Free time

Inevitably when it's been a long time between posts, I feel the need to dazzle. To make up for the delay. Not gonna happen, though: more likely I'll stall until I feel particularly brilliant and have time right then to write, which is, oh, about never.

Thanksgiving turned out very nicely, with my folks driving out all this way from Newberg just to eat with us, and Serendel peeling mounds of apples and potatoes, and rearranging her dining room to fit us all in. Now we're winding through the no-man's-land between the holiday and the return to school, no appointments or events, just poetry homework, Middle Earth and lovely chilled turkey.

Ruby and I Skype occasionally. The picture and sound quality is fair to dreadful. Sometimes she looks like a wraith filmed in Atlantis on Super 8. I am amused when technological advances play out as regressions; true, we didn't use to have picture phones, but for sound, land line calls are never as wretched as many cell phone connections. Price we pay for portability, I guess...unintelligibility.

The next two weeks are going to tear by like a hundred yard dash, I think. One final this Wed., two more next Wed. and a poetry portfolio due. And that's it--we'll be done with the semester. All new classes in January. I think I'll miss doing math and learning geology. Speech class, glad to be done with it. As for poetry, I will take the intermediate class next semester, yay! The poet Robert Wrigley, who teaches here, visited our class one day, and left me heartened--I enjoy his work; it's intelligent but accessible. If that's standard in the department I am well pleased. And have some wild hope to fit in.

Seri's neighbor down the grassy hill from us (snow's gone!) is putting up a string of Christmas lights as I watch through the venetian blinds. Festive. I am brainstorming gifts to make instead of spending nonexistent cash: should be fun! Got some inspiration from a tumblr blog called "loveliness," plus it shared this great Cezanne work:

Ah, the green world. Home. I know it's still waiting, out West.

Cthulhu and All Souls

I spent Halloween week reading H.P. Lovecraft in order to write a poem. A humorous (I hope) How-To poem assigned to the poetry class I'm in. We got to pick our own topics, and I thought this would be fun, and it was, a hoot, but required a surprising amount of research and thought. It's called "How To Survive With Your Sanity Intact Inside an H. P. Lovecraft Story." I'll email whoever would like a copy.  Oddly, I did not have arcane or eldritch dreams all week!

I think we may have found a church here! I won't say "home church" because CVP still bears that title, and because this is a relaxed little congregation that doesn't actually have memberships. You just show up. Some of the folks have been just showing up for twenty years, though. It started as a home church in Evan Wilson's home, and he is still the pastor. The Wilson clan pastor and/or have planted acres of churches in the Moscow/Pullman area, especially the patriarch, Jim. Evan's brother Doug Wilson is the most well-known of the tribe and leads a large congregation, Christchurch, which we visited but didn't feel was a good fit.

All Souls Christian Church (nondenominational) meets in an ancient slightly-heated church building downtown. We have only visited once, so I may be jumping the gun. But I don't think so.

 Oh, and that stuff on the ground? We had some today. Didn't stick, though.

 Monday, we can register for spring term classes. Wow. A new set of subjects and instructors. I'm not used to these big regular shifts in my world any more; I'm that old.  Ah, well. I shall spend a proper part of the weekend wrangling my schedule.

My new job has not actually started yet; likely next Tuesday and/or Thursday bright and early I will serve a long line of bagel-frenzied students, though. I am preparing for this new responsibility by drooling into my pillow long into the mornings when I don't have class.