so I turn my attention to my blog - writing here is so good for me, my staggering earlier-in-the-day migraine instantly disappears, and I'm finding my Imitrex in preparing more pictures from last Thursday night's smash hit reading event to post - so many friends came from locally and afar. The event symbiosed in such a beautiful collaboration of true community spirit that it's taken a few days to wrap my head around it, so to speak....there I was on Wednesday, sweating literally and figuratively at home in Palm Desert, too nervous to work on my online classes and other "school" work - the books had not yet arrived at 3 pm, I couldn't reach our printer in San Diego by phone, except for the high-maintenance (but nice) phone calls I left, and I had a big reading featuring two magazines and many readers scheduled for the very next day.
Oh yes, and three possible sound systems - my friend Mike, an Inlandia writers participant from this past summer, had gone to radio shack and picked up a $20 microphone bearing his name; Henry, from the local bands Mute Point and Polite, had offered to show up with a good mike; and I had been promised by a friend of Jen, of Riverside, that there would be an amplifier and mike ready for us by 4 pm. However, being 60 miles away from the Grind until the day of, an hour before, not to mention a very full teaching and work schedule right up until Thursday afternoon, made it impossible for me to nervously So, I had no idea what would happen even once I reached Back to the Grind in Riverside on Thursday, or even take time to make phone calls to follow through! Luck, grace, and many outstanding people collaborated on poetry-time to bring this event together in the way that the very best community happenings just happen to....gel and vibrate shimmering electronic light!
Thanks to Darren, owner of the Grind, for allowing us the use of his basement!
Marion from the Inlandia Institute along with the new intern/assistsant, Cyrus, who did so much legwork making posters, signs, publicity, and helping set up and make book sales!
JEN, who set up the sound system hours early on Thursday, arranged a stool and table and taped-on flowers to the mike, and left me not only a gracious note about how to use the sound system, but also a lavendar plant! My favorite. THANKS, JEN! And thanks, Wendy, for connecting Jen to our event.
Jean, coming all the way down from Idyllwild in a bright red shirt.
Laurie, super-poet of the desert, for joining me to and from Palm Desert to enjoy the read...
Mike S., for buying a mike that he will have to return to the store.
Henry, who I just met last weekend, for also bringing a mike AND for packing Jen's amplifiers and equipment in my car, up a flight of stairs (along with his Mute Point bandmates, thanks, guys!) and for attending our reading!
Julie, who shared her own amazing poetry and brought CSUSB students
Mike C., for bring students from RCC and also giving a dynamic reading performance of his poetry
Dr. Harki Dhillon, for gracing our reading with his memoirs!
Mary for her wonderful reading and presence...
Joan, for reading, sans Gilligan the loyal workshop dog-comrade....
Mae, for her awesome reading
Michelle, hurrah hurrah for the freeways of downtown!
Cindy, for reading her visual poetry
Brandon, a famous San Diego poet, for making the long trek - and ditto to Debbie, coming from Pasadena...
Celeste, for her hard work helping the summer workshop and her contributions...
Peter and Lorraine, for reading their outstanding short stories and giving our reading a delectable edge
Mario, our photographer-galore
and everybody else, all the workshop participants and readers, and friends, and others who wandered in, or sat through the entire thing....I am so fortunate to have been there, too!
April! We missed you! Everyone LOVES both books, and you did a fantastic job. Truly the unsung hero (though I did my best to laud your praises) of our evening.
And Terri - thanks for shipping the books at 4:45 pm (all is well, and to heck with UPS for botching up your previous shipping order...THANK YOU!)so I'd have them by 11 a.m. on Thursday - I was sleeping in...heard the doorbell...and there they were, three neat boxes stacked on my doorstep. Truly, the 11th hour. The best way for these kinds of things to take place.
More pictures coming soon. It takes time to resize them so I can post, and there are many English 1B discussion questions (I have three sections, 100 students there, not to mention English 1A in real-time, 35 there, and creative writing in real-time too, another 35. Wipe the brow again and again.)
And now, I must tell you, the palo verde tree that was at least 10 years old and quite small when I bought my house 7 years ago and split in two from being top heavy this June and had to be cut down....is now transforming itself into a palo verde bush. Tarah and Alex came by yesterday to go out to a late lunch, and Tarah and I were laughing our heads off, looking at the oddity this thing has become. It survives by its own new brand, it never did conform, living in half, it tells me what happens after things fall apart and then begin again. With its own humor and tenacity.
Plants in this desert, all 110 degrees (or more, it may have been, it was 106 degrees at 6 o'clock!) of today in a late summer/early fall heatwave not uncommon for this part of the world, yes, our first day of fall, and someone's dog was barking when I took this picture and it wasn't mine, Brindle had some problems this past weekend (digestive and too delicate to detail on a public blog) but he is now doing fine, and being very loved in a wonderful home by terrific people I can only hope to repay some day, somehow.
It was a weekend that also involved a major $$$$$ shopping binge at Ross Dress for Less - me and Tarah - she helps with fashion sense, thank God, but also loaded up the cart with a few clothes for her, and Alex, and makeup...for me, as well as nail polish kits....how can I turn my only and beautiful and wise daughter down? Dresses, jackets, jeans, blouses, sweaters, wallet, pricey pastel shaded faux snake skin shoulder bag, 5 or 6 new pairs of one of a kind shoes for me - as Tarah reminded me, you can never have too many pairs of shoes, and she learned that from me - I even let her "do my eyes," I trust her so much...until she started curling the eyelashes. I still can't believe she didn't actually pull them out. Beauty = pain. I thought it was beauty = truth - she knows Keats as well as I, and I can't WAIT to see the new movie "Bright Star." IM'ing my mom, who's in Rome, Italy, after being in Ireland for two weeks, with my dad.
They are both taking Italian classes and will be there another few weeks....my dad showed a copy of the desert anthology to our extended family in Killibegs, Ireland, a beautiful fishing village on Ireland's western coast, and he said they really enjoyed hearing my mom read them the preface. Reasons to return to Ireland (was there in 2002 for a family reunion) - my grandmothers' hometown is just an hour's drive from Sligo Castle, Yeat's legendary western Irish home. One of THE all time knockout poets! Last time, we were rushing for a train and only could stop by for ten minutes, imagine my agony.
And I somehow made it through the Badlands and back again this weekend to the Riverside Mayor's Ball on Saturday night, surprised to see kobe beef burgers on the menu and so many people I already know. Dancing to "Sexy Back" in my red high heeled shoes - my daughter just rolled her eyes when I told her how silly I must have seemed, but guess what. Mom's the new version of ping pong ball and the game seems to be going well, not much different than tennis and much lighter as well.
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