me:

The dates are set. I decided to make it 3 months minus a couple days. Costa Rica visas are for 90 days.

Cost me a tad... like ~$750. I travel through Denver and Houston. Will need to call Continental to straighten out baggage. Since I'm going to Central America it should be one baggage free. (Here's hoping they don't charge by segment.)

I really wanted to go by TACA (I like them) but that would've meant more money and not great connections with Allegiant.

Anyhoo... I need to go home to prepare and pack for weekend in Dillon (southeast of here, south of Butte).

Hard to have to share my weekend with poets...

ME:

I guess I could've (and maybe I should've) chosen a different project to work on. I have two unfinished works that would've sufficed.

However, November will be a month of packing and reassessing travel for 2012 as well as writing 60 to 90 prose poem letters. I suspect I won't go over 30k words and will be lucky if I can reach 60 and 15k. Poetry and lyrical prose isn't like writing a novel. Poetry doesn't like loose language and a narrative isn't necessary. In the first 5 I wrote in the first two days I find I can't quite fill a page each. The poem ends... and that's it... Best to go onto the next.

However, 30 days of intense writing is a long time and at some point my approach may shift to allow for more verbiage (rhymes with garbage? herbage?).

The Day of the Dead parade last night was great and the dinner gathering beforehand very nice. I don't always do well at social events. So, everything went fine.

I'm reading "The Snowman" by Nesbø and will pick up another book of his today. My mind is reeling with images of Norway in November... to the point that the little Norwegian I know is interfering with my English and Spanish.

Ah... Norway...

= part of the dilemma. I'd really like... (Eg ville gjerne...) to be there come May and staying in Costa Rica till the end of April interferes with that. Plus, I want to visit Iceland before July and finish a group of poems entitled "Iceland".

Can't say I don't have ideas going through my head.

This weekend I plan to be in Dillon. Visiting writers. Writing.

...Review

ME:

I sent 5 poems to the Iowa Review on Friday to get them there before the end of the month deadline. Anyone have any dealings with them?

So... 10 poems sent to 3 publications. I really should do this on a regular basis.

Other than that. I WAS feeling good today and now my right arm hurts (for no reason I know of). I may try to see the doctor before I go to Costa Rica. The blood pressure may be okay but all isn't right.

Had a banana today. When I get back it's rice and parsnips.

I'm at the UM library. UM won it's football game over Weber St. today 45-10. It was over by half-time.

Bought 3 books of poetry: The Best of 2009, 2010, 2011. That should hold me for the month of November. Also, picked up Jo Nesbø's "The Snowman" at the library.

Otherwise? Tickets still not bought and I desparately need to shopping. I avoid shopping, but it's time to prepare for traveling.

me:

Frosty this morn. 29º at 11. Got a photo of it. Sunny now but not exactly warm. The water will be on and off at home due to work in the street. Hanging with the old folks.

For me the past is "a box of jewels and scorpions". I don't seem to have the energy nor the constitution to open it up without protective armor on. I don't know how Nada ever did it and I know ShellySunshine tries. So many others have a struggle worse than mine.

I don't know. Every time I try to remember the good times the "Slasher" comes out and spoils it. I once had a life... and although it wasn't always wonderful I did accomplish something. I've tried to move on. Really! I moved to a "safe" place with nice people. I have a international circle of acquaintances that is amazing. I don't make "friends" ...but then I never did.

So much hidden inside me. It gnaws.

Or stings. Those jewels? Nice to look at but they aren't mine anymore. Anything good I once accomplished will have to be remembered by others.

It's not like the past will ever call.

Eg vil gjerne gå til Noreg!

ME:

Met Lisbeth Dreyer, a producer of the film, "Fjord" that showed at the Cine Internationale here in Missoula. Told by the landscape, with only the sounds of the place and no narration, it is entrancing. Placed around the small village of Dyrdal, they captured the moon on spray from a waterfall, pale apple blossoms, an avalanche (sheer luck), the mirrored images in sea-water. Very nice. I was impressed by the use of white... not easy in a color film. And a pale white, not the stark contrast of Mediterranean sun-blasted white against blue; much more subtle and sensual. It has won awards for sound.

Anyhoo. I now have a copy! I would've bought one; but, Lisbeth wanted to give me one; so, I gave her copies of three short booklets of my poetry. I was prepared!

Takk. Mange takk. Tusend takk, Lisbeth. Eg vil gjerne gå til Noreg...

Thankfully, the filmfest was over. I should write about what I learned, but that must wait.

For now... catching up time. Focusing on my next trip. Since I want to visit Costa Rica for three months (five doesn't seem so doable...), I've made a checklist. If I decide to take proper luggage because I'll be mostly in one place, then I can take more clothes, more notebooks and books. Of course, the list is just a guide! I can always buy "things" there. But, a good thick towel, a good thick robe, jeans ...are better to get here.

Suzy Lou won't be going with me; she's retired. But, I came across a toy chihuahua along the path today. Seemed lonely without a child... so I took it home. I'll need to post a photo on facebook and maybe ask Dustin for a name. He's good at naming things.



In the olden days in Blogville... there was more of a community. And more views! My life has branched out since then in other directions. So, many thanks to anyone who still reads this! Coming up to 25k views. Someday...

Easter is April 8, 2012.

Why is this important? Especially since I don't observe it?

Well... I could be in Costa Rica. And in Costa Rica La Semana Santa (April 1-8) is pocaloca. Prices go sky high. Ticos actually travel! Transportation is iffy; some days there is none.

So... My trip to Costa Rica needs to be rethought. Quickly. I want to buy tickets by November 1st at the latest.

This should be the weather map for December:

http://costa-rica-guide.com/travel/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&i...

April:

http://costa-rica-guide.com/travel/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&i...

All this means is planning around April 1st-8th by leaving end of March, staying through mid-April if I have a place till then (not the time to travel around the country) or staying through the end of April and being back in Montana in May. Considering I'd like to visit Scandinavia some May... and England is nice then too... this creates a bit of an issue. I seem to need some time between trips to rest up. I did fine in England then couldn't move for a month afterward.

My new meds should help and the diet in Costa Rica and ability to be more active could mean I lose 20 pounds. Doc says 10-15; but, I know better. Need to lose close to 40. But should have more energy after losing 20.

Choices. I could decide to go just 3 months. Part of me doesn't want to commit to 5 months. The other part gets energized just thinking about returning. I need to return!

Just like I need to return to the Plains. Possibly even move back there...

Life is interesting. At my advanced age I need to decide whether I sit and do nothing the rest of my life or push myself to stay alive and active. I'm not dead yet!

ME:

Doc appt. today. Medication is working... but I knew that. Blood work was okay: liver, thyroid, sugar... Cholesterol was 218 which is high and good cholesterol was low and bad cholesterol high. So...

Eat less butter, lose weight, walk every day. But I knew that...

Sigh. Still not feeling great, but change of diet and losing weight might help. Costa Rica might help.

Now I need to start planning that as tickets ain't cheap. And do I stay 3 months, 4 or 5? Hmmmmm.

ME:

I survived two stressful days of trying to (and ultimately succeeding in) submitting 5 poems to 2 magazines. On-line submissions are supposed to be easier? Not if the submit button doesn't open or isn't there!

In any case, 5 poems gone. 2 new; 3 old. Gone.

Looking into submitting at "Iowa Review", "Iodine", "Coal City Review", "Terrain.org", "Ecotone"... Must figure out which poem fits where. Suggestions? I don't mind the rejections. It's the submitting process that is killing me!

Fortunately, the high-blood-pressure med is working. (My sister takes the same med, same dose; found out today.)

I'm at Liquid Planet. $1 coffee and internet.

Came here after going to Top Hat with Travis to hear two writers at "Second Wind". Karl, a student at UM, did incredibly well. I thought he had memorized the short story! He hadn't, but his reading was fluid and well-enunciated. Kudos to him.

This week I'll work on old writings; although, I feel the urge to write new stuff.

This week is also filled with films at the festival at the Roxy near my place and Tuesday evening is critique group.

Also, Tuesday is doc day... we'll see if liver and thyroid are doing well. Thyroid can explain sluggishness. Liver? Don't want to think about that. Need to ask doc about shot for hepatitis (they have at least one now) and any other precautions on my travels over the next few years. I'm assuming he'll have plenty to say about diet, especially if cholesterol level comes back nasty. And maybe we'll get around to discussing other ailments...

In other news: roasted more parsnips and will eat parsnips and rice when I get home. Earlier, I sliced open a cream-cheese bun and grilled extra-sharp cheddar on one side, apple on the other. A nice apple-cheddar sandwich!

Not done with photos of England yet. I need to just sit and go through all the photos, one group at a time. I've been through most. May be a couple surprises left but I've found most of the good ones.

me:

Still trying to cope with deadlines. My personal wifi went dead yesterday so I'll be living at the library and internet cafes until my work is done. Alas, Bernice's does not have internet.

When I'm in Costa Rica, I'll have to make sure to arrange internet. I have too much to do to not have a way of connecting.

Wish me luck on that one!

I'm working on:

Camas (Oct 14 "boundaries"), Cutbank (Oct 1 - Feb 15; Flash Fiction Oct 1- 31; Goedicke Poetry Dec 1 - Feb 28), Whitefish Review (Oct 15), High Resolution Review (open "optimism!"),

Plus Bernice's Bakery art exhibits: Oct. 15.

Sooooooo... wrote a new poem re boundaries as I can't find my "we meet at the surface tension" poem. Need to get back to work...

...pictures ...poems

ME:

Progress with photos; progress with writing.

BP was 126/84 so almost normal!

Went to my writer's group. Less than a block away today. All good news.

I have 3 to 5 submissions to make by Saturday. But... did I mention progress?

I'm even prepared for no water tomorrow as they are fixing the main.

This burst of good news shall pass too; but for now, I'm enjoying it.