Search Results for: label/3 1 Things

3+1 Things: On To Poem #5

By in 3+1 Things, Neruda, poems

It’s time to move on to the penultimate poem in my 3+1 Things memorization project. The Mark Strand for July and August was just right for the end of summer and feeling a little sad, but the September/October poem I picked doesn’t feel as appropriate.

Should I change poems to the Galway Kinnel I posted in June? To this? (That might be too sad, actually.) Or should I stick with the plan so I have at least one happier poem under my belt?

Here it is, if you want to help me decide:

Sonnet C, from 100 Love Sonnets, Pablo Neruda

In the center of the earth I will push aside
the emeralds so that I can see you–
you like an amanuensis, with a pen
of water, copying the green sprigs of plants.

What a world! What deep parsley!
What a ship sailing through the sweetness!
And you, maybe–and me, maybe–a topaz.
There’ll be no more dissensions in the bells.

There won’t be anything but all the fresh air,
apples carried on the wind,
the succulent book in the woods:

and there where the carnations breathe, we will begin
to make ourselves a clothing, something to last
through the eternity of a victorious kiss.

Thing #21, aka IT’S BOOZE TIME

By in 30 Things, cocktails

I finally bit the bullet and stocked my home bar over the weekend, accomplishing Thing 21 on my list of 30 Things:
The scotch is for sipping, not for mixing.

Right now my “bar” is in an upper kitchen cabinet but someday I will arrange all the booze on a fancy tray or cart in my imaginary living room:

Yes, it feels good accomplishing my alcohol-related goals.

30 Things: A Little Progress

By in 30 Things

It’s about time for the third quarter report on my 30 Things, but I don’t feel as if I’ve made a lot of progress (in fact, I’ve regressed on riding my bike). But I do have two things done that I’m proud of:


That’s #18 [Stop biting my fingernails] and #2 [Learn more about real estate].

Honestly, I feel that #18 can be up there with paying off debt as a supreme achievement. All it took was noticeable fingernail polish–because then people would notice all my chewed cuticles and hangnails, too–and I stopped.

Simple solutions, books for dummies….who knew?

Happy Birthday To Me

By in 3+1 Things, birthdays

Yes, it is my birthday today! (And Tolkien’s, too. I always have to point out that we share one.) 31 is not really a meaningful or special number, but it is still fun to celebrate–and to make a list of things to do this year.

Unlike 29 or 30, I’m scaling back a little for 31. The long lists of goals were getting to be overwhelming, so this year I’m doing 3+1 Things instead of 31 Things. And I’m really going to do them all this year.

Here are the 3 things:

1. Walk, bike, or do yoga once a week.
When I first got an office job, I made it a point to go out for a hike on Sundays. Now that I should have my own washer and dryer and won’t have to do laundry at the parents on Sundays, I might start that again. (My new house will be closer to Millcreek Canyon and I want to get an annual pass there.) I also want to try biking to the grocery stores and downtown Sugarhouse. And I need to find a new yoga studio.

2. Learn more sewing techniques.
I tend to want to hurry and finish projects so I can wear them, but this year I want to take a little more time and learn some higher-end techniques, like stabilizing necklines, and underlining, and using a silk organza press cloth, and making bound buttonholes. I also want to learn how to use my serger, since I’ll finally have a place to keep it out.

3. Memorize 6 poems.
I’ve always been bad at memorizing–music, words, anything. I can get pretty close but then I get stuck, or discover that I don’t have it down as well as I thought. Sometime over the summer I realized that I had the Mark Strand poem in the Gallivan Center memorized (after visiting it for four years), and it was a revelation when I said it back from memory. I think all poems need to be memorized now, so I’m going to try to get some of my favorites down:

i. “The Poems of Our Climate,” Wallace Stevens
ii. Final section (VI) from Ash Wednesday, T.S. Eliot
iii. “Meditation at Lagunitas,” Robert Hass
iv. Section XVI from Dark Harbor, Mark Strand
v.. Sonnet 100 from 100 Love Sonnets, Pablo Neruda
vi. “Starlings in Winter,” Mary Oliver

And here’s the +1 thing. Because it’s a +1, I’m calling it optional, just in case I don’t get everything accomplished this year:

+1. Go on a date.
Given how quickly the time has passed between 27 (when I last went on a date) and 31, I think it may be wise to ask my friends to set me up a couple times this year. I’m not sure I want to actually get into a relationship–Toby and I have been just fine, thank you very much–but I also don’t want to suddenly be 40 and realize that I haven’t been on a date in 13 years. I intend to keep my hand in, so to speak.

I have the day off, so I can start on some of the 3 Things already–I’m going to sew and think about Wallace Stevens.

Friday Unrelated Information

By in Friday Unrelated Information

1. One month from today is my birthday. I don’t think I’m going to have a very good success rate on the 30 Things.

2. I’m reading The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy again after a lapse of about fifteen years. Now that I’ve seen some Dr. Who, I realize how derivative the book was. It’s still fun, though–gotta love Marvin the Paranoid Android.

3. Something to remember:

(From here.)

Have A Seat

By in 30 Things

I am really going to push myself this year to be more social–not only to get out more, but to have more people come to the apartment. Last year there were hardly any visitors, and if I’m not going to turn into a crazy cat lady hermit, I need to change that.

So I bought a chair (Thing #6) and rearranged the living room. Now guests can make their way to the seating area easily and we won’t have to sit side-by-side and try to talk.

I “cheated” on this, too, in that I picked it out online when I was making my 30 Things list, but I was going to wait to order it–until Target had a sale plus free shipping after Christmas. I do love that Target furniture.
Toby does, too.

Tuesday Project Roundup: Stacking The Deck

By in 30 Things, sewing, Tuesday Project Roundup

I started thinking about the 30 Things in December, and I have to admit that a couple of things were not only thought of but carried out in 2009. I was going to wait on Thing #7 (sew new pillows for the living room), but then I decided to have a New Year’s party and I had some time off and the brown pillows were just too much of an embarrassment. So here are the new ones:

I am so much happier with these, which don’t collect cat hair and have orange flowers and birds on them to boot. And I have a nice feeling of early accomplishment with my list, even if I did cheat a little.

And speaking of cheating, what’s this in the foreground of the rearranged living room? Thing #6, perhaps? Tune in tomorrow to find out!