What is Drastic + Dramatic

Thursday, December 10, 2009

Stuff



Do you ever get an idea that expands farther than your mind contains space? It's like when you choose full screen and the extreme edges of the movie get cropped from view. I was free writing the other day, a marvelous mess of emotion. A few days later I envisioned a fantastic way of polishing it, and straightaway it intimidated me. I had written the first draft, but if you know me at all, I'm not patient with revisions, so that simply remarkable idea seems in my mind at a distance so far away. As far as Egypt, actually. Egypt would be way neat to behold, but the getting there....not likely. If there was a great storm heading over Provo just now, destination Egypt, I would be more likely to hook my umbrella in its cloudy weave and drift to Egypt than to ever really get myself to Egypt. But, I have enough of that original emotion with which the first free written draft was composed, that I think I will be able to bridge over the revision gap. Funny how verily feeling is the burner for inspiration. And revision risks exposure to so many different temperatures, the original idea can often evaporate unawares. Which is sometimes preferable, and other times tragic.

But anyway, lately the inside of my nose freezes while I get my bus started in the morning, and I don't enjoy it. I enjoy it equal to or less than having to scrape ice off the outside and inside of my windshield. When it's so cold out, the devil rejoices, I'm sure. He gratefully slips out of his burning chambers and vigilantly nips at my fingers and toes. If that biting feeling is what the entire physical being is confined to in the devil's company, I so desire not to join him.

I'm supposed to be writing three papers right now. I think I may only write just two. Both document windows are open, waiting patiently, uncomplaining, happy just to be entitled.docx. Having been brought into existence through my awesome creative powers, their measly purpose amounts to little more than fulfilling a grade requirement. But they'll do as they're told, nothing more, nothing less. Wouldn't it be neat if saved and stored computer files started collecting digital dust the longer they went unopened?

I thought there was something wrong with my car. Every time I slowed down and turned to the right it made a whimpering noise like a failed arcade game level. My mechanic friend Jay drove around with me and said pensively, "I thought I'd heard it all . . . that sounds like rubber . . ." When we got back to the house from our diagnostic drive he looked at the tires and laughed, mostly at me, and for good reason. He kicked at my tires and ordered me to try the drive again, betting me dinner it was just ice & rubber making the bizarre noise. I was probably going to make him dinner at any rate, but now I owe it. But, on the plus side, nothing's wrong with my car! It really was a sweet noise. I enjoyed it. Makes me want to go to an arcade.

I had a thought today about snowmen. And I'll write about that en suite. The thought is still rolling together its mass of creativity, not quite ready to build on itself. So stay tuned; flurries of inspiration keep drifting in.

Aaaaand, school ending and finals are making me fat. Well, not fat, neither plump; not quite chunky; a little less than chubby. But it's uncomfortable. I'm expending money for knowledge and my laziness is paying me in blubber. I need laze-osuction.

I took that picture of the kid handprint on the iced window this morning, by the way.

For now, the end.

4 comments:

Jarom said...

There was one called ReRotation, but it disappeared. A paragraph and a photo of a mountain lake are all that remain in the reading list. I thought I'd leave a remark about the question, so it'll be left here. I hope it isn’t out of line...

I liked it. These words; and others like them, prompt an observer to wonder what coaxed them from your fingertips. Your words allow a person to honestly wonder about the events which took place and; with their ever-so-delicate ambiguity, allow people to relate without great difficulty but not without enough effort to make it worthwhile. It’s an admirable gift and talent and reading has been pleasure as always.

emilyf said...

aw, well now that's a much different review than I got from another friend, which review caused me to remove the ReRotation post and examine it further, to see what should be done for revision. I appreciate your remarks. If you do want to know what inspired it, I will tell you, but first you need to say you'd like to have they mystery spoiled. :)

Jarom said...

Spoiled? You really think so? I suppose I'll just ask; there are probably too many layers to the mystery to have it spoiled entirely. :-)

emilyf said...

On my last day of British Literature class, I sit behind this guy and his shirt says "The world is still spinning." or something as simple as that. See, then the idea pops up and I write down the very small one line kernel of inspiration and the rest came the next day. I don't know where Jerusalem and New York fit in just except that they are well-known places on earth. and I didn't refer to any male in my own past as the one that told me it was over; that totally just plopped out of nowhere. Seemed to give the poem a sudden perspective, and whether that's good or bad, I don't care, it just happened. I don't tell my brain what to tell me! So yeah, you're right anyway, its many layers are much deeper than I even know! That's what words do best.

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