Busy Weekend in Pictures

Why did I think summer would be so low-key and relaxing?  I had visions of spending my days lounging on my back porch with a Blue Moon, big sunnies, and some books . . . and yet, not so much how it's turned out.  Working a lot on my curriculum, meetings, babysitting, social engagements, stalking motorcycle clubs, visitors + travel = one busy girl.

Here's what I've been up to this weekend:

eating lots of these

dinner (Delfina Pizzeria) and drinks (Double Dutch; my fave) 

with my dear friend Monica

p.s. anyone know how to get the iPhone 4 to take better pics in the dark?

p.p.s. check out the awesome boombox on the Double Dutch homepage

p.p.p.s. go to Delfina Pizzeria and get the broccoli raab pizza stat.

sunny days at the pool with this guy & his impish brother

immersed in my new book

p.s. the co-authors, Keith and Kent Zimmerman,

teach creative writing in my unit at San Quentin

a beautiful San Francisco Sunday in Freeman's back yard

Tomorrow I'll be missing Leeann, who was supposed to be visiting this weekend, until I dropped the ball and took too long to email her times (the airfare sale ended) :(.  No doubt we would have torn up the town.  Instead, I'll be BBQing with friends during the day, and teaching at San Quentin at night.  Normally I wouldn't teach on a holiday, but I'll be out of town the next two Mondays (here I come, Georgia!  here I come, Cabo San Lucas!), so I'm sucking it up for the greater good.  Needless to say, my students don't have any other plans. ;)

Fittingly, I'll be teaching this poem.

Happy 4th!  

Mama's Day

Happy Mothers' Day to my sweet little mama.  I'm so sad I can't be with her today, but I'm thinking of her nevertheless!

my mama and her mama this Easter

mama and baby Claire circa 1982

cute mama with cute puppy

she loves beach paddleball . . .

. . . and hiking!

mama and her daughters

Thank you for being so stable, wise, consistent, and good.  I love and miss you!

Happy Mothers' Day to all of your mamas and to all of you who are mamas yourselves.  Lord knows it's the most important job in the world.

The Holiday Blues

Every year I go home to Georgia for Christmas, but the other holidays can be hard.  I always call my mama's house on Easter, where the entire family has gathered, and she passes the phone around so I can say hi to everyone.  I love getting to talk to them, but it inevitably leaves me feeling a little depressed that they're all together and I'm thousands of miles away.  Would that I could just wiggle my nose and transport myself home for every occasion.

My auntie Pat posted these picture of our family's Easter celebration yesterday:

my sisters

(Jennifer--on the left--is my cousin, but we grew up like sisters.  Lil sis Kate on the right)

sweet Nana on the left and my mama on the right

this year Nana will be 80, Mama will be 50, and I will be 30!

Uncle Mike & pretty cousins with spread of food

Uncle Ted on left, brother-in-law Andy on right

love the twin crossed legs, boys

Jennifer's son, Ethan, and our Auntie Pat

Ethan hunting for eggs in Mama's back yard

I would have loved to be there with them.  I miss everyone exponentially on holidays.  But although it was sad that I couldn't be with my family on Easter, I did the next best thing and headed up to the Freitags to watch Milo and Jude hunt for eggs:

the Freitags on Easter + the view from their backyard

Milo furiously hunting eggs

me and my little love

JJ and Judebug, both sporting seersucker

Thank goodness for the Freitags aka my home away from home!  It was a gorgeous day outside, and those boys always put me in a better mood.  Plus, after the uncles and aunts and cousins went home, Cari and I did something very Easterly: we watched a very intense, violent movie about post-Apartheid South Africa.  ;)

Notice anything about the cast?  Particularly the guy standing in the middle?  Yes, ladies & gentlemen, it's Tim Riggins.  And despite the fact that he had to lose 30 pounds to portray strung out combat photographer, Kevin Carter, he was just as fine as ever in this movie.

All hotness aside, it was a great movie, although devastating.  The story centers around four photographers who are trying to take the best pictures of the violence going on around them.  Kevin Carter (played by Taylor Kitsch--it's a true story) eventually took the following photo of a starving child in Sudan being stalked by a vulture:

from

Although Carter won the Pulitzer Prize for this photo (taken in southern Sudan in 1993), it was obviously surrounded by controversy.  The public questioned him: did you just leave that girl to die?  What did you do after you took the picture?  Unable to face these questions and the ethics of his job in general, Carter kills himself.  And while it was tough to watch Tim Riggins go through all that . . . it was worth it.  

Sorry for the downer.  Probably should have ended with Jude toddling around in his seersucker suit clutching plastic eggs.  What did y'all do for Easter?

I'm a holiday girl

Do you love holidays?  In general, I'm all about celebrating and traditions.  For example, I think it's incredibly cool that on Halloween night, people all across America (and other countries, too!)--rich, poor, city, rural, etc. etc. are all dressed up in elaborate costumes.  It's unifying, you know?

Since pretty much my entire extended family lives within a 20 mile radius of each other in Georgia, holidays always mean gatherings, too--lots of delicious food, hanging out with each other, etc.  They get together on Christmas, Easter, Thanksgiving, Mother's Day, 4th of July, etc.  I am always home at Christmas, but I get nostalgic on the other holidays and really miss everyone at home.  I usually call my mama, and she passes the phone around so I can say hello, but I miss actually being with my family.  It's gonna get harder when my sister has a kid (eventually).

I'm wearing a green sweater today to avoid getting pinched (a green sweater that I got at the BCBG outlet for $9, might I add), but I don't really celebrate St. Patrick's Day.  When I was 15, one of my close friends died on St. Patrick's Day, and it's kinda taken the air out of the holiday for me.  Although anniversaries can be hard, I don't have all the crazy emotions around his death anymore (I mean, it's been 14 years now), but I can't help but think of Dan on St. Patrick's Day, and it makes me disinclined to rage over green beers and glittery hats.

Also, I don't eat corned beef.  And also, I feel a nagging sense of cultural appropriation when it comes to "ethnic" holidays like St. Patrick's Day and Cinco de Mayo.  It doesn't mean I can't appreciate them (or want to toast to Mexico over margaritas on May 5), but I almost feel like an imposter, if that makes sense.

But for those of you who celebrate, Happy St. Patrick's Day.  And may all of us be the recipients of tremendous Irish luck!

Valentine's Sleepover in Pictures

Our 6th Annual All Girls Valentine's Sleepover could not have been more fun (okay it could have, but only if my far away peeps could have attended, and/or if Tim Riggins had been our personal exotic dancer).  There were 14 or 15 of us total (some on the early side, some on the late), and we did not disappoint in terms of girliness; we talked about boys, friendship, bras, and birth control.  Ha!

Anna, Myisha, and me drinking Valentinis and eating cupcakes

fake flower says wassup to real flower.  holla!

in my right hand: The Slammer wine

in my left hand: Poet's Row wine

pretty much sums up my life

triptych with Diana :)

at my house, everyone is offered a snuggie

Ellie and Anna were my only takers

Erica, on the left, is my next door neighbor

Yael, on the right, is the life of the party

And did I mention we had gift bags with red eye masks (thanks Faiza!), candy heart bracelets, heart notepads, and love lotto tickets??  I already can't wait till next year!

Festive.

Today I am sporting my red Miu Miu slingbacks*:

and this little headband in my hair:

from Gracie Bella Butterfly

toting these for my lil' monster-students:

and with copies of this poem to share with them:

First Poem for You**

            Kim Addonizio

I like to touch your tattoos in complete

darkness, where I can't see them.  I'm sure of

where they are, know by heart the neat

lines of lightning pulsing just above

your nipple, can find, as if by instinct, the blue

swirls of water on your shoulder where a serpent

twists, facing a dragon.  When I pull you

to me, taking you until we're spent

and quiet on the sheets, I love to kiss

the pictures in your skin.  They'll last until

you're seared to ashes; whatever persists

or turns to pain between us, they will still

be there.  Such permanence is terrifying.

So I touch them in the dark; but touch them, trying.

***

Seriously: what's not to love about Valentine's Day?  However, my Valentine's Day promises to be quite untraditional, as instead of savoring a romantic dinner tonight, I will be teaching love poems at San Quentin State Prison.  What a hilarious place to spend the day of love!  It will certainly remind me that there are far worse positions to be in than dateless. ;)

What are y'all up to today??

*Let it be known that I will not be wearing said Miu Miu slingbacks to the prison tonight.
**Did you notice it's a perfect Shakespearean sonnet?

Friday I'm in Love!

Summergirl

It's Friday, and I'm exhausted.  But I'm wearily in love with these things:

1. All the Valentine's love  that's been pouring in my mailbox!  If you're struggling with making your own Valentines, check out Micaela's gorgeous, hand-crafted cards.  Hers put mine to shame!  And check out this loot--Faiza sent decorations for my all-girls V-Day sleepover, and my friend Linda sent hilarious chocolate.  So excited:

this is just the beginning!

2.  This blog's  layout and design.  I love it!  I came across it through Carrie's white denim in winter challenge, and I immediately emailed the sweet blogger, Kai, to ask who did her design.  Now, to spend $60 on a new blog layout or not to?  Isn't her blog perfect looking?  I'm smitten.

3. These Jeffreys:

cutttteeee

Normally I like super-feminine shoes, but something about these clunky, modern platforms has me all atwitter.  

Hope everyone's having a delightful Friday!  It sure is easier to get through the day knowing there is a weekend ahead of you.  Unfortunately, I will be hunkered down all weekend staring at my computer screen since I have an upcoming deadline for the Voice of Witness project I'm working on (transcribing the interviews I've done and turning them into first person narratives).  I love the project so dearly, and I'm so fortunate to be a part of it . . . but man, is it time-consuming!

XOXO

Call me crazy . . .

but somehow, I really do love Valentine's Day.

I've rarely been coupled on Valentine's Day.  I have an uncanny ability to end up in the midst of a break-up, or arrive at some sort of ending, right before February 14th (this year being no exception).  And yet, I can't help it--I still love the holiday.

Maybe it's that I love love, maybe it's that I love chocolate, maybe it's how cute conversation hearts look in Spanish:

llame me?  cuuuuuute.

My girlfriends and I have had an all girls Valentine's Day sleepover at my house the past five years, even those years we've been in relationships.  The V-Day sleepover always involves mac & cheese, pink lollipops, Valentini cocktails, funfetti cupcakes, nail polish, copious amounts of Sex and the City, and silky jammies.

doing my nails at V-Day sleepover 2006

I think this was 2008--we even had heart-shaped ravioli!

part of last year's spread

It's totally a controversial holiday.  Some people love getting super mushy with their lover, some couples think it's cheesy and commercial, some single people get bitter & boycott, and some single people--like me--embrace it as a day that celebrates LOVE!

Occasionally a little bit of self-pity begins to sink in, but then I remember how amazing my girlfriends are and how much fun the V-Day sleepover is every year.  And it's kind of cute that my coffee table is turning into a Valentine factory:

Plus, I bought this from Gracie's etsy shop last night:

What do you think of Valentine's Day?