The family farm in Illinois

A trip back to my hometown, finding and moving in to a new rental house, and launching The Enneagram Coach...what wasn't there to love about June?

Read and Reading:

Delancey (Wizenberg) is a stellar follow up to A Homemade Life. I loved the behind-the-scenes look at how Wizenberg and her husband opened up their restaurant, especially since I was able to eat at Delancey this past fall. Well worth reading and visiting. 

Handling the Truth: On the Writing of Memoir (Kephart) is a worthy addition to any writer's bookshelf. Kephart has me dreaming memoir-sized dreams.

I got an advance copy of my friend Preston Yancey's Tables in the Wilderness: A Memoir of God Found, Lost, and Found Again. Full review coming closer to release date.

If you like the TV show and movie, you'll certainly like The Thousand Dollar Tan Line (Veronica Mars #1). It picks up a couple of months after where the movie left off. It was hard to put down. Give me more Veronica Mars & Co. please!

We'll be discussing Americanah (Adichie) next month on The Red Couch. This is one you'll be dying to discuss. My introductory post will be up next week. Hope you'll join us!

You can see all the books I've read at Goodreads. 

Currently reading: Hard Choices (Clinton), The Silkworm (Galbraith), Entre Nous (Ollivier), Amazing Grace (Norris), New and Selected Poems: Volume 1 (Oliver), Wisdom of the Enneagram (Riso and Hudson)

(I read 10 books this month.)

TV:

Must-see TV: So You Think You Can Dance, The Real Housewives of New York, The Real Housewives of Orange County

Music:

New discoveries: First Aid Kit, David J. Roch, and after a couple of months resisting, I've given in to the Sam Smith bandwagon

Listen to the What I'm Into 2014 playlist.

Things I Love:

• Visiting Anne and her family and staying at her beautiful new house

• Spending several days in my hometown catching up with my favorite people

• Family party hosted by my parents with aunts, uncles, and both grandpas- loved sitting outside and hearing what everyone's been up to

• My biannual Cobb family visit blew me away, per usual. Megan and Al always spoil me, from the moment I walk in the door until it's time for me to leave. I adore them and their kids so much. Also, I adore the steak Al made. It was the stuff dreams are made of.

• I didn't love this: the White Sox game rained out. Alas and woe! But they called it off before Jill and I had even left so we ate our sorrows with tableside guacamole at Cozymels and then went shoe shopping.

• I have 8 great friends from college. I don't think the whole group has gotten together since a friend married the year after we graduated. Well over a decade ago. But 7 of us were able to get together while I was back in town and another was back in the country and it was pure magic. I don't think we shut up once and there was still more to discuss and remember. Plus, shouldn't we have watched Ally McBeal or Party of Five for old time's sake?

• I'm obsessed with homemade ginger syrup. This stuff is lifechanging.

• Great experience with True & Co., which is like the StitchFix of bras and lingerie. You can have them send bras and whatnot to your home, try it on, and send back what you don't want. I kept two of the bras I tried and I'm thinking about ordering them in more colors. 

• Moving in to my new house! It was no easy process but I found a house to rent and now have a roommate. (It's not a renter's market so we joined forces in order to afford a better place.) Big shout out to Strider and Darius from Two Men and a Truck and my good friend Amanda. They were all miracle workers.

• Watching SYTYCD with Kelley

• The biggest and best news of all: my best friend and her husband adopted their son!!! My nephew-in-love is the sweetest and I love snuggling with him and telling him how handsome he is. And of course, reminding him who his favorite auntie is. One of the great joys of my life was going to the airport to meet their plane. So many happy tears. 

Favorite Instagram:

  New house. #rentingthedream

(If you want to follow me on Instagram, my user name is leighkramer.)

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One of the best and worst parts about moving is finding stuff you've forgotten about and the stuff you hold on to, even though you never look at or use it anymore. Some years ago I carefully transcribed the poems I wrote in high school and college into a spiral journal and in the years since, I've added scraps and fragments written here and there. Some of the poems are good, most are just plain angsty, all are a record of my then-life. Here are a few I wrote in college. (Some poems I wrote in high school.) I promise this is the last of them!

Rain

The rhythmic pattern beats time on my soul

A lulling pinprick of sound,

it reassures with perfect clarity

That time's metronome must forge on

To bring new life to past's promises.

Small, simplistic

Yet somehow this gives me peace.

           -August 1, 2000 (OK, this one I love. Rain is my favorite.)

Perfection

She stands in a red shirt and jeans

While he's dressed in a striped shirt and shorts

His cell phone pokes out of a pocket,

A pack of cigarettes peek out from their home in his shirt.

They look forward, frozen in time

Clasped in each other's arms.

She glows with happiness

It's obvious she loves this scene.

His face is lit up as well, echoing the same emotions.

Everything is perfect.

The tables turn, shining new light

Her blissful innocence stares out

But he-

Does his smile seem forced?

His arms seemed loving, protective-

But were they?

Maybe the cell phone rings, breaking the pose

He might speak to someone she doesn't know.

Maybe she will never know.

The idyllic moment passes by

Reality is her bothersome friend.

Everything was perfect.

Questions whirl around

No clear answer comes forth.

Where did the feelings go?

She never saw them leave.

He still looks out.

She still stares,

Then she sets down the picture and walks away.

Was it really perfect?

            -March 27, 2000 (Profound or pretentious? Maybe both. I still have the picture.)

A fragment

You confused me

And I somehow believed your

Eyes of wide innocence

Intently memorizing mine

You liked:

my hair, my smile, my body, my eyes

my personality, my clothes, my laugh

Me

Silver tongued words floated around us.

You checked my tag and discovered

I was made in heaven

           -written sometime in 2001 or 2002 (because a pick-up line like this must be commemorated on the page)

One of the best and worst parts about moving is finding stuff you've forgotten about and the stuff you hold on to, even though you never look at or use it anymore. Some years ago I carefully transcribed the poems I wrote in high school and college into a spiral journal and in the years since, I've added scraps and fragments written here and there. Some of the poems are good, most are just plain angsty, all are a record of my then-life. Here are a few I wrote in high school.

Mislead

I feel strong

Yet there's no muscle to show

I feel intelligent

Yet grades don't reflect it

I feel love

Yet spend weekends alone,

         never invited.

I feel power

Yet I'm never a leader,

        always a follower.

I feel truth

Yet I am told lies,

        still believe lies.

I feel beauty

        then look in the mirror.

I feel rich

Yet I can't attain my desires.

I feel honored

Yet never rewarded

I feel pain

Yet no one cares.

                    -1997 (What strikes me about this one is how it was written out of pain and hyperbole and therefore filled with inaccuracies about my high school experience. Bless my 17 year old heart.)

Hope

The cold air creeps across the surface,

Reminders that winter still reigns

Amidst yearnings for spring and summer.

Snow blocks all excapes-

No place to run and no place to hide.

There's no alternative but to

Face the mistery in the bleek, barren day,

And then wonder if Spring might come again

Or if winter is just a life sentence.

There's love and hate

But nothing in between,

Except for sunlight struggling

To shine through before it's strangled again.

A leaf hangs from the branch

Its owner is old, the roots are firm

As is its icy hold.

Restraining, pushing fingers

Not allowing an escape or a survival.

But the leaf knows

It knows that spring might come again

And then it will begin to live.

So it waits, ignores the cold,

Forgets the pain, and remembers that

Spring could come

One day soon.

                             -1998 (written in my senior year Advanced English Seminar class with Dr. Langlas)

Paul

I met him once

Enough to read his eyes

I know him well

But really not at all

The idea engraved on my heart,

My mind and my soul

One brief moment

Trapped in time forever

And how can I forget

Him I never knew.

                              -1997 (Note: it turns out you can forget "him I never knew." No clue who Paul is.)