Tuesday, January 29, 2008

today ...

... i've been called crazy (in a good way. i think.), wonderful, lovely, (very nice), supportive, fun, a super trainer, the best. i've been hugged. someone made me laugh at 06.40 a.m. and my lovely students, the group i'd been teaching for 8 weeks, gave me this:


flowers from andreas, renate, robert, reinhard, henry, regina, dariusz, franz, birgit, johanna, nadine, martha, irene, karin.

i was/am not as sad as i often am on the last day, because i will see half of my students again next monday when english III starts, so i will see them again for another eight weeks. it was absolutely touching to see how happy they were when they heard they could all join my next class! :)

and happy birthday to my friend and colleague nathan! :)

song of the day: you ain't seen nothing yet by bachman turner overdrive.

Monday, January 28, 2008

(chap)books are piling up ...

... in casa michi! in the mail today: jayne pupek's Forms of Intercession; jared michael wahlgren's chariots of flame; steve mueske's Whatever the Story Requires. now all i need is time ...

apart from weekends being a) too short, b) filled with work, c) incredibly stormy and rainy, they also sometimes start with a trip to the dentist. had to go friday evening, because one of the teeth that had caused problems a couple of years ago was definitely not alright. things are made difficult by my dodgy, tight root canals, and the doctor said that if what she tried on friday won't work ... well, it might have to come out. and my teeth don't just "come out". my teeth need to be dug out. torn out. drilled out. i don't even want to think about the agony i went through a couple of years ago. enough to last me a lifetime!

nine hours in class today, pretty much non-stop. two groups. we watched an episode of blackadder this morning, and monty python's quest for the holy grail, and we listened to monty python songs. it's my last day with that group tomorrow. :(

little miss m is knackered and will watch grey's anatomy now.

song of the day: running for our lives by marianne faithfull.

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

it's 7 a.m.

... and i have already smiled five times, and laughed twice. :)

thanks to simone muench who chose my poem beta from the secret meanings of greek letters as poem of the week over at sharkforum.org!

song of the day: steven smith by the organ.

Tuesday, January 22, 2008

full

click to enlarge this full, round beauty:








ps: gooooood news re work yesterday! i will be teaching english at least 21 hours per week most of the year, at the place where i am working now. (same company i used to teach computer classes for from early 2004 to end of 2006. and yes, they pay.) one weight off my shoulders. i will also be teaching two MS word classes on two march/april weekends for the adult education centre where i teach my thursday evening english class; could have had more classes, but it would all have been too much. february will be crazy, teaching between 34.5 and 42.5 hours per week! and then there's prep work, too ... but i will manage. and i may not be young, but i still need the money! :)

song of the day: spellbound by siouxsie & the banshees.

Sunday, January 20, 2008

one toothbrush in the tooth mug looks lonely

so do i buy another one to keep it company, or will that only make it worse? would that make me a sad person like the people who buy relaxing music for their cats or dogs (i am not kidding you, i thought i had misread when i first saw them in a store yesterday)? is it normal to write down lines from an episode of men in trees, because it feels as if marin were talking about me? how do you get used to being single? how do you know whether you like it or not? how do i come to terms with the fact that i am totally disappointed in the man i was very much in love with, by how he handles (or does not handle) the situation now? do i worry about myself because i switch off my mobile when i get home, and don't switch it on at all on a saturday? am i hiding behind work? can one night stands be an option when you miss sex but are making lists of what consequences they might have, what further complications they might bring? how do i stop asking questions, especially since i can't even have red wine to go with them?

apart from obviously thinking too much, i have been working - my morning class is really going well; i only have seven more days with this group, and i know i will miss them. it's been fun. i have also started to teach some afternoons - over the next 10 weeks or so i will have 7 different groups of people who only work from spring until fall (people working in catering, outdoor pools, etc). i have had a first lesson (4 hrs) with two of the groups, the first is quite okay, apart from the inevitable sexist jokes you get in classes of mostly men; but they seem to want to learn. the second group is very different: many of the students are absolute beginners because they come from mongolia, croatia, iraq, etc while some of them are quite good and are pissed off about having to take these classes (they are not just doing english, but different training modules), and one woman actually got mad and told me to "finally leave [her] alone with this!" i talked to her and two others trying to work out a solution where everybody gets some of what they want - them, the weaker students, and me. this week will be tough - 5 mornings, 3 afternoons, 1 evening. wish me luck.

medication: i was on 1.5 sertralin for a while longer than planned, because the pills really made/make me feel sick, and i didn't want to increase dosage on those two long teaching days. so instead of wednesday, yesterday was the first day i took 2. of course i have been feeling nauseous, and my stomach seems pretty upset. i don't feel like eating most of the time. blah.

i've been playing scrabulous quite a bit and hope they won't really have to shut it down (copyright stuff). i'm also spending way too much time on facebook.

i've also printed out, cut and folded 100 copies of my poem Open Letter to A Poet for dancing girl press' love letter project, and i have finally sent out all those copies of my chapbox that i still owed people.

and i continue to be very impressed with simone muench's orange girl. if you would like a copy, you can order one from dancing girl press.

thanks again to the one and only nic-olé for her music mixes. that's where today's song of the day comes from.


song of the day: ruby blue by roisin murphy.

Friday, January 18, 2008

two cds and another chapbook!

what could be nicer than coming home on a friday afternoon - a bit tired and braindead after this week, especially the 9.5 hrs of teaching yesterday - to find nic-mail in the mailbox?! yes, that means the wait is over and i have got ms nicole cartwright-denison's recovering the body in my hands, plus i will soon have "her" music in my ears. thanks, sweetness!

song of the day: portions for foxes by rilo kiley.

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

two chapbooks

in exchange for my chapbox, i received two chapbooks that are rich in vitamins: simone muench's orange girl, and cati porter's small fruit songs. i got cati's book today and have not started reading yet, and i only had time to read the first poem in simone's book - but i already know i am going to love it. how can you not love a book whose opening lines are:

master wear a mask when you break out the leather
the whip's encounter loosens the back to plumage

this might be the kind of collection that makes me sit down and write again.

another song of the day: roads by portishead.