It's currently snowing and they are daring to call it a blizzard, but it at least worked out to be happening over the weekend, when I am tucked inside safely until Monday afternoon. I've been cleaning a little, drafting the latest Paper Boat, drinking tea, and making chicken soup. All very relaxing after a long week, that began with the cats trying to kill us by turning on the stove last Sunday morning (just a lot of smoke and a very badly damaged stir-fry pan that happened to be on the burner), and ended with a Friday that felt like I was chasing my tail at work and not getting all that much accomplished besides answering and sending faculty e-mails and lib answer queries in the hours I was there. It was also just cold and snowed a lot. I slept really late this morning covered in cats (who cannot kill me now that I have child protectors on the stove knobs) and buried beneath the covers to escape the chill. Lately, with everything else going on, it being winter feels like a personal affront that is not really personal at all.
Thursday, I spent some time choosing work for reading in a week or so for the Poetry Foundation, and decided to go with a batch of the tabloid poems, mostly because they are humorous and a lot less dark than most of what I've been writing lately and since last year. I haven't done any kind of reading (in person or virtual since my Feild Museum reading in 2019, so I am looking forward to it. I also have a couple other virtual readings coming up, one a release reading for the latest Pretty Owl Poetry, and another, the Poor Mouth Poetry series in the spring. Videoconferencing, while it does present it's own toils and troubles, makes me a little less anxious than going to unfamiliar physical places, so it's good during this time to have at least that. it also gives people not in Chicago a chance to attend, which is great, since I know more poets not in Chicago than in it.
In covid developements, the city is doing well, but the death toll mounts and news swirls with bad outbreaks and variants and political nonsense. I've been controlling my access to social media and media in general the past few days--enough to stay informed, but not enough to be constantly doomscrolling through facebook on my phone as soon as I wake up. Instagram is a better alternative. And twitter is good for getting in, posting what I need to, and getting out. I find myself in the bad position of having to spend time there professionally, both for my own work and the library, but also trying not to drown there. It makes me anxious. It occasionally makes me angry, especially re: covid. This anger spills into real life as I watch the people in my building have giant parties. Someone said that when you're 19, you are carelesss that way--selfish and all id. While I was a lot of things at 19, I was not that careless, so it's a bullshit excuse.
Last week, I rearranged some art in the kitchen to make room for a dreamy green new hanging fisherman's float above my sink , so I needed a smaller frame, so painted some woodsy landscapes/ lakescapes that I don't hate. Outside of a couple library graphics, t's the first art endeavors of the new year, so let's hope they lead to more.
