Mayfly

Hmmm, Feb is a funny one is'nt it ? I sort of feel like its Feb already and I haven't achieved much....plus the weather is grim which is not helping ;)
I'm going to try positivity instead of procrastination this month and see how i get on !
Loving your photos by the way....

You know, I don't mind February. It is chok full of so many strange holidays - Groundhog's Day? Why?
And it seems like February is the last hurrah of winter. The last chance for real snow and building snowmen and getting a free day off school for the year.
And love. I give my husband a gift everyday from now through valentines day. It takes thought to come up with some witty pun every day - especially after doing it for 10 years. And any excuse to indulge in pink and red sounds good to me.
Happy February, Alicia! May you find many moments this month to love.

5 and 6 sound like me as well. I'll feel so guilty during my shower, but when it comes time to turn the water off I just stand there with my hand on the lever and a raging inner battle inside my mind (should I turn it off yet? no. yes. no. yes!).

Just wanted to let you know I really enjoy your blog (and the Noticing Project!). Hope your little guy can kick off that cough soon! Have a good weekend!

I strongly disagree with you about the stylish thing. You're SO.

My husband loves to go on business trips to this small town in Michigan because the diner next door to his hotel sells ridiculously good bacon. By the BASKET. For 1.85. He's pretty sure that's close to heaven.

Hope the kiddos feel better soon. :) XO

I'm a bacon-loving, cuticle-biting (not fingernails), hot-water hog.

I'm coming back in my next life as a neat freak too!

Try Billy Collins!

ha ha ha - I loved this list. Esp. #7. Me too, me too.

I would highly recommend Ted Kooser's poetry. Very readable and relevant for a midwesterner especially. I loved "Delights and Shadows" and his new one out "Valentines" is great too. His prose book, Local Wonders, is sooooo sooo good too.

Love Mary Oliver despite her religious references and my heathenness. Other I like are Pablo Neruda for his lines that range between sensual and heart-wrenching and Charles Bukowski for his grittiness. Try Bukowski's "Having the Flu and with Nothing Else to Do" and "The Price" and Neruda's "I can write the saddest lines tonight."

Poetry Suggestion: ee cummings

If you figure out how to turn into a neat freak, please let me know! :)

My gosh, we have a lot of similarities my friend. Over here is bacon central: seriously, I am making spaghetti carbonara for dinner tonight! And our basement looks like a clothing donation station...Zoe literally has nothing to wear upstairs right now, because I hate laundry so much that I wash the tiniest bit and then throw it in a pile on the "folding " table. Ha! And you and I both know I love some Charles Shaw! I knew there was a reason I liked hanging out with you! See ya next week!

I was thinking of you this morning. Maybe the groundhog won't see his shadow?

Huh. I've never felt overwhelmed by any of Mary Oliver's religious references and I'm about as irreligious as one can get. I can't say I have an extensive knowledge of her body of work though. "American Primitive" is the collection of hers that I'm most familiar with.

Poetry can, indeed, be rather dense and intimidating but just start grabbing poetry books from the library shelves if you're interested in gaining more of an appreciation. You have a tremendous amount of power as the reader. You can always simply put the book down if a poet's work doesn't speak to you. There is nothing saying you must continue to plow through a poem if you don't like it. Turn the page or pick-up another book. You may find yourself returning to a poem later...or not.

Along with the poets already mentioned, a few more to try are Wendell Berry, Gary Snyder, W.S. Merwin... Among my favorite poems is one written by William Carlos Williams.

This is Just to Say

I have eaten
the plums
that were
in the icebox

and which
you were probably
saving
for breakfast

Forgive me
they were delicious
so sweet
and so cold

funny. so funny. first of all, i didn't remember ANY of those things you listed the first time when i tagged you. second, i (like sarah) don't ever think of mary oliver's poetry as religious - though i can see why you think so, now that i think about it a bit. try stanley kunitz. another favorite.

and can we be all of those things together in another life? (except a runner, i never really wanted to be a runner.)

hahahahahahahha, you're funny. you've already achieved the neat freak and the stylish. and, as one person once told me, "if you feel like you haven't earned to be called buddhist, then you're buddhist"

I pick at my cuticles, too -- it's really bad. Oddly, I stopped doing it during both of my pregnancies, and the whole thing started at puberty. So I've determined that cuticle-picking is hormonal. :)

And I want to place a dolly order for Charlotte's first birthday, but that isn't until September. :) I need to see what color her hair will be first.

I so enjoy your blog...but this must be my first time commenting.
Jim Gaffigan is hilarious, and if you like bacon, you must listen to this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVKJpkq-wNo

If you have songs you love, and know all the words to, you already understand poetry. Read some William Stafford--he and Billy Collins don't try to intimidate (like so much of the modern stuff).

And I'm with you on the hot showers. I feel guilty but just buy more wind power because I can't cut back. Nothing worse than a lukewarm shower.

I remember writing a paper in highschool about the merits of february (why? I have no idea). The only two things in it I remember are
1. my birthday
2. girl scout cookies

We've got similar aspirations, you and I. Like you, also, I don't suspect I'll achieve those particular goals.

On the poetry front:

(1) i=If you don't "get" it, then it might just not be your kind of poetry (or it might just not be all that good)

(2) Usually poetry is about capturing a particular image, moment, or emotion. Sometimes if you just try to focus on what the one idea is, that can help. Also, poetry is often about understanding one thing in terms of something else -- knowing that up front can help.

(3) You might try someone like c.k. williams, who writes poems with very long lines so that the effect is almost like reading prose but with very precise, thoughtful language and that "one moment or one idea" kind of thing.

(I teach literature -- go figure. If you ever want a handout I have on "how to read poetry," let me know. But don't worry, I won't hold my breath.)

hee, great list. Personally, i'm trying for the whole Buddhism thing but I don't think I'm that good of a person. :) And I gave up on the neat freak a million years ago.

Here's hoping February goes quickly and that darn groundhog is wrong.

Alicia- you're NOT a neat freak already? Everything at your house always looks pretty darn tidy to me :)
I hope you're having a good day today; until soon...

Heh. I like your random things.... I have to work on a list of those myself..... the pressure!

Hope all are feeling well again soon.....

Leah xx

i love your list.

oh how i love mary oliver - give her another try. i love her deep reverance for nature shared through words. here's one of my favorites...

http://www.breakoutofthebox.com/blackwaterwoods.htm

We're right there with you on the cold thing. Maybe it's nature's way of keeping us indoors during the colder months? I don't know. =)

i just did this meme too (except i got away with just 6 this time).

try listening to 'the writer's almanac' (i think they have a podcast). i'm rather poetry-illiterate but i'm learning to enjoy it. it's nice to actually hear the poetry.

i pretty much could list all the same facts as you (well, except 1...currently vegetarian, but i still adore bacon).