Toodle Loo Bankybear

So my new blogosphere of devotion is SheWrites. Their tagline is "A Room of Her Own Just got Bigger" which makes me want to die it's so genius. I've been trying to figure out how to 'bust out' my blogging if you will. I'm not a genius photographer (not that I couldn't become one), I'm not a proficient chef (see reason #1), I don't enjoy posting pictures of my outfits online (though maybe one day?) and I don't get a kick out of blogging about other people's outfits. I don't plan weddings, or deliver babies, or craft my day away making custom camera straps or pants for children 4-10. I write. And I want to write well.

On my portfolio site (which is in desperate need of a facelift) I want my blog to be reflective of who I am as a writer. Here I can swear, and talk about my marriage. I can post links to cute baby pictures or hilarious YouTube vids. There I want to grow as a writer and make a point of exercising my ability in different forms. One of my creative writing classes next semester is writing for new media which looks at blogging and similar new forms. I want to take this next period of time to really become familiar with it.

Which is why I'm so excited about SheWrites. Like NaBloPoMo, it's a site that is a support to writers and to bloggers. And because they quote Virginia Woolf, they are fun, feministy types.

Hopefully, this site can help me to articulate better what kind of writer I want to be. I know why kind of writer I don't want to be but as G.K Chesterton says, you end up standing for nothing.

This is from SheWrites. May this be a fruitful union.

Literary Love Affair

When I first began to read, it was everything from Bailey School Kids Mysteries to Black Beauty and Little Women. I read Number the Stars and Under the Quilt of Night and they opened my eyes to the possibility, tragedy and fascination that the world held. I went through a lengthy "cute animal centred mystery" phase.

When I first began to write, I had books like I am David and The Giver on my mind. I began to write very young and while I can't necessarily stand by my writings of the 'old days'. I wanted to travel to distant places and my imagination could take me there.

When I first began to raid my mother's bookshelves, I read The Red Tent in junior high and it blew my mind. I think I read through the entire Old Testament that summer.

When I first began to have my bookshelves stocked by English professors, it was Margaret Atwood, Alice Monroe, and Sylvia Plath. I read Faulkner, Twain and Adrienne Rich. I read Aristotle, Anne Sexton, and Fyodor Dostoyevsky.

When I fell in love with poetry, it was Margaret Atwood, Carol Ann Duffy, and Anne Sexton.

When I fell in love with the short story, Alice Monroe, Flannery O'Connor and Tim O'Brien.

I can't remember when I didn't love the novel. Lately it's been Audrey Niffenigger, Mary Shelley (Frankenstein actually scared me when I read it), and C.S Lewis.

Over the years my writing teachers, Dale Wallace, Bill Gaston, Carla Funk, Joan McDonald and John Gould. The introduced me to writers that I couldn't help but find. John Vailant, Leonard Cohen, Martin Amos and I, Claudia.

Music hijacks my mind. I've been listening to The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford soundtrack lately and my fingers just fluttery. It pulls me into a different space. Explosions in the Sky does the same. Mind. Blown.

My friends Ginny Monaco, Jenica Chuahiock and Kirsti Doggart remind me that I'm a writer, even when I don't write. (My mom and dad do that, too.) We sit around our workshop and ooze what makes us passionate and simultaneously ecstatic about writing.

Who inspired you to write? Who inspires you now? Tell us the story of your literary love affairs.

Margaret Atwood (my computer will probably know her name off by heart I talk about her so much), Susan Perkins Gilman, Eli Weizel, John Vailant, Anita Diamant and C.S Lewis.

Mmmm Christmas Holidays...

Oh the weekend was so fun. Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, all the funness included. Christmas parties, carolling, OneofakindVancouver and Christmas concerts. I am officially in chill mode.

And I have links!

- Foodgawker is a great tumbler. It is part of the 'gawk universe' which enables people like me who spend way too much time on sites regarding things they don't even do. They had a link to this which is the cutest thing ever. A zebra made out of an eggplant is soo cute and would make anyone want to eat him.

- Dwellinggawker is of the same universe. I love this picture they posted. Purple couch, huge scissors and mismatched shutters. This is the stuff I like to put in my dreambook.

- It wouldn't be complete without craftgawker. I like big cowls and I like fun brooches even more.

- Track and Field, who had a booth at OneofaKind, make the cutest stuff. They sell at Paper Yah on Granville Island too I think but their pouches are so adorable.

- These guys were also at Oneofakind. The disclaimer for their site reads, "WARNING THIS SITE CONTAINS LANGUAGE THAT SOME PEOPLE WITH NO SENSE OF HUMOUR MAY FIND OFFENSIVE."

- Matt and I saw this video of these Russian kids who made a slide from hard packed snow on the chimney of their apartment building. They hook up one of their friends to a long rope, count to three, and she slides off the slide and down probably fifteen stories. She screams her head off which is hilarious, she doesn't hit the ground but swings back and forth probably thirty feet on either side on the rope that ties her to the roof. The link read "Russians be crazy." It's true. But how cute are these people?!

- Sweetest blog evar!

t-minus 5 days until we leave Bankybear for Cowtown. Matt's got his exams rapid fire and THEN the craziness ensues.

Here we go a'wassail' among the leaves so green!

I am stretching and my knees are groaning. I wonder if I go into my Russian exam tomorrow and say, "I understand Russian very poorly" what kind of mark I would get. I know it'll be grammatically perfect. Every time I talk to my teacher about the exam, she says "I know you will do great. You will have no problems." (I find I try to replicate her Russian pronunciation of English words because they are so quirky.) I feel like asking her to simply give me a mark she feels represents her faith in my ability and we can skip the whole examination thing.

Whenever I think about what I am so afraid of I kind of have to laugh at myself. Even if (EVEN IF!) I bomb the exam so hard, I fail and even if I fail the class, that sucks but it's totally not the end of the world. I won't die. My husband still loves me. God's never going to ask me in eternity about an exam that I did or didn't do as well as I expected. And he's surely never going to ask if I gave myself an stomach ulcer from anxiety over them. Get a grip! We're over it.

Christmas time is such a sensory time of year. Fuzzy socks, caramel candles, tiny jingle bells that catch your ear, downy snow (or if you're in Vancouver, green grass), and spiced apple cider. All of our Christmas presents are wrapped under the tree. Purchased and wrapped before Dec 1 even hit. We're not type-A. Headed to Cowtown for Christmas. Got my down jacket and St. Bernard on call for snow emergencies. I miss my family a bit. I had this pang a couple of weeks back for my sisters. I just wanted to hang out with them, be in their space. Blandinka's nesting right now in her cute little life and she invited Matt and I to stay with them one night. Cutest thing ever. And I'm so pumped to see Matt's family too. Just to hang out and enjoy an enjoyable holiday with everyone. And gain lots of weight!!

С Рождеством! Merry Christmas!

Nobody can showboat "Silent Night" like Mahalia Jackson

Things that make me happy about being almost done school.

- I can knit something fun for the very first time and put it on the knit blog. I kind of want to crochet Matt's christmas ornament this year. Maybe make it from some polymer clay. Last year: I wrapped a little wooden heart that said "I Love You" with yarn. This year? Oh my gosh.

- I think I will add crafting in general. I'm sewing some Christmas presents this year. I am excited because I'm pretty sure the recipients will LOVE them.

- I can open up my "Musings" file and write fun things again. This semester's creative writing marks left me feelings very low. I want to return to it with a new heart and remind myself why I love it.

- I can make myself something other than apples and peanut butter for lunch. I don't know how, in sixteen weeks of classes, I couldn't get my act together and make myself something the night before. I'm on the "stress diet" right now which means I don't eat. I am myopic to say the least and so I can literally make it eight hours, whilst fretting over SOMETHING MONUMENTAL, without giving a thought to my groaning stomach.

- Running! My feet are so sore lately, I can't figure out why. But as of tomorrow, we're back on the train.

- Hot Chocolate! If I'm running everyday I don't have to feel guilty about drinking a cup everyday right? With or without peppermint schnapps. Mmmmms.

I don't know what made me think of this but I think one of my top five favourite love songs ever is "When You Come Back Down" by Nickel Creek.

"My greatest fear will be that you will crash and burn
And I won't feel your fire." Beaut.

Sreydah (Wednesday)

My mom sent me this email which was was more interesting than the prompt for today. T minus two days until Ground Zero.

1. I think part of a best friend's job should be to immediately clear your computer history if you die. Agreed.
2. Nothing sucks more than that moment during an argument when you realize you're wrong. My God, this happens in marriage all the time.
3. I totally take back all those times I didn't want to nap when I was younger. I don't think this ever happened to me as a child.
4. There is great need for a sarcasm font. This is for all of the people that read incorrect tone into text messages and emails. We should not enable these people.
5. How the heck are you supposed to fold a fitted sheet? You don't. You ball it up and stuff it into the bottom shelf of the linen closet. At ball them up uniformly.
6. Was learning cursive really necessary? It totally made my writing messier.
7. Map Quest really needs to start their directions on # 5. I'm pretty sure I know how to get out of my neighborhood. You do, but there is a whole demographic impervious to natural selection who don't.
8. Obituaries would be a lot more interesting if they told you how the person died. Yes! But this is directly related to #1.
9. I can't remember the last time I wasn't at least kind of tired. Trueness.
10. Bad decisions make good stories. And most don't let the truth get in the way of a good story.
11. You never know when it will strike, but there comes a moment at work when you know that you just aren't going to do anything productive for the rest of the day. I know this too well. University.
12. Can we all just agree to ignore whatever comes after Blue Ray? I don't want to have to restart my collection...again. Yes. And VHS are never making a comeback.
13. I'm always slightly terrified when I exit out of Word and it asks me if I want to save any changes to my ten-page technical report that I swear I did not make any changes to. So true.
14. I keep some people's phone numbers in my phone just so I know not to answer when they call. We're ALL in on the joke.
15. I think the freezer deserves a light as well. Because you can't binge on ice cream in the middle of the night without a light.
16. I disagree with Kay Jewelers. I would bet on any given Friday or Saturday night more kisses begin with Miller Lite than Kay.
17. I wish Google Maps had an "Avoid Ghetto" routing option. And transit "Trip Planner!"
18. I have a hard time deciphering the fine line between boredom and hunger.
19. How many times is it appropriate to say "What?" before you just nod and smile because you still didn't hear or understand a word they said? Especially if they're just making small talk. Speak up!
20. I love the sense of camaraderie when an entire line of cars team up to prevent a jerk from cutting in at the front. Stay strong, brothers and sisters!
21. Shirts get dirty. Underwear gets dirty. Pants? Pants never get dirty, and you can wear them forever. "Black pants, they never get dirty, the longer you wear them the stronger they get."
22. Sometimes I'll look down at my watch 3 consecutive times and still not know what time it is. I do that even with my cell phone.
23. Even under ideal conditions people have trouble locating their car keys in a pocket, finding their cell phone, and Pinning the Tail on the Donkey - but I'd bet everyone can find and push the snooze button from 3 feet away, in about 1.7 seconds, eyes closed, first time, every time! It's worse when it doesn't even wake you up.
24. The first testicular guard, the "Cup," was used in Hockey in 1874 and the first helmet was used in 1974. That means it only took 100 years for men to realize that their brain is also important. (Ladies.....proof that there's only enough blood in a man's system to operate one head at a time!) This is called "looking out for number one."