Efflorescent Memoirs

I just want to travel  and take pictures  and teach  my students  and my children  and love my lover  tell stories at Christmas  around the fireplace  create new traditions  every summer  we'll road trip to Florida  so I can wake up to the myrtle trees  and write it all down  for my great grand kids to read leaving a legacy even when I'm long gone  my spirit will rise  and The Lord will tell me, Val, well done. 

If only out of vanity
I have wondered what kind of woman I will be
when I am well past the summer of my raging youth
Will I still be raising revolutionary flags
and making impassioned speeches
that stir up anger in the hearts of pseudo-liberals
dressed in navy-blue conservative wear In those years when I am grateful
I still have a good sturdy bladder
that does not leak undigested prune juice
onto diapers—no longer adorable
will I be more grateful for that
than for any forward movement in any current political cause
and will it have been worth it then
Will it have been worth the long hours
of not sleeping
that produced little more than reams
of badly written verses that catapulted me into literary spasms
but did not even whet the appetite
of the three O’ clock crowd
in the least respected of the New York poetry cafes Will I wish then that I had taken that job working at the bank
or the one to watch that old lady drool
all over her soft boiled eggs
as she tells me how she was a raving …

When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left and could say, I used everything you gave me. –Erma Bombeck

Monday, July 28 - 2:52 PM
I'm working on a paper but I cannot concentrate. It's my last paper of this course. I need to just do it and get it out of the way but I can't ... It's just so boring.
My screen saver changes every hour, which doesn't help with my self-diagnosed ADHD. The image that is up now is this crape myrtle. It's totally diverting me from my task but these have been my absolute favorite trees all summer! They're usually purple, white, or red but my favorites are the pink ones - no matter if they are as light as a pristine pink or as bright as magenta, I love them all. Every time I see these trees, I know great things are about to happen... Because every time I have seen them, great things happen to me. 
So of course, I needed to figure out if this was coincidence or if they are historically known to bring good vibes ... 
According to what I read, the myrtle was brought to the southern part of the United States from China. This makes sense, seeing…