Monthly Archives: November 2009

this day, that meme

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it’s been one of those days (the kind that people say “thoooose” days and mean the worst, most horrible, overwhelming, neverending kind), and in my search for things-to-not-be-stressed-about i found this meme on hannah’s blog, and decided to unwind by filling it out (I think you’re only supposed to use one word for each answer, but sometimes I didn’t).

1. Where is your cell phone? Lap.

2. Your hair? Unruly

3. Your mother? Put-together

4. Your father? Brilliant

5. Your favorite food? Pre-cooked

6. Your dream last night? Sweet

7. Your favorite drink? Water

8. Your dream/goal? Out to bid.

9. What room are you in? Hallway

10. Your hobby? Writing

11. Your fear? Disappointing

12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? Published

13. Where were you last night? Coast

14. Something that you aren’t? Tough

15. Muffins? Blueberry

16. Wish list item? Private jet

17. Where did you grow up? Texas

18. Last thing you did? Email

19. What are you wearing? Dress

20. Your TV? Dependable

21. Your pets? Imaginary

22. Friends? Loyal

23. Your life? Motion

24. Your mood? Tired

25. Missing someone? Yes

26. Vehicle? Feet

27. Something you’re not wearing? Pants

28. Your favorite store? Target

29. Your favorite color? Pink

30. When was the last time you laughed? Yesterday

31. Last time you cried? Saturday

32. Your best friend? Several

33. One place that I go to over and over? Work

34. One person who emails me regularly? Anna

35. Favorite place to eat? Living room

 

 

emerson

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The gods we worship write their names on our faces, be sure of that. And we will worship something – have no doubt of that either. We may think that our tribute is paid in secret in the dark recesses of the heart – but that will out. That which dominates our imagination and our thoughts will determine our life and character. Therefore it behooves us to be careful what we are worshiping, for what we are worshiping we are becoming. -Ralph Waldo Emerson

(shout-out to anna for this quote. love. on so many levels.)

paradigm shift

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the old folks play chess on a hot summer night
white, black, black, white
crackling laughs and a creaking porch swing
rook, bishop, knight, king

popsicle stains ’round four children’s mouths
east, north, west, south
and the crisp brittle snap of the dried front lawn
knight, bishop, queen, pawn

clouds wander past, just stopping through
blue, gray, purple, blue
a brown, thirsty plain invites them to stay
blue, blue, purple, gray

a mighty rain, then,  across the plain
smack-splattered faces, mouths wet and clean,

but hidden and masked: the faithful moonlight
rook, king, queen, knight

and the old folks and children head in and away
blue, purple, blue, gray

dear first-person-subject-pronoun

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dear first-person-subject-pronoun,

just want to say how much i miss you. know you’re getting ignored a lot these days :( so sorry! totally not your fault! there’s just so much going on, and so few characters to spare. between facebook’s third-person status format, and texting and twitter’s character limits, it’s a tight crunch! and the first thing to go is, well, you. er, i. well, you know what i mean. so SO sorry about that.

xo

me

umbrellites

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the only thing i can draw that’s even slightly recognizable is an umbrella… so i paint a lot of those. when i am dead and a clerical oversight (and/or bribery scandal) results in my work being admitted into some art museum, the tour guides will scathingly note that my whole life was devoted to an “umbrella period.”

umbrellas in watercolor. and sharpie.

toilet paper: a coming of age story

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my dad told me once that he knew i was growing up when i stopped asking for strawberry shortcake for my birthday cake; for me, the realization came a little later — when i started loading the toilet paper with the ribbon going up.

i remember as kid learning that there was such a thing as a great toilet paper debate. apparently adults liked to bicker about which way to load toilet paper — with the ribbon going down over the front of the roll, or with the ribbon coming up from the bottom of the front of the roll.

adults did a lot of mystifying things — there was no question about that — but this seemed particularly foolish, even for them. it was clear to me why a person would hang their toilet paper with the ribbon heading down; it’s so much neater, prettier, and you can fold the edge over like they do in hotels. what’s not to love? when you hang it the other way, with the ribbon going up, it’s chaotic; you create a loose end that can’t quite be reconciled. it didn’t seem like much of a contest to me.

and, yes, for years i was bothered by the fact that so many people insisted on hanging their toilet paper with the ribbon heading up and i could not figure out why that was.

then one day it hit me — a bag of bricks and bright light at the same time. perhaps it was a freight train. high speed and bullet. i believe i was in college at the time, and though i can’t remember who enlightened me, they made their point crystal clear: if you hang the toilet paper ribbon-up, you get an easier tear, some leverage against the rest of the roll, a protection against the ever-present threat of unraveling.

i was floored. amazed. in awe. so there was method to this madness. my pseudo-often-misguided scientific instinct kicked in, and i rehung my toilet paper to see if there was any merit in this new idea. i tried it for a whole roll, and, lo, and behold, the trick seemed to work. i felt bad for denying respect to half of the adult population all these years. oh, the new hanging wasn’t as pretty, but it actually did facilitate tearing sheets off. amazed, i converted.

and that’s when it hit me that i must be getting old — if i needed a way to make tearing toilet paper easier.

i rehung it, out of sheer principle — just like i went back to requesting strawberry shortcake for my birthday.

nanowrimo09

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just to let you know, i’ve written 10,455 words… i haven’t posted the next bits because it’s all rough and not necessarily in order at this point… but i AM working on it (ok, granted, im behind my original goal, but anyway :) not too bothered. happy to have 10k under the proverbial belt).