Caffeinated Dance Mom

Proof that they really exist. I found the journal just now.

I think she says it all!

It’s a gorgeous Saturday! We had a garage sale and made enough to pay for the classified ad in the paper…and to "pay" myself about $5 per hour. Not a whole lot. I guess it’s true that bad weather means good garage sales, and good weather means cruddy ones.

I loaded the remaining stuff into my car to give to a friend on base who is organizing a fundraising sale for her organization. They’re going to take things to the Alerus Center’s Anything Goes sale. We did that last year and made some money. What a fun atmosphere, but a hugely exhausting day!

On the plus side, I finished another book, so it’ll be gone soon once someone requests it on Paperback Swap. Started a Meg Cabot but am not sure I’ll love it enough to finish. I’m giving it another couple of chapters.

So I’ve spent most of today working my short story revisions in around mundane household tasks like laundry, and checking on my daughter who’s home sick from school. It’s been an interesting process, because I’ve done some little changes to the story over the past couple of weeks already, but today is crunch time. It’s due by 10 pm tonight.

I realized again that revision is hard. It’s hard to look at something I’ve written in a new way. With new eyes. It’s one reason why I didn’t touch the story for about a week, after first reading my classmates’ suggestions and making notes on my paper rough draft. I left it alone for awhile.

Another thing I’ve realized today is that it is hard, hard, hard to cut something I’ve written. Thankfully, computers allow us to save something multiple times with differing file names, so I have saved the things I’m now cutting. Also, since I based my story on a very real journal, I have had to let go of much of it, and allow myself to change the original entries from what Courtney wrote, to what I want them to be.

Ruthlessly I delete, with twinges of guilt.

This is my final blog entry for Creative Writing, and I have to say I’ve enjoyed blogging here at Area Voices. It’s been fun to read my classmates’ blogs and hear their voices through their writing.The platform hasn’t been difficult at all to learn, either, which helps.

I enjoy the feedback that blogging brings, and the interaction with people is fun.

I both like and fear the public aspect of blogging. If you have never been cyber-bullied (and I have been–several years ago, before that word was even coined), count yourself blessed, fortunate, lucky, and all of the above. It’s not fun. So, I went from being open and thinking things were ok to say online, to being very careful. Even today, I’m careful, and I don’t think I’m being too obsessive about it, either. I don’t mention my husband’s or my girls’ names on any public forum, and I don’t use my last name online except in certain circumstances.

I’ve enjoyed my Creative Writing class very much. I’ve always wanted to take Creative Writing, but when I was in college the first time I never had room in my schedule–it always conflicted with something required. So having this opportunity to really concentrate on writing was a gift I hope I didn’t take for granted.

I wish my fellow classmates and writers success in their future endeavors. As for me, I’m leaving the Red River Valley of the North in a few short weeks for a much warmer climate in Texas. Other than the DFW airport and driving through a corner of Texas when we moved cross-country when I was eight, I haven’t been there. So it’s a new adventure ahead for our family!

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I haven’t done the "True Confession" on each entry, but I thought it would be sort of a fun thing. What do you think?

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True Confession: This is not my first experience blogging. Are you surprised? I actually used to blog over at Xanga, years ago. Then I took a break from personal writing online for awhile, and I only wrote the occasional book review. Now I blog for an online ministry for military wives.

It’s been fun blogging for a different audience than I usually write for, and I hope the few readers I’ve had have enjoyed what I’ve had to say.

Musings on Ink

I thought it might be fun to talk about ink, as this particular entry is for my creative writing class.

I love pens. Always have. I’d rather write with pen than pencil any day. 

My favorite kind of pen is one that uses gel ink, which tends to flow more smoothly on the page than a felt-tip or even a ballpoint. I used to love to use a fountain pen, but inevitably the nib would dry out and the ink would clog it; or worse, it would glob all over the paper.

There’s a lot of chatter in the publishing world about electronic vs. traditional publishing. Physical book vs. Kindle, that sort of thing. Obviously, ink is unnecessary for electronic publishing. 

There’s just something about the physical act of writing with a pen on paper, that has a certain significance and importance to me.

One of my favorite hymns even talks about ink:

Could we with ink the ocean fill,
And were the skies of parchment made,
Were every stalk on earth a quill,
And every man a scribe by trade,
To write the love of God above,
Would drain the ocean dry.
Nor could the scroll contain the whole,
Though stretched from sky to sky.

From the hymn "The Love of God" by Frederick M. Lehman

So there you have it, some vague, tired, disjointed musings about ink.

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Interesting fact: Gel pens are mostly impervious to check washing, so it’s a great idea to use a gel pen when writing checks. You can learn more at this link. I now use either Zebra Sarasa Gel (pictured above and available at K-Mart or Target) or Uniball Gel pens when writing checks.

Happy Earth Day! While I’m far from a crunchy granola-type mom, I am concerned about our world for the sake of my kids and their kids. We’ve only been given one Earth, and we should take care of it as best we can.

This site will tell you all about Earth Day.

Do something to save our planet, even if it seems like something small. Just taking your own travel mug to the coffee shop for a refill, instead of using a paper cup, will make a difference in the long run.

Other than the fact that the prompt sense makes little sense, I will just make something up as I go.

Sense can mean our collective senses: touch, taste, smell, sight, hearing.  The "sixth" sense would be up for debate, I suppose. Perception? Intuition? Something like that. Some people believe in it; some don’t. It makes more sense to me to believe it. Sense is important when referring to common sense, which I believe is a wonderful tool in life. Another one I strongly encourage is having a sense of humor.

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True Confession: This prompt made no sense to me. I just decided to roll with it anyway. 

This is kind of cheating, because this is from an assignment I turned in last week. But when I mentioned it in class, I saw some interest. So here it is.

Setting: JC Penney’s lingerie department, a busy Saturday afternoon.
Characters: Insistent Woman Customer, Young Woman Salesperson
Overheard by me.

“I don’t want you to wait on me,” declared the woman. “I want someone else to wait on me.”
“Ma’am, I’m not sure what you mean,” the young woman replied.
“I don’t want you to wait on me. I’d like to speak to the manager.”
“Well,” the young woman hesitated, “she’s busy at the moment. We’re busy today. You’ll have to wait for a while.”
“That’s fine. I’ll wait.” She glared at the sales clerk. “I don’t want you to wait on me.”
“Ma’am, I don’t understand what I said to offend you,” the younger woman’s voice placated.
“Well, you didn’t say anything,” the upset customer stated. “It was the expression on your face.”

Ooooh, drama at the mall!

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If that won’t suffice, here’s another one:

My husband got home last night from his Texas trip, and he brought home a GPS for me (in and of itself a shock, because he’s not a gadgety sort of man). He said, "You’re going to be living in Kansas City for five weeks, and San Antonio for a year. This will come in handy."

So he’s describing the voice to the girls, and imitates the speech pattern for them–because he tested it out on the trip for a bit.

"Go North – on – Interstate – twenty-nine -for – three hundred fourteen – miles." 

We all thought this was funny!

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True Confession (I haven’t done one of these for awhile):

The story I wrote for class is either the third or the fourth "Courtney and Bob" story, and the first time I’ve attempted to go along with the actual journal finder also. I think I might have finally hit on an idea that works, thanks to the kind feedback I got from my classmates (and if any of you read this, THANK YOU for both the compliments and the tough questions).