fall asleep with the window open

The hosteas outside my front door are adorned with small, yellow leaves, looking as if they are blooming, the rain won't stop coming down and for the first time this fall, I put on my smartwools and drank a Shipyard Pumpkinhead Ale. It was fabulous.

After dropping off my sister (late as usual) early this morning, I made it in to work. What's that Van Morrison song? my mama told me there'd be days like this? It wasn't a truly horrible day, since there were some bright spots in between all of the meetings and general craziness. But it wasn't a good one. So here I sit. Reading my book for class tomorrow night which I am most certainly not excited about, and being a little bit lonely because it's just me and the cats. And listening to some kind of depressing Bob Dylan.

But. I do have some fun things. Like independent bookstores and how much fun they are. I had to visit Micawber's Booksellers in St. Paul for class just to get a sense of the indie feel. And I loved it. For all of you bookish people out there - they had handwritten recommendations that you knew were by Hans or Jen or whoever had hand-selected this book to be a recommendation. I bought two of them. And since it's not SO overwhelming, like Barnes and Noble, I actually got to peruse the entire store in about a half hour. I feel like that is a place I would go back to.

The other fun thing? Independent publishers like Milkweed Editions and Graywolf. Support them if you can because it is worth it. I may not like this professor very much, but I am certainly appreciating books more than I did. It takes a LOT of effort, especially if you are an unknown to get things published. So support and you will see.

And on that note - I got to meet one such author at a reading last Thursday and it was fantastic. Except my mom was disappointed that I did not use my Norwegian to thank him. Since he was Norwegian. I was too busy trying to not look like a goggly-eyed idiot when he was signing my book.

Saturday night was spent at Electric Arc Radio, which is put on by some Hamline graduates and it is fantastic. October 13th the musical guest is Storyhill, so anyone who wants to go should. It's like a new Prairie Home Companion. Ask me if you want to know more/go with me.

Sunday was the launch party for rock, paper, scissors, and I was stunned at the amount of people that turned out and at how well the magazine itself turned out. It's beautiful! I can't believe that all the work we did actually is done and that it is a finished product now.

And the Shipyard Pumpkin Ale. Fantastic. I promise it is worth the $7.95 for the six pack.

I'll be heading up to Fargo/Moorhead this weekend and hopefully running into some of you fantastic people that I miss. Because we all have news and things that we're doing that we don't share enough.

My lofty goals for the evening? In no particular order:

1. Clean our kitchen floor
2. Do a couple of loads of laundry
3. Practice my violin (might be too late for that)
4. Drink a cup of tea and take a hot bath
5. Read the rest of my book... (maybe that should be first)

Quote o' the day (yes, MORE Robert Frost):

"Happiness makes up in height for what it lacks in length." - Robert Frost