sick again today. i'm not sure if it's just b/c i'm on spring break and so i don't have to go to any classes and so can allow myself to be sick, but i've really indulged this time to just let my body rest. not that i haven't been doing a lot, but i spend my time in the house so that i can take a nap when i need to. i never take naps! i just get overcome with exhaustion walking up the stairs. i'm beginning to think i may have strep since i've had a fever and i've been swallowing with a lot of pain for five days. and i haven't wanted to eat anything, which is rare. except, for some reason, for mashed potatoes and french fries. just warm, soothing, soft, uncomplicated foods.

in the meantime, i've been drawing pins and their shadows. drawing them as if they are shelves or oddly shaped books. too long to be a real book, but still somehow more about language than drawing. i love that long strip. it's the reject strip at the end of a real drawing. i love that size. i don't know how to fill it. it's a shelf full of the objects we don't know what to do with, and then throw away some and some stay, and then throw away some and some stay.

then i bought linda gregerson's book of poems yesterday after attending paisley rekdal's poetry reading at shaman drum. and what are the chances (what are the chances?!?!), but on the cover of her new book of poems is a reproduction of nails and their shadows. she's been the most influential poet in my life, and so clearly i am astonished and dumbfounded and don't know what to make of this coincidence. what should i make of it? it was so odd to see my drawings on her book cover accidentally.

cwas, i wrote below about your ginger prescription, and i have to reiterate that that's the only thing that has kept me up and about. thank goodness for ginger for my aching throat and feverish body! everytime i sip it, it startles me back into the world. and no tears today! almost none, actually. pretty close to none. i must be getting better. how to see a doctor about strep throat without health insurance? that is the question.