Lisa Frank is my Hero

This, KTB, is the luck dragon.

As you can see, I, like Kim, enjoy a solid, serious writing notebook. It may not be "black" like Kim's, but what is black anyway? Is it not a large-eyed girl with giant diamond earrings and rainbow-stitched mittens hugging a blue-eyed polar bear beneath a pink and purple sky while being watched by a frozen puffin that died pondering what it was doing in the Arctic when its natural habitat is the rocky seacoasts of the North Atlantic?

If that weren't serious enough (and it is), there is both a multiplication table and a list of frequently misspelled words inside that somber cover. How else would I be able to properly type, "Dominant broccoli biscuits schedule separate sandwich salaries" or "Shining vacuums financially separate truly foreign potato mosquitoes?"

People often visibly react to the seriousness of my notebook when I take it out in public. Or are they wondering where my niece is and why I have her notebook?

And here are the goods: http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=dc8dd77d_2g8jknwd3&hl=en
I am currently 20 pages deep in a short story with no end in sight. That is, what I believe the kids call, fucking hopeless. And that is why I uploaded something totally unrelated. Specifically, a page of some creative non-fiction I started with the "I remember" exercise and ended abruptly, mid-thought.

I remember when there was no blog and no one knew about my Lisa Frank notebook. I remember. I remember. I remember.

Oh mayonn, aise up on Tom!

I'm testing out that versatility. I also apologize for not posting in a very long time. Everyday I mean to bring my camera to work but everyday I forget. So I'll describe my desk to you instead. I don't use my desk at home because it leans and I think it will break if I touch it. The items of interest are as follows:
* Pen caddy with glue sticks, a WI cheesehead pencil with cow spots, a pencil with a prop plane on top so I can spin the propeller around when I'm editing footnotes, and a white plastic soup ladle. And lots of red pens that I don't ever get to use.
* my father's pilot wings, on my keyboard
* a carved "one world"-type statue from Ghana
* a large coaster with a camel that looks very much like the luck dragon from Neverending Story that says, "I don't trust camels....or anyone else who can go for a week without a drink." And a camel teacup and saucer. Courtesy of my father.
* a stapler with "KTB" written on the top in white-out
* a Jane Austen action figure
*pink grapefruit Airborne (not so delicious)
* sketches from my sister in which she compares Calvin (C&H) to our [stuffed] rabbit
* a card from Halloween that says, "The mummy unwinds after a long day"
* two Persian rug mousepad coasters (you'd think I like coasters a lot, but this what happens when I ask my dad for one thing)
* lots of postcards that lean against my fake window with the fake blinds that overlooks the hallway
*Post-Its everywhere

And lots of work that I put off daily. And I do not let the Chicago Manual of Style sit on my desk. That's by my phone. I don't like using the phone, and I thought I would hate Chicago so I banished it when I first started this job. It's actually not so bad, but that's where it sits; I can't move it.

I haven't been doing much writing lately, although that will change when Shana gets back from Costa Rica. Maybe I'll write a poem about Miracle Whip.

continued...

So: http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=dc8dd77d_0f7xzjrdc&hl=en? I'm not sure if you can access this here, but I saved it to my folder in theatticoffifce shared google thing, so I guess you can just log in and view it there if this link doesn't work.

The Prodigal son returns

Hey all,
If you read Stylus or know me you'll get the title reference. Sorry I’ve been MIA. Lots of graduating, lots of moving. I still need to figure out how to get e-mail notes about blog-posts.
It’s amazing what BC students leave behind, furniture/accessory wise. Not legacy-wise. That’s much more intangible and somehow linked to alumni donations. I’ve been hooked up as a writer though – found abandoned printers, chairs, paper, books, bookcases and pens. Everything but the filing cabinets, Kim.
I also sent out to a few contests. Part of me feels ‘$20 down the drain,’ the other part feels ‘I’ll get read.’ I sent to the River Styx thing, so Katie, if you’re reading, wink wink, find ‘The Merrimac’ and move it to the top-pile.
I haven’t been doing much writing. I’ve written a poem, a song, and very small pieces of two or three stories (this a month or two). In too many places at once. I’d like to find the time to sit and write a large part of a short, but I gotta work around my work schedule now. I’m kind of energy zapped in the afternoons, but I’m acclimating. I’m eager to have a story read though, because I haven’t written one in a while, so maybe I’ll focus on that.
In the meantime, to compensate for my absence on the blog-wall, I’ll post a poem early. I’ll do it in the google-doc way, so I hope it works, i.e. hope I can figure it out.

Liam

Thank you, Al Gore.

I can't stop. I love the Internet. Here are the poems I'm thinking of submitting to the River Styx poetry contest. Any feedback/last-minute comments are appreciated. Thanks!
http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=d6ptbpm_2hg9n2kgb&hl=en
http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=d6ptbpm_4f4thvkt7&hl=en
http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=d6ptbpm_3hj6gxzfd&hl=en

Ok, so I'm stealing free wireless at the local library. Yes, I chose the dorkiest option. I say nay (Nay!) to Starbucks and Panera (known around here as St. Louis Bread Co.) with all their aromatic atmosphere and corporate cookie-cutter hipster-de-leche sensibility. Give me the outdated, empty Cliff Cave branch of the St. Louis public library!
Good news: I ordered high speed internet from AT&T (I "bundled" something or other), so my house will be getting the hook-up. Tomorrow afternoon I'm going down to the offices of River Styx, the STL lit journal to read some slush and make literati friends and turn in some submissions to their poetry contest (do you think I get guilt points for submitting in person?).
Speaking of writing friends, the other night at a bar, some guy tried to buy me a drink and claimed he'd written a book. So, of course, logical me told him we should be in a writing group. Note to all: a bar is not the place to meet dates, and neither is it the place to meet writing partners. Especially not a bar called the Atomic Cowboy.
Now I am attempting to post a piece of writing by pasting a link to its Google Docs location. So if you don't have a Google Docs account, this won't work. And it may not work otherwise. Google luck.
http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=d6ptbpm_1swdc6khh&hl=en

Due Dates

What do you say that we all (by that I mean you all--that's teacher speak. It'll wear off.) post something that we're writing by each Friday? Until we figure out the google docs angle (jump in, anyone. Tom's little typing fingers are going to wear out), let's just cut and paste SOMETHING, anything. A sentence fragment. I don't care what. Just getting a Friday deadline in our heads. If you're writing nothing then put up what your routine MIGHT be, and what your pen and paper look like. You think I'm kidding? The notebook that you can carry around with you counts as work. So go to a bookstore and find one. Some people like to go fancy (I'm more this way. I spent too many years as a mother writing on the back of my kids' muffin wrappers and then throwing them away--I need the solidity of those black books I can later write the composition dates on the spines of. Don't read that sentence over, please. You'll sprain the grammar part of your brain.), some people like to have the grungiest spiral notebook with Sponge Bob on the cover. Try both. Just whatever. But post about it, because that gets your thinking about writing's place in your life through a little everyday thing. And that's where the work gets done--in the humble, almost invisible decisions.

Looking forward,

KG