• Best thing about being home on a weekday- close enough to Sarah's Empanadas on 55. Best lunch in the Triangle (apologies, Mr. Red Lotus!) #

• I was informed last night that my recent tweets have been "emo." hehehehe. #

• Recipe for true happiness: smart student-writers + great poems + forum for meaningful conversation. Or, terrific spouse. Better: both. #

• Smalls did not get to play Abbey Road on Saturday, so emergency BRB has been called for the next 30 minutes. #
• Very short office hour tonight. Signing on to AIM for a while in case anyone wants a virtual office hour. #
• From @davidb's photo, I see that the more chin I gain, the more forehead I gain, too. O #
• Oh, yeah, Twitter-friends, pls recommend the best haunted house in the RDU area. Ladybug and I want to go get haunted on Friday. #

• Grading complete. Poem comments complete. Evaluation stuff complete. Going to shoot some peoples' heads now. #
• Oh, WOW. Facebook is suggesting that I reconnect WITH MY WIFE. WTFBBQ? Seriously, Facebook, I think we're pretty well connected. #

• The news is either good or really bad. Don't know which. #
• I have got to get some perspective or I am gonna drive myself crazy. #
• I bought a new pair of pants to reflect the fact that I lost all that weight. I forgot how nice it is to have pants that are the right size! #
• Fight to get it back again, yeah yeah yeah. #

• Does matter that today was 12 shades of crap? Nah. I have beer and am hosting trivia. It's all good. #
• My last tweet is, I think, my rendition of "I Will Survive." Without the breakup, natch. #

• My enthusiasm dies a little more each day. #
• My 17 freshman poetry students have restored much of the lost enthusiasm, and I didn't even really get to talk to them today (midterm exam). #

My buddy Charlie came to Chapel Hill to do the mp3 Experiment.  It was terrific.

My students had their midterm exams today, so I am anxious to see what sunk in and what still needs work.

We’ve just finished A. Van Jordan’s M-A-C-N-O-L-I-A, though we’ll come back to it toward the end of class, when students begin thinking about how collections of poems work.  Response to the book was terrific… though a couple students were skeptical when they first finished it, I think most had come around by the time they’d written papers on it.  A couple listed it as the best thing they’ve read in class on their midterm evaluations.  (Brigit Pegeen Kelly showed up on that list a lot, as did Zbigniew Herbert and Mark Jarman.)

Reading list #4 came out today; here’s what’s on it.

Thomas Lux, The Cradle Place
Charles Simic, Charon’s Cosmology
Kara Candito, Taste of Cherry
Dan Albergotti, The Boatloads
Donald Hall, Without
Mary Oliver, American Primitive
Tony Hoagland, What Narcissism Means to Me
Pablo Neruda, Winter Garden
William Matthews, Time & Money
Nickole Brown, Sister
Carl Dennis, Practical Gods
Donald Justice, The Sunset Maker
Ross Gay, Against Which
Mark Jarman, Unholy Sonnets
Geri Doran, Resin
Thomas Lux, God Particles
William Matthews, Flood

My students continue to make really interesting and bold choices.  (They request five books they’re interested in; I assign one.) A couple of these books didn’t appear on request lists but will be really helpful to the students who got them, but most were directly requested by students.  I was really pleased to see Ross Gay’s name pop back up.  After reading one of his essays and his poem “Jet” in class, Tony Hoagland’s name was on many of the lists this time around.  Hey, UNC faculty member who has had all of Tony’s work checked out since the beginning of the semester and doesn’t have to return them until 2-23-10, get over yourself and return these books to the library so I can assign them! One student had to resort to saying, “I’ll buy the book if you’ll just assign it to me.”

• is in the cave. #
• is out of the cave, reflecting on what a wretched weekend it has been. #

• Headed out to Carrboro Century Center for Katie Bowler's poetry reading. #

• Very happy to spend some time with @CharlieTodd and Adam tonight after GIRLS NITE trivia. #
• mp3 Experiment in Chapel Hill was terrific! Thanks, @charlietodd, for dreaming it up! #

• Headed Saturday night to the West End Poetry Festival, to see my pal (and Bull City author) Katie Bowler read. 8:40 PM. Carrboro Centry Ctr. #
• This William Shatner spoken word album really is not that good. #
• Meant to purchase Alan Dugan's collected, per Matthew Olzmann's directive. Bought Allen Tate instead. Happy mistake. #
• Added a new bookshelf during a conference call. Hooray for multitasking. Hooray for more books! #
• Being Rickrolled at Great Clips. #
• Must fix this second monitor soon. I can't take it much longer #

• 10:50 AM and I am just opening e-mail. Second day in a row that I have gotten lots done before noon. Connection? YES. #
• I got nothin'. #
• Why did no one tell me Olena Kalytiak Davis has a new chapbook? I am so there! #

• One of those nights where I wasn't so much sleeping as thinking with my eyes shut for 7 1/2 hours. #
• No aloha. #
• There's no way to do it all. But I feel somewhat better that I'm doing the most important. #
• Pretty trees! #

• Holy cow, the new Living Colour is everything I would have hoped for in a new Living Colour album! #

• REALLY disturbed by the throng of shirtless children that just ran past the window. #
• Wife has fever and cough. Oh noes. I hope this is not bacon lung… #

• Walking around with a lot of open loops. I'm off my GTD game and less happy as a result. Time to take back some time. Time to plan. #
• How many empty containers can the state buy? #
• And why am I craving Chee-Tohs so badly? I mean, I REALLY REALLY want some. I never eat Chee-tohs. #

• People are making a lot of hay about the new Pearl Jam, and it's really good, but it isn't light years beyond Binaural and Riot Act. #