Raw Eggs and Great Lines

Everyone can breathe a sigh of relief…I’ve found a book to latch onto.
I know I said I was going to read “The Great Gatsby” and I did start into it, but didn’t get past the first chapter. It didn’t hook me. Granted I didn’t give it time to, but I’ll not write it off I’ll just pick it up another time.

My new found love is actually by Ms. E. L. Konigsburg. I know, I know, the last book I read of hers I ended up complaining about. But I’ve picked up another one the other night at 10:30 while Dayton slept soundly next to me, and I don’t know, maybe it was the magic of reading under the covers with my book light that just made it love at first read.

What does it for me is a good first line. I’m such a first line kind of person with everything really. My favorite Norah Jones song (well, ok I’ve got 5 contending for that spot so one of my favorite) is the one that starts off,

You’ve got a famous last name, but you’re not to blame. Baby, I see you for who you are.

I am incessantly drawn in by the mystery of that line—what is the last name, why is it famous, what does she see in him? It’s something I savor every time I hear it.

Konigsburg draws the same curious picture in my current read, T-backs, T-shirts, COAT, and Suit, with an opening line that goes like this,
“Going to Peco for the summer was not Chloe’s first choice. Or her second or her third. It was her only choice.”
A line like that deserves further investigation.

The delight of her writing continues, but takes new shape as the mystery of why it wasn’t Chloe’s choice is quickly dispelled. Konigsburg keeps you there with a smattering of really great descriptions.

I used to look at writing, and singing for that matter, as something you have to do extraordinarily well with every note and every word. Pick a sentence structure that will wow them every time and use words never before combined; sing a song so well the notes sound as if you’ve just created them from your own set of vocal chords…but no pressure.

It wasn’t until, well, I don’t remember the exact moment, but I soon realized that good writing, and good singing, involves not a string of heavenly sounds or words, but rather a body of well-crafted work with a surprising glimpse of talent here and there.

I don’t have to re-invent the wheel when I write a children’s story, I just have to have a good plot and some colorful characters and make sure that I have a humorous nugget or a clever description thrown in here and there like cookie dough to vanilla ice cream. It’s those bites with the cookie dough that we love so much, but if the whole cone were a ball of cookie dough with pockets of vanilla it just wouldn’t be the same.

Plus we’d probably get a stomachache, but that has nothing to do with my writing metaphor I just ran out of ways to end this thing.

A few...ok maybe a lot of my favorite things...

Can I just say, I really love Christmas time.
Ha of course I can it's my own flippen' blog.

I do love it, I especially love telling people Merry Christmas or Happy Thanksgiving. That's probably my favorite part. That whole spreading good cheer thing. Love it.

And I really love winter. The bundling and the cozy inside-ness of it, how you get to have all these cool extra accessories like scarves and gloves and hats and what they look like all piled up near your front door.

I love fire burning dvd's and the smell of wood burning when you walk outside.
I love getting to eat soup for lunch and drinking coffee or hot tea any time of day cause you're cold.

Oo Oo and I love how the Christmas version of everything comes on tv and how there's always something good on the radio cause at least one station does Christmas music 24/7.

Boots are my favorite shoe, I've decided, and I love rushing inside and watching windy, cold weather from underneath a blanket (until you reach for something and your arms freeze up and you think..oh man if only my blanket had SLEEVES!).

Mmm Winter is my favorite, and Christmas is my favorite.
So I'm going to sit back and enjoy.

Good

I ask—ask the God of our Master, Jesus Christ, the God of glory—to make you intelligent and discerning in knowing him personally, your eyes focused and clear, so that you can see exactly what it is he is calling you to do, grasp the immensity of this glorious way of life he has for his followers, oh, the utter extravagance of his work in us who trust him—endless energy, boundless strength!
-Ephesians 1:15-19 (the message)

Psalm 34:1

"I will bless the Lord at all times His praise shall continually be in my mouth."

What's something that's in your mouth for long periods of time?
Gum.

When you think about it, we chew gum and know that we're chewing gum, but the whole time we're not thinking, "I'm chewing gum, I'm chewing gum, I'm chewing gum." It's in our mind, just not the tip of it.

When I read this scripture the first thing I thought of was "His praise shall continually be in my mouth" like gum.

How gross is it though, when we're chewing gum and then decide to eat a cracker (if you can actually reference a time when you've done this don't tell anyone).
It's at least a very imaginable gross-ness.

If you compare it again to the scripture it would be like chewing on the praises of God, then sticking a complain cracker in your mouth--they don't mix well.

I chewed on this scripture all day yesterday and plan to invoke the taste of cracker-gum next time I decide to complain about something.

You should do the same, and if you have trouble imagining the cracker-gum combo, try it-I double dare you.

One day you're in and the next you're out.

Just watched the Project Runway finale (thanks to hulu NOT my delete-happy tivo) and since Dayton is deep into the examination of the back of his eyelids I will let it all out here-in my (wait for it, wait for it) space.

The girl who won this season was a meanie head the entire time, which I think is a big mistake for one huge reason (that can also be contrived into a life lesson, so shut the yawn)...She may need a favor from the other contestants some day you never know. And yet she stepped on everyone she could and was not afraid to bad mouth people in front of the judges and I think that's wrong.

The super sweet girl from Charleston who won me over with her Pillsbury giggle should have won, but she'll go on to greatness no doubt.

I am pumped to go out and contrive my winter wardrobe after this episode which I love.

It's so true about having a vision (it stems from the Bible so-duh) but I hate it when I go shopping and have no vision for the look I'm going for, no creative stimulation if you will. That's why I like to keep clothes magazines lying around, really any kind of magazine with good pictures cause honestly, I've drawn inspiration from the strangest of places.

Now my creative cup is filled and with cash in my pocket I am wishing it was 11:19 am and not pm or else I would immediately storm the mall and go wild.

Oh well, a task for tomorrow night I guess.

Confession:

I am intentionally committing a self-proclaimed sin. I'm not going to finish the book I started.

Certain I'm not the only one to do this, I do it fully aware of the breech in many things, such as the flow of the book if I choose to pick it back up, or the flow of my reading list, which for this year includes now 14 and 1/2 books, and the breech in my self inflicted contract of researching childrens books before I write my own.

I just can't finish this one. It's by someone who once was my favorite children's author, but is now teetering on the brink of #2.

The book is called, The mysterious edge of the heroic world and it's the characters (flat) and the scenery (dilapidated) that have failed to meet my imagination's standards. I may push through, but really is it so wrong to shut the door on that world in the middle of a scene?
Is it so rude to excuse oneself without giving the characters a fore-warning?

I think not. At least half of me does, the other half will embark on a condemning diatribe every time I pass the thing and I will think to myself, "I should pick that up again" which is invariably followed by, "but really I should start from the beginning" and then I will blink and the notion will pass.

Hopefully, my new book (The Great Gatsby) will give my imagination enough of a workout to be in shape again.

Family

There are a good many writers/comedians out there who make a decent living by telling us about their family.
In fact I think it's quite near comedic genius to be able to take one idiosyncratic element about your own family and tell it in such a way that people can relate and laugh along with you.

(Example: "If you ever start feeling like you have the goofiest, craziest, most dysfunctional family in the world, all you have to do is go to a state fair. Because five minutes at the fair, you'll be going, 'you know, we're alright. We are dang near royalty.'" -jeff foxworthy)

Without that group of people that we all both strongly love and sometimes strongly hate we wouldn't be who we are today and would probably take out our frustrations on strangers more often then need be.

I love getting together with extended family. Not just because it's fun to catch up with these people who will always be in your life, no matter the frequency, but because it's fun to learn that you share more than a nose, you share personalities, senses of humor and it just makes you feel a little less unique (in a good way).

My brother got married this past weekend which gave us all a good excuse to get together. And while it was undoubtedly relaxing to not be the bride, it was also great fun seeing old faces together with the fresh additions.

The greatest thing about my family is there needn't be a comedian around to make them funny, they do it pretty well on their own. In the hours we were together more jokes were cracked then eggs in a bakery (hey that's a good one). And laughter was shared like an infectious disease (hmm).

I love that though. And I love seeing where I came from and being able to blame my sometimes all too silly nature on my aunts and uncles :)