FIRST DAY OF SPRING

So I'm thinking the only thing better than spring...
is fall.

But that's a ways off, so I'm really enjoying the Bradford pear trees all in bloom and the azaleas and the tiny redbuds. The weather's been gorgeous here, and so many good things are happening.

Like the poetry reading tonight at Christenberry Planetarium. It's our big release party for EINSTEIN AT THE ODEON CAFE, and I will be reading two poems. I'm especially excited because Hubby and kids will all be there. With our crazy family schedule, that just doesn't happen all that often. So, yeah, looking forward to that.

It's also the anniversary of my mother-in-law's death. It's been a difficult year in so many ways, but a year later it feels like we have moved through the transition. Our memories of her are overwhelmingly joyful -- sadness is always there but isn't crippling the way it was for a while. So today we will spend some time celebrating her life and talking about all the ways we loved her.

And despite travel and spring break and other craziness, I have managed to maintain my 1000 word a day diet. A group of us started on March 9, and we'll go through April 9. So far I haven't missed a day. What's especially great is that it feels good to me - 1000 words feels absolutely do-able without a tremendous strain on the rest of my life. I might just keep it up AFTER the thirty days.

On the reading front, I just completed THE READER by Bernhard Schlink and THE SENATOR'S WIFE by Sue Miller. The problem with THE READER is that I saw the movie. And if you've read the book, you know it is very straightforward. And the screenplay followed the book very very closely. For once, I preferred the movie version. And I gotta wonder if this is because I saw the movie first??

THE SENATOR'S WIFE was one of those books where I really wanted to see what happened to the characters, but I wasn't all that wild about it... until the end. Here are the last words in the book: "But what she would have told Delia if she had had the words then for what she has come to feel over the years, what she would have said - and she would swear that this is true- is that she did what she did with Tom that day for love. Out of love."

Happy happy spring to everyone!