Kitten party

Having dinner parties is one of my favorite things in the world to do, but somehow I got out of the habit when I moved to Seattle. I'd also started feeling self-conscious about not having the cash-flow to buy the best-pedigreed, freshest, most local versions of every ingredient I might want to use. Plus too many years of singleness and student-hood seem to have atrophied my cooking skills, which used to be pretty good. I hit rock bottom when I messed up oatmeal I was trying to to make for JJF, and vowed to turn things around.

So last night, with a kitten meet & greet as an excuse, I had my first Seattle dinner party. It was kind of a challenge on the culinary front because honoring dietary restrictions meant no meat or starch, so I just made all my favorite little things--tapas, sort of: homemade hummus with sesame flatbread crackers, carrots, cucumbers, and red peppers; two stinky cheeses and crackers; a caprese salad with basil and red and orange tomatoes from my garden; a greek salad with spinach, feta, olives, cucumber, red pepper, and yellow tomatoes and oregano from my garden; deviled eggs; watermelon; and three bottles of wine. I never leave myself enough time before I have people over, but as I was running around boiling eggs, squeezing lemons into chick peas, tearing up basil that was the byproduct of the afternoon's heavy pruning, and listening to equinoctial's mix #2, I felt totally happy.

And the kitten was loved and admired and completely worn out by the excitement, and everyone thinks it's scandalous that he still doesn't have a name.

cutest nap on record

More kitten news

E calls this picture "tiger arms."

Really, it's just been alarming seeing my boss's face every time I look at the blog . . . it's like he's looking out and can see me still in my pajamas at 10:00 am or whatever. (Less than a week left of that schedule, though--everything revs up again starting Sunday!)

It's not just cats . . .

Last night I went to see my much admired former employer give a reading from his new book. It compares the US to ancient Rome. Then I went and watched him on the Colbert Report, which is pretty hilarious and well worth watching.


My predecessor in my job and I (and her boyfriend) went together, so that it was like a meeting of the ex-assistant fan club. He signed my book, but not with one of the blue pilot pens I used to know so well.

And this is just the beginning

(from the fairy kitten godmother's photo stash)

Real Cat!

It's been a big weekend. First, the addition to the household of this incredibly adorable formerly feral 4-month-old kitten; thousands more pictures to come. He doesn't have a name yet but goes by Little Boy, Purr Machine, Purrkins, Shrimp, Sneezy, Sorfle, Snork Maiden, and Ex-Blaine. As you can see from the names, he purrs constantly (even when hunting . . . I think he has a lot to learn), he curls up like a shrimp on your chest, he has a cold, and he really likes to cuddle.

Emily, his fairy kitten godmother, and I had an eventful weekend on non-feline fronts as well. We took a water-taxi to the new Sculpture Park where the highlight for me was an incredibly charming rotating ampersand. We saw the Shins play for a small crowd at a beach cottage. We were treated to several hundred courses of brunch with a water view at a fancy restaurant: moule moule moule, plus crab legs, and a bag of donuts for good measure. We came too late for kayaking but had sunset margaritas, and next morning watched salmon, pleasure boats, and a really huge mad scientist experimental barge being moved through the locks into the city. The whole experience really made me like Seattle.

I also taught more or less the same test prep class three times, to GRE, GMAT, and SAT students, which really teaches one a lesson about audience. I'd forgotten how different high school kids are from college kids. Really different! But in a fun and sweet way, more or less. Then I collapsed exhausted into a bowl of pho. Now I'm going to home depot to look into screen doors.

Practice Cat

This is Pigeon. She is a paragon of cute, especially if you add in the snore-purring the photos can't capture.

Cat-sitting

Yes, in only a few hours, a cat will be sitting in my apartment. Just a practice cat, but still. I am nervous and excited. The responsibility! The paraphernalia! The tiny paws!

I'd been meaning to ask, because of my self-injury the other day, does anyone else, when you use this (Bactine)

think of him

(Bakhtin)? Or is that just me?

More

I learned to use ebay today. I'm searching for something really awesome, but I can't tell you what.

Also, someone needs to text me back. (Not you, sisterkins. But I am excited that I can text with you now.)

Horrified

I have suddenly become horrified by plastic bags. Did you know that they get into the oceans and break down into little microparticles that somehow kill plankton? And we need plankton! Interestingly, I have discovered that you rarely really need plastic bags to carry your stuff out of a store. Between my purse or bookbag, my Squaw tote bag when I remember to bring it, and the willingness to sacrfice my dignity by just carrying a pile of stuff, I have pretty much totally freed myself of the plastic bag scourge. It's great. I've also finally started composting--or rather, separating out my organic trash and recycling it with the "yard waste," the way my landlords do. The grossness factor was the main hurdle, but it turns out there's also something satisfying about the whole process.

My one year anniversary of living in Seattle is drawing nigh. Winter is approaching . . . the horror! For some reason, this morning I feel like running away to a warmer climate and a more normal life. Which is not to say, though, that I'm not happy where I am, because I am.

Questions

1. How tall am I? Could I have spent my 20s still growing? I've always thought 5'6", but comparisons with other people definitely suggest I am taller than that. Which would be awesome.

2. Are these things even poems?

3. Are the tomatoes meant to be orange, or will they get red eventually? (They taste pretty good orange.)

4. Where should E and I go to look for a cat? And what if my cat doesn't like me? It will like me, right?

5. Is there any way to stop the days from getting shorter again?

6. What are the chances that the envelope with just my poems and no rejection slip or note could be anything other than a rejection?

7. How long until the ridiculous scrapes I inflicted on myself by falling while running on a little path in the dark will heal?

8. How excited am I that Sisterkins is coming back into the country TODAY??!!

Strange

It's been a strange day. My director of graduate studies was at the bar. Earlier, I discovered that I really enjoy teaching math. I have a GRE prep job where I have to teach the whole test, and, well, discovering that I can teach math is like finding out I have a new arm or something. My students are really sweet and smart and they don't seem to think I don't know what I'm doing. As I was saying to someone earlier, though, it might actually be harder for me to teach the verbal section, where my approach is basically "Find the right answer and choose it." Other weekend highlights included running my 8k race, where I kept up a good clip despite a cramp, and an interesting taco party. I'm excited for JF and EG's upcoming visits.

The News

I thought you might like to see the view out my door. You can see the stump of the tree we cut down, as well as what remains of the bamboo grove. When it stops raining, I will also take a picture of my garden. The tomato plants are almost as tall as me now.



About the rain: something has happened to me, because I've actually been enjoying it. I'm sure I'll change my tune again in the fall, but for now, as everyone knows, it's cozy to stay in and study when it's raining. I'm studying in preparation for starting my new job in the ridiculous field of GRE prep. The thing about this job is, I have to teach math. I was eighteen last time I took math (and I bombed it, but that wasn't entirely my fault). That means, I realized last night, that it has been more than ten years since I have studied this subject. I mean, ask yourself, do YOU remember what a polynomial is?

I'm also excited because for the first time since I've lived here, I'm finally getting some visitors! At least three sets within the next couple of weeks. But the rest of the summer is still wide open (hint, hint).

In other news, I had a fantastic meeting with my advisor. We made a timetable with which to envision me ever finishing grad school, he told me exactly what to do to try and get my Virginia Woolf paper published, and he reduced my blood pressure by telling me his philosophy on exam lists, which is that they should prepare you for what you want to teach rather than being a bibliography of your dissertation. This is a huge relief. Since my new philosophy (i.e. rationalization) on the dissertation is that it's a good thing to choose a topic at the last possible moment, since I'll inevitably become bored by spending so much time on any one thing, constructing a bibliography for it nowish would be pretty daunting. But I already know what I want to say I can teach, so that will be much easier.

Next weekend, I'm running an 8K Torchlight Run that I'm pretty excited about. We will be essentially leading a big parade, so there will be lots of people along the route. Apparently, some people run the raced dressed as bananas and so forth. I will be Big Number 267, plus I already have my t-shirt, so it's official.

Life Changes

Today my landlords/housemates and I spontaneously cut down a tree. My apartment now gets about 300% more light, and it's amazing. The sum total of the tree is now a big pile of leaves and stick and a nicely stacked woodpile for the firepit. Then we had a barbeque. Pretty much, it was awesome. Also, I bought on craigslist a $20 loveseat that becomes a (double) bed, so now if you come visit me, you will have a place to sleep. So I recommend that you do come visit me. The tomato plants are going wild, and I also am growing basil, thai basil, sage, pineapple sage, thyme, rosemary, oregano, mint, and peppermint, and they're all doing beautifully.

Last weekend I went to weddings both Saturday and Sunday. In different way both were fantastic. Here is a picture of me, sisterkins, Kate (the guest of honor), and two new friends bridesmaiding it up in New York.

It's still light out

I love summer!

I WENT tothe INTERNET becauseiwas LOOKING fora METHOD

I've been applying for lots of weird little jobs, and to just to make my random freelance life official, last night I posted some ads on craigslist advertising myself as a tutor and editor . . . well, today I got an email from an adult looking for ESL tutoring, asking--perfectly reasonably, I might add--about my "method."

So I went online in search of a method, and I discovered a couple of interesting thoughts about English.

1. Spoken and written English are so different that they should be considered separate dialects. Whoa! I'd never thought of that but I guess it might be true. So now we can all feel good because we're fluent in at least two dialects.

2. English speakers say "function words" (prepositions, articles, all the little words) EIGHT TIMES FASTER than we say "content words" (nouns, verbs, etc). I love the idea of the researchers sitting there with a stopwatch timing, I don't know, their friends? Or "Friends"?

Obviously, these have implications for ESL instruction, but they are also pretty relevant to writing poetry and creative prose. I'm going to think about them more.

Progress

The tomatoes are getting bigger, and the droopy basil seems to be cheering up. Still, we have another two weeks of June Gloom left to go, and I can tell the plants are sick of it. As am I. My teen student, on the other hand, claims to love it, which proves that growing up in Seattle makes you a freak.

Last week I couldn't find the key I use to get in and do laundry. Feeling kind of dumb, I turned my apartment upside down in various ways for several days and then finally found the key last night . . . on the kitchen table. Yup, I'm a keeper. At least my clothes are clean now.

Tomorrow I'm going to print out all my poems from my thesis and from this year and maybe some more that have been lurking in my files, and I'm going to see where we're at.

INSOMNIA!

C'mon, relax!

Tomato report: one new cherry tomato, one cherry tomato gone (eaten?). One tiny big tomato.

Other stuff report: nada.

Every day, and some questions

,I decided to start blogging again, like, every day or something. Why? Just because I enjoy it. That's all.

So here is the tomato update: each cherry tomato plant has five baby tomatoes, for a total of ten. The two regular tomato plants are doing fine, but no sign of babies yet. One of the basil plants is mysteriously droopy, which is worrying. I keep meaning to go to Home Despot and get some more herbs, and probably some more tomatoes too, so I have a real collection.

I'm in love with a certain chord on the guitar. E7/G#. I'm not sure why. I've never felt this way about a chord before.

One year + one week into the PhD, and school is still confusing. My poetry idol told me that I would know if I should be doing this or not, that if it wasn't right for me I would hate it. But, well, I do kind of hate it, I feel like I'll never be able to do and/or be satisfied doing what's expected of me, that the available lines of inquiry either a) are boring or b) require more knowledge than I'll ever be able to acquire or c) obviously, both. And yet, when it comes time to do my own work, I break what I understand to be the rules and write exactly what I want to write and I love pretty much every paper I've written this year and, well, love's a strong word but for the most part I'd say so do my professors. So is this just a grad school bubble where I'm getting good responses because the standards are relatively low but I'll eventually have to stop writing what I want and start playing the game? Have I just chosen the old-fashioned and/or easy professors? Or are the rules more flexible than they sound? I kind of hope so because sure, I complain about academic inbreeding and the narrowness of professional discourse, but it's not like Harper's is looking for an incisive discussion of the role of the comma splice in contemporary poetry . . . for better or worse, if I want to write about poems, academia is probably the place.

And finally, meet my friend Carafe, who counts being the coiner of the phrase "Summer of Excess" among his many important accomplishments.

Good Morning!

As of this afternoon, my first year of school is finished! I have to apologize because I have been MIA for at least the past week as I cowered in a hole and put off writing and then wrote my seminar papers. My phone is now back on. If you called me, I will call you back and apologize personally.

But let me just tell you for a second what I did in the last 24 hours. In 24 hours, I conceived of, researched, and wrote a perfectly respectable--in fact, I think quite insightful--twelve-page seminar paper. Perhaps that impresses you. Just wait. In the same 24 hours I also: got a full night's sleep, tutored my high school student, ran 4 and half miles, AND put in a serious effort partying not only at the College Inn but also at Earl's. I'm a machine!

And now it's over for a while. From now on, this blog is going to be all about my tomato plants.