Sunday, September 17, 2006

goodbye holidays

sunny morning. i should try and enjoy the day, as it is the end of my holidays. back to work tomorrow. no more turning night time into day, no more sleeping in. but of course, i do need the money, especially since last week's class was cancelled. but i am a bit angry with myself for not making more of the two weeks i had since we came back to vienna. i have not finished putting together the manuscripts, nor is my inbox cleared (ha!!!). i have not been clothes shopping (i really haven't been in a mood for shopping this year), and i have not been out with friends much. i spent too much time surfing the web. but i have been writing, poems and emails and holiday reports. i have started working on manuscripts, i spent time reading, all holiday pics are edited. and the first english lessons for october are prepared.

it's day 8 for me at the 30/30 forum. so far, all poems except one are part of the periodic table series - and believe me, i'm learning a lot about chemistry through research. i used to abhor the stuff at school. (what i remember most vividly about chemistry lessons, is the one time when our teacher, a small, round woman, found one of my male classmates, then about 16, reading a novel that was part of the "denise" series - girlie romance novels. she started to investigate and, by the end of the lesson, had collected over half a dozen of those books. somehow, the boys lost their tough guy image for a while.) most poems are also ekphrastic; i seem to have a thing for kandinsky these days.

vii.01 - into the fire
vii.02 - scandium - in the blue
vii.03 - sodium - after paradise
vii.04 - magnesium - an abandoned woman considers alchemy
vii.05 - radium - a day in the life of marie c.
vii.06 - lithium - counter/gravitation
vii.07 - helium - being helios
vii.08 - Gallium - Le coq est mort
the official note has not been sent out yet, but the new tattoo highway looks finished to me, except the bio page. my poem Exit Centre Stage got a honourable mention in the a picture worth 500 words contest - as did arlene's Cat Woman.

acceptance note from eclectica - the secret meaning of greek letters: iota was written for their word challenge and will be published in the next issue. arlene and cheryl will be sharing zine space with me.

i am collaborating with a) arlene and b) nate for a challenge at ITWS. and yes, they consented. own free will and all that. never mind the gun i pointed at their heads.

song of the day: plug in baby by muse

9 comments:

Merc said...

Bravo on your hits, Michi.
Best,
Sylvia

Liz said...

Yipee on all your great successes, Michi. Just off to have a read.

Post-Holiday blues is creeping up on me too as half-back to work tomorrow but it's not the whole hog till mid-Oct. Have been browsing easyjet and Aer Lingus to get excited about planning the next get-away... :)it is definitely helping :)

Liz

michi said...

thanks sylvia!

liz, thank you too. ah the next getaway here won't be for a while. i don't get paid holidays like my husband, and i just lost 550 € because that class was cancelled. also, it's uncertain how much i will be teaching in december, so i cannot really spend any money on travelling. sigh. and i had sooooo hoped for a long weekend in london or so, in oct/nov. sigh.

lorguru said...

You know I'm loving your new series. It sounds to me like you did plenty in the past two weeks.
I'm sorry your holiday has to end, but I think you spent it quite wisely. I'm glad you enjoyed your travels and relaxation.

sam of the ten thousand things said...

Congratulations Michi for your work-- especially "the secret meaning of greek letters: iota".

SarahJane said...

congrats on the eclectica acceptance! that's great (as is the tattoo highway poem, which i read about at arlene's). Your 30:30 is going so well.
smile

Collin Kelley said...

Wow...you are so busy. I've been enjoying reading about your holiday adventure. Loved those benches with the poems on them. Cool stuff.

Arlene said...

hey, belated congrats!!! can't wait for the eclectica issue.

hah. inboxes are doomed never to be cleared, mannish. i've got a scary 3mb only in the inbox... a total of all mailboxes amounts to 32 mb the last time i peeked.

just to make you turn slightly green, i was spectacular in chemistry. **preening**
had a strange knack (and fetish) for balancing equations. the chem teacher couldn't believe it... because, you see, i sucked in everything else.

a.

Sharon Hurlbut said...

Congrats on the acceptance and publication, Michi!!! I hope your week is improving as you adjust back to regular life. I always find it disappointing to come home from vacation and realize I have to do all those little daily things like wash dishes, do laundry, clean house, cook dinner. There's a clarity when you're on holiday and can attend only to your soul that I hate to leave behind.