Rainy Friday, chicken soup, chicken stock & chestnuts

While a pot of chicken broth and chicken soup simmer on the stove, I’ll take a moment to post a recent profile I wrote for the Capital Press about Ray and Carolyn Young, owners of Allen Creek Farm in Ridgefield, Wash.

Story here

-c.

 

 

MIA too long

It won’t be tonight. But soon. This poor blog has been neglected for far too long. Lots of goings on. Mostly done with grad school, save a couple formalities in February, when I graduate. Getting back into the freelance reporting saddle and working to reclaim life. I’ll offer this up: Grad school earned my respect. And it kicked my butt, especially the last year of it. Happy for it and all I’ve learned. But I never expected such intensity. But more on all of that later. 

 

-Christy

Grad school bibliography

Just finished compiling my complete bibliography for my soon-to-be-completed grad school journey with Goddard College. Whew! Knew it felt like I’d been on journey. Looking at the material again reinforces it. So much growth, along with change, over the last couple of years. Yes, you might say I’m a smidge proud. Wish my dad was still here to see. The material:

Allison, Dorothy. Bastard out of Carolina. New York, N.Y., U.S.A.: Dutton, 1992. Print.

Barnes, Kim. In the Wilderness: Coming of Age in Unknown Country. New York: Doubleday, 1996. Print.

Bird, Isabella L. Adventures in the Rocky Mountains. London: Penguin, 2007. Print.

Birkerts, Sven. The Art of Time in Memoir: Then, Again. Saint Paul, MN: Graywolf, 2008. Print.

Blue Velvet. Dir. David Lynch. Perf. Isabella Rossellini, Kyle MacLachlan and Dennis Hopper. MGM, 1986. DVD.

Boylan, Jennifer Finney. I’m Looking through You: Growing up Haunted. New York: Broadway, 2008. Print.

Brown, Rebecca. American Romances: Essays. San Francisco, CA: City Lights, 2009. Print.

Bukowski, Charles. Post Office. London: Virgin, 1992. Print.

Cameron, Julia. The Artist’s Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity. Los Angeles, CA: Jeremy P. Tarcher/Perigee, 1992. Print.

Carver, Raymond. What We Talk about When We Talk about Love: Stories. New York: Knopf, 1981. Print.

Connell, Evan S. Mrs. Bridge: A Novel. San Francisco, CA: North Point, 1981. Print.

Danticat, Edwidge. Breath, Eyes, Memory. New York: Vintage, 1998. Print.

Didion, Joan. The Year of Magical Thinking. New York: A.A. Knopf, 2005. Print.

Doty, Mark. Firebird: A Memoir. New York: HarperCollins, 1999. Print.

Doty, Mark. Heaven’s Coast: A Memoir. New York, NY: HarperCollinsPublishers, 1996. Print.

Duras, Marguerite. The Lover. New York: Pantheon, 1985. Print.

Ehrenreich, Barbara. Bright-sided: How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking Has Undermined America. New York: Metropolitan, 2009. Print.

Fairchild, B. H. Early Occult Memory Systems of the Lower Midwest. New York: Norton, 2003. Print.

Farber, Manny. Negative Space; Manny Farber on the Movies. New York: Praeger, 1971. Print.

Flynn, Nick. Another Bullshit Night in Suck City: A Memoir. New York: W.W. Norton &, 2004. Print.

Fox, Paula. Borrowed Finery: A Memoir. New York: Henry Holt, 2001. Print.

Fox, Paula. Desperate Characters. New York: W.W. Norton, 1999. Print.

Freire, Paulo. Pedagogy of the Oppressed. New York: Continuum, 2000. Print.

Gornick, Vivian. Fierce Attachments: A Memoir. New York: Farrar Straus Giroux, 1987. Print.

Gornick, Vivian. The Situation and the Story: The Art of Personal Narrative. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2001. Print.

Grealy, Lucy. Autobiography of a Face. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1994. Print.

Harrison, Kathryn. The Kiss. New York: Random House, 1997. Print.

Harrison, Kathryn. The Mother Knot. New York: Random House, 2004. Print.

Hooks, Bell. Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom. New York: Routledge, 1994. Print.

Hurston, Zora Neale. Their Eyes Were Watching God: A Novel. New York: Perennial Library, 1990. Print.

Kafka, Franz, and A. L. Lloyd. Metamorphosis. New York: Vanguard, 1946. Print.

Karr, Mary. Cherry: A Memoir. New York: Viking, 2000. Print.

Karr, Mary. The Liars’ Club. Rockland, MA: Wheeler Pub., 1995. Print.

Klein, Michael. Track Conditions: A Memoir. New York: Persea, 1997. Print.

Kraus, Chris. I Love Dick. New York, NY: Semiotext(e), 1997. Print.

Lambert, Joe. Digital Storytelling Cookbook: February 2007. Berkeley, CA: Digital Diner, 2006. Print.

Levy, Ariel. Female Chauvinist Pigs: Women and the Rise of Raunch Culture. New York: Free, 2005. Print.

Lopate, Phillip. The Art of the Personal Essay: An Anthology from the Classical Era to the Present. New York: Anchor, 1994. Print.

Lowe, Bia. Wild Ride: Earthquakes, Sneezes, and Other Thrills. New York: HarperCollins, 1995. Print.

Monette, Paul. Becoming a Man: Half a Life Story. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1992. Print.

Munro, Alice. Runaway: Stories. New York: Knopf, 2004. Print.

Myles, Eileen. Cool for You. New York (100 Suffolk St., New York 10002): Soft Skull, 2000. Print.

O’Brien, Tim. The Things They Carried: A Work of Fiction. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1990. Print.

Piazza, Tom. Why New Orleans Matters. New York, NY: Regan, 2005. Print.

Rankine, Claudia. Don’t Let Me Be Lonely: An American Lyric. Saint Paul, MN: Graywolf, 2004. Print.

Reichl, Ruth. Tender at the Bone: Growing up at the Table. New York: Random House, 1998. Print.

Resnick, Rachel. Love Junkie. London: Bloomsbury, 2009. Print.

Rider, Bhanu Kapil. The Vertical Interrogation of Strangers. Berkeley, CA: Kelsey St., 2001. Print.

Sebald, Winfried G. The Rings of Saturn. London: Harvill, 1998. Print.

Smith, Anna Deavere. Twilight Los Angeles. New York: Anchor, 1994. Print.

Strauss, Darin. Half a Life. San Francisco, CA: McSweeney’s, 2010. Print.

Strout, Elizabeth. Olive Kitteridge. New York: Random House, 2008. Print.

Theroux, Paul. The Elephanta Suite. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2007. Print.

Thomas, Abigail. A Three Dog Life. Orlando: Harcourt, 2006. Print.

Thomas, Abigail. Safekeeping: Some True Stories from a Life. New York: Anchor, 2001. Print.

Walls, Jeannette. The Glass Castle: A Memoir. New York: Scribner, 2006. Print.

Williams, Terry Tempest. Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place. New York: Vintage, 1992. Print.

Wolff, Geoffrey. The Duke of Deception: Memories of My Father. New York: Random House, 1979. Print.

Wolff, Tobias. In the Garden of the North American Martyrs. Hopewell, NJ: Ecco, 1981. Print.

Wolff, Tobias. The Barracks Thief. New York: Ecco, 1984. Print.

Wolff, Tobias. The Night in Question: Stories. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1996. Print.

Wolff, Tobias. This Boy’s Life: A Memoir. New York: Atlantic Monthly, 1989. Print.

 

Root Beer Float

Because sometimes, when the sun — finally — arrives, you just have to. And today was the day. A morning spent reading a Paula Fox novel, a walk and then a root beer float with vanilla bean ice cream. Now it’s on to a bibliography and other school-related work.

But that float. A promise of summer on a 60-degree day.

-Christy

Fly, thesis, fly!

It’s taken me nearly two days to recover from its delivery, but the first draft of my thesis should be in the hands of both my advisor and second reader today. Far from done. And it would be a stretch to say that I’m happy with it. But a huge step forward.

Next up: A 10- to 20-page process paper about my MFA journey, more annotations and, in the next packet, an annotated bibliography and complete bibliography of all of the texts read during my studies.

What a journey.

 

-Christy

 

Go to fucking hell

Lookie who wants to follow me on Twitter. What part of go the fuck to hell does the Marge / Gabo posse not seem to get? Still uninterested in you — sexually or otherwise. Still think you’re a creppy-ass, crazy-ass stalker who needs a life. Stat. Get on with it, Doolittle.

Related post here.

More MIA

Headlong in the last semester of my MFA in creative nonfiction with Goddard College. Been a heck of a ride with lots learned, plenty of melt-down moments and growth. Sometimes — oftentimes — painful moments of growth. Won’t breathe a sigh of relief until the semester’s end and my thesis makes its way. Torn, though. Hate to see this journey that I’ve loved — and hated, at moments — end. But it’s time. Time for the next adventure, the next journey.

Belly dance has been my constant companion during my MFA journey. And will be as I complete my degree, with live performances. (Hard to believe that I’ve been dancing for 2 1/4 years now.) Had the strange — and flattering — experience of being introduced as a belly dancer recently. Strange, since I still think of belly dance as something I do, not a part of my identity, who I am. But fun, nonetheless.

And all of this as a long-winded way of saying my missing in action blogging status will likely remain, at least through summer.

Dance. Read. Write. Live. Explore. Love.

-Christy