Sunny today, not cold, but not that warm. This will be a quickie, because I'm still prepping for this afternoon's reading, in which I'll be presenting selections from John Ridland's translation of the medieval dream poem, Pearl. I wanted to note, though, that my no-buy year has passed quickly from as long as Lent to as long as Eastertide –– though it's not yet been as long as Lent AND Eastertide, continguously. Still, fifty days pass quickly. Only three hundred fifteen left to go.
Wearing today, for this reading:
My classic, comforting, tried-and-true charcoal-gray wool Sierra dress. How I do love it. I decided to go for gray-on-gray tonality, so I won't be distracting on video, and because this color scheme calms me: the charcoal-gray dress, my old thrifted silver-gray silk-cashmere-blend beaded cardigan, darker charcoal leggings (cheap, bought last year or the year before, nothing special, but I'm glad I had them today), and my purple Xero Oswegos, which of course won't show up on camera. I went for gray also because I could wear the purple shoes as my one note of contrast.
Generally I wear blue for things like this, because it's reliably flattering, but gray is a good neutral for me:
A little lip balm and I'll be good to go, I think. I generally do Zoom things from my dining room, which faces north and has big windows: no direct sunlight, but a good bit of diffused natural light which I can augment with the dimmable chandelier over the table. Anyway, I'm probably unreasonably nervous about this reading, as I would not be if I were reading my own poems, but if I can present a good face to however many people show up, that's one anxiety alleviated, anyway.
I need to add some sections to my reading list, then time myself. THEN I need to start reading over my essays for the anthology, so I can turn in another round of edits by tomorrow night.
I don't have too many working weekends, but this is certainly one of them.
Oh, also, if you happen to have $20 and some time, my brother has a film up at the National Paddling Film Festival, taking place today in Lexington, KY. You can participate online, watching films and voting for your favorite for the Viewers' Choice Award. My brother's film is called A Paddler's Journey. This film chronicles his cross-country road trip to race in a downwind paddling competition in the Columbia River Gorge, and is charming in the way that watching a fundamentally shy person warm to his subject can be charming. It features some old family photos (seventh-grade me in a canoe in Hardy, Arkansas, etc), plus a soundtrack for which a friend of his plays a number of stringed instruments, including my dad's mountain dulcimer. There's also some marvelous footage at the end of the Mississippi River, which my brother paddles daily, all around the year.