Last night's reading was fun: lots of voices I hadn't heard before, and a big audience as well. I read two poems about summer, because it isn't, and I felt like, okay, my work is as good as anyone else's, which you could take as obnoxious self-obsession or as humble self-ignorance . . . maybe a parallel to how skinny teenage girls look into mirrors and see themselves as fat. Anyway: human weakness, human blindness.

Today will be a little warmer than yesterday's miserable single-digit gale. I've got a bunch of Frost Place things to do, and an afternoon meeting, and more planning for my high school classes. But I'd also like to get outside for a walk, now that the Arctic wind has calmed down. Among other side effects, my new regular exercise regimen has made me itchy for even more exercise. I've been taking that core class three times a week since December, and now I'm dancing while I make dinner and doing squats in front of the wood stove and buzzing up and down the stairs and generally being bouncy and fidgety. I'm not any thinner, but I am lively.

Current family joke: Tom pretends that I am half-yeti/half-human, and I make lots of self-satisfied remarks about "the traditions of my people" and threaten to eat the cat.

Current cribbage standings: Tom comes from behind and wins again.

Current least favorite baseball player name on the Red Sox spring training roster: Jett Bandy. [What were his parents thinking? Also, I keep mishearing it as Bambi.]

Current urban wildlife situation: Skunk, and plenty of it.