Nasal weirdness.

So, I appear to have seasonal allergies, which have gotten worse as I have aged. I say “appear to” because I have not been officially diagnosed (other than as having hay fever once when I was a child) but all of the signs are there.

To counter these allergies for the past couple of years I’ve been using Zicam allergy relief. It seems to work, but who knows?

Anyway, today I feel off–but it could be also that my system is in a state of shock over the amount of junk food I consumed this weekend.

Happy Monday!

VOTE for your favorite of the Top Ten Million Writers stories (I voted already and I can’t tell you which story I voted for because it’s a secret but here’s a hint: The author’s name is Pia Ehrhardt and she is really cool and talented and kind and I like her.)

Hungover, but happy.

My best friend and her husband (who is also my friend) are visiting. We have not seen each other in two years and, as usual, it is like we have never been apart. This did not stop me, however, from consuming far too much wine last night.

While my head aches, my heart is full.

In other good news, check out Ellen Meister’s cool announcement (Lisa Kudrow is reading her audiobook!) and Robin Slick’s cool news (her book has been excerpted in Playgirl!) and while you’re at it, read this great story by David Niall Wilson.

I was chosen as a finalist in The Journal’s William Allen Creative Nonfiction contest, which is very nice news, indeed!

Congratulations to the winner Julie Huynh Wan. Her essay sounds terrific.

I learned to waterski when I was fifteen and have loved it ever since, though I rarely have a chance to do it anymore. What you learn quickly is that you must rely on the strength of your arms to first pull you up out of the water, and then to hold you up once you’re standing. It’s not your legs as you might imagine. Your legs are relatively useless until you’re up on the skis, then you need them, but only slightly.

The feeling I am holding onto today is that feeling when the wind has died down and the water is smooth, glass. Then you jump the wake and push out with your legs into the smooth water and what you feel it that your entire body feels free from gravity. You are flying. You are on a silk carpet.

And what it is is joy. Pure. Without compare.

The Litblog panel #5 at EWN–lookie here! There’s my pals Kat and Cliff. Nicely done, all!

Tom Delay caught on tape: nothing worse than a woman know-it-all.

If you read nothing else today, please read Susan DiPlacido’s take on American Idol. Week after week, she slays me:

And then there’s Ace.
Those over-blushed cheeks and that Katie Holmes “I’ve just been indoctrinated into the cult of Scientology” camera eye-fuck doesn’t exactly freak me out, but it’s uncomfortable. It’s phony. And if it’s not phony, then it does freaks me out. A falsetto doesn’t make a singer. But as a singer, he’s a falsetto. He sucks and he really needs go.

Just took down the link to that movie I had posted here because that site the movie was on had disgusting racist “jokes” on it.

Today, I offer you Tall Thistles, by my pal Thomas White

Here is some exciting news from SLS:

SLS is now accepting entries for its first Kenya contest—including the first ever SLS contest in nonfiction! First prize in each genre will receive airfare, housing and a full tuition waiver to our 2006 SLS Kenya program AND publication in Maisonneuve (nonfiction) or Tin House (fiction and poetry); second place in each genre receives a tuition waiver; and third place in each genre will receive a partial tuition waiver. Final judges: PHILLIP LOPATE in nonfiction and the TIN HOUSE Editorial Board in fiction and poetry.

SLS Kenya 2006 faculty includes: Arthur Flowers, Judy Kibinge, Padgett Powell, Rob Spillman, Terese Svoboda, M.G. Vassanji, Binyavanga Wainaina, Derek Webster, and many others TBA. Check out our website for complete details at SLS Kenya

Here is some reading for today:

Alma Paramo, by Desiree Zamorano

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Vestal Review issue #25, featuring work by Michelle Richmond, Mary Miller, and others.