["Penn Plaza Dental, This is Carolyn Speaking..."]


I had just enough time before I hopped on the train at Penn Station

to check in with my dentist at Penn Plaza. I was feeling achey--everything feels achey: head, body, sinuses, and then teeth.
Dr Zenker found two cavities and he drilled and filled in time for the 2:00 train. I might use this photograph for next year's *Christmas* card
and this one for my book jacket. I think the bib is flattering.

I am feeling very blurry. Muddled. But Bruno with her pocketbook and side pony cheers me up [see above]

[VACATION]
So far, vacation has been swell. I've made delicious chocolate chip cookies using Mark Bittman's recipe, with at least 4 substitutions (vanilla yogurt for vanilla extract, no white sugar, extra flour, etc.). They're smooth and I've eaten too many. I'm rolling up a few extra logs of dough for the freezer and hoping to meet the neighbors once I cut and bake the next batch. I watched Black Hawk Down on Friday night; if you haven't seen it, watch it and please call me. I'm embarrassed to say that I hardly noticed the movie when it came out--I was swaddled in campus-centric college life.

I've taken a few long drives and worked on my book proposal last night, taking breaks to play with Augustus. He's taken to his weekend home.

This town is surrounded by chasidic camps and ashrams. Pictures soon.

This ARTICLE is one of my favorite exposés in the history of journalism. Those damn pupeteers!

PRESS CONFERENCE AT NOON WITH JOHN EDWARDS, on the subject of his wife's health and his candidacy.
The GUARDIAN ANGELS in the New York Times. Most of you know I stalked the Guardian Angels in Times Square circa 2000-2001. I have a radio doc to show for it. I know the Guardian Angels theme song.
LAUREN AMBROSE to play Juliet this summer (Shakespeare in the Park). I saw her at Dean and Deluca last week and I think she's worthy of Guardian Angel-style stalking.

[READING] for the Winter/Spring Cusp



Plus:The Red Parts by Maggie Nelson [no image available yet as jpeg but click on title]

I have lots of pics for you.
But Blogger's having trouble--heartburn.
So I take you HERE to one of my favorite bars I have ever been to: Jimbo's in Miami. Juno took me there and it was love at first sight. We ate smoked fish, drank beer, and held freshly hatched chicks in our hands. I kid you not.

I feel summer coming (spring first). I am about to listen to Eve's piece on This American Life.

[MORE]

[DOC]
I've been working on some photos.

Ruined Music:

[from Ruined Music]
Breaking up is hard to do. There are tears and sleepless nights, decreased appetites, increased appetites for takeout dumplings and/or vodka, items thrown at walls, packs of cigarettes smoked, embarrassing songs and/or poems and/or “meditative essays” composed (at 3:50 a.m. while smoking said cigarettes), epic bouts of whining to be endured only by your closest confidantes and understanding pets. Then, of course, there are the horrible logistics of the breakup, which involve notifying friends, said friends taking sides, and finally, canvassing your apartment for items left behind or given as gifts by your ex. You must determine which items you should try to return and which you must throw away or burn in the bathtub. And then you collapse against the side of the bathtub and cry, because a) you can’t believe you wasted so many weeks/months/years of your life with that evil bitch/bastard, or b) you can’t believe your precious angel left you and now you are doomed to die alone. Or both.
But perhaps the worst thing about the breakup is the fact that music gets caught in the fallout. Everyone has a song, album, artist, or band that’s been ruined by an ex (or, more accurately, by memories of an ex). Ruined Music is the place to talk about the music you’ve lost: the songs you can’t stand to hear ever again, that record she always played when she was over at your house, the band you went to see together a week before he called it quits, That Song that was on That Mix, the record that was playing the night you (fill in the blank), the album you got for a Valentine’s Day gift.

What is on your Breakup CD?

Various songs I have cried to include:
Sufjan Stevens' Flint
Roxy Music's Oh Yeah
Brian Eno's On Some Faraway Beach
Gillian Welch [all]
Mazzy Star [all]
Steve Earle's Valentines Day
Modest Mouse: The World at Large and Float On
Joni Mitchell's Clouds
Grateful Dead's Uncle John's Band and Ripple
Dolly Parton's Little Sparrow

More soon...

I am shitting bricks--my class will be "observed" tonight. When I am nervous, I use words incorrectly. Pray for me.

I love this sculpture:



[DOC]
New on-line photography magazine
Ira Glass on Story, via Youngna [Your Daily Awesome]
Edible Sculptures[Your Daily Awesome]