To say all will be too much. This monday I held Loli at bar 13. Rachel brought her to her 13 premiere and I ended up being bling bling puppy's sitter. I tell you one thing, every women in the house came over to pet my dog. Or Rachel's dog. I may have to get one of those, but I don't think I'll be able to pull off the Dog hanging out of the bag trick.
The attention is cute though. For my next trick I will take holden to the park and let him run wild with me and attract single mothers at will. Hmmm I hear someone already pulled that trick...

These last few weeks I have been really lucky to hear great poetry at the shows I've attended. Starting last Monday with an amazing display by Mo Browne, last tuesday with Oscar Bermeo just leaving me speechless at Acentos, Jorge Montorossa showing incredible range on Saturday, and the grand Finally Rich Villar destroying the louderEDGE for anyone else who will try to perform in the future. The bar is set and the stools are way below it. I'm thinking that I am lucky to have heard such a consistent amount of work in such a short period. Open mics have been solid and all is well. Also my new writing partner has broken me out of my block, and I am writing with great fury and love. I am blessed.

Syriana girl has gone out with me and seen me after. The decision is that we have made new friends in each other and nothing more. That is really fine with me because I really enjoyed hanging out with her and I know that it will be an interesting friendship where we will gain from each other. Sounds corny? Who cares.

Last Saturday I featured with Jorge Montorossa at Poetically Incorrect hosted by Chance at the Cornelia Street Cafe. Chance is a funny host.
I loved my set. I opened up with Voz del Mambo, then Dominican Blues, Correspondence I - III, Melody, Platform Please and closed with Autumn's Whisper. All this in a 15 minute set. My co-features only did 3 poems each with the same time but of course they were significantly longer than mine. My set was to my liking. I loved it. I may not have long winded poems, memorized and ready to be shot out of a cannon, but my poems all say exactly what I want them to say, in a short amount of time or space or both.

The person who was most excited that night was non other than Concepcion Santana, who after three years of performance saw me for the very first time. My dear ol' Mother was so so proud of me. Of course she was late. Now I tell her, that the show starts at 6 and I read at 6:30pm so please be there by about 6:15pm. Of course I lied to her. The show did start at 6pm but i knew that I wasn't going on until a bit after 7pm. So what happens? Well I went on at 7:15 and she showed up only ten minutes prior to that. I knew that I would have to lie to her to get her to meet me on time for my set. Damn Dominicans can be so so predictable.
The funniest part is her husband telling me that they were late because she had to get off at 34th street to use the bathroom. I'm thinking Jesus Christ, it is only one stop away, couldn't you hold it for one more stop?

It was all just hilarious. Maria and Jive showed up for the show at were both a great deal of support to me. Jive is one of those poets that I've been around for a while but who hasn't heard me read for anything more than an open mic. He said that he enjoyed it. Told me that "We make guitars whine string tantrums" was one of the best lines he has heard in a poem in a while. That just made me feel real good.
There were so many people that night that I didn't know and I had just met. So many nice people and cool comments about my work. It really made my night.

Besides that I'm still writing.
It is February now and my birthday is in 22 days.
I am writing and writing and feel great.
Life is pretty alright.

What are you up to?