Poetry contest 2017

Our HBLL poetry contest this year was Haiku.  Again, Patrick and I both participated. I won for one of the three best Haiku!

Here is mine:

Leaves

The leaves on a tree--
Nature's joy. Mindful pleasure--
The leaves in a book.

Patrick wrote his in honor of our own rainy day, plus the rainy day pictures Nancy was posting, featuring Benjamin and a close encounter with worms.

Heavenly rain drops
Chase fat earthworms from their homes
Squish, squish, squish, squish. Gross.

Chris, one of the judges, found Patrick's to be his personal favorite, but alas, it was not the one that won. 

Patrick and I both got a print of a Japanese bird, which is what the prize was for all the contest entrants. Because I was also one of the three top winners, I got a little miniature serial (cereal) book.  This is the kind of binding they do on serials. A very fun book binding pun of a prize.

 I was hoping to share some of the other poems, because some were really great, but I don't have them and can't remember them perfectly. Matt, the Latin American Studies Librarian wrote one about women have babies, something else creative in the middle but I can't remember what, and I write papers for the last line. He was also one of the winners with that poem.Because it was really funny when, you know, it looked and sounded like a poem.

Happy Birthday to you to me

Josie turned 23 today.  Last night, I took her to a Noteworthy concert to support a few of her friends who were performing, and then Patrick took her home and I didn't even think about her tradition of giving me flowers for her birthday.

So when I got to work at 8:15, I was surprised to find some lovely orchids and a note sitting on my desk!

I don't know if she and Patrick went to the library and got someone to let them in last night, or if she got up early and put them on my desk this morning, but it was so sweet of her, and it made me cry a little.  It has been a rough week, and it was a nice gesture.

The note also made me smile. "There is no one I would rather be born from!" So, when Josie was about three and a half or so, we were all sitting at the table eating dinner, when she turned and looked at me rather disdainfully and asked, "WHY was I born from YOU?"  I was a bit taken aback, as were we all--I thought for a minute and then said, "I don't know. Would you rather have been born from someone else?"

"Yes," she said, "Trina or Karen."

I said, "Well, Trina and Karen are really fun, aren't they? But you know what...if you were born from one of them, you couldn't grow up to marry Britton or Ty, because one would be your brother, and the other one would be your cousin." (And she was pretty torn, that year, between marrying one of them or the other.)

"Oh," she said, comprehension showing on her face. "Okay." (You could just see on her face the wheels turning in her brain--it was all making sense! If you are the sister of the boy you like, you can't marry him! So clearly you need to be born to a different family!)

Well, I don't think Josie wants to marry either one of them any more, but at least that explanation helped at the time! I am glad she decided she liked being born from me.

This reminded me of another time when something profoundly odd came out of her mouth at dinner time. She gave me a completely baffled look and said, "Why did you name ME a beautiful name?" as if to say "Wow--look at all these other people with their horrible, ugly names, and yet you gave me a beautiful name. Why? With your distinct lack of taste in names, why did you break that mold for me?"

Well, as Abbi wrote on her post for Josie's birthday, she named Josie--or at least, her name suggestion was the one that carried the vote. (Because when you have a baby and the other children are 5, 9, 11, 15 and 16, then voting happens. You lose your freedom to name the baby whatever you want, because everyone has to be at least okay with it.) And Abbi and Josie agree that Abbi has good taste, so there is the obvious explanation for that. (And I think that all my children have beautiful names!)

Well, anyway, in the midst of a week during which I have really been working super hard and not getting much sleep, and all of the bathrooms are compromised, and Bruce is going in for surgery, it was nice to get flowers and a lovely note this morning.