Opened Books

March 31, again

The lovely Marissa came to visit me yesterday. We had a frolicsome morning-- breakfast with a bunch of people at Zachary's, coffee and poetry talk at Jahva House, general (and specific) fun. Her back was bothering her, so she left mid-afternoon. I wandered home and drifted back and forth between my room and the Final Four party in the living room. The chief enticement of the party was all the food-- wings, lasagna, french fries, chips, beer. Not to mention the pint of ice cream I provided for myself.

I finally got a little work done. I went to Pergolesi and wrote a 500-word story. I mostly caught up on my slush reading for Speculon. I read some poetry and gnawed the inside of my cheek and thought about stuff. I tried to figure out where to send a couple of stories that have recently boomeranged back to me.

I had a Turkish coffee shake at Saturn with Lynne and Scott and some others. Then I came home, got online, and wound up in a three-way (chat, I mean) with Meg and Amily. So much social! But I did a bit of work, so it's okay.

After reading a Billy Collins poem in which he describes reading the Encyclopedia at the rate of one page a day, I picked up my copy of Brewer's and opened to page 1. I read about five pages, stopping periodically to take notes-- this book is fascinating. Which I knew, but now it's more... methodically fascinating. And it's an associative book-- I had to read the countless cross-references, too, so I drifted all over the volume. Found lots of stuff I want to research more extensively.

Okay. Bed now.

"My life is an open book. It lies here
on a glass tabletop, its pages shamelessly exposed
outspread like a bird with hundreds of thin paper wings.

-Billy Collins, from "Cliché"