Poems of Love

April 9, 2012Walkie Talkie Book Club Leave a comment

Last night I was browsing the internet for unique wedding gifts, especially literary wedding gifts, and I was reminded of this great poem. The poem was made famous to me by the book and movie “In Her Shoes,” and I found a tiny dish that has the final words stamped on it: “i carry your heart.” The dish holds a ceramic heart and will be perfect for wedding rings by the sink or special mementos on the dresser.

Needless to say, the dish has been purchased and now a book of love poems will go along with it…

Here’s the inspiration:

[i carry your heart with me(i carry it in]

BY E. E. CUMMINGS

The photographer's wedding ring and its heart-shaped shadow in a dictionary. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

i carry your heart with me(i carry it in

my heart)i am never without it(anywhere

i go you go,my dear;and whatever is done

by only me is your doing,my darling)

i fear

no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)i want

no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true)

and it’s you are whatever a moon has always meant

and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows

(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud

and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows

higher than soul can hope or mind can hide)

and this is the wonder that’s keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)

Another poet I was introduced to through movies was Pablo Neruda. I love the movie “Il Postino,” even more everytime I see it. I remember in the early days of the internet that I found a great site dedicated to his poetry and translations and I loved it. (Do you remember those early days of discovering all you could on the internet? As a reader of the encyclopedia set we had at home, this internet exploring was nirvana!)

I didn’t have a favorite poem at that time and I will have to spend some more time with his works before I can pick one, but here is one that I found today that is great. Enjoy.

Always

I am not jealous
of what came before me.

Come with a man
on your shoulders,
come with a hundred men in your hair,
come with a thousand men between your breasts and your feet,
come like a river
full of drowned men
which flows down to the wild sea,
to the eternal surf, to Time!

Bring them all
to where I am waiting for you;
we shall always be alone,
we shall always be you and I
alone on earth,
to start our life!

Pablo Neruda

Do you have any favorite love poems? Inspirational wedding gifts?

Off to read!

Things that Made Me Smile…

April 1, 2012Walkie Talkie Book Club Leave a comment

I don’t know what it is about April, but I love it. Maybe it’s because April 1st is six months from my October 1st birthday, so I feel a yin and yang or something. It’s a transition month, moving from winter into full-on spring. It’s poetry month, and I once wrote a poem about April (which I’ve probably shared here before, but I’m sure I’ll share it again before I’m through tonight!). April 1st is about pranks and jokes, and I love to laugh. I know some good people who were born in April. It’s just all good.

Last year I posted about Things that Make Me Smile, so I thought I’d do round 2. I’ll stick to the recent past…

Smile Español: Sonrisa (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Things That Made Me Smile Recently:

Hearing Rees read. Wow. So fun to have kindergartners around! Can’t wait to be around two of them next weekend!
Intentionally letting my plant die. It’s not really funny, except that I’m not a plant person and I’ve had it for 3 1/2 years (today!) and I’m done taking care of it. It’s growing all wonky and needs more care than I’m willing to give it at this point. Maybe I’ll look for some potted African violets and a pretty little stand for my bedroom.
Reading the April Fool’s jokes on Facebook… many of them started by pregnant women!
Knowing I have a few days off work and then GET to work overnights three nights in a row! The night owl in me is excited for the first time! Talk to me next year to see how much I like three nights a month of staying up all night!
Feeling so mentally stimulated and exhausted by a great new job!
Book club last week with former colleagues and upcoming plans for get-togethers!

I know there’s more… I’ll reprise it another time.

I’ll leave you with my original poem about April, written circa 1984:

Umbrella (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

April
The April skies
are much to despise
as they’re full of many surprises.

They look awful grey
as they start out the day,
and leave us to making surmises.

Some days it may shower,
some days with more power
its buckets of wet do explode,

and once in a while,
God looks with a smile,
and shovels of snow He unloads..

2/1/12 (2112)

February 1, 2012Walkie Talkie Book Club Leave a comment

I love words but sometimes numbers are just as fun. A palindrome is a palindrome, right?

It is hard to believe that it’s February, that’s for sure. I didn’t read as much in January as I “should” have (is someone keeping tabs on me? is there really a “should”?). I have focused on non-book reading – magazines, blogs, tweets – and how to cut down on reading blogs and tweets and now am reading ‘A Moveable Feast’ by Ernest Hemingway with Wallace’s Unputdownables blog. My TBR pile next to my bed keeps growing and growing so hopefully I’ll tackle a few of them in February. I have so many good ones there!

A January snapshot:

Penny Man at St. Paul Winter Carnival January 2012

Not much to say, but I will post soon about the nominated movies I loved. So far the job is just great. Today was the first day working with social workers and they are amazing and the job seems amazing. I have 6+ weeks of shadowing social workers in all realms of the hospital and I can’t wait to see the great things they do! I feel so lucky to be working and to be working there. Life is good. 🙂

Off to read!

A Moveable Feast Read-a-Long :: Sign Ups & Starting Post (unputdownables.net)

Last Day of Being Unemployed

January 27, 2012Walkie Talkie Book Club 1 Comment

Last day of UNEMPLOYMENT

Things I Won’t Miss:

That nagging feeling that I should be chained to the computer searching indeed.com or any of the many job search sites I checked
That nagging feeling that I should be out networking and hob-nobbing
That nagging feeling that I should be sending another email or making another phone call to check on a job status
That nagging feeling that while I was home, unemployed, I should be exercising and getting into shape
That nagging feeling that I shouldn’t be eating out/seeing a movie/doing anything fun because I should keep all my pennies
That nagging feeling that I didn’t have health insurance for a few months
I guess a lot of nagging feelings 🙂

Things I Will Miss:

Going to bed and waking up whenever I want to – I had some months of pretty good sleep, after the anxious sleeplessness went away
Bringing the kids to school in the morning or picking them up after school
Having the time to help out – making meals, babysitting, painting a nursery, grocery shopping, library-going…
Long leisurely showers in the afternoon and air-drying my hair (maybe only understood by curly-haired folk?)
Painting my fingernails crazy colors
Movie matinees on Wednesday (free popcorn!)
Keeping up with Twitter and bloggers
Tweeting and blogging
Having a super flexible schedule so that I could say YES to almost anything

Although the list of things that I will miss could go on and on, the overwhelming feeling of relief about being employed really overshadows them all. I value being self-reliant and I know that most of the things on the second list will continue in some way. I will still be helpful when I can, stay up late and sleep in when I can, tweet and blog when I can, and say YES to fun things when I can.

Life is good.

Happy last day of unemployment to me!!!

Off to read – after a leisurely afternoon shower!

One more week…

January 22, 2012Walkie Talkie Book Club 2 Comments

Image by Sean MacEntee via Flickr

January 30 I start my new job. I simply cannot wait! It has been 8 months that I have been unemployed. Hard to believe! But now I’m just tickled to be starting. I went on Friday for pre-employment stuff – health and drug screening, HR form-filling, and information about the two days of general orientation for all new hires. So tomorrow I have to go in to get my TB test evaluated and then I have one more week of unemployed “bliss”!

So what will I do this week? Monday nights I have choir, so I’ll stay at my parent’s house and hang out with them. I will hopefully watch a movie or two. I’m hoping for some “what not to wear” time with my closet and then I need to shop a little for some updated business-y clothes. I would love to bake and prepare meals for the freezer – maybe something from my French book. I am going to the Cities for some celebrating with Deadra and family. I need to catch up on my magazine reading – goodness! – and then hopefully start a good book.

Speaking of books, I am so excited that Wallace’s next readalong is “A Moveable Feast” by Ernest Hemingway! After reading “The Paris Wife” I decided that it would be the Hemingway book that I would most like to read. So I bought it (for my iPad!) and I’m ready to start the readalong in February! Yippee!

Image via Wikipedia

And speaking of movies (was I?), I went to see “The Artist” last night – and it was just so good. Amazing actors, beautiful music, funny “dialogue,” and a great story. Absolutely a wonderful movie experience. It made me want to watch a bunch of really old movies – the good ones. Ah…

Well, I’m off… to read, play word games, and watch some old episodes of How I Met Your Mother. One more week of doing whatever I want – before this new life begins!

Phew!

January 18, 2012January 17, 2012Walkie Talkie Book Club 4 Comments

What a difference a week makes. Last Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday I was holding my breath every time the phone rang. My mind was not engaged in many things that I was doing. Last Wednesday I grocery shopped, Target shopped, emptied and cleaned the refrigerator, emptied and cleaned the cupboards, sorted and shredded mail…

and then they called.

I got a job!

They called around 3:30 Wednesday afternoon – which isn’t “early in the week” to me, which is when they said they’d make the decision, but I’m not complaning! I’m just glad they called! So I have a lot of paperwork to fill out and a health screen and drug screen to complete and then I’ll start work January 30!

So now I feel like I can look ahead to 2012 and make lists or set some goals or do some planning! Already, amid all the celebrating, I have tackled a big messy closet and made some sense of it – something my mom would have done in her first week of unemployment, instead of one of her last!

It just feels so different to NOT have job searching hanging over my head. Such a relief! The first thing I did on Thursday was to file away all of my job searching notes and resources! I should look back at it and check the number of jobs I applied for and the number that I actually heard anything back from. That was a little surprising to me. It is such a technological world with no people contact in many cases.

The whole thing has been another learning experience for me.

I learned, once again, that it is ok to accept help and support from friends and family. It is very humbling. I am so thankful that I have such wonderful friends and family, because it wasn’t that long ago that I was learning the same lessons for a different reason! Hopefully I can return the favors!
I learned that it’s possible to go a whole day without talking to anyone. Sometimes I would have to put on some music I could sing to, just to warm up my voice!
I learned that I can easily live without cable television but I cannot live without internet. You can watch a lot of television on the computer! And I love revisiting the movies I own!
I learned that if I read fewer blogs I’d read more books.
I learned that lots of people liked to come up with job ideas for me – and very rarely were the ideas anything that I would want or like to do. I guess I like to think for myself.
I learned that many things are easier said than done. The signature of my email for years has been: “Life is about not knowing, having to change, taking the moment and making the best of it, without knowing what’s going to happen next. Delicious ambiguity.” -Gilda Radner. Turns out, it isn’t easy to relish ambiguity. 🙂 But I think I kept a pretty good attitude throughout, treasuring each day as it came.
I learned that having faith – in God and yourself – really helps when you’re dealing with ambiguity and big changes. That, and good family and friends, gets you through anything!
I learned that even with lots of time on my hands, I still don’t make time to exercise! Yikes… I need a workout pal!

I know there were more lessons, but I’ll end it for now. I’m sure I’ll also learn more about myself as I start this new adventure! The job I am moving into is going to be a big change from what I did before and will be a big challenge, but I am so excited for the opportunity in this next phase of my life.

Maybe I’ll blog about that learning curve another time. 🙂 First, I’ll try to put into words some goals for 2012. But for now…

Off to read. Ah… Life is good. 🙂

Happy New Year!

December 31, 2011Walkie Talkie Book Club Leave a comment

Well, December was a very slow blogging month, to be sure. And I’m not really sure what 2012 will bring, on the blogging front or in life!

2011 was an interesting year on many fronts and I’m looking forward to 2012 and the adventures and excitement that it will bring.

I hope that 2012 brings you happiness and love and all the books you can read!

December Things

December 3, 2011December 3, 2011Walkie Talkie Book Club 3 Comments

I’ve had this page up a few times in the month of November but have remained quiet! Partly because my reading has slowed, due to the Thanksgiving holiday and other things. And partly because I didn’t want to post for the sake of posting! Finally, I have something to say. 🙂

new tree, glittery baubles

I love firsts – first of the month, first of the year, first time doing anything. So a few days ago (the first of December) I started a list in my head (I also love lists) of things to get done in December. Fun things. I was going to do it like an Advent calendar, one thing assigned to each day, but decided to just make a list and see how many I can knock off.

Bake bake bake!
Try new recipes (Whiskey caramels? Yes please!)
Bake with kiddos
Drive around and look at Christmas lights while drinking hot cocoa
Have a hot cocoa and cookie party
Read the Christmas story in the Bible
Hear the Christmas story being read
Read “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever”
Watch “Elf”
Watch “The Holiday”
Watch “Love Actually” (again)
Buy some mistletoe
Get a New Year’s Eve plan (before New Year’s Eve rolls around)
Plan get-togethers with friends during Christmas break
Sing as many carols as possible – find (or create!) singalongs
Make more lefse
Listen to LOTS of Christmas music!
Play LOTS of Christmas music at the piano
Find a tree topper – an angel or star
…. I’m going to continue to add to this list as I think of more things.

Maybe you can help! Any holiday traditions that you have that are “must-do”s?

Off to read!

Table Trivia Night

November 19, 2011November 19, 2011Walkie Talkie Book Club 1 Comment

I am not Irish. Not one bit. But I have always been drawn to Irish things – books, music, movies, and authors. Last Labor Day weekend I talked my brother and sis-in-law into going to the Irish Fest downtown Rochester and we had a great time! We ate some Irish stew and drank some Irish whiskey and danced during an Irish caili!

When I saw the Irish Style Table Trivia Night advertised this week, I knew that I wanted to go. I talked Kristine into going with me and then we decided we would just go and watch for a while and leave after about an hour. Well, that didn’t fly with the people in charge and we were cajoled into paying our $10 to start a table of four. They put us with two random guys (Dan and Don) and the fun commenced.

There were about ten tables of four and five rounds of trivia to be played. The first round of ten questions was movie trivia – I thought I’d stand a chance at doing pretty well at this! But it was very difficult. He would name a year and three character names and we would have to figure out who the actor was that played that character and what movie those three actors were in together. For example (and probably remembered wrongly), 1993 movie starring Jason Bourne, Forrest Gump and someone else (who turned out to be Vin Diesel). We got this one right after I wondered aloud/quietly if there was a war movie with them in it – and it was Saving Private Ryan. Yay us! We ended up getting 5 points for this first round – a disappointing start compared to everyone else (except the team that got 0!).

Round two was Arts & Literature and we did better at that round. I knew immediately that Frank McCourt wrote “Angela’s Ashes,” otherwise we worked together to come up with those answers. Round three was kind of a “gimme” – it was pictures and we had to identify either the movie or actor or famous person. We got them all right.

Round four was the Cheese Round. All questions relating to Ireland. Very difficult! But we ended up in a tie so we had to have a very very difficult tie-breaking round to see who would get all the cheeses! (It is like 14 wheels of cheese and four pounds of Irish butter!) We barely won that round, answering 4 correctly, when the other team answered 3! Yay us!

Round Five was the “money” round, so we finally figured out that all the questions or answers had to do with money. By this time we were getting pretty competitive because we were close to winning it all and when you’re close you want the whole thing, right? If we had been in the middle we wouldn’t have been as intense. We did great at this round and ended up winning 1st prize!

First prize was a bunch of things – a basket from Diamond Joe’s Casino, round trip tickets on Rochester Direct (to MSP), a fancy pen, and a weekend in Door County for two. It was hard to split that up, for sure, so we ended up rolling the dice in the Diamond Joe’s basket and high number won the Door County stay – Kristine rolled a 4 and Dan rolled a 2! Yay us!

What a fun night.

Oh, and Don is a psychiatrist at the Federal Medical Center and said they are looking for a social worker! I gave him my card and hope he emails me, because I don’t see the job posted on the Federal jobs site! But wouldn’t it be the luckiest night ever if a job came out of it???

I’m still on a little trivia high… wow!

Off to read!

Walkie Talkie Book Club

I'm a multi-tasker

Category Stuff About Me

Poems of Love

[i carry your heart with me(i carry it in]

Always

Things that Made Me Smile…

2/1/12 (2112)

Last Day of Being Unemployed

One more week…

Phew!

Happy New Year!

December Things

Table Trivia Night

[i carry your heart with me(i carry it in]

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