Okay everyone – I’ve begun the transition to my new website!! Please update your bookmarks/favorites/links to www.wordperv.com or you can access it by clicking here. It’s going to take me a while to get everything up and running and all the bells and whistles, but I got it installed last night and that was a feat itself.

So please check out the new website often as it’ll get better and better as I get things going with it. And my goal it to begin running ads shortly in the new year – so get those happy little trigger fingers ready to start clicking away – maybe I’ll make enough on ads to, I don’t know, buy myself a beer once a month. Wouldn’t that be grand?!

Today I read my dear friend Wendy’s blog and she posted her favorites. I liked the idea so much I decided to steal it. And I have to add the same disclaimer she did – these reflect my favorites this very minute. They’ll change, repeatedly, over the span of my lifetime. Or over the next 24 hours…

Mothafuckin Favorites

1. Beer: Yuengling – a truly East Coast beer since it’s brewed in PA.

2. Scent: Since I don’t wear perfume (gives me headaches), my favorite scents tend to be the ones that trigger memories, or things that make me smille – you know, stuff like fresh cut grass, rain, fresh brewed coffee, chocolate chip cookies as they’re baking, my dog when she’s fresh from a bath, the ocean, my mother’s fresh baked bread.

3. Show: Scrubs – makes me laugh my butt off and that is really needed sometimes. I also love the Daily Show with John Stewart, but since the writers have been on strike it’s been reruns and I’m getting bored with that.

4. Song: Oh I can’t choose just one since it changes daily. But I love Ani DiFranco, Beth Hart,  Daniel Powter, The Fray, Maroon 5, Amy Winehouse, and Bic Runga to name a few…

5. Flavor: Chocolate – so cliche, but I love the stuff. Especially the good stuff. Yum!

6. Wine: Anything red – merlot, cab, pinot, shiraz – I drink them all! And since I got a new wine rack for Christmas and it holds 10 bottles, I need to fill it with some delicious drink!

7. Movie: Wonder Boys, #2 is Love Actually

8. Place: this is hard to choose. I loved living in Puerto Rico – having the thick smell of the ocean constantly filling my lungs and that heat hanging in the air. I loved Den Hague (or The Hague for those of you who prefer to say it in English) in the Netherlands – I could definitely see myself living in this city…if I spoke Dutch. I liked Paris, but didn’t love it the way I had envisioned I would. And then I love my house. It has become something different in the past few months, as it has become only mine, but I still love it.

9. Book: While I love a lot of books, I read one book every year – Satisfaction by Rae Lawrence (I posted about this book before). I also love poetry, particularly mine, but also my dear friend Michael Glaser (MD’s poet laureate), Nikki Giovanni (some of her older stuff), Jim Carroll (you can read about him here), as well as countless others.

10. Kirsten – quite simply, my sister kicks ass. She has been my support since, well, she was born, and despite the fact that we live in different areas of the country, we are still a part of one another’s daily lives. And how many people can say that?

11. My friends. Too many to list, and I fear I would forget to list someone so please know I love you all and you are all my favorites.

12. My dog. Daisy has been my companion and kept me going on days when, without her, I would have not gotten out of bed. She keeps me fit (walking 4 miles a day will do that!) and she makes me smile.

13. The fall – it is my favorite season and the colors are amazing on the east coast.

14. Swearing. I love to swear (as clearly evidenced by the title of this post!), and while I know that I should try to curb it, I was married to a Sailor and I work with Marines, so come on, what do you expect?! And really, I just love it. Sometimes the only word to adequately describe something is “fuck”, and since it can be a noun, adjective, verb, etc. it is really quite useful. I even wrote a poem titled “This is a Fuck You”. You can read it here, just note, it is a bit vulgar.

15. Sunday mornings. My favorite time of the week, though in the last few months this too has changed. Now I wake and take Daisy for a nice long walk while my coffee brews, then I read the paper and enjoy said coffee. A lovely way to start the day.

16. Being kissed. There’s just something about it.

17. Ridiculously expensive underwear. Just makes me feel good when I wear it, even if nobody knows. I’ve found that on days when I am feeling particularly blue it helps for some silly reason.

18. Dilbert. It is almost frightening how adequately this cartoon captures office life.

19. Yarn stores. I know, it’s nerdy, but I knit. These shops are amazing – all the colors and the luscious yarns. I have to avoid them completely or I do something silly like spend $75 on soft pink cashmere yarn to make a scarf for myself…. Not that I’ve done that…

20. Writing. It’s what I’m meant to do, and now I’m working on making it more a part of my life so I can hopefully one day make a (small, supplemental) income from it. As my favorite quote states: “Never let the odds keep you from doing what you know in your heart you were meant to do.” ~H. Jackson Brown Jr.

Today feels uncanningly similiar to my Thanksgiving (you can read it here), as this is what I’ve done today:

~ Ran 5 miles

~ Walked my beautiful little beagle 3 miles (and counting)

~ Painted my office

~ Worked on some writing projects

And now I’m heading to a late lunch with my friend Jen and her family (fresh baked sourdough biscuits – yum!) and later I’m joining my friends Paul & Ann for dinner at their place.

The difference is I don’t feel that heavy hand of despair today. I am a bit sad, as this is my first Christmas alone and it is very hard to be alone on the holidays, but I don’t feel quite so pathetic or lonely. I guess this means I’m healing, albeit slowly. Merry Christmas everyone.

There are a lot of trials and tribulations that go hand in hand with being a homeowner. As a newly-single homeowner it is even more daunting because I no longer have that support to lean on when I need it. I don’t have someone to turn to when something breaks and I don’t know how to fix it. Someone to calm me down and say, “Take a deep breath, we’ll figure it out.” When there’s water in my basement and I think – quite incorrectly – that it is my washer has crapped out. When I am freaking out because it’s the Sunday before Christmas and my goddam sewer line is backing up into my house. When I have to call a plumber on the Sunday before Christmas and the bill STARTS at $500. Merry Fucking Christmas.

For a little bit of everday normal fun, click on this link to watch an amazingly funny video. I couldn’t get it to post directly to my blog as I’ve done in the past, so click on the link and it’ll take you to it. Sooo funny! (Thanks Wendy for sharing it with me!) Happy rainy Sunday!

Yesterday was my office holiday party, and while some office parties are lame and quiet, mine was not quite so lame or quiet… Or maybe it was, but the large doses of alcohol I consummed seemed to override anything else. In my defense, there was nothing for me to eat at the party, and having only eaten my usual breakfast of soy “sausage” (no, that’s not a typo, an oxy moron perhaps, but not a typo – us vegetarians gotta eat something!) and a banana prior to the party, the alcohol had a quicker than usual effect. Thankfully I am a happy drunk and I had a designated driver, so the libations were an acceptable indulgence. And it is the holiday season and nothing says “Merry Christmas!!” like large quantities of alcohol. At least that’s what I’m trying to convince everyone.

So today I ran my first hash and I am no longer a virgin. For those who don’t know, hashing is…well…one helluva good time. It’s a group of runners – wait, that’s not quite right, let me try again. It’s a group of drinkers who like to run. As the motto goes, it’s a drinking club with a running problem.

We began gathering at 12 noon and beer in hand, got the details of what was about to occur. The hares would lead, laying a trail for us to decipher and follow, leading us up hills and down valleys, through the woods and on more than one occassion, in the entirely wrong direction. We would stop midway through for a beer and then continue on, until we reached our final destination and were once again greeted with, yes, you guessed it – beer.

There was of course, a lot of fun, laughter, merriment, and a large dose of obnoxiousness. Traditions were explained and names were given to those who had earned them. Songs were sung and 5 hours later when I returned home, after 5 miles and as many beers, I couldn’t help but think it was one of the best things I have done recently. I can’t wait until the next hash. On-on.

As many of you know, I write reviews for the website Book Slut.  Nearly a year ago, in January 2007, I reviewed a collection of poetry titled Why Speak? by Nathaniel Bellows (you can read the review here). Yesterday, while reading my Poets & Writers Magazine, I realized the mag had named Nathaniel Bellows one of the best debut poets of 2007. While my review had nothing to do with it (though clearly it was a brilliant literary essay), it is kind of nice to know that I had the opportunity to review a book that was later decided to be one of the best new poetry collections of the year. Perhaps one day a collection of my own poetry will make this prestigious list. Oh hell, at this point I would just like to make even $1 on my writing. Thus far it’s been “payment in copies”, and while that’s not half bad, it doesn’t even pay for the paper that I write on, much less anything else. Oh the tortured writer…

My beautiful friend Wendy recently posted on her blog  her love of “The Last Kiss” soundtrack, how “Hide and Seek” by Imogean Heap is currently her favorite song on that album. It’s my favorite too, that song haunts me when I listen to it. It’s not postpartum Wendy – it’s this female gene we both possess – that one that makes you cry when you hear certain lyrics sung. They are like poetry and they speak to you on a level that you can’t really explain or comprehend. To be honest, that song stung so sharply that I couldn’t listen to it after Brian and I separated. I would cry so damn hard I would practically drive off the road. For the safety of other drivers I thought it was best to shelve that CD for a while. Thankfully, I can now listen to it without swerving into the other lane. Unless I’ve been drinking of course, then I’m all over the road. (I’m just JOKING people!!! I don’t drink and drive, I’d rather call my friends and with slurred tongue ask them to kindly come pick my drunk-ass up. Truth be told I drink most when I’m at home or at friends’ houses – so no driving for me!)

For those who don’t know, a turducken is a scary concoction that some demented fool invented. In essence it is a duck stuffed inside a chicken stuffed inside a turkey. If this isn’t a vegetarian’s nightmare, I don’t know what is. For those who want to learn more about this frightening culinary treat, you can read about it here. But today I used that bizarre concept for my own uses. Daisy’s favorite thing to do is “de-stuff” her very expensive squeaky toys. Today I used the turducken concept to stuff one of her toys inside the “carcass” of one of the other toys. And she loved it. She went nuts. Totally insane over this little toy creation. I am brilliant. Long live the turducken!