Hello! Happy Friday. I took PTO today and woke up just before noon because I am sick. So this may be a staggeringly brief Dispatch, or maybe not because I have kombucha and Advil in my system, which maybe is giving me super powers?
A note on that kombucha: Earlier this week, I woke up and IMMEDIATELY regaled Myles with the details of my fever dream. “I had a dream that I was drinking this blueberry juice drink, and it was really…sparkly…like it was a sparkly blueberry juice…juice but carbonated…and it was healthy and it made me feel better,” I said. Being sick has hindered my vocal clarity and fluidity, a little.
At lunchtime, when Myles ran out to the store for more supplies, he asked if I wanted anything specific and I said “Please find the magic beverage from my dream.”
Well! Butter my butt and call me a biscuit. He brought home a couple of options, and one of them was a bottle of kombucha which was pretty much an exact approximation of what I’d dreamed. For clarity, I’d had kombucha before, but not…good, cold, fruity delicious kombucha. I’d tasted some flat, room-temp kombucha that was mostly like drinking apple cider vinegar1 and "hard kombucha," which is basically White Claw that’s been to a farmer’s market one time.
Anyway, the kombucha Myles got me has “blueberry puree” listed as the second ingredient, so congratulations to the only boyfriend alive who a) listens, b) to my DREAMS and c) makes them come true. Also Myles is a witch confirmed????? More2 at eleven!
Music for Sickos
I’ve 100% dropped this link in here before, BUT: I wanted to make sure you all knew that this playlist existed. This has been my go-to “nap playlist” during the week. Typically, it’s my reading playlist; I deploy it when I am reading in one room, and Myles is doing something manly3 in the other. But after this week I may need to swap a different playlist into the reading rotation, because I accidentally Pavlov’d myself.
I think it’s important to have separate music for napping and sleeping. If I’m napping, I need to be able to wake up, take Advil, drink a glass of juice, shower, and put on my big Billy Joel shirt to show I’m ready to get some things done. If I’m sleeping, you better not try and wake me up unless your name is Dottie and you miss me so much.
So, for napping. We have this:
And for sleeping…we have these. The singing bowls. These totally, totally work on me. Give me an eight-hour “singing bowls PERFECT FREQUENCY for sleep relaxation stress release flight anxiety insomnia” Spotify playlist, and I will enjoy all eight hours. The YouTube scrubber maps the “most replayed” sections of the video, and I keep going to those sections and trying to determine whether they’re more comforting than others. Honestly, this makes me want to get a set of noise-cancelling sleep-mask headphones and just zonk out for a week.
Listen, you KNOW I’m sick because I slept through a Taylor Swift album drop, and then a second Taylor Swift album drop. I have no Taylor Swift thoughts except “She will still be there when I am not this sleepy,” and maybe “I hope the next album is a bunch of singing bowls, that sounds so good right now.”
National Tortured Poets’ Month
It is still National Poetry Writing Month, and I am still writing, even though I’m sick. Now, I didn’t say I’m writing “legibly,” or “very good poems.” I just said I’m writing. So. Most of my poems from this week are still malingering in my notebook, or in texts to myself. I have a new-old draft to share with you guys in a bit.
And since it IS poetry month I DO want to talk very briefly about poetry.
First, for new subscribers: Hi! Last year I focused a LOT more on poetry and I created (or stole!) a LOT of prompts, which you can use to write your own poems. Even though I’m writing a poem a day, if you want to write just one poem in April, congrats, you’ve participated in NaPoWriMo!
If you want to read 10 poetry prompts to kickstart your NaPoWriMo, click here!
If you want to read 10 poems I found & loved last year, click here!
If you want to read some of my all-time FAVORITE poems, click here!
Do you need some craft book recommendations? Hey! I have those too.
If you aren’t sure if you can write poetry, but you know you want to: Glitter in the Blood, by Mindy Nettifee
If you write non-poetry things and want to understand how poetry fits into the world: Madness, Rack, and Honey, by Mary Ruefle
If you used to love poetry and want to get back “into” it, or you are writing a lot of poetry but want to go full dork mode with form, meter, and oblique historical references: A Poet's Craft: A Comprehensive Guide to Making and Sharing Your Poetry, by Annie Finch
If you aren’t sure about poetry, but you’re a weirdo and you love activities:
A Beautiful Marsupial Afternoon: New (Soma)Tics by CAConrad
Finally, here is a poem draft from earlier this month. It’s a list poem – I wrote a somewhat extensive post about list poems last year, which includes a prompt/instructions for composing one, and you can find that here.
I also published a list poem called “All the Things I Do Not Fear” in the online version of the Conium Review a couple years ago. Their website is under construction right now, but luckily, the Wayback Machine’s archived version shows the poem in all its glory, complete with the slow-motion clown animation up top!
Ok, here is a list-poem draft from earlier in the month:
List: Things I Intend to Bring With Me
The CD collection I sold after high school
A car blanket
The leftovers
The crock pot
A bracelet, which my ex opened a new credit card for, and which I lost in 2016
Seel
My new white sundress
Dottie
ALL my stuffed animals
A new book
My library books
Copper nail polish
Hubba Bubba Bubble Gum
Revlon’s Cherries in the Snow
Urban Decay Gash
Urban Decay Catfight
Urban Decay Anarchy
Lipstick Queen Medieval Red
Too Faced Jelly Bean
My Scott Pilgrim CD
My blue Coach purse
My blue mascara
My black NYC boroughs Baggu tote
Pale blue nail polish
Jeans
Beef jerky (teriyaki flavor)
Notebook + pens
Both pairs of black boots
A clay mask (but not the one in the cabinet)
Flavored dental floss
A scarf I can lose
My heart-shaped rock
Cross-stitch kit
Archie comics
Grape gummies
Big jeweled sunglasses
Coconut body scrub
Luxury designer perfume
My Red Sox ballcap
My phone charger
Playing cards
Cribbage board
Coffee, for the road
WIDNBTW
Being more or less housebound by Gross Girl Syndrome this week, you’d think I’d have shopped/scrolled more. But no! I was simply too tired. I promise, I’ll have a better list when I’m in a less mucilaginous state.
So here’s what I didn’t buy this week:
Anything that wasn’t soup or juice
These crazy teacup earrings, which I love:
Okay! I’m sorry, I have to go be asleep immediately. Sorry I’m a dud this week. If you need me I’ll be drinking kombucha, rubbing Vicks Vaporub on my entire surface area, and sleeping while sitting completely upright in bed, so I don’t choke on my phlegm. Don’t you feel like phlegm should have an extra h in there? Phleghm? Hmm.
I DO like drinking vinegar so this was not a HORRIBLE experience
Please don’t make me stay up til eleven
The dishes
Even the sick girl boring dispatches are packed with goodies. Thanks for the prompts!