After a busy day of work and school I had the pleasure of hanging out with my cousin Amy. Our chairs were big, red and low and the table reached up to our armpits making us feel very much like very little girls. We laughed and giggled quite a lot. When I got home, I told Adam that you can tell Amy and I are related because we relish the same scribbles and bits of stories: the walks, the glances, the glass jars, the little secrets, the low red chairs.

When I was a kid, I was a poet.

I would write poems and poems and poems, and fold them up, and put them in a little red safe only I knew the combination to. I thought I was a prodigy poet child.

I vaguely recall writing some verse in middle school, but by high school I knew that I was crap at poetry and stopped entirely. I’m not sure how I got this idea. Maybe I read some of my old ‘brilliant’ work and realized that “the raven flew, over cities and buildings that only he knew” was actually not a work of genius. Maybe it wasn’t cool to write poetry and got embarrassed. Who knows. But I know that I decided I was no good at poetry and didn’t write any for many years.

But as I read less of it, I began to read more of it. e.e. cummings first sparked my love for reading poetry when I was a senior in high school. I read his words over and over every day and carried his book with me everywhere. When I was in Romania, Jean introduced me to Yeats, and I couldn’t get enough of him either. And as time went on, I fell in love with more and more poets and I read them every day.

But write it? Certainly not. I was crap at poetry.

This semester, I took a creative writing class. For the first half of the class, I had to write poems every week, and I loved it! I didn’t feel any pressure, because I knew I was crap at poetry. I felt the freedom to have fun with it, and have fun I did! Now the poetry portion of class is done, my poem-filled midterm portfolio is turned in, and I don’t think I’m crap at poetry anymore. Not one bit. That has been a really fun and surprisingly surprising discovery for me this winter: I can write poems.

In other writing news, over winter break I began a new project that I have been working on sporadically and enjoying immensely. I’m writing a children’s book of sorts starring characters loosely based on my boys Adam and Eliot: Lloyd Brown and Mr. Eliot. Lloyd and Mr. Eliot are in business together doing odd jobs in the sunny town of Kennedyville when they find themselves caught up in a very big mystery. Lloyd Brown is good at everything but math. Mr. Eliot keeps the books. I haven’t had much time to spend on it, but the story is fantastically fun to write- full of colourful people and whimsy.

Writing is so much fun.

Yesterday, Janelle told me that she smelt the air and heard the birds and knew that spring was here, even though it’s cold.This morning I stepped out the door and smelt the air and heard the birds and knew that she was right. I wore my spring coat and didn’t bother with a scarf. I really didn’t need it. I smiled all the way to class. I smiled all the way home and jumped over puddles. Spring reminds me why I like ridiculous climates with grey Wisconsin winters that make my legs freezy: because spring is that much sweeter. They’re even more spring-happy in Norway. I like how Jenny K. Blake illustrates it in her book Brown Cheese Please. Watch out. There are boobies.

I don’t go topless in the spring, but I do get those crazy-happy eyes. Spring is my favourite. In my head, I’ve been writing odes and sonnets to it all day.

I have more to say about odes and sonnets. But I’ll have to save that for a later time. Have a good day!

Here’s wishing Adam a big fat happy birthday. (A really big one. A really fat one. A really REALLY happy one.)

I love you.

I took this picture of Hannah and Janelle last May. We lived together then, and were on our way to Copp’s to pick up paper plates (or plastic cups?) for Bri’s wedding shower. We laughed a lot running that errand. I remember that.

Hannah and I used to spend long mornings talking about life over breakfast and listening to music and drawing on paper plates. In the summertime, Janelle and I would bike around the lake together almost every night: sweat together, talk about life.

After moving into different houses, Hannah and I have had regretfully little time together. But we got to hang out yesterday. It was snowy out and blustery, so we walked to Noodles & Co. and ate off each other’s plates. On the walk home, we talked about who are friends are and why they are amazing. It was so nourishing and so wonderful.

I was planning on doing yoga after my date with Hannah Guerra. But Janelle foiled my plans withmore amazing conversation. And it was so nourishing and so wonderful.

I just appreciate so much the time I have with these women. They are amazing and inspiring- Hannah in a way like BIG fragrant flowers and Janelle like deep, solid seas. I love them so much.

I just wanted to take a moment to say that I am so thankful for all of my friends. I think of everyone of you almost daily and I am so glad to know you and so happy that you are alive.