My Birthday Poem

Got this poem today from my friend, Caitie. Couldn't be more perfect.

Poem in October

by Dylan Thomas

It was my thirtieth year to heaven

Woke to my hearing from harbour and neighbour wood

And the mussel pooled and the heron

Priested shore

The morning beckon

With water praying and call of seagull and rook

And the knock of sailing boats on the net webbed wall

Myself to set foot

That second

In the still sleeping town and set forth.

My birthday began with the water-

Birds and the birds of the winged trees flying my name

Above the farms and the white horses

And I rose

In rainy autumn

And walked abroad in a shower of all my days.

High tide and the heron dived when I took the road

Over the border

And the gates

Of the town closed as the town awoke.

A springful of larks in a rolling

Cloud and the roadside bushes brimming with whistling

Blackbirds and the sun of October

Summery

On the hill’s shoulder,

Here were fond climates and sweet singers suddenly

Come in the morning where I wandered and listened

To the rain wringing

Wind blow cold

In the wood faraway under me.

Pale rain over the dwindling harbour

And over the sea wet church the size of a snail

With its horns through mist and the castle

Brown as owls

But all the gardens

Of spring and summer were blooming in the tall tales

Beyond the border and under the lark full cloud.

There could I marvel

My birthday

Away but the weather turned around.

It turned away from the blithe country

And down the other air and the blue altered sky

Streamed again a wonder of summer

With apples

Pears and red currants

And I saw in the turning so clearly a child’s

Forgotten mornings when he walked with his mother

Through the parables

Of sun light

And the legends of the green chapels

And the twice told fields of infancy

That his tears burned my cheeks and his heart moved in mine.

These were the woods the river and sea

Where a boy

In the listening

Summertime of the dead whispered the truth of his joy

To the trees and the stones and the fish in the tide.

And the mystery

Sang alive

Still in the water and singingbirds.

And there could I marvel my birthday

Away but the weather turned around. And the true

Joy of the long dead child sang burning

In the sun.

It was my thirtieth

Year to heaven stood there then in the summer noon

Though the town below lay leaved with October blood.

O may my heart’s truth

Still be sung

On this high hill in a year’s turning.

Things That Amuse Us: Freak Revolution

Freak, (n). Alternative. Misfit. Outcast. Visionary. World-changer.
Revolution, (n). A drastic and far-reaching change in ways of thinking and behaving.
~~*~*~*~**~*~*~~*~*~*~**~*~*~*~*

So, Peef emailed me today and told me to head on over to Freak Revolution.

"Read their manifesto," he wrote, "You'll love it."

And wouldn't you know it? He was absolutely right.
This is exactly the sort of organization that Peef and I would dream up some night while we're sitting there on the couch drinking glasses of wine and wondering what to do next. It's brilliant. And, best of all, it's absolutely true.

Let me read you just a little bit -- just to give you a taste.

We are living in a mass hallucination.

We think it’s normal to work all day every day at a dead-end job. It’s normal to fight with our spouses and our children. It’s normal to eat and drink and drug ourselves to escape, to veg out and stare at a screen for hours a day just to dull the pain. It’s normal to hate our lives and be miserable, it’s normal to be lonely, it’s normal to feel hollow.

The control paradigm tells us that we are tiny insignificant cogs in a big whirring machine where no one cares and no one will ever notice us. That is a terrible lie. We are brightly shining stars caught in a murky fog. All we need is the courage to shine and the knowledge that we can.

Gandhi had it half right when he said, “Be the change you want to see in the world.” The second half is “connect with others.” If you go off and live on a mountaintop and never talk to anyone - even if you’re being the change you want to see in the world - you’re not changing the world. But if you come down from time to time and connect with people so they know you’re living your perfect life on a mountaintop, and if you tell them that they can follow their own dreams and live their own perfect lives, too? That’s revolutionary.

[...]All you need to do is be your authentic self and connect with others. That’s the kind of revolution we can get behind, the kind of revolution we’re building.
-- Pace & Kyeli Smith &/or Martin Whitmore, Freak Revolution

I guess I'm probably a freak -- cuz that message resonates with me pretty well. And I think I probably have a new blog to follow.


Fly your freak flag higher, people.
It's gonna change the world.

Download the manifesto yourself.
Read it. Love it. Live it.

New Cure for What Ails You: Pictures of You

You've never seen the Cure performed quite like this before... AWESOME!

Things That Amuse Us: Olive the Octopus

Olive, the Accidental Octopus
from greenkayak73

Why I love the Fair

The 158th annual Wisconsin State Fair opened yesterday. And boy-oh-boy. It's a dandy this year. And we're not the only ones who think so. Karen wrote all about it on her Between the Bars blog.

We've actually got plans to make a trip out to the fair next week -- when all the excitement has has a chance to die down. I find that the fair is best after all the pigs have been judged, the contests have been adjudicated, and the overall "newness" factor has dissipated.

I do love me some of the fair. And so, I'm posting a little homage.

I love going to the WI State Fair because:

1. WI SF has a micro-brew beer tent that most certainly puts other fairs to shame
2. there's chocolate covered bacon
3. there's beer
4. who can resist the cheese curds?
5. and don't forget the deep fried oreos
   
6. there's always more beer
7. you can always find silly city folk that seem to think all animals belong behind bars
8. seeing washed up bands play is like watching a train wreck
9. people watching is always at its prime
   
10. there are pig races!

If that isn't enough to make you get up off your couch and go buy tickets to the fair, then you should check your pulse. Really. Just think of all the fun we had LAST YEAR!

AND if your heading out there, look for me. I'll be the one wearing the Skynard shirt and the trucker cap spilling my beer down your back. I'll probably even bring Lo along -- since her new hill-billy look is seriously stylin'.

You think I'm kidding? Heck, I don't want to look like no fool. I need to blend in so that I don't draw too much attention to myself. After all, I'm one of those silly city folk. And, now that I'm half famous from being in the Journal Sentinel, I don't need nobody recognizing me either.

Have fun at the fair y'all...

And the Diaper Bag Diva Winner Is...

Thanks to everyone for participating in the Diaper Bag Diva Giveaway!

The winner, as selected by the Random.org integer generator, IS:

#88:
Erma, who said:

I love the JP Lizzy Strawberry Truffle Classic Tote Set cause it is so cute.

July 30, 2009 6:39 AM

Well, Erma -- I'll be emailing you in just a few moments to let you know that you're the lucky winner.

Party 'til Your Teeth Fall Out

This past weekend, I felt like the universe was sending us a message.
Like "Don't have any more crazy parties."

Truthfully, it's probably more like:
"Don't eat carrots from the relish tray at your crazy parties!!!"
Yeah, it was pretty horrific. But, I tried to be a good sport. I even posed for a picture. Nice, huh?

Since the whole fiasco happened on a Saturday, I had to get it on with my big bad hill-billy self for the remainder of the weekend. Fortunately, I wasn't in pain. I was just... well... ugly.

I tried to paste the crown back into my mouth with some dental adhesive. But, that didn't work so well. The tooth would stay in for about 2 hours and then fall out again. So, eventually, I gave up.

When I went to the dentist on Monday, they pulled my tooth and provided me with a handy-dandy temporary bridge.

At this point, you can hardly tell that I'm a hill-billy. But, we all have our secrets, right?