uhhhh

something about my blog got screwed up... the picture won't do what it's supposed to. it's stupid. 

i don't know why i'm worried about it though... i don't really blog much. and i will probably continue my current trend. 

mikey is home

i take so much for granted. mikey, having just returned from desertland, sees everything here as glorious. the shower doesn't fill up as you're cleaning yourself. there is rain (we are currently griping about it being TOO much, but he's just glad it exists). there are many more things, but the most important is that he is home. it is fun and exciting. the oldest childrens are home. the youngest one is away. it's like when mikey and i were toddlers. hehehe. 

let the kittens lick our hair.

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaagh! school. 

in love with a manbird

My dewy-eyed disney bride what has tried / swapping your blood with formaldehyde? / Monsters? / Whiskey-plied voices cried fratricide! / Jesus don't you know that you coulda died shoulda died / with the monsters what talk / monsters what walk the earth / she's got red lipstick / and a bright pair of shoes / she's got knee high socks / what to cover a bruise / she's got an old death kit / she's been meaning to use / she's got blood in her eyes in her eyes for you / she's got blood in her eyes for you / certain fads, stripes and plaids singles ads / run you hot and cold like a rheostat I mean a thermostat / so you bite on a towel / hope it won't hurt too bad / she says I like long walks and sci-fi movies / you're six foot tall and east coast bred / some lonely night we can get together / and I'm gonna tie your wrists with leather / and drill a tiny hole into your head

received

a package arrived in the mail today. it was small and unassuming. i didn't think it was for me. until i read the address. i received the first CD of the second 5N CD machine. many more to come. i need to send mine out this time. brainstorming.

Courtney's Mix: The 25th Dilemma

1. Fools by The Dodos

2. Say Hello by Rosie Thomas & Sufjan Stevens

3. Through the Glass Darkly by Annie Lennox

4. I Was Stabbed by Satan by Kanaan

5. The Rip by Portishead

6. The Biggest Lie by Elliott Smith

7. Carolyn's Fingers by Cocteau Twins

8. Turpentine by Brandi Carlile

9. She Smiled Sweetly by The Rolling Stones

10. 320 by Project Jenny Project Jan

11. Like You'll Never See Me Again by Alicia Keys

12. Ben by Michael Jackson

13. A Wave is Rolling by The Innocence Mission

14. Don't Be So Mean Jellybean by Justin Rutledge

15. Fistful of Love by Antony and The Johnsons

16. Middle Distance Runner by Sea Wolf

17. The Greatest Man That Ever Lived by Weezer

it's quirky. mellow. bizarre. that's how we roll on 5N. *well... we rolled... now there's a new regime.*

the sky is falling

i think we have one or two storms each week. and not any pathetic rain showers... storms. thunder and lightning. power outages. trees blowing in the wind. 

things worthy of noting today:

"you have some greedy little mice!" - suburban pest guy who came to refill the traps with poison

the ability to read needs to be cultivated and sustained. regular reading will make and keep you a good reader. 

i really didn't read much as a kid that i can remember. so now, as an adult, i read what i "should have read" as a kid. ignoring much of what i'm "supposed to read" as an adult. 

julio needs to get the gutters cleaned out. 

moving on:

i have much work ahead of me... but i'm not starting with nothing. it will be ok. teacher training is kind of fun. we read things and talk about things. rachel and i looked at the units of study we'll be covering in the coming year. i think it's going to be fun... we'll be having a colonial christmas celebration! 

my hand/elbow/arm is a little sore from writing out my "childhood as a reader" in response to the article i just read for homework. hehe. the article is by Dana Gioia, a poet, and is about how he came to love literature. right up my alley. i tell you this school is already so much better for me. i come home bubbling over with excitement each day i'm there. full of ideas and chatter. it's rather shocking to drew. anyways... a few of Dana's poems were behind the article in our packet of things from training. i read the first one... and it's nice. (nice is a bad word. ick.) 

i was thinking about words the other night (particularly the word "potential" and its loaded nature) so this poem goes along with that. funny how life kind of all comes together at times. 

The world does not need words. It articulates itself

in sunlight, leaves, and shadows. The stones on the path

are no less real for lying uncatalogued and uncounted.

The fluent leaves speak only the dialect of pure being. 

The kiss is still fully itself though no words were spoken. 

And one word transforms it into something less or other - 

illicit, chaste, perfunctory, conjugal, covert. 

Even calling it a kiss betrays the fluster of hands

glancing the skin or gripping a shoulder, the slow

arching of neck or knee, the silent touching of tongues. 

Yet the stones remain less real to those who cannot

name them, or read the must syllables graven in silica. 

To see a read stone is less than seeing it as jasper - 

metamorphic quartz, cousin to the flint the Kiowa

carved as arrowheads. To name is to know and remember.

The sunlight needs no praise piercing the rainclouds, 

painting the rocks and leaves with light, then dissolving

each lucent droplet back into the clouds that engendered it. 

The daylight needs no praise, and so we praise it always - 

greater than ourselves and all the airy words we summon. 

i got to thinking...

yes. i finally saw it. school is over, i have time on my hands, i treated myself to a movie, popcorn and sour patch kids. fabulous. 

and i learned... i'm pretty happy. and i can't keep waiting for life to start, for money to flow in and supply me with the labels i want. i've got what i need. i just wish i had girlfriends right here beside me to share it with. when one has a boyfriend whom one loves and spends all her time with, where does one find time to grab a few girlfriends?