Ghost in the machine--so no photos for this one.

I don't believe in ghosts. I do believe in machines. But something weird is happening around here lately because I have "experiencing technical difficulties" with lots of my favorite little gadgets. Here are the happenings in the last two days:

First, it's the light on the garage door opener. It stopped coming on when you open the door.
Then it's the door on the car, which gets stuck every time we've driven for the past two days.
The magnetic strip on the credit card is unreadable (okay, not a gadget, but you get the idea).
My ipod says "okay to disconnect," and that's all it does now.
The card on my camera is shot, and the excellent photos I took of the leaves this afternoon are gone.
The printer fights me with almost everything I send to it.

Is there a ghost in the machine? Probably not. But I'm counting my blessings that the heat works, our modem continues to function, and that our fridge seems to be running strong.

Sorry I couldn't share those great photos of the leaves--I'm chalking it up to an exercise in fleeting beauty.

Turkey Craft Roundup--you're invited!

Thanksgiving is only 3 weeks away. So I've got turkeys on my mind. I love turkeys. Turkey dinner, turkey art, turkey themes.  My tastes are wide-ranging, from simple hand-turkeys to Monets Les Dindons.

This year I'm starting a little flickr group called "Turkey Craft Roundup." I'd love it if you'd join! All you have to do is let the turkey-crafting mood strike you, take a picture of what you've made, and upload it to the turkey craft roundup group on flickr. Blog about your turkey, and use the Mr. Linky on this post to share what you've done.

Here are a few of the things I've made for past Thanksgivings:

Turkey placemats for the girls and for Ada's baby.  The feathers on these are actually pockets that hold a fork, knife, spoon, napkin, and a Thanksgiving note.  The girls really love eating off of these.

Turkey pom-poms, a la Martha Stewart.  Mine are a little cockeyed, but I think that's part of their turkey charm.

Hand turkey shrinky dinks, which I made into charms for the grandparents. This was a big hit.

Next up:
A skirt inspired by turkeys. Here are the fabrics I'm using.  

This project is more abstractly turkey, but I'm really loving the colors and the idea of "feathers." One night of insomnia, and this baby should be done...

What turkeys are you making?

Election reflection--

I did say a few days ago that I'm not a pundit or politico, but I do follow politics.   And this election was particularly exciting for me.    

I love that I can measure out periods of my life with elections.  Regardless of who is in office, four years is a long time, actually.   A person's life can change a great deal in the space of a Presidency, and these election cycles make me reflective of what has changed in my life since I started becoming politically aware. 

The first election that really charged up me was in 1992.   I was torn between Perot's against-the-grain, fix-it attitude, and Clinton's progressive message.  After the convention, I finally decided to get swept up in the wave of support for Clinton.   The night he won, I was so hopeful. I was 23 years old, discovering who I was myself, and now that I look back on it, I believe that a great deal of my excitement about election was also tied into the great changes I was about to make in my own life.   

The night Clinton won, my dad and I had champagne and oysters and crowed about Clinton's victory to my mom, who had voted for Bush that year (sorry for gloating mom!).   That night, woozie after the many toasts, I fell asleep with my walkman on, listening to the NPR coverage of the night.  An idealist as ever, I dreamed about how happy the Clintons and the Gores were, dancing on the stage to Fleetwood Mac's "Don't Stop Thinking About Tomorrow."   

That rosy feeling manifested itself in the weather itself the next morning--as I drove into Chicago early that post-election day, the eastern sky was flushed with the most amazing sunrise.  Stuck in traffic, I crept along the southbound Kennedy, and I felt as glowing as the glassy skyline that was drenched in pinks and golds.  

I was going downtown that day to "audition" for a model UN class, the class in which I would meet my future husband.   Retrospect is tricky, and memory is wily.  Perhaps my memories of that election are all the more poignant because of what happened immediately following it.   What I do know is this:  because of my own enthusiasm, something did change in me, and for the first time in years, I started to see real Possibility--in the world, and in my life personally.  

If a soothsayer had been in the car with me that morning, and if he had whispered to me his predictions, I would have been able to suspend my skepticism and believe. -- Yes, you will meet your perfect mate.  Yes, you will share your world with him.  And one day, in 16 years, huddled together in your darkened bed at 2am, you will celebrate the returns for an even greater election as they roll in on a tiny computer called an iphone.  

A poem for America today

It is a good morning. Here is a poem by Langston Hughes to celebrate the tomorrow that has now arrived.

I, too, sing America

I am the darker brother.

They send me to eat in the kitchen

When company comes,

But I laugh,

And eat well,

And grow strong.

Tomorrow,

I'll be at the table

When company comes.

Nobody'll dare

Say to me,

"Eat in the kitchen,"

Then.

Besides,

They'll see how beautiful I am

And be ashamed--

I, too, am America.

Celebrating election time--no punditry here

Are you tired of hearing about the election? Sick of thinking about whom to vote for? Are you ready for the coverage of our national election to end?

Lucky you. In 48 hours, the "endless" campaign will be over. 

Before then, allow me a moment to enter my little voice into the fray of opinions on the political process.


I'll say upfront that I am no pundit or politico, and my feet are firmly planted outside of any political party. True to my against-the-grain self, I am an independent. My vote has swung back and forth a few times over this election, and I'm not out to convince anyone to vote for either party or candidate.

I would however, like to tell you about why I am giddy with gratitude and excitement at electiontime. I may not wear my politics on my sleeve, but I do wear my heart there, and will tell you unabashedly that I love this country. I love that I have the opportunity to vote, to run for office, to make my positions known without fear of legal reprisal.

I so appreciate my right to vote, and the ease with which I do so. I do not have to prove that I own property, or can read, or can write. I do not have to sign an oath, or prove my racial heritage, or pretend I am not a woman. I do not have to stand in line for days. I am guaranteed my ballot is secret, entirely up to me, and I can vote for whomever I choose without fear that that vote will endanger my family's safety. I have not been paid to vote for anyone in particular, and, in fact, I can abstain from voting for whatever reason I choose (including laziness). And if I believe that my right to vote has been endangered in some way, I have recourse.



For those who do pursue that recourse, they have a larger voice than ever. The debates about voting rights for DC residents, felons, late registrants, etc--these are loud and widely covered in the media, and I am hopeful that there will be progressive decisions made for all of these soon. It is good to know that we can spot the inequities more easily now. It is a good sign of progress towards liberty for all.

As Americans, I think we often take all this for granted. We take for granted so many of our other freedoms--the freedom to live in our towns peacefully, to ride buses without fear of them blowing up, to sit in outside cafes and discuss politics without fearing an official or a thug will drag us away because of our "wrong" beliefs.

At election time, I like to be grateful for the little freedoms that I usually forget about. Passing through our daily lives, we have the rarely-noticed freedom to be concerned about the little things--finding a parking spot far from the mall entrance, encountering a grumpy clerk at the grocery store, having to stand in line for the good machines at the gym, having the same lunch two days in a row, coffee that's too hot in our cups, and bad hair days meeting us in the mirror. May everyone's worst day be filled with such worries.

We truly live in liberty, with an embarrassment of riches regarding our choices, from our candidates to our life choices. I wish you a happy election week. Celebrate it, you lucky you.

Daily posting for National Blog Posting Month

I love my little blog.  I'm confessing it now.   It's a cheap (read:free) habit, it's a mini soapbox, and it's a great way to keep me motivated and on task with all the fun projects I take on.

So I'm committing to the daily posting contest called National Blog Posting Month, or nablopomo, for short.  Basically, I'm just going to post each day on this blog for a month.   It's a good way to keep me writing daily.  Who knows, maybe next year my ambition will lead me to join NaNoWriMo, the National Novel Writing Month, which is where you commit to write a novel--yes, a real novel of 50,000 words!--during the month of November.  I've wanted to do it for awhile, but it's too hard to eke out the time for now.

So, join me if you like, or just read along.  Ideas for posts?--I've got a few, but I'd like to hear yours, too.

Lines that haunt me, part 1 of a series

Halloween is over, but I've got hauntings on my mind. 

I'm not haunted by ghosts, though.  I'm haunted by words.   Coming from songs, poems, mentors, supporters, and the occasional enemy, certain phrases linger in my mind and visit me at unexpected times.  Sometimes they are malicious, but more often they are welcome friends.   Inciting me to action, rebuking my insecurities, reminding me of time's quick clock, these lines have a great influence on me.   If one were to look at all the lines that run on a loop through my thoughts, one might even be able to do a little head-shrinking on me.  

I was talking about this with a friend the other day, and she confessed to having a particular verse stuck in her head, too.  I imagine we all have sayings that rattle around in our minds, and I'm inviting you to share yours as well.   

Because I seem to have a little collection of these, I'm going to start a series of posts on this theme.  Here are a few of the lines currently coming to call on me lately.

"Rage, rage against the dying of the light."

from "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night." Dylan Thomas

"Because the  Holy Ghost over the bent

World broods with warm breast, and ah! bright wings."

from "God's Grandeur," Gerard Manley Hopkins

"I hear the mermaids singing, each to each.

I do not think they will sing to me."

from "The Lovesong of J. Alfred Prufrock," T.S. Eliot

"I would like to be the air

that inhabits you for a moment

only. I would like to be that unnoticed

and that necessary."

from "Variations on the Word Sleep," Margaret Atwood

"And as for the me that was then, well,

she 

is lost at the bottom of the oily lake,

waiting

(for now)

for a tide."

from "Doppelganger" 

"It's so easy to laugh; it's so easy to hate.

It takes strength to be gentle and kind."

from "I Know It's Over," The Smiths

"We think by feeling. What is there to know?

I hear my being dance from ear to ear.

I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow."

from "The Waking," Theodore Roethke

"Keep going, Kirie.  Keep going."  Alan Friedman, a mentor, and author of Hermaphrodeity

"Here is little faith and the turn of the wheel.

Here is the promise to unmask mountains

and see woodlight and this tender portion

of hands gathering love and dreams."

from "Liberation," Dana Thu

"....And yet sometimes

The wheel turns of its own weight, the rusty

Pump pumps over your sweating face the clear

Water, cold so cold! you cup your hands

And gulp from them the dailiness of life."

from "Well Water," Randall Jarrell.

Okay, now it's your turn.  What lines haunt you?