Seeds almost ready to go into the ground. Almost ready to paint again. It's just about time to do some things that have been waiting to happen.
Among all the maybes and potentials, I am trying to be right here, awake and as balanced as I can be about the stuff that has to be done (or screams that it has to be done), the daydreams and play, and the truth of marveling at the might-be.
Paragraph writing class/ micro-fiction/ shorty short shorts starts on Monday night and I am already playing with how much I can say in how little. I'm trying to consider the brevity of a sentence, as the brevity of a good concise and well won drawing or color like in this treat of an O'Keeffe.
Also, I have been misplacing words in spoken conversation again. Saying things I shouldn't say and letting little troublemakers out of my mouth. Life is certainly too short to deal with much worrying about what's been said, but I would have swallowed a good chunk of the things I said today.
The promise of tommorrow is (I hope) waiting for me, full of possibles, probables and nope-not-nows...

goodnight, then,

Rachael

I've been looking up short short short writing in preparation for my class. I am not sure how I am going to keep my ideas short, my writing tight and my run-ons in check but challenges are damn good things and I hope you had some today.

I liked these treats from this site:

Double Bill Matinee on this page and Down the Street on this page. I love how reading 50 words takes such little time but sticks with you when it is good or better than exected...

And for my last trick and this one from the phone book
And this about never writing a book...

goodnight,
Rachael

Because today was a glorious day and i had no obligations, I walked to the library and discovered all sorts of good things...

Mark Twain. It's a treat to go back to his words. I'm a couple of chapters into Roughing it (on project gutenburg) and am enjoying it thoroughly for the humor, the spit and vinegar and the frontier-ness of it all. This pbs program helps flesh the period out, too.

John Ashberry. Mottled Tuesday.

Rudebeckia hirta oughta work quite nicely in my front yard since I ripped out a bazillion weeds and left a big open empty place hungry for flowers. I think I can handle this.

goodnight then,
Rachael

Sorry I've been so silent in this little world, as you might imagine, I've been spending much more time in my garden (it's weederiffic right now but I have a vision for it) and with my family. My class is over and I do think my students learned something, I know I did.

It's been sunnier and Spring-ier than any of us expected (we only signed on for a few days of warm up here in Upstate, but the truth is we all know there is no 'time when danger of frost has passed'). And I've been trying to make better daily decisions as well as I can:

just not letting things 'get under my fingernails' or get me cross at work or on the bus or what-have-you

wear a little pedometer and eat more fruits and veggies to see if I can be healthier

take the early bus so that I can stop at the hipster coffee shop across from the music school and then walk the couple of blocks to my little museum that could (sometimes can?)

following my curiosity to learn into little classes like one about writing micro-fiction because I'm hungry to be learning, thinking, writing

realizing that I don't have to DECIDE to enter the academy even if I do decide to sign up for a class or two...maybe a phd in Visual Studies but what does that mean and I did learn many moons ago that a phD doesn't make one smart....oh, yes, I do not have to DECIDE the big picture, just the little details of every day

read more, including novels like this one

trying to maintain friendships across the country and the block even if I am a bit too blah to call, I can write letters

yes and keeping lists

Other things to share:

Renee and Tiffany's (Two Girls Working) book is coming out soon and their project is a great one.

OK, then, more soon I hope...I'll try...thanks for listening!
Rachael

I don't know to call it coincidence, magic, or what but yesterday we said goodbye to my dear father-in-law through a special memorial service.

The sun was shining, so many wonderful people were there to remember him, and we all seemed to realize that he taught us so much. My husband,sister in law, and his loving wife of 37 years, my fabulous mother in law, continue to have the same kindness, generosity, honesty, humility and humor as he did as well as a boatload of memories. Plus we all love puzzles, crosswords and word games.

This morning, another sunny day, we woke up and started our day with a routine (weeding, grocery shopping, cleaning) different from how we start most sunday mornings (lounging in bed listening to NPR). So imagine our surprise when later in the day we learned that the winner of this week's puzzle shares the same name (and may even be a cousin) of our father and friend.

Thanks all for the kind words and deeds and sympathy to all who have had to say goodbye. We're off to spend more time with family, take good care,

Rachael