The Hermit Poet

July 7, 2007

Lucky Day

Filed under: General — Neil Aitken @ 8:13 am

Well, I’m behind again — so here’s a brief recap of the last few weeks.

Big elbow blues (June 13-July 5) While we were out traveling in Saskatchewan, I managed to hurt my elbow due to poor sleeping arrangements and long days of driving. End result: a mild case of elbow bursitis which didn’t seem so mild at first. It’s amazing how fragile the body can be sometimes — and how big one’s elbow can get when you been driving three days straight with no rest after hyperextending it. Thankfully my elbow has returned to normal (well, about 90% back to normal). Lots of ice, Advil extra strength, and rest.

Apartment hunting (June 23-July 3). Flew down to Los Angeles and spent a week looking at different places before signing a lease for a 2 bedroom / 2 bath which I’ll share with one of the other incoming PhD students. I had originally wanted a 1 bedroom for myself, but rents in LA have gone up and I couldn’t justify the expense with the monthly income of a PhD student.

I almost ended up somewhere else though. I had strongly considered getting a 1-bedroom loft in downtown LA, but in the end found paying $1300-$1800 for a tiny place with a great view and cool surroundings just wasn’t a good investment for me. If my monthly income as a PhD student is somewhere around $1900-$2100, spending almost everything on the apartment/loft seems foolish (and a bit vain).

My loft hunting trip did provide me a brief brush with celebrity — I spent a morning touring different loft sites with a young attractive female singer/actress who evidently is doing quite well for herself. Anyway, she seemed to be in a better position to get a place — but even she was complaining about how overpriced some of the lofts seemed to be.

House on the Market My return home coincided with my mother’s last push to get the house in order to put on the market. We’ve spent the last week cleaning, putting things in storage (or just out of sight), and meeting with the realtor. The house goes on the online listing sites this weekend and the realtors will tour the place on Monday and Tuesday. After that we expect to have a lot of showings. Evidently the market is very hot right now — which is a good thing for us.

Catching up on Boxcar My battle with bursitis and the mandatory rest involved put a serious damper on work for Boxcar — but I’m catching up and hope to be clear of the backlog this weekend. Layout work continues slowly, but moves forward now that I’ve mostly recovered.

New work out or nearly out I have 2 poems out in the latest issue of Redactions and another 2 poems due out shortly in DMQ Review (I’ve seen and ok’d the proofs, so the issue should be going up soon). What’s interesting is that these two sets of poems represent work from two new manuscripts. Redactions has 2 poems which come from the Babbage’s Dream manuscript. DMQ Review has 2 poems from the Letters to the Unknown Wife manuscript.

I’ve done more tinkering with the Lost Country of Sight manuscript, removing a couple of poems and adding a new one. It’s strong and I think finally done (but I’m always saying that every few months!).

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