Thursday, Nov. 06, 2008 - 7:26 a.m.

I'm drinking tea AND orange juice today. I don't normally drin k orange juice, but I had bought some of it for the carnitas I made a couple of weeks ago, and so I'm trying this new thing, drinking it.

We saw Billy Collins and Kay Ryan yesterday evening. They were great. I wasn't sure what to expect, because I don't normally go to poetry events, but they were entertaining and witty and non-pretentious and they read some of my favorite poems of theirs. Now I'm adding their books to my Amazon Wishlist.

I was saying to J that whenever I hear an artist in any medium at all talking about their creative process or related things, I see all the parallels to jewelry making. Or it sets me off trying to find the parallels. It's very good for getting new perspectives. One time I heard a musician say that the appreciation of the audience was like food for the musician's spirit. And I didn't feel so guilty and narcissistic anymore about eating up people's praise of my jewelry. It's normal! Even if people don't think of jewelry as being like music.

So the poets said things about accessibility and simplicity that have given me food for thought, even if jewelry doesn't have beginning, middle, and end.

Unrelatedly, I traded for 4 new mint plants in the mail. Mine arrived yesterday-- ginger mint, orange mint, wild berries mint, and fruit sensations. I'm very excited.

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