A WEEKEND OF HIGHS AND LOWS: The weekend began with the death of Dottie Miller, my best friend Tina's mom. I got the call about 1 a.m. on Friday morning. She had been in the hospital for six weeks for cancer treatment. There was a great sense of sadness and also of relief that she was no longer in pain. I went over to Tina's Friday evening and hung out for awhile with her and her dad. There's a memorial service on Thursday night.
Saturday was pretty much eaten up by the long Georgia Writers Association board meeting. We are planning to refocus the organization, offer more to members, redesign the website, etc. I came home and FINALLY finished unpacking all the boxes from the move. My office is now habitable, now all I need is to get the wireless connection set up for my notebook and I'm ready to go. The apartment is "done" except for still trying to figure out the bedroom (which is also now box-free). I've got artwork to hang and still trying to decide if the bed should be at an angle to give the room a twist or traditionally flush against the wall. This will come in time. I'm just excited to not have boxes stacked up in every corner. I swear the next time I move, it will be to the place I'm going to die in...unless I win the lottery, publish a bestseller or move to England. Any of which could happen.
On Sunday, I slept in and watched that great film Before Sunrise with Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy. One of the most intelligent scripts ever written and Ethan and Julie are perfect. The sequel Before Sunset was one of last year's best films. Of course seeing this movie again made me long for Europe. Ethan's character, Jesse, has been traveling around Europe by train on a Eurail pass, when he meets Celine on the train to Vienna. They start talking, get off the train and wander around Vienna (gorgeous!) and fall in love. Both the films are mainly just extended shots of the characters in conversation, but thanks to Richard Linklater's direction and the stars, it's never boring. By cosmic coincidence (?), I was at a news site later in the day and saw a big banner ad for Eurail. A month-long jaunt across the continent sounds like heaven, but where would the money come from and how would I get the time off the day job? The constraints of everyday life are a bitch. I've got to figure out a solution to get myself out of debt so I can become a gentleman of leisure.
After dinner with my parents for Father's Day, I headed over to Java Monkey Speaks for the release party/reading from the Java Monkey Speaks Anthology Vol. 1 and Kodac put me in charge of signing people in and selling books. We went through almost an entire case and the books are beautiful (scroll down to see the cover image). Amazingly, 21 of the 41 poets in the anthology showed up to read. It was a long, but wonderful night of poetry. Despite the nutty review in Creative Loafing (or maybe because of it) the place was packed. Another standing room only evening. We heard lots of comments on the CL review. I was going to write another letter, but I think I've been in CL enough lately. The only thing that came to mind in response to the review was the line from Hollaback Girl by Gwen Stefani: This shit is bananas...
But I ain't no hollaback poet (not this week anyway).
Saturday was pretty much eaten up by the long Georgia Writers Association board meeting. We are planning to refocus the organization, offer more to members, redesign the website, etc. I came home and FINALLY finished unpacking all the boxes from the move. My office is now habitable, now all I need is to get the wireless connection set up for my notebook and I'm ready to go. The apartment is "done" except for still trying to figure out the bedroom (which is also now box-free). I've got artwork to hang and still trying to decide if the bed should be at an angle to give the room a twist or traditionally flush against the wall. This will come in time. I'm just excited to not have boxes stacked up in every corner. I swear the next time I move, it will be to the place I'm going to die in...unless I win the lottery, publish a bestseller or move to England. Any of which could happen.
On Sunday, I slept in and watched that great film Before Sunrise with Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy. One of the most intelligent scripts ever written and Ethan and Julie are perfect. The sequel Before Sunset was one of last year's best films. Of course seeing this movie again made me long for Europe. Ethan's character, Jesse, has been traveling around Europe by train on a Eurail pass, when he meets Celine on the train to Vienna. They start talking, get off the train and wander around Vienna (gorgeous!) and fall in love. Both the films are mainly just extended shots of the characters in conversation, but thanks to Richard Linklater's direction and the stars, it's never boring. By cosmic coincidence (?), I was at a news site later in the day and saw a big banner ad for Eurail. A month-long jaunt across the continent sounds like heaven, but where would the money come from and how would I get the time off the day job? The constraints of everyday life are a bitch. I've got to figure out a solution to get myself out of debt so I can become a gentleman of leisure.
After dinner with my parents for Father's Day, I headed over to Java Monkey Speaks for the release party/reading from the Java Monkey Speaks Anthology Vol. 1 and Kodac put me in charge of signing people in and selling books. We went through almost an entire case and the books are beautiful (scroll down to see the cover image). Amazingly, 21 of the 41 poets in the anthology showed up to read. It was a long, but wonderful night of poetry. Despite the nutty review in Creative Loafing (or maybe because of it) the place was packed. Another standing room only evening. We heard lots of comments on the CL review. I was going to write another letter, but I think I've been in CL enough lately. The only thing that came to mind in response to the review was the line from Hollaback Girl by Gwen Stefani: This shit is bananas...
But I ain't no hollaback poet (not this week anyway).
Comments
Hell, Collin, you sound about as picky as I am about arranging rooms and getting settled. :)
Good news about the anthology gig.
-D.