But Call Me Betsy

Hard to keep up with the blog these days. I'm taking a 6 week writing course that has Tuesday and Thursday writing deadlines and so am somewhat consumed by that. This leaves the morning subway and my iPhone as the easiest means of doing an update here. Two invasive photos of my co-travelers this morning.

But I'm stuck in Jersey for a little while longer, in this coffee/ice cream/bakery shop in a strip mall; a place that plays non-stop fifties music just this side of too loud. It's okay though, because it's closer to Dan's yoga studio, and I got my 750 words done this morning. Am suddenly working on this story about an introvert named Hazel. Isn't that a great, under-used for good reason name? Anyway, it's strange how you can start writing about something and then, if your write like me and just want to get words on a page, you find that there are other pieces to the story that you didn't plan out. Like, for instance, I started with Hazel having this unrequited crush on an attractive guy from work, and she's a little strange, so instead of trying to talk to him, she follows him home to find out where he lives. The next day, she calls out sick and goes back to his house and rings the bell. An old man answers (her crush's grandpa). She pretends she need

I lost two Penn library books and was in despair-- the fine to clear my name was $195, and so I called them and was told I could buy the books and replace them and the fine would be reduced to like $50. So, I ordered them from Amazon and was able to check out more books. I'm really going to try to keep hold of them. Liz picked this one out for me and I'm already hooked.

Maybe I'll go back to my project from last fall, taking pictures of subway people every morning. Yesterday, watched this old couple squabble. He had a tiny ponytail, gold hoop earrings, and an oxygen tank. She wore a visor and a fanny pack. They made up and she gave him a little peck on the lips, saying, I love you. He grunted something back.

At heart, I'm really still in 5th grade where we used to get animal stickers for a job well done, such as reading ten books in a month or having good cursive penmanship. Belonging to 750 words.com provides the same kind of gratification--you get these little badges for different accomplishments. On Wed., I earned the 100 days in a row badge--I think it's like a screaming eagle or something. Next badge is for sure a flying dinosaur of some kind (a pterodactyl? I need to bone up on my dino lore). But truthfully, there were a few days out of the 100 where I cheated. You can cheat on the website by cutting and pasting work from somewhere else; it doesn't count your words in real time, just counts the number of words that appear on the webpage for the day. So, yes I did have mornings where I didn't make it--not too many though. It's also not true that I wrote all fiction on those days--often, it's more journal-esque or it's about this dream I had the night befor

On the way to the subway, I usually see this guy in the window. And then this is today's train friends. I could do this all day long!

I gave into the impulse at the bookstore and bought the unthinkable-- 50 Shades of Grey . I also bought Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter , to obscure the original purchase. It's probably a bad idea to buy a book that's already got the movie poster on the back of it, but I've started both of these books, and the Abe Lincoln one is entertaining and off-beat and has this strange historically authentic feel to it. I like it. 50 Shades of Grey is also interesting, if only in that the same six things happen over and over and over. 1. She blushes. 2. She bites her lip, causing him to have to restrain himself from leaping on her. 3. He runs his hands through his perfect hair. 4. She mentions her inner goddess. 5. They perform sexually transgressive acts that are the equivalent of dying your hair purple--at the heart, there's nothing truly that shocking going on. 6. He buys her something huge (a laptop, an Audi), she resists taking it, and then she capitulates.  That

This weekend, I will consider looking up a bunch of free writing exercises, maybe even ones that have to do with writing a novel. I need some direction and path in these morning writing sessions, because I feel like I'm mostly just doing them to get the words done, though I did actually go back to an entry this week to write the script for the animation. Had this crazy vivid dream last night of trying to find Dan's house and getting lost but going past this house that had these super giant cats--like Maine Coone cats, but they were larger than leopards and when I looked in the window, I could see that there were many, many of these animals except that then, they turned into dogs, and one dog was blind, but his blind eyes were huge and had swirls of amber and gold whirling around in them, like a dog who might try to hypnotize you. I think this is because I've been hearing about this blind Chinese dissident who escaped political captivity by jumping over a wall. Also had

I got the latest issue of Poets and Writers and self-indulgently turned to the back pages where they announce contest winners. My name was there for the Zoetrope prize. It has not changed my life. Here it is:  And then, when I was visiting my parents in Florida, I mailed back two boxes of stuff I'd saved way back when, including an envelope marked "Save, Diabla's whiskers and fur," from my 8th grade best friend's long dead cat. Did I throw it away? No. I'm keeping it at least until I catch the next episode of Hoarders .  Found old notes from high school, three of my yearbooks, and lots and lots of stories, including the beginning of a sci fi novel that reads something like this (I loved adjectives and I think I may have written this after an English class focused on setting): The planet was one of the most peaceful ones in the galaxy. It was also one of the most beautiful, full of gardens bursting with bright blowers and fruit bearing trees. There wer