summer, bok choy, and books........

I've been spending an awful lot of time at the computer lately--what with building the website for blossombones, writing, and virtual book shopping. (I'm an amazon.com addict--I admit it. Perhaps the first step is admitting you have a problem. Today, my son came home from camp, took one look at the dining room table, and said "Another box from amazon??? What did you get this time?")

There has been precious little time to enjoy the summer weather. (Okay, I've also been hiding from the cicadas---Ick!)

Yesterday really felt like summer to me. We had to drive out to UIC for a doctor's appointment (no--that's not the summery part!), and afterwards Mike and Zach and I stopped at Mario's on Taylor street for italian ice. We haven't done that in the longest time! I must remember to get out more. I love those little unexpected good moments in the middle of a very long day. . .And before you ask, I had lemon ice, of course! (Is there any other worthwhile flavor? Mike would argue for watermelon, but I would have to disagree.)

Today, I am back indoors, cleaning out the refrigerator. I have decided there is nothing more disgusting than finding a bag of liquefied parsley in the vegetable drawer. I am also wondering: what exactly did I intend to do with the giant head of bok choy I found in there?

As I am mentally exhausted this week, and in dire need of brain candy, I'm currently reading Twelve Sharp by Janet Evanovich. Very funny.

Oh, Darwin....

Oh, Darwin. You crazy old kook.

While looking up some information about the lovely Field Museum downtown, which I've been dying to go to lately, I found this article. Apparently the museum has a new exhibit about Charles Darwin and his feelings about marriage. If you read the article, Darwin basically does exactly what Ross did on Friends - he makes a 'pros'/'cons' list about having a wife. Now, I suppose that Darwin's list could easily apply to husbands, but I can't help but feel sorry for his poor wife. Well, technically wife/cousin. Which is gross. Ew. I mean come on Charlie, "better than a dog, anyhow"? That's one of those almost-complements that really isn't very complementary. It's pretty terrible actually, and it makes me wonder if his wife ever saw her hubby's list. "Oh, well as long as I'm better than a dog"....

And let's hope that I'm interpreting the "slave" comment the wrong way. Eeek.

Reconnections, Peter Griffin, and blossombones news!

So this past weekend I ended up reconnecting with my best friend from high school. I hadn't seen him or really talked with him for at least a couple of years, and I thought that would be weird, but really sometimes weird is good. Mostly seeing him again was weird because of how not weird it was....which probably doesn't make sense to anyone outside of my own head, but that's okay. I usually only make sense to myself anyway. Well, my friend and I hung out at two of our former haunts - Caribou, a coffee place where he and I would hang out on pretty much a daily basis, and the very posh town White Castle, where he and I would drink milk shakes til 4 in the morning sometimes. I told my sisters before he came to pick me up last Friday that I seriously felt like I was going back in time: old friends, old hang-outs, writing crappy teenage poetry for most of the day, teenage-caliber acne (it's been a stressful week, and I look like me at 14 rather than 22)....Then, I proceeded to be very Peter Griffin (for those of you who watch Family Guy) and indicate this time-travel by spinning in circles in the middle of the living room.

Life is really funny sometimes. Mostly because I have no problem making an ass out of myself doing random Peter Griffin things.

In blossombones news, I am a busy bee designing some very kickass handouts and bookmarks to pass out at a reading that Susan and I will be attending this Saturday. Once I finish those, I'll scan the finished products in and post them up here for all to see on our blog! Be sure to spread the word about us!

New feature: links to sites.....

Hi all!

I thought it might be a good idea to actually link to the online journal from the blog. (essential, really!)

At any rate, a link to the blossombones site is now up in the sidebar of the blossombones blog.

I hope to add more cool links to the list soon!

I'm a dork, but I found some really cool stuff....

So I spent the better part of today flipping through some old photo albums that belonged to my grandmother, just looking for a few random vintage photos to scan and use in a few art projects for the blossombones site. What started out as a casual thing turned out to be such a great experience. I found too many amazing photos to post here - so many in fact that I ended up writing six poems and am considering doing some kind of a series connecting poems with the photos. Here are just a few of the best ones that I found:


I'm pretty sure that this is a photo of my grandmother and one of her friends. I love this one because you can see how close these women are. Plus I just love their dresses!
I instantly loved this photo of my grandmother dressed up and waiting at the airport.
This is a photo of my grandmother and my mom when she was a little girl, and it's probably my favorite picture of all time. I love my mom's funny face, but I also think my grandmother's expression is so sweet.

At first glance, this is just a random picture of some cats chasing each other, but when I found out that my mom took this when she was a little girl it meant so much more. If there's one thing that everyone knows about my mom it's that she loves animals. She's the type of person who will pull a U-ie in a busy intersection to scoop up stray dogs. When I saw this picture I thought it was so cool to see that her love of animals started early. I just think this picture is so cute, and it makes my mom even more of a real person. Not that she's not real, duh, but it was neat for me to think about her running around after cats as a little girl.

This was a really dorky entry. Oh well, I'm just glad that I found some inspiration somewhere. It's not everyday that I can crank out six poems that are actually pretty decent. After some editing I might have myself a little mini-series of sorts. Plus I'll have some more art for the site, which I'm sure will be much appreciated!!! The site looks so amazing already thanks to Susan's hard work, so all of you should go check it out! And submit too!

My turn: blogging on BITCH

Having read Melissa's previous commentary on the latest issue of BITCH, I have to put my two cents in, as well. (I haven't seen the movie 300, and having read both the article and Melissa's comments, I don't intend to bother. . .)

What really got my feminist dander up was the article on America's Next Top Model.

In the article entitled "Evil Dead: Feminist bloggers bring the hammer down on Top Model necrophilia," Jennifer Pozner writes of how the "models" were given an assignment to pose as dead girls--more specifically, as victims of violent crimes. The "poses" consisted of women "splayed out in cold concrete corridors, back alleys, and bathtubs, their faux-bloodied, lifeless limbs positioned provocatively" (Pozner 14).

Ugh. When is mass media/popular culture going to stop glamorizing violence against women? I'm not going to get super-annoying and start quoting the statistics on violent crimes against women (and children, too--especially young girls). All you really need to do is turn on the news. You'll see what I'm talking about.

This kind of thing makes me just a tad sick to my stomach.

Violence against women (even when it's staged and labeled "art") is not erotic. It's not sexy.

It's horrible.

Again, thanks BITCH, for calling foul on ANTM. I'm going to renew my subscription. Like, today.

my current reading list = creepy and more creepy....

Like Susan, I usually like to read at least a few books at once. In my head, it's kind of like being able to change the channel on the TV during commercial breaks so that you can watch more than one show.

This week, I'm reading two books that are pretty twisted:

1) Dolls , a very creepy collection of prose poems by Tom Whalen. You can probably tell what the poems are about by the title. The poems in this chapbook are pretty different from the poems you could typically find me reading, but I absolutely love the idea behind the collection. And for someone who tormented her little sister with dolls (sorry!), the idea of dolls coming to life is one that hits close to home. I really enjoyed the more sinister poems (a doll cuts out the eyes of her owner in one of the creepiest!), but I loved some of the more poignant ones as well (especially "Woman and Dolls" and "Four Visitations"). All in all, I would highly reccommend Tom Whalen's work if you like something that is thematically interesting, a little unconventional, and pretty twisted. Also, the cover art is fantastic!

2) Haunted, by Chuck Palahniuk. For anyone who has never read this collection of stories, I have to warn you, keep a chuck-bucket nearby. Though I've only made it through the first story in the collection, the infamous "Guts", this story left me feeling light-headed and absolutely sick to my stomach. I'm not sure whether that's a good or a bad thing, but I have to give Chuck some serious credit. It's not often that I read something and feel such strong physical discomfort, so you know that the writing is phenomenal. I'll have to update the blog when I finish the rest of the book. I'm just hoping that there isn't anything too puke-inducing in any of the other stories....