Warmup #1

Everybody! Everybody!

The 15 vignettes in thirty one days challenge starts tomorrow!!! Later, I'll be posting my warm-up piece (typecast!), but for now, I just want you all to get excited, and, if you haven't already taken me up on the challenge, please to consider doing so!!!

Cheers!

Vignettes...A Taste Test

I took A up on this challenge and will be posting my vignettes here as well.  Since I'm in the middle of making bread and raspberry buckle I'll take the easy way out today and post an old vignette as a preview of the joys to come.  See you next week with the real deal.

...As a child I don't much remember sleeping.  I do remember the heels of Dad's running shoes glowing in his closet and the hard floor beneath me and my sister's mumbling and her leg thrown over mine.  But mostly the window torches.  The glass of my window was old and opaque and wavy, distorting the neighbor's porch light.  I imagined it a torch--many torches, and a band of people to carry them.  I would lie and think of them as an angry mob, a band of outcasts, a welcome home; as a farewell, a fairy dance, a gypsy camp.  They were pirates and shepherds and witch-hunters and stars.  I would lie and imagine 'til I no longer thought but dreamed.  So I don't much remember sleeping.

15 Vignettes, 30 (one) days.

So!

As many of you know, I love vignettes. Small portraits of a moment, a place, a time. So, to help with writing the many essays that will be coming this summer, I want to introduce a challenge.

15 vignettes, thirty (one) days. 15 snapshots, related or unrelated--it doesn't matter. The challenge starts July 1.

Indicate your interest in the comments. I look forward to seeing the vignettes you all come up with--I for one will be posting my 15 on arsdecarta.

Cheers

Art

Being Grown Up

Being grown up isn't as much fun as I thought it would be.

Wait, scratch that. Never thought growing up was a good idea. Which is why I've been avoiding it.

But, right now, I'm working two jobs, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. Teaching all day leaves  me tired, so I just go home and crash. This isn't cool. I like having the time to hang out and think and write...

But, there are definite upsides to this gig. Like no longer being a broke student, and maybe even being able to afford a typewriter if I find one... that's a good thing. Plus I've discovered a few new thrift shops that I might drag M along to visit one weekend.

Yeah, that's about all right now... But!!!

Stay tuned for Friday! Big announcement coming!

Brain... come back...

 I want to play:


http://matadornetwork.com/notebook/building-spontaneous-society-with-words/

And I'll be back next week with actual content, not just haiku and links... once my brain returns from wherever it ran off to at noon yesterday as I walked out of the MCAT.

Contemplation

Moment of quiet won'dring.
Mixed with violent thought
Quite often, leads to brilliance.

Happy Book, June Edition

1. weather that's finally appropriate for the season
2. a Solstice party
3. "Oh, Karl..."
4. my first Real game
5. playing soccer mom, juice boxes and all
6. clothes that make me look tan
7. brand new kids...as in baby goats
8. Memorial Day malts
9. borrowing the neighbor's toddlers for a few hours entertainment
10. homemade apple pie
11. broadening my culinary capabilities
12. being the dictionary/encyclopedia/overall reference book girl
13. summer walks to DQ
14. riding in the new (read ancient) Saab convertible
15. having time to blog

Inquisitive Eyes

She's got inquisitive eyes, staring at me from the top of the steps, waiting for me to

Step out of the door.

The minute I do, she'll slip in, a wraith, a ghost. A soft and browngrey and fluffy ghost with bright bluegreen eyes that change color in the light.

She thinks she's fierce, going to battle with a magpie out on the lawn, fur and feathers turning into a blur as they circle.

Today, the magpie wins, flying triumphantly into a tree to brag while she scowls below. Just wait, magpie, she says, One day, I'll be victorious.

Brown Velvet

There's something magical about the sight of a fresh plowed field. Last night, I went to bed with the sound of a tractor outside, and when I woke up this morning, the fields were perfect. Brown velvet with a coating of dew.

Lost in Thought

More often than not, someone in my family will walk into a room and find me there...just sitting and staring into space. Usually I'm supposedly reading or ought to be doing something else at the time.  They'll ask, "What are you doing?" and I guilitily say, "Nothing," and get back to business.  Well I'm not guiltily saying nothing anymore.  I'm thinking.  Deep thoughts or not...it's a worthwhile pasttime.  And that is all.  Amen.

Sometimes, things happen for a reason.

This isn't my own, but it came at just the right moment for me.

Facing the Mistakes of Life

The Price of Being a Luddite

I guess I always knew it would come down to this.

I would have to pay for my love of paper.

Now, I'm in the final days before the biggest test of my life, and I think I finally know what the problem is. It's a computer based test, and I'm a luddite. I like my science on paper in front of me, where I can highlight and annotate to my heart's delight. Even a fancy program like Skim just doesn't do it for me. I've now got 12 days to figure out how to improve my reading comprehension and test taking on a computer.

Any suggestions on improving my performance?