i'll write you a post card, part 2.

Just because it's too good not to share.

(thank you britannie, my always kindred in all things)

AMERICAN SONNET

We do not speak like Petrarch or wear a hat like Spenser
and it is not fourteen lines
like furrows in a small, carefully plowed field

but the picture postcard, a poem on vacation,
that forces us to sing our songs in little rooms
or pour our sentiments into measuring cups.

We write on the back of a waterfall or lake,
adding to the view a caption as conventional
as an Elizabethan woman's heliocentric eyes.

We locate an adjective for weather.
We announce that we are having a wonderful time.
We express the wish that you were here

and hide the wish that we were where you are,
walking back from the mailbox, your head lowered
as you read and turn the thin message in your hands.

A slice of this faraway place, a width of white beach,
a piazza or carved spires of a cathedral
will pierce the familiar place where you remain,

and you will toss on the table this reversible display;
a few square inches of where we have strayed
and a compression of what we feel.
-Billy Collins

How i love billy collins and postcards..

i'll write you a postcard. i'll send you the news

Yesterday after work I swung by the used bookstore and much to my surprise there were all kinds of tables set up outside. I thought they were all book tables but on the north side of the door there was a man sitting watching over two tables full of shoe box sized boxes all stuffed with vintage post cards. I fell in love immediately. I was stuck there in that spot thumbing through post cards for over an hour. I would have stayed longer, if I could have. The man selling them was one of the most awesome collectors I have ever met. He offered me a beer, and when I declined thankfully, he offered a diet Pepsi.. And as I opened the diet Pepsi he gave me a "cheers". We were already such good friends. I think I ended up buying twenty something post cards.. Here are a few of my favorites: (the pictures are bad and wont do them justice.. but thats ok)

adorable:


Got this one for my brother. The date on it is 1905.


I'll probably frame this one (love the colors):


Got this one for my Pa'


This one was post marked Paris July 6, 1920 the writing on the back is obviously from a red cross nurse writing to say she is about to come home and how the journey across the sea, back home, will take about three weeks...



What is more romantic that post cards... i ask you? I think I will start collecting them..

Red Box!

So, Liz kinda pokes fun at me because I pretty much visit this daily...


But, as I was telling Liz today, I kind of justify watching a ton of movies all the time by counting it as research. After all, this is my career choice, so I actually should be watching lots of movies, right? 3 or more trips to the red box a week.. that ain't a crime, is it?

Besides, I miss a lot of amazing movies in the theatres. I need Red Box. Here are just a few of the amazing movies I have gotten from a red box lately.

There Will Be Blood. Daniel Day Lewis. Daniel Day Lewis. Daniel Day Lewis!! I should for sure be studying him! Such an amazing actor..


I really respect Natalie Portman. I might go so far as to say that she is my hero in some ways.. I kind of wish I had her career.. kind of a lot. I mean, The Darjeeling Ltd, Paris je'taime.. arg.. I want to make those movies. This one was pretty good too.


Umm, the Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford is one of the best and most beautifully done films I have seen in a long time. I think Casey Affleck has grown into one of the best actors out there today.. He seriously floored me with his performance in this film.. he should be studied. Pitt was awesome as well, as was everyone. Every freaking actor in this movie was amazing..


See, all off these great movies for $1 out of a red box!

(Maybe Liz is right though, maybe I should invest in Netflicks)

I am ready...

Really cant get enough of this:


Ohhh and:

I'm a big fan, turns out.

All of the babies can feel the world, that's why they cry..

I never get the flu. I never get the flu. I never get the flu.

This week... I got the flu.

I learned that, when it comes to the flu, I am such a baby.. when I got really sick in the middle of the night I really wanted to walk down the hall to my mom's room and wake her up make her take care of me.
(Side note: waking up my mom in the middle of the night is always really really funny because she jumps about 10 miles every time. I always get scared that she's scared and repeat as many times as fast as i can,'it's ok, it's me, it's ok, it's me.. (repeated)' and then I laugh really hard because, gosh, her face is just so awesome...
Then I realized that my mom and that hallway were something like 600 miles away.. being a grown up sucks sometimes.

On the other hand, I am surprised by how many people have stepped in and have been really great at taking care of me. People have made me feel so good, I almost want to get the flu more often to relish the sick friend benifits..

Ehh, no.. I take that back. The flu sucks.

I got the flu while I was at home this weekend.. my family had it.. but this made it totally worth it:



Meeting little Avery for the first time is worth a googleplex of flu days..

While you were....

So, i was thinking about something...

6 years ago when my mom was getting married to Tyler.. i was in Grover's Corners getting married to George Gibbs.. (sorry i couldn't be there ma)


3 years ago when my brother got married in Jamaica and my whole family spent a week there.. i was in El Salvador (sorry i couldn't be there Pablo)


Last night when little Avery was born, I was in ancient Greece, well, Corinth to be exact.. trying to talk Medea out of murdering her own children..
(sorry i couldn't be there little Avery-girl)

Sometimes, i feel far, far away...

But i am so glad that she is here. The lady of the hour. Miss Avery Hale.

8 lbs and 10 oz. And I reaffirm what I knew before... my sister Mindy is a superhero.. i know that she is my hero, anyway.

Jackpot!!

Oh boy O boy!!! Lookie what I found today!!

Eeeee! This made my whole day! I have always loved me some fats domino. This was like today's special treat... to me. I had no idea this existed!

A few of my favorites include:
I'm Walkin - Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers
My Blue Heaven - Norah Jones
It Keeps Rainin' - Robert Plant with Lil' Band o' Gold
I Want to Walk You Home - Paul McCartney and Allen Toussaint
I Hear You Knockin' - Willie Nelson
I'm In Love Again/All By Myself - Bonnie Raitt and Jon Cleary

And more.. more.. more...