Monday, January 31, 2011

A Weekend: 21 & Icicles


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Orgasmic dinner for two at Mr. Sushi: $ 46
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One stuffed doggie and 20 Valentine stickers: $ 19.23
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A night in a Boston hotel: 0
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Some years ago JB and I bought a vacation timeshare which gave us a certain number of nights to stay anywhere in the world where Marriott has hotels, without having to pay anything more, not even a tax.
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Friday night we headed to Boston (Brookline, actually) and just because we asked got upgraded to one of the corner room the Marriott calls its '21 rooms.' The 21's are larger, more luxurious, and each with a calm Asian design.
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We had a great time in a great room with a great city view.
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and a great breakfast.
(Breakfast is my favorite when I'm away from home)
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After so much snow and freezing temperatures,
it is now icicle season!!
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And here's the best part of my weekend: On Saturday JB and I picked up our daughter Jess and Mr. Ryan and Not-so-Baby Drew and we headed back to our house for the weekend. No blogging or writing or emailing or telephoning when these little guys are around. It's exhausting joy.
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Me: Ryan, that is a sculpture you and BB made outside with those icicles.
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Ryan (age 4): What's a sculpture?
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Me: It's something an artist does, Ryan. You're an artist, what you did with those icicles.
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Ryan: no words, just a giant grin.....
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TA-DA!!!!!!
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the little things aren't little...............
love
kj

Thursday, January 27, 2011

Today and Before


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This is today. It has been beautiful. I drove on plowed city streets most of the day and there was a white shining cover everywhere.
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I did something interesting tonight. I looked back at my old posts, starting with 2008. I'm surprised, but it's time I looked back. History is a fair teacher.
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I came across two of my poems I had forgotten about. The first I introduced this way: When I was young, I would listen over and over to Roy Orbison's "Love Hurts" and cry every time. This poem is perhaps is my version of the same.
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Untitled
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Hope's buried
in a sound
absent space
gone underground.
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Wild wanton
reckless time
hanging laundry
on the line
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Dripping intentions
faulty signs
hurricane hearts
chiseled too fine
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Prayer and effort
held too tight
No harm done
not tonight
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No blame no wishes
no right or wrong
no shared secrets
no tagalong
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Love's too hard
Devotion's brief
turn a corner
then a leaf.
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Being Known
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I thought it was that chuckle when you lean back and laugh,
Your willingness to dare even when the forecast’s grim,
The details and years piling up until you are now your age,
And plans that don’t materialize but still sometimes thrill.
To my surprise it’s so much less.
It’s being known.
To lose that
Is reason
Enough
To try
Not
To.
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I love writing poetry. Words are my petals. I started my blog in February 2006. i am going to find and learn about myself, reading backyard like this, understanding how the then-future came to be, seeing in words who I was, who I am, who I've become
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I will be reading my old posts and most of the comments. Which reminds me. I don't say it enough: thank you for being here. Thank you for caring about my words.
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Love
kj

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Animal Wednesday: A Discourse on People by Emily V. V. Rabbit

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Hello everyone. It's me Emily. My teacher Mr. McHair made me study about people and not rabbits and this is what I found.
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People come in different colors They might be brown or white or red or yellow or black.
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For some reason the white ones tend to think they are the best. Isn't that ridiculous, since they are the ones with the least color?!
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Some people can be green with envy, which usually gets them in trouble
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And some people are blue for a thousand reasons, which is curious because I only get blue when I don't get my way or I run out of jellybeans.
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And sometimes people get all fired up and even see red and that can be a very good thing or a very bad thing (I personally think warm is mostly good but I like purple warm better than fire warm)
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Human beings don't seem to mind feeling all these different colors
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But for some reason they think their skin colors make them different from one another
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Isn’t that the silliest thing you’ve ever heard?
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Because even though I am just a little rabbit who wears a purple polka dot bikini and isn't afraid to fall on the ground and kick my feet high in the air when I whine or cry,
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Even I know that love may have lots of colors but it all comes from the same light.
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Sincerely Yours
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Emily Rabbit
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ps. my best friend Marianne gave kj these lights. kj loves them.
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pss. and don't you think I should be paid extra this week?

Monday, January 24, 2011

Mish Mash Starting with More Snow and Ending with More Love

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I went downtown today--had a favorite sushi lunch with JB and a nice break from work reports. It is freezing here: the wind chill is 20 degrees F below zero and there are warnings not to leave animals out or walk your dogs for very long. Winter is cold in New England and there is always plenty of snow, but this amount of snow is above and beyond.
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These are the result of plowing the streets after three storms in barely one week. These are sitting in the middle of my town's main street and are higher than I have ever seen snowbanks.
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There is a forecast for another 12 inches on Wednesday, which is hard to believe. If that happens, the town will have to bring in heavy equipment to scoop up these mile high piles and move them somewhere out of the way, probably to a nearby parking lot.
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Meanwhile, I am still cozy at home. This is the 'new' sitting room, just off the kitchen and where the tiny dining room used to be. I like it. It's feeling like a great place to read, to have my first cup of coffee, to look out the window and daydream. To think about writing.
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And speaking of writing, I wrote this poem this week after seeing a comment on someone's blog making fun of 'political correctness' after the shooting of a congresswoman in Tucson. There is debate in America about the lack of civility in the Congress and the easy availability of guns. I don't talk politics much on my blog but for the love of god I can't understand how anyone could be against avoiding inflammatory words and having stricter controls on who buys guns.
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Seeing that comment made me glad I no longer hear that foolish rhetoric anymore. I wrote this poem about it:
Sarah Palin
Nuts nuts nuts
Double meanings
Buts buts buts
Invitations
Yes no yes
Invocations
Less more less
Hostile blame
Too bad too bad
Scorched intention
Sad mad sad
I’ll remember
You me you
Tender not tender
True not true
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This girl is not at her best. Her back legs are not working so well these days, and navigating the snow is a triple challenge. JB and I have put rugs down here and there in the house and even outside so Stella doesn't lose her balance, but we are worried and so is she. It's a good thing there are chicken treats and cookies to ease the stress....
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JB knows how to accessorize.....
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JB had this photo made into a framed poster and we gave it to Mr. Ryan for his 4th birthday. A couple of years ago we picked up the wagon and bike at a yard sale for a grand total of $ 7. I so much love when the boys come here and we pull these out of the garage. Being their grandparent is a wonderful thing, more wonderful than I expected.
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Repeat performance. Ah love. I'll end with that....
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Love
kj

Wordsmiths

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I am happy for myself.
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This weekend confirmed that I am indeed writing again, trusting words: Writing poems, writing book proposals, writing second drafts, writing snippets.
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This is good news for me.
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To me, coming upon the right word is a natural high, much like coming upon a perfect musical note or a perfect shade of blue. So in this spirit I hope you enjoy the winning submissions from The Washington Post's yearly word contest, in which readers are asked to supply alternate meanings for common words. My favorite is # 6, followed closely by # 11.
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1. Coffee, n. The person upon whom one coughs.

2. Flabbergasted, adj. Appalled by discovering how much weight one has gained.

3. Abdicate, v. To give up all hope of ever having a flat stomach.

4. Esplanade, v. To attempt an explanation while drunk.

5. Willy-nilly, adj. Impotent.

6. Negligent, adj. Absentmindedly answering the door when wearing only a nightgown.

7. Lymph, v. To walk with a lisp.

8. Gargoyle, n. Olive-flavored mouthwash.

9. Flatulence, n. Emergency vehicle that picks up someone who has been run over by a steamroller.

10. Balderdash, n. A rapidly receding hairline.

11. Testicle, n. A humorous question on an exam.

12. Rectitude, n. The formal, dignified bearing adopted by proctologists.

13. Pokemon, n. A Rastafarian proctologist.

14. Oyster, n. A person who sprinkles his conversation with Yiddishisms.

15. Frisbeetarianism, n. The belief that, after death, the soul flies up onto the roof and gets stuck there.

16. Circumvent, n. An opening in the front of boxer shorts worn by Jewish men
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And for those who think a picture is worth a thousand words:

wishing you a good week,
with love
kj

Saturday, January 22, 2011

Thoughts on the Sex Survey and Mile High Snow

I don't mind admitting when an idea or effort falls short. Such as: one annual sex survey that produced CONSIDERABLE respondents last time around but this time the sharing of intimate information is clearly different.
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I thought that might be the case because I've been shy to post the sex survey. And even though it's my survey I'm reluctant to go public with my own preferences and practices.
Know what I think is different? Unlike a couple of years ago, I think many of us know one another in a different way now. I think our blogging relationships have changed, many of us have become and act more like friends, not anonymous'bloggers.' I think that alone changes the dynamic.
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So with thanks to the good sports who have taken the survey so far, and with thanks for the silly great comments by all, I am hereby transferring the home of the 2nd Annual Sex Survey to my sidebar. It'll stay up for a while. Just click on the survey image and you'll be escorted to survey questions and survey answers. Let it be known that I am still curious and I will still eagerly enjoy hearing from whomever.
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I hope my sterling reputation has not taken a hit. If so please indulge me and like me anyway. Trying to be loose(r) about sex can't really be a bad thing, can it? :)
So now: I am again posting pictures of the snow snow snow around me here in New England. Look at this, Lori! This is a lot of snow!






















Meanwhile, the little house at # 9 is warm and cozy.



I worked on a book proposal today
I made chicken soup
I saw my Mom
I thought about the future
I laughed with a friend
I cooked dinner for JB
A quiet peaceful day.
Thankfully.
love
kj

Friday, January 21, 2011

KJ Babe’s Second Not Quite Annual S-E-X Survey

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This is usually at most a PG-13 proper blog.
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But not this time.
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I am posting this the second annual sex survey on my blog because I am curious. And because I prefer not to be prudish or reticent about sex. I think it’s a healthy, heady, and hearty part of life, and I giggle and sometimes blush at how closed I and most of us are about it.
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So please throw caution to the wind and participate in the following survey. You can answer anonymously if that works for you. And feel free to invite anyone else to stop by and participate too. The more responses, the more interesting, don't you think?
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I should probably offer a reward for the most interesting answers but I'm hoping it will be reward enough to see who does what when how and why. :) After all, aren't you curious too?
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Answer as many or as few questions as you want, however you want. The questions are numbered in case you want to copy-paste them into your comments.

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Gulp.
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Here goes:
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1. In an ideal world how many times a week would you want to have sex/make love (definition: some combination of foreplay and/or orgasm)
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2. How many partners have you had? Men, woman, or both?
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3. How often do you fantasize about having sex with someone who is unavailable or inappropriate ?
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4. How important would you rate sex at this point in your life?
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5. Do you find sex more or less important than you did 10 years ago?
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6. Do you like to be rough or sensual?
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7. Do you prefer to be with the opposite sex or the same sex?
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8. How often do you have sex?
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9. Is sex a priority for you?
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10.Have/Do you ever fake orgasm? Why?
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11. Do you prefer the lights on or off?

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12. How do you feel about one night stands and how many have you had?
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13. What's your favorite position?
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14. Where's your favorite place to have sex?

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15. Have you ever watched porn while having sex?
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16. How long do you usually foreplay?
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17. Do you like kissing during sex?

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18. Are you loud or quiet?
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19. Do you prefer your partner to be loud or quiet?

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20. How old were you when you lost your virginity?
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21. How many sexual partners have you had?
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22. When and where was your wildest sex ever?
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23. What's your ultimate sexual fantasy?
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24. During sex...what are you thinking about?
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25. How many positions do you enjoy during one episode?
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26. Do you ever worry if you are pleasing your partner?
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27. Could you live without sex?
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28. Do you find sex boring?
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29. How long does a typical sexual episode last for you?
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30. Have you ever had a 3-some? 4-some? 5-some?

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31. What's your biggest turn on?
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32. Do you ever have sex in the shower?
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33. What's the weirdest place you've ever had sex?
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34. What was the biggest age difference with a partner?

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35. Do you feel you are a good lover/partner in bed?
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36. Are you still going to have sex when your 70?
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37. What was your most embarrassing sexual moment?
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38. Do you prefer to sleep with someone older or younger than you?
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39. Who gave you the best sex of your life?
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40. If you could sleep with ANYONE, who would it be?

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And just so you know, if you think it's easy for me to publish this survey on my blog, think again. I think of it as my own little act of bravery. :)
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love
kj

Money


Daddy, what do you do at work?

'I'm an accountant," my friend said.

"What is that?" the little boy asked.

"It means I keep notes about people's money and I help them add and subtract it."
"You mean you just write numbers all the time?"

"Pretty much," my friend said.

" Do you get to do it with crayons?"
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It's a new dawn here at # 9. One of us has had a cut back on work hours and that means a fresh look at income and expenses and that means cutting back and slashing through.

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It turns out I will have enough money in my life but not as much as I thought I would. I will have enough to enjoy a vacation or buy a new couch but not enough to spend mindlessly.
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And that's okay with me. I don't like having to look at our income and expenses but I don't mind it either. I've always liked the challenge of trying to figure how to manage money. I'm a forest person about it: I don't balance my checkbook and I don't nickel and dime anything, but I also don't let debt pile up and if it does certainly not without awareness.
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Here are some things I've learned or I think I know about money:
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1. I have a slush fund hidden in a paperback book where I add a $ 2o bill or two each month, whatever I can afford. I know that saving this way adds up. The most I've accumulated at one time was $ 2100, accumulated over probably two or three years in a ceramic piggy bank with no way to get inside besides breaking it in pieces. What a blast it was to crack it open and see all those $ 20 bills.
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2. I like the theory that says "Pay yourself first." That means when I sit down to pay bills, the first check goes to our savings account. Some times it may only be a very small amount, but 'pay yourself first' is a good habit to cultivate because of point # 1. :)
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3. JB and I may (often) spend more than we earn in a given month, but after many years of not knowing, we know when we are doing that. You can only know that if you can put a number to your monthly income and your monthly expenses. Information is Power. Even if you're spending $ 600 more than you have to spend each month, be honest: isn't there so value in at least knowing that?
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4. And speaking of value, my stint at an Ashram introduced me to the idea that that money should be seen as a spiritual practice on its own. It should be approached reverently, thoughtfully.
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5. This is how my business partner and friend Nancy handled her credit cards: 'I always pay the full amount of what I've spent that month PLUS the interest. So if I spent $ 300 and the monthly interest charge of the card is $ 25, I pay $ 325. That way I'm always reducing my credit card by at least something every month." Nancy died a few years ago, damn)
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6. JB and I finally set up two separate checking accounts: one to pay bills and one for the cash we will spend each month eating out, buying food and gifts, getting haircuts, etc. We don't mix the two. Not often but sometimes there is some lovely money left over in the bill account and often but not all the time we spend more than we gave ourselves for cash, but 1) we know when we've run out of spending money even if we're pouring a supplement from savings )and 2) we aren't tempted and don't use money needed for the bills.
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7. When Jess started working at age 14, I told her to spend 1/3 of the money she earned on herself, however she wanted; save 1/3 in the bank; and give 1/3 to a charity. I don't think she ever followed that advice, at least not precisely, but I do think the idea of it sunk in. I'm proud of her generosity.
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8. I have a credit card that gives me points I can use for hotel stays and airline travel. JB and I have at least 4 or 5 free nights somewhere a year doing that, including our free New York City stay in Times Square.
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9. When I didn't have enough money to pay all the bills I owed, I paid at least some portion of each bill. And I didn't close my eyes to figuring it out.
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10. Money isn't everything but it's really nice not to have to worry about it.
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I challenge you to add another suggestion or two. And just so you know, after that, I just might offer up that Sex Survey I've been talking about for too long now. :)
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Love
kj

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Home

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I lived on the right side of this Queen Anne victorian for twenty years: I, JB, Jessica, two dogs, two cats, one parakeet, three hamsters, two unwelcomed and evicted bats. The house was a disaster when first seen: but over time every wall of three floors and fourteen rooms on each side got a facelift, if only paint, this 28 room Victorian made into two condos with all the charm and built-ins and high ceilings so typical of the early 1900's.
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I made a sweet outdoor patio in the small side yard, complete with a small fishpond that was home to a koi fish named Tillie. Twice a day, sometimes three, I would visit her, ready my shrilly voice, stick my finger in the edge of the pond, and call: "Tillie! Hello Tillie!" Everytime, she would come.
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It got so I boasted about my friendship with Tillie to anyone passing by. That she froze one winter day when the electric heater failed tugs at me still. :-(
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Provincetown. This is where my heart tends to reside. You probably already know about my love affair with Provincetown. JB and I have a small condo there, the middle of a house sliced into three units, a sanctuary by any measure.
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The poet Mary Oliver has lived in Provincetown for many years and many of her poems are about the Provincelands. I will be back sometime in May. In August maybe, I will be able to stay for three uninterupted weeks. My family will come. We will walk to the bay some morninga at sunrise, take off our flipflops and squish our toes in the wet sand. I may write, perhaps finish, my second novel in Provincetown. I wrote the ending of the story of Alex and Lily on the sectional red couch, I too shocked at the ending even though the words were mine.
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Now I live in a six room ranch house in Western Massachusetts. This is a college town surrounded by farms, plenty of farms and plenty of year round fresh fruit and vegetables, plenty of gardens and plant sales, plenty of small town civility.
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Last week JB and I rearranged the furniture at # 9 and I am surprised how much of a sweet difference it has made on my well being. I don't like change (but I seem to encourage it.) God knows I've shown enough of my house here on my blog already, so I'll just sneak in a look or two of what's new:
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My Mom and Dad's formica kitchen table, now on the porch, in a room that has not yet settled on its identity; might still turn out to be a Cuban cafe, sort of...
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Aha! Now a real dining room where the little den used to be.
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I have the world's smallest kitchen. JB and I are tripping over one another at every turn. But this is a good place to be, a place to appreciate a roof that doesn't leak, friends who come for clinks!, my secret recipe for Colleen's cream cheese and lemon dessert.
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And in the garden of # 9, waiting for this incredible ice storm to pass and the snow to give way to the high March sun, Cholie the Garden Girl practices her dance moves.
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Just like me.
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love,
kj

Friday, January 14, 2011

Deep Love & Who I Know


"What if the question is not why am I so infrequently the person I really want to be, but why do I so infrequently want to be the person I really am?"~ Oriah Mountain Dreamer
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I'm falling in love again.
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With some important lessons finally learned.
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In 2006 I willingly welcomed myself to a state I called 'deep love.' JB and I had just moved here to #9, I had left my job to give 100% to writing my first book, I had started my blog only months earlier, and I was beginning to make room for the importance of friends.
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Since then I spent two plus years with more highs and lows than I'd ever experienced from one relationship in all my life, and I have spent the last two plus years trying to repair sad regret and harmful fallout from that relationship.
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In time I hope I will mostly see the blessings, and those were as real. I'm learning that deep connections don't end when a relationship ends. If left on its own the cord continues to hold two people together. I'm learning this from a wonderful woman who is both friend and teacher.
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A friend and I once joked that maybe hearts can bounce instead of break. I do think Resiliency is underrated. But my heart broke. It did. What was my part? I jumped too quickly. I allowed myself to feel adored. I became intoxicated by passion. I was naive. I (probably) chose the wrong person.
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But.
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Still.
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Here I am again, feeling very much like I'm surrounded by "deep love" again. I hope this time I'll let things be and get it right, because I know in my bones that love and loving is at its core everything that matters.
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I can't remember another time when I've had so many wonderful people in my life. All ages, all backgrounds, all perspectives, kind and h0norable and interesting and talented people.
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None perfect.
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I spent last weekend with some writing friends I've known now for five years. Several stay at my house twice a year, we laugh over breakfast, in our pajamas even; we write, we talk about the world, we sing. I know how to recognize a good friend when I spot one. I'm lucky in that regard.
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I have a friend from work who makes me laugh my ass off--she's so irreverent, and smart as in PhD-still-working-on-the-dissertation. Another knows every laborious detail of my screwed up parts and I know hers back. And how sweet and honest and comfortable is this: I can't even remember who recently said to me, with a delightful absence of judgement, about said relationship above, "kj, how can you be so together and so fucked up?"
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In the last year I have made two wonderful friends and I love learning who they are. I met both through this blog. How many times do I remind myself that it's important to have in-person friends, not just blog friends, and it's so true, but god, the friends I've made from the blogs...
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I could go on but no need. For whatever reason I've heard a lot of talk this week about 'What's it all about?' Honestly, I don't know. I don't know why I'm so vulnerable some times and I don't exactly know what's expected of me here on this planet.
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But I know there are many many good people in my life. I haven't even mentioned JB and my Jessica and my Mom and my family. That's everything right there. But there is MORE. Relationships that challenge and teach and astonish me. I think I am reaching the edges of Deep Love again.
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I am not interested in asking if I'm a good person or if I am good enough. I am.
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So there. I'm wanting to live that way. That's my answer to every question. For all of 2011. And maybe longer, even. :)
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love
kj

Thursday, January 13, 2011

Whether Weather Yo Snow!

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Whether
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No snow
Low snow
Even knee deep snow
Encircles my wishes
For something I know
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Grey snow
Black crow
A sight to bestow
Though something keeps falling
Above and below
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Blow snow
Whoa snow!
I could lay low
Fall Into the questions
And justly letting go
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Yo! Snow
A free throw?
Is it time to outgrow?
But that won’t solve the weather
A long time ago
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Vincent Van Gogh
A blizzard plateau
Tracks in the snow?
I’m following footsteps
Encrusted just so..
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And whether though
I just might forgo?
Navigate just so
And tuck all the questions
Into the snow?
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Hello!
Double Whoa!
I probably know!
I have kernals to follow
And stories to sow
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I’m witnessing snow
So deeply as though
I’m in overflow
Snow on my tongue
And snowballs to throw
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I’m a poet you see
I know that, it’s me
I can start I can quit
I can stand I can sit
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Snow today
Not tomorrow
Clear tonight
Hello sorrow
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I can change this design
This whether is mine
Whether to blow
Hold stay or go
Accept or forego
Arrive or lay low
Freeze up or flow
Look up at the snow
It’s mine to decide
I can fold….
I can hold
I can try
I can fly
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For Lori.......