Yesterday i worked and worked and then played and played. The weekend is gorgeous and out at Lake Eden folks were gathering for the Fall version of the arts festival. I've only been to the Spring festival before which has been a gathering ground to say goodbye to all the folks who are leaving after finishing their tour with Poetry Alive! This time it is more of a coming together for me of poet friends from all over the region (and Arizona too). I got there in time to hear a little poetry last night from Ray McNeice (former poetry aliver and slam poet from cleveland) then i another lovely poet friend Kim who drove in from another part of the state and we listened to Chris Rosser then i ate a crepe while she got directions to where she was sleeping that night. Then we all ate roasted chestnuts (yum yum!! lots of vitamins, no fat & tasteeee!) while talking with the roaster about his home town in Switzerland. But wait there was more poetry to be heard! We caught some of Nave, Mendy Knott and Ray reading round robin style. Then we picked up Ray to drag him to swing dancing. We got as far as the kora music from Mali where we had to stop and listen because it was beautiful. Then the gave a swing dancing demo (they said it was a lesson, but it's hard to pick it up when they're moving so fast). Pefect! With that transition we headed to the dance hall to find Klezmer music and a hula hoop contest. Whoo! When that we done we danced as best we could in a weird sort of way until the band's switched and the chairs were cleared cuz the place was packed with swing dancers. So we danced until we dropped and then i came home to catch some rest to begin another day.

Another poet has arrived...it's time to boogie!~w

I'm not blaming my cat or anything, but she didn't wake me up this morning. For some reason she was as lazy as me and stayed snuggled up asleep long after the alarm had gone off. Guess that means i'm late. Not as late as i've been this week, but i had high aspirations of getting there early today. Oh well. Better get moving. If i see a free spell later in the day before i head out to LEAF i'll try to post again with something more...just more.~w

I'm so full of pent up frustration that even working out till my body was sore last night didn't seem to help. So i wrote grumpy things in my notebook. And then i talked with poet folk. It was kind of an accidental meeting and they laughed when they asked me how i was and i said "grumpy" with a big cheerful looking grin. (Beware of the overly jovial looking Sagittarius, they are masking a seething rage or tension or fear or something...that's what the astrologers say anyway) I figured as long as they knew i was grumpy to begin with then it would only get better from there. You see, i don't particularly like to dwell on grumpiness, but if you hide it then it eats you up. And eventually it lightened up a bit and i at least hit the point when i got home to sing. Singing songs at the tops of you lungs in the middle of the night in an otherwise empty house is lots of fun. Very good for removing frustration. The cat wasn't crazy about it though. Or maybe she was trying to join in. I really think she was trying to hush me. She's a pretty low key cat and doesn't enjoy conflict.

Anyway, i'm pokey this morning and need to get to work. Fortunately, i got through the pile of paper that had been sitting on my desk for the past week. Now it's just making the phone calls....~w

I spent most of my day trying to stay in the eye of the cyclone that was our office yesterday (it's always calmest in the eye). Every once in a while i'd find myself pulled into the funnel and spinning around the office trying to remember what i was doing before i was distracted. I have always known that this office was on the unhealthy and chaotic side. However, i'm just beginning to learn how deep that runs and how stubbornly stuck to outworn behaviors and patterns they are. But, yesterday was better. I'm less grumpy. Eventually i may get through the pile of paperwork and breathe clearly again.

The LEAF festival is just days away...poets are coming for Saturday's Slam (the national listserve is full of talk)...things will be much more fun soon...~w

Yesterday had me growling. I walked in knowing i was going to be swamped, but then had to deal with "emergencies" of no importance on top of that. You know, the kind of thing where there's a problem you know needs taking care of and you'll get to it in priority order and it's about 7th on your list right now, but someone is standing in you office saying it's broken and it takes 30 minutes for you convince them that you are aware of the problem and have it on the list of things to do.

I'm hoping today will be better.

The assessor is done checking out my house (working on a refinance to straighten out my cash flow) so i suppose i better trundle myself off to work today. I'm learning how to use the OCR on our copier today if the software will install correctly this time (last time it took him all day messing with my computer and the copier to get very little done).

The thing i'm looking forward to is Chi Kung class this evening since i missed it last week. That, and maybe turning out something good in a day of work that i know will be trying for me.~w

The most exciting thing yesterday was either write some journal entries for myself or watch Fellini's 8 1/2. Mostly i took care of myself and minor chores and got some much needed rest & relaxation after a long week.

I've come to the realization that blogging has stunted my writing in other areas. You see, this is always mentally edited before reaching the keyboard because i know that it will be read. There's actually a certain dishonesty in it because i'm always holding a little of myself back for safe keeping. It used to be that i didn't worry about that when i wrote things by hand in my journal. However, i've noticed lately that i have a hard time just rambling in my journal too. I keep trying to make it a poem of some sort that i can show another person and say "look i wrote a poem." I'm missing the self-indulgent writing that used to do that i would never dream of showing anyone. So, i gave myself permission to ramble yesterday and managed to put words on paper for myself. Whew! It was hard getting there though. I told a friend about this and the immediate response was, "so, are you going to share with me what you wrote?" "No!" i said, "it's just for me!" Sometimes an writer has to be selfish too.

Now it's off to work and be social again.~w

Home again, home again, jiggity jig. That's what i remember hearing as we drove into the garage after running errands or whatever when i was a kid. We had a very successful weekend i think, but i'm glad to be home. I did two more workshops with Bob yesterday morning and had good sized groups for both of them. It was quite fun.

Today, i'm petting the cat, reading mail, and doing laundry. I might find something more exciting to do later, but for now i'm enjoying not having to be anywhere or do anything.

On a whim, i've added a new comment thingy to this page. It allows you to write me little notes in response to the post you are reading. Why? I suppose, just because i could. Let me know what you think.~w