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Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Poetic Ass(ignments)

My assignment this week for Creative Writing was poetry. Eh.
Not really my favorite, but here is the one I liked best of the 3 I turned in:


John, John, and Jon


The quiet one, wait—they were all quiet, in a way.

The innocent one, then.

His father’s brothers each had 4 wives; they all lived out on the dusty open plain
Between the great, jutting rocks of the La Salle mountain range.

He was quiet because he was different.

He worked hard and was careful--with her, but not with his rollerskate-shaped car.

It ended up in a ditch, its stereo still blasting, its roof in the dirt.

His jokes were soft around the edges,

Imploring her to return to a time more innocent.

He loved her with adoring eyes and frequent blushes; never a word.


The scary one, yes the creepy one

With his splattered black bag, its clattering contents.

He was a cook, so a big bag of chef’� s knives were the tools of his trade, but.

Were they necessary?
His splattered black duster;

Everything was splattered in their restaurant world.

He asked her out.

Once.

She made him know it was as friends, but.

His slicked down hair and hopeful eyes as he picked her up said he disagreed.

They went to the ballet and talked as they drove to the city

Talked with the sun on their left, steadily descending behind the low mountains.

Those mountains meant west, the others meant East.

East…home…

But she listened to the stories he told of pain and sadness and anger and

then they watched lithe bodies move gracefully on a stage

and she hoped he wasn’t picturing her body moving, at all.


Then there was the sultry-eyed, dangerous, charismatic, broken one.

He loved her much more lightly than the other two, much more accidentally.

He was quiet…full of mystery.

His Camaro, she called it vintage, though truly it was a piece of junk.

His guitar, a prop (a useful one).

She bet him a case of beer

He lost, so she got to drive that car—

In the blackest part of night,

what fun to have found the west’s answer to New England’s backroads:

long, straight, but empty.

The car could fly.

She challenged him then to strip poker;

Next to Truth or Dare.

She thought she had won each match, but then,

with winter biting at the single-pane window in the small bedroom he rented from the night manager,

he said, That was just for fun, right?

And she knew that she was wrong.

Thursday, September 23, 2010

Entropy of the mind

Just kidding, but oooooh, how I love the imagery of THAT phrase!
I just typed it out, searching for a quick, entropy-esque title for a post about my kids' lack of interest in reading, but I must say I LOOOOVE what that phrase conjures. It could either mean someone who is scatterbrained (ahem...), or someone who is a little crazy (boy, it's getting warm in here...anyone else?)

So, anyway, I was just commenting over on the blog of my favorite English teacher and dental hygiene groupie, E., about kids and reading and went off on a rant that I thought might be more appropriate as a blog post, rather than a comment, so here it is.

My kids make me crazy with their lack of interest in reading in general. Max has read all the Harry Potter books, but he claims it was only because he "had to" for school (during silent reading time) and Oliver hasn't much bothered to read anything other than what's assigned or forced (although he does write stories quite regularly, of his own motivation). I keep trying to entice them both to read other books, but so far they are lazy, lazy, lazy and prefer to have ME read to them! Which I definitely enjoy doing, I just wish they would also take the plunge and fall in love with the escape of reading the way that I had done by the age of...5, I would say. But alas, they have not been consumed by the feverish need to devour the pages of a book at the expense of all other interactions or activities. Which, by the way, I would heartily approve of! You can't fight with an obsession that enriches the mind. Oh well. I guess that'll never happen...until I throw the xbox 360 out the window of a tall, tall building. Sigh.

Quilt

This is a little quilted picture of the schooner I work for. Or, the schooner for which I work, depending on your level of grammar-consciousness. Ha!
Just testing out the functionality of my new blog-by-phone email address. I knew this would work; I've been sending pictures to my blog from my phone for years now. Just. Ya know...seeing how THIS one works!!
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Testing?

Just checking out my new email-a-post address. I used to do this with
my old blog, but now that I use my Blackberry more than my computer, I
think I'm going to find this verrrrrry handy. Possibly even addictive!

Oh, and when my Creative Writing teacher says she finds some of
sentence structures to be "very interesting"....that's a good thing,
right? ;)

--
Sent from my mobile device

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Entropy, mate.

Have I mentioned lately...
how I'm married to the Incarnation of Entropy?
I mean, truly.
Hey, don't get me wrong--he's a sweet guy.
A smart guy, a funny guy, an interesting and patient guy.
But he is like the mutant offspring of PigPen and the Tasmanian Devil.
With maybe a little Garfied thrown in.
Yes, I am married to a cartoon.
Which is why he is so clever and witty and sweet--and thin...hmm...

Yesterday I enjoyed a fun little road trip to Rumford with my Mom.
We had a lovely (but too brief!) visit with a dear friend and then I rushed home to meet other childhood friends for a first try at Zumba.
First of all, let me say, I loved it.
But then let me say: I HATED IT!!
Ok, not really...but I have not felt so uncoordinated and clumsy and inept since...since...probably the last time I took an aerobics class.
Which is why I generally don't take them.
I can't seem to watch someone make a movement and get my body to copy what they're doing under the best of circumstances, but this class is particularly fast-moving and non-repetitive.
I won't say it's impossible, because I'm trying to have a positive attitude, but...it's my weak spot. One of them, anyway.

Speaking of areas in which I'm rather handicapped...
I also seem to have an allergy to being on time.
I've grown increasingly aware of this in the past few years, and have employed several different strategies to attempt to cure the problem, to no avail.
I will not give up, but I sure do get frustrated with myself sometimes!

Ok, well...I guess that's enough of the self-deprecation for one day.
I got some great feedback on my first submission in my creative writing class.
The semester is going well, and I am enjoy it.
Not feeling too overwhelmed just yet, but have to keep reminding myself to stay on track.
Meanwhile, I'm hoping and praying and wishing and waiting--
for my dream job to miraculously appear.
It's closer than you may think...in fact, it is breathlessly giggling, just out of sight, around the corner with the lights off.
It sill spring out and tackle me at any moment and I am so excited I can hardly stand it.
I am ready.
Bring on the Bliss!

Monday, September 20, 2010

What I should be doing Vs. What I am doing

Today, what I should be doing is: homework and baking.
But what I am doing is: downloading Internet Explorer 8 and updating my blog.
I will get to the other stuff, and technically, I was downloading ie8 so that I could more readily look into what my homework assignments are for the week....but it took forever and I got caught up reading The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo while it downloaded and rebooted and et cetera.
The first chapter was a little dry for me--lots of Swedish place names and business names that meant, oh...really close to NOTHING to me, which didn't hold my interest very well.
Fortunately, I had heard from EVERYONE that it was a thrill-ride, a page-turner and a truly excellent read, or else I would have wandered off and hooked up with one of the other books in my stack left over from this summer ("The Summer of Reading", as I dubbed it). I read a ton of books this summer, and still have four more (including Girl w/ Drag Tat and its sequel) before I am totally finished with the ridiculous number of books I purchased.
No regrets.
All were delicious and marvelous in their own way.
Read lots by Christopher Moore, whom I highly recommend to anyone who doesn't mind lots of swearing along with their wit and whimsy.
Also read The Hunger Games trilogy and The Passage. All four of which were excellent. The Passage in particular was so well written that it almost made me weep with joy for the art of storytelling.
See...I have developed this problem over the past few years. A problem wherein I am remarkably critical of the books I read. I can't seem to help second-guessing the choices some authors make and it really changes the experience. I am partly attempting to learn from them, and partly attempting to...I don't know...maybe reassure myself that there is room in the library for one more imperfect author...?

Anywho...
I better wrap up, or I will not finish my list of chores before the kids get out of school.

Au revoir--

Friday, September 17, 2010

I found it!!

This place.
This blog!
I can't believe I found this again.
This is the blog that I will use from now on.
I have worn many mantles, and as I shifted from that old life,
(that life of 10 years in a desert)
to this new life
(this life of happily ever after at the sea),
I have swung like a pendulum.
So far to the left,
then to the right,
and here I am, sorta in the middle again.
Not wildly rebellious,
not barely clinging to my sanity, focused only on survival.
Not wildly in love,
so focused on Him and only Him that all else fades to grayscale.
(but fear not, still deliriously enough in love that I nauseate onlookers on a regular basis!)

So here I am.
Happy.
Grounded.
Poised for a future so blindingly bright, so gloriously happy that I get sunburned on the inside.
(better than it sounds, i promise)

So.
Shrug.
Let's RIIIIIDE!!