Mary Buys a Kayak!

Mary Visits Jiffy Lube

I'm experimenting with making videos. Some things are bound to turn out better than others :-/

Read this right now!

Obama is recalling growing up, raised by his grandmother. She said to him, "Well, it's no picnic for me either." What I heard was, "My life ain't been no crystal stair/But I's still climbing...."

I dob't take anything away from McCain. I respect McCain. I admire his service to our country, his tenacity in surviving being held captive. I see a life well-lived, in so many respects.

BUT, he does not know my childhood or my friends lives. That doesn't make him a bad choice for a leader; but McCain is not my choice. Not just because we are not similar in our experience in America, but more because he chose, he "chose" Palin.

I had wanted Hillary to be the democratic candidates. I see now why she is not that candidate. I only say this so you see that my objections about Palin are not because she is female. My doubts are not that she is inexperienced with world leaders and even national politics beyond her peninsula. I wonder, however, if you put her in a room of 8th graders and they played, "Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego", if Palin would be in the top three. I wonder if she played a game with sixth graders about the constitution and the amendments, if she would be in the top six. I am not willing to wonder that about my vice president.

Barack knows the constitution, knows he is not a perfect man, knows he needs guidance and help and will ask for the help he needs. I believe those things about him. I do believe that if he asks America to step up, that finally, we will "all" step up; all of those that are able.

Is this powerful media - YES, it is. This is a presidential candidate who understands that all of the citizens are at his disposal; this thirty minute spot is how he talks to everyone - not the people who can buy a plate at a dinner to support him that costs in excess of $500. He spent his campaigning dollar to talk to me, to you. What did he ask for in return?

Pay attention. Listen. Vote.

Crazy Kayak Girl

The summer of 2008, I went kayaking about six times. The Severn, the Magothy, the Bay, became as much my waterfront as any one elses. No cell phone, no moving quickly. The sun, the salty-ish air, the birds, and my sister and friends made for hours of paradise in my own neighborhood.

We'd typically meet at the Boatyard Bar and Grill in Eastport for their legendary Bloody Mary(s) and then walk down the block to rent kayaks from Annapolis Canoe and Kayak rentals. They hold an annual end-of-season kayak sale and I was among the handful of people anxiously waiting for them to open the doors on Sunday morning.

An hour later, I was a proud boat owner! My kayak is a blue Dagger 12 with a skeg. Now all I need is a paddle, a whistle, a bailing system (sponge or cup and sponge), and a life jacket!

There is one other small detail that I didn't think through - transportation. For now, my kayak is safely cradled at Annapolis Canoe and Kayak. Next weekend, I hope to recruit a friend with a large vehicle to help me get my boat home. It is just possible that this modest kayak may fit inside my vehicle with the hatch open, etc. We'll see. Until then, if you see me walking down College Parkway with a kayak trailing behind me, you'll know that I'm headed for water!

Long Nights

Take off your shoes
Pin up your hair
Don't worry about the crumbs
or the dog hair. Spill
your wine on the carpet

And don't worry about the
mail; this has been a long day
and it's gonna be a night
deep as hell.

There is no help at the door
and no one inside. All the window
are closed and the curtains
are blind. Sheets as cool as
a shroud and your lips wanting
a swell.

TV is chatter, night fog for the ear,
your skin has grown onion thin,
your heart a mollusk shell.

You just don't want to go,
and you'll die if you stay.
Those will be the words
on your dying day.

14 Hour day and still restless

Here is an indication of a lack of balance: the person who was up at 6 AM is still up at nearly midnight and worked two job and cannot settle down, cannot rest, cannot take herself upstairs to sleep. Oh, the snooze alarm will wink at me in the morning, entice me to tap it, tap it, tap it, til I go to work in wrinkled clothes and unruly hair and all the thoughts that would not settle down scribbled in the furrows of my brow.

Financial Forecasting

"There is a tide in the affairs of men.
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;
Omitted, all the voyage of their life
Is bound in shallows and in miseries.
On such a full sea are we now afloat,
And we must take the current when it serves,
Or lose our ventures."

Julius Caesar Act 4, scene 3, 218–224
Brutus

Sarah Palin Debate Flow Chart

Okay, I didn't create it and probably won't leave it here long but you have to admit that it applies to plenty of other situations, not only during a debate.

Sally escaped in the woods

Not far from here is a wood, a conservation area off Log Inn Road; the wood is untamed for the most part except for a service path that cuts through the center and around the perimeter.

I was looking for an open, natural space to allow Sally off her leash, to ramble and race and run like a dog should: Well, at least as Sally should. So I parked on the side of the road, and we climbed over the low placed loosely fitted chain. Twilight coming on but still an hour hence, soft light filtered down through the leaves and the ground was forgiving from recent rains. After a few yards, I undid Sally's leash. Whenever she got a bit of distance between us, I called her to stay and sit. She did.

We traveled deeper into the wood. I threw a stick and she chased after and carried back the stick (or its cousin) several times. Then just beyond where Sally stood, I spied a burst of movement, tall and muscular, nearly invisible, blended with the palette of colors of the wood. "Sally stay," I commanded and thankfully she did as I envisioned her otherwise bounding off through the woods, relentless in her pursuit of a deer.

I secured her leash and walked a bit more. It seemed the deer (or it may have been Sasquatch - who appears sometimes when the air starts to chill) had left the area. So I let Sally free once more and she wandered and returned and wandered and returned. Although she was growing increasingly confident in the degrees of separation between us. So whenever she returned, I produced treats (ah, bacon).

The sun was moving closer to the horizon and I realized I might have started this adventure much earlier lest I find myself far from the gate and still in the woods (Sasquatch prefers company at sunset). It is at this moment, as my creative thoughts begin firing more brilliantly, that Sally races off into the wood, her nose twitching, her quarters leaping logs and brush as she manically pursues, a zig to the left and a zag to the right.

I shout, I cajole, I offer food. I run and yell, "C'mon Sally. Catch me." She is not interested in catching any human though as she has caught the scent of Sasquatch (okay, maybe it's a deer)and must find it, corral it. Soon I cannot see her and have to leave the access road/path and traipse through the brush, the prickly, the fallen limbs. After a bit, I cannot see the access path anymore even though I know it is there, even though I know if I keep going, I will come ot the access path on the far side, even though I know I am in a contained conservation wood not far from civilasation and will not be lost as I could be in the hills of North Carolina near Little Switzerland. "Sally!" I spot her and take off in that direction but she has hiding skills too and her invisibility coat is blending with the tree trunks and brush. "Sally. Come!" She does not. I go further in. What choice do I have? What else can you do when what you care about goes chasing after the scene of something unknown but has a primal urge compelling it to find the prey and contain it.

I spot her again and because she is dependent on me, because she is vulnerable among the wild things, I cajole her back, leash her up and lead her back out of the wood. I do know that she was joyous in her pursuit and would, no doubt, have responded well if she'd actually encountered Sasquatch - especially if he'd had bacon treats for her!

Why is it always that . . .

that sleep alludes me when work and life tax me the most?

My day started earlier than most because I'm presiding over a training seminar and then worked my days work and then taught my expository writing class; the late class that runs until 9:35PM and after the drive home, it is 10:45PM and even if I listen to a lullaby, my mind is racing with ideas of new class exercises and domestic tasks and missed birthdays and what to be for Halloween and you.

What surprises me the most . . .

Well, it surprises me (maybe not the most) is that I do find myself unattached now. This is how I thought I would write this when I was upstairs:

"People always seem surprised that I am alone. I admit that I have not spent much time examining it either; too afraid that I might discover the answer."

Mary - Featured Poet - October 10

Friday, October 10 6:30 - 8:30
POETRY AT BB BISTRO
Welcomes MARY BARGTEIL
Open Mic included.

Mary Lorraine Bargteil is troubled by her name, artifacts, and alignment.
Frequently inconsistent, her creative efforts have resulted in publication
in poetry, short story, novella, and essay. One of her creative
objectives it to make books from existing materials and to excavate
territories and characters where the artifacts are sketchy at best. Her
most recent poetry collection, “Artifacts” was discovered when she was
reading the unsubstantiated account of Lilith and broke her grandfather's
Baltimore and Ohio railroad official china egg cup. She finds
significance in things that are broken.
----
BB Bistro
112 Annapolis St.
Annapolis, MD
410-990-4646
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“I’m frustrated by the war. Gas prices. A government that shoves rhetorical Binkys into our mouths to distract us from the dirty economic diaper in which we sit.”
Marc Davison