You can just see the moon over the Community Center at daybreak

I spent three hours at ALT yesterday, putting things away in Heather's office. She had asked me and I had done a little bit of tidying before. And I checked with her a couple of time. "You're sure you want me to do that? Will you be able to find things?"So now I really cleaned off the top of her desk, putting papers in folders that might or might not make sense. Also one drawer had, in addition to office supplies and a few food-related items (ketchup, instant oatmeal, peanuts, napkins), about 100 old phone messages, some dated 2008. They are probably not useful any more, but I put them in a file folder for her to go through sometime (hah!) and got rid of some things, like a phone number with no name or message.

Then Becky and I had a nice lunch. The weather was good enough for eating outside.

Suzy C., who had been a candidate for state Senate (or something) in another county, was at the Fellowship a few weeks ago. She is selling bulbs and I bought 100 daffodils, partly for my mother. I have hesitated because they are not native, but deer will not eat them. She called me and we met so I could pick them up. Now I need to plant them immediately.

Then I went to the writing workshop, where I read my poem. It was very well received, although no one expressed amazement and urged me to publish it immediately. The ego is a fragile fragile thing. They were very impressed at my capability for memorizing several verses of Custard the dragon, but I don't know how to turn that into a vocation. Maybe I should go on Jeopardy--that terrifies me. What if they have baseball as a category? Or Ancient Greece? Wheel of Fortune, maybe, but that isn't about memory.

There were some brilliant poems that I was jealous of that painted wonderful pictures. There is also a woman who reads her work almost every time. It is rambling, repetitive and full of pain. It is not good poetry (and she never misses a class) and she explains it in detail too. It is clearly very important to her and everyone always says positive things to her. She was very overweight and in a bad marriage. Although she has four children, she says she was never kissed after her wedding day. That just devastates me. But it makes me want to be in a different kind of writing workshop--one with constructive feedback and all good writers to learn from. This one is about healing and has been incredibly helpful, but I have a lot more to learn.

Deb and I went to the dog park afterward. She is raising another guide dog puppy (her 6th!). I have considered it and am tempted, but I don't think I really want to do the work (especially the picking up of poop). Cameron is doing very well and is a good dog and he is probably enough for us. If we want to go away for spring break (and we may not because of my work situation), we will have to put him in the kennel and that cost added to the other costs of travel might make it too expensive.

I went to Earth Fare to buy some applesauce, because I planned to make potato pancakes for supper. But it was $3.50 there and I couldn't bring myself to buy it. I picked up Ray and we went home. It was after 5:30 and my parents were there. We chatted a little and they headed out. Ray peeled the apples and we made applesauce (which was tastier than store-bought anyway). After supper, we finished watching Ghostbusters--pretty scary for kids, but more entertaining than I expected. It just happened to be on TV the night before, with a million commercials. So we watched half Monday and recorded the rest and watched it last night, skipping through the commercials. To bed before 10.