Poetry recitations & doggie eating disorder

Tonight I fed Lady, then took off to hear high school students recite poetry. I didn't know what I was getting into, thought it was a poetry slam kind of thing because I didn't read very carefully the info I had in front of me. If I'd known, I might not have gone, and that would have been sad. It turned out to be the finals to select the Arizona champ to go to Washington DC and compete for the national prize of a $20,000 scholarship. Wow. That's not chump change. So, I've added a new vocabulary word: recitation. It does not mean performing your own poetry. The big upside to this is that not only did I not have to listen to any bad poetry, but I also heard wonderful poems I'd never heard of by poets I'd never heard of, what I call making new "friends." These students were mostly excellent reciters, putting lots of interpretive expression into it, and also speaking slowly and clearly enough that I could actually follow along (not true lots of the time when people read their own poems). I had a great time. I am going to start memorizing some poems. Alberto Rios (another reason I'm glad I went) reminded us that memorizing (the work) is for remembering (the reward) and also read some of his poems, as he is a widely renowned Arizona poet and another new "friend" for me. He read one about a grandmother with mile-long hair (a frightening abusive tale with a happy ending in which the hair saves the life of her and a baby) and a hilarious one about pies.

When I got home, there was Lady licking her chops from her second dinner, as Grumpy was asleep when I left, and I didn't leave a note. Then she went racing back and forth between us slurping stuck-to-dish remains from our meals. I swear, by the end of all this she was whining to lick my ice cream container (Haagen-Dazs dark chocolate), and I was threatening to send her to eating disorder meetings.

Discovery: Kashi frozen meals - yummy, wholegrainy.

I've upped my exercise with aerobics & yoga classes (ideally two of each per week, but actually so far, the past two weeks, I've only made it to three total per week, like tonight I skipped yoga for the poetry) in addition to all the dog walks and forgetting to go to Bally's. I'm achey anyhow.