Pupa to Monarch

Rhyme - Gin & Tonic

2008-01-24T18:09:00.000-08:00

I like me a little G & T,
It helps me feel relaxed and free.
My knotted muscles do unravel,
My mind sloughs off its filthy frazzle.
The sour lime and bitter tonic
Make me sing and dance and frolic.

Haiku - I Want Some

2008-01-23T11:38:00.000-08:00

No blanket of white;
The hard frozen ground lonely,
Shovels sitting idle.

Limerick - Sue the Shrew

2008-01-22T13:54:00.000-08:00

There once was a cat name Sue
Who lived her life as a shrew
She was hated by all
For her hellish call
‘Til her ninth life was through.

Terza Rima - Rebirth

2008-01-20T10:41:00.000-08:00

A child is born to a silent stare
Her joy and purity are encased alone
Existing in spite of suffocating despair

Childhood fraught with things she was shown
Learned at the hands of common preachers
Grown up lessons too early known

In public upright, honored teachers
True natures from the world discrete
Of innocent souls, bloodsuckers and leachers

Time remembered when life was sweet
Soul blessed, innocence kept in her heart
Throwing off suffocating dirt and peat

Each sunrise a new start and restart
Until the fragments are rejoined in one part.

Boombox

2008-01-13T10:22:00.001-08:00

Vibrating
In the back of my mind
My heart pounds
To the beat
Of the radio

Shooting
Down the city street
An invisible wall
Too loud
Of disturbed air

Jangling
The nerves in elbows
Skin alive
Two seconds
Of unwanted sound

Karma

2008-01-12T08:18:00.000-08:00

An hideous kid, an obnoxious little brat who ran around in circles like a dog chasing his tail, screamed in five second intervals, a grating alarm on the nerves of all the people present. His parents gave a baffled toss of their heads to the other adults giving them dirty looks and not so subtle hints that they control the apple of their eyes before someone turned him into apple sauce.

They were helpless with their admiration of the creation sprung forth from their loins. They presented words like, “genius, precocious, advanced and exceptional” to justify their poor parenting skills.

The other children in the group were not impressed. They were unafraid of corralling the rogue. They taunted and challenged the scamp to the deep swimming pool, daring him to prove his parents’ assertion that he could swim the breast stroke. When he refused to take the bait, he accidentally fell in.

Electronic Doom

2008-01-07T12:55:00.001-08:00

An electronic cage enclosed a man of middle age who stood in the middle of the cage. Invisible currents ran from floor to ceiling, but a buzz sizzled the air and burnt carbon infected nostrils, clothes, hair and skin. The man stooped with weariness, his bare feet covering the only dry spot on the concrete floor. He feared the water because it conducted the electricity to his hair and singed the tips of his follicles. His grandfather had locked him in his torture cell three days ago to prevent him from reporting his grandfather to the police. Delusion gripped his grandfather's mind. His grandfather safeguarded a theft he had committed in his imagination. He told his grandfather he would never turn him into the police but his grandfather did not believe him and no one would be looking for him because he had lived the last few years on the streets.

Dimensional Garden

2008-01-06T17:36:00.000-08:00

Out from under the monster, the little escort skipped a strong bounce propelling her into the concatenate dimension of wild blue waters swirling and bubbling in effervescent spheres of breathable air. The oxygen was so concentrated that she was lost in a high so soothing it consumed all of the stress that had weighed down upon her naked shoulders. The water washed away the paint covering the rest of her body, leaving her skin clean and pink. She floated within the warm liquid and dreamed of gardens of shining gems in brilliant reds, dazzling purples and luscious greens. She gave herself over to the amniotic womb and knew she could die here happy.

Random Phrase Timed Writing

2008-01-05T09:43:00.001-08:00

A frustrated envelope unloaded a paste next to a rabid rumor. It refused to participate in the disbursement of false stories unless they were in the form of a plainly stated fictional correspondence. The envelope knew clearly that the missive formed by letters and words cut from magazines and newspapers couldn’t be a forthright note to the addressee. If someone were writing a letter of genuine worth he would do so in his own hand. The envelope did everything in its power to thwart the propagation of false news. Unfortunately, an envelope has very little power of its own.

Random Phrase Timed Writing

2008-01-04T10:28:00.001-08:00

The pathetic fluid waves against any marginal consequence and then next thing you know all hell breaks loose. People should have some control over themselves. A mess like that is hard to clean up and it leaves a bad smell on your hands to boot. It should be a law that people clean up after themselves or at the very least pay some restitution to the person who does do the clean up. There was this time when I had to mop up after a complete stranger and I got this disgusting slime in a cut I had on my finger. My digit burned for days afterwards and it ballooned up to the size of a Vienna sausage and didn’t return to normal until I popped it and all of the yellow puss oozed out.

New Rule

2008-01-04T08:55:00.000-08:00

No reading lovely and interesting blogs until my daily writing is done (who cares about the laundry.) Of course, I'll break this rule in, like, 43 minutes, tops.

Random Phrase Timed Writing

2008-01-03T13:54:00.000-08:00

The litter wasted the solved roof into the lunchtime. He couldn't help himself. He tried to save the solved roof until the dinner hour, but the litter let go of the string which tied the solved roof to his chair and the solved roof floated up and away, through the clouds that blanketed the sun from his view. The litter watched with tears brimming in the outside corners of his eyes. Perhaps his parents were right and his life was nothing more than a heap of garbage. No, they were wrong. While he might tumble through his days like a piece of crumpled up paper blowing in the wind, he felt sure he could recycle his future into something useful and even a bit attractive. The solved roof was his first step in that process. If he could waste the solved roof in some spectacular way that attracted the attention of the media he'd be famous.

2007-11-25T10:14:00.000-08:00

I have been putting off writing on my 2007 NaNoWriMo novel. I suspect I'm dealing with the "shoot yourself in the foot" syndrome. I insist upon beating it though so I am off to force myself to write anything on it.

2007-11-18T13:00:00.000-08:00

It's rainy and dark today, the way I like it. I've spent the day in my studio (I love calling my space "my studio".)

I'm feeling much better. I've been writing and getting ready for Thanksgiving which for the first time is at my house. We're frying a turkey.

I designed this year's Christmas card today, in between doing laundry. I began construction. I should be on time this year.

Creating is good for me - I need it.

I'm Going, Already

2007-10-28T12:54:00.000-07:00

I have been procrastinating and stalling all day. I said I would sort through books and papers and bills and I haven't done it yet. I am going at four, five minutes from now. No, really, I am going.

16:26 Update: I came upstairs, cleaned my new/old bookcase and my new/old desk, put HP and the Prisoner of Azkaban on the telly (it's a telly 'cause we're watching British) and now to the paper sort.

16:59 Update: Prizes for the September Scavenger Hunt are finally in mailers and ready to go to the post office. A month isn't too bad, is it? Now, I'm doing the papers. Leave me alone. You're distracting me.

17:18 Update: I had to feed The Codes; he was starving and then I had to wait for him to come back in from going pee-pee. But then I came back upstairs. Of course, I had to re-arrange my alter and light some paper-sorting incense and a paper-sorting candle, you know, for good paper-sorting Karma. Now, here we go.

19:47 Update: I was a paper-sorting demon. I will be able to sleep tonight. I also put things away in their new homes and even had dinner in between (hubby cooked.) I found the lawn seeding bill which I need to pay asap, like tomorrow, which I will. I am done for the night. I'll be up here again in the morning to do more. I'd like to have all of the old papers sorted, tossed or filed before the end of October. I think that's a can-do. Night.

Rain

2007-10-27T07:52:00.000-07:00

I love long rainy days when I am home. It's like I don't need permission not to go out into the world. I can stay home guilt free. I will be cleaning my new old desk and book shelf today and cleaning up my office. I am bound and determined to finish this weekend. Enough is enough.

A Good Hair Day

2007-10-24T04:35:00.000-07:00

I had my hair colored yesterday. My regular beautician went into labor in the morning, so Liz did my hair. She layered and thinned the sides, too and I really like my cut now.

My brother-in-law came over last night, which made my husband very happy. We are going to be art museum buddies, because very few people we know like to do these kinds of things. Maybe he'll go to galleries with me, too, and plays.

Mellow

2007-10-22T17:47:00.000-07:00

I had a fairly quiet day at work. The big man is away this week. I was able to complete an entire job in one day. Sweet.

Books and Beggars

2007-10-21T12:27:00.000-07:00

I don't go shopping much. I've never enjoyed it to my mother's despair. Big, expensive stores, yard sales, discount outlets, fairs: they all leave me cold. I make long lists of what I need and do power shopping. I'd rather do without than go buy it. Every once in a while, I'll lose my mind and decide to go to a book store or a craft store, two places I like because they sell my most favorite things in the world. I can never get back out quickly enough.

I used my Borders gift certificate today and spent twice as much. I bought On the Road by Jack Kerouac, You Can Heal Your Life by Louise Hays, The New Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain and the workbook by Betty Edwards, The Dangerous Book for Boys by Conn and Hal Iggulden and the 2008 Writers' Market. I have no idea when I will be able to read these with the 2007 NaNoWriMo starting in a week and a half and then all of the holidays. It is necessary for me to win millions so I can stay home and write and read and craft. I do plan on using the Writers' Market. I need to try to make some money with my writing to see if I'm any good.

I bought a starter kit of Sculpey at JoAnn Fabrics along with a couple of books on the subject. I had an idea. Hopefully it works. You'll see it at my craft site if it does.

In my car with the window down because it is gorgeous today, in the parking lot of JoAnn Fabrics, trying to leave, a woman wearing designer jeans and t-shirt, stopped by my car and told me she was almost out of gas and asked me for money so she could get across the bridge. I told her I didn't have any cash on me.

When I stopped at the library to return my books and pick up two I reserved Snoogs, I think a guy was following me. I feel silly saying this because I'm old and looked like crap this afternoon, but I think he was none the less. He pulled up next to my car when there were lots of other spaces. He got out of his car, then got back in, pulled away, pulled back, then he was there again when I came out and waited and waited until I got in the driver side of my car. Then he said hello to me and made a few inane comments and then went the opposite way in the parking lot but then was there again behind me and followed me down the street. He finally turned off in another direction but watched where I went. Creepy. He was about 28 with dark close cut hair, no facial hair and driving a white car like a Nissan Versa. Just weird.

I watched our new yard sprinkler system work this afternoon. I found the process fascinating and I even ran through the one that crossed the driveway sidewalk. I looked to make sure the neighbors weren't watching first.

And now I'm going to spend the rest of the evening looking at my new books and crocheting my cousins scarf finished.

Rest

2007-10-20T12:08:00.000-07:00

I could use a week alone: no phones, no other people, no responsibilities. I'm sure I'm not the only one. I'd like to be able to sleep and wake whenever I feel like it. Nap for a couple hours, get up and read for a few, then go back to sleep. I'm very lazy at heart.

Actually, I'd prefer sleeping all day and staying up all night. I can barely keep my eyes open each day between one and four.

I'm getting a wooden desk and bookcase for my home office today. Haven't seen them yet, but they've got to be better than a plastic utility table. They'll help me feel like a grown up.

Shoes

2007-10-17T03:35:00.001-07:00

I like going barefooted. If my feet didn't get cold or there wasn't glass all over the ground I'd always be without shoes and socks. I believe this trait shows that I'm a hedonist at heart and that I don't like to conform. I'm such a rebel.

Spontaneous Self Hypnosis

2007-10-14T11:20:00.000-07:00

Normally, I only zone out when I'm alone, but this week I got caught by several people. This is why I need a lot of alone time. I do self hypnosis/meditation to recharge since my sleep is so active with dreams. I was amazed at how utterly I could block what was going on around me and how easily I could do it. This has reminded me that I need to do a couple intentional sessions a day.

Exhausted

2007-10-05T08:24:00.000-07:00

The past two weeks have been a killer. Between my normal work load, one of my colleagues retires today after 14 years. She gave us less than 2 weeks notice, so I had to organize a retirement dinner, a memory book and gifts, get everyone to cooperate and plan her exit package during that time while being slightly off in the health department for several days plus deal with several new key employees, talk my boss down from millions of projects he likes to start, but never finish at this time of year, get ready for corporate, health and workmen's comp insurance renewals, an irrigation system at home, my daughter's new job and a few other things.

I'm going to forget all about this stuff this weekend. Just reading and writing and picture taking.

This Week's Harvest.

2007-09-29T07:12:00.001-07:00

The wind blows at five miles an hour bringing a crisp Autumn coolness and removing the New Jersey humidity. The sky hovers high above us in a crystal, clear blue. The dogwood in my front yard displays its red berries and rusty leaves. Rustling in the branches, moaning through the sailing masts, I declare the day perfect.

I managed to do two and half days of my three day mini fast (only one small meal a day - dinner - because a full fast would bring too many questions.) I felt cleansed. I will manage the full three days next month as I will prepare myself better.

This week was an awakening for me. I vowed only to say positive things as part of my New Year resolution. Thumper has no competition. I rudely brought to my attention that I am a sarcastic, pessimistic smart mouth. I can only go up from here.

I have lost 17 pounds in the last six months just from walking a half hour each day. I have made no other conscious changes. Now that Fall is here I may add another healthy commitment, but not about food. My food commitment is that I can have whatever I want when I want. No more punishing myself with food. That was my first commitment.

Merry Mabon

2007-09-23T08:35:00.001-07:00

In celebration of the first day of Autumn, thanksgiving and changing the negative to the positive, I will do just that. While it may be difficult to control my thoughts, I can control my speech. I will strive to make every word I utter a positive force.

May your harvest be abundant and your Cornucopia overflowing.