I am leaving tomorrow morning for a long weekend in New Hampshire, far from school and papers and parents and, yes, the Internet.

It has been a very hard couple of weeks for a lot of Buffistas. Before I go, I wanted to post this poem for everyone who would really like nothing more than for their life to be a little more ordinary. Hope from me to you that one like this comes along for you all soon.

Poem: "Ordinary Life," by Barbara Crooker, from Ordinary Life (By Line Press)

This was a day when nothing happened,
the children went off to school
without a murmur, remembering
their books, lunches, gloves.
All morning, the baby and I built block stacks
in the squares of light on the floor.
And lunch blended into naptime,
I cleaned out kitchen cupboards,
one of those jobs that never gets done,
then sat in a circle of sunlight
and drank ginger tea,
watched the birds at the feeder
jostle over lunch's little scraps.
A pheasant strutted from the hedgerow,
preened and flashed his jeweled head.
Now a chicken roasts in the pan,
and the children return,
the murmur of their stories dappling the air.
I peel carrots and potatoes without paring my thumb.
We listen together for your wheels on the drive.
Grace before bread.
And at the table, actual conversation,
no bickering or pokes.
And then, the drift into homework.
The baby goes to his cars, drives them
along the sofa's ridges and hills.
Leaning by the counter, we steal a long slow kiss,
tasting of coffee and cream.
The chicken's diminished to skin & skeleton,
the moon to a comma, a sliver of white,
but this has been a day of grace
in the dead of winter,
the hard cold knuckle of the year,
a day that unwrapped itself
like an unexpected gift,
and the stars turn on,
order themselves
into the winter night.

LAistas:

I'm going to be in LA for the weekend of my birthday, from November 12 to 15. If you're going to be around then and want to hang, send me an email, hillaryre AT gmail DOT com. I think I'd like to try to get together a bunch of people for dinner or something on the 13th, if people are free then.

Tom and I are just back from 5 beautiful days in Vermont, where, on Tuesday, October 5, we became man and wife, woman and husband.

So. Very. Happy.

(and tired)

No pictures yet, but we do have a website with a FAQ and a guest book, and we can let people know when there are pictures up - we need to drop some film off to be developed, but the wedding photographer is sending a CD of the rough prints along with the proofs, probably next week.

Tom and Nora's Wedding Site

The first wedding pictures are up. In black and white.

Turns out it's open-house weekend here in NYC.

[link]

(I NEVER manage to notice this until the day of)

Call my answering service at 212 560-7306 if you want to meet me and go to some of these.

I am SO going to the little red lighthouse.

Remember this?

Asking for industrial strength jobma.

I'm in the middle of the interviewing/testing process to have a temp gig through April that will consist of me driving to a chain of auto parts store locations, installing new computers, and training the counter staff in their use. (A company vehicle, cell phone and credt card, even.)

I have passed a phone interview, faxed forms, FedExed personality test and background check so far. F2F or phone job interviews are next week, followed by [if hired] training that might take place in Raleigh, NC.

As many crossed fingers and toes as possible, thank you.

The F2F interview was put off, and I will be having it not in Raleigh but here in Minnesota, 20 miles away. training may or may not be in Raleigh.

Tomorrow, Wednesday morning, 9am CST.

Please direct any job and self-confidence ~ma you can spare towards me, if you can.

A big thank you for the stability ~ma directed at my friend around the bend. He's doing much better...daily group, apparent med compliance and a healthier/safer sense of self. Now it is just a life-time of management.

Again, thanks for the good thoughts.

Thanks for the Job~ma folks.

Interview went well, when I got home, they had a message waiting on my machine, and....

wait for it....

I have to be interviewed by someone else *next* Wednesday.

Frell.

Stay tuned to the next chapter.

This interviewing thing is all well and good, but it doesn't pay the mortgage.

I would appreciate any spare ~ma you guys have lying around today around 11 am. i'm going to the hospital to have another round of ultrasounds done to see if the cysts in my uterus have grown to determine which kind of surgery they will do on me.