Author: bripike

A Week in Review…

While I think it’s kind of silly to end the first full week of classes with a three day weekend, I’m not going to complain. The first week of classes was uneventful and that’s just the way I like it. My students seem relatively enthusiastic, and I have eighteen enrolled in my creative writing class. My online class had a few small hiccups early in the week, but they were resolved quickly.

I’ve continued with the working out and eating at home. Right now I’m making some bread for the week and some bread to freeze. I haven’t had a chance to fire up the bread machine since we moved into the new house, so today seemed like the perfect time. I also put the first coat of paint on the bookcase that’s going to go in the dining room. It’s definitely going to need two coats, but the painting itself went pretty fast, so I plan to have it in the dining room by next weekend.

I’m in the process of making plans to travel to Erie in February to see Michael Pollan at Allegheny. I’m pretty excited and it will give me something to look forward to that month. Sometimes the spring semester has a tendency to drag, so I’m constantly looking for things to break up the monotony.
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Thursday night I went to Starbucks for about two hours to read before my night class. I left Ominovre’s Dilemma at home, so I pulled The House on Mango street off my shelves and read the whole book while I was at Starbucks.

I really like this book and it is a fast read. I was reminded at how the pacing and description are so prefect in how they fit the narrative. The section “Hair” is perfect when it comes to showing students how important sensory detail and image are in writing of all types:

But my mother’s hair, my mother’s hair, like little rosettes, like little candy circles all curly, and pretty because she pinned it in in pincurls all day, sweet to put you nose into when she is holding you, and holding you and you feel safe, it is the warm smell of bread before you bake it…

Also the section “Red Clowns” always disturbs me. Part of it is the subject matter and part of it is that I’ve always found something seedy and garish about the circus and don’t even get me started on clowns:

Why did you leave me all alone? I waited my whole life. You’re a liar. They all lied. All the books and magazines, everything that told it wrong. Only his dirty fingernails against my skin, only his sour smell again. The moon that watched. The tilt-a-whirl. The red clowns laughing their thick-tongued laugh.

Sunday Musings

This week was spent mostly between work and home trying to get organized on both ends. Tomorrow is the first day of the spring semester and I expect it will be hectic, but the first week of classes is always a gradual ease into routine. This is also helped by the fact that we have a three day weekend right after the first week of school.

Winter hit Indy in full force this week. We had snow all week and while it wasn’t nearly the blast that the north east received, it coated out backyard with a couple of inches. Time to break out the boots.
This week I began a journey that I suspect most people begin after the holidays are over. I started back to the workouts and the cooking at home. All this week we ate at home including all weekend (except for the salads we had for dinner last night). Saturday morning I made breakfast wraps and butternut squash “hashbrowns.” It was pretty darn good.


I’m about 150 pages into Michael Pollan’s The Omnivore’s Dilemma and it is fascinating. It’s a lot denser than Animal, Vegetable, Miracle but talks about some of the same basic issues. I like the more in depth look that Pollan takes at the food industry and how it impacts Americans. If you care about what you eat and where it comes from, you should read this book.


A favorite passage from today’s reading came when Pollan interviewed Joe Salatin who owns Polyface Farm in Virgina:

Me and the folks who buy my food are like the Indians –we just want to opt out. That’s all the Indians wanted–to keep their teepees, to give their kids herbs instead of patent medicines and leeches. They didn’t care if there was Washington, D.C., or a Custer or a USDA ; just leave us alone. But the Western mind can’t bear the opt-out option. We’re going to have to refight the Battle of Little Bighorn to preserve the right to opt out, or your grandchildren and mine will have no choice but to eat amalgamated, irradiated, genetically prostituted, barcoded, adulterated, fecal spam for the centralized processing conglomerate.

Starting of 2010

I started my week off waiting for the water company to come out and read the meter. This morning I had good intentions to go to school early but that was before our kitchen sink backed up. Now, I’m sitting in my living room listening to the plumber snake the kitchen sink and thinking about all the work I have to do for school. Oh well.

Note: I’m not encouraged by the fact that the plumber is on his third go at snaking the drain and I think I just heard him mutter “you’ve got to be shitting me.”
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I didn’t officially make any New Year’s resolutions this year because I feel like mine are always the same: take better care of myself, write more, read more, and manage my time better. I’m going to just keep chipping away at these goals right now. I think they’re solid.

I have a couple of poems bumping around in my head but I’m still thinking them through. I also need to start thinking about more submissions. 2009 was a pretty typical submission year. I sent out 65 plus submissions and got accepted to one journal.

I’m starting on Moby Dick tomorrow…

The Poetry Society of America is hosting this exhibit in New York City called “Portaits of Poets 1910-2010” I’ve been following the development of the exhibit through Facebook and Twitter. I’d love to go and see it but I think I’ll have to settle for the pictures provided by the New York Times:

Artists and poets have always kept close company, and the alliance becomes a celebratory bash in “Portraits of Poets, 1910-2010,” an exhibition presented by the Poetry Society of America at the National Arts Club beginning on Tuesday. The kickoff event of the society’s centennial year, the show brings together more than 150 portraits of 20th-century poets, many by well-known artists, and the guest list is formidable.

And the drain is fixed…

Reading Musings for the New Year

I think accomplished a fair amount of reading in 2009, however I’m sure more committed folks would disagree. However, I read a lot of books that I wanted to read and managed to keep up with Poetry. I fell woefully behind in the New Yorker and even brought several of the issues on vacation with me in a half-hearted attempt to read them cover to cover. However, at this point I’ll probably just throw in the towel and begin again after the first of the year when I return to Indiana.

I’m returning to Indiana with the following books: The Omnivore’s Dilemma, Lit, and Moby Dick. I think the last entry on the list will probably hold me for awhile. I heard a piece about it on NPR and decided that I’d reached a point in my reading life where I probably have the patience and the attention span for it. So I plan to start on it shortly after the first of the year.

A Little Over a Month Musings…

It occurred to me the other day as I was teasing my sister about how she hasn’t updated her blog in about two months, that I have woefully neglected mine. I was doing pretty well up until we moved into our house and then Thanksgiving came and then finals and Christmas and….you get the idea.

I’m back to it now. I’m not going to apologize for my absence or say that I will post regularly from now on because I may fall into a lapse again, but for the moment I’m newly committed.

I’m currently traveling through the great state of Pennsylvania for the holidays. We were in Erie for a few days before moving onto Pittsburgh, where we will be through the new year.

Here are some recent pictures taken in Erie. I may post again while in Pittsburgh or I may wait till we return to Indy….

Friday (22 N. Bosart Ave) Musings

The first of many pictures to come of our first home. We picked up the keys yesterday, and the “big move” will commence next weekend…


The kitchen is one my my favorite parts of the house. I can’t wait to have a place for all our pots, pans, and cookware. I like to cook and it will be great to actually have room to have more than two dishes on the counter at the same time.

*Note the exercise bike in the corner. It was left by the previous owners, and it appears to be in good working order. It will be joining the elliptical down in the basement (aka. the laundry room/gym)
The dining room. This is a first for us. We don’t even have any furniture for this room. Yet.

The living room. Lots of light and that beautiful hardwood detail.

The guest bedroom. This room is the brightest room in the house because of the direction it faces and the yellow paint on the walls. It has a nice cozy feel to it. Perfect for guests.

Walk in closet in the guest room. I think we’ll be using this as a work/reading area of some kind.

Master bedroom. I was going to paint it but I think the blue is growing on me.

The upstairs bathroom is the second bathroom in the house. There is also a half bath off the kitchen


One of the two walk in closets in the master bedroom. This is also one of my favorite parts of the house. I love the exposed brick and the fact that RJ and I won’t have to share closet space anymore.
There will be more picture coming later this weekend. I plan to take Kwe over to see the place (well, the yard really) after his appointment at the groomers. We’re having it cleaned Sunday and then the move begins.

Monday Musings

When I arrived at work this morning and got out of the car, the sky was radiating crimson and pink. When I arrived in my office a few moments later, I realized I’d left a part of James Joyce’s poem “Chamber Music” on my desk. The first few lines are very appropriate given the sky this morning:

Chamber Music

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The twilight turns from amethyst
To deep and deeper blue,
The lamp fills with a pale green glow
The trees of the avenue.

The old piano plays an air,
Sedate and slow and gay;
She bends upon the yellow keys,
Her head inclines this way.

Shy thought and grave wide eyes and hands
That wander as they list–
The twilight turns to darker blue
With lights of amethyst.

James Joyce

Also, on my desk this morning, a poem from “Cora Fry’s Pillow Book” by Rosellen Brown. This poem made me laugh, mostly because I was just telling someone the other day about our cat, Nimbus’s, secret plot to kill me, so he can take my spot in bed next to RJ, his one true love.

From “Cora Fry’s Pillow Book”

I hate to think how we make do: It’s me and Prance the cat.
I love the little cat–that’s not the point.

But all the warmth a woman wants
seems to be less the work of pile-up quilts,

let alone husbands whose legs entangle ours,
than the weight of the curve, the fur, the flick of whiskers

humped rumbling in the middle of the arctic bed.
Nothing’s more loyal, more quiet, more contented

than this smallest lover, this tender sac of bones and blood,
this delicate listening head.

Wednesday (Homeowner) Musings

Lately, I’ve been pretty quiet about our house hunting just to be on the safe side. Last Friday we signed the papers for our new home on 22 N. Bosart Ave. The current owners are moving out Friday November 13th, so we have some time to start boxing things up and being the ritual of packing. I’m very excited to have a large kitchen, a beautiful yard (I’m already planning what to plant next spring) and my own closet. I’ll be posting pictures after we receive the key next Friday, but for now you can log onto www.zillow.com, type in the address (22 N. Bosart Ave Indianapolis, IN 46201), and look at pictures.