I was saddened to hear that writer Madeleine L'Engle passed away last week. I've always loved her books, and I consider her a brilliant writer. Her work definitely transcends genre, and is worthy of attention from adult readers, as well as young people.

I think I'll dig out A Wrinkle in Time, and re-read it. Soon.

Susan's moody writer bio

Susan Slaviero writes about dismemberment, existentialist funerary images, peyote dreams, and the absence of color. Her hobbies include hunting for geoduck clams and whittling gravestones from bars of Ivory soap. She can peel an orange with her feet. She once owned a black beret.

She is currently writing her own eulogy, a fragmented narrative constructed entirely in iambic pentameter.

My crappy mood calls for.....

some moody writer photos....

I can see clearly now...

Harley is looking much happier with his snazzy new haircut (and his delightful polka-dot bandanna).

I'm hoping he'll be less mopey, now that he can see properly.


Oh! And check out my new pet. Yikes!

Blame it on the blood loss...

So I made the most of having to get bloodwork done today. (again!)

I still can't bring myself to rip off that tape. Z. saw me taking a picture of my arm, and said:

"I think you're going a little crazy with this blogging thing."

Anyway, today was my day for going a little crazy. If I have to go out to do something crappy, I like to improve the overall quality of the day and join unpleasant tasks with pleasant ones.

Besides, I had a gift certificate for Barnes and Noble in my bag.

I should never, ever, be allowed to roam free in bookstores. It's dangerous to my bank account.

Exhibit A:


I also went to Trader Joe's (which is way cooler than regular grocery shopping) and bought such awesome stuff as: TJ's organic marinara sauce, pizza bagels, and vanilla bean cake mix. (I also picked up broccoli, but that's not really awesome, is it?)

*I must add that I had every intention of buying GRE prep materials at the bookstore. However, (if you want to get Freudian about it) my id took over, and I bought a bunch of fun stuff instead. I'm blaming it on that little vial of blood taken from my arm almost an hour before book shopping...

speaking of teen angst...

Our recent discussions of YA novels and my attempts to organize the chaotic boxes of photographs in the spare room got me thinking about the influence of one's teenage years. (See above: circa 1988! Nice bangs, huh? And to think, that photo is almost twenty years old. Scary.)

Of course, these thoughts may have something to do with having a teenager in the house, too...

Do we ever really outgrow the anxieties we associate with youth?

Last night I had an anxiety dream, and (as always) it took place at school. I was taking an exam, and ran out of time. Half the test was left blank and I had to turn it in unfinished. I woke up feeling really, really stressed.

Whenever someone refers to adolescence as "the best years of your life," it makes me cringe...There must be some reason why we associate anxiety with teenagerdom. It seems contradictory that we also associate these years with being carefree.

Just an observation.

As an aside, I married the nice young man in that dance photo. We've aged a bit since 1988, yet I still have bad dreams about unfinished exams. And bad hair days.

To distract myself from studying....

Hey all. One week of classes down, fourteen or so to go. I'm already burnt out! I'm sure once graduation rolls around I'll be in this weird state of happy/sad, but right now I'm counting down the long weeks! I need a break already!

Our recent moon oddities continued last night when I looked into the sky and noticed that the moon looked as if it had quadrupled in size. I know this has something to do with water vapor magnifying the moon, but I wonder if this will impact my recent moon-induced string of bad luck. Let's hope not. I'm sure I'm in need of another card reading by the lovely Susan.

In other news, I've decided to go ahead and get that tattoo that I was talking about a couple of entries ago, and I picked a date to go get it done! And it didn't take much convincing to get my boyfriend pumped about going with me. He'll probably get another tattoo as well. He actually doesn't mind the burning pain. Let's hope I don't mind it either.....

I haven't had the chance to do much writing - quality writing, anyway - but I have managed to write a decent funny poem about Bear Grylls, who can be seen on the Discovery Channel show Man vs. Wild and in my wildest dreams. Who can't help but have a crush on a man who isn't afraid to scale the deepest crevasse of a glacier? The poem uses the words "rainslicker" and "flint" in a whole new way....

As for what I've been reading, outside of schoolwork, I've been trying to keep it light and easy. Right now I'm almost done with Twilight. Yes, the book is intended for young teenage girls, which I'm not, but my youngest sister C. is a teenage girl and she loved the book. Plus it has vampires and werewolves in it to even out all that high school angst. I actually like it, and it's refreshing compared to all of the dense art history reading I've had to do lately. I recommend it.