Writing and Comp II classes today made such a great impression!

Back to School

Another semester begins tomorrow!  I always enjoy my winter break, but I am looking forward to teaching another semester (this term: Comp II, American Lit II, & Creative Writing I).  I've been preparing roll/grade sheets the past two days and getting my syllabi printed out.  I'm a true type-A person and I always lay everything out the day/night before:

I'm a geek for school/office supplies--just look at how vibrant those folders are!  I got them @ Wal-Mart (can you believe it?!) for next to nothing.  I bought up almost all of the ones on the shelf to stockpile for later.

The books I'm using this semester are: The Poet's Companion: A Guide to the Pleasures of Writing Poetry edited by Kim Addonizio and Dorianne Laux (for the CWI class), Portable Legacies: Fiction, Poetry, Drama, Nonfiction by Jan Zlotnik Schmidt and Lynne Crockett (Comp II), and The American Tradition in Literature by George B. Perkins and Barbara Perkins.

It's been a pain trying to do the simplest things for myself now that my ankle is injured (Note: I have an orthopedic appt. on Friday.  Hopefully I won't have to have surgery.  Cross your fingers!).  It's also been a pain trying to find  clothes to wear that aren't too much fuss and can go over the cast/brace easily enough.  I've chosen the following for my first day back in the classroom:

I have no idea what to do about footwear.  I can't wear anything with a heel, so I'm thinking flats.  I can't wear sneakers (not that I ever really wear sneakers, except for rare circumstances like the trip to the ER).  If any of you out there have ever had a foot injury, what did you do for work-appropriate footwear?

Early morning, tomorrow: rise @ 6AM (yuck).  Check back with me in a month or so and I'm sure my classroom chipperness will have faded to "I would rather sell fruit at intersections than see one more student write human bean in their papers."  Yes, students write that.  Alas. 

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Must Read: Anne Frank: The Book, The Life, The Afterlife by Francine Prose--

Fracture

Thursday night my friend and I went to dinner @ Blue Fish.  If any of you in the Houston area have been to Blue Fish (or the Hobbit), then you know how crazy bad the parking lot is.  Uneven doesn't even begin to describe it.  I slipped and took a terrible spill in the parking lot.  My right ankle snapped up and I heard an audible "pop" sound, which of course I knew was not good.  I was afraid I couldn't even get up.  The staff @ BF were nice enough to bring me a bag of ice for my troubles. 

When I got home, the swelling was terrible, but I thought I would wait a day or so to see if it went down.  Well, the pain and the swelling didn't subside that much on Friday and I had no left-right mobility.  My husband & I went to 24 Hour Emergency Room (a minor/urgent care facility) where I was examined and X-Rayed.  The very wonderful Dr. Burian told me that I have an avulsion fracture, which is where the ligament completely tears away from the bone and takes parts of the bone with it.  Ouch. 

I have to wear a fiberglass "cast" for the next several days and then follow up with an orthopedist to determine if additional measures (i.e. reconstructive surgery of the ligaments) need to be done.  Yikes.  Hopefully not!  For now, I have crutches and a giant bandaged, fiberglass molded, club-looking foot.  Not fun!

The Young Pink

This afternoon:

and then dinner @  Blue Fish with my dear friend Halli! (Update: I sprained my ankle (very badly) in the "rugged" Blue Fish parking lot.  Am now hobbling along.)

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My creative writing II class did not make (again!).   Cross your fingers that I get to pick up another class to teach (in addition to the 2 I'm teaching: American Lit II and Creative Writing I)!

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Love all things pink?

then join the 2nd annual Pink Swap over at Monograms & Manicures.  Yes, it's girly -- a little silly, even, but it's fun to swap and receive (and give!) little presents in the mail.  I'm already thinking of items from here, and here, and this, too.  Besides, if you do it right, all of your purchased items can go to fund breast cancer research/treatment.  This is the angle I'm taking with my purchases for the swap.

Info about the Pink Swap:

1. You must sign up on this post by Friday, January 15th, 2010 by leaving your email in a comment [Update: deadline has passed to sign up].

PINK for the Cause!

Prayer Reading Tea

The Mary Karr reading last night @ the Hobby Center was nothing short of amazing!  The reading was completely sold out!  I was disappointed that my mom wasn't able to come, sadly, because she was ill.  Karr read for about 20 minutes from her latest memoir, Lit, and from her latest collection of poems, Sinners Welcome ("A Blessing From My Sixteen Years' Son").  She then was interviewed for about 20 minutes and then gave a 20 minute Q&A.  She's just like the voice in her books: funny, energetic, down to earth, and part rock 'n roll, part East Texas twang.  I loved every minute of it.

Jeff & I waited in line for about 45 minutes to have my books signed.  It was meaningful to me to have the chance to talk to her not just because I love her work or that she grew up near where I grew up, but I wanted to tell her something more important (to me).  In Dec. 2005, I was on the cusp of beginning my senior creative honors thesis at UH under the direction of Claudia Rankine when my little sister Sam was hit by a drunk driver (his 3rd DUI) and nearly killed.  She remained in a coma for a month and has never been the same.  On Christmas Eve 2005, I came home from sitting with her at the hospital and picked up the latest issue of Poetry that contained Karr's essay on poetry and prayer. 

I was raised Catholic, but had not given faith a serious thought in a long time.  Her essay about her conversion to Catholicism flung open some door inside me and all of the sudden I knew what I had to do--write about it all: my sister, faith, mystery, pain of the body, the feminine divine, all of which became Glossolalia.  Karr's essay single-handedly brightened all dark rooms inside me and I reconciled myself with faith, with life and death, with my crazy, wayward, near-dying sister, with poetry, with it all.  That is what I wanted to tell her.  And I did.  Whether it meant anything or not, I'll never know, but me being able to share that with her, to tell her that her writing matters, was something I've been wanting to do for a long time and I'm so thankful that I was able to do so.

The title of my manucript, which is now forthcoming from Red Hen Press, comes from the quote, "“And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.” (Acts 2:4).  I'm not a Bible thumper and can't quote at will, not even close, but I feel that speaking in tongues is what we as writers do: we speak in voices, not always entirely our own.  We speak in other tongues.  That night in December, my sister lying in a coma, me at home with a small little magazine in my hands weeping in the early cold dark, I was given that utterance.

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Celebrate National Hot Tea Month! 

Reading Nesting Cooking PLR

I've been waiting for months for this:

Mary Karr, author of The Liar's Club, Cherry, Sinner's Welcome, Lit, among others, will be reading tomorrow night @ 7:30 pm at Hobby Center for the Performing Arts as part of Houston's Margarett Root Brown Reading Series (info here).  I'm excited for several reasons: I love Karr's writing and she grew up near Port Arthur, TX, which is not too far down the road from where I grew up in Baytown.  Her memoirs are, for the most part, set in this area and it's fun to read about and visualize the small refinery town landscape that colored so much of my childhood.  Advanced tickets are sold out, but Inprint will be offering some "stand-by" tickets at the door for $5 (free w/ a student ID).  I'm so glad I purchased mine weeks ago!  I'm going with my husband and meeting my mom & sister Lisa there!  I'm ready for a fun night!

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Every winter I nest.  Now that we're entering into our 4th day of a hard freeze (!), I'm sprucing up the house with little lovelies.  Jeff has finished painting the kitchen and is about to move on to work on the guest bath, which we're doing in an understated French theme.  Jeff is building a beautiful cabinent with a double towel bar.  Here are some things I've chosen for the guest bath:

(Southern Living at Home Estate Vanity Tray and Soap Dispenser, Paris Shops Shower Curtain, SLAH Cordova Sconce, and SLAH Jamestown votives ).  I plan to display my Chanel perfume bottles in the SLAH vanity tray.  I'm also adding the SLAH Jubilation Cross to create my vignette.  Jeff will also be putting in rich butter-tanish colored floor tiles to complete the look.  After that, he's moving on to the guest room where he's working on built-in bookcases and laying hardwood flooring.  We've already purchased two wingback chairs and a matching ottoman for that room.  I love watching it all come together bit by bit!

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I'm still reading my way through my "Irish" books.  I finished Edna O'Brien's Down by the River last week and am now about halfway through Frank McCourt's Angela's Ashes.  They're both so wonderfully written, but terribly sad and bleak.  I can't imagine such sorrow and poverty, but the spirit these Irish characters have is so amazing.  Their strength in such terribly circumstances is so awe-inspiring.

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It's so cold here that I don't want to leave my house even to run to the grocery store!  Tonight I made Paula Deen's Monte Cristo sandwiches.  I must go back to the gym once it warms up a little!  Spring will be (hopefully) just around the corner.  Until then, tonight: Miss Potter, tea, and almond biscotti.

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PLR is late, yes.  If you've been keeping up w/ me through Facebook, then you know I was sick for almost the entirety of December.  I even had to miss Christmas!  I had viral bronchitis and it was just miserable.  I'm much better now (thanks to Jeff, 2 rounds of antibiotics, tea, peppermint oil, and B vitamins), but I'm working as fast as I can to get the new issue up and running, which will before within a week.  I will keep you posted and my apologies to those of you who are waiting!

Reading Bronchitis New Year's

While I'm recovering from bronchitis (going on 3 weeks now), I've been making my Spring syllabi and lists.  I'm quite the list maker and this time I've made a book list for myself and a list of area readings from which my students must choose one to attend. 

Excerpt from My Book List:

Down by the River by Edna O’Brien*
Sediment by Sandy Tseng*
Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt
Marconi’s Cottage by Medbh McGuckian*
Stupid Hope by Jason Shinder*
Happy by Alex Lemon
Orchidelirium by Deborah Landau
The Ticking is the Bomb by Nick Flynn
Belfast Confetti by Ciaran Carson
Mayweed by Frannie Lindsay
The Mammy by Brendan O’Carroll

*=reading now

You'll notice that I have quite a few Irish writers on my reading list.  I go through periods where I jump in to something head first to study.  In the past, it's been post-modern American poetry, Plath, New Orleans writing, contemporary American spiritual poetry, ekphrasis.  Now, it's Irish writers such as Medbh McGuckian, Ciaran Carson, Brendan O'Carroll, Edna O'Brien, Roddy Doyle, and Frank McCourt.  I'm also a big memoir reader, hence Alex Lemon's Happy and Nick Flynn's The Ticking is the Bomb, both of which I can't wait to get my little mitts on.

As for the readings that I assign my students each semester, most of the are supplied by Brazos Bookstore, the Inprint/Margarett Root Brown Reading Series, Gulf Coast, and NANOFiction.  I'm especially looking forward to the following:

Mary Karr

January 11, 2010 - 7:30pm

Hobby Center, 800 Bagby St.

Nick Flynn

January 18, 2010 - 7:00pm

Brazos Bookstore, 2421 Bissonnet, Houston, TX 77005, Tel: 713-523-0701

Will Donnelly, Briana Rochelle Olson, Rebecca Wadlinger

Friday, January 22, 2010 - 7:00pm
Brazos Bookstore, 2421 Bissonnet, Houston, TX 77005, Tel: 713-523-0701

Dorianne Laux &  Patricia Smith

Monday, April 12, 2010- 7:30pm

Neuhaus Stage, Alley Theatre, 615 Texas Avenue

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My syllabi for my 3 classes (Creative Writing I & II, American Lit II: Civil War-Present) are almost finished!  I hope my CWII class makes -- it's a once a week night class and it has been my experience that those are sometimes hard to fill.  However, 2 more people have signed up since last week, bringing the count to a whopping 4.  If you're in the area and want to take a CW course, let me know & I'll get you the registration information.

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I don't have NYE plans (still waiting on the bronchitis to subside), but my mom is having a NYD dinner @ her house to make up for the fact that I had to miss Christmas because I was sick.  Isn't that sweet?  She's making her delish chicken spaghetti & I'll be bringing everyone their presents -- including the little blue snuggie for her new dog, Joey (he's part dachshund/part chihuahua and as a result has a super thin coat of fur and is always cold.)  I can't wait to get over this sick & see everyone again!

Happy New Year!

128

My friend & one of my favorite Benningtonites, Adam Tessier, runs Our Daily Sonnet.  Here's Adam's take on the impetus of our daily sonnet.  Today's sonnet is #128, which Adam so kindly invited me to read for his site.  Check it out!

PLR Fall/Winter 2009 Coming Soon!

The new issue of Pebble Lake Review is coming soon!  In this issue are poems from Dilruba Ahmed, Rebecca Kinzie Bastian, Amber Clark, Nick Courtright, Lisa Fay Coutley, Weston Cutter, Paul Dickey, Nathan McClain, Ashley Anna McHugh, Heather McNaugher, Iris Moulton, Michael Ogletree, Steven Schroeder, Julie Marie Wade, and Fritz Ward.  The Fall/Winter 2009 issue of PLR also includes reviews of Rachel Zucker's Museum of Accidents, Sandy Tseng's Sediment, and Idra Novey's The Next Country.

In Case You Missed It. .

The reading last night @ Kaboom Books was great!  Thanks so much to everyone who braved the damp fog long enough to come out and support the reading, especially my dear friends and my video-recording husband.  It was also a joy to read with the wonderful poet and my friend, Andrew Kozma.  In cased you missed it, here's a recording of me reading my poem, "Cockroach," aka my "Houston" poem:

We afterpartied @ this great little out-of-the way Mexican restaurant, Teotihuacan Mexican Cafe.  We shut the place down:

Texas Blizzard!

t rarely nows in Houston (obviously), so when it does it's a great event.  Northerners may scoff, but down here when it snows, schools let out early and everyone comes home to enjoy the  soft white dusting that will inevitably stick for only a few hours or so (if that).  This year, Houston broke a record: it has now snowed for two years in a row (Dec. 10, 2008 and Dec. 4, 2009).  Houston also broke another record as yesterday was the earliest snowfall ever recorded here.  Some places got up to 4 inches!  I was so happy that I only teach TTH classes and that Jeff was off, because we kept running outside to play in it and take pictures, then come back inside to make cocoa and watch the weather reports that kept rolling in.  It really was wonderful and I think it got all of us down here in swampland in the Christmas spirit!  Here's what the snow looked like from my house:

Junk Shelf

Sometime I miss the harried routine of grad school, which when I say (write) it out loud, you'll think I'm crazy: reading 5 books a month, writing (on average) 6 poems and 2 annotations.  I felt so productive, so in tune with things. 

Then came graduation, teaching, the end of the bubble.  I'm a scatterbrained reader right now.  What's on my shelf?  A ridiculous hodgepodge that I'll pick up depending on my mood.  Let's see:

1.  Stupid Hope by Jason Shinder

2. Lit by Mary Karr

3. Dearest Creature by Amy Gerstler

4. America's Queen by Sarah Bradford

5. Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger

6. Cheerful Money by Tad Friend

7. Martha Stewart Living (Holiday Edition)

A completely nonsensical list, indeed.  However, I find that by reading a wide (often nonsensical) array of things leads to inspiration not otherwise found.  I hate going to party and everyone's gathered around the drinks and so-and-so is saying how he just finished Aristotle and is now tackling all of Dante and Rilke when you know he's wedged a Sports Illustrated and the newest Dan Brown novel in there, too.  My little secret: I like to incorporate "junk food" reading on my list during my winter break.  I feel that it helps cleanse the palate, so to speak.  This time, my junk food is the Jackie O. biography and Friend's memoir.  And, of course, Martha.

What's on your shelf?  What's your "junk food?"