Monday gives me hives

Actually I'm feeling pretty healthy today, which is surprising after last night.

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Life is pretty manageable right now. I continue to write 9 line poems. Major sadness hasn't been an issue but I still like my music sad.

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Weekend came and went, though technically, Monday is still the weekend for me. Beers with friends (Hannah, Mandy, Steve). Simon & Garfunkel singalong (or so I'm told). Somewhere in there Hannah purchased way too much malt liquor so I woke up Sunday morning to a kitchen full of OE 800 forties and 24 oz. cans of Hamm's. I wondered if I did or said anything stupid, as I sometimes do when drunk. (Example, when I get drunk with Hannah and her sister, I always end up hitting on her sister. I'm harmless, but totally fucking embarrassing. That said I haven't seen Hannah's sister in over a year, and I only hit on my publishers these days, though Dean and I haven't kissed yet.)

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My mother showed up at my door yesterday morning with a box of Hunan chicken. I was in my underwear drinking a beer. Mom seemed distressed by my hair of the dogness, but I was unfazed. Later she called me and suggested that I give up beer for Lent. And I said "Mom! I'm not even Catholic!" She said, "Yes you are." Catholicism is a cultural thing--the actual religion part, the stuff about loving Jesus and His Dad isn't as important as identifying oneself as a Catholic, and if applicable, a Mexican, and taking part in certain rituals and owning certain items. Hence, Lent, rosaries, images of the Virgen de Guadalupe.

And I'm all like, "I can't give up booze for Lent! I have AWP to go to." AWP is where I go to "work on my poetry career." Sandra Simonds and I often discuss our poetry careers and all the contests I'm not entering and the journals I'm not submitting to. The best thing for one's poetry career is pain. Lots of pain. Liquor. Pills. A spot of blood on the wall.

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My bicycle is on top of my front porch loveseat. I used to have an old ratty couch bequeathed by a former lover. I sat on it often. It was falling apart. I wrote a short story about it that won a contest. I spent the money on food, mostly.

Now I have curtains bequeathed by a former lover. Talking with J the other day, I discovered that I have a fascination with women who are a) mean or b) crazy or c) both. We didn't manage to delve any deeper than that. Speaking of J, Julia is coming down next weekend for a visit. She'll get to sleep on my new fancy couch. She will also put her feet up on my new fancy ottoman.

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I cleaned out the house pretty thoroughly this weekend. I found a lot of photos I haven't looked at in months or years. I have one particularly disturbing photo of 3Legged Cat involving a Prince Albert and a clothes iron.

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For dinner tonight: neua nam tok. That's right, beef salad. I really do eat Thai food nearly every day.

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Anyone want to publish some of my 9 line poems?

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Enjoying my new celibacy. No, wait. No I'm not.