That's right. Mickey in my bedroom. And no, it wasn't a blow-up doll that I have named Mickey. It wasn't an imaginary, invisible Mickey that I was having a pretend conversation with. And it wasn't a life sized cardboard cut out of Mickey, although that's certainly a gift idea for my upcoming birthday. It was the actual, in-the-flesh Mickey himself.

Oh swoon, oh melt, oh puddle of goo.

Okay, I will confess that he was only in my bedroom on a technicality, because it is also my office, library, and living room. He came over after class to use my scanner, and I helped him put together the cover of his new chapbook. But we shared a cigarette and a beer! Our lips were in the same place within a rather small increment of time! That counts for something, yes?

I went to go drive Mickey to the BART, and as I was leaving, Eleanor was pulling up, stopping by after an audition. She got to briefly see his sexy ass self, and then her sexy ass self waited for me while I made the five minute round trip to the station. On the way, Mickey was telling me how his hormones are in overdrive. I was sitting there thinking, baby, you have no idea.

I came home and said to El, "I need a cold shower, oh god, oh my god" or something to that effect. Then we went into my room and I swooned over the chair he had been sitting on, mere moments before. Eleanor said, "Why don't you just lick the chair?" So I did.

Possibly not my most dignified moment.

Oh, but the compliment from my professor. This was really something. This will make you proud of me again.

I came into class today and my professor said, "Hey, did you get my e-mail?" I had not. But luckily, he composes his e-mails on paper, and he still had the paper. So I got his handwritten note instead.

The background here is that my collaborations class has a different poem due every week, on a different theme. He mentioned at the beginning of the semester that if we ever wanted to turn our poems in to him, he would be interested in seeing them. So I turned in the first six or so of my poems to him. This was his response.

Dear Mo,
I'm totally knocked out by what you've managed to do with these "theme" poems. Though many people over the years have done a (variably successful) job of kindly addressing the disparate occasional themes, you're the first one who's ever thought to actually make a coherent sequence out of them! [The punch line-- and of course there is one-- is that I never intentionally made a sequence out of them. Looking back, I see that they're basically all relationship poems of one kind of another, but it didn't occur to me that they could be read as a sequence. So I am getting complimented on something I didn't really do, here. Which keeps me humble. In theory.] And the sequence hangs together, and the poems are actually quite terrific. Don't tell anybody, but this is the best set of work by a N.C. student I've seen in many, many years. (On the other hand, tell anybody you feel like telling!) [Which would be you guys. Check that out, though. The best set of work... oh, let's just go back to that part and read it again.] Don't tell anybody, but this is the best set of work by a N.C. student I've seen in many, many years. You've got a rare gift, and I can see how hard you're working to realize it. Though this is supposed to be a poetry school, you can't imagine how infrequently I can say these things to anybody. Thanks!

Wow. Wow, wow, wow. Wow. I am appropriately floored by this compliment. And encouraged! And gratified. And flattered. And even humbled. Sort of. A little bit. Okay, not really at all. I am puffed up with pride, like the poekeet I am.

I totally need to give the credit for "poekeet" to Michael, who has been writing about our recent relationship decisions in his journal.

Oh. The. Drama.

It's interesting to me that I've made the conscious decision to be single. I took a look at my life and realized that on my list of priorities, a potential relationship is way down there. I want to focus on building friendships and experiencing the city, as I said. I also want to work on school and my poetry career, which includes the possibility of teaching next semester. My writing in general is also a huge priority, and traveling as much as possible, as always.

I know I've been happy as a single girl, but I thought that was because I was "not ready to get involved" at first, and then out of pure necessity. Given the chance, I thought, I'd happily be in a relationship. Now I'm realizing that it's just not so. I may be emotionally "ready" for a relationship, but I don't have the time or the energy to put into one right now.

So, I guess it's time for some casual sex! Oh, the lonely life of the single girl...

I was at the bookstore this weekend, and I bought a rather eclectic set of books: a new (to me) Ellen Conford young adult book, Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason, a poetry book by the very same professor who wrote the above note, a Shakespeare Tarot deck that I have coveted ever since I saw Aimee's and which was on sale for $5, Life After God by Douglas Coupland, Middlemarch by George Eliot and Howard's End by E.M. Forster.

A manager type guy sifted through my pile of books as I was being rung up. He looked at me and said, "You know, you have a very diverse mind."

I've been bearing out that remark during the past two days, which have been a frenzy of MP3 downloading from Napster before the bell tolls.

Some of the songs I have downloaded today and yesterday: Sick of Myself by Matthew Sweet, Good by Better Than Ezra, Where Your Eyes Don't Go by They Might Be Giants (which is just as good as stee said), Valerie Loves Me, the Hole cover of Valerie Loves Me, Who Will Save Your Soul, The Real Slim Shady, some Buffalo Springfield and the Indigo Girls, The Corrs' Breathless, and a handful of tunes by new favorites Belle and Sebastian.

I'm also excited when I find cool live tunes and covers, like Aimee Mann and Michael Penn's live version of No Myth, a Weezer cover of Brown Eyed Girl, and a live version of Comfortably Numb with Pink Floyd, Trent Reznor and David Bowie. I have also snagged acoustic versions of In The Garage by Weezer, Drive by Incubus, and Losing My Religion by R.E.M.

I'm also trying to complete my collection of tracks from Stoned Immaculate, the Doors tribute CD, since I have almost all of it and it seems silly to buy it now. I've given up on downloading Semisonic's new CD, since I will almost certainly buy it after my birthday. Oops... did I do that? Muscle spasm.

Also Happy Together by the Turtles, Love Don't Cost A Thing, Genie in a Bottle, the Swedish Chef song, and the themes to The Muppet Show, Family Ties and The Jeffersons.

That's "diverse," remember. Nobody ever said anything about "refined."

Especially not considering that whole chair licking thing.

"If I go into a bathroom where there is a shower curtain, I ALWAYS check behind it for a possible ax murderer."