sat / it's 145 degrees / tucson

when you're a lil under the weather, the desert heat can make you feel outright blah & sizzle. so ive stayed in since thurs nite--just going here & there to get a couple things done, etc. i know it's prob just allergies (ragweed! ew.), but im lying low so that when i go to LA this thurs, all is well & behind me.

how excited am i to go to LA? sooooooooo! mandy & i are already planning everything out--yoga, museum for fashion exhibit, west hollywood bookfair, & of course the most important part other than spending QT together is foooooooooooooooood. we're def going to rosco's chikn & waffles & are both getting the carol c. and i might get my lashes done! eyelash extensions! ha!

last nite i went to ari & aisha's reading at casa libre. aisha started off strong with a lyric essay on identity/family/herself as woman which i found very, very good. i love the 'i'--i love the 'i' shirtless & crouched behind a pile of tires at an old automotive warehouse, camera on tripod set for click, & 'i' crouching for self-portrait--the vulnerability which 'i' find beautiful. how fragile we all are figuring ourselves out. aisha has work up at identitytheory.com. check her out.

then ms arianne zwartjes read from her new book--'the surfacing of excess.' i remember most all the poems from wkps in grad school, & to now, at this moment, have the book in my hands is a magnificent experience. what a beautiful book from eastern washington university press--& what a beautiful friend--& perhaps most important, what beautiful, beautiful poetry. it was good to get out for a lil bit & hear great work which inspires my own infinitely--& to also see local writers/friends--ms kristen nelson & noah saterstrom, kristi & michael, mm was there, so was drew if but for a minute, was so nice.