Words and Wind

The poetry reading last night at The Frothy Monkey went well. It was so much fun reading with Nancy Roche (my poetry partner in crime)...we did a "dueling poems" kind of reading that made it so much more interesting (and less nerve-wracking!), I think. I read some poems that I haven't read in public in a while, and a few new ones. All in all, a satisfying experience...

Now, we are concerned about all of our friends and relatives in the path of Hurricane Katrina. This is the one that New Orleans has been worried about for years. I hope that it doesn't turn out to be as bad as it is predicted, but I fear for the worst. Everyone is in my thoughts and prayers tonight as they are on the road or riding out the storm at home...please stay safe.

Flowers in Bloom

Saw Broken Flowers this weekend...it was great. Surprisingly funny, and no neat Hollywood ending. Go see it if you like character-driven movies...I especially loved Sharon Stone in this one (I always like it when an actor I previously didn't like much makes me like them in a movie...Stone's performance did this for me). D. and I disagreed on the success of the ending at first, but he eventually came around. It's one of those movies that you have to let percolate for a while.

We also saw a trailer for Thumbsucker, which looks great (sort of like Igby Goes Down, perhaps?)...I'll definitely go see that when it comes out. You gotta love a movie that has Tilda Swinton and Keanu Reeves and Vince Vaughn in it!

I got a whiff of fall this morning...just faint behind the ears. My favorite season!

What I did on my birthday weekend this summer...

Me in front of the Clinton Library

Replica of the Clinton Oval Office

Gotta love the Clinton swag store!

'Nuff said

Back in Black

It's been over 2 months since I blogged here...what has happened to me? I took one of my two remaining PhD classes at MTSU this summer--only one more left to go now! And then comps and dissertation and one more language (Italian). So close and yet so far away. Gotta finish by 2008, you know.

So, I was busy reading 18th century literature, missing my kids (who spent the summer with their dad), listening to the silence, visiting the Clinton Presidential Library for my birthday (see pictures above), attending my 20th HS reunion (now you know how old I am), and thinking of reasons not to write or blog. I need to write now because I have a poetry reading coming up on August 27 at The Frothy Monkey here in Nashville. Kids are back in school, fall has to be right around the corner (please!), and the new season of Survivor should start soon (they are replaying old Survivor seasons on the Outdoor Living Network--Channel 72 in Nashville--and are on Season 2: Australian Outback right now).

I am thankful for many things in my life right now--good friends, being finished with this summer class, my kids being back, living in a city I love. Sometimes I'm scared that I will touch the bubble and it will burst, but then I go read Ashley's blog and laugh or read K's blog and find a nugget of truth. It's all good, people, it's really all good. And that's because we're all here.