It was kind of a dreary day and I started off obsessing about the car starter. At one point I tried packing for the road trip just to calm my brain. Then a freight train was blocking both crossings on the way to pickup kiddo and traffic on the alternate route was horrible. Perhaps I should have been looking for the glimmers instead of panicking. Like Taco Bell for lunch with Pete. And now finding an artist who makes oil paintings of fast food.
Today’s reading
Poem: Eat by Joy Harjo 2024
Essay: My Year at Sea by Christopher Buckley 2010
Short story: Where Do You Go? by Samar Farah Fitzgerald 2012
Some of the short stories I’ve read recently have come from a book of winners of the O. Henry Award. I thought award based compilations would feel like I was feeding my brain quality stuff and getting inspired, but man they’re mostly depressing. I came across a site that tagged a bunch of the “best” short stories and I found out after the fact the one I just read was tagged “stories where you feel like something bad is going to happen”. Well that is often my brain’s natural anxious state so adding more fuel to the fire isn’t exactly helpful. lol. Then I looked at a listing of all the tags and the top five were “Death, Family, Ambiguous Ending, Slow Plot, Downbeat Ending” Why are they all so bleak?!
The essays at least are on a decent track- I found a book of them that are travel themed, which I’ve been enjoying.
For poetry, I’ve been taking the last few from a book called “You Are Here: Poetry In The Natural World” and that is pleasing as well.
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