That was a mind-boggler!

I showed the pieces that I'm planning on entering in the Random House contest to my cousins after dinner. They immediately latched onto something that I'd not noticed before -- I use the word "I" frequently in my verses. In fact, in about 5500 words, I'd used it 287 times. This worked out to about 9 times per page, which wouldn't be bad if it was prose and the lines went right across the page. Instead, it's poetry, so I did a replace on it and made it bold, italic, underlined, and a font size larger so that I can't miss them on the page.

Now the work begins!

Social life

Well, I have three whole days of ... in a row!

So today I'm having lunch with Nina. Tomorrow I'm having dinner with my cousins. And Wednesday ... I'll see what happens.

Meanwhile, I've been working on my Random House project. I have over six thousand words of poetry to submit (the limit is eight thousand), but I'm getting scared now.
1. What if it's considered old-fashioned? I write mostly sonnets and sestinas with the occasional villanelle thrown in for good measure. I've done some blank verse pieces and syllabics. My unstructured pieces are in the minority, though.
2. What if they find it trite and unimaginative? It's hard to tell if it's good enough, when I'm looking at my own stuff. I know what I was trying to achieve. I know how far short I fell.
3. What if they don't like it? 'Nuff said.

This was what I meant by my resolution to live life more fully; take chances on these things because I'll never know unless I send it in. So ... back to work!

Oh, and 4. I'll keep working on some prose pieces to enter over the next couple of years.

Full moon

This morning, as I was walking, I felt humbled by the beauty of the full moon and delicacy of the stars. They made me feel so small and insignificant. Well ... I am, comparatively speaking, but it just hit me in a way I'd not felt before.

I wish I had a better vocabulary so that I could express the awe that they inspired in me.

No course this winter

I've decided that I won't be going back to Uof T until the spring semester, because if I miss more than two classes, I lose the credit.

My job, however, has given me ideas for a story / novel, made up of scenes with customers. Not like "Clerks", because that's more from a young person's viewpoint. Maybe it won't work but I'll have fun with it. Of course, I could also do it as a series of poems, which might be even better.

I have hot water!

It seems that one of the gentlemen who installed my furnace on Tuesday, must have jostled the settings on the water heater.

See you later, folks. I'm off for a long, hot soak ... with bubbles, no less!

New Year's Day

Well, the first of my New Year's resolutions for this year is to be happier than last year. Shouldn't be difficult. Another one is to live life more fully -- again, not difficult. My third, and last, is to wear jewellery more often.

Alex was *very* affectionate while the furnace was out. It wasn't too bad, actually, because I had two space heaters (one borrowed from the furnace people) to keep the pipes from freezing. It was comfortable enough when I was moving around.

The new furnace is chugging along beautifully but, yesterday, the hot water heater was giving me tepid water at the very hottest! I was concerned about this until I realised that the temperature dial was about knee height. It's possible that one of the gentlemen installing my new furnace brushed against it and changed the setting accidentally. Now I'll have to keep him out of the furnace room ... just in case.

New Year's Eve

Yesterday, I finally got the new furnace installed, after eight days with no heat.

On the night before Christmas Eve, we'd had a lot of snow. Then, during the day on the 24th, it started to rain. I'd already got the driveway cleared and then the plow went by -- twice. I was digging out from that before it had a chance to freeze when, around the corner came a young man (late teens, maybe) running with a shovel in his hand. He knew me from my work at the convenience store but hadn't realised I lived so close. He wouldn't accept any payment for his help.

He also told me about the local people with snowblowers clearing the sidewalks. I had initially been impressed by the speed with which our sidewalks were cleared -- except that the 'walls' of snow were neatly cut verticals, not pushed clumps like a sidewalk plow would do. Turns out, there's a blind woman in the neighbourhood who likes to go for walks. I'd seen her a couple of times in the summer. Each owner of a snowblower clears the sidewalk as far as the next house with a snowblower, so that she can get around without difficulty. These are the kind of people who live in my new neighbourhood.

At the convenience store, I'm continually impressed by the young people who get change back and immediately ask where our "charity box" is.

Now, I'm off to bed, so that I can be alert for work tonight. It should prove interesting.

I wish all of my readers (both of you) the best for 2009, with love from the Sonneteer.

Well, so much for that idea ...

I had hoped to put down about half of what my ex gave me on the house but, now, I'm glad I held onto it for the moment.

Monday night, I realised that my furnace had died. I wasn't able to get through to the people who schedule the technicians until late Tuesday morning. Wednesday (Christmas Eve), the technician came. He hasn't seen one of these furnaces for about fifteen years. Apparently, it was on borrowed time. Tuesday afternoon I shopped for a new furnace. There was a possibility that I could have had it installed today, but they would have been here by eight if it was happening today ... so I guess it's tomorrow. That's okay, too, because I still have some large boxes to move before the installers get here.

Unfortunately, because of all the kafuffle involved with the furnace on Wednesday, I was awake during the day and unable to attend my planned holiday celebrations in the evening before going to work. I needed to sleep instead.

Yesterday, I went to see my Godkids and give them their gifts. They are so wonderful and I love them all so much. They gave me a lovely scarf in blues and greens. It's long and thin, so it can be folded widthwise and still be long enough to pull the ends through the loop -- as is the current fashion.

So, here I sit at my computer, huddled in my duvet, eating the last of my latest tortiere experiments. I have a heater going in the 'furnace' room, to keep the pipes from freezing in the two bathrooms and laundry room. Upstairs, I have the oven on with the door open while I'm here, but turn it off before I go out.

All in all, not a great week, but the visit with the kids more than made up for everything else.

Alex has discovered phone cords

Alex keeps cutting off my conversations by playing with the phone cords. Hmm. This could be a hint.

Started work

So much has changed.

1) My writing course is amazingly interesting. It's being taught by Margaret Christakos, a poet who lives in Toronto. She's very good.

Last week, we did a session on sounds, and our homework involved looking for alliteration in newspaper headlines and advertising. This week we did one exercise which involved writing in the dark, and another one with coloured pencils.

2) Monday, I started working at a 7-Eleven around the corner from me.

Pluses:
- I won't have to use the car to get to work.
- I've requested the overnight shift, which will allow me to take courses whenever I want without having to negotiate a different time off each term.
- It will be an income!

Minuses:
- I'm starting at minimum wage, which isn't great, but better than nothing.
- I'm starting off as part time, but hope to work up to full time soon, because I could really use the benefits.

3) The new man in my life was having some problems with blood in his stools. After a couple of tries, I think we've finally figured out the problem; the food I was giving him appears to have been too harsh for his digestive system. He's now on prescription food. Good thing I've got work now.