…I have three things up:
--Two poems, "Carousel" and "Genie" at Bananafish, and
--Zombie Indian Summer at xTx's blog, which I love, No Time To Say It.
They're also all here under "Words In Print."

--I am a runner. I run long. Problem is I get injured a lot. I do not like being sick or injured and will usually not fess up that I am. This mornning was my 18 miler. At the start, my back was so sore I could hardly walk. So I took off my five pound water belt and walked, running little spurts every so often. After awhile the soreness went away and I ran 18 straight without stopping. Now my body feels like that scene in The Sopranos--a show I miss dearly--where they tie the guy to a chair and beat him with baseball bats.

…Do you ever wonder how many people are doing something they love, if not the the very thing they always wanted to do? The world would be a lot different if that were the case. Of course, life wouldn't function because who would do all the sucky jobs? Maybe everyone would have to do sucky jobs for a certain period, gaining points or credits and once you had enough sucky job points accumulated, you could trade them in for dream job points and once you had enough of those, maybe you could get the dream job. The world would probably tilt on it's axis a bit, though. For instance, I just read in Esquire that being an A list movie star was considered the #1 dream job of 38 % of American males, both young and old. There aren't enough films for all those people, so that would pose a problem. But do you ever wonder (I guess I think too much, huh?) about all the very talented people, the uniquely talented people who, for whatever reason, don't make it? Nick Drake is a classic example. He killed himself at 24, then got discovered after his death and has a cult following (one of his songs is on the Visa commercial--or maybe it's Mastercard--where they drape gigantic orange curtains over buildings.) Van Gough's another good example. There a lots of them.

…I think I would write if no one read my stuff. Actually I know I would because I've been doing that for years and years now.

…I've decided to go to AWP in February. It's primarily a writer's conference for the online, flash sort of writers. I'm one of those now, yet I still very much feel like an outsider. I'll go and try to be gregarious. I am equal parts shy and social. At the AWP I will be the latter. I will make it a point to introduce myself to all the great writers I admire but have never met. It will be fun and worthwhile, I'll make sure of it.

…Here's some more Annie Dillard (I've never seen a picture of her, and I know I could Google her name, but I have this image of her that I don't want dispelled (as a sort of Jane Goodall type, sage tank-top, hairy armpits, wild, curly brown hair, no makeup, freckles, sort of cute and attractive in that unvarnished, jungle way…) Shes quite a genius, our Annie. She has this lovely stilted style and captures the essence of a thing and spins it in a unique way. Oh, Annie…
"How we spend out days, is of course, how we spend out lives. What we do with this hour and that one, is what we are doing. A schedule defends from chaos and whim. It is a net for catching days. It is a scaffolding on which a worker can stand and labor with both hands at sections of time. A schedule is a mock-up of reason and order--willed, faked, and so b rought into being; it is a peace and a haven st into the wreak of time; it is a lifeboat on which you find yourself decades later, still living. Each day is the same, so you remember the series afterward as a blurred and powerful pattern."