Dick Cavett on Depression and ... Socks!

First of all, it's hard to get back from vacation. I'm certainly back in body, but my mind doesn't seem to be completely cooperating. This could take a while.

Second, a friend sent me a great hilarious column from the NY Times, Dick Cavett commenting on depression (ick) and socks (funny) and also (I do not lie) on finding humor "there" as well as can be expected. I love the idea of a depressed person somehow pulling his socks up and just getting over it all -- boy, I wish that had worked for me. Sure be cheaper than doctors and drugs (and phone bills to friends, the poor patient wonderful friends).

I don't think I have a photo of a depressed person pulling her socks up to post, but I do have a great picture of my daughter with her outrageous socks pulled all the way up -- definitely not depressed. She's still in Montana and I miss her a lot a lot. So, here's her picture. (You have to look closely to see the socks. She's sitting on a dead tree stump in the middle of a geyser crater in Yellowstone Nat'l Park. I don't know why she hikes in knee socks. What a great gal.) If you click on the photo you can see a close up of her beautiful face and socks.

Laundry from the Road

In Livingston Montana I spotted this laundromat, Off the Cuff. There are many many many of these wonderful homespun laundrys in all these smaller towns. I saw one somewhere else (Wyoming?) called The Missing Sock. I wish I'd started taking photos of them sooner. Still on vacation but home again this weekend.

On Vacation

Bye for now -- a funny thing about vacations -- I still do as much laundry when I'm away from home as I do all the time -- I need less soap in Tahoe (softer water) -- wonder what the water is like in Montana. (Montana Ghost Towns Photography)

Totally Nuts about Knitting!

You will not believe this (whoever you are) -- my favorite knitting store, Jimmy Beans Wool -- in Truckee -- has a whole collection of knitting YouTube videos! OMG they are spectacular -- colorful, friendly, funny, heartwarming and footwarming and lapwarming, too! Check them out. They also have a great blog. Link below in my "We Blog Alike" list.

Closet Auditing?

I had to post this -- not very academic or intellectual -- but definitely about laundry. Urban Darling is a website that FaceBook advertised on my site -- I think it's absolutely hysterical but also very interesting and I like the idea of a Closet Audit -- maybe that's the regulatory compliance side of my personality (shhh -- don't tell anyone!). This is their photo. I like the yellow ducky bathrobe. Excellent!

Photos from National Geographic

National Geographic's recent issue had this great photo of two girls taking off their coats and letting them fly into the oncoming storm -- I located the photo on their website, but I'm sure I'm not sure I'm supposed to post it here -- so go to National Geographic and look at all their terrific stuff!!

One poem forward, two poems back

So, I heard today that maybe my thesis prospectus is not good enough yet -- I think they are probably right, I am all over the place, not focused enough, and I didn't really try hard enough in those areas before I submitted it. Can't always fly by the seat of your pants, no matter how smart your pants are.

It's been suggested that I focus on Eavan Boland's poetry, still taking a look at domestic imagery. Does she qualify as an American Poet? She didn't even raise her kids here -- will I let that stop me? What can I find in Boland that will start me up? Here is Poets.org's bio of Boland. It's not a great photo, but it's a start. This is a link to a lovely poem "Pomegranate" about how Boland can find herself in both halves of the Persephone/Ceres myth -- any daughter who is now a mother of a daughter can imagine herself here -- Boland has done it with a Coke can. This is Norton's site, her publisher, and links to her books and other goodies. They also have this photo, which is much better.

Here's a poem, "It's A Woman's World" and criticism of the poem. Maybe I'll be okay in her company. (And because blogspot will not let me put in the line breaks, I do not know why, you have to go to another site to see them -- or better yet, buy the book --)

It's a Woman's World

Our way of life

has hardly changed

since a wheel first

whetted a knife.

Maybe flame

burns more greedily

and wheels are steadier,

but we're the same:

we milestone

our lives

with oversights,

living by the lights

of the loaf left

by the cash register,

the washing powder

paid for and wrapped,

the wash left wet:

like most historic peoples

we are defined

by what we forget

and what we never will be:

star-gazers,

fire-eaters.

It's our alibi

for all time:

as far as history goes

we were never

on the scene of the crime.

When the king's head

gored its basket,

grim harvest,

we were gristing bread

or getting the recipe

for a good soup.

It's still the same:

our windows

moth our children

to the flame

of hearth not history.

And still no page

scores the low music

of our outrage.

Appearances reassure:

that woman there,

craned to

the starry mystery,

is merely getting a breath

of evening air.

While this one here,

her mouth a burning plume -

she's no fire-eater,

just my frosty neighbour

coming home.