2008 December « welcome to MY world

What’s your story, Morning Glory?

I know that the title refers to a rather cheesy song from an even cheesier band, but I think the question is a good one. If you were to sit down and write your story, what would you include? I thought at one point that the antics of my tomboy daughter would make a good story, but I got stuck on the title and didn’t go any further. I know if my mother were to write anything it would be a mystery of the British variety. My guess is that my father would write a tome recounting the stories of how his family landed in Canada. At one point I thought my brother would write some sort of cops and robbers story, since he was living in Northern Ireland. (Little did I know that it’s not really like that there.) I know that my husband would write about his adventures touring, climbing and, in general, overcoming adversity. But what really makes a good story?

Well, research is definitely one aspect. One of my friend’s writing was recently published in an academic work and it goes without saying that she did an enormous amount of research. However, I just finished reading Water for Elephants and by what the author mentions in the book, she travelled around and did a great deal of research too. So that makes me wonder. What is it that makes a great story? What is it about a story that could make it mean so much to some and so little to others? I recently loaned a friend Larry’s Party. I loved Larry and the party. She thought Larry was a loser that just needed to get his stuff together. I on the other hand could really relate to him. (Hmm… I think this is the part where warning bells go off.) Here’s another variation on the same sort of thing. I finished reading Atonement after almost 12 months. I think it took me about 6 months to get through the first 100 pages – granted I wasn’t going at it hard or anything; but still, it took a really long time. So anyway, when I finished I was sad about it being over as I am with most books. But, I thought, yeah! I can see the movie. I absolutely loved the first part of the movie. It was so true to each and every detail of the book, it made me feel right at home. Then the famous main actress started to get on my nerves, then the ending was changed and a classic scene from the book was left out. Here is the scene: The two lovers are standing on the train platform as the main character leaves them. This is the last image she has of the two of them. For me it was a very strong image that reminded me of that famous French photo “The Kiss”. Either I know absolutely nothing or it makes sense to trade in a clichéd image for a TV talk show. Note to self: when making movies (or their more pretentious cousins, FILMS) never get tired in the middle and just hash out any old thing.

I think to write a good story you need the luxury of time. Have you ever been pressed for it and handed in any old thing? Well, that happened to me recently. I told you about that translation on concrete, remember. Well, I met the VERY tight deadline given to me by the client and he got back to me soon after I had handed it in to him, telling me that there were errors in it, and that while he appreciated my promptness, he wanted them fixed. When I went back to it after not looking at it for a while, the errors were glaring. The good news is that I was able to fix them and I even went over the whole document again and improved it. I know I never did that as a student, not even at the graduate level. Card-carrying slugs like myself would never be that organized or that intimate with the afore-mentioned luxury. Which brings me to a possible blog topic: How do organized people do it? What’s wrong with them? Are they aliens?

Comments (5)

Simple or Stressful

The question is not whether the 2 are mutually exclusive or on a continuum, but rather how can something so simple, become so stressful. Let’s see if you’re with me on this.

Scenario one: I set my alarm for 6am to give me enough time to get ready and get everyone else ready. Today Lu woke up at the same time and came to lie in my bed. I told him I was going to take a shower and asked if he wanted to stay in bed or shower too. He answered that he preferred to stay in bed. Two minutes into my shower, he is pounding on the door demanding to get in the bathroom.
Scenario two: Chi is all excited about a new clown costume. She wanted to try it on for me last night, but couldn’t because it was already bedtime. So I put it on her this morning to take pictures of her with her brother. She was wearing the costume and Lu was in his school uniform at which point he wanted to put on a costume too to wear to school. He wailed and on until I went and got a costume for him. I took more pictures of the two of them at which point Lu wanted the costume off right then before we left for school.
Scenario three: We’re having breakfast today and I’m eating my bread and the kids have their cereal. Lu wants some of my bread, so I give it to him. He gets down from the table and runs away. I call after him and ask if he wants more. He says no and so I eat the rest. As I am chomping away on my last bite, he comes back and says he wants more. When I tell him he cannot have more because I ate it he goes berserk.

Are you getting the picture here? Our household has to run like a finely-oiled machine in the morning or else the simplest task can be stressful. I have lost count on how many times I repeat the same thing for Chichi every morning:

Get dressed
Feed your fish
Get your snack
Get your bag ready
Eat your breakfast
Brush your hair
Brush your teeth

Whatever they say about children internalizing information after hearing it 27 times is just plain wrong.

I’m a slug…

I have been busy lately as you might have guessed and I have not been on my blog lately. In fact, I almost forgot how to logon. (Old age does not bode well for me!) We have had a ton of holidays, but when you are at home with the kids relaxing, it seems you have less time than you do when you are working full-time. So what have I been doing?

Well, I just completed a 34 page translation on pre-cast concrete prison cells. I learned a lot – clearly this is not a topic I am very familiar with and I can’t say I am too upset about it either.
We now have all our Christmas decorations up, although it took us several tries to get the lights inside the house just right. Quite a few of them were already set up and we had to take them down and re-configure them.
I now have curtains up in my 2 upstairs bedrooms that had naked windows. It seems like a five minute job, but believe me it is anything but. I have been considering taking out the power tools myself, since I have waited so long to get these things done, and let’s just say that I am glad I did not. Naked walls are highly preferable to craters!

So you can see that my time has been taken up with a lot of little things that I will never admit take a lot of time. Let me give you an example. Last Friday we had the day off. So I took Lu to school and then went out for breakfast with Chichi. I then had some stuff to do on the computer in the morning and so I sat with Chichi as she made the tiara from the “how to be a princess” book. Then I had to warm up some lunch and pick up Lu. I had a hair appointment that afternoon – which I was late for. Then I came back and put Lu down for his nap. I got up to hang out with Chichi and we read books and then went back to the “how to be a princess” book. At this point we were painting Prince Charming on a horse. That was sort of hit and miss and so I decided to switch it up and bake. I find this to be a great way to engage my daughter – it is in her DNA – it is what I always do with my own mother. Anyway, the only problem was that I was running out of time in the day. I still had to get my nails done. I quickly got Lu up from his nap, got Chichi ready, took the brownies out of the oven, got the kids juice and a snack and took off to the club. They were going to have a snack and then play with their Dad until I was done. Except for one small thing – we got stuck in traffic on the way over there. I got to the hair-dresser late and they wouldn’t take me. I was ticked, but what could I do? My manicurist’s 5:30 was already there and she ignored my pleas to at least do something for me – please. (She was highly engaged by the jewelry displayed in their shop). I made a mental note on the way out never to go back there again or take my kids there. When I talked to my husband and told him I didn’t need him to babysit he couldn’t believe that I thought they were wrong. What is that all about? Of course they are wrong. We do not live in England – everything certainly does not run on clock-work. You are supposed to be late for EVERYTHING. In fact, if you show up on-time for a social engagement you are going to catch someone off guard. One of my friends told me that one of her first memories of me is when I invited her over and she showed up on time. I was still in the shower and she has never forgotten that. I am already trying to think of strategies to use at Christmas so I am not holding up everyone up all the time. How does waking up at 4 am to take a shower sound? What about sleeping in my clothes? Do you think I could just put all my food in the juicer or blender and drink it in the car? I have to admit it; I am a card-carrying slug. Anyone know what the 12 steps are?