Captured, really. I was sitting there, in a tree mind you, and it landed on my open notebook. So quick as you like, I snapped it shut and this is what I found when I opened it!

I've been feeling a little less funky in the past few days than I have in perhaps the past few years. I've been a little more creative and wrote, finally, my spring poem. I am still unhappy with winter, but winter was never my favorite anyway.

I would like any critiques you have to offer!

On another note, I graduate in... two weeks today. Who is happy about this? ME!

Happy Spring everyone! Celebrate by skipping through the park or kissing the nearest attractive stranger!

I know fully and well that there are a ton of journals and deviations and such that I have yet to respond to. I will get to them, AFTER I get back from Spring Break. WOOOO NO COMPUTER!

My mother is okay. I was absolutely terrified that the symptom of what turned out to be rather benign was in fact a symptom of something quite fatal. No words can really express to you how completely, heart wrenchingly, sickeningly worried I was not being able even to hug her, nor how amazingly, beautifully, completely relieved and comforted I am now knowing that she is well. All is well. I am going to go cry into my pillow out of sheer and utter relief.

Have you talked to your mother lately?

Happy International Day of Love and Kissy Faces!

[link]

That's for you! No... no I really didn't take the picture... or caption it... but I have love for you! <3 Love for everyone!

MELINDA MAE

Have you heard of Melinda Mae,
Who ate a monstrous whale?
She thought she could,
She said she would,
So she started in right at the tail.

And everyone said, "You're much too small,"
But that didn't bother Melinda at all.
She took little bites and she chewed very slow,
Just like a good girl should...

...And in eighty-nine years she ate that whale
Because she said she would!



This one is by Shel Silverstein and one that I feel applies very much to my life at the moment. I will get there.

For my going away dinner, we went to the Pancake Parlour (endemic to Australia, I believe). Very yummy pancakes and good times playing with over-sized chess pieces.

As we were leaving, we stopped by Borders, as our troup of bibliophiles is wont to do. Mary, ma petite soeur, asked me to help her choose a book and I suggested Shel Silverstein's "Where the Sidewalk Ends." Much to my unending delight, she took it home and gobbled up the pages one by one.

Shel Silverstein is one of my favourite poets of all time. My California Papa (I have a lot of grandfathers and sometimes they get strange names) gifted me my first book of Silverstein poetry, for my birthday in 1992. Well that's 16 years ago (yesterday) and I was 7 and loved every bit of it, but love it more now. I feel that his work is very poignant to readers of all ages, and going over his work again at my age (23, I got older again) I feel that I am discovering new things to love about his poems. Listening to Mary read them almost brought me to tears, the good kind that remind me of my dreams, my hopes... and most importantly, my loves.

I hope you've read a Shel Silverstein in your life, or maybe another good poem. We all need at least one to hold onto. And if you haven't, well let me offer you this:

INVITATION

If you are a dreamer, come in,
If you are a dreamer, a wisher, a liar,
A hope-er, a pray-er, a magic bean buyer...
If you're a pretender, come sit by my fire
For we have some flax-golden tales to spin.
Come in!
Come in!

~ Shel Silverstein

(You know, there really needs to be a nostalgic mood option.)