February 2012
14 posts
“How can I tell when a story’s done? I get to a point at which it feels...”
– Jim, my forevr advisr
Still not done with that ending
Talia: i feel like the two explanatory paragraphs at the end are surprising
emotionally
like: oh! oh? oh…?
Wednesday Things
1. It took me 2 hours to answer all my backed up e-mails today, but I DID IT. Inbox empty.
2. I just realized, for the first time, that you have to actually know what you’re writing about in order to write the end of a story. (Amazingly, I wrote 95% of my story without knowing.)
3. This might be a really California question, but as I think about moving to places with actual precipitation:...
Anonymous asked: SERIOUSLY. tell me about rag... →
Nothing will make you happier than when you wake up the next morning looking like a wooly lamb.
glutyoursoul:
I GOT THIS ONE LADIES. By “Brigitte Bardot” do you mean “a wooly lamb”/”a toy poodle”/”the mean one from Little House on the Prairie?”
Because if so, it sure will! Let’s walk through those steps.
PRELUDE: make your rags. Basically cut an old t-shirt into strips — like,…
“If you’ve got a headache today, then ought you to wash your hair?”
“I ought...”
– Elizabeth Bowen, The Death of the Heart (via glutyoursoul)
Glut Your Soul on My Accursed Ugliness: Did you... →
4 tags
Litany in Which Certain Things Are Crossed Out →
Fact: I had to buy this book four times because I kept lending it out and people kept keeping it. Folks, it’s a good one.
Excerpt:
For a while I thought I was the dragon.
I guess I can tell you that now. And, for a while, I thought I was
the princess,
cotton candy pink, sitting there in my...
email from CS that made me lol on the bus
“The radio this morning was talking about ways to go on better dates. And the third thing on the list was don’t give up too early. I’m pretty sure I still think that’s terrible advice. It’s like pouring lighter fluid all over everyone around you. And then just standing around waiting for a spark.”
my favorite sister
kristine: did you eat anything exciting today
: helen and i went out to eat at “froggy’s”
: and i was wearing my work clothes with bleach stains all over them
: and it was like
: a fancy expensive french restaurant
: instead of a frog-themed diner
: it was so uncomfortable
I'M IN
at Minnesota!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I was awake when Julie Schumacher called me this morning but she accused me of sounding asleep!
I liked it.
My mother
still manages to school us:
mama: i said, “that’s just not commonsensical” and my student was like, “what’s commonsensical.” give me a break. my sister: …what’s commonsensical? mama: are you joking? you don’t know what commonsensical means? my sister: that’s not a word. mama: wanna bet? my sister: it can’t be a word! mama: *points...
We need to talk about Miriam
Miri: Have you read We Need to Talk About Kevin?
Me: No.
Miri: Oh you should definitely read it before we see the movie.
Me: Okay!
Miri: It’s really, really good. But really disturbing.
Me: Oh!
Miri: Yeah, I finished the book and couldn’t eat afterward.
Me: Oh.
Miri: Wait, no, I did eat.
Miri: But then I threw up.
January 2012
17 posts
Ben rapping
to Sir Mix-a-Lot’s “Baby Got Back” while making me breakfast
So find that juicy double
Ben-a-Lot’s in trouble
Upon purchasing
a $5 “mystery bag” from a used book store at a block sale.
Me: There’s a calendar in here… from 2002.
Clerk (defensively): The pictures are still good.
I asked my sister
how come our mom never taught us Korean swear words:
can you imagine mama trying to teach us swear words? she’d have a heart attack. i wrote her a note that was like “wtf is this” and mama was like, “what’s ‘wtf’?” i said, “what the, you know, eff,” and mama said, “where do you pick up this language???”
: what’d you just trip over?
: my feet.
: no, what’d you trip on?
: …my feet.
“Who hasn’t asked himself, am I a monster or is this what it means to be human?” — Clarice Lispector, The Hour of the Star
This morning
I a) burned my french toast then b) poured the syrup on while still in the pan.
Ate it anyway.
Speaking of which
I am alllllllmost ready to get out of bed now…
Tomorrow, for sure.
I would sleep on my stomach now, without a pillow, and with no sustained thoughts. I wanted what I wanted. Before bed, I had read stories with I-narrators who could’ve been me.
- Mary Robison, “Your Errant Mom”
1 tag
1 tag
December 2011
15 posts
Currently
Updating books from the ’70s on California water code. Feel like I could’ve been an extra in Chinatown!
Waited
in a thirty-person line after work at the post office to mail my portfolio, only to discover pages 3 through 18 in my printer tray when I got home.
Wh-what? Happened? I distinctly remember stapling something together last night… fingers crossed it wasn’t recipes? HELP.
In which I have to write three personal statements...
Statement of Purpose
Personal History
Autobiographical Sketch
Just
ate cookies so fast I’m not sure they even existed.
Notes from home
Mr. Kim got a Roomba and programmed it to run every day. Mom is starting to develop feelings for it.
Mom: Roomba-ya, you’re tiring yourself out working so hard.
More true stories
Mom: Hey, are my earrings pretty?
Mom: C'mon, tell me. Are they pretty?
Kristine: You're not wearing any.
Mom: ...Oh!
She even did a head-shaky thing to show them off.
more mom
She and Mr. Kim were playing golf with another couple and my mom hit her ball into the other man’s pants pocket, fifteen feet away.
phone with mom
mom: Have you noticed your sister always says she'll do something and then doesn't?
me: ...
mom: Have you noticed that?
me: What?
mom: That she says she'll do something and then she doesn't do it!
me: Lots of people do that.
mom: I don't.
3 tags
November 2011
11 posts
It's my birthday
So Ben sang me happy birthday and I couldn’t resist joining in.
Message from my mom: “26? OMG!”
Burned
hand grabbing hot pan handle. Feel like Johnny Tremain.
