Thing-a-day.com

Well, here we are, Day 29 of Thing-A-Day. I’m feeling a little “verklempt.” Wish I could say I  posted every day, but I did my best, 23 out of 29. It has been really fun, really stimulating, really challenging, really welcoming. I’ve enjoyed sharing ideas with all you creative people out there, and I look forward to taking the coming year to try and read ALL the posts from this year as well as from 2007. I’ve picked up some yummy recipes, enjoyed some fantastic artwork, giggled at some quirky ideas, gotten misty-eyed at some beautiful poetry, and made some tentative e-mail acquaintances. February, the month that usually drags on and on here in northeast Pennsylvania, a gray, depressing month of never-ending cold (can I tell you it’s snowing as I write?!), became a daily source of wonder and inspiration. Gotta say, I’m sad to see it end. But hey, at least we had one extra day this year!

The tradition of Leap Year in general and Leap Day in particular is that the rules of romance are overturned, and women can take advantage of the extra day to propose to the man of their dreams. This apparently stems from the patriarchal Middle Ages, when men were the pursuers and women the prizes to be claimed. Things have equaled out a bit in our enlightened age, but it’s still kind of a fun concept. How about if each of us takes this day as an opportunity to throw caution to the February winds and LEAP in and tell someone we love them…

Till we meet again,

I’ll miss the camaraderie…

Farewell, Thing-A-Day!

                THANKS EVERYONE–IT’S BEEN WONDERFUL!!!

Over the past month, as well as doing a ‘thing-a-day’, I’ve also been writing up a chapter of my thesis (in fact, I started it in October last year!). Well, tonight, I finally finished it. It has sapped all my creativity for today, so I’m going to have to leave things there.

On reflection, I’m really pleased I was involved in this project; I’ve tried out lots of new things, taken on a few challenges and surprised myself. I’ve finished this month a little more confident in my sketching abilities and addicted to knitting!

Can’t wait for next year!

Djinn signing off.

Tonight, I wrote a series of haikus in honor of my Acer Aspire laptop.

A drabble. Prompt courtesy of 100wordstories.com.

“How much do you charge?”

            “It’s on the house.” I threw the fortune-teller a cynical glance. “I love pessimists,” she explained.

            “Right. What’s in my future?” She peeked at the foggy glass ball that sat between us.

            “A great betrayal nears. The man you love will fall for your best friend. Your math teacher hates you. Oh, and, you’re going to fail that test.”

            “What? Are you serious?”

            “Completely.”

            “Some psychic you are. I want my money back.”

            “Honey, we both know that my job is to tell you what you want to hear. You wouldn’t have believed anything else.”

I have been doing things, but I’ve just been lazy in posting them, so here goes:

Day #24: Fried Rice with Bok Choy and Scallions

Day #25: Hummus and Pita Chips

Day #26: Steamed Kale with Miso-Tahini Dressing

Day #27: Commonplace Notebook

(Traditionally, a commonplace book is a notebook where people copy reading quotations as they come across them. This, however, is a book where I’m hand-writing my favorite poems, and perhaps some prose quotes, so I can carry them around with me.)

x-posted

Another gray, rainy day here in eastern Pennsylvania. I think the sun has forsaken us. It was a great day to stay inside and curl up with a quilt, a cat, a cup of tea, something new-agey on the stereo, and an excellent book. Unfortunately, that was not to be…had to go to work. On a brighter note, though, as I was leaving the house this morning at 7:15, I actually heard birds singing for the first time since winter set in. A truly hopeful, spirit-lifting sound! Can it be that spring really is on the way? How long till we spy the first robin hopping across the lawn? See the first crocus poking up shyly through the ivy? Notice tender buds on the red maple trees?

Spring–it’s on its way,

Returning warmth to the land

And hope to the heart.

The past few days have been very challenging and I have been working so hard–perhaps it is the last mile that is the hardest mile. I did however come up with a new illustration style and technique, and have been writing my thoughts out, while finding new ways to present some of my ideas…

I sat down to write a freewrite, but my mind was in a more fun mood. So, a limerick:

Of her love, his wife made a big show

Brutus simply had no way to know ‘bout the sordid affair

So begins the final week of Thing-A-Day. While I haven’t been as diligent as I would have liked to be (missed a few posts here and there), it has been a really stimulating experience. I’ve so enjoyed seeing everyone’s creativity and ideas and thoughts and images, and I will miss the internal prodding to get my post done before midnight! I’m feeling a bit inadequate and antiquated today amongst all you talented people and hope that by next year’s T-A-D I’ll have the computer chops to upload some photos or videos myself. Yesterday on a whim I decided to make homemade macaroni & cheese for dinner (haven’t made it in years). My daughter was going to take a photo and upload it for me, but we forgot and ate it all up! It was the perfect hearty meal after a tramp in the snow-covered woods! So here’s to mac & cheese:

Homemade mac and cheese.

Creamy and heartwarming and

homely and YUMMY!

Went for a hike today at the Nature Conservancy to scope it out as a possible site for our daughter’s upcoming wedding. There’s a rustic pavilion with picnic tables, a burbling stream, a lovely hidden glade with benches and a tree-stump pulpit that would be perfect for the ceremony. Now in February, two days after the snowstorm, everything is softened with a coating of snow and silence, against a backdrop of the setting sun blazing copper, orange, and aubergine in the early evening sky. It’s perfect, in tune with her affinity for the outdoors and nature and beauty. I imagine that in September it will be even more spectacular with autumn’s colors in full display. There could be no better setting for “my little artist” and her fiance on their very special day!

Nature–the place for

The robot and the rainbow

To join together.

Had lunch with a friend today. No big deal, right? Just soup, bread, and tea. But the conversation was great, the feeling was warm and intimate on a cold, gray, damp day in Pennsylvania. Happy. Dropped my friend at the airport for a flight back home. A little melancholy.

Had lunch with a friend.

Food for the body and soul.

Come back soon, my friend.

Yesterday morning I was on the bus heading in to work, and we were in the downtown corridor where most people get off. I see this woman stand up while the bus is in motion, coffee and scone in one hand, and reaching for her backpack on the ground with the other. I’m watching this carefully because something doesn’t seem quite right. I’m not accustomed to seeing people move that well on a moving bus –from watching her you would have no idea we were on a moving bus doing it’s usual jerky fits and starts traversing 3rd Ave.

After watching her for a bit I realize she is blind. I had heard on many occasions that when someone loses one of their senses that the others will step up their game to help out. I assumed they were referring to smell, touch, taste, and hearing.

I also know that from a movement perspective, that the body’s first processes information via the visual system, then the vestibular system (balance), and then the proprioceptive system (which is the body’s awareness of itself in space).  I had recently gone through a certification course where we tested the effects of the various bodily systems on movement, and had been told that when one is eliminated that the others must compensate, but for some reason I hadn’t made this exact association.  I had never observed that with the visual system gone the other systems not only pick up the slack, but they actually excel. This was a truly graceful woman!

As we were approaching her stop, she confidently walked up to the front of the bus, never grabbing a seat back or railing. The driver said to her, “you know where you are”. She politely replied, “yes, I do, but we aren’t to the stop yet”. So, not only was she able to maintain her balance, but she was acutely aware of where she was in relation to where she needed to be – with stops are 3-4 blocks apart in this part of the route, she knew exactly where she was.

It was just a fascinating example of how the body will work together. We are hard-wired for survival, and this was gorgeous example of that.

Some musician friends of ours are scheduled to play a gig in a suburban Philadelphia pub tomorrow evening, and we are planning on being there. HOWEVER, the forecast is calling for snow, beginning in the wee hours and continuing throughout the day, turning to what is euphemistically called a “wintry mix” [read:  ice]. If we are unable to make the gig, it will probably be some time until we see them again, as they are flying back to LA on Saturday. So, with apologies to the children’s skipping rhyme, here’s today’s haiku:

Snow, snow, stay away,

Come again some other day.

Marna wants to play!!!

This is my post for last night, February 20–didn’t get to post it until today:

There is a spectacular total lunar eclipse happening this evening, with full eclipse scheduled to occur at 10:26PM EST. Looking out my kitchen window at an absolutely crystal-clear night sky, I can see the eclipse about halfway along, already taking on the classic red hue, with what I presume to be Saturn shining singularly to the lower left of the moon. This is thrilling, especially because in our part of the world any highly anticipated celestial event is very often obscured by complete cloud cover. Every August my son and I would set up our lawn chairs in the driveway in hopes of catching the Perseid meteor shower, and some 20 years into it we have yet to see them. So for this wondrous event to take place in absolutely cloud-free surroundings is exciting! I’ve only seen it once before, on a summer evening, again the lawn chairs and the whole family in our backyard, kids in jammies, coffee, juice and snacks on hand–a very special evening indeed. The ancients were understandably frightened by lunar and solar eclipses, believing that some heinous monster was devouring the light in the sky and that catastrophic events were sure to follow. Even now, there is somewhat of an aura of foreboding associated with these celestial happenings, so here’s my haiku for the day:

Red orb in black vault–

Total eclipse of the moon.

Superstition?  Fear?

I take the bus to work, and it’s generally one of the more enjoyable parts of my day. The morning ride in is when I mentally plan my day, and the evening trip home is when I decompress and plan the evening. I often also get a good story out of it, and tonight was no exception.

I usually ride the same buses, and have gotten to know many of the drivers to a certain extent – at least well enough to know their driving habits, predict how likely they are to be on time, etc. For example, there is the woman who drives the 8:30am local. She is an older woman with salt and pepper spiky hair and these fantastic red-rimmed glasses. She is the only driver I know who can say “good morning” when I get on and “have a great day!” as I get off, and sound like she means it.  Then, there is the man who drives the 4:47pm bus home – he used to be my morning driver, and you could set your watch to him! Even though he can be a bit gruff, I appreciate that he fights like hell to keep on schedule, so he ranks quite highly on my list of drivers.  Lastly, I cannot forget the singing driver – he places a large “SMILE” sign in the front window of the bus, and one day regaled us as we were leaving downtown with a original ditty to the tune of Mary Had a Little Lamb – he even used the air brakes on the bus as punctuation in the song!

Tonight was someone new. I was riding home later than usual, and as we head out of downtown our driver announces in a voice that is better suited to a late-night jazz station than a bus, “and now we are turning east, leaving beautiful downtown Seattle behind us.” Accustomed to driver announcements more along the lines of, “Pike Place Market, Westlake Center, monorail”, we found this amusing. Later, as we left Fremont (“Center of the Universe” – really, we have a sign to prove it) and turned up in to the Seattle neighborhood of Ballard, we heard, “Turning in to the Independent Republic of Ballard.”  Living in Ballard, I got of the bus minutes later and was finally able to see the person that went with the disembodied voice. He was an extremely pleasant 40-something Italian man, probably just looking for a way to make his evening route more enjoyable.

The inspiration was “Forged with honesty.” I wrote it in Violet (I find it easier to write fiction in colored pencil.) It’s a freewrite. ‘Nuff said.

EDIT: This was actually yesterday’s, but I saved it as a draft to check the formatting and forgot to publsih it. >_<

Here. Oh. It’s, er, a ring. I forged it out of honesty. I hope you like it. It’s not quite perfect, but I thought it would fit best.

            Oh wait, don’t touch it quite yet; it’ll—well, just wait ‘til I’m gone. I’m afraid you won’t like what it says.

            I never really know what to say or how to say it. I’m not great with communication, I guess. Even symbolism is lost on me. But when I saw the instructions browsing Wikipedia through Random Page, I knew I had to try.

            I never could find that page again.

            I’m sorry it took so long. It’s overdue, I guess. But there were all these complex directions, like catching a passing thought and letting it stew in a hot bath for three hours, and lighting a page with my favorite poem on fire—it took long enough just to find the poem, let alone somewhere I wouldn’t get in trouble for smoke fumes, and—I’m talking too much, aren’t I?

            I’m not really one for words. I didn’t know if anything outside of pure, concentrated honesty could tell you well, the truth.

            Just, wait to put it on, please? I’m not sure if I want to know what it says, either.

After a session with my counselor today, I feel so tired. Lots of thinking and findings came along.

Being gentle doesn’t mean I can do anything I want to do like what I have done over the last few weeks.

I will write more tomorrow. Bed is calling.

Oh, I applied for a volunteer at Richard Hugo House, a place for writers.

One step at a time. No matter how small it is.

Haven’t had a chance to do anything ‘creative’ today - been working too hard on writing-up my thesis (which is, I suppose, creative, but dull!).  However, I have come up with a vague idea about making a wide fabric belt fastened with an old buckle.  More about that another day…maybe.

I didn’t put this up yesterday because I hadn’t written it. >_< I had no school so I didn’t need to. Now I have two days to make up for…

The “Oh-Ten” Gazette

Your source for what’s not going on in Sophomore IB

Volume 2, Issue 22

 How to Deal With Stress

            Now that it’s second semester, one would think that Pre-IB sophomores would be more settled into healthy routines. Unfortunately, that is not the case. Accounts of getting home, taking a nap, and waking up the next morning are becoming more prevalent. With the latest instance of multiple-test days and the added stress of a single Valentine’s Day, some students are just not doing well in terms of mental health. Something must be done.

            Stress can be caused by countless things, but loads of homework and extra-curriculars are likely to be the main issues. The most important part of relieving stress isbeing aware of how stressed you are, and identifying its cause. If an intimidating workload is your main stressor, try to break everything into simple tasks and manage your time well. Recognize your priorities and don’t allow people to pile on more obligations. It is not your responsibility to put up with other peoples’ problems if you can barely deal with your own.

            There are many ways to keep stress levels down, so you need to decide what will work best for you. A nutritious diet helps, and caffeine should be avoided because it increases feelings of anxiety. Despite early bus pick-up times and what is apparently a teenage disposition toward late bed times, getting a healthy amount of sleep is absolutely essential. If you come home tired, take a nap—but set an alarm so you wake up in time to still get other things done. Time management is key, but taking appropriate breaks is important as well. Try to put time aside to do things you really like. Exercise is especially helpful because it releases lots of endorphins, which increase happiness.

            If nothing else, think positively. Instead of freaking out about a problem, take a deep breath and concentrate on a solution. All of these tips are well and good, but if you don’t think they’ll work and don’t try to make them work, they won’t. Remember, stress is all in your head.

 Rumor has it . . .

            Last week was an affecting one for many. The first day of multiple tests since exams put many students on edge. Sophomore IB students should be commended for getting through not only Trigonometry, English, and History quizzes, English and Biology tests, and a standardized examination on top. A depressingly dull Valentine’s Day saw few roses delivered to the Pre-IBers, but there’s always hope that some admirers may have chickened out. With all the emotional turmoil, it’s not surprising that a teacher was pulled into the fray as well. Which teacher’s self-esteem will the Panther Ridge Contingency strike next?

 Check It Out

This Thursday has been declared Act-Like-a-French-Person Day. Have fun kissing people on the cheek to greet them and shunning anyone who acts particularly American.

 In Case You Were Wondering

Quasars are the farthest objects in the known universe.

Was away for the weekend, again without computer access, attending the MidWinter Scottish and Irish Festival in Valley Forge, PA. Fantastic gathering of Celtic bands, both traditional and rock, Celtic vendors, and friends from near and far. Thought I would have time to at least write an entry each day and post them today–I didn’t. Too much partying, too little sleep. Exhaustion has now set in, but happy exhaustion nonetheless.

Friends from near and far,

Music brings us together.

Fondness keeps us close.