Tag Archives: fun

This one is a poem

Posted on February 9, 2012 | 56 Comments

On this, my last post before Valentine’s Day, I wrote you a poem…

I know it’s a little hard to read, especially that last line, so here it is all typed out…

If I loved you, I would tell you this.

I am an emotional creature,
running with scissors
after dark,
attempting
self-help
during
cocktail hour under the tree of forgetfulness.

You are
the history of love,
wild
varieties of disturbance,
the feast of love,
a map of the world,
a good hard look,
the chronology of water,
a whack on the side of the head.

And…
no one belongs here more than you.

xo

 

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Posted in creative badassery, the view from here (Pictures!), writing, writers, and stuff we like

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Getting it up

Posted on January 26, 2012 | 33 Comments

The thing about creativity is that unless you make a living practicing your art, it’s easy to deprioritize it. (Note: WordPress is saying deprioritize isn’t a word, but I’m sticking to it because WordPress also says that WordPress isn’t a word.)

On the to-do list you might not even have had time to write today, “make something awesome” would likely fall somewhere near the bottom, after “drop off the kids-prescription-dry cleaning-car,” “write the report,” “attend the meeting,” “reassure the boss,” “pick up the the kids-prescription-dry cleaning-car,” “do the laundry” “pay the bills,” “cook, clean, cry, collapse.”

It’s a perfectly understandable, soul-killing decision to NOT make something awesome. But as day after day passes in this frenzied “I have no time for creative badassery” mode, the muscle that creates your art – your wicked imagination – atrophies. It gets harder and harder to get it up.

So to speak.

I don’t want that to happen to you (or me), so I made a list of five ways to sneak back up on our creative natures. These ideas are small, but powerful… like Altoids.

  1. Unplug.
    Even if only for a few minutes each day, unplug your phone, your computer, your TV, your radio, and every device you have that starts with a lower case “i.” Immerse yourself in your physical surroundings. If at all possible, get dirty.
    *
  2. Take a picture.
    I seriously think cameras are magical in their ability to change our perspectives. Don’t believe me? Look at Marcie Scudder’s rainy day, Jen Erbe’s birches, jb’s kitchen table, my picture of stillness…
    *

    And – bonus! – the “make something awesome” goal is built right into this one!
    *
  3. Do something out of character.
    Wear a kilt or a tutu (or, for me, something purple). Publicly display your affection, throw yourself a surprise party, tell someone in no uncertain terms that what they do makes your knees weak, your head spin, your throat dry… and even with all that, you hope they never, ever stop.
    *
  4. Play.
    Alone or with your lover, your crush, your best friend, your kid, your parents, a perfect (or not-so-perfect) stranger. Do something, anything. Just. For. Fun.
    *
  5. Fuck should.
    For a day, an afternoon, an amazing hour of precious freedom, don’t do anything just because you should.

It may be that the awesome thing you make… is you.

xo

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Posted in j's lists, writing, writers, and stuff we like

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(Wonderfully) out of my element

Posted on October 12, 2011 | 32 Comments

Remember when I said I was going to create Song Lyric Wall Art? Well, here’s the thing about that. I wanted to do it for the sheer, unmitigated, be-a-beginner-create-without-expectation-look-what-I-made magic of it. But because I’m not a crafty person (please don’t argue, I know crafty people, I am not one), I knew the only way I’d actually follow through and create something was to tell you I would.

Oh, the power you all have!

And it worked (as it almost always does). I did it, and it was ridiculously fun to be so out of my element. I can’t do that with writing. I’m never completely relaxed and unattached to the outcome when I write. It’s too much where I live; I have too many expectations of myself. But paint and stickers and artist tape?

Nothing. But. Fun.

Here’s the piece I found at a secondhand store. I admit that I fell for it instantly and almost didn’t buy it because I knew I’d be reluctant to paint over it. But then the guy behind the counter said I could have the picture for 25% off, and I took it as a sign.

I decided that I so loved the newspaper, coffee and rose in the picture, that I’d tape them off so that they’d still be in the final piece. Somehow that made the painting over part easier too, as if the original artist and I were collaborating.

Here’s how it looked during taping. Before I painted over it, I taped off the rest of the paper, and the window frame. I’d originally had a different lyric in mind, but with the coffee and the paper, I switched to Ingrid Michaelson’s “The Way I Am.”

About six coats of spray paint later, I peeled away the first letter…

And here’s the final product, which makes me unabashedly “little-kid-hey-look-what-I-did” giddy.

My friends Caroline and Pam did the project with me (together apart) and they sent me pictures of their masterpieces too. They are especially noteworthy and cool because…

Caroline painted a blank canvas to get her colors…

… and Pam painted the penguins in a paint-by-number kit.

If you decide to try it (and I highly recommend you do), please send me pictures! Thank you Caroline and Pam for playing with me! xoxo

~~~~~~~~~~

In other news… I’m excited to be participating in the October 28th launch of Andrea Lewicki’s very cool Curiosity Project. Andrea is beautiful, inspiring and truly amazing. Read about her here (and try not to feel like a slacker). Her mission – to get us all to engage, indulge and follow our curiosity – is so damn affirming it makes my cells hum. In her words…

Curiosity is vital…to our well-being, to the sense of satisfaction we all crave, to the love we give and receive, and to the quality of the connections we make with other people. Curiosity is a way to engage with the world but it’s not obvious how to use it. That’s where my work starts.

She invited me to participate in her launch party, and after my initial “holy shit she wants me to go on camera live” reaction, I said yes. How could I not? She wants to ask me about the role that curiosity plays in love! I have tons to say on that subject.

Stay tuned… I’ll be posting more information as we near Andrea’s launch date.

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Posted in on my mind...

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Doodle Magic

Posted on April 27, 2011 | 23 Comments

Since stumbling onto doodle therapy last November, I’ve become a doodle zealot. I’ve always idly scribbled away during meetings and phone calls and arguments with my muse, but since November, I’ve committed myself. I doodle with glee, watching my unedited thoughts drop on to the page in visual form. It’s trippy. And fun. And, yes, therapeutic.

I asked you all to join me and in your usual completely awesome (I have the best readers EVER) way, you did. Here is our second magnificent, super awesome, incredible doodle extravaganza!

Pam, trying out her new pens. (This one is hanging above my desk!)

Cynthia, Trees!

Jeffrey - A poet, and he doodles too!

Chris, doodled in the wax remains of a candle. (Bonus... see the heart?)

Dillon, doodled in class.

Estrella, making boredom pretty.

Graham, doodled on his phone.

Haley (via Amy at Very Culinary). Love this: Rock Girl.

j, doodled over the course of March.

jb, dream tree.

Kellie sent me a doodle!!!

Milli, doodled with right and left hands, simultaneously.

Walker, hand doodle.

Xaidread, line doodle.

Jeffrey, doodling life.

Pam, doodling in February.

j, doodling the love project.

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Posted in the view from here (Pictures!)

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Just another cute, clever and – yes – captionable Friday

Posted on March 25, 2010 | 31 Comments

Welcome to Friday, how was your week? I considered just posting that, but I’m feeling wordy so I’ll keep going. For anyone who would like to stop there though, I will happily read about how your week went. We can compare.

For those of you who moved on to this paragraph, lucky you. I’ve got something to make you smile. Someone tweeted Babies Making Faces during one of the rough spots of my week. It delighted me. Go on. Click it. You know you want to.

Too cute for you? How about something clever and fun and very Fridayesque? I love this music video, 70 Million by Hold Your Horses, and if you’re more art-knowledgeable than I am (and trust me, you are), you’ll love it even more.

And speaking of horses… I’m thinking there are a few of you Caption Masters who were hoping I’d reconsider my Caption This decision. Okay, here you go, something to play with because I (not so) secretly love you guys.

Happy Friday!

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Posted in friday things

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Kickin’ down the cobble stones

Posted on November 28, 2009 | 13 Comments

Okay, so I’m in the home stretch with nano, writing like crazy. Oh, and all the stuff I had on my list to do before I took on nano? Yeah, I still have all that to do, too. Like all of you, I have more to do in a day than I can possibly get done, and yet… I waste a lot of time. Case in point. I came up here at 10:30 pm to write this post. It is now after midnight, and I’m just getting started.

What was I doing for over an hour and a half? Let’s see, I fooled around on Twitter for a while, checked Facebook, read and commented on some of my favorite blogs, checked HuffPo, messed around on Twitter some more, and went through my email. None of that was essential. And here’s what I’ve noticed since I gave up watching almost all of my favorite television shows: I still waste time.

No matter how much I have to do, I still procrastinate, still wile away embarrassing amounts of time reading what interesting people say on the internet, rearranging things, day dreaming…

I think of myself as an accomplished time-waster. I have a friend who says it’s because I work best under pressure. He says I put things off subconsciously so that I can get the rush of being under the gun. I think he gives me too much credit. I think I put things off because it’s more fun to goof around. And so now I’m wondering how do you waste time? For the purposes of this post, we’ll define “wasting time” as the time you spend NOT working on the critical task(s) at hand.

Are you a blog junkie, a social network addict, a compulsive news hound? Do you watch television, read comic books, play video games?

(Oh, and reading Zebra Sounds? Totally not a waste of time. My blog will make you smarter, funnier, sexier, faster than a speeding bullet, able to leap tall buildings in a single bound.)

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Posted in on my mind...

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This post is round.

Posted on November 14, 2009 | 7 Comments

I’m feeling a little… ravished today. I think that’s the word I want. Let me go check… Hahaha. Nope. Definiely not the word I want. I should delete that opening line and start over, but this is apparently a post about how my mind works. Let me try again. What I meant to say is… *checks dictionary and thesaurus*… okay spent. As in tired out, bleary, debilitated, depleted, weary, worn out. And maybe also as in bankrupt and unable to pay debts but that is fodder for another post…

And speaking of posts, I read one today that I really liked. It was a stream of consciousness written in 11 minutes in the middle of the night by Jim Mitchem, appropriately titled Eleven Minutes. I liked it partly because it’s fun to see how interesting minds work, and partly because it felt good to just read something so free flowing and without pretense.

And that made me think of how I miss being purposeless. Not all the time, of course, but sometimes. Just wandering. Without regard to destination.

Okay, so right there. Typing that sentence, I thought, maybe I should link to one of my posts about playing hooky and going to the beach, or hiking the San Francisco coast, or being serenaded by a rapper on Telegraph Avenue, but I’m not going to do that because this isn’t that kind of post. This is a purposeless post. I just decided. It’s a wandering post because I just finished a week where there wasn’t nearly enough wandering… and that week came after two other weeks that were very much the same.

And if I’m going to wander, then maybe I’ll tell you to go listen to Rufus Wainwright’s “Cigarettes and Chocolate Milk” because I love that song and something about the play of his voice with the music seriously tickles my amygdala… My Amygdala. There’s a song in there somewhere. Or a limerick. Not sure which.

I have a friend who thinks in limericks… okay, he doesn’t actually think in limericks, but he can write one at the slightest provocation. I think that is an astonishing talent. Like juggling or yodeling or knowing what shoes to wear.

I’m giving up on the whole shoe thing, by the way. I’m just going to wear moccasins. When I was a kid, I had a pair of moccasins that looked authentically American Indian (as imagined in the mind of a 6-year old with new moccasins). They were awesome and I wore them with everything – shorts, jeans, dresses, pjs – and everywhere. I wore through the soles. (Because these did not have rubber soles. They were authentic, remember? I felt every pebble and crack I stepped on. I thought that made me more stealth. I kept an eye out for buffalo, and cowboys, and a good sale on scalping knives.)

Scalping knives… Yeah, not going there. Except to say that I was a badass at six. Ask anyone.

I also had a crush on my teacher. Or wait, no, that was seven. Second grade. Mrs. Gray. I don’t remember anything about her except that I thought she was beautiful. She wore her hair long and down unlike all the other teachers, and one time she got very sick, but still came to school. She was feverish and shivering and so I laid my coat over her lap, and then a bunch of the other kids donated their coats and pretty soon she was festooned.

I think that’s the word I want, but after the whole “ravished” incident, I better go check. Hang on… Okay, yes, I’m liking festooned, as in she was adorned with or as with festoons. That’s right. Brightly colored 2nd grade coats. I got home and told my mom about it and my mom said, “We better wash your coat, honey,” which was the right thing to do, I guess, but totally beside the point.

Uh-oh. Did I just make a point? I don’t think that quite rose to the level of an actual point, but I’m at risk. Time to stop.

Have an awesome, pointless sort of weekend, y’all!

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Make A Splash

Posted on October 12, 2009 | 20 Comments

It’s Monday again, and I’m dishing up the lovely. Sort of.

This is the only one of my Beckoning The Lovely posts that I pre-planned. Knowing that I would have to make a splash before my 12-week project ended, I had the foresight to do it while the weather outside was still conducive to making splashes. But, of course, the making of this post resulted in a story. Two actually. One is all about how it feels to be the mom of boys who are in the process of taking flight, leaving the nest as children do. It’s a heartbreaking, heartwarming, well-worn tale, but with a few surprises that make it worth telling. And no doubt I will, some other time. Right now, I’m telling the tale of my splash. It goes like this…

On the boat with Chad and our dog, Lexi, I said, “Hey, it’s warm. We’re in bathing suits. There’s all kinds of water here. Let’s make a splash.” Lexi could not have been less interested. I was not holding food. Chad, got out the camera and showed me this cool feature that allows us to take twelve shots in super-quick succession with just one push of the button. “Okay!” I said. “You jump, and I’ll film your splash.”

“Are you sure?” Chad said. “It’s a little tricky to get the timing right. I could film your splash since I’ve done it before.”

Ignoring the logic of his suggestion, and adopting what I imagined to be an expression of total technical competence, I held onto the camera and suggested that he who makes the biggest splash should, in fact, do the jumping.

Here is my first attempt to catch Chad’s splash.

MakeASplash2

Okay, so clearly he was right. There was a trick to the timing. Through laughter, I assured him that I’d do better if he’d just please jump one more time for me. For Zebra Sounds. For all of you. (Picture me, quickly switching from my technically competent expression to my the-show-must-go-on, win-one-for-the-Gipper face.)

Here is my second attempt to catch Chad’s splash.

MakeASplash3

I have to say that I was extremely amused by the fact that I, at first, completely missed the splash, and then completely missed Chad. Through uncontrolled giggles, I assured him I could do this. It was not until he’d jumped maybe six times, that he took the camera and told me to jump.

Here is Chad’s capturing of me… making a splash.

MakeASplash1

Okay, so yes. He managed to get both me AND my splash on the first try. But, look at my form! If cannon ball splashing were an Olympic sport, I’d so be in medal contention!

So, there’s only one thing left on the list of lovely things. Make a movie. Your suggestions are welcome. Encouraged. Desperately requested. =)

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And now for something completely different… After finding this site yesterday, I giggled my way through the next 10 minutes or so. The Mandle Company sells “candles on testosterone.” With scents like dirt, meat and potatoes, tail gate and swimsuit model, what red-blooded American man could resist?

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Posted in j's lovely things

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