Monthly Archives: January 2008

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Mallard at dawn

Mallard at dawn, originally uploaded by Memotions.

I’ve mentioned a few times recently a family friend who was hospitalized, and then in the ICU. She’d had a brain hemorrhage and other complications, and she’d been on life support for several days. All her children had flown in to say goodbye. Her family had made the hard choice to take her off machines.

They did turn everything off, and she was on fluids only.

And then she woke up. Within a day she was talking. Today she started walking again.

What a crazy, wonderful thing.

This seems a good time to add another thank you to all who sent well-wishes for my mom’s surgery this week. She’s doing well also, her foot swathed in bandages and propped up high on her bed, her nightstand and headboard stacked high with books to keep her amused while she’s laid up.

Please, Mr. Postman

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mailboxes

mailboxes, originally uploaded by dcJohn.

On Monday, I received no mail. Periodically through the day, I peered out the door to check. I went to the USPS website to verify that it wasn’t a federal holiday. It wasn’t a holiday, but my mailbox remained empty.

I spent the day on the computer — as I almost always do — and was connected with friends, family, and colleagues the whole time. All the same, I felt I had been passed over, disconnected from the world. How could I have received nothing?

Tuesday, the mailman brought a couple of store fliers, a couple of credit card bills, and a catalog I didn’t want.

Today, I happened to be in the living room looking out the window when the mailman trotted up the porch steps. I went out to say hello and receive the mail in person: another store flier (I didn’t even look to see which), a couple of credit card offers, and a thank you note from CASH Music for subscribing.

The thank you note was a nice touch, but it got me to thinking about kinds of mail and my preferences. Store fliers are the least interesting, junk mail and credit card offers only slightly better, then catalogs as a whole, then catalogs from which i occasionally buy things, then mail from organizations with which I’m involved, bills (hate them, but need them), and then checks. I definitely like checks.

Of course I most prefer to receive correspondence, real letters from real people. But what a rarity that has become! Outside of Christmas/holiday cards, I receive just a few hand-written notes a year, mostly thank yous. I can’t remember the last letter I received by mail.

To receive, you must give. So I’m going to make an effort to write letters. Being goal-oriented, I’m tempted to set a goal like "one letter per month." That seems ridiculously low, yet it would still be twelve more letters than I wrote last year. So, at least one letter per month it is.

Would you like me to write to you? Send me postcard or letter and I will respond. Cynthia Closkey, 711 East Brady Street, Butler, PA 16001. I look forward to hearing from you!

Related: check out Craig Oldham’s hand.written.letter.project.

(Link to hand.written.letter.project thanks to Coudal.)

UPWords Reading Series: Lori Jakiela and Stacey Waite

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From the mailbag:

Friday February 8th at 7pm is the next UPWords at the Union Project featuring writers Lori Jakiela and Stacey Waite. Join us for an intimate evening of free entertainment. UPWords is a monthly reading series generally occurring the  2nd Friday of each month. Union Project is located at 801 N. Negley Ave., on the corner of Stanton Ave. and Negley Ave. For more information please visit www.unionproject.org, email hilary@unionproject.org or call 412-363-4550 x 26.
 
Lori Jakiela is the author of a memoir, Miss New York Has Everything (Warner 2006), and a poetry collection, The Regulars (Liquid Paper Press 2001). Her second memoir, Call Your Mother, is forthcoming. Jakiela’s essays and poems have appeared in literary journals, newspapers, and anthologies in the U.S. and the U.K., including The Chicago Tribune, The Pittsburgh Quarterly, The Pittsburgh Post Gazette, 5 AM, Tears in the Fence, River Styx, Nerve Cowboy, and elsewhere. Jakiela is an Associate Professor of English at The University of Pittsburgh-Greensburg.
 
Winner of the 2004 Frank O’Hara Prize for Poetry for her first chapbook entitled Choke. Stacey Waite teaches writing and gender studies courses at the University of Pittsburgh. Her poems have appeared most recently in Poet Lore, Nimrod, 5AM, West Branch, Chiron Review and Pearl.

Morning

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CPMC Surgery

CPMC Surgery, originally uploaded by crucially.

My mom is in the hospital this morning, undergoing surgery to repair her foot. She broke her foot sometime last year; she slipped while walking down stairs, and though she barely fell at all she tore a tendon in her heel. The tendon is irreparable, but the surgery will relieve pain and make it easier to walk.

This surgery comes just months after other surgery to replace her knee. A couple years ago my father had a hip replaced, and he should have the other replaced too but, typically for him, he has put it off indefinitely.

Dad doesn’t hear too well anymore, but rather than see a specialist, he wears the decrepit hearing aid his mother wore — it’s decades old, doesn’t fit him, and helps his hearing not at all.

When I stopped by my parents’ house last night, they were just finishing dinner. Mom had me fix myself a plate of pot roast with noodles and vegetables, and we sat around the table as we always did.

But not everything was the same. Conversation centered first on my mom’s search for a wheelchair, to use after her surgery. Then we talked about a close family friend who has been in the ICU for days and probably won’t survive many days longer.

My younger brother Jude was wearing pajamas at the dinner table, at 7pm, which seemed unusual even by Closkey standards; he’s become an old curmudgeon well before his time. After dinner Dad sat watching TV wrapped in a blanket against the cold, exactly where my grandmother used to sit and looking for all the world like her reincarnation.

As much as a downer as this all should be — all of us growing old and staring Death in the eye, my mother undergoing anesthesia right this moment — I find myself cheerful. The sun shines through my window, I’m drinking fresh, hot coffee, and I’m looking ahead to a day full of good work for clients I like.

I’d like to draw a Wise Thought from this, some pithy sentence to share with everyone or to think back on myself when life seems grim. All I have, though, is this feeling that the day is new, and that whatever it brings is enough.

Pittsburgh Geek Night the 57th

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My Geek Bookshelf (2006-06)

My Geek Bookshelf (2006-06), originally uploaded by zefredz.

Geek Night is a highly informal bimonthly gathering of people in the Pittsburgh high-tech industry. There is no dress code and no cover charge. Show up anytime after 5:00pm, and leave when you feel like it.

When: Thursday, February 7, 2008, 5-9pm and later
Where: The Church Brew Works at 3525 Liberty Ave in Lawrenceville
              (geeks gather in the back section of the bar area)
How much: FREE

RSVP: email rsvp @ pghgeeks.org

Details at the Pittsburgh Geeks website.

This machine kills Fascists

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this_machine_kills_fascists

this_machine_kills_fascists, originally uploaded by ivalladt.

Strange coincidence:

On Wednesday, on his terrific blog about arts and culture in Venango County, Dittman posted a link to a t-shirt with a graphic of a guitar and the words "This machine kills fascists."

I thought, "Neat graphic. Don’t know what it means, but interesting."

Meanwhile: I subscribe to the New Yorker. Usually I get through each issue within two weeks of receiving it, but a few years ago I fell behind and a big pile built up. I’m gradually getting through them.

So it happened that today, I was reading — an article about Woody Guthrie.

Here’s the paragraph that connected the dots for me:

Once Hitler ventured into the Soviet Union and Stalin joined forces with the Allied powers, Guthrie became patriotic; he supported the United States’ involvement in the Second World War and pasted a hand-painted sign onto the front of his guitar: "This Machine Kills Fascists." He kept it there after the war, in reference to another target: the cultural power brokers who, in his view, oppressed folk artists by rewarding sleek professionalism.

I’ll guess that most people who reference this slogan — especially those who buy the t-shirt — are unaware of either of these meanings that Guthrie ascribed to it. To people today, it seems to mean that music can be a tool for striking back against the powers-that-be, especially governments but also corporations.

It’s good to remember what Guthrie originally meant when he painted this on his guitar, and to see the layers of meaning he and other people have added to it over the years.

I get by with a little help from my friends

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IMG_2255.JPG

IMG_2255.JPG, originally uploaded by mbfulk.
Justin Kownacki and Norm Huelsman kick off Day 1 of PodCamp Pittsburgh 2,  August 2007.

Norm Huelsman was kind enough to post about my blog today — he’s writing about a different site each week in his BlogShare feature.

That’s a nice example of how Pittsburgh’s social media community — bloggers and podcasters — put energy into connecting with and promoting each other.

Another example: Rachel of That Night was nominated for the "Best Kept Secret" category for the 2008 Bloggies blog awards, and within a couple of days Norm, TheJim, Doug, and even the elusive PittGirl of The Burgh Blog are posting about it and encouraging everyone to vote.

We started planning for PodCamp Pittsburgh 3 on Wednesday. The kickoff meeting was lively, as always, and I felt so happy to see everyone and hear what we’d all learned from previous events and what we want to accomplish this year. Exciting stuff.

PCPGH3 will most likely take place September 27 and 28, with a meet-and-greet party on the 26th. We’re confirming that locations and other important things are all available then, but for now save the date.

We’ll be working harder this year to keep everyone informed of plans along the way, and to invite participation. I haven’t updated the PCPGH site recently, but keep an eye on it for changes and news.

This is a good time to mention two events that are coming up much sooner. Tomorrow from noon until midnight is DevHouse Pittsburgh 2, for programmers and designery-types to gather and make great things. And Friday, February 22 will be Pittsburgh BlogFest 13 — our luckiest blogfest yet. I hope you’ll join us!

Please, sir, I want some more

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Italian Sausage and Lentil Stew - L'unico

Italian Sausage and Lentil Stew – L’unico, originally uploaded by avlxyz.

Tonight for dinner I made a fabulous sausage stew.

I take no credit for the recipe. It comes from Jacques Pepin’s The Short-Cut Cook: Make Simple Meals with Surprisingly Little Effort. (My mom had my copy signed by the great man himself!) It included hot Italian sausage, kidney beans, ground cumin, and greens — the recipe called for Swiss chard I think, but suggested substituting spinach, which is what I used.

There was also some jalepeno in the recipe, and for once I’d remembered to buy it. I minced it before adding to the stew, and since then I’ve burned my eyes and face a couple of times by touching them with pepper-coated fingers.

I made this fabulous stew, and I ate a healthy portion of it, along with some toasted whole wheat bread.

That was about an hour ago, and right now my stomach is growling in hunger. How can this be? I had fiber, some fats, and greens and protein and everything. I should be full. Fulfilled with food! My own body is frustrating my attempts to live healthier in 2008.

(I apologize that the photo is not of the actual stew that I ate. I hadn’t planned to blog about this, and the remaining stew is nicely packed away in the fridge and freezer already. This lovely Flickr-sourced photo seemed to me to capture the essentials of my hearty stew, despite having lentils where the kidney beans should be, and carrots instead of spinach. OK, so it doesn’t cover it at all, but it looks mighty tasty, doesn’t it?)