Bucket List Update and Revision

My new change of location midsummer prompted a few additions to the summer bucket list.

1. Read Les Miserables.
2. Get tan(ish).
3. Learn a new song on the piano.
4. Find cheap flights to Denver for Mark's wedding (fingers crossed).
5. Write something every day.
6. Explore the lighthouse at Discovery Park.
7. Go to Elliott Bay Bookstore (and don't spend more than $30).
8. Find the Sleepless in Seattle house.
9. Listen to the singing monks.
10. Become the alpha-male of the dogs I nanny.
11. Swim in Green Lake.
12. Go to the Jimmy Eat World concert.
13. Go to the Death Cab concert.
14. Visit the awesome cemetery on Capitol Hill.
15. Read a Russian (with emotional clearance from Melis and/or C).
16. Start (and finish) Jesus the Christ.
17. Make tortillas.
18. Watch The Breakfast Club.
19. Paint.
20. Go on a trip. (Canada? Spokane?)
21. Dance on the roof.
22. Attend a reading (or three).
23. Go boating.
24. See the PUPPIES.
25. Show Jess an episode of AR with STEVE HOLT.
26. Go to the temple with the boy.
27. Fish. (Thomas?)
28. Wash the car regularly.
29. Visit the Seattle Art Museum.
30. Go to an outdoor movie.
31. Ride a ferryboat.
32. Go to a Mariners game.
33. Hit the Ballard Seafoodfest.
34. Visit Chihuly Garden and Glass.
35. Ride the ferris wheel.
36. Go to the Marathon memorial in Copley Square.
37. Swim at Walden Pond.
38. Visit the JFK Museum.
39. Buy an air conditioner.
40. Attend a concert at the Hatch Shell.
41. Go to a Red Sox game.
42. Hit up Boston Magazine's Ice Cream Spectacular list.

On Coming Home

Ten days ago I flew to my city, arriving to witness the intense love for their teams, even though we lost to Chicago while I was on the plane. Sadness. (Andy, no gloating.)

I spent the night with a cat and the next morning had two and a half hours of interviews with some of the nicest people I have ever met. Their company is pretty great, too. The afternoon was spent on Charles Street eating pizza and JP Licks with my favorite people, and even though I didn't really know, I knew I'd be walking to Harvard Square for more JP Licks with my darling Anne Marie regularly.

And I was right. I'm flying in July 29, walk to Harvard that evening AM? I can't think of a better way to restart my life in Boston.

Summer Bucket List So I Have Something to Look Forward to when Nannying Threatens to Kill Me

(How's that for the bloody longest/worst blog title ever?)

1. Read Les Miserables.
2. Get tan(ish).
3. Learn a new song on the piano.
4. Find cheap flights to Denver for Mark's wedding (fingers crossed).
5. Write something every day.
6. Explore the lighthouse at Discovery Park.
7. Go to Elliott Bay Bookstore (and don't spend more than $30).
8. Find the Sleepless in Seattle house.
9. Listen to the singing monks.
10. Become the alpha-male of the dogs I nanny.
11. Swim in Green Lake.
12. Go to the Jimmy Eat World concert.
13. Go to the Death Cab concert.
14. Visit the awesome cemetery on Capitol Hill.
15. Read a Russian (with emotional clearance from Melis and/or C).
16. Start (and finish) Jesus the Christ.
17. Make tortillas.
18. Watch The Breakfast Club.
19. Paint.
20. Go on a trip. (Canada? Spokane?)
21. Dance on the roof.
22. Attend a reading (or three).
23. Go boating.
24. See the PUPPIES.
25. Show Jess an episode of AR with STEVE HOLT.
26. Go to the temple with the boy.
27. Fish. (Thomas?)
28. Wash the car regularly.
29. Visit the Seattle Art Museum.
30. Go to an outdoor movie.
31. Ride a ferryboat.
32. Go to a Mariners game.
33. Hit the Ballard Seafoodfest.
34. Visit Chihuly Garden and Glass.
35. Ride the ferris wheel.

Thank You, Basketball Gods

Sometimes when you really need a life win, the universe gives it to you.

Why yes, I am the Mitton Family & Friends NCAA Pool Champion. And held it throughout the dance.

On In Houston

I'd dislocated my life, so I went to the zoo.

Four weeks ago I traveled to Boston for the annual AWP Conference. (Association for Writers and Writing Programs--don't ask me why it's not AWWP, I don't know the official answer. But it would be a stupid acronym.) It is a conference that I would be genuinely interested in each year, but was compounded by the fact that it was being held in Boston. Though I never admitted it to anyone (except maybe once to Mc?), part of my desire to go was a hope that my decision to move away would be validated by a return. I would see the city I love and the people I love and say, "Yes, I love them, but I don't belong here anymore."


I missed / the bitter tinny Boston smell of first snow, / the huddling in a cold bus tunnel.

My first twenty-four hours back in the city, I literally could not stop grinning like an idiot. I grinned when C picked me up, when I saw the skyline, when I walked into Quincy Market blocks from my old office. I grinned watching my BBQ chicken mac&cheese lunch cooked in front of me, I grinned on the T (the Green line, even), I grinned in the rain/snow down Boylston through Copley Square. I grinned walking into Clarke's. I grinned up the stairs of the Nottinghill House. I felt lighter, I was happy.


no bird can get its song sung right, separated from / models of its own species. 

Even with a red eye and a three-hour time difference, ten hours at AWP left me invigorated rather than exhausted. I went to panels on Boston's literary history, contemporary American writing, technology and the ebook's influence on publishing. I heard Tony Hoagland and Dobby Gibson and Matthew Pearl. I took pictures of old classmates running a panel, thinking, "They are presenting at a national conference and I went to school with them." I walked through a book fair filled with hundreds of books and lit mags and opportunities. I felt a spark rekindle.

I couldn’t relate to a giraffe— / I couldn’t look one in the face.

During Tony Hoagland's panel I heard a darling poet tell the story of how she began to write. Through what she called good fortune, she was accepted to an MFA program (the only one to which she applied). As she went to class each week and sat around a conference table to workshop she said, "For the first time in my life I was surrounded by souls that spoke to mine."


How did we get here, dear sloth, my soul, my sister?

When I graduated eleven months ago, I was tired. I had drained myself physically and mentally and emotionally; I needed a change. I thought that a new location could help this new phase of my life sans school. But when I left Boston I also left an integral piece of me. The piece that sees tiny details of design and admires a well-constructed sentence. The piece that has been with me most of my life, since my dad banned reading in the bathroom, but took me so long to find academically. These eleven months without it have been long, and sometimes dark. But for the first time in nearly a year I was all of me. Surrounded by souls that spoke to mine.

I choose to be all of me again.


April is National Poetry Month, and I connected more strongly with Gail Mazur's reading of "In Houston" at AWP than any other poem I have heard to date.

dreammoods.com

• I dreamed a friend got accepted to NYU for a PhD program with full funding. He applied to 12 schools in real life, but none of them are NYU. (None of them is? Char, Laura, thoughts?)
• I dreamed I went on vacation to a cabin in the middle of nowhere (Idaho?) with my family, several Boston friends, some Boston friends' families, and a Jerusalem professor and his wife. One friend showed up in a crazy old station wagon and the biggest fur-trimmed coat I've ever seen.
• I dreamed I punched a man in the face three times. 
• I dreamed I still live in Boston. It was a perfectly ordinary Boston day. 
• I dreamed I choked on tiny diamond chess pieces that were in my water like ice cubes. And woke up from the dream three times, like a weird version of Inception.
• I dreamed a friend started dating some girl who dumped him for his brother, but he didn't know. When he found out she was dating his brother, he tried to strangle him.
• I dreamed I was going on a mission and went back to Oregon to tell everyone.
• I dream about starting a publishing house in a barn overlooking the sea.

huh

My sister is a missionary.

Super, super weird.

Back Again

Copley Square

This is quite possibly my favorite spot in all of Boston.
And it's getting harder to leave every time.

A List

• Basically two straight weeks at home (with a 36-hour break in the middle) is fun. Even if Jess says she gets sick of me.
• I genuinely miss poem-a-day February. I might create poem-a-day March.
• The boy turns 18 tomorrow. Oof.

• Murry has been laying on the bed all morning. I'm not positive that he realizes this morning was his last walk with Megan, but I kind of think he might. He's been a lot quieter than usual.
• I wish I could wear flannel all the time.
• Tomorrow cannot come soon enough.

Published, Again

I recently submitted a guest post to the LDS literary blog called Segullah, and today they published it. So for today's reading, I'd like to redirect your attention here.


And yes, I am excited to be publishing things a few weeks in a row. Even if it is just for blogs. A whole lot better than no publishing at all.

I, I Love You

And I keep hittin' repe-pe-pe-pe-pe-peat.





Happy Valentine's Day.

C Saved February (Unintentionally)

I've been writing poems.


When C was in his MFA program, he decided to write one poem every day during the month of February. It was a good exercise, apparently, because he's reinstated it this year. After expressing mild interest, he convinced me to do it too.

We have had multiple discussions about my hatred for February (see: here, here). But the past twelve days (we're only two days shy of the halfway point) haven't been so bad. Even the weather's been fairly cooperative (if I still lived in Boston, we'd be having an entirely different conversation). And I have to say, I kind of  think it's because I've been writing. It's a good exercise for my brain when I have no formal employment. Plus, it's relaxing and actually really fun.

February can be good. With poems. 

I would just like to go on record saying

when a boy says to you, "Can I take you on a date on Saturday?" it is so much nicer than, "Do you want to go to dinner?" or (worse), "We should do something this weekend!"


500 points to you already, sir. Way to be ballsy and call it what it is. 

A Thought about HBP

Listening to HP audiobook on the bus to Portland and made a discovery. At the beginning of "The Lightening-Struck Tower" when Harry tries to get Dumbledore back to the castle and to the hospital wing, Dumbledore repeatedly asks for Snape rather than Madame Pomfrey. I always assumed he wanted Snape to heal him, like he had when Dumbledore put on Marvolo Gaunt's ring.

But perhaps he actually wanted Snape to come and fulfill his Unbreakable Vow. Harry was afraid drinking Voldemort's potion was killing Dumbledore. Maybe he wasn't wrong.

Published

A few months ago, at the encouragement of one of the editors, I began copyediting for Appazoogle.com. Appazoogle (Apple + Amazon + Google) is a great site run by Emerson grads (originating as a class project  in December 2011) that discusses the digital revolution and its affect on the publishing industry. The pieces are fun and insightful, and a great way to learn about what's going on with all forms of publishing.

Last week, I had a brilliant idea for a post. Today, they ran it.

So, for today's blog reading I'm redirecting you to "Free books for everyone (in Seattle)." Enjoy.

Some Morning GG Wisdom

"A setback is just a setup for future accomplishment."

Fashion, huh

When I quit my job and moved from Boston exactly five months ago, I decided I would not buy any clothes until I found full time employment. But that doesn't stop me from looking.

I am simultaneously coveting this skirt (or one like it in maybe a champagne color?):

Image and skirt found here.

And these pants:

Image and pants found here.

Patent Pending (?)

Sometimes, you decide to start a new show and C convinces you that it should be Burn Notice.

That decision will start an important discussion about snacks. Obviously.

And sometimes, even though it sounds weird, you might decide to take C's suggestion seriously and actually try mint popcorn. Because you miss having someone to do stupid experiments with. Or maybe you're tired. Who knows why you listen to his suggestion.

Verdict: Meh. When eaten in the form shown above, the flavors of popped corn and mint are distinctly separate from each other. Once smothered (as C said after seeing above photo, "needs way more york. smother it"), the popcorn is merely a vehicle for the melted patties. There is no butter or salt in your mouth. Just chocolate and mint.

oh well.

hmm

My favorite interactions with other human beings today came in the form of texting.





That probably isn't a good thing.

Top 12 Gchats of 2012

A highlight of the conversations that entertained me during work/designing/job hunting:

JANUARY

Laura: i have a pressing question

 me: go

 Laura: how is it possible for a giant and a human to have a child?

  how does hagrid exist?

 me: hahahaha

 I think the exact same way that two humans have a child

  though I think having the giant as the mother is probably a lot easier on both parents.

  was that too much?

 Laura: no, i just don't get how that works out physiologically

 these are the questions that plague me as i listen to HP

  also, hagrid should mathematically be in his 60s

  do giants age differently?

 me: I don't think they do

 Laura: well, then i'm baffled

 me: why would they age differently?

 Laura: i don't know. he doesn't seem to be in his 60s in the books

  i would put him in his 40s

 me: people in their 60s can do what he does

  not all of them

  but some

  plus, he has giant blood

FEBRUARY

me: hello, cute shoes: http://www.dsw.com/shoe/enzo+angiolini+leealder+pump?prodId=247143&productRef=SEARCH

 Danielle: only 60 dollars

 me: yep

  hmm...

I was looking for animal print, but I like these shoes

 Danielle: hahah still looking for leopard?

  you better hurry up before the tren is over

 me: haha, I know

  h&m has snakeskin ones that I love, but they never have my size

I think I might have to just give up on the animal shoes

 Danielle: hahahah

mike just caught me swaying/dancing in my cube

  woops

 me: hahahaha

  awesome

now the question is do I have clothes with which to wear purple and yellow heels?

Danielle: of course

me: hahaha

  of course I do?

 Danielle: yeah

  you can wear them with anything

me: I like your logic

and I think I will add them to my tax refund present.

 Danielle: there you go

me: yay

MARCH

me: do you have great spring break plans?

  I'm a little surprised you were awake to send an email at 7:40

Dema: haha yeah i've been used to waking up early now, so can't sleep in :)

  plans are just homework and hang out with friends at night

we're still on for tomorrow, right?

 me: yep

  time preference?

 Dema: well if you wanna do something right after work we can, or if you're interested in going to that show together we can meet up later

i'm currently asking Jan Marie if she would date me

 me: I'm guessing the answer is yes

 Dema: u just have to take that step into the dark/leap of faith (think Indian Jones and the last crusade).
and it always seems to pay off
Jan: I seriously love you for making that analogy
me: that's why we'd make a great lesbian couple.
think about it
Jan: absolutely

 me: hahaha

  I love it

and I'd totally date you, too

 Dema: good

APRIL

Matt: oh my word, your church has a style guide

  how great is that

 me: of course it does

  I have a copy of it

  I've used it before, I used to intern with a BYU professor writing a commentary on the New Testament

  haha, how'd you find it?

 Matt: i was perusing the general conference stuff

 me: ah

Matt: haha...top-down management of the church, very interesting

 me: what do you mean?

Matt: well, top-down meaning there's a central authority that manages nearly all facets of mormonism, opposed to most other sects of christianity where the mangement is spread across the members of each individual church (bottom-up)

 me: right

I find ours more effective.

Matt: for some aspects, absolutely

  like I said, very clean

  provides clear and consistent results

Mormonism also, i think, exercises more control than, say, Catholicism, despite both being centrally administered

 me: I don't know a whole lot about the organization of the Catholic church, so I can't say

Matt: well, the main similarity being a central authority (pope and cardinals vs. president and...his cabinet? Elders? Not sure what you call them)

me: haha, it isn't a bureaucracy. they are apostles. like in the Bible.

MAY

Miranda: hey MASTER

me: hahaha

  oh hey

 Miranda: so proud of you

  i'm going to brag all about my roommate

 me: hahaha

 Miranda: to who ever wants to listen

 me: everyone, I'm sure

Miranda: there is a line forming outside my cubicle, waiting to hear the ballad of allison mitton

me: ooh

  is it as good as when you recite ice ice baby?

 Miranda: better

  i've grown wiser since then

me: hahaha

  I loved that

  that's one of my favorite memories

 Miranda: i'm glad!

  so, have you read any of briTTany's blog?

because it irks me because it is written so poorly, i can only imagine what it does to you

me: oh my gosh NO

send me the link

 Miranda: i can't access it write now, (fb is blocked at work) but its on her page

ahhh WRITE NOW?! who am i? my brain ismelting at this job!

  right now****

 me: hahahaha

JUNE

me: okay. it's just the one selena gomez song I really like

everything else is just, meh

 Katelyn: haha, thats a good discovery

 me: is it on repeat?

  yes. yes it is

Katelyn: hahaaha

  oh, you and selena. bffs.

 me: hahaha

  terrible

my music listening sometimes takes these huge nose dives

  this is one of them

 Katelyn: haha, well acceptance is the first step

me: to recovery?

  but I haven't recovered

  case in point:

  Ke$ha

  Call Me Maybe

  Selena Gomez

  I'm Sexy and I Know It

  need I go on?

  haha

Katelyn: haha, no no. i think we all have a bit of pop music trash attraction. it's an inevitability of life.

 me: that is true

  oh. Britney Spears

old and new

  I Wanna Go is just so great

 Katelyn: case and point

 me: plus there's my horrible Maroon 5 love affair.

 Katelyn: haha

 me: all my favorites of their songs are the dirtiest ones

  and I never realize it until it's too late

 Katelyn: hahaha

me: oh well.

Katelyn: it's not the worst thing in life. embrace it

JULY

me: so I told Danielle and McCall and Anne Marie the David date story tonight

  they loved it

Jan: hahahaha

  I love it too

  that was great

 me: D wanted to know why I'd never told her before, haha

 Jan: well it's not like you go around telling everyone you meet

 me: I hardly tell anyone

it makes me look bad, haha

  and I still had the note

  so she read it out loud

 Jan: HAHAHAHA

  I can't even remember what it said now

  I wish I had been there

  how does it make you look bad?

  you didn't do anything

 me: you don't remember?

when I got back from Christmas Dema and I were sitting in the foyer at church and he came to talk to us and she totally steamrolled him and wouldnt let him talk to me

  she monopolized the entire conversation

  and he doesn't talk to me now

  we'll pass in the hall and he doesn't even say hi

 Jan: yes I remember that

  if it makes you feel better he doesn't say hi to me either

AUGUST

me: how goes the search

 Calvin: didn't yet

  got emails from BU

 me: haha, I knew it

  oh yeah?

  how are the terriers?

Calvin: fast

 me: not as fast as jackals, though

Calvin: who has a jackal mascot?

 me: I don't know

  but I always say to be speedy fast like a jackal

  have you never heard me say that?

 Calvin: of course I have

me: well then. terriers aren't as speedy fast as jackals.

 Calvin: how do you know?

me: because jackals are the speedy fastest

Calvin: no they're not

  two words

  cheetahs

me: that is one word

  also, I saw the african cats movie and the jackals were running just as fast as the teenager cheetahs

 Calvin: teenager cheetahs are always high on weed

me: you are making that up

Calvin: i would never

 me: you would always

 Calvin: touchez

 me: haha

  I win

SEPTEMBER

me: so I've been watching grey's again

  it's bad because I get sucked in, and because it makes me think I have some weird serious thing wrong with me and I don't know it and I'll die

but also I like it because I love Cristina and Meredith's friendship.

 McCall: haha oh dear

  yeah their friendship is great

  but that's bad because you tend to self-diagnose anyway

but in all likelihood you're fine

  however, if you would like to take this opportunity to go to a doctor, i'm all for that

 me: hahaha

  you and everyone else

McCall: smart people

  smart people

 me: yeah yeah

haha

  aaah there is a moth in my room

  it keeps saying you do not receive my chat

  hmm

McCall: yeah, it said that for mine too which is why i said it twice

  really weird

  also, kill the moth

me: so last night I got up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom and turned on the lamp

when I got back to my room I saw the moth six inches from my pillow, on the wall

 McCall: ugh, creepy!

 me: haha, I didn't know what to do. I don't know how to kill moths

so I managed to suck it up and get in bed. though I think that was part of the reason I didn't sleep well

  when I woke up it wasn't on teh same wall anymore, but just now it started flying all over

  ooh there it is again

McCall: just throw a shoe at it!

OCTOBER

me: I'm glad you're checking up

 Reed: doing my best!

me: you're doing great

  I'll fill the SEO stuff and post it

 Reed: word - thanks! Over the weekend if i have time maybe i put together a few screen shots and send them out ... maybe that will help them figure it out

me: that's a good idea

Reed: those come across my mind from time to time ... yes!!!!!!!!!!

 me: haha

  don't let it go to your head

Reed: shoot ... too late!

me: hahaha

  that's okay

  Dema will make sure your head doesn't get too big

Reed: def'ly true .... that's why we have women in our lives... they build us up and rip us down at the right times!

 me: and we do it well.

NOVEMBER

Daniel: now about you

  what's the news?

me: no news

  I'm going to California next week

 Daniel: ooh fun

  which part?

 me: my dad just bought a new car but it's in Orange County

  so my mom and I are flying down to drive it back up

we're going to stop in San Francisco for a day with my uncle

 Daniel: have I told you that I love SF?

me: nope

 Daniel: or what's left of it?

  it's in my top 3 of cities

 me: what do you mean, what's left of it

Daniel: post Giants victory riots burned some stuff down

 me: yeah, but they won

 Daniel: hey, no one is happier than me

  i love the giants

 me: umm, I probably am

  did you go to Giants games every year since you were 1?

 Daniel: that's probably true

in fact, a lot of people are probably happier than I am

  but I'm more than halfway between indifferent and hey-that's-cool

 me: haha

  terrible

Daniel: i did see the giants play every time i visited my grandpa though

  and those are my favorite memories

 me: I love them so much

  mostly Brian Wilson and his sweet, sweet beard

Daniel: not the one from the Beach Boys though, right?

 me: I don't know why you'd even say that

  look:

 Daniel: hahaha

 me: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/15/sports/baseball/wilson-giants-closer-leads-team-without-pitching.html?_r=0

DECEMBER

Calvin: and graduate study in cw will round blah blah?

me: that could work

 Calvin: will round me more fully as a writer

  something like that?

me: hmm.

I want a different word

  something other than 'round'

 Calvin: yep

 me: the first thing that comes to mind is 'flesh', which is equally bad

 Calvin: ew

 me: hahaha

 Calvin: advance

  enhance

entrance

  fire dance

  romance

  fat chance

 me: you should write the entire letter like Dr. Seuss

 Calvin: bagger vance

 me: now you're just making things up

 Calvin: haha, that would be awesome

 me: it really would