Pi, piano, poetry

Heidi's hand,

old piano that came up the Yellowstone River by steamboat

& I shall tell more of the story later

(it involves Indians & horse thievery, etcetera)

I just wanted to see what it felt like to blog twice in a week...

This shall be short. I am thinking of silence & sunlight & fish & the moon & walking & glue & architects & poetry & Persia & mauve & zero & lemonade & blizzards & clean socks & samurai warriors & cats & roses & pink sheets & good wine & sticky notes & guitars & pi & salamanders & string theory & cards & wax & foot lockers & miracles & dynamite & rocket ships & baseball & sweat & music & triangles & nasal spray & seals & calendars & recipes & African violets & the yin yang &

Blog alternative:

177. Make a list of things you didn't even know you were thinking about until you started making the list.

or:

178. Take 3 or 5 or 7 things from my list & put them into a poem or story. (If you use ALL of them, I would very much like to see the poem or story...)

Old Growth Mosaics

6' man attempting to hug big-ass tree

in Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest

I know, I know--I've been missing. One person noticed and was worried that I'd fallen into a hole or had a personality transplant & was now blogging the blues under an assumed name. (Hi Ken!)

That is not the case. I am alive & well & floating an electron's-width above the face of the planet. Life is as fabulous as ever. I wish it was easier to switch the email address that owns a blog, as I am aiming to phase out of earthlink & into gmail, but one of these days I'll figure it out. Or, more accurately, I'll go through the complex dance steps required.

For those of you who are interested, my new email address is laurelwinter@gmail.com but earthlink will continue to work until I stop being a technolazydaisy.

I can't imagine filling you in on all the marvelous things that have happened since (gulp) July 9th, so I shall be selective. I did indeed reach New Jersey & Minnesota & Montana & Minnesota again. My Montana highlight--beside playing a few billion games of cards with my parents--was helping irrigate. No offense, Sister Shelly, but I still prefer irrigating to golf.

I've been busy taking classes again. Google SketchUp 7 rocks! Try it if you've ever wanted a (FREE) 3D modeling program with (FREE) tutorials on YouTube. I'm also taking a mosaic class & learning about hempcrete & getting the scoop (or at least the beginning of the scoop) on intellectual property.

Besides that, there's the usual writing-y & arting-y sorts of thing going on. Just drafted another picture book. The poems are coming lickety-split. A story idea is hovering just below the fingertips. Oh, & my beautiful childrens just celebrated their two-dozenth birthday.

Blog alternative:

175. Ask someone an interesting & uplifting question. A couple examples: whilst leaving the Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest (Holy xylem, Batman! Those trees are big!) I asked a boy on the trail how old he was & then, seconds later, apologized for asking such an inane question. "What's something interesting about you?" I asked (or words to that effect). I found out he likes to build things & is good at climbing. Then his brother joined us & I found out that HE is making a mini-submarine. Much more fun than knowing ages. Also I just got my teeth cleaned (Yay!) & I asked my hygienist what were her favorite things about her kids.

Bonus blog alternative:

176. Give your gums a nice massage. (Wash your hands first!) (Notice I said gums, not gum.)

Fizzy Turquoise Mood

Although some of you have been speculating that I dropped off the face of the earth (perhaps checking out my home planet?) given that I posted not once in June, I do in fact still exist. Yay. Just been busier than usual, with a massive re-organization project.

No artwork today. I'm in a hotel in Virginia on my way to Montana via New Jersey.

Um, you say, have you been reorganizing the map?

Good idea, but no. I was going straight to Montana & then to Minnesota & Ohio on the way back home & then I found out my ex-husband was going to be in Rochester for a week so I rearranged my schedule to hit Minnesota first so I could say hi to him & then my son who just moved to New Jersey needed to get back to Rochester to get his Buick (it wouldn't fit in the UHaul) so I said, heck, New Jersey's practically on the way & I was maybe going to see him on the other end of the trip so why not? This will be a lot more fun. Plus we'll get to stop in Ohio to see my other son, so that will be lots of fun.

The title of this blog is courtesy of a reader who happened across me somehow & bestowed the concept of a fizzy turquoise mood. So, Elsa, wherever you are, thanks for you sparkling word sense. I would also like to honor Tami, another diner at the Boston Beanery, who overheard me asking a server if there was a Barnes & Noble in the mall (I'm looking for an audio book--thought of it on my way out of town, so no time to order it) & not only told me where she thought there might be one, but then looked it up on her I-phone & brought the information over to me. (Saved me a trip, because I called them up & they didn't have it either. Ah, well.) It's pretty cool when you want to fill out a positive comment card on other customers who provide great service at restaurants. My server was good, too.

This will not be the most scintillating blog entry ever, because I am going to go right to sleep. Sweet dreams, y'all.

Blog alternative: (which, Tami & Elsa, if you don't want to read down & figure out what the heck this is all about, it's simply a suggestion of other things to do rather than the writing or reading of blogs, or the watching of tv or such. I think I did the first blog alternative list on April 18th of 2007 or somesuch)
174. Take a round-about trip. Maybe Montana via New Jersey. Once I went to Los Angeles via Ohio, because I was going to a science fiction convention in Madison & was then headed to Los Angeles for an author in the school visit. Told my Ohio son that I was going through Rockford, Illinois to pick up the freeways that would take me south & he said, "Illinois is close to Ohio." "Yep," I said.

Brain Plastic

This is a (mildly belated) birthday card for a friend I haven't met yet. She's met me, kinda sorta, as her eyes & consciousness connected with the words in my novel Growing Wings. Her aunt told me her birthday was Tuesday, the day I flew back from Wiscon, & I am getting going now with sundry & various accomplishments, including this blog.

Wiscon & Madison & State Street & the farmer's market around the state capitol (someone told me it was the largest outdoor farmer's market in the country) & the food & the conversation & the friends new & old--I am very appreciative. I had fun reading poetry with 3 other poets & the panel I moderated on the workings of consciousness went VERY well. Richard Russell, who is an experienced moderator & was one of my panelists (the panel was his idea), later told me I used a technique for identifying 3 or 4 audience participants in advance that really let the conversation & information flow. He hadn't seen that used before & is planning on utilizing the technique himself. I brought art supplies (placemats & colored pencils) to the signing, so was very happy creating during lulls. Delia Sherman & Ellen Kushner sat at my table, so I had very good company indeed.

I am about to play some cards--a game that my business partner & I invented, which stimulates brain plasticity--so I shall ta ta for now.

Blog alternative:
173. Take a walk or a drive. Admire license plates that have cool numbers or letters on them. Make up a vanity plate for yourself.

From skull sutures to distal phalanges--I love thee so, dear skeleton

A few weeks ago I had a phone conference with a lovely bunch of girls in Nebraska, who read Growing Wings in their school book club. In appreciation for them & their attention, I offer this drawing! (I don't want to ignore Maryam & Nancy, the book club coordinators, but I didn't find out their favorite colors...)

It is absolutely gorgeous today. Sunny & breezy & brisk. (66 degrees as I write this in the midafternoon.) Just the sort of mountain day that lets you know it's still spring. I have nothing against summer, but one of the things I so love about living in the mountains is that even in summer, you get the cool-downs that let you appreciate the warm-ups more.

I just purchased an interesting thing--an iron creation with 12 large cups on it designed to hold bottles of wine. It hangs on the wall & looks like a vine. Now, currently I have just 1 bottle of wine in the house & I doubt I've ever had 12, so why did I buy it? Simple: art supplies! Paint brushes & colored pencils & markers & pen & glue sticks & scissors. Oh, what fun. I might even reserve 1 or 2 cups for tea lights, if I get some LONG matches to light them with. Probably cast some pretty fascinating flickers from deep inside the cups. It was on clearance because the top cup is very shaky & not wine-worthy, but a few paint brushes won't stress it out. I'll probably put cups of supplies inside the metal cups, so I can lift them out as a unit & set them on a table. Of course, a couple bottles of wine will be good to have as well....

(Yeah, I know, this is perhaps as deeply satisfying as a description of watching paint dry; but hey, remember my theory that you're better off doing something personally satisfying rather than reading blogs, so if I'm boring it's probably all to the good.)

Now it is time for me to go pack for Wiscon. Perhaps I shall see some of you there.

Ooh! I forgot to mention that Skritter has officially launched. Check out the website at skritter.com & be sure to look at the comic. (My connection with Skritter, which is a program that helps people learn to write Chinese characters, is that it is the brainchild of my offspring Nick.)

My other offspring, Zach, recently drove to Montana for the graduation of my lovely niece Crystal, who managed to be both valedictorian AND homecoming queen. Plus she's nice. So many beautiful people on the planet. (You among them. I'll claim you all as relatives.) The word on the street is that Zach represented us splendidly, which surprises me not at all.

Blog alternative:
171. Lie down in a quiet place (or sit in a noisy place, if that's what's available to you) & appreciate your bones. Think of them as the tree in the center of the garden that is you. Thank them for making your blood. Thank them for being a cosmic transmitter-receiver of energy. Thank them for making sure that you're not just a puddle of goo, blurping about on the floor, unable to throw a football or hold a paintbrush, unable to make love, unable even to make a sandwich. Rah, rah, rah, Yay Bones!
&
inspired by the word "Bones"
172. Go see the new Star Trek movie!

Busted Theramin Cherry--& Hi Mom!

The title refers to the fact that I--she blushes modestly--am no longer a theremin virgin. Yes, at Hatchfest Asheville a few weeks ago, I got up close & personal with a theremin. & it was fun!

In the last month I attended parts of 2 great festivals: the aforementioned Hatchfest (which was, btw, born in Bozeman, MT, where I went to college 30 years ago. Coincidence--well, maybe, but I doubt it) which is an innovation incubator, & Wordfest Asheville, which is a poetry festival. I was able to hear & speak with Li-Young Lee, who I have had the pleasure of hearing twice before (once in Rochester, Minnesota, during my birthday week when I was 25ish & at the National Federation of State Poetry Societies annual convention in Oregon in 2002) & other fabulous poets new to my now, including Valzhyna (kinda like Regina) Mort from Belarus. & the amazing Alan Wolf (who presented a workshop/reading for & by young poets, including his amazing son Simon, coincidentally at the Thomas Wolfe Memorial Center.)

Today is Mother's Day. I was well-wished by my sons (one of whom had challenged his Skritter co-conspirator to think of a single other woman who would happily let her child eat off the floor) & I am about to do the same for my mother. But I would like to extend the well-wishing to you all, of whatever age or gender or parturition status. Happy Mothering Day. Congratulations on the daily (or momently, if you want to break it down further) birth & nurturing of you, yourself.

Blog alternative:
170. Appreciate yourself as your own child, & as your own mother. Make yourself a card. Buy yourself dinner or flowers. Take yourself to a movie. Thank yourself.

Five Point Ozone

Yesterday was the much-celebrated release of Laurel Version 5.0 & we dare say she is now even better than before. As with any new release, there is some debugging going on. 5.0 came with sniffles, which is not a feature we plan to support. Enhancements include clutter control & inspired organization. The piece de resistance, though, is superior self-centering, in which Laurel is increasingly aware of her own point of reference & preference & adjusts her course accordingly. This is not a standard upgrade, as many think it will take them out of the sphere of Love&Caring, but we find that Laurel fills up with Absolute Unconditional Love 17% faster than her previous (already high) rate, which then spills over onto her friends & relatives & relative strangers & the universe in general. In short, Laurel 5.0 is now more popular than ever with herself & it is possible--although not necessary--that 5.0 will be the preferred version worldwide.

Blog alternative:
169. Think of yourself as a piece of software. Plan a new release, perhaps scheduled to coincide with your next birthday. Cathy Version 4.4? Nikola Tesla Version 15.3? John Cusack Version 4.3? (You get the idea...)