Bla-la-fla-da

New kind of post

So Molly and I are tossing around the idea of writing a book about co-housing and collaboration, which I can tell you all about the pitch for in a conversation if you want, but at the moment we're trying to write about the 14 chapters we've decided we need to have--a paragraph per chapter. I've been procrastinating on producing my 7 paragraphs (I've always struggled with writing about what I'm going to write, but I've also never written a whole book and some working up to it seems necessary and important) so I'm going to post a very rough draft of those paragraphs every day until I've produced seven. Here's one, currently chapter five in our outline, but I expect that to change (this one seems central enough that fifth position seems too late, as I compose this overview.) I'm terribly self-conscious about posting this rough draft of a thing I've never done and have imposter syndrome about being qualified to do. But I'm posting anyway because it will make me do it.

Communication (constant)

            It will surprise no one to hear about how important communication is in any kind of group dynamic system. But “Communication is important!” is an empty mantra unless there is a structure and a culture for proactive and even habitual information transfer. Life is busy; much as we intend to share our thoughts, often we’re just not home at the same time. Some months the kitchen is a huge mess and steam is coming out of Heater’s ears, or the kids have been figuring out that different adults have very different policies about loose glitter distribution throughout the house and are taking advantage of the inconsistency, or the plants that got dug up when the sewer pipe failed need to be replaced by something but everyone has a different and passionate opinion about what—and who’s going to pay for that, anyway? And we need to talk about it, and come to some kind of agreement. This chapter discusses principles of collaborative communication and decision-making, including thoughts about meetings and the meta-level of “deciding how to decide”: Majority rule? 100% consensus? A designated decision maker? Who has veto power? We also showcase some scenarios where communication strategy wasn’t consciously addressed and passive avoidance techniques prevailed to our ruin. Like when all of Molly’s jeans mysteriously vanished for three months.

Because intelligent life worked out so well last time.

When the final germ is dissolved
And the samples are heat fixed and dried,
When the methylene blue has faded
And all the patients have died.

We shall sleep for almost forever,
We'll lay our heads til life springs anew
And a fresh new planet awakens
And forms a microbe or two.

I feel like I've forgotten how to write a poem

Like seriously, I've sat down to write so many times in the last several days, multiple times today, and faced a blank mind. Zephyr went down for a "nap" today at 4:15 (later than usual, but I was toying with the idea of taking him to a birthday party tonight so I thought, eh, I'll let him sleep and then he'll have fun coming out with me.) And now it's after 11 and he's still snoring on the monitor. I guess he went to bed early. Soooo...here I am. I should really go to bed because he's gonna wake up bright-eyed and bushy-tailed at like 4am. But I haven't written a poem. And I just...you guys...I feel like I don't have a poem in me. I'm not sure what's going on. So I'll just abuse this forum to write you all a letter, like in the old days.

Dear Friends,

I was doing super well with the Facebook restriction on my laptop--I give myself 20 minutes a day, which is just enough time to take a break or communicate with people who don't email, and then I get cut off. I was feeling more energy and focus generally for doing other things. But when Mike is out of town, I find I get worse. Instead of going to bed, I use up my laptop's 20 minutes and then I reach for my phone and scroll for like an hour on the tiny little screen. I'm worse then Zephyr when there's nobody around to MAKE me brush my teeth, go potty, put on my pjs and turn out the damn light. At least now I'm reading a good book so I have a meatier alternative if I can convince myself to commit to not going to bed "in just 5 minutes."

What else did I do today? I completed and mailed my LMHCA application (that's "Licensed Mental Health Counselor Associate"; I get the "A" off once I complete my 3000 hours and then I'll take an exam and then send off another application and become a proper LMHC.) So that's the first step to embracing this new job thing, and also starting the timer on my license. The associate license expires on my birthday, and I am allowed to renew it no more than six times. If I don't complete my hours in those 6.5 years, then I never get to have that license. Like, ever, unless I get another Master's degree in counseling. HOWEVER! There's NO problem with applying for a different license, like the LMFTA, and continuing to gather hours under that one for another 6-7 years. There doesn't seem to be much practical difference between the two licenses, slightly different education requirements but you are permitted to treat exactly the same patients with exactly the same techniques. So the time limit is really...I don't even know why it's there. Still, I guess it provides some focus and urgency to the "associate" stage of one's career. Oh the system.

Did you all get the invitation to that workshop with Robin Di'Angelo at the end of April? Let me know if you didn't. I'm super excited about it. She has a nuanced and hopeful take on where race relations in this country have ended up and why, and how to talk about them. You should come if you can, if you're even a little bit interested! And even more so if you're feeling annoyed or wary. You won't regret it, I promise.

What else is going on in my life? I have a list of to-dos to write for the co-housing book project that Molly and I have been talking about writing. I haven't written any of it yet, though. Maybe THAT's what I should work on and post here. If I don't have poems in me right now, maybe I have essays. Actually yeah. That's it! Tomorrow's blankaday will be one of my chapter summaries. That'll get me started on a project I'm curious about and need some momentum for.

Ok. I'm so glad we sorted that out. Thanks for listening to me ramble, Blankaday crew. Something completely different tomorrow.

XO
Alissa

Flip Book

Sorry, I haven't posted this week but I have lots of stuff (still drawing every day--but prioritizing doing it over sharing it). Here are some ideas for my next project: mini flip books :)

11 days

I said I would do this poem-a-day thing until I got a new job. Lo and behold, I got a new job! I’d like to keep posting until I officially start, which will be on March 15.

Eep!

Anyone else who is enjoying posting, feel free to continue! I'm going to keep reading, and hopefully I'll pick up the thread again at another convenient moment.

I've missed a lot of poem days lately. I'm not sure where my poetry brain went. I get embarrassed to keep phoning it in but it's what I encourage everyone else to do, so...here I am again.

There once was a young boy named Zephyr

who drank as much milk as a heifer.

With milk-drunk aplomb,

he said of his mom,
“If she hadn’t had boobs, I’d’ve left her!”

Perhaps I have at least one real poem left in me before I put the blog down again. My therapist canceled our appointment tomorrow so maybe I'll just write. Egads.

It's harder to write a short poem than a long one.

"From the moment absurdity is recognized, it becomes a passion, the most harrowing of all." -Camas, 1955

I acknowledge the
distinct and singular art
to folding significance into concentrated smallness
without diminishing the message.
I find it as difficult
as the world, and living in it
after stripping away fallible, unscientific romanticism
from whence springs all joy.

MOAR FOX

The mini fox is very likely sold, but I quite like it so I'm making a larger version with more room to play with the pen & shading. Excited to start coloring...

Mendeleev

Mendeleev died from influenza in his early seventies, and not,
after all, from drinking "Tsar's vodka". That's a myth
Perpetuated by some chemistry student as an afterthought
To a wretched essay. A science student's no wordsmith.

Although, I admit, it's delightful to imagine Mendeleev
Walking the short walk to his lab and home again each day
Until the fateful, Kafkaesque swig of aqua regia truncated
his research - including the periodic table (still used today)

And that other vodka myth. Russian myths are fantastic
Because you have situations like this, where there's
The "other vodka myth", and one of the vodkas is hydrochloric
Acid (mixed with nitric acid). Not real vodka. That clears

That up. Now. Mendeleev never came up with the 40% standard
Vodka strength either, and wasn't ever told to formulate new
State standards for the production of vodka. Perpetuating this pandered
To his reputation as "Russia's greatest scientist", but misconstrues

Mendeleev's dissertation. That was about stronger alcohol
Concentrations over 70%. Jokes about Russian stereotypes aside
And to set the record straight, it was fuel. Ethanol.
And he never wrote a thing about vodka, state standard or otherwise.

February showers...?

Election season

comes earlier every year

like spring in a global warming cycle

I could have sworn these flowers

don’t usually come
until April