Still sick...

It is hard to be sick and a good mom.


It is almost impossible to be sick and a good mom and a resposible teacher.


It is absolutely impossible to be sick and a good mom and a resposible teacher and keep the house remotely clean.


But the big problem?


When will I get around to editing this book? I have to turn this draft around before Thanksgiving. Help! I need help. I need a babysitter to come and play with Mose on M/W/F so I can get to these edits. Meanwhile... I can't get off the couch to find a babysitter.


Please, Great God of Antibiotics? Please, Benevolent Zithromax? KICK IN????!!!!


**


In other news, Happy Halloween. Things are pretty scary over here.

Go to this!!!

If you live in or near Iowa, go see Sonya's amazing show, Thousand Dollar Dress.


If you do not live in Iowa, help Sonya bring it to a gallery near you. It's amazing. Political but not POLITICAL! American but not AMERICAN! Beautiful but not sacharine. True.

Please forgive...

...my long absence. Everyone in our house is sick.


It's crappy!


Tune in next week when I'll answer such thrilling questions as:


"What is Mose planning to be for Halloween?"


&


"Where is Laurel reading in San Francisco?"


In the meantime, love (and sniffles) from all of us here at the Snyder-Poma house.

Thinking...

Sorry I haven't posted much of late. I have been busy, thinking, about things.


Like about how a century from now, people will look back and ask themselves why we allowed our government to kill people. They will ask themselves, as we ask ourselves about slavery and the holocaust, "Why didn't they know it was wrong?" The answer will be, "Some people are just that evil. And many people did know, but people are lazy and selfish." And while this statement is true, some people are working hard to change the way we fund murder


I have been thinking I need to help. I have been thinking that there are many social issues where I see shades of grey, but that this issue feels black and white to me. God hates the death penalty. I know it.


I have also been thinking about poems. I have been reading Bob Hass (with my class and alone) and thinking about how we are all alone. Always alone.


And I have been thinking about magic, about how soothing it would be to worship idols and pray for rain. I have been reading Susan Cooper, and watching Rome. I have b een wanting to re-read "The Once and Future King." I wish I could meet King Arthur.


Finally, I have been thinking about clean houses, and how I don't trust people who have super-clean houses. This is beneficial to me, this instinct, as it preserves my sense of self. "Clean houses are bourgeois. Clean houses are unimaginitive. Clean houses are neurotic." They are not, of course, any of these things. But I have been thinking they are.


"People with clean houses support the death penalty."


Now, Laurel! That's fucking ridiculous!


Eh, I need to stop thinking and clean the bathroom.


***


In other news, Mose pooped three raisins.


In still other news, there will be some more news. Shortly.

Oh, and also...

THIS is my new favorite person.


I don't know her, but I caught her on NPR last week, and she is doing what I've often dreamed of doing (and would if I could sing or play guitar). Making amazing music for kids. Children's records that don't suck. My CD (the one in my head) is full of Tom T Hall's "I love" and also "After Hours" by the Velvet Underground. Not to mention the Beatles' "I Will" and "Try Not To Get Worried" from the JC Superstar soundtrack, and though my new favorite person seems to have missed ALL of those tracks, maybe she's just saving them for her next project....


I wonder if maybe she'd like to do a record of the songs from "Up and Down the Scratchy Mountains" when it comes out? I wonder if Random House would allow something like that? I don't know the rules.


At any rate, her name is Elizabeth.... Mitchell. And you should go get her CDs, and love her lots.

Portland...

This week, I left Atlanta (and Mose!!) and flew to Portland (OR) for a night, to read at PSU with Jeanine Hall Gailey, who rocked the house.


The event was generously sponsored by the school (and the superwoman known as Lori Huskey) and also by Burnside Review, and the man/machine who dreamed Burnside up, Sid Miller.


It was amazing! The students I met were a blast! (pics to come) The response to the poems was moving for me... it was great to meet some of the faculty, and to see old and new friends, and I ate and drank deliciously. All in all, Portland and PSU (as well as Burnside, duh!!!) are now at the top of my "way life should be lived" list.


And now I'm home, and I have work to do. Much work to do.


San Francisco... you're NEXT!

Pictures???

What's with the pictures?

Vanity post...

I am vain.


Just vain enough to post:


1. My new hair color (which is a little darker than my real color and will fade). I had to get rid of 8 month old highlights. I don't love it yet, but I will get used to it. I was shooting for "natural".


and


2. The beautiful calla lilies that I got in the mail this week. (Thanks, Tina... they are beee yoooo teeee full, and made my day!)


However, I am NOT vain enough to shower, brush my hair, or change out of my PJs before taking my own headshot.


Footnotes on my vanity:


* Mostly, these images are for my mom, who asks/wants to see such things, because she lives very far away. If you don't like it, too bad. My mom is way more important than you.


** Yes, Emma... that *is* your tank top I'm wearing, and yes, I *do* wear it to sleep in. Pthbbbt!

What's up, Portland???

I can't wait to meet you!


(I'm *still* reading, October 11, 7:30 on the PSU campus, Smith Center, Cascade Room 236, with Jeanine Hall Gailey!)


**


In other news, has everyone read Lynne's piece in the Times? It's about haviung babies, or not. It's sad, or not. It's lovely!

New NEWS!!!

BRUCE is now living on the internets with us! Yeah!


Bruce is one of my very most favorite people these days. Shortlisted on "Laurel's list of 20 people she'd take to a desert island if the world blew up, 2006." He's also on "Laurel's list of the 10 best things about Atlanta" along with Daddy Dz BBQ Joynt, Ludacris, Elizabeth Lenhard, and kudzu.


He has a kickass new book out. He edits a great magazine. You should get to know this kittenish badass.


Main Entry: cov·ey
Pronunciation: 'k&-vE
Function: noun
Inflected Form(s): plural coveys
Etymology: Middle English, from Anglo-French covee sitting (of hen), from cover to sit on, brood over, from Latin cubare to lie
1 : a mature bird or pair of birds with a brood of young; also : a small flock


A small flock? I'm in!


**


In other news, I'm reading in Portland (OR) next week, at PSU, with the lovely Jeannine Hall Gailey , thanks to the amazing fellows at Burnside Review, who set the reading up. They're reprinting Daphne & Jim (we ran the run out) for the occasion, and this may be the very last D&J reading, so if you're in the neighborhood, stop on by!


October 11, 7:30 on the PSU campus, Smith Center, Cascade Room 236


Mose isn't coming, and though I'll miss him like hell, I'm looking forward to a night of debauchery, and a breakfast of quiet. Join me?

Interesting tidbit...

I was talking to a friend the other day, before Yom Kippur began, but *just* before...


And she said, "Oh, shit! I need to call my landlord before the holiday starts."


And I asked , "Oh, is it an emergency?" Thinking that her kitchen floor was flooding and she feared not getting it fixed until sundown last night.


"No," she said, but then went on to explain.


It would seem that a coworker had let her in on secret, a NY secret... that if your landlord is an observant Jew, the days of awe are a good time to hit him up for "extras". Like new fixtures, or whatever...


It seems the secret is out. Jews have a hard time saying no during the days of awe.


Has anyone else ever heard of this trend? Non-Jews taking advantage of the gushy/apologetic nature of Jews during the holidays?


(It should be added that my friend did NOT take advantage, but said... "Oh, what the hell. He's a nice guy. I'll ask him next week.")


**


In other news, it was a rough day here. Not sure I'll fast fully if ever I'm nursing during YK again. I think I should have allowed myself water. I got pretty sick.


In still other news, Dave (the dog) bit Mose (the baby) yesterday. It was scary. He's okay, but we need to re-organize the movements of the animals in our zoo.


And finally, my dad writes in to tell me that the rabbis have been arguing about my apology question, since the days of the Babylonian talmud (well, of course they have!). I'm going to read up on this one.


xoL

Yom Kippur...

I am thinking about a few things today, in preparation for Yom Kippur.


Firstly, I am cleaning my house, a kind of apology to my private little environment, for all the mess and neglect.


Secondly, I am (as I do this) getting rid of all our toxic cleansers, most immediately inspired by Mose's need to lick every surface, but also because I've been resisting all my greenie-enviro friends for years, and am ready to atone for my stubbornness, admit that they're right. Y'see, I read an article in my National Geographic, and my mom-poets listserve has been talking about these matters... so today I'm apologizing to the earth too...


Thirdly, I want to ask a question about the YK apology process-- What do you do if you want to apologize to someone, but the apology will hurt them? Like, what if it involves revealing a secret, or bringing up a painful subject? Should people apologize during the days of awe, even when it will do further harm? And if not, then how to atone fully?


"I'm so sorry I didn't tell you there was toilet paper attached to your foot when you ame out of the bathroom last night, and now everyone is laughing at you. And OOH! Now I'm sorry I hurt your feelings by telling you that."


Fourthly, I want to say that I have been having a hard time thinking of things to apologize for. NOT becasue I don't hurt people and make mistakes all the damn time, but becasue as I've gotten older, I've fallen in love with apologizing.


It's so great, the apology! A clean slate... yours for the asking. So I tend to ask for forgiveness all the damn time. I call people regularly to say things like, "When you came over today, and you were talking, but I interrupted you... I shouldn't have done that. I'm sorry."


Which is not a bad thing to do! But it has me feeling a little lost about apologies this week...


Finally, I wrote this essay, a Yom Kippur piece for Killing the Buddha, a number of years ago. I still like it, and wanted to link it, in case you've been wanting to hear more about the vidui.