notes & things | 8/5/2025
This weekend was J's birthday, so much time was spent playing D&D with friends and karaoke-ing late into the night down by the river, where things were a little more packed due to the usual Saturday night fireworks at Navy Pier and the crush of Lolla-goers, who we also got caught up in when seeing the The Color Purple at the Goodman a couple nights back. It once again made me so happy the congestion of things like this no longer impact my workday commute. Instead of battling days of insane traffic on a bus navigating street closures and too many pedestrians, my commute is more like the bedroom to the dining room where my computer is set up. The only traffic may be a couple of felines in the way.
I've been mired in design writing this week and the weekend has been busy, but I am hoping to possibly finish up the poems on CLOVEN this week and maybe begin thinking about returning to something else lingering on the back burner or starting something new. I have a few ideas knocking around in my head for new poems/stories that I'd love to get down on paper (or on the screen as the case may be.) I've also been slowly making progress on the memoir-ish project, though it is slower going. I've gotten a couple more acceptances for work this past couple of weeks, including two short prose-ish pieces over at Burning House Press' ART & ANNIHILATION issue up this week. I've also been packing up the first paper & book bundles to go out for Patreon. You still have a chance to join this next week and get a copy of WILD(ISH), some fun postcards, some botanical mini-prints, and stickers sent your way. Plus all the electronic content, which includes poems/story exclusives, video poems, recordings, and the 10 Minute Poet weekly column.
This coming week, we have a couple of movies planned. We are trying to use them as incentives to actually go to the gym a couple nights a week (it's been too hot to walk the neighborhood much and I feel like a lot of my random aches and pains to benefit from some more movement.) I do occasional dance workouts, but lately have been slacking on them. J can bring a guest with his membership, so I am probably going to take advantage of the treadmills and the bikes at the very least. The elevators have been being tricky in the building and I'd rather take the stairs up three flights if I didn't get super winded when I do, so this may help that as well. Last week's film screening yield included a terrible Spanish horror movie from the 80s that was mostly softcore porn with a little violence and then Together, which was rather brilliant body horror that was far funnier than you would expect.
The weather has cooled with some Canadian air, which of course, has brought some wildfire smoke that landed Chicago at the top of the air quality badness rating. I didn't notice much from the ground, but could see how it hung like fog over the city for a couple days there when looking at the skyline.
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