Why I Am Not a Writer!

More than a year after my one-and-only draft-but-not-published post on the Why I Am Not a Writer blog, the catalyst for launching this blog appeared on my doorstep this afternoon. Click the link above/below and check them out!

Bed in Summer

quirky things to be happy about . . .

33. going shopping in the closet
34. slowing into the therapeutic zone
35. renewing a Lincoln rocker
36. conversing in old glass: slag, goofus, opalescent, carnival, whimsey, custard, rose bowl, nappy, jack-in-the-pulpit, coin dot, hobnail, vaseline, epergne
37. enjoying neighborhood walks with an mp3 bff
38. blogging on Friday evenings when Monday seems forever away
39. collecting everything adagio

40. knowing a Seagull guitar is tucked away for someday . . .
41. finding blue paisley capris at 75% off (and in a size you thought you'd never see again!)
42. holding fast to dreams . . .

beach week memories

exploring (webkinz)

playing games (Xbox, Wizard, Five Crowns, poker, bridge, Chinese checkers, . . .)

swimming

feasting

full circle

I've come full circle, in the last few weeks--immersing myself once again in my post-graduate quest for understanding all things technology (technology and literacy, that is) and in my undergraduate thirst for knowing all there was to know about the story of our world (and, more specifically, about the European history that is my heritage).

The technology stories I'll tell, all this next year, on (one of) my other blogs, thevirtualsandbox. But the world history stories will make their home here, I think.

I spent much of last weekend reading the first half of Volume 3 of Susan Wise Bauer's The Story of the World--fodder for fashioning texts sets to support the humanities curriculum writing going on at my school. It was fascinating reading--stories new and stories I'd once known, but long ago forgotten.

Coming full circle . . .

One story I did not know. All my life I've heard the phrase "Black Hole of Calcutta." I had no idea what it meant, or even that it meant anything worth knowing. A seed of a story in Bauer's book led me to an out-of-print reprint--Noel Barber's The Black Hole of Calcutta: A Reconstruction--a book newly published at about the time I should have read it first, but am sure I didn't. I made the time for that reading this weekend . . . oddly enough on the anniversary dates of that world-changing event, June 20-21, 1756.

I've gleaned two important truths from the story of the Black Hole of Calcutta. I now understand how and why the British came to rule India. Retribution. The second truth validates my valuing of life's simple pleasures. The author concludes his account with this observation: nature has a habit of outlasting history.

Coming full circle . . .

2 years later . . .

It all started so simply--a place where I could post our family photos, my son explained. Blogging was uncharted waters for me. I'd created an award-winning webpage for work several years earlier, using Netscape Composer, but this seemed, somehow, the greater challenge. Those first pictures of Michael were the only trace of this venture/adventure for months . . . until, tasked with creating a multigenre piece of writing around a theme of my choosing, the concept of capturing, of celebrating life's simple pleasures in a virtual writer's notebook took shape.

I have a new writing assignment this summer--a cultural autobiography. Not sure which virtual scrapbook I'll use for that--only that it will be more . . . private perhaps?

I've webpaged (two new sites at work this year), wikied (I'm a rank beginner but learning), Photostoried, and begun moving on to Smart notebooks and Movie makers . . .

In the fall, I'll coteach, for the first time in a long while, a technology course . . .

But writing for this blog has been, is, and will continue to be . . . a simple pleasure.

whose Webkin???

April showers . . .

Strange week . . . I'm feeling a little like the weather tonight--drizzled. Just enough of a question mark in my life--maybe a fork or two in the road ahead--to make finishing seem more important than beginning.

I think when I look back on this year I'll smile at the organized butterfly I've almost become. Taking stock isn't a bad thing, even if doing so much of it all at one time feels a little out of character.

And there's still time for play. I finally succumbed, after a couple of months of the free daily online jigsaw, and bought a set of 50 digital puzzles yesterday (and have already completed 4!). And Kira should have plenty of whatever that Webkinz currency is called now that she's addicted me to Cash Cow, versions 1 and 2! Still trying to figure out the Monkey game . . .

But there's more to life than playing on a virtual playground. I'm playing in real time with the "babies" Saturday morning so that their daddy can finish his kitchen renovations (speaking of which, but that's 1,001 and counting on my priority list so I won't go there, yet).

Michael doesn't know it but he's about to get introduced to the virtual playground too--his very own first Webkin (a beagle like his Lucy and everyone's Snoopy) and other birthday secrets. Shhh, don't tell him! Can't believe he's almost 4 . . .

Also on the weekend's agenda: planting more roses (they keep appearing on my doorstep, but I'm not complaining).

Off to spend the day with a real author tomorrow, the third time in a month. Am I jaded or what?

One day, maybe, I'll take that fork in the road, the writingabook path. Or maybe not. . .

Definitely drizzled tonight!