Category: To Occupy my Time

Poetry Reading at Shut Up and Eat

My friend C. came to town to participate in an open poetry reading and I got to accompany her. The location was the restaurant Shut Up and Eat.  I had a very good fried egg sandwich on a biscuit and settled back to hear some poetry.

David Cooke came to read his poems and also show his poetry boxes he has for sale.  He also read the poem “the New Colossus,” a poem which I have memorized.  For unknown reasons, he left off the last line.

I had this guy pegged as a poet even when he was standing in line for food.  He had the bulging notebook and taut mannerisms that pointed to a lot of thoughtful writing time.  Before everyone got started, he flipped through his notebook, reading this and that.  He also knew David Cooke left off the last line of “the New Colossus.”  What he did not do was read any poetry aloud.  Odd.

My friend going over her poem.  This picture also includes my phone, and the post-it note where I wrote down the bus transit times.

Another woman was taking pictures for a write-up of the event .

Reading.

This woman was the organizer.  She read also.

Listening.

A bevy of poems to choose from.

My friend’s poem went over well, and I enjoyed it.  I also enjoyed several other poems read aloud.  It was a great way to spend an evening.

REI Co-op Member #2

I don’t read the obituaries on a regular basis, but at times I’ll skim them.  What I have been doing for years, is match the birthdates of the current people listed in the obits with people in my life.  For many years, the people dying had birth years similar to my grandparents, 1908 and 1912.*  It’s now incredibly rare to find someone who was born in 1912, and the 1908 people have been out of the running for some time now.  Now I mostly find people my parents age, or my own age.

But here!  Mary Anderson!  Only one year younger than my grandfather, and three years older than my grandmother. What an exciting find!  As was the news that she was member #2 in the REI co-op.  My co-op number is much higher than hers.

*My other grandparents were born in 1898 and 1900, but by the time I started playing this game, everyone their age was more-or-less dead.

New Cap

In the 80s, when I swam on a summer swim team, the only caps available were made out of latex.  They were hard to get on by yourself because the latex would pull your hair. Putting them on involved two people.  I would hold the edge of the cap to my forehead and someone else would stretch the cap backward over my head.  They would hold it while I shoved my hair into the cap.  Then they could let the cap go.

The caps were prone to ripping, which meant you never bought just one, because you had to always have one on hand.  The best part about them was that they would stretch a lot in the water.  Sometimes at the end of a swim meet we would jump in the pool and carefully stretch the cap out in the water until we could put one of the younger swim team members inside.

Now they have invited silicone swim caps.  Which are much better in every way but stretching to small-child size.  They don’t stick to your hair and they last forever.  My cap that just broke lasted for years.  (Granted, not all of those were swimming years, but it didn’t even break down like the latex ones would.)

So welcome to the new cap.  And thank you, new cap, for showing me how to properly treat you through graphics and Engrish.

I am owsam

One of the fun things about being an “expert” at The Emerson School, is the thank you note that arrives in the mail after your informative talk.I was tasked with discussing why we use pickling salt instead of normal salt when pickling.  I imparted that knowledge (additives such as anti-caking agents and/or iodine cloud the liquid and can discolor the items being pickled) and assisted the class in making refrigerator pickles.  For my troubles, I got this very owsam thank you note.

Of note in Vanity Fair March 2017

Among the things I learned about the Director of the FBI, James Comey, is that he is very tall.  So much so that this picture of him and Attorney General Loretta Lynch had me very confused.  It turned out they were both standing, but I wasn’t sure on first viewing.

From a very interesting article of interviews about 1967 and the radical change in women’s fashion comes this great quote from Grace Slick about how someone is always standing on the outside of women’s fashion.  In this case, women who didn’t have straight hair. (Also, that’s a not-very-nice comment about Janis Joplin)

And this picture of Judy Collins taken during the photo shoot for her album Wildflowers.  I find her upper lip hair to be very prominent in this picture.  In looking images of the album cover online, that seems not to be as much of the case, but possibly because the images are smaller.

Grand Lodge passport page stamped

It’s Cosmic Tripster Round Two!  We have pledged to take five years to finish this time, getting our final stamp sometime in 2021.

Today’s task was to visit Grand Lodge to get all their stamps.  We’ve stayed at Grand Lodge before (40th Birthday Vacation) and I love it.  They’ve recently renovated the Attic and opened more rooms, which I was excited to see.

Here’s the background of how the new rooms came to be named after books.  The Lavender Lady (the ghost immortalized in paint on the second floor) had a hand in the naming.

I loved these quiet nooks and crannies, perfect for curling up and reading.

The hallways are dark and cavernous, which is fun too.

All the hotel locations give you a clue and then you must go find the McMenamins thing (usually a painting or photograph).  Once found, you take a picture, then show the picture to the front desk and collect your stamp.

This month’s clue stumped us:

A quiet space, no place to go
Softly lit by the mushroom’s glow
No place to sit, not a toad stool in view
Come find me, find me all of you

(This clue is even better when read in a dramatic fashion.)

Most of the clues aren’t terribly hard.  This one was.  We started at the top and worked our way down to the bottom and nothing jumped out as the answer.  I took a second look at the clue and decided it must be on the third floor, because the rooms were new and they wanted people to know about them, hence the “come find me” repetition. So back up we went.

Two more trips the length of the hallway and we hadn’t found what we were looking for.  Thank goodness we overheard a kid say to his dad, “and here’s the other secret room…”

Secret room!!!!!!!!!!

The walls move!  There is a secret stairwell!

The stairwell is Lord of the Rings-themed and lit with blacklight.

In this terrible picture, Matt poses with Gollum, who is painted on the door that comes out on the second floor.

Okay!  That was very cool.  But it didn’t fit our clue.  From the kid’s “other” comment we knew there was a second secret room.  But we had to find it.  It was tough.  We walked up and down the hallway, pushing on the walls.

And we found it!

This was a small closet, painted with mushrooms.   It was very cool.
Having found what we were looking for we collected our last stamp and our prize.  We both chose the grab bags and were rewarded with a growler cozy, a wine glass and two postcards.This was a very fun passport page to complete.  Thanks, Grand Lodge.