I went shopping tonight because I needed to return a crock pot. I used it once and it cracked. Those things are supposed to indestructible right along with twinkies and cock roaches. They are not supposed to crack. But it was ok because the store that I bought it from exchanged it with no issue. Still, a cracked crock pot is an inexplicable thing. Like a sign of the return of the Elder Gods or something
And then there are expensive blue jeans. Which seems somewhat oxymoronic to me. Blue jeans. Those things that one wears to dress casual.
Tonight I went to a shop in one of the malls and tried on blue jeans because I am down to 2 pair of jeans that fit me. I tried on a pair of size 9/10 jeans and they were too big. So I tried on a pair of 7/8 jeans. I was in heaven. Blue jean heaven. How can a pair of jeans be so marvelous? I don't have a waist. Or hips. Or much rear end. Most of the time if a pair of jeans fit my waist the rear end could house a pachyderm. These jeans fit my thighs (which are not very big), my rear (again not so big), and my waist.
Sigh.
They were $72.
Moan.
$72. On sale.
I have a pair of vintage Bugle Boy slims that I purchased at a thrift shop that fit me perfect and they were $5. I have another pair of Gap Slim fit jeans that I purchased on sale for around $30.
But $72. I know I am cheap but that seems a lot of money for jeans. Even jeans that actually make my butt look good. In the end I did not buy the jeans because I have a bunch of leggings and skirts. I did get a cute blouse. But blue jeans in the seventy dollar and up range seems very expensive to me. Inexplicably so.
Saturday, February 27, 2010
Sunday, February 14, 2010
Re-organizing My Writing
I have been re-organizing my writing efforts since yesterday and trying to get myself back in the good habits of writing daily. The last few years I was taking math, art, and science classes and working two part time jobs. I always found time to sit down and write and produced two bad rough drafts of novels, several poems, and a dozen or more short stories. This year I have one full time job and occasional freelance jobs and I have not finished anything. This is very disheartening. I am trying to get refocused. I need to write and create just as I need to breathe.
Yesterday I began pulling together an idea journal of sorts where I can collect my thoughts and things I stumble across to help with the writing so that ideas are not lost. There are five sections. One section is for ideas and writing prompts. Another is for basic plots. Another is for settings. There is one for conflicts. And the last is for characters. I have several characters that I have been thinking about and fleshing out for the last couple of years who do not have complete stories. I want to continue to work on them until I find their stories. Evie and Obeng, Artemesia, Lucitania, Juan and Michael all deserve stories that bring them fully alive.
I have worlds composed of thought that I think others would want to drop by for a visit. Kas, the capital of Parnat, overlooks the Straits and the sails of the great ships flutter in the winds that are channeled through the passage which is the avenue of trade between the east and west. From one of the view windows on asteroid 657 the stars glitter in the void. The book shop that Evie inherited from her grandmother routinely is targeted for midnight vandalism of one kind or another, but it is the place that the desperate come to when they don't want to leave things to the fates.
I should be able to carve time out of my existence to bring all of this to life through words. Everyone has obstacles to their writing and ways of procrastinating. The obstacles and procrastination are just excuses for not doing the work. They are a way of de facto prioritizing whether it be out of the fear of not making something perfect enough, deciding sleep overrides writing, etc. I try to remember that this idea of a writer as someone with writing as their sole profession is a rather new idea. Most writers through the centuries were employed as something else or had inherited wealth. William Carlos Williams was a physician. Many of the Victorian authors were of the "leisure" class. Most did not study writing to become writers and this lack of an education specifically in writing forced them to create their own thoughts, their own poetics. Their lives beyond their writing endeavors informed their writing. Writing while conducting a full life beyond the writing has been done before. I just have to find my way.
Yesterday I began pulling together an idea journal of sorts where I can collect my thoughts and things I stumble across to help with the writing so that ideas are not lost. There are five sections. One section is for ideas and writing prompts. Another is for basic plots. Another is for settings. There is one for conflicts. And the last is for characters. I have several characters that I have been thinking about and fleshing out for the last couple of years who do not have complete stories. I want to continue to work on them until I find their stories. Evie and Obeng, Artemesia, Lucitania, Juan and Michael all deserve stories that bring them fully alive.
I have worlds composed of thought that I think others would want to drop by for a visit. Kas, the capital of Parnat, overlooks the Straits and the sails of the great ships flutter in the winds that are channeled through the passage which is the avenue of trade between the east and west. From one of the view windows on asteroid 657 the stars glitter in the void. The book shop that Evie inherited from her grandmother routinely is targeted for midnight vandalism of one kind or another, but it is the place that the desperate come to when they don't want to leave things to the fates.
I should be able to carve time out of my existence to bring all of this to life through words. Everyone has obstacles to their writing and ways of procrastinating. The obstacles and procrastination are just excuses for not doing the work. They are a way of de facto prioritizing whether it be out of the fear of not making something perfect enough, deciding sleep overrides writing, etc. I try to remember that this idea of a writer as someone with writing as their sole profession is a rather new idea. Most writers through the centuries were employed as something else or had inherited wealth. William Carlos Williams was a physician. Many of the Victorian authors were of the "leisure" class. Most did not study writing to become writers and this lack of an education specifically in writing forced them to create their own thoughts, their own poetics. Their lives beyond their writing endeavors informed their writing. Writing while conducting a full life beyond the writing has been done before. I just have to find my way.
Saturday, February 6, 2010
Pajama Rights
As I write this post I am sitting in my pajamas. I like to wear my pajamas. If I could get enough freelance work and work all the time at home, I would wear my pajamas a good portion of the time and hardly ever put on street clothing. I see nothing wrong with wearing the most comfortable clothing that I own a good portion of the time.
This last week, I read two different news stories that were published about people being denied to wear pajamas in public. One was on the BBC News page and was about a woman in St. Mellons in Cardiff who wore her pajamas into a Tesco to buy cigarettes and was told that she couldn't wear just her pajamas. Tesco has now banned people from shopping in their pajamas. Here is the link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/wales/8484116.stm
On boing boing there was a post about how in Shanghai they are cracking down on people wearing pajamas in public because of the World Fair being in Shanghai soon. Here is the link: http://www.boingboing.net/2010/02/05/shanghais-crackdown.html
Why are the powers that be so against pajamas? Most of the pajamas that people wear in public are comfy and don't look any worse than sweat pants or shorts. Often pajamas cover more than some people's street attire. And they are comfy. I once read in a book by a woman named Sark about a time when she was taking an international flight that she decided the most comfortable clothing that made the most sense for the flight were her pajamas. She saw Bob Hope in the airport and he complimented her on her choice of attire.
I say down with tyranny and up with the right to wear pajamas. Perhaps Tesco should start a line of pajamas for sale that are intended for shopping. Perhaps the World's Fair should have an exhibit of pajamas.
This last week, I read two different news stories that were published about people being denied to wear pajamas in public. One was on the BBC News page and was about a woman in St. Mellons in Cardiff who wore her pajamas into a Tesco to buy cigarettes and was told that she couldn't wear just her pajamas. Tesco has now banned people from shopping in their pajamas. Here is the link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/wales/8484116.stm
On boing boing there was a post about how in Shanghai they are cracking down on people wearing pajamas in public because of the World Fair being in Shanghai soon. Here is the link: http://www.boingboing.net/2010/02/05/shanghais-crackdown.html
Why are the powers that be so against pajamas? Most of the pajamas that people wear in public are comfy and don't look any worse than sweat pants or shorts. Often pajamas cover more than some people's street attire. And they are comfy. I once read in a book by a woman named Sark about a time when she was taking an international flight that she decided the most comfortable clothing that made the most sense for the flight were her pajamas. She saw Bob Hope in the airport and he complimented her on her choice of attire.
I say down with tyranny and up with the right to wear pajamas. Perhaps Tesco should start a line of pajamas for sale that are intended for shopping. Perhaps the World's Fair should have an exhibit of pajamas.
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