It's been an angsty week, tinged by vaccine worries, eagle eyed watching of the infection rates waiting for any jump, and conflicted personal feelings. It all shook out in the end, I suppose, (well not the vaccine stuff) but it's been a weekend of delightful stimulus funds in the bank account and lemon poppyseed bread. I am setting most of it away to go toward April's rent to avoid breaking myself every first half of the month, but I did get a new leather tote, some secondhand/like new shoes, and some fancy hand soap. Despite a snowy, terrible February, spring does appear to be going to be a thing. I was a little teary-eyed over the tiniest fingers of tulips pushing out of the ground where the sod had been cleared away along downtown streets. The ice has finally dissappeared on the ponds & harbors and I went nearly a whole week without having to wear pesky tights (though Friday was chillier and pushing it.) Normally this would be a weekend of drunken hoards in downtown bars, but hopefully it doesn't cause a spike. They did stealthily dye the river green yesterday. Even the lakefront is more open than it has been in nearly a year.
I've been doing some cleaning and plotting where to send the plague letters poems. Yesterday there werr new chapbooks to assemble and proofs to look over. I am still staring at the loveliness of FEED, and felt an enormous sense of joy placing a copy on the shelf with it's siblings. However they've come into the world, I still marvel at how I managed to have this many poems and books in me (and really, it's only the beginning.) There are still finished books I need to either submit or publish (animal, vegetable monster ,and collapsologies), mostly finished manuscripts (dark country), half finished manuscripts (automagic), and probably another couple that are bare seedlings or just little kernels turning in my brain.
This week's task is putting the final touches on the very last video for swallow and submitting what I am getting ready to go out today. A whole bunch of new cover designs. Choosing the art for the Urban Legends exhibit at the Library and some other programming bits for that. Plus the usual slogging through ILL and hoping we'll be able to hire someone eventually (though after 3 years, it seems like finding a unicorn, we were so very close last spring, but covid dropped a hiring freeze in place.)
Today, it occurred to me as I got dressed that a year ago, I was very much mentally in a different place, but also still very much the same. I am glad to be out in the world this spring, and despite a snowy squall mid-day today, the world is not long for winter neverthless.
