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Writing.Com Time

Tuesday
May 29, 2012
9:59pm EDT


Content Rating Notice:  Recommended for Readers 18 Years and Older Only
  >> Book >> Personal >> ID #1523686  |   Show DetailsPrinter Friendly Page Tell A Friend
Follow the Fortune Cookie
Nothing like a fortune cookie to make a year intriguing.
Rated:
18+
by
Avg Rating: (4)
 

Many thanks to iKïyå§ama for the lovely image gracing this blog!
A huge thank you to Gabriella for the shiny yellow awardicon to bring the new year!


It was a simple crack of an ancient fortune cookie that sparked the courage to keep writing on the eve of the new year. This is a test to see what a tiny slip of white paper can do for someone who was ready to hand in the towel, allowing every self-doubt and negative thought to take control.

May this mark a beginning; a fresh start for the potential of something messy, dented around the edges, and absolutely all mine.

Here's to blogging in 2011 (and 2012).





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3.  Epic Fail ID #717018 
Posted: 2-1-2011 @ 10:38 pm EST 
Edited: 2-2-2011 @ 3:29 am EST 

"I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work." ~Thomas Edison
Currently listening to: "Progeny" - Lisa Gerrard
Currently reading: "Poison Eaters: and Other Stories" by: Holly Black


...better known as "The Day That Could Not Be Crashed".

Today I attempted to crash a couple of classes. This was a failure of epic proportions on my part. However, like any good tale, I'll start at the beginning.

This last Friday I emailed a few professors to see if I could petition into their full classes. Sometimes this cuts out rising early in the morning and attending a class you have no hope of getting into. Sometimes you get in without even trying simply for asking the question. And sometimes, if the college gods are looking down favorably at you, this greases the wheels when you do go to that crack-of-dawn class because it shows you were trying. Not so much today.

The first morning class I couldn't make it to because of transportation reasons. However, in great hubris, I thought I could get into the same course on a different day. More on that later. Rearranging my schedule, I met with my Anthropology professor I went to Ireland with to discuss getting credit for my work there. I had taken the prescribed course already and was hoping to earn my units elsewhere. Unfortunately, after making a very large goof that cost me twenty minutes of wait time and my dignity, he very kindly told me this wasn't going to happen. I did, however, get a letter of recommendation. Not all bad.

Now I have the same focus as a Saturday basketball player looking for a pick-up game. I need a class to replace the three units I was just denied. After depositing my tuition check in the bank (really nice feeling, that check in the bank). I head home and jump on my laptop, chattering at my mom about how I'm going to find a magic class to replace those credits. I'm trying to be optimistic. This is not my usual attitude. This is my fallback position. Understandably, I suck at this as noted by the email response I got from one professor I was banking on to get me into aforementioned psychology class. It was a no go. There was no room to squeak by in, and the waiting list is a foot long. Damn it.

The focus is now on two pick-up classes. Two classes I need to get me closer to transfer. Two classes where I fill that hole of being declared a full-time students. Two classes that aren't filled to the brim. That means more crashing, more juggling around of a schedule that is as jumbled as a jig-saw puzzle.

I can do this.

Maybe.

Like I said, I suck at being upbeat.

Trying to keep bright though. I won two days in the "15 for 15 Contest --- Starts June 6. Yay! The grammar I put forth in this blog is pretty scary. Imagine reading my work done in a fifteen-minute scramble to a picture prompt. Not pretty. But if you feel like looking at train wrecks, feel free to read my entries - "Beat The Clock.. Shameless plug, I know, but you can do that on your own blog, right? Right?! Never mind.

My goal is to try to enter in one competition a month. "15 for 15 Contest --- Starts June 6 was my January entry. I'm spying "Short Shots: Official Contest or possibly a couple of others for this month. If I can keep up the pace I'll be thrilled. If I win, I'll be ecstatic. Beat that with a stick, un-crashable classes.

 

2.  Coconut Curry and Other Common DisastersID #716670 
Posted: 1-28-2011 @ 3:03 am EST 
Edited: 2-2-2011 @ 3:29 am EST 

"Sometimes we will fall,
from the light
But it shines on us tonight
And together we will rise" - Glen Hansard

Currently listening to: "Rise" - The Frames
Currently reading: "The Queen of Attolia" by: Megan Whalen Turner


It started with a jar of coconut curry. No, if I really thought about it, the culmination of the day started the restlessness that started the moment I woke up this morning. It is hard to explain other than the feeling that something unimaginable has crawled under your skin, and the only way to make it go away is to move. Even with that, there was really nothing to do. The laundry was finished. The mail was taken care of. The chores were finished. Anything within walking that might be amusing was closed. Anyone who want to do anything was attending class. I was a girl dressed up (sort of) with no where to go.

Then an idea struck me and festered in my brain. I could walk to the Target and get something for dinner. There were things in the refrigerator that could be eaten, but it gave me the excuse to get out of the apartment. Mind you, night had already fallen. This freaked my mom out a bit. Not that anything would happen. Not that I couldn't defend myself. I just couldn't think about anything other than getting gone.

I get to Target after walking up the large hill, vastly relieved. (Later, after thinking rationally again, would come to realize I didn't need a destination, I could have strolled anywhere. But having a plan makes me feel like less of a lunatic.) There's a cart at the entrance. I see this as a sign. I stroll through the newly built grocery section and select my prey items - Tomato Basil soup, some lunch meat and bread for a sandwich, applesauce for reasons passing understanding - when I see an "on sale" sign posted under the coconut curry. The possibilities of what I could do with this are astounding. I grab a bottle and roll along.

Then, I get a call on my cell, scaring me out of my hide, making me bump the cart. A crash ensues. I flinch. There is now aromatic orange goo floor sandwiched between the yogurt and frozen chicken fingers aisle. My face was probably the same shade as my soup. It is sufficient to say I wasn't the happiest when I answered the phone.

Now, as I type this out, I keep thinking of West Wing. Who doesn't? *Crickets chirping* Okay, maybe it's just me. Anyway, there's an episode in the first season where the president is tagged by the press because of a golf joke, in which the Ryder Cup team decides not to attend a White House function. After staff discussion about how to prevent such things in the future, led by the press secretary C.J. Cregg, the president states tells her not to worry so much, stating her tombstone will state "Post hoc, ergo propter hoc." - "After this, therefore because of this". There's a discussion on the fallacy that one thing following another is the result of the first occurrence. This was all a way of stating that he didn't lose the Ryder Cup because of the joke. He lost their approval because when learned to speak Latin.

That little show a geek bravado (another line stolen from West Wing) was to state that I don't think I dropped the jar of coconut curry because my phone rang. I dropped the jar the moment I woke up this morning. Some days it doesn't pay to get out of bed.

 

1.  The First Entry.ID #716509 
Posted: 1-26-2011 @ 3:15 am EST 
Edited: 2-1-2011 @ 11:19 pm EST 

"Salvation, like car keys, is found where and when you least expect it." ~Anon~
Currently listening to: "Running in the Deep" - Adele
Currently reading: "Altar of Eden" by James Rollins


Well, I'm at it again. Maybe not fully at it, but I've gathered enough of me to write the introduction to this new blog...about three weeks late. Wonderful start, don't you think?

The past few weeks have been crazy. I'll be adding to that crazy soon as most of my classes begin on Monday! Nothing but good times ahead, I'm sure.

If you read my last blog, not that you would have, but on the off chance that you did, you would have noticed I kind of disappeared right before I left for Northern Ireland. No, I didn't stay. Though, there are times where I think a part of me is still there. It's a beautiful place full of rolling green hills, old cathedrals turned into convenience stores, a tragic history covered in gallows humor, and some of the nicest, nuttiest people you will ever meet in the world. One of my most peaceful moments in life was walking down the streets of Belfast after seeing a movie, picking up a decent burrito from a little Mexican cafe, right after a five minute storm.

To do a brief recap: there were miles of walking, enough pound pizza to make your stomach rot, being the only person around while a professor had a heart attack, bi-polar weather, romantic shenanigans (not mine own, which made it amusing to watch), exploration into the world of alcohol (I, seemingly, can't get drunk), getting lost a few times, becoming a regular at a pub called Fibber Magees, stood on the edge of one Earth's mightiest place (Giant's Causeway), earned a couple of nicknames, danced a few gigs, fell in love with a sandwich, visited one of the most beautiful college campuses in the world, and made a few friends that'll probably stick around until the end.

Coming home was a realization. People tell you that trips like Belfast change your life - it did. I didn't feel it at first, didn't feel anything different. It was the feedback of others that really got me to think about how things had changed. I went a bit nutty there when I got back. It was like trying to fit a round block into a small, triangular hole. My life as it was didn't fit the person I had become.

It took a while, almost failing a semester in college and many sleepless nights tearing out my hair, before I was able to find my feet again. Granted, "finding my feet" was about two weeks ago. The beautiful thing about the entire experience was how my family reacted. My mom, one of the most brilliant, compassionate people in the world, held on with only the will of a mother can. It was rocky. It was disastrous at times. However, we realized in the end that we were changing together. Mighty experience, I'll tell you.

My guy and I went through some rocky times. I came home to a mess within my family. He was going through the same thing. We tried to come together, had three weeks of loveliness that I wouldn't change for the world, time to just hold each other and be a real-live couple, instead of two long-distance people yearning for more. It didn't end in the most happily of endings...yet we survived. Against the odds, that's us. He's my best friend. It's amazing what you can accomplish if you remember the reason why you're together in the first place. Every time I think about it, I can't help but smile.

So...what does all of my blabbering mean? There's more to write and more to say. So much has changed since becoming a member on WDC. For better or for worst, I've been able to vent in this place of friends and fellow writers. WDC gave me a virtual home to feel accepted when I didn't think that was possible. Now, almost three years later, things have changed. I have changed. It only seemed fitting to chronicle my continuing misadventures here.

Here's an idea of what's to come... I have a couple more semesters before I hopefully transfer into a four-year university. Scramble time. There's an out-of-state move in the works for the beginning of June. New state, new shenanigans. I'm currently trying to write a novel made completely of short stories. (I stole the idea after reading Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven. Thanks Sherman Alexie!) I'm also making many train commutes to my father's and grandparent's over the next few months. Leaving is never easy. Neither is watching the people you love go through Alzheimer's. I hope to come to grips with both over the course of the next year, all while trying to stay moderately sane.

So, in closing, if this your first time here - welcome. If you've been here before - nice to see you again. And to all, although rather late, Happy New Year. Smile

 


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