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Printed from https://www.writing.com/main/books/item_id/2107938-Selah--Something-Witty/sort_by/entry_order DESC, entry_creation_time DESC/page/2
Rated: 18+ · Book · Writing · #2107938
A new year, a new blog, same mess of a writer.
It's been a while, but since the world is a mess, I might as well take a crack at this writing thing again.

Blog Header for 2017

I Write in 2019


12 Stories in 12 Months


Journal Art



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October 15, 2018 at 9:13pm
October 15, 2018 at 9:13pm
#943518
Date: 10.15.18 -- Day 98 ("30-Day Blogging Challenge ON HIATUS -- Day 15)
Music: "Rules" (Live)/ Jayme Dee


*BurstBR* Prompt -- Make an alphabetical list of 26 items starting with each letter of the alphabet. Any random items, related items, as long as they are in alphabetical order...be creative, imaginative, weird... *BurstBR*

I apologize for another music list, but words seem to be escaping me today. Here's an a-z list of songs that remind me of autumn. No repeated artists; I'm not sure how I pulled that one off. Anyhoozle. "Sounds of Autumn Feels" playlist. A little whimsy. A little creepy. Acoustic, for sure.


a: "A Soft Place To Fall  " -- Allison Moorer *Leaf2Y*
Daylight has found me here again
You can ask me anything, but where I've been
Things that used to matter seem so small
When you're looking for a soft place to fall


b: "Build Me Up From Bones  " -- Sarah Jarosz *Leaf2O*
The night's so dark and grey
But you've helped me find my way
Through the wild and wonders of this world


c: "Come Away To The Water  " -- Glen Hansard *LeafR*
Come away little lamb come away to the water
Give yourself so we might live anew


d: "Draw Me A Map  " -- Dierks Bentley *LeafBr*
Help me find the road you're on
I just need directions home
Draw me a map that leads me back to you


e: "Eveningland" -- Hem *Leaf2Y*



f: "Falling  " -- The Civil Wars *Leaf2O*
Haven't you seen me sleepwalking 'cause I've been holding your hand
Haven't you noticed me drifting
Oh
Let me tell you I am


g: "Golden  " -- Lady Antebellum featuring Stevie Nicks *LeafR*
You are golden,
Precious as a prayer flying up through the air
While the rain is falling


h: "House Full of Empty Room  " -- Kathleen Edwards *LeafBr*
I've been wondering
About what we're gonna do
A house full of empty rooms


i: "In A Week  " -- Hozier featuring Karen Cowley *Leaf2Y*
We lay here for years or for hours
Your hand in my hand
So still and discreet
So long we become the flowers
We'd feed well the land
And worry the sheep


j: "Jóga  " -- Björk *Leaf2O*
Emotional landscapes
They puzzle me
Then the riddle gets solved
And you push me up to this


k: "Keep Me Warm  " -- Ida Maria *LeafR*
Pour myself a cup of coffee full of sober nights
Cause nicotine and coffee are my friends in this fight


l: "Long Time Traveler  " -- The Wailin' Jennys *LeafBr*
These fleeting charms of earth
Farewell, your springs of joy are dry
My soul now seeks another home
A brighter world on high


m: "Meadowlarks  " -- Fleet Foxes *Leaf2Y*
Meadowlark, fly away down
I hold a cornucopia and a golden crown
For you to wear upon your fleeced down


n: "Not Alone  " -- Patty Griffin *Leaf2O*
And she says you are not alone
Laying in the light
Put out the fire in your head
And lay with me tonight


o: "One Way  " -- Rose Cousins *LeafR*
I break where you bend
I take what you send
We both pretend
But I start where you end


p: "Perfect Darkness  " -- Fink *LeafBr*
Deep water a little deeper then you thought
Feel it going over the edge and just go with it
Until it's all good yeah.


q: "Quiet Your Mind  " -- Great Lake Swimmers *Leaf2Y*
Finally found a vision
Vision of tomorrow


r: "Receiver  " -- Pieta Brown *Leaf2O*
With your head in the clouds
& the rain coming down


s: "Stranger  " -- The Devil Makes Three *LeafR*
This world she's cold;
this world is mean.
My heart is stone;
my hands are clean.


t: "Tomorrow  " -- Daughter *LeafBr*
By tomorrow we'll be lost amongst the leaves
In a wind that chills the skeletons of trees
And when the moon, it shines, I will leave two lines
Just find my love, then find me


u: "Ulysses  " -- Josh Garrels *Leaf2Y*
Everyone I’ve loved seems like a stranger in the night
But Oh my heart still burns, tells me to return, and search the fading light.


v: "Vengeance Is Sleeping  " -- Neko Case *Leaf2O*
I'm sure you're sleeping sound
With the mistress of the hours
The hours that grind your life to dust


w: "Wisely & Slow  " -- The Staves *LeafR*
Singer, singing songs of pain
Time may spin and years may pass
The song is still the same


x: "Sentimental X's  " -- Broken Social Scene (*) *LeafBr*
Off and on is what we want
What we want is off and on


y: "You Belong To Me  " -- Patsy Cline *Leaf2Y*
Just remember when a dream appears
You belong to me


z: "Home  " -- Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros (*) *Leaf2O*
Holy moley, me oh my
You're the apple of my eye





(*) = I took some creative license because couldn't think of ones that did what I needed them to do. Close, right?

October 13, 2018 at 10:10pm
October 13, 2018 at 10:10pm
#943377
Date: 10.13.18 -- Day 96 ("30-Day Blogging Challenge ON HIATUS -- Day 13)
Music: "Forgotten Love" / Aurora


*BurstO* Prompt -- If you could have a/n [inter]national day to name and celebrate however you wished, what would you do? *BurstO*

(I've had three conference calls today, so forgive me if this is already an actual day or a semblance of a day that already exists...)

If I could have a day, it would be the Int'l Day of the Forgotten.

This day actually could be as deep or as light as anyone wants it to be. That fun hobby that you used to do in your twenties but got sidetracked by life along the way? Today is the day to pick that hobby back up again. Knit to your heart's content. Go out to the comic convention. Dabble in the thing you once loved. That skill that seems to have slipped through your fingers or that language that used to roll off your tongue that doesn't quite anymore? This day is the day to hop back on the bike or to download Duolingo to refresh yourself on the basics again. Forget the taste of your childhood favorite meal? Time to do some internet sleuthing and get out the pans. Or call up auntie and beg to be fed!

There are other things that have fallen to the forgotten. Cultural traditions, religious practices, old friends. Now there is a day dedicated to relearning the old. To give reverence to ancestors. To call upon something divine. To ring up or email or long write a letter to the person who you always said you were going to get back in touch with but never did. It is a reason to reach out.

It doesn't always have to be a day to remember. Maybe it is actively pushing something into the past. The old memories. The hurtful recurrences that seem to haunt you from day to day. That one bad act you committed when you were a child. That person who harmed you, so deep and so much, that there is no place for forgiveness. Today is the day that you push it into the place where it is lost to time. Maybe not forever, for some things linger whether we want them to or not, but for the day. And if not the day, maybe an hour. It is permission to pack it away and never visit it again.

So that's my idea of a day. What would you do on Int'l Day of the Forgotten?



October 11, 2018 at 8:10pm
October 11, 2018 at 8:10pm
#943239
Date: 10.11.18 -- Day 95 ("30-Day Blogging Challenge ON HIATUS -- Day 11)
Music: "Sisters Are Doin' It For Themselves" / Aretha Franklin feat. The Eurythmics


*Burstp* Prompt -- October 11 is International Day of the Girl Child. What are your favorite girl power songs? Share 11. *BurstP*

So this was a fun one. I reached out to my family - my nieces, my sisters, my mom and aunts - and these are some of the ones I got back with a few of my own. I provided links to all of them in case anyone is interested, or if one day you need that mental boost and a power song will get you there.

Happy International Day of the Girl Child!


*Music1* "Girls Just Want To Have Fun  " / Cyndi Lauper

I want to be the one to walk in the sun
Oh girls they wanna have fun


*Music2* "Electric Lady  " / Janelle Monae

Once you see her face, her eyes, you'll remember
And she'll have you falling harder than a Sunday in September


*Music1* "That's My Girl  " / 5th Harmony

Destiny said it, you got to get up and get it
Get mad independent and don't you ever forget it
Got some dirt on your shoulder, then let me brush it off for ya


*Music2* "Good As Hell  " / Lizzo

Woo girl, need to kick off your shoes
Got to take a deep breath, time to focus on you


*Music1* "Queendom  " / Aurora

The underdogs are my lions
The silent ones are my choir
The women will be my soldiers
With the weight of life on their shoulders


*Music2* "Control  " / Janet Jackson

Got my own mind
I want to make my own decisions
When it has to do with my life, my life
I wanna be the one in control


*Music1* "I Love It  " / Icona Pop featuring Charlie XCX

I got this feeling on the summer day when you were gone

*Music2* "Salute  " / Little Mix

Ladies all across the world
Listen up, we're looking for recruits
Get your killer heels, sneakers, pumps or lace up your boots
Representing all the women, salute, salute


*Music1* "Bulletproof  " / La Roux

Tick, tick, tick, tick on the watch
And life's too short for me to stop
Oh, baby, your time is running out


*Music2* "Hit Me With Your Best Shot  " / Pat Benatar

Knock me down, it's all in vain
I get right back on my feet again



*AsteriskP* *AsteriskP* *AsteriskP*




October 8, 2018 at 11:03pm
October 8, 2018 at 11:03pm
#942992
Date: 10.08.18 -- Day 93 ("30-Day Blogging Challenge ON HIATUS -- Day 8)
Music: "Season of the Witch" / Donovan


*BurstV* Prompt: October 8 is the second Monday of October, which makes it National Kick Butt Day. How did you/will you kick butt today? *BigSmile* *BurstV*



I'm not sure that I kicked butt today so much as it kicked mine.

There were plans for today like many previous Mondays before it. Last night I had set out to fortify myself by prepping for the upcoming week. And like many things in life, I woke up this morning to Monday cackling in my face, poking me in the forehead as it laughed at my hubris.

Living with a disease that involves chronic pain and an array of other fun symptoms is hard to describe. One of the biggest things is coping is the unpredictability of it all. Last night wasn't the greatest night, but it wasn't the worst night either. However, this morning I woke up to the feeling that I had gone twelve rounds with my elder brothers and inevitably lost the fight. It's like the day after the first practice of basketball season where coach thought everyone looks too weak so the whole two hours are just repetitive drills, on steroids. It's the feeling on the afternoon after jumping on a trampoline for seven hours straight in the summer sun with only pop and birthday cake running through your system - minus the fun. I woke up cursing as I realized that all of my lovely, lovely plans slipped out of my seized hands.

So the plan for this morning was scrapped when I finally, literally crawled out of bed. Appointments and students were rescheduled. Bodies were painfully stretched. Food still hasn't happened yet, at least not for me, but I was able to gather enough strength to throw myself into the shower until some of the muscles in my back and thighs untangled themselves and the hot water ran out. It was a true blessing that coffee was already made the afternoon before. It wasn't pretty, but it was done.

Scrapped plans aside, today is about accomplishing things, no matter the size of said thing accomplished. So to the things I got done: I got out of bed this morning. I was still able to take care of my mom. Dinner made it in the oven tonight. A shower happened. OctoPrep assignment was completed. Editing for my students is mostly done as my head is still fuzzy around the edges. I can actually stand up now and my fingers have loosen up enough for me to type this. Not what I had planned, but there are still things that got checked off the list.

Maybe I didn't kick today's butt, but I went toe-to-toe with it. Haphazardly. With gritted teeth and hobbled muscles. Still, I was able to stand up today; I'll take it.
October 7, 2018 at 5:26am
October 7, 2018 at 5:26am
#942871
Date: 10.07.18 -- Day 92 ("30-Day Blogging Challenge ON HIATUS -- Day 7)
Music: "The Book of Right-On" (Cover) / Sarah Jarosz


*BurstBL* Prompt: This week is focused on National Days. Starting with today, which is National Frappe Day! Do you prefer your drinks hot or cold? What kind of blended drinks do you like? *BurstBL*

Ah, frappes. Just the mention of frappes makes me think of grinding blenders and over-roasted coffee beans. It's a working hazard. I spend a lot of time tutoring in coffee shops.

Everything is mood dependent, although I have to say cold is my most likely choice. For coffee, I prefer the smoothness of a cold brew. It's a way to delude myself into thinking I won't get the jitters if I exceed three cups. But when I really need coffee, hot is fine. Cold is fine. It could taste like the ground for all I care as long as I get what I need from the bean juice.

For tea, I prefer my tea lattes warm on the rare occasion I can actually access them. My favorite is a Scottish Breakfast tea latte from a coffee chain called Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf. They only have one in all of Washington state, located in SeaTac. It can be found in the furthest terminal away from my usual one. It takes fifteen minutes to walk from one side to another; I know because I've done it when my layover is a bit long. This is also how I found out you can regret and not regret the same thing at the exact same time. Bodies ain't what they used to be.

Usually, my main go-to is just a cup of once hot tea. I say once hot because I have a tendency to forget that I've made a cup of tea, leave it on the counter, and by the time my brain remembers, the cup has gone cold. Before, I used to heat it up again, usually cycling through this in several attempts of reviving the tea. No one has that kind of time. So I learned to appreciate cold tea. Also bitter tea. I cannot tell you how many times I've become so hyper-focused on a project that hours fly by, and my tea has steeped for far too long. My fiance can attest to this, much to his chagrin. It seems the only time I actively hold a hot cup of anything in my hands is to ease the ache of arthritis.

I get the occasional frappe, usually when my caffeine cut-off has passed. They're nice in moments of indulgence or when I have to implement a lesson plan that I know is going to be like pulling teeth. Nothing soothes harsh reality like a dollop of whipped cream, several ounces of ice blended with fake coffee, and the fervent hope that the baristas appreciate that I don't bang my head against the table every time a student tries to pull a short cut before the lesson has even begun.

Happy National Frappe Day, folks! And to all the baristas out there, I'm so sorry. *Mug* *TeaR*


October 6, 2018 at 11:44pm
October 6, 2018 at 11:44pm
#942856
Date: 10.06.18 -- Day 91 ("30-Day Blogging Challenge ON HIATUS -- Day 6)
Music: "Still Feel" / half.alive


*BurstBR* Prompt: Write about a memorable encounter with a stranger. *BurstBR*



I can feel a kick down in my soul
And it's pulling me back to earth to let me know
And this heart that beats inside of me will show
I still feel alive



Probably my most memorable encounter with a stranger happened when I was studying abroad in Belfast, Northern Ireland. During the summer program at Queen's University, I was not only provided lodging in the dorms, but a free breakfast every morning as well. A full Irish was amazing. At first. But after the second week the thought of all the meat and other lovely rich foods for another meal seemed more daunting than climbing Giant's Causeway again. So I tagged along with another student from my program to head to class early so she could use university's wifi and I could catch up on some reading in the empty classroom.

Interestingly enough, the room was not empty when I entered. That day we were having a guest lecturer, a famed anthropology professor who still dragged his old-school projector up three flights of stairs at the ripe age of 80. He was my mentor's mentor, so I was excited to meet him, but I had been briefed ahead of time that he liked a few quiet moments to set up before engaging with students, so I greeted him quickly, politely and took my seat in the back.

It was a nice silence as he set up and I read. The quiet was disturbed when the professor accidentally passed wind. At the time, I giggled a little in my book, but said nothing. In a way, it made the mythical man more human. There's more room on the outside, as my grandfather used to say. In hindsight, I should have known better; for in a few moments after the disturbance, I happened to glance up as the professor lost his sense of balance, took a few staggered steps to the his left, and promptly collapsed on the floor. He was having a heart attack.

Like I said, in hindsight, there are so many things I wish I had done differently. I ran down from my seat, checked the back of his head for blood, and uttered the inane words -- "are you okay?". He couldn't respond, only look at me in fear. I cushioned his head with my scarf, reassured him that I would get some help, and run out of the classroom in the hopes of finding someone else. Here was when panic set in. I circled myself three times trying to best gauge which class I could disturb to find the right person. Luck would look favorably upon me as a woman would come out of the classroom, introduce herself as a doctor, and the moment I heard that, I grabbed her as politely as possible to bring her into the room. From there, I dashed downstairs, alerted the staff as the emergency services number seems to have flown out of my brain when I needed it the most (it's 999; I have it burned in my memory now), and they called for medics. I also seemed to have forgotten my class number, which meant I needed to run back up the stairs find it, run down again to wait for the medics, and led them up the stairs once more.

The other program professors, including my mentor, had arrived by the time we made the final march upstairs. I watched as they needed to revive him and rushed him to the hospital. At some point, I had to tell them all what had happened. They offered to let me head back to my dorm room for the day, but whether it was the adrenaline or the crash that immediately followed, I opted to stay in class. I don't remember a damn thing about the lesson. The only thing running through my skull was OMG, OMG, OMG like a ticker tape stuck on repeat.

My mentor, thankful for the rescue of his mentor, offered me a case of Guinness after classes ended. I took it, drank a can and promptly gave one to the rest of the crew on study with me as the urge to get drunk was way too appealing. The incident earned me a reputation and horrible nicknames. I often was the sober walking companion to other fellow non-sober classmates, so many called me Shepherd. (Nicknames were an unofficial part of the program.) After the professor's heart attack, they called me AH-HA, Action-Hero Heart Attack. It was really bad. I declared over the gifted Guinness that all of my emergency cards had been used up and that anyone potentially experiencing a medical emergency needed to stay at least five yards away from me. This would be a running joke for the rest of the summer. It would seem my luck would hold as there were no more heart attacks or other medical emergencies.

When my father skyped me later that night, unexpectedly from my grandparents house with my uncle and cousins, I appeared to be drunk as I was pretty thrashed from the crash of adrenaline (and mortification as my father could care less how I looked; my grandparents, however, had opinions). When I relayed the story to them, I immediately when was bombarded by the doctors. I felt like a med student on rounds with all the questions thrown my way. To this day, I'm pretty sure my uncle just thinks I was on a bender and made up the story to cover. As you do.

Thankfully, the professor survived. While I didn't visit him in the hospital for fear of bringing up a bad memory in his fragile state, I did send flowers, which I heard later seemed to perk him as it was a first for him. He went on to continue teaching, although mercifully, two of his TAs began the process of converting his slides into digital format so he didn't have to carry the projector around anymore. He sent me a lovely letter a year later; I often wonder how things are with him now.

And thus the end of my most memorable encounter with a stranger.
October 5, 2018 at 4:57pm
October 5, 2018 at 4:57pm
#942754
Date: 10.05.18 -- Day 90 ("30-Day Blogging Challenge ON HIATUS -- Day 5)
Music: "Ho Hey" / The Lumineers


*BurstO* Prompt -- Write about the person that has had the biggest impact on your life. *BurstO*

Without hesitation, the person who has the biggest impact on my life is my mother. Her guidance, her warmth, her determination, her strength to survive - I would not be here without her. If I did not have her unconditional love, I would be a vastly different person. She has become my best friend.

The thing about my mom is that she has this light, this aura about her that brings out the softness in everyone. It's as if her soul was a star, so full of brightness. She hasn't had the easiest of lives, and yet she still holds hope in things working out for the better. Thinking back on all the things she has had to overcome, the figurative mountains she's had to climb - raising my brothers and me practically on her own, the early death of her brother, her degenerative illnesses - I do not how she has done it, and I can only hope that one day I'll get a fraction to her level.

My mom is the best. I'm unbelievably lucky to be her daughter.


October 3, 2018 at 3:16am
October 3, 2018 at 3:16am
#942537
Date: 10.03.18 -- Day 89 ("30-Day Blogging Challenge ON HIATUS -- Day 3)
Music: "Paradis Perdus" / Christine and the Queens & "Heart of Flame (Xin Zhi Yan)" / G.E.M.


*BurstGR* Prompt -- Do you speak a second language? If so, what inspired you to learn it? If not, what language are you interested in learning? *BurstGR*



Does singing count? My first introduction to a language besides English was my first choir at five with a hymn in Latin. Over two decades and several choirs later, I've had to sing in over a dozen different languages including Hebrew, Tagalog, Swahili, and Gaelic. The songs and the words I remember. Beyond that, I have no sense of meaning. If I could sing about people to communicate with them, I'm set.

I know a smattering of phrases in different languages. The language I grew up with most besides English was Spanish. There was no way to escape it really in southern California. Most of my exposure was to Salvadorean, Puerto Rican, and Mexican Spanish. Once I moved to PNW, I realized how much I missed it when walking down the street or hanging out downtown. My reading of it is decent. My speaking it is atrocious. But my understanding of the language has saved me a time or two, so that's definitely something.

I also have bit of French from my paternal grandfather who was a translator for the Cameroon during the 1988 Olympics. My grandparents, my uncles, and my father were fluent once upon a time, but it slowly slipped away once they moved back to the United States. I tried to pick it up for myself the summer before last when my best friend, who is fluent, was mentoring me in it. We were just beginning when things kind of fell apart with tutoring sessions. However, it's definitely something I like to pick up again when my brain are less finicky.

There are a few words of Visayan and Cebuano sprinkled throughout my lexicon, a holdover from my maternal grandfather. When he came here in the 1920s, speaking anything but English was heavily frowned upon. He taught himself English, but his accent never went away, which bothered him for decades. Because of this, especially during WWII, he opted not to teach my mother and my uncle for fear they were be further bullied. However, that changed during the 1970s, when they moved from Detroit to San Francisco. The Filipino community helped my mom find her way around the language, which she passed down bits to us young ones. If there is a language I would love to become fluent in, it's Visayan.

The current languages that I'm tinkering in are Norwegian, Korean, Farsi, Mandarin, Thai, and Taiwanese. Norwegian has popped up because of my mom. She's learning as a fun hobby, so that means I'm inadvertently learning too. Which I am definitely cool with; it's an intriguing language. Farsi, particularly the dialect Dari, came about because several of my students speak Dari as their first language, and I want to be as helpful as possible, including being able to speak with their parents. I'm learning Korean along with my niece who would like to go to Seoul on her 21st birthday. So we have three years to get this down, lol. Mandarin, Thai, and Taiwanese came about from the television shows I've immersed myself in this past year when I accidentally gave up watching anything in English. With most Chinese TV series running 50+ episodes in one go, I've become a heavyweight. Nothing daunts me anymore, especially when trying to keep up with the nuances of a very complex language.

So there ya go. I know a very little about a lot of languages. Such is life.



(This is the outro song for a Chinese TV series called "Princess Agents" (Chu Qiao Zhuan). I would not recommend; I rage quit about halfway through. It was a thing. However, I do highly recommend the soundtrack. It was one thing the show did right. Everything else, not so much.)
October 2, 2018 at 10:22pm
October 2, 2018 at 10:22pm
#942515
Date: 10.02.18 -- Day 88 ("30-Day Blogging Challenge ON HIATUS -- Day 2)
Music: "Honey" / Johnny Balik


*BurstR* Prompt -- We all have ‘pet-peeves’. Write about some of yours! *BurstR*



I have what my mother's old priest would call a judgmental spirit. There are things that I do, and probably will, nitpick forever. Little things to that seem to bother me for no apparent reason other than they do. Most of them are irrational; most likely a consequence of having eight siblings. Alas, for the sake of time, I'm going to pick the first three that pop in my skull.

The Earworm Phenomenon:

You know that song you seemingly get stuck in your head out of nowhere? The one that you hate with the fire of a thousand suns, but it's everywhere you go so you know every lyric of said song against your will? Yep, that's The Earworm Phenomenon that can take my day from an 8 to a 3 in no time flat. There's actually an official name for this -- Involuntary Musical Imagery (INMI). I cannot tell you how many times I've gotten a song stuck my head, a song so vile that I would voluntary give my soul to never hear it again, and not have it run through my mind for hours. It takes over my whole being. It is the bane of my existence.

The Oxford Comma Denial:

I live for commas. I put useless commas in everything. Besides the em-dash and the semi-colon, commas are my favorite punctuation marks. The Oxford Comma is especially dear to my heart. So imagine my shock in AP English when my teacher went on a fifteen-minute rant against them. They are useless, she said. They're lazy writing, she said. I couldn't take it. I still can't. There were debates in class. I'm pretty sure she still hates me because I derailed her study plans. But she will have to rip the Oxford Comma out of my cold, dead hands before I give up the fight for them. It keeps us from cannibalism, my friends. Oxford Commas are the real deal. And if anyone wants to fight me on this, I'm your huckleberry.

The Wasted Potential Filmography:

Movie trailers are the best and the worst things about movies. The best because they can get you hyped for months before it hits the theaters. The worst because you can see all that potential in that two and a half minute clip, and when the film ultimately fails to live up to said potential, it only leaves you in despair. So much wasted possibility. So many places it could have gone. And then. And then. Nothing. It's hollow or contrived or just so mired in itself that there is no semblance of plot anywhere to be found. Maybe it's the price of being a writer or the the fact that movie tickets are so pricey, but damn it all films should be better than this. To sum up my irrational rage for Wasted Potential, I quote from a show that ended up doing a separate pet-peeve of mine, Character Inconsistency, from one of my favorite characters, Toby Ziegler on "The West Wing" -- "Don't come in here with half a thing and not be able to--you know, after you've walked me to the brink and say, 'We've got to do this, it's important, though I have no earthly idea how.' Like one of those guys who buys a big new thing but doesn't really know how to get the most out of it!"

And for honorable mentions -- Neighbors. As I write this there are three separate arguments happening in my apartment complex. I can hear every one of them through my earphones. Also the stomping of feet, the clang of the washing machine upstairs, and various squeaks from shuffling feet. It's like a surround sound beehive. The little ones who have been having tons of fun this summer screaming (I totally get it; it's summer and they're eight, so I don't want to harsh anyone's vibe) have killed my instinctive response to go running towards screaming children in case of an emergency. I now just assume that a game of tag has gotten out of hand. May this never become a thing that I regret later. I do not think I was programmed for neighbors.
October 1, 2018 at 6:00pm
October 1, 2018 at 6:00pm
#942386
Date: 10.01.18 -- Day 87 ("30-Day Blogging Challenge ON HIATUS -- Day 1)
Music: "Broke" / Samm Henshaw


*BurstBL* Prompt -- What are your goals for October? *BurstBL*


Autumn has swept its way into the Pacific Northwest. The rain trickles outside my apartment window, and the grey clouds of the recent storm make it seem more like evening than early afternoon. Fall is my favorite of seasons. It eases my heart in ways the other seasons cannot seem to. So all of these lovely autumnal things would usually be delightful if it wasn't for the stack of paperwork flooding my desk. Is it too much to ask for sweater season not to be so clutter inducing and havoc making? Sigh...

Goals are lovely. They are great ways of getting projects done. I use them a lot with my students. And yet, every time I post goals, it has the unintended effect of killing the thing I want to accomplish. I have no idea why. But suddenly the goal that I set out to accomplish becomes the highlighted effort that I have once again failed at. It's bizarre for sure. And vastly annoying. So my goal is to kill my goals curse.

How? I have absolutely no idea, LOL.

I'm going to try and keep things simple as I have been swamped with work and other family obligations while fighting the remnants of a cold. My hope is to blog as much as I can for the unofficial blogging month of October. It's helpful to spill the things that keep clamoring inside of me to get out. I'm going to try and make this as off-the-cuff as possible. No overthinking. No plotting and twisting. Just writing for the prompt with the first thing that comes to mind. My second hope (see, not using the cursed word again; I will break this thing) is to participate in OctoPrep. All my constructing efforts will have an outlet somewhere else. Hopefully.

So here's to a solid month of blogging and curse breaking. Happy autumn everybody. *LeafO*






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