pantryslut

Questions from

cindymonkey. If you want to ask me questions, too, put them in a comment below. If you want me to ask you questions, put your request in the comments below.

1. what was the first book that you fell in love with?

Hand, Hand, Fingers, Thumb. "Dum diddy dum diddy dum dum dum." Oddly, I did not grow up to be a drummer.

2. where is your favorite 'hidden' or 'locals' place that you go back to in michigan?

I love to picnic behind the Administration Building. Also, my parents' house is now within walking distance of the Wardcliff school yard, where I used to dig up old eviscerated golf balls and play with them. Most of the patches of woods and stuff that I used to wander through as a kid are gone, and most of the commercial establishments have rolled over, too. Last time I checked, though, the tape was still on the floors of the MSU Library; I like picking a random color and following it into the stacks. Oh, and the Trowbridge Shop-Rite "ethnic" food aisles are still there, I think. Campbell's Smoke Shop, I shouldn't visit any more, but still do sometimes. And how about Meijers at midnight?

But really, most of the places I would really like to go back to are gone. East Lansing goes through constant change. Bilbo's and Olde World are where I used to hang out, and they are ancient history now. Even the MSU Dairy Store has moved (and added flavors; there used to be only four: (vanilla, chocolate, strawberry, black cherry), but I'm still gonna drag G. there someday soon.

I really miss my great-granparents' house by Donnell Lake, near Cassopolis. More importantly, the big back yard adjacent to the lake itself. Cattails, tiny tree frogs, fireflies, the whole lot. I miss it more than I can ever articulate.

3. is there one food that you could never give up?

Peanut butter.

4. who was the first poet you loved? (in terms of their writing)

I first loved poems, not poets. Jack Driscoll was certainly an early influence, but more as an instructor/mentor, though I liked his work as well. His book Fishing the Backwash may be the first book of poetry I owned.

5. where do you go to daydream?

I don't have to go anywhere to daydream :) I like doing it on buses and trains, though. Transit is fun. Also walking. Now that I live right next to Lake Merritt, that's a good spot to go to. Anywhere by water.