Look What I Found...

The following was the first poem I ever had published. *sigh* It was waaay back in 2002. Enjoy, loves!

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Who the hell do you think you are?
Good Question.
I am something, or possibly nothing …depending on who you ask.
I am a sister
In more than one sense of the word
I am a daughter
No matter what I say
I am a friend
A girlfriend
A best friend
But oh I am so much more.
I stand before the ocean,
And feel so small.
And I realize that there are,
Or might be,
100.000 other people who feel the same way.
But not all of them are standing before an ocean.

I look up at the sky at night
And ask the stars what they are up to
Because
Well, no one else ever does.
And I know that Maria will call me from 400 miles northeast
And ask me if I saw that shooting star
And sometimes I can say,
“Yeah, I did”
And I know my nephew will call me from 500 miles southwest
And ask me if I saw the robin that was in his backyard yesterday.
And I tell him I did
Because I saw a robin today
And well, who knows?

“Lei non lo sa, ma penso di lei proprio ora”

And I realize that I am content just to be near you.
I like all your schemes and ideas.
Because I remember once holding out an empty hand.
And I remember when I was nothing more than
First mate of
Or cabin boy to
A shipwreck on the sea of Quiddity.

I am going to close the book now-
And then you turn off the set –
Give me the keys and let’s drive –
Let’s sit down in front of the ocean
Where you can quote Thoreau and I can reason like Whitman
“Ruminating of the frustrating dilemma of our existence…”
But OH!
There are still places in this world
I may have only seen in my dreams
Or in one of those 400 books that woman left me
Long before I could read.
I like books
The leather of the shell that protects
The slivers of the once proud sequoias
I don’t think the trees mind.
Rather killed for words than a paper towel.

What is writing?
Nothing more than a thousand useless letters on a paper
Formed and borrowed,
Pulled together,
Or pulled apart…
Maybe that’s why I enjoy it so.

I like the ocean.
I like the idea of the waves…
Where no one is in contol
I used to think that the waves were the earth
Waving to me to say Hi.
So I stood there…and listened to what it had to say.
A philosopher at age 6.

I saw a bird making a nest in a fallen tree
All I could think of was the irony.
I touch the pages of my notebook…
And think of what birds knew it first
Maybe that bird…
That bird with its home in a dead tree –
Maybe this isn’t its first
What kind of doomed existence?
Poor thing.

I am going down the ocean now.
Just so I can say hi
Maybe I’ll go at night
So I can talk to the stars too
I think they miss their 6 year-old Socratic friend.
Maybe I’ll go and tell them I’m still here.

Things That Are Awesome: The Wire: Season 4

My brother BW and I are currently embroiled in season 4 of The Wire. IT'S SO GOOD, YOU GUYS. I think this one might be my favorite so far. Each season has focused on different aspects of the drug trade. Season 1 was mostly about the cops and the dealers and their various machinations. (Here, have this video of one of my very favorite S.1 scenes as D'Angelo Barkesdale lays out the game.) Season 2 featured, you know, more drugs but also the stevedores at the harbor and how their jobs are falling off and life sucks for everyone. (At one point, I said to BW, "Um. Will I *CARE* about Polish dockworkers at some point?" Cue to 10 episodes later when I'm weeping over Polish dockworkers.) Season 3 was more drugs and the mayoral campaign. (Season 3 was probably my least favorite season so far. But that's like choosing my least favorite kind of chocolate. No such thing!)

But, oh, Season 4, with your focus on the crumbling school districts of Baltimore. YOU ARE BREAKING MY HEART. BW assures me that I'll be weeping by the end. Gee, can't wait!

Seriously, everyone should watch this show. Volstaag, you would totally like it. Dan Mac, are you still watching?

Confidential to the email girls: Ring, ring!

My Mosaic

I totally stole this idea from a friend of mine. It's a mosaic of "me."
Enjoy!

My favorite color- purple

Dream vacation- Winter Cabin (with TONS of great reading material)

What makes me happy- Laughing with my friends

What I am- a teacher

My name- Auntie Mame
My favorite food- pizza

Favorite flower- Hydrengea

Where I am from- New Jersey
My favorite dessert- Oreo's and Milk

National Scrapbook Day...or why my weekend wasn't wasted (for the first time)

I sit at work today as my students are watching the Baz Luhrmann version of Romeo and Juliet, so I don't have much to do. Let me update you on my weekend:

• Friday was a Ladies' Night at the Scrapbook Room. Have I ever talked about what a scrapbook/altered art whore I am? Because I am. Part of it would be the fact that I have a very photogenic little man and his adorable pictures need to be preserved. That blossomed into taking classes to learn about different techniques to make my scrapbooks look nicer, and then I developed a love for this stuff called "altered art." Basically it's taking scrapbook techniques and applying them to furniture, books, luggage, etc. Wow, I sound like a nerd. Oh well, if you haven't guess by now... Anyway, I love Friday night scraps; there are a lot of other teachers that attend and we laugh and have a great time. It's every other Friday and I look forward to these nights like a holiday. The owner of the store is this hilarious New Yorker who I call "Mom." We have the weirdest things in common, like mannerisms and such. Because she's from up north we have a lot of the same frustrations regarding the culture here. Check out her store here (PS...her prices are LOWER than anywhere else - even eBay, I've checked!)
• Saturday was National Scrapbook day. Beau took Glow Bug for the day and I got to sit and scrapbook ALL DAY LONG. It was so much fun. Mom had a different sale every hour. Did I spend way too much money? Probably. Did I only get a few things done because I was laughing and goofing around? Yes. Do I care? No.
• The "George Bush Relief Check" came in. This makes up for the money I spent at the scrapbook store. I think it's funny that our President is giving us money to make up for the millions, check that billions, he's wasted on this war. Wait, let me get off my soapbox.
• Sunday Beau cleaned off our back deck and we had a cookout. Agnes came over and we had hotdogs and the fixins, then played cards. Glow Bug LOVES to play cards. We deal him in and he sits back and plays basically a memory type game to himself while we play a hand. It's so cute to watch. We took so many pictures of absolutely nothing. I can't wait to scrapbook them.
• I finally watched Knocked Up. I know, I'm a year behind. That movie was so cute. I cracked up and then sobbed a lot at the end. That song that plays during the credits, "Daughter" by Loudon Wainwright III made me sob - and I have a boy! I hate those Wainwrights. The song, "Hallelujah" that he sang makes me cry every time. Jerks.

This is a boring blog. I know. But I'm bored today, so what are you gonna do? You're gonna read it and complain about it in a comment. And I'm gonna laugh. So who wins?

New "Battlestar Galactica" and A Trip For Some Culture NOT Found In Yogurt

Ok, so, the fourth season of Battlestar Galactica has started! Yay! FINALLY. It's been almost a YEAR people, not counting the Razor tv movie, which I don't because it doesn't suit my complaining purposes. So there. OMG, IT WAS REALLY GOOD. It ended like most BSG episodes end, on a big cliffhanger with me yelling, "Oh, FUCK YOU!" at the screen. That's how you know it was good.

Today, my mom and I headed to the art museum to check out the Frida Kahlo exhibit. I adore Frida. I really don't know that much about art, but I love her stuff. So, I was pretty excited. It was an AMAZING exhibit. They had all these photographs from her personal collection and you get the nifty little headphones so you can hear these mini art lectures about particularly significant paintings. (My only quibble was that I would have preferred the photographs AFTER the art. I can see why they placed the photos first, but I still think it would have been more coherent to see them after seeing her paintings.) It was crowded as all hell, but people were actually well-behaved! No one was a huge art hog. By "art hog," I mean, a giant asshole who plants his or herself RIGHT IN FRONT OF A PAINTING, RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE, so no one else can fucking see it. This is particularly epidemic in front of works that are discussed in the recordings. It makes me want to punch people in the back of the head. PEOPLE! Stand off to the side! Turn your body a little sideways so you take up less space! Everyone else wants to see too! It's why we're here! We went to see the Salvatore Dali exhibit a few years ago and SO MANY people were total dicks, being art hogs and loud. This time, not so much. Perhaps Frida Kahlo fans are more reasonable. Although, I did spend a considerable amount of time in front of this painting: "Moses." But come on, wouldn't you? But I did find this out later, as mom and I were talking about the exhibit:

Me: People were pretty well-behaved this time, weren't they?
Mom: Yeah, except for that one girl. She was TOTALLY up your ass while you were looking at one of the paintings.
Me: Really? I didn't notice!
Mom: I thought she was going to shiv you!

Then we went to Borders, where I bought the latest issue of Supernatural magazine (Oh whatever, don't judge me.) and copies of The Secret Garden and Alice in Wonderland. I've never read Alice and have been wanting to reread Garden. So, yay! I had to pick through to find just the right covers. I would have really preferred to get them used, because then maybe I could've had a cover from the 60s or something, but I don't have a good used book store near me, more's the pity. I definitely judge a book by it's cover. (See also: Andrews, V.C., Original Covers of.) When dealing with classic novels, I prefer old covers. If that can't be achieved, I prefer the cheapest possible edition of the book. Not because I actually AM cheap, (though, kind of.) but because classic literature should totally be available cheaply. I LOVE the series that Barnes and Noble has of classic novels for like $5-or-less a pop. And they are ALWAYS having buy-two-get-one sales. And if possible, I ALWAYS want the Penguin editions, which is a publishing company specifically for making literature available at affordable prices. And they always print lesser-known, weird authors, which is fun. So, I ended up with the Signet edition of Alice, for $3.95 and the Puffin edition of Garden, which cost $6, but had a good cover. (Puffin is the kid's branch of Penguin.) Lovely! I DESPISE when covers of classic novels are "updated" with a modern photograph. UGH. As much as I loved the Keira Knightley film version of Pride and Prejudice, I would eat glass before I would purchase a copy of the book with a cover from the film. *gag* I think I bought my copy of P&P for like, a dollar at the used book store where I went to college. BOOK COVERS ARE SERIOUS BUSINESS, OK?

And if anyone is still reading after THAT boring diatribe, we then went to LUSH, which is probably my favorite store in the world. I am trying to cut down on the amount of weird chemicals that go in and around my body and LUSH is awesome for that. (I can cut down on the amount of chemicals in my toiletries so I can still eat at Taco Bell. God only knows what's in that food but mmmmm...)

Finally, we went for tea! We had the Royal Tea, which was scones and shortbread with cream and lemon curd, tea sandwiches: chicken salad, egg salad, seafood salad, cucumber and salmon and various cookies and pastries. AWESOME! Also, there was champagne and chocolate-covered strawberries. I don't drink champagne, so I took a sip, made a face and gave it to my mom, who was only TOO HAPPY to take it. Heh. I drank four cups of tea, so I was a bit wired and prone to peeing for the rest of the afternoon. Will SOMEONE please invent a kind of tea that isn't a total diuretic? SERIOUSLY.

It was a great day.

And, if anyone can recommend a good biography of Frida Kahlo, that would be great. I've seen the movie and liked it. Mame? You know one? What with your obsession with celebrity bios? I mean, I'm sure it would be no Marlon Brando's Songs My Mother Taught Me, but really, what IS?