These Boots are Made for Working

Have you ever noticed how when you're wearing the right boots, your mind becomes focused and your work flows? I'm doing a Christmas card and these boots are my advance.

In the store it took me forever to get my feet into these boots. Then I struggled with the zippers for five minutes. "You're not supposed to zip them up," explained the boot lady. "At least not more than halfway. Ever."

To Be Continued

from Clementine in the City by Jessie Hartland

from Clementine in the City by Jessie Hartland

David Hockney Diet Plan

There's a David Hockney poster in last Sunday's Chronicle. Pull it out. Tape it onto the cabinet that holds all your chips and cookies and chocolate. The poster is big, so you'll have to tape it over both doors.

In order to get to a piece of dark chocolate with cherries and almonds, you'll have to untape one side of the poster with your right hand and hold the poster up with that same hand while you open one of the cabinet doors with the other hand. Then you'll have to open the tin box with your left hand, extract your treat, and close the box, close the door, and re-tape the poster. You can't do this too many times because if you do, being only newsprint, the poster will start to tear where you keep taping and untaping it.

Beachfront Condo Development

Field Trip

My Pal Foot-Foot by Jud Bergeron  (This Foot-Foot pile is about 4 feet high.)

more by Jud Bergeron

I took a field trip to the Mark Wolfe Contemporary Art Gallery. Here's my review: Jud Bergeron and Scott Patt are great. Jud gave a presentation for kids last Saturday afternoon but I didn't get to go.

It's Better Than OK by Scott Patt  I love this guy's work.

The World's Greatest Everything by Scott Patt

Cold.

TIAPOS

TIAPOS is the name of my awe-inspiring writing group. TIAPOS stands for This Is A Piece Of Shit. You're not allowed to make disparaging comments about your work before you read, although you can say "tiapos" quickly if you'd like.

Tonight there were only seven of us. Sarah was cooking, Doug was eating, Randy was sick. (We missed you.)

Party Mix

from a very spooky Halloween counting book.

Stumbled Upon Some Dollars

I didn't steal any.

Katie just got back from a 5-day meditation retreat with Thich Nhat Hanh. She came over this afternoon for tea.

She told about how this 87-year old man would lead them on walks in the morning. They would begin around 5:45 when it was still dark. The stars would still be out.

Get this: One thousand people showed up for the retreat, and one thousand people would follow this man up the hill. While they were walking the sun would come up and by the time they returned to the center, it was light.

I told Tom all this later, as he and I were walking on the beach. "Katie said Thich Nhat Hanh is known for his walking meditations," I explained. "He says to walk as if you're kissing the Earth with your feet."

"But 5:45 … before breakfast? I'd be meditating on breakfast throughout the whole walk!"

"Me too," I admitted. "But I'm sure soon as they got back, he would cook breakfast for everybody."

"Bacon and eggs!"

That's Tom for you. But back to Katie: Relaxed and beautiful. In the photo she's showing me a photo of the hill where they walked.

Shiny Jacket

Spotted in the NEW BOOKS section today: Somehow a book seems more real when it's wearing a shiny library jacket.

Jane Hirshfield's fizzy water.

Jane Hirshfield and Kay Ryan both were reading poetry at this Litquake event: Poetry and Science: A Shared Exploration. It's not easy navigating to the UCSF Mission Bay Campus from the Outer Richmond, especially if you were born with no sense of direction. But it was so worth it!

By the time I got there they wouldn't let me in. They said the fire marshall would only allow 150 people in the auditorium. I was the 151st. So my name went to the top of a waiting list.

I stood behind the velvet rope and watched the first 150 people help themselves to wine and cheese crackers. Needless to say I was absolutely starving. Thirsty, too.

After 30 tense minutes they let 50 more of us into the auditorium if we promised to sit up front on the floor, and up the sides against the wall--and if we made sure to leave space for people to exit swiftly in case of an emergency. So I sprinted right past the food table and raced down to the front row and sat on a step by a chair on the aisle. JANE HIRSHFIELD said to me, "Sit here!" She removed her bags and briefcase from the chair on the aisle.

I said, "Are you ... Are you sure?" She said, "Yes, I'm sitting HERE," and pointed across the aisle where oh my god all the other poets were slouching against the wall. There were men poets, too, but I don't remember their names.

Halfway through the program, the woman sitting next to me said, "Are you good friends with Jane Hirshfield?" I said, "Pardon?" She said "Are you and Jane Hirshfield good friends?" I said, "No! Not at all!"

I thought Jane looked a tiny bit like Janis Joplin. The whole thing did feel kind of like a rock concert. Kay, on the other hand, looked like my Uncle Joe. Jane was the epitome of kind and Kay was the epitome of cool (and fun).

Once the program started Jane sat up on the stage, as did the other poets and scientists. She had left a bottle of fizzy lime-flavored water by my chair, so I took it home. I'm going to take it to my writing group next Thursday and pass it around. We'll each take a sip from it and then write a poem.

Jane Hirshfield and Kay Ryan