Thursday, April 06, 2006

Thursday Thirteen - blah, blah, blah


Thirteen Ramblings

1. I am not a big fan of chocolate. Weird. I know. Pretty much everyone loves chocolate, don't they? I must be missing a gene or something.

2. More than almost anything, I'd like to have a container garden. We have three balconies on our apartment, all devoid of growing things (except spiders and that creeps me out).

3. So what's holding me back? I have a black thumb. If I were to start a garden, I'd go and spend lots of cash on containers and plants and all the plants would be dead in a month. The containers would sit there, empty and sad for five years before I either got rid of them or got all optimistic again about my ability to grow something.

4. My kids would probably like having a little garden. If I thought I could actually get them to help on a regular basis (without a lot of badgering and ill-advised yelling), maybe I'd do it. But that reminds me of when I was a kid, living in a house with my two brothers, two step-brothers and one step-sister. We were all able bodied and our parents figured we could rake and mow the lawn as part of our chores. ha ha. Within a few months after we moved in, one of our neighbors left an anonymous, type-written note in our mailbox that said something like: "Your lawn is a mess and the leaves from your lawn are blowing all over the neighborhood. Your neighbors spend a lot of money and effort maintaining their lawns and you're messing it all up. Get your act together."

5. That week, my dad hired the same lawn service all our neighbors used. Come to think of it, maybe it was the lawn service that left the note . . .

6. I really can't wait for Spring. (I know, my kids have informed me several times that technically it IS Spring but someone forgot to tell Mother Nature that it's not supposed to be 30 degrees outside during Spring. How the hell are the tulips supposed to bloom when it's so damn cold?)

7. I've decided I don't want to be controversial right now. Mostly I want to concentrate on the writing that I'm not doing much of. Whenever I post about my struggles with writing (like here and here) I get great advice from the community. I'd like to use that community support to get myself writing more.

8. So my latest struggle is naming my characters. Perhaps I just need to let go of the struggle and allow the characters to name themselves. Sometimes, when we try too hard we make things impossible.

9. Speaking of struggling, I'm struggling with this post. I'm almost never at a loss for words except when I need them.

10. Who besides me was TOTALLY surprised that Mandisa got booted from American Idol last night? I was so sure Bucky was going home. Frankly, this season is shaping up to be more of a dud than I hoped. The last two weeks have been bo-ring. I think they should stop making them do songs in different genres and let them choose songs in a wider range. It was ok to do songs from the 21st century, for instance but making everyone do country songs doesn't make sense.

11. Have I mentioned lately how much I love TiVo? I do. The only problem with it is I don't actually know when anything is on anymore. And that's not really a problem. I just set it to record the shows I like on a season pass and I don't think about it anymore.

12. It occurs to me that the term TiVo is becoming like Kleenex or Xerox - I shouldn't be using a specific brand name when I mean the generic thing. So I should say DVR instead of TiVo, just as we should say photocopy instead of Xerox or tissue instead of Kleenex. I'm sure all the trademark attorneys out there will love me for that.

13. Hallelujah! I actually finished this post. I wasn't sure I would make it all the way to the end. But here we are. The End.


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4 comments:

landismom said...

I'm with you on #6. We had snow yesterday. I was outraged.

And on the gardening--I have great plans for our garden every year. I'm good at the execution, until it gets really hot out. Somehow, I'd much rather sit in the shade sipping iced tea than weeding when it's 90 degrees out.

Carmen said...

Went looking for new 13s today, and found you!

For character names, if you want, try a name generator. Do a Google search for "character name generator". It might at least get you started. I used it for a short story I haven't started yet. :) I'm too worried about the manuscript I just sent to a bunch of agents. Sigh.

My list is up if you want to visit
http://carmenhasgonetoplaid.blogspot.com/

Jessica said...

Hey, *I*, also don't like chocolate (and we're both Jessica's?!). So funny.... My husband (who adores chocolate) says that they are going to revoke my right to be a woman.

Anonymous said...

I don't like chocolate much either. Maybe we should start a club.