refuse to put a lame "in the beginning" title

Today was a banner day: knelt on my glasses (they were on my bed) and damaged them beyond repair, locked myself out of my 'rents' house for 25 minutes, and invented the world's worst curseword.

Here it is: babycumfucker.

Origin of curseword: My sister was reviewing the curse words she knew in American Sign Language, and I wondered what mother was for motherfucker. Not surprisingly, she knew what fuck was, but not mother, so I suggested it might be a cradling motion. And then, I realized, that would be a better sign for baby. So you can see how babyfucker came about -- which I assumed at that moment sucked away any possible shot of me not going to hell. The third syllable of the final product came about later in the car when I expressed my self-admiration at inventing a neologism that disturbed me more than cunt. So, of course, I had to add it in between baby and fucker (is anyone else finding this as difficult to read as I am finding it to write)?? My sister's friend repeated it, gasping, and I thought she had replaced it with cum, which, honestly, I think may be less gross and make less sense but is, in terms of brutality, much better.

Didn't mean to make that a dissertation.
Anyhow, I sent out my one and only PhD application today. This caps my numerous mailings over the past several weeks, which also included sending out my manuscript of my first book of poems, Tarshish, to five presses and an application for a year-long writing residency. Now I have nothing to do but write my 20 page critical paper to get my MFA before I go to work on my novel, which I will hereon refer to as Children of Bonnie and Clyde. That won't be the name, but, well, you know.

I'm going to head down to Florida with Smita either on the 12th or 13th of this month. I'm still not entirely sure what she's doing down there for the next few months, but the girl is nothing if not enigmatic.

My favorite thing of the holiday season: Best of (whatever year is coming to a close) lists. Getting riled up over people's opinions about the arts is always fun and makes you forget about things like how the newly Democratic Congress is probably not going to go after Bush for all the crap he's pulled over the last six years. Sigh.