| Thursday: David came over after
dinner and made a salad (with lettuce, basil, oregano and snowpeas he'd
just picked out of the garden, with store-bought red bells and carrots)
while I made a new pasta dish for dinner. I hardly ever cook, but when I
do, it always turns out fine. This dish had green beans and snowpeas
(again, from the garden) along with carrots in a ricotta sauce. We added
some purple basil, which gave it a zing. I think I actually like cooking
*with* someone else - and David's good at modifying recipes like that,
which makes it more interesting than blindly following a recipe. Anyhow,
it was a very good and filling meal. Then David went home and I went to
an open mic poetry night in Berkeley, where I met my friend Byron. Byron
convinced me to read, so I read Country
Schoolyard, which is about the sweetest, nothing-at-all-sexual-in-it
poem I have. I've always been rather fond of this poem, but for some
reason shied from reading it - not "mouthy" enough for a slam, you know.
But it turned out to be such a little gem! I was nervous at first,
stumbling over words, taking deep breaths and trying to calm down. By
mid-way through, I was into it, and by the time I got to sing, "Mamma had
a baby and it's head popped off!" I was enjoying full audience response -
laughter, sighs, ohs. I love it when the audience listens like that. Of
course, they were a good audience, and everyone got such courtesy, but
they seemed to really like my poem. That last line was really fun to
deliver, my "every silver lining has a cloud" sort of trademark. It was
good to talk to Byron afterwards. He and I shared some of our fears about
our writing lives, and I ended up feeling not so alone. He's a good
friend. | | |
| Hung out with David both Friday
night and Saturday day. We did our usual garden maintenance. David is
very impressed with my blue and white columbine which has started to bloom
among the red-velvet snapdragons. It is a very impressive, dainty
flower's
flower, if you know what I mean. I love the little tasseled bonnets they
seem to wear. The snapdragons are doing well, too. They were running
along the ground, but now new stems have started from these, and the
garden is becoming lush. Ah. I also transplanted my flower seedlings
into
the raised bed, spacing them out and adding other, bigger, stronger cosmos
and four o'clocks to fill it out. David made a border from cement
"rocks", so it's looking nice. The tomatoes are starting to get
waist-level, and the Early Girl has one, tiny green fruit started on it.
Yippee! We're still eating snowpeas (obviously) and David complimented me
on selecting that crop. The basil's so big we're making pesto this week,
and the lettuce keeps getting bushier everytime we pick it back. The
peppers, I decided, needed special care. They're heat lovers, you know.
I bought floating row covers - thin white cheescloth-like fabric you drape
over your veggies to keep them warm (while they still get light and
water). David fashioned hoops out of coathangers, and we staked it down
over that. Our peppers look like they're camping out in the garden. I
don't care what secrets they plot out down there, as long as they come out
big and healthy. Kids - they need their privacy too. | |
| Saturday Night: I went out to
dinner with Rebecca and Cornman (her David, but for clarification we'll go
with his nickname). It was cool, I was craving Ethiopian, and they
suggested it before I could! I love being on the same wavelength as my
friends. I ended up hanging out and talking to them into the wee hours of
the night. I had a great time, and we seem to have a lot in common, which
would explain why we made such fast friends. I'm sure you'll be hearing
more about them. | |
