Tempted

To look back. 2006 was a funny as in weird year for me. I was entirely too busy, didn't write enough (or submit hardly at all), & it flew by.

In January, I read at the Poetry Project's New Year's Day Marathon, despite a raging fever. I vaguely remember pronouncing that 2006 would be the year of Kip Winger. (Beats me.)

In February, I went to Maine and got snowed in a few extra days. Perfect. Also, I read at the Poetry Project again, with Rachel Blau DuPlessis & really, in my opinion, choked. I was entirely nervous. Physically trembling. I don't know why that one was so bad. Even though reading at the Project has always been a "big deal" for me as a NY School devotee, that was my *third* time. Actually, I do know why. I'd had a particularly rough couple of weeks, & read mostly new work, which turned out to be too raw/unready. But I also went to Harvard with Jen (again) & that was a ball.

In March, I went back to Austin for the first time since I moved away in 1995. I was almost totally distracted from the AWP swirl, and hardly spent any time with people I could have been seeing at the conference, feeling compelled to revisit old haunts. It was very strange the way the city had changed in ten years, & how everything seemed smaller than I remembered it, except the UT campus, which remained the same. There was no one to visit, but I did have several excellent tacos, & it was pretty cool to give a reading there for the first time ever (entirely too shy when I lived there). My panel at the conference went well, but after three years in a row, I decided not to bother in 2007.

In April, Maureen's NaPoWriMo party inspired me to begin the For Girls series (which I'm gonna put out as a bookish thing later this year). I also read in Philly with Conrad, for his book launch party. I'll never forget looking out at more than one hundred of his friends' faces packed into the balcony at Robin's.

In May, I took a letterpress class at the Center for Book Arts, & fell head over heels. From the first day I began plotting how to get the necessary two tons of equipment into a Brooklyn apartment.

In June, not much, except we visited the region of NJ we'll soon be calling home for the first time, & realized what leaving NYC could mean.

In July, we went to Montana. I saw a real live wild bear. & a moose. & a bunch of other critters. I gave up everything that comes in plastic bottles.

In August, we went to Maine again. As usual, we never wanted to leave. I finally finished laying out the anthology (started in February) & got all the proofs to the contributors.

In September, we hunted for jobs in Maine. No luck. There's just not much to do there, & we didn't want to risk an out-of-state move on just my freelancing. Also went back to the letterpress studio for more practice. & printed the first edition of A Slice of Cherry Pie.

In October, Ivy & I released the cherries. My mom came to visit. I read with Mike Magee for Segue. & with Conrad & Buck Downs in Baltimore. The first printing of my book sold out. All fun.

In November, the book was reprinted. We went back to Jersey & decided for sure. A tiny Thanksgiving at our house with little sis & a few other dears. I suddenly wrote a bunch of new poems. Read in Ithaca (it's gorge-ous).

In December, more trips to Jersey, one to Texas, my birthday, Christmas, New Year's. Mostly packing, showing the apartment.

Oh, & I read some terrific books. Guess I'll start this year's list now, & link it to the sidebar icon.