An Award From A Soul Sister

Right from the start I knew I was going to like her. With a name like Menopausal Stoner what's not to like. I was sure we could just sit down and start right up like we were such old friends we had real history that got us through the worst of times and made us want to share the best of times. She's my kind of broad. Yet how is it possible she lives on Park Avenue and I live in a State more backward than Texas and not half as fun? Where's the justice in that? I'm good in New York. Everybody loves me. But here, I'm the reclusive old woman who talks politics at the grocery store. Well, make that everywhere, since I do believe that everything is political and what better place to talk about Utah's horribly regressive tax on food. Yes, really, food!! In the land of big families, and I mean really big families. Where better than standing in line at the pharmacy to talk about healthcare reform to Mormon men picking up their viagra which their insurance covers, but not the twenty something's birth control just ahead of him in line. This is how I amuse myself in the land of Zion.

So she gives me an award called the Kreativ Blogger Award. Funny to me that I spent a good part of the evening talking about my bad spelling. I've tried so hard to learn the difference between bear and bare, between bate and bait. Why can't I remember these things? I so envy those of you who just know. Oh yes, I was taught somewhere along the line, but like most things that require certain kind of memory I just keep having to have them pointed out to me. I have blamed it on a type of dyslexia, but I'm not sure that's it. I know I'm not stupid, but those little errors mar my writing.

Anyway, to get back to the award, it comes to Menopausal Stoner from Liberality. I miss you Lib. I know, it's a two way street, but I have been neglectful of all of you, so don't take my absence as anything but preoccupation. I'm rewriting and wondering if I'll ever finish writing what was, last we talked about such things, Maggy. It is now, this month, The Narcissist. Is all this rewriting making it better or just an elaborate way to avoid writing a good query letter? Is all this talking just a way to avoid making a list? Oh who knows? Maybe I need the freedom to express myself in more than 140 characters. I have become a twitter junkie. Today I passed 700. A couple of weeks ago I had 349 followers, today 700. How addictive is that for a writer. Readers who converse with me about politic and other things, but mostly politics all day long. We are tweeting things before they've been reported in news stories. I am mastering the art of the retweet. Oh yes I am. Can't spell, but I can retweet.

Back to the list of things I love, but not about people. This should be a piece of cake.
I. I love cake. Dr Zaius and I have a special bond in our love of ice cream and cake. Also he comments on my poetry now and then. I especially love chocolate cake. I love devil's food cake. I love brownies with walnuts. And I always have ice cream in my freezer. The mark of a civilized woman is a well stocked bar plus cake and ice cream.

2. My dogs are the creatures I actually talk real spoken words to most days. They seem to understand me just fine. In fact I have better conversations and receive more appropriate responses with them than I did with any of my three husbands. The dogs are more honest.

3. My little house and the big house and the great yard. Yes, I bitch about them, but I love this sanctuary in the middle of the city. It's like a forest in here and very quite. And the minimal income I get from renting the big house makes it possible for me to eat. I do not have to leave home to toil for others. Don't hate me for this freedom. I earned it the hard way.

4. I love to hear the words "Payggy! Payggy! Can you come talk to us?" These words are spoken by the four year old and her twin brother who live next door. I know they are people, but still it's the little ritual we perform to keep in touch that I'm talking about, and so is really about words, my element. I have a fence that runs between our properties and just by my deck there is a tiny gate in the fence about two feet off the ground. It's like a window in the fence. They love it, and I listen to what they say as probably no other grown up does. They tell me things that someone needs to hear. So often parents and caregivers of small children get so tired and overwhelmed and overloaded that they don't really listen all that carefully. I'm like a grandmother who lives by herself, but can be summoned for a chat.

5. Twitter. Yes, I admit it, I love twitter. I love following 15 conversations at once. I was once quite good at a cocktail party. Only on twitter it's okay to talk about politic and religion. I saw TheMom there today. It's also easy to find any kind of network you desire: writers, agents, publishers. It's so easy.

6. I love blogging, though you wouldn't really know that lately. I'm not getting around much and twitter kind of ruined my comment style. I say it fast and in as few words as possible. I miss you. But blog reading is a real commitment. Twitter is a flirtation. Does this make me shallow? Perhaps, but I think Dr. Zaius would say anyone with cake and ice cream on hand all the time can't be that shallow.

7. I love the neighborhood I live in. It's quite chic for Salt Lake City. Good restaurants, an honest-to-god Art Theater. Nice shops. Good schools.

This next part is the hard part. I would like to give this to Freida, Dr Bee, but I'm not sure if it's okay to link to her. She's a bit undercover or was last I wasn't lost in twitter land. I'd also like to give it to Lisa, but she's too busy with real life at the moment. I'd like to give it to Vigilante but I've never seen him agree to this sort of self revelation. In fact most of you men think you're too serious to engage in memes. And since I've been absent as a visiter to most of your blogs I'd need to reintroduce myself. So I think I'll take this opportunity to give this to some the saints who follow my poetry with no encouragement at all. You can't imagine how surprised to find that I have followers on my poetry site.

1. I'm betting someone else got to Randal first, but if not, it's you Randal
2. Rusticana. I'm sorry it's take me this long to let you know how much I appreciate your interest in my poetry.
3. A.J., your site is gorgeous. It's a sensual feast. I highly recommend it.
4. Jang Chub-Ozer Who inspired a poem and has two of the most extraordinarily opposite blogs. Bogus Zen is my favorite, and that is the link here.
5. Kayleigh, who is going through hell right now and might enjoy a distraction.
6.Up4More who is one very incredible writer and who shows her inner world by showing us the real drama of the day to day.
7. Daryl is an artist who defies categories. She does a bit of everything and does it all with great style. You should follow her home.
8. EizzyK gave me one of my favorite awards--Humble Scrap. I loved it's workmanlike design. It's like a shingle I'd hang over my door. It came here from Uganda. I see it here and there in my travels, so it has fared well once passed from my hands.
9. JoJo is another woman I wrote a poem for but don't know how to contact except through my poetry. I'll try to contact her there. To my knowledge, she is not a blogger.