Author: bripike

Love Letters

While I understand that a lot of people have mixed feelings about Valentine’s Day, I don’t really have a problem with the holiday. Do I agree that it has become hyper commercialized? Sure, but you have been into a Target around Christmas? Hell, have you been in to a Target around Christmas, Halloween, St. Patrick’s Day, Easter? We’re Americans. We see it as our job to over hype holidays. I’ve never thought of Valentines Day as a day necessarily for couples, which I think is why it’s never stressed me out much. When I was growing up, I had the great fortune of having a father who brought flowers for his wife and his two daughters. My mom always gave us cards and candy. My aunt sent me Valentine’s Day care packages when I was in college and I used to go out for drinks with my other girlfriends to celebrate the holiday. To me, Valentine’s Day is about celebrating people you love. Period. If you attached, that person falls into that category but so does you mother, you father, your grandmother, your sister, your brother and even your pets (yes, I think of my pets as people. We’ve covered this before).

Cards ready to be put on the mail…

This year I wanted to make cards to send out to for Valentine’s Day. It was fun and it gave me a chance to be creative. On Saturday I took all of my cards to the post office, bought some “Love” stamps and sent them off to all corners of the world. I hope these cards bring a smile to their recipients and that they feel loved, because after all, that’s what Valentine’s Day is about.

Grateful for Good Friends At Work

I’m lucky in many things when it comes to my job. I get to teach a subject I love, I teach a challenging and diverse student body, I have much more scheduling flexibility than most and I find myself teaching class in a brand new, beautiful academic building. However, I am most lucky in the friends I have at work. This occurred today when I saw a friend who has recently taken on a new position at the college and as a result, I see him a lot less. We were both attending the same meeting and afterwards we walked over to the new building, grabbed a snack from the food court and went up to my office to say hello to my office mate. We proceeded to chat about our students and our classes and all things academic (and a few non academic) and we had a good time.

I am lucky that when I come to the office in the morning there are two people who are smart, funny and excellent professors. We solve problems, we vent our frustrations, we talk about how to make our classes better and we make each other laugh.

I am lucky to be involved in a division (LAS) that believes in hanging out after hours. That cultivates good relationships in and out of classroom. That supports staff and faculty in good times and in bad and that genuinely cares about the professional and personal happiness of its faculty.

I am lucky to be part a department that creates things like a book club, chooses Jane Eyre as a book, and then hosts a full English tea to celebrate. I am lucky that my department chair is understanding, smart, knowledgeable and efficient. I am lucky that the faculty in my department are creative and supportive.

I am lucky to have made an especially good friend at work and I am lucky that she and I were hired at the same time. She’s one of the smartest people I know and she knits beautiful shawls and mittens and socks. There are days that I would have surely lost my mind if she weren’t around to talk to. I’m really lucky to know her.

Teaching can be a grueling profession and often times you need a plan A, B, C, D, etc. It is rewarding but that is because it is a lot of work and it is so important to have a support system among your peers. So thank you to all my friends at my community college. You are awesome and often times you are the reason I can get through a particularly brutal day.

Love you guys.

I Feel Loved…

My friend Sam is awesome for many reasons. He has an excellent attitude about life, he’s a wonderful writer and he has a cool blog. Check it out here. He recently nominated my blog for The Versatile Blogger Award, so that also makes him kind.

The guidelines for this award are as follows. First, I must thank the person who nominated me. Check. Second, I must list seven things about me. Here goes:

1. I’m a poet, or at least I try to be. I love to read, listen to and write poetry. I’m a working poet, so sometimes finding time to write is a challenge but I do the best I can.

2. I’m a teacher. My technical title is Assistant Professor but I’m not much for titles. I teach at a community college and I really enjoy it. This semester I’m teaching mostly creative writing and it is awesome. My students are talented and hilarious, which is a good combination in the classroom.

3. I love animals of all kinds. I currently have a dog, Kweli; a kitty, Nimbus; and two Zebra Finches, Humphrey and Calliope. I rode horses growing up and we had a barn on our property. I cry during the ASPCA commercials (damn you, Sarah McLaughlin!) and I donate to the World Wildlife Fund.

4. I love to cook and bake. I’m on a vegetarian kick at the moment but I love to make bread, pasta, soup, casseroles, dip, whatever. Cooking is good.

5. I like to write letters and make cards and stationary. This past Friday I spent three hours making cards for friends and family and I was a happy camper.

6. Friends and family are very important to me. I have a sister who is five years younger (check out her blog) and we are very close. I value keeping up with friends from all over the country, even though I don’t keep up as much as I should.

7. I think the 30’s are awesome. I liked my 20’s but I just turned 30 last year and I’m really liking it. I have a house, I have a career, I have pets, I got married and overall, it’s been a banner year so far. Let’s keep it going.

Now I am supposed to name ten blogs I admire and want you all to read. Here goes:

1. Emperor of Ice Cream Cakes: Poems Are Jokes
2. Mark Doty
3.The Iris Chronicles
4.16 Sparrows
5. Letter Writers Alliance
6.HiFi Hilarity
7. the INtangible Blog
8.Quilty Therapy
9.Sincerely Me
10. The Sassy Curmudgeon

Sam, I think we’re well on our way to that party…

The Super Bowl Came to Indy and I Caught a Cold…

The Super Bowl came to my city this weekend and where was I for the majority of the time? In my house nursing my first (and hopefully my last) cold of the winter. It started on Tuesday and today I am finally beginning to feel semi normal. By semi-normal I mean that I can breath out of both nostrils.

Anyway.

I managed to make it downtown on Friday afternoon, so here are some pics from the circle and the Super Bowl Village:

Bud Light was a major sponsor but I refuse to pay $6 for their beer.

I live here and I’ve never eaten at St. Elmo’s.

Lots of fans…

I took this picture for my dad. Go Giants!

And here are some pics from around the city that I got off the internet:

Outside the Children’s Museum. From doingindy.com. 
The zip line from the washingtonpost.com
Crowds at the Super Bowl Village were estimated at 200, 0000. From indystar.com.

I am watching the game from the comfort of a friend’s house this evening but I hope everyone who is downtown has a great time. Have fun, be safe and GO Giants!

The Poet & Technology

There are many ways that technology makes the life of a poet better and more interesting. Such as:

  • Writing blogs & reading blogs about poetry
  • Poetry websites
  • Instant access to inspiration whether it is art, music or other writers
  • Instant sharing of positive poetry news (a friend gets published, a new book comes out or someone wins a prize)
  • Drafting poems is often helped by word processing
  • Loosing work is less likely as long long as you remember to back up said work on a variety of devices
  • Electronic submission managers cut down on the cost of postage and the response time is faster
  • It is easier to read a sampling of journals online because of the archive system
  • More new journals are coming onboard using the internet as their platform
  • More poetry gets out to a broader audience via the internet
  • It’s easier to collaborate with other writers
  • Procuring an MFA is easier than it used to be in terms of scheduling because of low residency programs with an online component

I’m sure there are other benefits that I have not listed, but I think these hit on most of the main points. So three cheers for technology, right?

Well…

I think the downfall of all this great technology for the poet is that I constantly feel like I’m not doing enough. I’m a slow writer to start with and I also teach five classes a semester. This is not a dig at people who do not work, or who have a 3/4 load, or whatever your situation might be but this is my reality and I find my reality frustrating in terms of the writing life. This is especially the case when it comes to bullet point #4.

I revel in other poet’s success because it’s not only good for them, it’s good for poetry in general. Whenever someone wins a prize or a grant or gets a poem published or finishes a book, that means that there is an audience out there reading, thinking and supporting poetry. I find this very encouraging. On the flip side, sometimes it can be discouraging when you are sending out work constantly and not getting a response. This probably sounds whiny, and it isn’t meant to be but I think it is probably how the majority of writers feel most of the time. I won’t lie and say that this rant wasn’t prompted by a recent round of submissions I sent out. I received some of the fastest rejections I’ve ever gotten and that always kind of sucks. This is another downfall of technology, the submission process it much more streamlined than it used to be so sometimes you can send a few poems out and three days later there is an email in your inbox wishing you better luck next time.

None of this information is anything new. Submitting is frustrating and that’s just how it is. Why keep doing it? Well, I believe I’ve written some good poems and I’d like people to read them because I think they could get something out of them. How does that make me different than every other poet on the planet? It doesn’t but I’m going to keep trying.

Observations from the Gym

As part of my goals for 2012, I’ve been hitting the gym five days a week. It has taken some effort but I am feeling better and it’s gotten me to be more creative with my workouts, which is always a good thing. Working out more means that I’ve started to pay more attention to the general “goings on” around the gym. It may also be important to note, that when I say gym, I’m talking about the Y. Here are some observations in no particular order:

1. People should not stare at other people while they are working out. Personally, I’m not very self conscious at the gym. This doesn’t have anything to do with my physical condition. I just don’t really care. We are all sweaty and red faced and if you’re not, well that’s cool but you’re probably not there to work out anyway, so whatever. However, you should not stare at people who are busting their butts on the treadmill. It’s rude.

2. If you are a dude, you should not creep around the glass door to the aerobics room during the women’s step class. Seriously? I mean there are a few guys who glance through the door on their way to the weight room, but today while I was getting ready to run I observed three grown man gawking at the women’s cardio blast class through the glass door. Creepers, go work out.

3. There is no need to throw the free weights. Some people may think I’m picking on the dudes, but I’m not. Women do this too. The long and short of it is, you don’t need to throw your weights down so hard that the floor shakes. You’re strong. We get it.

4. I don’t get the concept of “reading and highlighting a textbook” while on the treadmill or elliptical machine. If you are one of these people, I mean no disrespect but I honestly don’t get it. I mean, when I’m on either of these machines I’m sweating like there is no tomorrow. I am certainly in no fit condition to read anything, let alone highlight something.

5. If you can talk on your cell phone while doing cardio, you’re not going fast enough. I don’t mind people taking a quick call, but if I can hear you telling your best friend about the guy that you hooked up with and how you are pissed he didn’t call you back through Nikki Minaj, well, there’s a problem.

6. Proper workout attire is important. Enough said.