Organizing your writing life

BROKEN GLASSES & OTHER NOTES So last night I broke my only pair of glasses. I dropped them on the concrete floor of my loft and the arm thingy that hangs over your ear snapped in half. I taped them up nerd-style and went to Lenscrafters this morning. Of course, they just couldn't pop the lenses out and put them in new frames, mainly because I've had these glasses for nearly three years and they don't even carry those frames anymore. I decided to get an eye check-up (almost three years since the last one of those as well) and wound up getting a new prescription (meaning new lenses) and frames. Set me back almost $300. There goes my whore and crack money for the month. Sigh.

After getting the new glasses I went and looked at another apartment/loft. This is the second one I've looked at in as many weeks, and I think this one might be the keeper. Hardwood floors, huge bathroom, great kitchen, lots of storage, wonderful area to set up an office. I'm going to make my final decision tonight. I can't remember if I've blogged about this before, but my current lofts have turned ghetto and I don't mean fabulous. While I don't mind a racially diverse community (I actually prefer it), that diversity should not include the bass being cranked up so loud it sets off all the car alarms...at 3 a.m. on a Monday night. It should also not include shady characters selling drugs, strangers wandering about the halls all night, filthy hallways, lack of management response, and jacking up rent when every other apartment complex in town is lowering rent and offering incentives out the yang. I've lived in my loft for five years, but after three or four changes in management and the goal to fill all 500 plus units with anyone who walks in off the street and can come up with the first month's rent ...well, that means it's time for me to go. It's time for a change of scenary anyway, although moving is a bitch and I got a lot of junk.

The weekend was a bit of a blur. I wound up working until 8:30 p.m. on Friday night as we continue the redesign of the papers. I was so tired by the time I got home, I passed out. I slept until 1 on Saturday and that evening went to hear Jennifer and Denton Perry play over at Maddy's in Decatur. Good music and barbecue so good you'll slap ya mama. My friend Brent and his fiance joined as. Brent has a condo downtown and wants to rent it out, but it's just too tiny for me. The location would be great, but with all my shit the condo would look like the living room on Sanford & Son. On Sunday, I went and met Malory for lunch at the Palace Deli. Good food and good laughs with Mal. We don't see each other nearly as much as we should. Then I had to go back to the office and meet our exec editor Susan Soper to go over some of the corrections I had made on the proofs I took home. I wound up staying for an hour working on other stuff.

Sunday night was the monthly Java Monkey slam. I decided to slam for the hell of it, but I knew I wouldn't make it the second round and sure enough...and this was even with "Why I Want To Be Pam Grier." The judges seemed determined to put through a shouty black male and sure enough, that's what they did. Despite the fact that Mysterious Poet and ICON (also black males) were much more subtle and doing some of their best work. Luckily, my pal Rupert made it in the finals. Kate Gale (editor of Red Hen Press and author of the great new collection Mating Season) was the feature and I love her edgy poetry. We went to dinner afterwards and she is savvy lady when it comes to marketing, getting your name out there, etc. I asked her about sending my next book to Red Hen, and she said she'd love to read it. Hooray!. The next book is in the works. Stay tuned!