I don't feel like being newsy

...so I attempted a quickie poem instead.  (This one is from a "line by line" prompt at WeWritePoems.) 


Writing Assignment

Sloth and frustration –
stacks of books unread, tall and tottery,
     my prison cell;
laptop, staring with accusing eye, shakes its head, disgusted,
     my jailer, glaring, taunts and jingles the keys of freedom.

When I was eight, my gift was a typewriter,
brown and plastic, cheap,
but the best, most official gift ever – I was a writer,
till I sat to spin yarns and came up with dust and drivel.

The sword of Damocles hangs by a thread overhead.
     Yes, again.
The dentist’s lead blanket of humid heat presses my chest,
I hate the pressure.
If only it were Christmas and cold
     (it’s never cold in L.A.),
I would write to the smell of cinnamon and fireplace,
and the eloquence would flow like winter hot chocolate.

Faithful Madeleines and Marys and Annies show up to work every day.
But the wrinkle in my time feels ironed in and permanent
and it’s hard to get up off the couch to walk the field
and I am so far from being a pilgrim of eventual grace.
I said I hate the pressure, but I lied;
that pressure seems my only hope.

In dreams, I fill twenty pages a day with pearls and sand,
     and smile to the interviewer and
     respond to mail with wit and
     declare my success to be born of just showing up to write
          – I just don’t feel whole if I haven’t written today.
My royalty checks would finance my coastal writer’s cottage
     in Mendocino or Maine, where the ocean salt would
     suck the words from my hands.

Bullets of Tuesday

Well, the enjoyment and self-discipline continue unabated (or so I'm telling myself). 

• Met a classmate/colleague at Peet's Coffee to work on our theses together.  In reality, we spent several hours catching up after not having talked much throughout the year, though we did spend an hour or two actually working.  She was a bit hungover, so we cut the afternoon short.  I did stay a little longer than she, but then it got cold again so I went home.
• It's been cold-ish here.  It's as if we traded weather with Seattle.  I love the misty-rain and cloudy mornings. but the rest of our locale is complaining mightily (they'd be complaining it if was wretchedly hot, too).  On Monday, the sun only managed to break through for about half an hour, in the very late afternoon.  Today it managed a couple of hours, but again, only in the afternoon.  We'll see what tomorrow brings. 
• Today the rain-ish-ness kept me in bed longer than I had planned.  It's ok, though, as I was reading a book for my thesis, so it counted as work. 
• Tomorrow I will head to Starbucks for the majority of the day, to work.  I'm supposed to email my advisor "something" by Friday.  (Gah.)
• Thursday is the funeral for Madame X's dad.  Madame X reported having a day that actually felt "normal" today, for which I am grateful.  It's been difficult to know how to provide support to her and her family, which is odd to say about someone I've known and loved for over a decade.  I think the books and movie gift card were the right things, though;  she called today to thank us for them and let us know she's already used the gift card (which helped lead to the shreds of normalcy today).  After the funeral, she and her family may have to head to parts north to see her grandmother once more before the dementia sets in full-bore.  Pardon my English, but Madame X has had a fucked-up year, and I know she won't be sorry to see 2010 get hit in the butt by the door on its way out. 
• Saw Winter's Bone, and it was excellent.  They made a few changes between the book and the film, but it did not detract from the story in any way.  My only criticism is that the beating one of the main characters receive is in no way as intense in the movie as it was in the book.  That was probably motivated by a desire to spare the viewer the discomfort and gore, but it weakened the impact of the later plot events, at least for me in comparing it with the book.  They definitely nailed the casting dead-on, and the setting is just perfect.  I recommend both the film and the book.
• I think Despicable Me comes out this Friday, doesn't it?  Strangely, I'm really looking forward to seeing it.  When I first started seeing trailers for it, like, last year, I was fairly meh about it.  But since I've seen more detailed trailers recently, I'm hooked.  "It's so FLUFFY, I could die!"  (LOL.)
• I walked today. 
• I've been obsessively checking the College Board's website to see if our AP scores have been posted yet.  This is the first year we get to check them online (finally, join me in welcoming the CB to the 21st century), but they're not up yet, at least not for my school.  Sigh.  The curiosity is giving me heartburn (or was that the KFC I indulged in earlier?). 
• This was a pretty boring post, but I'm in documentary mode, I guess.  Thanks for reading. 

Straight up

This is a good one.  I think I'll read Winesburg, Ohio next.  It's been in the basket beside my bed for probably two years now.  Perhaps the time is right. 

One more day to pack up the classroom at school.  I'm taking this opportunity to purge my filing cabinets like mad.  It's gorgeous...but it's taking forever.  I lost an entire day Saturday when I was sidelined with an icky stomach thing.  Dammit.  Oh well, if they want to fire me for not being done, let 'em.  Rumor has it our "new" classrooms won't even be ready for the beginning of the school year, so I'm already mentally gearing myself up to unpack right back into the same room.  Can anyone say "typical educational bullshit"?  I knew you could!

After I'm finished at school, I start on Teh Thesis.  And before the week is over, I will have seen Toy Story 3.  Can't wait, actually.  :-)

'Night for now.  More...much more later.