Saturday, November 18, 2000
Guess what happens when you don't read your email...you miss the fact that some of your favorite poets likeWammo from Austin, TX and Pony from San Antonio, TX are also journaling on the web. Crazy. Maybe it's just the TX thing or something. Ciro and i made it to the Dallas Slam tonight and had a blast. Jason Carney was the feature and was simply stunning. Ciro was lured into slamming again and won the slam (again) even though i was roped into judging. It was a close call though, Amy (a new slammer on the scene) was on fire and nearly nudged ciro out of the prize. After the slam we got a chance to hang at Clebo's pad with him and his lovely wife Noemi and their 4 furry children. The puppies vied for attention while we caught up on tales of the road and poetry world with Excalibur in the background. A lovely end to our Texas visit!
Today we finished our stint in Abilene at Johnston Elementary and between shows enjoyed lively conversation with our host Texa. She loves her job enough to make anyone want to be a children's librarian. Hmmm...i'll have to look into that. I mean i love what i do, but it would be nice to go home at night, and maybe have regular friends, family, and community around me. And dating? What's that? I think i've forgotten anything i might have know about that world. I suppose it would be even harder if i had someone at home to miss other than my cat though. There seem to be more women that end up quitting this job over a boyfriend than men who leave for a woman. I wonder why that is? Anyway, my friend Darlene always used to say that my "prince charming" would find me. I don't know about that, but if there is some "prince" out there looking for me he'll have a hard time tracking me down. For now though, i'm enjoying just the friendships in the large community of poets that ciro and i get to see every now and again down the poetry trail. Tomorrow we head to Memphis and hope to connect with a couple of other poetry alivers who will be there this weekend. Rumor has it we may even get to see a couple of more Dallas poets who've traveled there for a gig. We'll see what the day brings. Heck, with no president elect yet anything's possible. ~w
wendi's 4:11 AM ravings
Friday, November 17, 2000
So one of the best things about Abilene, TX is theBar-B-Que! We've eaten at three of the local places now and all were great! Today's was the best though, Harold's Pit. Priced right and mouth watering delicious with tasty hot water cornbread, greens, and blackberry cobbler to go with it! MMMM-MMMM good! (It's almost as good as listening to Patricia Smith read her poem about hot water cornbread.) Another great lunch recommendation from a librarian here in Abilene.
She also let us borrow a couple of books including the illustrated version of Ogden Nash's Adventures of Isabel. A fun light read for the evening. Though my favorite is Custard the Dragon.
Speaking of dragons, did you know you can adopt a dragon on the web? Actually i think you can adopt just about any kind of cyber pet now. I think my favorite is the Mopy Fish. I used to have one, but i left it at home while i was on the road and it died cuz my roommate didn't feed it. Scary huh?
Speaking of scary, I had a nap today. Now i'm wide awake when i should be sleeping. I found i had strange dreams of sitting in a hotel room with two TVs and ciro and i were switching back and forth watching news pundits talking about the election. AAAH! A sure sign that i've been watching too much election news. Although i found it very interesting to see the court hearing live with Judge Lewis today. He's suppose to respond tomorrow with a judgement about whether the Secretary of State of Florida is abusing her discretion. It's quite a mess down there...
Anyway, tomorrow's our last day of Abilene. We'll head to Dallas and try to catch the poetry slam at The Red room of Club Clearview tomorrow evening. It'll be fun to see someone else perform for a change.~w
wendi's 2:21 AM ravings
Thursday, November 16, 2000
ACK!! I lost my post by mistakenly hitting a link instead of posting. GGGGGRRRR!!!
Anyway, i said something like this:
Ciro and i were on TV tonight! Abilene CBS channel 10 KTAB had a special spot in the 10 o'clock news called Beyond the Books and we were the feature. They actually made me sound intelligent even though i was nervous as all heck trying to talk into a mic in front of a camera. I wish i had a copy of it, but they don't have it on their website. I'll check back tomorrow to see if it gets posted. It was a pretty cool segment. This is the second time a CBS station has put me on TV doing poetry (the other was with the Seattle Poetry Slam the night i won the slam). Pretty cool!
Other than that, i was babbling about Katherine Harris in Florida saying she wouldn't recognize manual recounts of votes even though counties have legal judgement that they are able to do the recounts and count ballots that clearly indicate voter intention as a legal vote. Hmmmm...is her discretion really above the law? It seems to me the letters to her from the counties indicate that there were machine count errors and delays in conducting the recounts preventing them from getting an accurate count before the deadline. Also, why is Bush so against manual recounts when they are also legal in his state?
I think that's basically all i said originally. I'll try to be more interesting tomorrow and get it posted before the inspiration leaves me. ~w
wendi's 2:19 AM ravings
Wednesday, November 15, 2000
Okay, i finally got tired of listening to the pundits and for a switch i turned the TV to DragonballZ for much more entertaining background noise. I love listening to cartoons. They always have such cool music.
I stuffed myself on huevo con chorizo burritos (homemade tortillas!) from La Popular today. They were yum-yum yummy! I think i could just about eat them everyday. Unfortunately, i've yet to find a place near my home in Asheville that makes them. It would be easy if i lived in texas though!
Shows went okay, i was having word problems with my tongue today though. I'll make sure to warm it up tomorrow before trying to speak. Again, everybody was really sweet to us here. We even got interviewed for the local TV station (channel 10, i think, but i don't know the letters)! ciro was great, i turn into a goofball when you put a camera on me though. We'll be on tomorrow night at 10pm they said. We'll see...~w
wendi's 3:22 AM ravings
Tuesday, November 14, 2000
So, today the Democrats and Repulicans have pitted themselves against each other trying to interpret The 2000 Florida Statutes Title IX "ELECTORS AND ELECTIONS" Chapter 102
"Conducting Elections And Ascertaining The Results". Under fire are the details of 102.111 and 102.112. What hasn't yet been discussed is 102.168 "Contest of election" and the following 102.169 "Quo warranto not abridged" which states: Nothing in this code shall be construed to abrogate or abridge any remedy that may now exist by quo warranto, but in such case the proceeding prescribed in s. 102.168 shall be an alternative or cumulative remedy. So, basically it sounds like to me that if the deadline (s.102.111) is abridging the recount (s.102.166) that is the current "remedy" being sought, the only alternative is a legal case. But, apparently that's only for a judge decide. I'm just glad that i didn't spend my whole day worrying about it.
Today was laundry day! Ah, the lovely smell of fresh clean clothes. Then ciro and i actually went out and saw a movie! Amazing, we've seen two movies in the past month. The first, a little while back (don't ask me when i can't remember now, i think we were in Dallas), was The Legend of Drunken Master a rollicking fast paced ride with Jackie Chan. It had humor, a little fun poking at aristocracy, and lots of amazing stunts. Today we saw Meet the Parents, a cute sweet goofy movie that kept left you wondering "what else can go wrong?" Fortunately, it all (kinda) worked out in the end. Both were fun, but a little on the fluffy side. I think "Drunken Master" actually had a little more going on with it. After movies, we were invited to dinner at Dorothy's house (she coordinated bringing us to Abilene). It was a lovely home cooked meal with another school librarian and the district library coordinator and her husband. We had a great evening! Lots of wonderful conversation on all sorts of topics with thinking people! I think i learned more about history and issues from them then i've heard on the news all week.
Tomorrow we play with the big kids (high school and middle school) and i plan to be well rested.~w
wendi's 1:25 AM ravings
Monday, November 13, 2000
Hey, you know that guy Rob Brezsny that does the astrology column in local weekly papers? Well, even if you don't know who i'm talking about his site Free Will Astrology is a hoot! Even if you're not into all that astrology stuff, his are worth the read just for the fun factor.
Today, i got my hair cut. Scary, huh? It's been a year and ciro said it was looking ratty. Now, when ciro bothers to mention something like that i figure it's time to do something about it. It's one of those things i seem to avoid as long as possible. So, we went to the mall (the best place to get exercise when you don't belong to a club, there's no fitness room at the hotel and it's too cold to walk outside) and i said i'd consider it. Well, we walked in a JC Penney door and low and behold, there's a salon right there. So, begrudgingly i check the price and whether they had an opening. Just so happens, she'd just had a cancellation and had an opening. Okay, i guess that means it's time to do it. I couldn't stand to get much chopped off, but it looks a lot better without the split ends. Other than that i played techno geek today uploading a new Photo Album and updating my Links for my revamped homepage. It's been sort of a pet project the past few days trying to come up with this new design that is hopefully easier to navigate than my old site which was beleaguered by yahoo's pop up screens. One of these days i'll stop geeking out and try to do some writing. hehe, another of the things i've been avoiding...~w
wendi's 3:14 AM ravings
Sunday, November 12, 2000
Well, it looks like both Bush and Democrats (note: it is only Navarro's statement as of yet that links the Gore campaign to the suits) are taking this election to court. Meanwhile, Florida election officials are calling for a recount of all of Palm Beach County, not just those precincts requested by Gore. Seems like this is getting messy. My question: Why would the Bush campaign try to block a request for manual recount that is perfectly legal under Florida law - Florida Statutes Title IX Chapter 102.166 (4)? I'm not sure this country can trust either of these guys to be president.
So with the election still up in the air, what did i do today? I got some much needed sleep and talked to my mom. Back to basics i say. Actually, i did go out of the hotel today to get a tasty burger, fries, and vanilla Dr. Pepper from the local Abilene burger joint Mr. G's. Other than that i heartily enjoyed a "do nothing" day (that happened to include catching up on paper work).~w
wendi's 4:18 AM ravings
|
help?
