An All-Over-the-Place Post
(featuring food-related poems,
travel plans, new books,
some random questions, and a few fun pics)

Those of you who think that I think (and blog) about food too much are probably right, since I wrote this poem last night (by the way: the prompt it was written for at the Poem-a-Day challenge was "write a poem about longing")...

"Longing"

There’s not much I long for.

Sure,
love gets me some time.
And world peace too,
(when I’m in a benevolent mood).

But,
there are those occasional
moments, those haphazard
cravings

those longings
that emanate from
my stomach, then reach
my mouth, and finally
my imagination

and I know I need it.

Something from
south-of-the-border.

It’s really quite simple.

There’s not much I need.

Just
love,
peace,
and taco grease.

(This came from the fact that yesterday, after Delaney's travel ball practice, I had one of my top three or four things in the whole wide world. Tacos from Taco Casa...dripping with sauce and melted cheese and "taco grease" which I seriously think should be trademarked.)

Of course, I also wrote the following poem when the challenge was to write about a specific object. Why would this particular object come to my mind?

"Cupcake"

there’s something
lovely,
lyrical
about
buttercream.

there’s something
joyous,
jubilant
about
sprinkles.

Aside from writing food poems (go ahead and call me crazy! LOL), what else have I been doing lately?

Well...

* I've also been busy making reservations for all sorts of fun trips coming up in the next several months.

Gary and I will celebrate our anniversary next month with a stay at a bed and breakfast, and tickets to Shakespeare's "The Comedy of Errors" (and, dare I say it?, lots of good food and wine).

And then I reserved a beach house in June that looks absolutely perfect! (We're going with two other families and we are anticipating all sorts of relaxation and fun.)

And this next weekend we will be going to our first tournament of the season with Delaney's travel ball team. A hotel, a swimming pool...I think we're all ready for a little get-away.

* I'm so excited because I've happened on the best book deals lately. I went to my favorite place to find books--the thrift store--on Monday and found four books that look great. I got My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult (I've never read anything by her, but keeping hearing really good things), Riding Lessons by Sara Gruen (she wrote my very favorite book I read last year--Water for Elephants--so I'm hoping this one will be good too), and Eat, Love, Pray (which has been on my "to read" list for a while). I always get just plain giddy when I go to the thrift store and find such good books! (On top of that, I also found a Strawberry Shortcake DVD for Sydney and some Liz Claiborne shoes for me.)

Right now, though, I'm reading books in the "House of Night" series. This is a young adult series that is all about vampires, but it's very different (it's sort of a gossip girl meet twilight...lots of teenage drama amidst the vampire/goddess/bloodlust storyline). I didn't like it much to begin with, but then I got sucked in (yes, pun intended) by the teen drama and I am now hooked. I just finished the first, started the second, and bought the third.

Seriously, there are so many books in our house that they are stacked up all over the place. Gary and I have a plan to add four new bookshelves into our den, so I'm hoping we can do that sometime soon. (But, really...is there anything more wonderful than books?)

* Yesterday, Delaney competed in a county-wide Math Tournament that happened to be held at our local science museum. It's a great place--one where, seriously, you could spend all day exploring, learning, and having fun--and Sydney and I both got to tag along.

My favorite moment of the day was when we walked down to one of the levels and Sydney, upon seeing the exhibits, announced to me, "This must be about Davinci." (She actually recognized Davinci's famous sketch of the human body...you know, the one with his hands outstretched?...which was prominently displayed on the wall.) We had a blast looking at all of the models of Davinci's early "machines," and then explored throughout the museum while Delaney and the math team competed.

Of course, I have a few random pictures from the day...








(I love hands-on activities for kids!)

* And, oh yeah, how could I forget Scout's softball team? We won again (this time 25-4) and are now in control of the second half of the season. Gary is coaching the team so well, and Scout absolutely loves it (she comes home after every game just giddy)!

I know that this is a Wednesday morning post, but since I missed posting yesterday...that means I also missed posting for Random Tuesday. If you so desire, then: here are three Random Tuesday questions for you to answer/share if you'd like (based on my ramblings for today)...

(1) If you were going to write a poem about food, what food would it be about? (LOL)

(2) Do you have plans for any trips coming up soon?

(3) What book are you reading right now? Or (better yet!), what's a book you would recommend for me (because, you all know I need more books on my to-read list!)?

(As always, you can answer in my comments section or post your answers on your own blog.)

And now...I'm going to grab me a big glass of sweet tea, a peanut butter cookie, and take a little break to watch my DVR-ed copy of "American Idol" from last night (we usually miss the original airing, because we're off running around somewhere or another).

(You think I could write a poem about sweet tea and peanut butter cookies? I bet I could.)

Have a wonderful day!