Well, it wouldn't be an editorial meeting anymore if we did not have a delicious meal, thanks to our resident chef, graphic designer, and staff photographer, Jim Giese. To watch Jim flip a frying pan full of onions and zucchini rounds is to watch a master at work. Along with the sauteed zucchini, Jim prepared these amazing buttery, savory, puff pastry "logs" filled with a thoroughly yummy chicken/spinach mixture. I brought the salad. (That is my department. I like to make and eat salad more than just about anything. Well, there might be a couple things I like more. They shall remain nameless.) Rob brought wine. Signe brought...herself. That is always more than enough.
Jim also made the MOST dynamite carrot cake that has ever seen the inside (or the outside) of an oven. We estimated the entire cake probably had 53,000 calories in it. While Rob and Jim were calculating calories per slice, Signe and I were largely ignoring the boys in favor of the much more satisfying and useful pasttime of eating our cake; while having it, too, I might add. The only possible thing that would have made the cake even more fantastic would have been a cup of coffee. I settled for milk. Jim cut us each two slices and sent us home with them for tomorrow. I can't wait for morning when I can put more carrot cake between my lips.
Along with our summertime food-fest, we were very productive as an editorial team. We were able to discuss the fall issue, due to appear in mid-October. We had a lot of interesting work submitted to us this time; especially some really fine prose. Notifications will be out very soon. Since this is Signe's purview, you won't have to wait too much longer. That woman can get things DONE.
We also discussed a special edition of Stoneboat that will come out in June of 2012. This edition will be produced in the honor of the Lakeland College Sesquicentennial celebration. Yes, little Lakeland, which began as Mission House academy, college, and seminary in 1862 turns 150 years old next year. We will be sharing more about what this is all about in the coming weeks.
Last but not least, with my pending trip to Los Angeles coming quickly, and an open mic reading that I have been able to organize (with the help of LA friends Shishir Kurup, Chris Keledjian, and Fred Whitlock), at the Talking Stick coffee house in Venice on August 23 from 7-10 p.m., the team is helping me put together a small chapbook of my poems. It is called A Brief History of Mail. This will be produced by Arugula Press, an imprint of Stoneboat journal. I'm pretty jazzed and extremely grateful to my three amigos for helping me get this all put together.
Well, somehow, it is now almost 1:00 in the morning. I have this very bad habit of staying up until the wee hours. It wouldn't be so bad if I would sleep later in the morning, but without fail, I regularly wake up at 4:45 a.m. Don't you wonder what is happening at 4:45 to make me wake up, rain or shine, weekday or weekend, no matter what? I know I do.
I think I will go to sleep now, and maybe the answer to this question will come to me in a dream. And if I am lucky enough to sleep until 7:00, I will be very pleased. Seven in the morning...that will be right on time for the pre-set coffee. I can roll out of bed, pull up the blinds, pour a cup of piping hot joe, and all will be right with the world. How nice to have the next issue of Stoneboat taking shape, wonderfully witty, supportive, fun-loving co-editors, a thick slice of Giese carrot cake going down the hatch, and finally, that cup of coffee.
Ah yes, the rightness of it all.
2 comments:
It's true that I only brought myself...but I had intended to bring a bottle of wine. I forgot it in my fridge, though, because I've been doing that a lot lately. For example: In the past few weeks, I have forgotten to give Alicia her birthday present once and give Nacho his birthday present three times. THREE times. It's unlike me, but...there you have it.
Even when you forget things Signe, you are wonderful to be around. Because when you are there, you are there, and like I said that is so much more than enough. It (you) is (are) a gift in itself.
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