As a child and young woman I rebelled against routine in all its manifestations. I hated to get up at any particular hour, especially early ones. I hated regimens and protocols. I was far too free of a spirit for such rules. But the thing about routines is that they Read more…
I decided to take today off from major activity. My back and hamstrings were sore in an angry way. It is hard to quantify how I can feel the movement in good ways, too, though. Because I can feel my sore abs, I engage them more when I turn to Read more…
I’m sick right now. I haven’t been sick in ages and so this head cold feels apocalyptic. I have been trying to get a new job, and my trying seems to be going nowhere. My current job is getting me out of debt, and my second job is getting me Read more…
The Other Walk: Essays By Sven Birkerts Birkerts’ collection of essays, The Other Walk, is a compendium of acts of contemplation and the digressions of the mind. Just reading it has inspired the last couple of posts here on Roaming Cowgirl, where I have allowed a memory or an associative Read more…
Since Sunday evening, I’ve been in residence at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown MA, thanks to a generous scholarship. My class this week is being taught by Joanne Dugan and it’s called “The Photograph and The Word: Showing what you can’t always see.” I’ve been inspired by the Read more…
First of all, I have several to-be-read stacks. There are two shelves in the bedroom, both over full (and that doesn’t count the poetry books above them, mixed in with the ones I have read, that I need to read, like Richard Siken’s Crush and that Mary Ruefle and Natalie Read more…
Oh man. Oh man. So, today, I started the morning off with bird walk led by Chip Blake of Orion magazine, followed by a delightful breakfast among kindred writers, then a lecture about human population from Alan Weisman. And THEN I had a vulture essay workshopped with Jane Brox and Read more…
On a June morning in 2006, weighing in at what was fighting weight at the time, I woke up at 4 am, put on a one-piece swimsuit with a padded butt, ate a whole wheat muffin with peanut butter (and half of a banana), and drove myself to Decker Lake Read more…
First of all, I was originally invited to participate in this grand round robin by the gracious and tenacious Kelly Sundberg. However, the chain unraveled upstream from her (as these chains are wont to do). But I decided to participate anyway because I liked the questions. I liked the idea Read more…
Have you watched Bad Writing yet? I watched it on my phone over a couple of days recently (I think I may have missed some of the “big screen” nuances, but I was impatient) and there’s a scene where Vernon is talking with Brenda Shaughnessy about social media. She makes Read more…