Turtley Awesome, Saxophone-Air-Guitar Gang Bang!

I HURT EVERYWHERE! I go the crap beat out of me at a concert tonight (One Pin Short, Suburban Legends, and Reel Big Fish), but I had a great time and I got to hug Brian Klemm.

My computer is so slow, this must be how people with dial up feel. I will attempt to upload my original post tomorrow after sleep, a shower, some aspirin, and icy hot.

Peace out, my nanalicious compadres!

Every Moment is a "Thriller" Moment!

So, let's all take a moment to appreciate the beauteous serendipity that caused Meatball Goat Zombies.

Awesome. Let's move on then.

Today in Wally's writing world we had some major events. I bought a book chock full of inspiration and writing block un-blockers. It's called The Pocket Muse. So nice that they make mythical beings in a travel size, eh?

Also, I was inspired with a giant pile of snow plowed into a corner of a parking lot and began a story about a Czechoslovakian prostitute who hates the Dutch, oh wait, no....that was just a conversation I had with Whitney. But anyway.....

I also got to hear a reading by Brian Hart, a new Idaho author. We were the first stop on his national tour. It made me realize that I need to stretch my reading bubble back towards the seriously literary. In my quest to become more of an expert on kids and teens books, I've really limited the amount of adult literature I take in. I'm a human, I cling to the familiar. If teen books are what I'm used to, that's the level I write.

Case and point: my favorite book of the year so far? The Purple Kangaroo. Which is a picture book. An amazing picture book, yes, but still. Time to rejoin adulthood for a while. So I picked up the Advance reader copy of Brady Udall's new book: The Lonely Polygamist. Hopefully that and my literature classes starting up in a couple weeks will refresh my brain.

That's it for today I'm afraid. I gouged my finger upholstering a music box yesterday and typing keeps re-opening the scab. No fun.

So, goodnight friends!

Word Count Today: 551
Word Count Total: 3411

Dolphins make me cry

I just watched this documentary. I cried. I think this may be the first time a documentary has made me cry.

Anyway, after watching that at the end of a day of emailing professors and fighting with my cell phone company, I'm pretty much spent. I hope the many hundreds of words of bullshit I wrote in emails today counts for my 500.

Ps- You should all watch that movie.

Two cats shy of spinsterhood

Salem, originally uploaded by The Waters of March.

As I got ready for work this morning, I was juggling multiple things in my head. For instance: I wonder what the difference in calories would be if I put Grapenuts in my yogurt instead of granola? Or: Should I wear my brown shoes or my black shoes? I suppose that depends on whether I want to wear the brown blazer of the black sweater, which means deciding clean lines and stuffy or easy-going and frumpy. Brown shoes. If I go down town to get a new library card because mine has worn out, what else can I get done while I'm down there?

oh. my. god.

My life is so boring.
Driving to work I decided that I'm about two cats and a tea cozy short of total, all-consuming spinsterhood. The rest of the day only sealed the deal for me.

*at this point, go ahead and skip to the next asterisk unless you're really bored

After work, I went to the library to get a new card and seriously got in a discussion about taxation boundaries with a librarian. After that, I bought crafting supplies. After that, I had a 20 minute discussion with an old woman about my button preferences (seriously...button preferences) and made a social visit to three old ladies that work at my favorite yarn shop.
After that I went to by specialty food for my two obnoxious rabbits. Not quite cats, thank god, I'm allergic or I would be a total cliché. I then had dinner with my dad and his wife over which we talked about how tired and busy we all were, and wouldn't it be lovely if we could all get together again for a game night.
I went home where I was supposed to be picked up by my awesome friend Nicole (of sushi burrito fame) so that we could go out to Pengilly's Saloon for $2 Tuesdays and Booze Clues.

Want to know what we did instead? Sat around discussing if we actually wanted to go or if we should just stay home and knit or go out for tea and knit. We then decided to go by ice cream and rent a movie.

So instead of meeting up with a bunch of people at a bar, I sat at home with one of my bff's cuddled under a blanket watching Paranormal Activity (the last minute and a half totally ruined it for me by the way).

This is what my life has become. Working, knitting, reading, writing, and watching movies. That's pretty much all I do. As depressing as that sounds, it's a pretty sweet life most of the time. Blogging about it makes it more obvious, I guess, how little variety there really is in my days. Maybe I'll work on that.

*IN WRITING NEWS

I bought a little pocket notebook today at work for writing down thoughts on the fly. During my craft supply run I picked up this little pocket sized pen that telescopes out to normal writing size. So I can write down my ideas whenever, wherever.
As soon as I have one worth writing that is :P

Also, I'm considering making my blog the blog of a fictional character. Or maybe a different character each day. Just as an exercise to really get into their voice, or their life. We'll see how that goes.

I've recently fallen in love with the name Arcadia York. I need to write a character worthy of that name. That's what I'm working on now. Maybe a hard core spinster....hmm...Arcadia is a GREAT name for a spinster. ...

Word Count Today: 557
Word Count Total: 2860

3 Mugs of Tea

Tea for Two, originally uploaded by The Waters of March.

I am sick. Today I moved from my bed to the bathroom to my bed and then to the couch at my mother's house. Now I am doing my laundry. To be quite accurate, my mother's washing machine is doing laundry. I am writing thank you notes.

I hate thank you notes.

It is a physical manifestation of societal pressure. Any true friend or family member whom I actually care about doesn't need a thank you note. They need a hug or a phone call or even an email. Thank you notes are usually not personal, they are usually not sincere, they aren't me. They are too formal to be meaningful. I feel guilty for wasting the paper and the postage.

But I am 22, almost 23, and I have apparently reached the age at which a verbal thank you isn't enough. It's polite to go through the motions, to write out my insincere babbling. Some of these people probably forgot they got something for me as soon as they checked my name off of their obligatory shopping lists.

I really like this song. I'm listening to Devotchka to drown out the TV coverage of the fiesta bowl as I sip on my third cup of this surprisingly good sweet orange tea. I say surprising because most pre-packaged tea tasted kind of....meh....after you're used to loose leaf tea, but this stuff hits the spot. I guess it's like how sometimes you crave some bad diner coffee even though you have some perfectly good fresh roasted Guatemalan goodness at home or how sometimes you'd rather watch Clueless than read a perfectly good book.

But I digress....

What I meant to say, is that as I was writing a thank you note to my grandmother, I had a brilliant idea. My 500 installments have been kind of haphazard and terrible since I don't really know what to write about. I'm still not comfortable with prose, but 500 words is really long for a poem. So I've been sort of in need of a kick start. Anyway, my grandma got us this game called “Liebrary” for Christmas. Basically, there are a bunch of cards that represent books. They have the title, author, first line and short plot of hundreds of books. Everyone playing writes what they think is a convincing first line for the book and the person who drew the card writes the real one. They read all of the first sentences and you have to guess which one is real.

It just dawned on me that this is an AWESOME writing exercise. Two awesome writing exercises actually. Either do what the game intends, and write a first line based on the plot and then simply keep writing or you could use one of these first lines as a spring board to start off a story totally unrelated to the original book.

Tonight I used the first line from 'Like Water for Chocolate' by Laura Esquivel:

“Take care to chop the onion fine.”

Excellent advice.

Goodnight, friends.

Word Count Today: 503

Word Count Total: 2303

"it's a truckload of bricks in the soft morning light"

Frosty Fence, originally uploaded by The Waters of March.

Look! I created a flickr account today! I take my flickr screen name and the title of today's post from the lyrics of possibly my favorite jazz song (I guess technically it's bossa nova, but whatever ) "The Waters of March" or "Aquas de Marco" in the original Portugese by Antonio Carlos Jobim.

( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9itLsDLXz9E )

So I had today off, I did some word-smithin' and some reading, but mostly I edited a bunch of photos, cleaned up my computer desktop, and did dishes while watching the Might Ducks. It was a day full of nostalgia. It got me thinking about all the crazy stuff that's happened this last year.

My best friend got married and moved away, my other best friend moved back to Boise and I started seeing her all the wonderful time, my other best friend turned out to be not so good a friend and isn't a best friend anymore.

My other best friend, my dog, died on February 21st at 4:30 pm. We put him down after days of heart-wrenching pain and paralysis. I cannot begin to describe the crippling emotional toll that took on me, is still taking on me. In many ways, Zuka was my oldest friend and closest confidante.

I got in my first real car accident May 28th.
I met a goal. (tmi alert!)One year of not kissing anyone. I initially made this goal because on March 17th of 2008 I kissed a stranger on the balcony of the Ha'penny Bridge Pub whilst I was a bit inebriated and caught up in the St Patrick's Day festivities. In the cold light of the 'morning after' I was a little freaked out by my behavior. I have not kissed an unreasonable amount of people in my life, but none of them have really been people that I was in love with. I decided that this had to change. That was not the person I wanted to be. So I decided then and there to distance myself from all non-platonic physical intimacy for at least a year or until I met someone that I actually cared about. It has now been 1¾ years plus some change. I still haven't kissed anyone, and I haven't wanted to.

I planned and (mostly) flawlessly executed an epic bridal shower, an EPIKK bachelorette party, and a 21st birthday party.
I and the Tight-Knit Posse became graffiti artists. EPIKKNITS is the name, yarn bombing is our game. And we play rough :P
I acquired another nephew, Matthew, nine in total now.
I went to my first professional conference/business trip. Very exciting!
I learned the pleasures of “antiquing” as a hobby.
I moved twice, including one move into my dad's house temporarily. This was the first time we have lived in the same house since I was 8. It was....hmmm....it was nice of him to let me stay there, but I wont be doing that again. We have very different lifestyles.
I played, and beat, an entire video game. This for me is like saying a blind person made a coherent painting, possible but still bizarre.
I was a maid of honor and made a toast at a wedding.
One of my best friends bought me a new computer because my friends are awesome.
And I WROTE A NOVEL IN ONE MONTH!

Few....I felt like I needed to get all of that out of my system in order to look forward. I feel sorry for you if you read all of that, but that's all I have to leave you with today.

Goodnight, friends.

Word Count Today: 544
Word Count Total: 1860