notes & things | 2/13/2025
The weeks have a way of getting away from you when you find yourself trying to bear down and be productive amid a whirling mass of shit and nonsense non-strop, 24 hours a day. During all the covid lockdowns everyone kept remarking it was strange how the world could be ending and we expected / were expected to just keep going. Doing our jobs and making work and the days-to-day of grocery shopping, running errands, etc. Democracy is failing and part of it is the government but also largely greedy business interests and the spineless media. The terrible machine keeps turning and spitting out receipts I cannot function if I stay there amidst it for long lest I doomspiral into oblivion.
It does not, of course, help that it is February, and the days are still shatteringly sort and abysmally gray. Today, there was a little sunlight, and I felt a little less likely to crawl back into bed to depression nap. Yesterday, there was also snow, not a huge amount, but enough to have to be careful on the sidewalks when we went downtown for Pinter's Betrayal at the Goodman. Saturday, we drove out to Woodstock for a production of Groundhog Day: The Musical, whose soundtrack, its darker second act at least, I've been listening to on repeat since. We also got to check out the wedding site out in person after just staring intently at maps and photos when we booked it. It was a little brown and gray and nothing much now in winter, but come spring will explode in wildflowers and overhead oak cover and will be perfect by mid-June. I've also been getting all the invite details ready to print and ordering the favors. This month's purchases will be centerpiece materials, table cloths/runners and other odds and ends.
Looking at the wedding as a creative project with a timed out to-do list has helped it all feel a little less overwhelming. We are dispensing with many of the fussier things (processional, wedding party, etc) and focusing more on quick vows and ring exchange at the picnic. While it will be over by sundown since the park closes, we are having an after party with karaoke at the bar J usually hosts at downtown as well that needs to be budgeted for (probably just apps and desserts.)
In terms of actual creative projects, I started a new series of poems the other day and am already five in. They are loosely affiliated with some collages from 2023 that feel like they are begging for language. Not sure of they are ready to share, yet, but perhaps in the next month or so. I also got a nice acceptance from a journal for some of the NOLA vampire girl poems, which felt good after that last small batch of submissions from fall mostly went unnoticed or rejected.
Tomorrow is Valentine's Day, and we are headed out for dinner and our new V-Day tradition, a production of Drunk Shakespeare (last year they did Macbeth, so we are hoping for maybe something else this year--they don't choose til right before.)
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