Well, I guess the novel will be once again in my peripheral vision, however something really great has happened and that is that I will be facilitating this new weekly poetry workshop at the redhare, a gallery and preformance space @ 260 10th street in downtown Astoria, Or. It’s a beautiful space, an ekphrasis goldmine. I’m super excited. Back when I lived in California, I was part of a group of poets that met twice a month to workshop and write new poems and ever since I moved to Astoria, its been my dream to do the same thing here as my experience was such a motivating and inspiring one in Pacific Grove. I talked endlessly to owners of various venues and there was always some issue that wasn’t quite going to work, but I finally found it. So here is the start of something new for me, and the community and I simply cannot wait. This weekend is the Fisher Poets gathering in Astoria, which is a must-see/must-do. For those that may not be hip to it, it’s a preformance series of poets who are also commercial fishermen, and come from all over the world to Astoria to share their wisdom and insight through poetry. I’m hoping that this event makes people excited about poetry enough to be inspired to do it themselves and that they come to try out the workshop.

for more info on the redhare and to get the skinny on the workshop, follow the link below:

http://www.americantowns.com/or/astoria/events/astoria-poetry-workshop

Shhh….I’m writing a novel. So I’m going to keep my “do not disturb” sign up in this blog’s window for awhile. I also found Facebook. You know the deal. It sucks you in. After my art show at the AVA in November which rocked, I haven’t felt much like painting as the work up to that point was so intense. Hope you all had a marvelous Valentine’s Day. I know I did.

Hearts,

Laura

Somehow, Mathman came up in a conversation with my fiancee last night

and he didn’t remember ever seeing a mathman episode when he was growing

up. He is a bit older than me so he probably missed ever watching this and therefore

won’t be able to appreciate this episode. Therefore, I am posting this for my other friends

who will appreciate watching this. Enjoy

Laura

There’s been a little game hopped over from the UK that’s been making the rounds in the Astoria blogscene. I wasn’t officially tagged, but CD at Walluski Babble said she’d like to know more about me so I’ll play along.

1.The rules of the game are posted at the beginning.

2. Each player answers the questions about themselves.

3. The player then tags 5 people, goes to their Blogs and leaves them a comment telling them they’ve been tagged and asking them to read their Blog.

Q. What were you doing 10 years ago?

A:Oh, this is hilarious. Ten years ago I was a highschool senior, I was a waitress at Ruby Tuesdays. Let’s see it was April 1998…I didn’t go to prom because I was working but two boys got in a fistfight over me at school…they both wanted to take me to the dance. Neither of them ended up asking me and one got expelled. I didn’t care because I was saving up for a trip to California and I was like, “SEE YA! Suckers!”

Q. Name 5 snacks you enjoy.
1. vanilla yogurt with cream on top – preferrably Stonyfield

2. coffee and a cigarette.

3. homemade rice krispy treats and/or chex mix

4.  tea and arrowroot buscuits

5. anything that involves dipping

Q. Things I would do if I were a billionaire
I’d buy a new house and a new car. The house could be old but restored. Anyone who knows me knows that I hate money. I don’t like to even talk about what I would do if I had some more of it.

Q. Five (non-writing) jobs that I have had
I worked at a deli, I’ve worked at several hotels, I was a debt collector for approximately one month, I worked for my dad for awhile, he’s a doctor and I was a receptionist for awhile, One day I worked as an artist’s assistant but the artist tried to put the moves on me, so I quit. He took me to lunch at Hooter’s, though, on my first (and last) day. Coffee barista, lots and lots of waitressing gigs. I worked with alzheimer’s patients, a child who had asperger’s and a pyromaniacal tot. Florist.
Q. Three bad habits

A. smoking, not doing the dishes after dinner, missing people’s birthdays

Q. Five places I have lived
Pittsburgh, PA – Northampton, MA – Pacific Grove, CA – Soledad, CA – Clarion, PA -

Q. Five people I want to know more about:

Joe at Handbasket Travel adventures

Peter, with the really dreamy bowl cut from painting – second grade…what’s he up to, you know?

MY PARENTS

REgina at Andababy

And in terms of a game of tag…my fiancee says he remembers the day as a kid when he got hurt and it

actually hurt. I remember the day when I finally got winded playing tag.  I just hung around home base a lot,

and eventually I stopped playing altogether. Just a thought.

Caught these gems on a walk with my son yesterday.

No posts lately because I’ve been shuffling many eggs around

many baskets

Best,

La

I’ve had a very busy week, I did get my camera back, but I apologize for not posting

anything new recently.

The theme of my week this week seemed to be ”you think you know someone…

and then…you realize you have no freaking clue about that person, AT ALL.

This particular feeling manifested itself in many ways over the course of the week.

1. I met people I would rather not have met, and I reunited with people I haven’t

seen in awhile who seemed to barely recognize me for who I have become,

which is always a strange feeling.

2. I witnessed a particularly bizzarre car accident and realized that I could have

been killed or injured when a store I was planning on patronizing had a car

drive through it’s front doors. Here’s the photo from the daily astorian

At the last moment I had decided to go to a store across the street instead…

3. It snowed in Astoria, which is always a strange event.

4. I was grocery shopping this week at Safeway when some guy came over the PA and said:

“Attention Safeway customers, I f***ing quit”

5. And I realized that a woman who was in my yoga class is an amazing artist.

I knew she was a poet, but I had no idea about her other job which involves

making extremely detailed miniture houses the

likes of which I have NEVER seen:

Check it out by clicking on the link below and get ready to be amazed:

http://www.thomasopenhouse.com/about.html

Furthermore, Patricia Staton Thomas will be holding a poetry reading in

conjunction with Lucy’s Books at the Bridgewater Bistro, here’s more info on that:

from 2 to 5 p.m. Sunday, March 30, at the Bridgewater Bistro Mezzanine,

in the Red Building, 20 Basin St. Staton-Thomas will read from her new book,

“The Woman Who Cries Speaks.”

Staton-Thomas was born in New York City and began writing at the age of 7.

In her 20s she migrated west, and now lives in Astoria with her husband,

watercolorist Noel Thomas.

So there you go.

If you had a strange week, feel free to comment. I’m pretty sure there was something very

cosmic/astrological going on.

Update:

The current anti-LNG art show opening reception is tonight

from 6 - 9 p.m at the Astoria Visual Arts Center on Exchange.

I Hope to see you there. KMUN just announced

that the show has been extended until March 30. Woo-hoo!

Good times.

Go buy art, it’s good for the soul.

Best,

L.A.

This painting is up and you can bid on it at the Astoria Events Center this week

UPDATE: Painting has been SOLD.

I’d like to thank whoever bought it. So thank you, whoever you are. Your

contribution will help the Riverkeeper and I’m glad someone appreciates

something I made, someone who is in no way related to me. I hope you

enjoy looking at it.

Best,

LA

I’ve had a very rough past few days, but I’m not complaining because I don’t want to pass on

any negativity to anyone, HOWEVER, if you happen to be a telemarketer or the woman who

broke world records by insulting me three times in a row today. Or if the finalists of the Dorset Prize

were judged by you, then I would like to dedicate this song to you, because listening to it makes me

feel so much better. If someone has ticked you off recently, than this song is for you. It’s from the “Bob

and Tom” Show. Enjoy

Best,

LA