October 4th, 2012

The Same Only Different

I have the gift and the curse of usually liking my own writing. If I was interested enough in an idea to write a full story about it in the first place(not the little abandoned snippets that litter my Word files), I’ll pretty much always consider it worth revising until someone else likes it too. This is a gift because it encourages me to keep on with stories that have a lot wrong with them, but a curse but I can waste a lot of time on something better left in the archives.

As I approach the fabled mid-thirties, I’ve found another wrinkle in this pattern of constant revision–my voice is changing, or rather has changed, a great deal. Well, a great deal to me–I find even the contrast between some of the stories in *Once* versus *The Big Dream* pretty dramatic, but I don’t expect anyone else to notice or care. But it’s one thing to read two stories written 5 years apart and notice a difference–it’s another thing to delve into a story written years ago and try to live inside it to a degree that I can write that way again.

And in truth, I don’t go back so terribly far. I’ve always written stories, but I rarely return to ones written before 2005-2006. There are simply issues of quality I cannot overcome in most of the stuff written prior to then, and issues of deceased hard drives don’t hlep matters. So really, we’re talking max 7 years, here. Have I really changed that much? I guess so. I’ve done it before.

The oldest short story I’ve published (that doesn’t qualify as juvenalia in some way–like being in teen anthology) is “If This,” originally written in 2000, published in The Puritan in 2009. It was one of pretty much two things that I wrote in university that anyone else ever understood, and I really wanted to see it published. But revising it was excruciating–my mind just doesn’t work that may anymore. Back then, I was writing in a style I named myself (I think?) called hyper-lyric. It was a maximalism, periodic, involuted style that was only one of many reasons most people found my work hard to follow, but I loved it and writing that way made me happy.

It no longer does. I wander into periodic sentences now, and then I try to get them out in the second drafts. I always want to say it more simply, and I actually think I am far more pretentious in conversation and personal writing that I am in fiction (I’d never use the word “involuted” in a story). I was never aware of jettisoning the hyper-lyric style, or whatever that was if you don’t accept my imaginary terminology, but it sure is gone now. I still *like* that story, and a number of others I’ll never be able to repair enough to publish, but I no longer possess the mind that wrote them. Weird, eh?

So revisions become a race against, well, not the clock but the calandar, anyway. These days, between work on the new stuff, I’m trying to revise work from that 2005-2006 period and send it out before I become so different from the lady who wrote them that I can’t revise them anymore. Am I being melodramatic? Maybe, but really, anything to encourage myself to work, right?

Anyway, all this is in my head today because an older story that I revised pretty heavily this past spring, called “Anxiety Attack,” has been accepted by Freefall Magazine, which makes me really happy. I’m so pleased that that story will get its crack at being read by a wider audience than me, and I’m glad some else agrees that it’s worthwhile. And I guess I’m glad too that this proves the slog of revising older pieces is worth it, at least sometimes. “First Afternoon,” another revisited and revised story, will appear in The Windsor Review next spring, too.

And the race against the hands of time continues…(another thing I’d never write in a story)

October 3rd, 2012

1000 Things We Like: So Close Now

Thanks to Fred for the encouragement to keep things moving–and her excellent likes:

751) Honey barbecue sauce
752) Stamp collections
753) Scrunchies (yes, I’m not afraid to say it!!!)
754) The University College of the Cariboo (RIP)
755) The Schumpeter column in the Economist
756) Tide pens
757) The day before you go to a new country for the first time
758) Grosgrain ribbons
759) The ubiquity of Cherry coke in the United States (RR says: there is a sad flip side to this in Canada)
760) Limited edition Pumpkin spice Hershey’s kisses (RR says: further Canadian sadness here)
761) Tassels
762) Fake moustaches
763) The George Bellows retrospective at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC
764) Peggy’s Cove
765) Homemade meatball sandwiches
766) Dry-erase boards
767) Sparrows
768) Any sort of certificate of recognition, even if it was clearly made in MS Word
769) The Oprah Winfrey Show (I miss it terribly)
770) Colouring
771) Ferns
772) The opening bit of “Sweet Child O’ Mine”
773) Antananarivo as a city name
774) Commemorative loonies
775) Blueberry fritters at Tim Hortons
776) The shape of the state of Oklahoma
777) Getting upgraded to first class
778) San Francisco
779) Butter tarts

And I’ll keep the love alive with

780) Canadian Dance Moves
781) The Raveonettes
782) When I finally get around to polishing my nails
783) xylophones
784) seeing my cat eat something with gusto
785) the kind of oatmeal cookies only I can bake
786) AL Kennedy‘s sense of humour
787) The character of Pop Streets in People Park
788) The evolution of Lutz’s character on *30 Rock*
789) Naps
790) When the apartment’s really clean
792) Crazy eights
793) Even better: crazy countdown
794) When someone explains a political issue to me and I actually understand
795) Newfoundland and Labrador accents
796) This tiny baby Akita puppy that lives in my building
797) Cocoa butter as moisturizer and/or chapstick
798) Reverb
799) The terrible newspaper that I always read when I visit my parents
800) Scabs (sorry, but isn’t it amazing that blood just *knows how to clot*??)
801) Old clothes I forgot about, then rediscover
802) Turkey stuff two days this weekend
803) iCoke points
804) That dreamy read-nap-read-snack-nap-read-look out the window thing I do on long trips
805) Smiles from strangers on the subway
806) At a party with only one child at it, when the child’s mother said sternly, “Do you see anyone else climbing on the tables?” and said child looked hopefully at all us boring, chair-sitting adults.
807) The all-ways crossing at Yonge and Bloor
808) The fact that my bro cals 807 a barn dance
809) Shoes I would never wear–just that they exist is perfect
810) Scraping mascara off my eyelashes with my fingernails
811) The mushy white insides of a dinner roll

More to come–as soon as you send them!

October 1st, 2012

What I’ve Been Up To

I was doing so well at the regular posting for a while there, but seem to have fallen off last week. Do I have excuses? Not really, but here’s what I was doing instead of blogging:

1) On Tuesday night, I went to the Bibliobash, where my fellow Biblioasis authors were reading. I was late, because of my evening class, and so missed all the actual readings, but still managed to a) get Alice Peterson’s excellent collection signed, purchase CP Boyko’s new one and c) chat up the authors. I meant to buy the new Chekov translation by David Helwig, but due to a miscommunication, didn’t–next time!

2) Following that, I had a migraine for 48 hours (unrelated…I think). For those familiar with migraines, mine are not the worst kind–some people see auras, throw up, and basically have to be alone in a silent dark room until things improve. My migraines are usually of the sort I can function through, albeit not cheerfully. The worst-case scenario is fairly serious pain, shaking hands, nausea, and an inability to concentrate, which is where we were on Wednesday, a day on which I slept for close to 16 hours. It was sort of glorious, in a way. The worst of the pain had abated by evening, but it took another day to shake it completely.

3) On the weekend, we went to stay in a fancy hotel, a treat given to us as a very lovely wedding gift. Since the hotel was in Toronto, we figured we didn’t need to bother with tourism or posh restaurants, so we spent the whole time in the hotel. Swam in the pool, examined the fancy piano bar, then ordered pizza and watched 4 hours of televisions–we don’t have TV at home, and the lost art of channel surfing is sorely missed. The best part was re-watching *Edward Scissorhands* after an interval of 20 years. It’s still so gorgeous and moving, but the ending???? SPOILER ALERT: Winona Ryder decides their love is too difficult so she leaves Edward all alone in his house at the top of the hill. Then she returns to her normal surburban life for FIFTY MORE YEARS, with only a slight tinge of regret. Why is she not a really horrible person??? Why????? Ahem.

4) Throughout all of this, I was reading Pasha Malla’s People Park, an extremely overwhelming experience. Were it not for my abiding love of Malla’s first book, I would not have touched *People Park*–500-page alternative realities are not my friends, normally. Just a personal preference, not a judgement. So perhaps it was for lack of context that I was so overwhelmed by People Park–so wildly ambitious, so diverse and imaginative, so *weird.* I don’t know if it was brilliant or terrible or what. I’m leaning towards brilliant, but I would really like to talk this through with someone, only no one I know has read it yet. I tried reviews online, but seem to stick with effusions or excoriations without much explanation or examples. I know, I know, reviews aren’t tutorials, but you’d think someone could help a girl out here. Did *you* read People Park? Any thoughts?

September 24th, 2012

1000 Things We Like: New Week, New Likes

These are from the stalwart and innovative liker, Fred:

715) Looking through someone’s scrapbook
716) Getting sucked into a particular awesome infomercial
717) Hydrangeas
718) Mt. Tam cheese from Cowgirl Creamery.
719) Someone smiling at you from across the room (RR says: especially if you aren’t expecting it!)
720) Fridges with icemakers built in
721) Shoeboxes
722) Food samples at Costco (someone must have said this already, but it bears repeating) (RR says: No, I think you’re first–oversight on everyone else’s part!)
723) The resurgence of neon colours
724) Someone letting you french braid their hair (RR says: OMG, I did not know you could do that. Next time I see you…)
725) Paper lanterns
726) That big umbrella-looking flash thing they use when you get pictures taken.

And from me, even though I’m feeling the Mondayness:

727) souffle (just found out)
728) dozing off to the sound of rain
729) Tina Fey
730) Cheetos Crunchits
731) babies who stare at me like I’m the best
732) realizing we’ve spent the entire afternoon talking
733) rich people’s houses
734) decent photos of myself (very rare)
735) iCoke points
736) “what went wrong?” case studies in business textbooks
737) racing the moving sidewalk at the airport
738) “Blinded by the Light” by Manfred Mann
739) the prospect of more short stories if I ever finish reading my business textbook
740) skilled huggers
741) that Michael Crummey story in the last issue of *The Walrus*
742) my new fall boots, which are very glamourous-looking but actually from Zellers
743) Corn Pops
744) collaborative projects
745) discovering something new to like on this list
746) being reminded of something old I like on this list
747) counting things
748) progress
749) friends
750) exclamations like “yay!” and “awesome-sauce!” and “wicked!”

September 21st, 2012

1000 Things We Like: 70% there!

From lovely Nadia:
637) endorphins
638) bluegrass festivals
639) the smell of books that have been sitting in the sun (RR says: Have to find out what this is like!)
640) discovering words in other languages that have no conceptual equivalent in english
641) lately, gelato, a lot
642) setting the table
643) running at night
644) wondering if animals can tell when you’re teasing them
645) eating something salty after swimming in the ocean
646) kindness
647) people who find ways to make a living that don’t involve cubicles
648) coming terms with something less-than-fabulous about yourself and feeling pumped to change it
649) Letting fall favoured illusions
650) Windows, from a cubicle (RR says: yes!)
651) pigeons, raccoons and other creatures who share the city with us and get a bad rap for wanting to eat.
652) Finding a writer that is new to you that you want to read
653) Deep Roots on cbc radio
654) sloth videos (RR says: so much love!!)
655) irreverant people

And from Zai, who I believe took a break from studying to make this list–thanks, lady!

656) Chocolate with chili peppers
657) New sheets
658) Comfy socks
659) Window seats where you can stare at the world go by (RR says: always!)
670) Kisses on the forehead
671) Kids who smile at you in the grocery store
672) Newly cut hair
673) McGill JAMS (RR says: yay!)
674) Poutine
675) Foot massages
676) Being unsure what you dreamed about but waking up happy
677) Babies
678) Oatmeal
679) Discovering a new restaurant
670) Avocado
671) Spicy Gouda
672) Freshly baked granola
673) The Sound of Music
674) Natural Hot Springs
675) When facebook actually finds a long lost friend for you (vs all the randoms it usually recommends lol)

From Susie, just one but very likable:

676) wearing a new piece of clothing that makes you feel great!

From Matilda Magtree, originally posted here:

677) making lists (and repeating myself)
678) ginger snaps with blackberry tea on the patio at the end of the day
679) BBQ’d shrimp and chilled sauvignon blanc on the patio at the end of the day
680) the family in my neighbourhood that are always making dinner together when I stroll past their house
681) seeing into people’s windows, especially in winter with all that coziness inside, especially at dinner time (RR says: also good for decorating ideas!)
682) seedless watermelon
683) shadows
684) the letter zed
685) my almond cherry torte recipe that I live in fear of losing so have made several copies but still worry constantly that I’ll lose them
686) Lake Ontario in the dark when the waves are crazy
687) Lake Ontario in the day… any day
688) the summer and winter solstice
689) driving long distances over empty roads, thinking out loud
690) swimming (first choice: lakes; second choice: pool with VERY little chlorine; third choice: oceans without jellyfish or sharks) (RR says: my priorizations are different, but any swimming is good!)
691) making soup or spaghetti sauce or anything that requires chopping, stirring, simmering
692) cooking smells in a house
693) sheets and towels and tee shirts from the line
694) a cat snuggled up beside me like a teddy bear
695) sandals
696) the movie Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner
697) the [operatic] song from Big Night, first heard while having lunch al fresco at Quail’s Gate Winery
698) the sound of cutlery against plates in that final scene in Big Night
699) goat cheese omelletes with purslane (RR says: another thing I don’t know what it is. This list is educational!)
700) Cat’s Eye, the book
701) Drinking the Rain, by Alix Kates Shulman, which I read almost every year
702) the way insects and animals and birds and trees know exactly what to do
703) choosing well from a menu
704) painting with bold colours
705) discovering a new place in my own ‘hood
706) the word ‘hood
707) beeswax candles
708) walking, hiking, climbing, none of it too strenuously
709) the sight of the Andes from a small plane
710) the colour green, indoors and out
711) people who get excited about possibilities, art and words
712) the smell of dirt in Spring
713) the smell of snow and the way it looks in the sunshine
714) sharpened pencils and fast writing pens

Rose-coloured reviews *The Bull Is Not Killed* by Sarah Dearing

I liked Sarah Dearing‘s short novel The Bull Is Not Killed far more than I expected to. The cover blurbage makes it seem exclusively like a caught-between-two-cultures love story of the sort we have all read a million times. But *The Bull…* is far richer and more complex than that. It takes place in a small fishing village in Portugal, and Dearing clearly has a good grip on that country’s history, its economy, its social rituals and most importantly its landscape: the descriptions of beaches, breezes, squares, and bars all ring with accuracy and intimacy.

I also really liked the characters. Yes, the young lovers–a 25-year-old Portuguese virgin named Luis and a 15-year-old Romany princess named Luisa–go through a lot of “I love you so much much much” nonsense, but in themselves they are both fully realized, complex characters. And though it sounds like a big squick, the age difference didn’t bother me much, probably because Luisa is so clearly wise beyond her years and Luis, wise behind them.

There are lots of other well drawn characters in the novel–Luisa’s abhorrent mother, the fascist police chief, various lawyers and self-seeking peasants, but the most interesting is Montiego, the kind-hearted cop. His right-heartedness and wry temper are a pleasure to read about–and when he is a key instigator at the start of the revolution, it is both thrilling and moral.

At least, I think it was moral–because the revolution wasn’t really ever clear to me, in reasoning nor execution. As I said before, I don’t doubt that Dearing has done the research and understands the social and economic conditions that set the revolutionary flames. It was just that I didn’t really get a sense of what these characters *in particular* were so angry about. Yes, the police chief is a big jerk, folks are unemployed, there’s an overseas war going on that I didn’t fully understand–and neither did the characters, it sometimes seemed to me. These are the reasons for the entire nation to take to the streets?

In many respects, my opinion of *The Bull* is suffering from my having read it very shortly after The Brief Wonderous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz. That novel concerns a swirl of personal stories–like Dearing’s book, *Oscar* is told from various points of view–set against another oppressive and troubling polical regime, this time Rafael Trujillo’s brutal dictatorship in the Dominican Republic in the 1940s and 50s, and the far-reaching effects of his rule on that country for many years afterwards.

As I say, that’s not a fair comparison–*The Bull…* is a short, tight, solid little novel–*Oscar* is a huge sprawling masterpiece. But I do think it’s fair that I was disappointed in the second half of *The Bull…*–most of the “minor” characters disappear, including Montiego, whom I didn’t think of as minor at all. Some who remain are reduced to jokes, like Margaret Brown, the admittedly rather stupid Englishwoman who had nevertheless been depicted with some sympathy–until she wasn’t anymore.

So we end up with the young lovers on the run, which is sort of cliche and sort of moving, but I don’t think really the point of the novel. There were a number of points in the book where characters sat down to tell a personal or historical anecdote, but wound up with something that sounded very much like a fable or myth. These were my favourite parts of the book, both for their simple beauty and for the comment they seemed to make on book-writing as a construct. At one point, challenged on the veracity of her “history,” Luisa insists that it must be true because it makes her happy, and is therefore what she prefers to believe.

To be perfectly honest, I’m not sure how that ties into the larger story but I *feel* that it does, and that somehow made the book satisfying for me, though the ending was lacking. I should read this book again one of these days–and it’s short enough and good enough that I might actually do so!

This is my 9th/September book for the To Be Read challenge. I thought there should be three more to go (12 books on the list, 12 months in the year, 9 months achieved/read) but then I realized that way back in January when I made the list I included two #4s. So there’s an extra book on the list! I might well get around to reading them all, but if I don’t, which ones are the most urgent? Feel free to vote in the comments:
4. *The Story of English* by Robert McCrum, William Cran, and Robert MacNeil
7. *The Beauty Myth* by Naomi Wolf
10. *Mouthing the Words* by Camilla Gibb
12. *On the Road* by Jack Kerouac

September 20th, 2012

1000 Things We Like: Over to Scott

Here are some excellent new likes from excellent Scott:

602) When a plan comes together.
603) Touch typing (RR says: must relevant thing I learned in high school)
604) Figuring out yourself how to watch a show downloaded to your ipad through your laptop to your television in such a manner that you feel you are a mad scientist or hacker
605) Walks in Autumn
606) Introducing someone to sushi for the first time
607) Watching a three year old introduce someone to sushi
608) Chalkboard tables (RR says: I don’t know what these are, but want to!)
609) Fall (Autumn) jackets
610) Snakes & Lattes
611) Waking up on a weekend and realizing you have nothing planned
612) Walking the ROM with a child and realizing how much you actually remember from school
613) Explaining how rain works
614) Fist bumps with toddlers
615) Apple spinach blue cheese quiche
616) Cinnamon
617) Guy Gavriel Kay books
618) The smell of new cardboard
619) Pandas
620) The smile on a friend when they realize they like the game you have introduced them to
621) Being the youngest person at a stage production (RR says: this happens to me often–not so sure I like it, though)
622) Frogs in a creek
623) Kayaking at sunset
624) Random hugs
625) Finishing a book and still having time in the evening to do other things
626) Cooking with butter

And from me

627) peanut-butter frosting (duh!)
628) collaborative creativity
629) the first time someone says something that makes me think s/he could be my friend someday
630) when the bus comes just as I walk to the stop
631) the rare times when I pick the cat up and he seems happy about it
632) having a blog
633) the texture of rose petals
634) pretty much about roses
635) the song “Hey Mickey”
636) good hair days

September 18th, 2012

Exciting things

Sorry, there keep being all these distractions from the 1000 Things–I’ll get back to it soon, I promise. And it’s not like these things I’ve been posting about: cake, movies, my office…

Ok, number one, and this is a red alert: How to Keep Your Day Job, the film that Sean Frewer, Lea Marin, and Lesley Krueger, along with various other awesome, adapted from my short story by the same name, is premiering at the Calgary International Film Festival. It’s a part of Date Night, a collection of short films that will screen September 22 at 12:15pm, and then again on September 26 at 6:45pm. If you click on the Date Night link above, you can find out more, order tickets, etc. If you are in/near Calgary and can attend, please please do–I need to hear all about it.

In other, more October-ish news, I’ll be reading at the Vancover International Writers’ Festival on Octobre 19 and 21 (see the sidebar at right on this page for events). And the Festival programmers asked me to write a little mini essay on my writing space at home for the festival blog–if you’d like to read it, here it is.

That’s it for now–more lists soon, I promise!!

September 17th, 2012

What Is Pirate Cake and How Do You Make It?

So here’s a post that has nothing to do with anything that’s been going on on this blog. On Saturday I made a Pirate Cake for my husband’s birthday and, when it went horribly wrong, I asked for help on Facebook forgetting that Pirate Cake is not an actual thing and people would be confused. They were, along with very supportive (and the cake survived, though it was darn ugly) and curious. So here is what Pirate Cake is and how you can have one too if you like, for anyone from Facebook or anywhere else that cares.

I grew up in a house without “bought cookies,” so though I learned about–and pined for–Oreos in the schoolyard, I am not familiar with some of the more esoteric brands. My husband, on the other hand, is obsessed with Pirate Cookies and when we got together they were often in his cupboards. They are flat dry oatmeal cookies sandwiches around peanut-butter frosting–same general idea as Oreos, but different flavours. They’re really good.

I like to bake, and once he suggested I *make* Pirate Cookies. This made no sense to me because they are so good in their manufactured form, but I did it anyway, and they’re also really good. The big advantage to making them yourself is that you can have as much frosting as you like.

Then we made Pirate Cookie Blizzards (and will be drafting a letter to DQ shortly) and, for a birthday a while back, I invented Pirate Cake. I bet you can guess what it is–an oatmeal layer cake with peanut butter frosting.

It’s delicious, and pretty easy, and if you’re not a moron like I am you’ll make sure the bottom layer is level so that the top layer doesn’t slide off at an angle and endanger the whole operation. This is not a healthy recipe, but I guess it does have more fibre (oatmeal) and protein (peanut butter) than your average cake.

WORD OF WARNING: Remember that I am a person who did *not* take the above precautions about the level cake base, and therefore should not be trusted to give advice. And yet, people did ask, so here you go–caveat emptor.

Oatmeal Cake
(This is a low-fat version I found that is identical to the one in Joy of Cooking except for slightly less fat. I’ve made both and they taste the same, so you might as well use the lighter one and have more frosting instead.)

1 cup quick-cooking oats
1.25 cups boiling water
6 tablespoons margarine (I use butter)
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup packed light brown sugar
2 eggs (I use egg substitute because it’s both lighter and pasturized–you can eat the dough without fear of salmonella)
1.33 cups cake flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
0.5 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
0.25 teaspoon ground nutmeg
Pinch cloves
(I always omit the cloves, and next time I think I’ll omit all the spices–doesn’t completely jibe with the peanut butter)

1. Mix oats, boiling water and margarine/butter in a large bowl, stirring until margarin/butter is melted; let stand 15 to 20 minutes. Mix in sugars and eggs. Mix in combined remaining ingredients.
2. Pour batter into greased 13×9 pan (or in this case, two round layer pans) Bake at 350 degrees until a toothpick inserted in centre comes out clean, about 35 minutes (way less for the layer pans–start checking at about 20 minutes). Cool on wire rack 10-15 minutes.

When the cake is completely cool, you can ice it (if you don’t know what a mess you can make icing a warm cake, consider yourself lucky).

Unfortunately, my recipe for peanut-butter icing isn’t a real recipe with measurements or anything, since I invented it. You just kinda eyeball and taste until you feel confident. You’ll always end up with too little or too much, too, unfortunately–try to err on the side of too much.

Take a tablespoon of butter and 0.25 cup of peanut-butter, and leave them at room temperature until they are soft. I use the all-natural peanut butter, but you can use whatever–if you get the processed stuff, you might not need the salt mentioned later. Obviously, smooth pb would work better here, but if you make a mistake at the grocery store (I have) it can still work out ok.

When they are soft, squash them together with the back of a spoon. Add a bunch of icing sugar–half a cup–to the mixture, and squash that in. Then when you can’t add any more sugar, add a splash of milk (I use skim, but whatever will work) until it gets really runny. Then add more sugar until it gets really powdery. When you get close to what you perceive as the right amount of icing, taste, then throw in a dash of salt and taste again to see if you are happy with that. Then try to balance out the milk/sugar ratio until it looks like the consistency of icing.

Ice the cake. Decorate with whatever. Keep in mind that the icing will be beige, and not attractive, so you’ll want to decorate as much as possible. It’s occurred to me that I could use cocoa to dye some of the icing a richer brown, which I could then pipe onto the cake to decorate it, but I have never actually bothered to do that.

As you can see from the photo above, I tried to write “Mark” in chocolate chips, and it took me two lines for 4 letters, and also part of the R slid over the side when the top layer started drifting. This is basically as ugly as a cake can be and still have people willing to eat it, but Mark loves me and I love peanut-butter icing, so we tried it.

IT WAS SO GOOD!!

Enjoy!

September 16th, 2012

1000 Things We Like: Before Bed

These are from Susan Glickman–thanks so much for these lovely likes, Susan!

554. The first bite of a perfectly crunchy apple (bonus points if it’s still on the tree)
555. Having a strange cat come over and rub against your legs (RR: hooray!)
556. Being startled by the stars when you are just going outside to put out the garbage
557. Putting on socks straight out of the dryer
558. The smell of a wood fire
559. A letter instead of an e-mail
560. When your university student daughter unselfconsciously calls you “Mama”
561. Laughing out loud when you’re reading something by yourself (RR says: this is extremely rare for me–I am a social laugher–but yes, I totally get it!)
562. A robin’s nest in your window, complete with baby robins
563. Finding money in a jacket pocket
564. The way butter melts into all those little holes in a crumpet
565. Clean sheets on the bed
566. Getting a phone call from a friend you’ve been thinking about
567. Sharpening a pencil
568. Writing with a newly sharpened pencil
569. Porch swings
570. Splashing through puddles in rubber boots
571. A restaurant that gives you mints after dinner
572. A good haircut
573. Puns
574. Sitting on the balcony with a cup of tea and the dog puts his head on your lap
575. Remembering the French word for something obscure just in time to use it

I think we’ll cover up a a skipped number in the list with my mom’s sole contribution so far:

576) Baking a really good cake

And these from Fred:

577) Really really effective allergy medication
578) When you beat heavy cream and somehow it just transmogrifies into whipped cream.
579) Being home alone and spontaneously yelling RicolAAAAAH! really loud like they do in the commercial. (RR: I shall try this!)
580) Those outfits made from curtains in “The Sound of Music”.
581) A picture of yourself in a place you do not recall ever going to.
582) Fingers calloused from guitar playing
583) Sitting on a bed in one of those fake rooms at Ikea and pretending you live there.
584) Pie crust

And, what the hay, I think I’ll round out the night with some of my own

585) A cat who fits exactly in a box, and enjoys being there
586) Special effects in live performances
587) Realizing, with shock and joy, that Christmas will come *again* in a few months
588) Feeding ducks (or watching others feeding ducks, if one has forgotten to bring bread)
589) When someone knows me well enough to give me the thing I want before I ask for it
590) When traffic finally starts moving after you’ve been stuck for a while
591) Bare feet on cool grass
592) Bouncing up and down in the ocean when the waves are rough but not too rough
593) Skor bits
594) Good advice
595) Suddenly realizing that my hair is pretty long
596) Being picked up from the airport
597) Digicorders
598) REM’s “Why Not Smile”
599) When people point out how much I look like my mom
600) Baths
601) The expression “what the hay”

Good night!