Tag Archives: blogging

Wrist to Virginia Woolf

I knew it would be Wrist to Forehead Sunday; I just didn’t know how long I would put off making the post.  This weekend was going to be SO productive, writing-wise!  I guess next weekend I will plan on getting nothing done and see if the opposite thing happens with that.

I couldn’t even have one of my favorite Severed Head Sundays, because Steven wanted to watch Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? in respect for recently deceased playwright Edward Albee.  I could have no possible objection.  I love Edward Albee.  I had a great directing experience once directing The American Dream, which of course he wrote.  My greatest dream role has always been Martha in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?  I still think I could play the hell out of that part.  Perhaps I flatter myself, but who would disillusion me?  At least, I suppose somebody might try, but I will not believe them.

It is really a very good movie.  Some people have problems with places where it departs from the play script, but you’ll have that with a screen adaptation.  I have never seen the play on stage, although I have read it numerous times.  I think it is time for me to read it again.  It would be a good idea for me to read more plays, since I am currently working on writing a couple. If I keep reading plays, I can internalize the form, as they say.

In the meantime, I need to publish at least 200 words to feel I am still writing a blog.  When I realized I had not done so yet, I said, “Crap!  I haven’t make my blog post!”  Steven said, “Don’t make one today.  Everyone will be saying, ‘Where’s Cindy?’ ”  But I could not let today be the day I did such a thing.  So I pulled out the laptop and started typing.  And look, I am over 300 words.  I call that respectable.  Happy Sunday, everyone.

 

Humid with a Chance of Lame

Have I written a post this summer about how it is too damn hot for me to write a blog post?   I know I have written several of those in the past, but have I written any in 2016?  I bet I have.  Well, this is another one, but being as it is Lame Post Friday, I believe I can get away with it.

This whole week has been dreadfully hot and humid.  Unofficial end of summer my ass!  Of course there is no use in complaining about it.  The weather will do what it decides to, whoever is pleased or otherwise.  So, anybody who is saying huffily, “I LIKE summer weather” can just say it to somebody else.

I am going through a downswing.  Mood-wise, writing-wise, blog-wise.  But I must fight the tendency to mope around in a corner.  Oh poor, pitiful me!  Said with one wrist at my forehead, of course.  Perhaps I could manage a swoon.  The problem with that is that you can’t count on somebody being around who will revive you with a glass of brandy.  Why did those ladies in the old time novels push away the brandy?  Where they nuts?

Well, that was kind of a stream of consciousness paragraph, wasn’t it?  That is probably a side effect of stewed brain, which is what I fear is in my skull today.   The only other thing I can share in hopes of offering some entertainment is the following:

When I am cleaning my machines at the end of my work day, I sometimes sing the theme song from The Blob.  “It creeps and leaps and glides and slides across the floor, right through the door and all around the wall, a splotch, a blotch, be wary of the Blob! (Beware of the Blob!)”  That’s it, over and over.  Then I do “dah daah!” and other random syllables for the musical interludes.  Then back into the lyric.  Sometimes I dance a tango step or two.

Today, when I got back to the lyrics for the third or fourth time, I heard myself sing,  “…a splotch, a blotch, be wary of the Blog!”

Wouldn’t that be a great title for a post?  But if I used it for this one, it would spoil the joke.  I’ll keep it in mind for the upcoming Halloween season.  In the meantime, I’m over 300 words.  Happy Friday, everyone.

 

Middle-aged Musings on a Not Real Monday

Happy Labor Day, everybody!  I am still feeling a giddy, feet-shuffling delight that I have a three-day weekend.  Many years of retail, army then retail rendered me quite jaded regarding Monday (and other day) holidays.  I have had Labor Day off since 2011 and it still feels wonderful to me.

Oh, I KNOW other people will never get Monday holidays off, most notably police, firemen, medical workers and other important folks.  Also those of less gratifying work such as retail and fast-food (at least, I was never particularly gratified by working in these fields; perhaps others feel differently).  Why do I feel guilty about being so happy about having a three-day weekend?  I have worked plenty of Monday holidays!  Many people other than me have Monday holidays and other days off that I don’t have.  I suppose I am more susceptible to guilt.  Perhaps it would benefit me to stop taking so seriously what other people say.

I guess I am not letting the guilt take away all my pleasure in my unusual Monday off.  I ran this morning (after first having coffee; I meant to write a blog post about it, oops). Steven,who, quite surprisingly, has today off (he worked the weekend), fixed a lovely breakfast.  We have been watching movies since about noon. It has been a MARVELOUS day.  If only I had written a blog post earlier and, you know,written a better blog post, my life would be perfect.

However, one publishes what one can.  We’ll call this a Monday Middle-aged Musings and drive on.

 

 

We Interrupt my Sunday for a Wrist to Forehead Moment

I pause in the midst of my day for a Wrist to Forehead Sunday post.  It is not really a bad Sunday; I just don’t feel up to making a good post.  I feel sure my readers will understand or at least forgive.  If not, oh well, what the hell, as a wise woman once said (it was my mother).

I got up and ran this morning, managing a better run than yesterday.  In fact, the day all around has been a better day.  I did some laundry, I did the dishes, I finished a letter and wrote a post card, Steven and I went grocery shopping (I neglected to put cilantro on the list, although I had planned to make salsa), I did some chopping and mixing.  I could probably manage a blog post about one of those.  Yet, I feel strangely disinclined to do so.

Oh who am I kidding? There is nothing strange about it.  I often feel disinclined to make what I call a real blog post, especially on a Sunday.  Hence, my usual Wrist to Forehead Sunday.  This is what comes of a blogger not taking any days off.  Would one suggest I make fewer posts per week but make them better?  That won’t work for me; I would just stop posting entirely, because nothing would ever been good enough.

That would be no tragedy, you say?  You could be right, but it is not a very nice thing to say now, is it?  On the other hand, that gives me a reason to have a wrist to forehead moment.  Alack and alas!  Somebody, somewhere does not want me posting every day!  Whatever will I do? Who is this discouraging miscreant?  Ah yes, the imaginary critic in my own head.  Silly me.

Now I am getting entirely too silly.  I shall sign off and get back to enjoying my Sunday.  I hope all my readers are having a similarly enjoyable time.

 

It’s As If I Had a Lame Lobotomy!

This is dreadful.  What little brain I had seems to have up and deserted me.  At first I thought perhaps it was still partially here, since I am typing quite competently.  Then I remembered:  muscle memory.  It means nothing.

There is little point in even saying, “But I MUST make a post!”  We all know I will not willingly let a day go by without hitting publish on SOMETHING, however lame and foolish.  Waaaait a minute!  Today IS Lame Post Friday!  Now I’m wondering if I shouldn’t re-name it to Foolish Friday and go for that alliteration I so love.

Sometimes when I feel quite brain dead at 4:47 p.m. (according to my computer), I can put off posting till later in the evening.  Occasionally that works out for me and I come up with something not contemptible (don’t ask me for an example; I am certainly not up to searching previous posts much less making a link).  However, today I must head to Much Ado at Herkimer Elks.  We had a dress rehearsal last night.  I had taken a decongestant and was extremely lightheaded, but I managed to say most of my lines correctly.

You know, I’m seeing kind of a head pattern with me lately.  Either I am lightheaded, I have a headache, or I am brain dead.  What the hell, head?  Maybe I have too much hair.  I am getting a haircut tomorrow; maybe that will help.  I am getting a pedicure as well, but I somehow doubt pretty colored toenails will improve anything other than my disposition (still, that is definitely worth improving).  On the brighter side, I will be able to make a blog post about Hot Spot Salon and Spa in Herkimer, where I get my beauty work done (I was going to say I use the term “beauty” loosely as applied to myself, but would that not be insulting to my stylist?  She is pretty awesome).

At least I am over 300 words.  Sometimes we settle for quantity over quality.  If only I could think of a headline, my life would be perfect.

 

After Dinner Lame

Ooh, is my stomach full.  We just got back from Salvatore’s right here in Herkimer, NY, where I had the first calzone I have had in years.  I must say, YUM!  But, what a surprise, I ate too much of it. I still have plenty left over for further pig out activities.  In the meantime, I am quite late in making this week’s Friday Lame Post.  What, I ask, is a blogger to do?

It is hardly a “real” Friday for me, because I work tomorrow.  No, I am NOT complaining about it, I’m just SAYING.  Sheesh!  Then again, there is no pleasing some people so I might as well just stop trying.  Why, yes, I had a glass of wine with dinner, why do you ask?

I had thought I might possibly write something earlier today, on breaks at work, and avoid sitting here in front of a blank screen trying to be funny (or at least coherent).  I started by working on a letter I had started to a friend.  It did not go so well.  I ended up going back to a puzzle book I had handy and working on some puzzles.  It was all my brain wanted to do.  As the day wore on, things got even worse, brain-wise.

Yes, the heat and humidity continues in the Mohawk Valley, along with its deleterious effect on my writing activities (don’t you just love that word, deleterious?).  As I left work today, a work friend was talking about what he was going to do next week.  I said, “I am going to get my act together.  Do you believe me?”  Nobody did.  Even I didn’t believe me.

On the other hand, here I am, over 250 words and it’s past my bed time.  I hope to see you all again tomorrow on Scattered Saturday, or whatever kind of Saturday it turns out to be.  Happy Friday, everyone.

 

We’ll Always Have Lame Post Friday

I really did try to write while I was at work today (YES, on a break, don’t go speed-dialing my boss!).  For one reason, I ran out of cryptogram puzzles from the newspaper and I didn’t bring a book or magazine nor yet my script to study (that last would have been a good idea; missed a bet).  Well, the brain dead thing continues, I guess. Anyways, it’s Lame Post Friday.  I can’t get too exercised on Lame Post Friday (exercise!  That would be another good idea!  Oh well).

It isn’t even a “real” Friday for me, because I work tomorrow.  Oh, don’t sneer at me, all you non-Monday-to-Friday people.  I know, you all work harder and longer than me at more challenging, important jobs.  Blah, blah, blah.  I wasn’t complaining.  Much.

My plan had been to write about LiFT’s performance of Much Ado About Nothing last night at Benton’s Landing in Little Falls.  It went very well.  Actors and audience both endured high temperatures and humidity.  We were rewarded with a live Shakespeare experience.  Oh, I do love theatre.  I love writing too; I just don’t seem to be capable of doing much of that lately.  As I often say, one must persevere.

Tomorrow afternoon we have another performance, this one on the stage where we have rehearsed the most, Sterzinar Park, Canal Place, Little Falls.  Saturday’s show is at 4 p.m., then Sunday we have one at 3.  For more information, you can visit LiFT’s Facebook page.  You can also see some fun pictures of our other performances.

And in case anybody was wondering, Sunday will conclude All Much Ado All The Time and we return to our regularly scheduled blog posts (you know, a few “real” posts surrounded by foolishness about How I Can’t Write a Post Today).  I do hope you’ll stay tuned.

 

 

 

Some Kind of Halt

I gradually realized what my problem is.  I started to put “suddenly realized” but the fact is I do not do anything quickly these days.  Yes, it is the heat.  If you are one of those people who worship summer weather and feel chilled when the mercury drops below 75,… I don’t know where I was going with that sentence.  After all, people have the right to like whatever kind of weather suits their fancy.  To each his own, as the old lady said when she kissed the cow (I stole that expression from  friend).

I have mentioned in this space that I melt in the heat (alas, not literally; my weight-loss goals continue to elude me).  My body slows down and my brain comes to a grinding halt. Is that a cliche, “grinding halt”?  Perhaps I could come up with a more imaginative term.  Let’s see, what kind of halt has my brain ground to?  Did it, in fact, grind?  Or was it something… gooshier?  It did not slosh, because that implies more movement than I have recently experienced.  More of a drag.  My brain dragged along in a discouraged fashion and at last reached an ominous stillness.

Ominous?  Perhaps so, because it may never start again.  Still, “ominous” implies that my brain is actually doing something, namely threatening unspecified consequences.  Only it is not.  It is lying there, thinking nothing, offering nothing, doing nothing.

I wrote the preceding during my nine o’clock break at work.  When I read it over at lunch time, my brain thought, “complete halt.”  Of course, “complete halt,” I realized.  That is what I meant.  Perhaps not evocative, but more accurately and less cliche-edly what happened (yes, I know, “cliche-edly” is not a work, but it is exactly what I mean).  It was some few minutes later that I realized for my brain to think “complete halt” it clearly was not at one (yes, it took some minutes, moving slow in the heat, remember?).

If only I could think of an unrelated yet clever-sounding title, this could be a Non-Sequitur Thursday post.  However, I have no time nor, as observed ad nauseum, brain for such a thing.  I must get ready for a performance of Much Ado About Nothing at Benton Landing in Little Falls at 6.  I am quite nervous but of course looking forward to it.  Happy Thursday, everyone.

 

Mental Meanderings before Much Ado

That served me right.  I started to work on a cryptogram puzzle instead of writing my blog post, and I could not get it.  It is a similar phenomenon when I play one more game of solitaire (do I need to specify with an actual deck of cards, not on the computer or other device?) (oh, who am I kidding? Nobody plays solitaire on computers any more!), even though I do not have time enough to do so, it is almost always a lousy game.  Well, we cannot always do the right thing and very often we cannot even agree on what the right thing is.

And there goes that theory anyways.  I couldn’t think of anything else to write.  I looked at the puzzle and got it.  Bam.

The preceding is what I wrote while on break at work.  I was going for a Monday Mental Meanderings, I suppose.  The only other thing I got is this:  Under the heading It Take So Little To Please Some People: today is 8/8/16.  Get it?  8 + 8 = 16.  Teehee.  Yes, I am easily amused.  I was going to post that as my Facebook status but I forgot.

I’m afraid this post is not very amusing. In my defense, I have to get to the Utica Zoo by 5 p.m.  We are presenting Much Ado About Nothing at six.  I am suddenly feeling quite nervous about it.  Making sure I remember all my costumes and props, driving to the zoo, finding a place to park… oh yes, and remembering my lines.  I’m going to stop blogging now and look at them.

 

 

 

Once Again, I’ve Said Too Much

This is not exactly a blogger’s sick day, but I don’t know what else to call it.  The stupidest thing happened.  Oh well, maybe not the STUPIDEST, but stupid enough to call it so, and already I am typing too much.  This morning I got a mysterious pain in my forearm, just a little above my wrist.  I didn’t worry about it, because it didn’t hurt that bad.  I just went to work and went about my business, because, you know, I work for a living.

And it kept hurting.  Off and on, with gusts of real pain followed by lengths of irritation, interspersed with increasingly shorter periods of not feeling bad at all.  I don’t think it was work related, because, well, I wasn’t working all that hard (don’t judge me), and I figured it would go away eventually.  However, I thought it would be a good idea to just mention it to my boss.  You see, if it was work-related, and it turned into something serious, and I hadn’t told anybody, I could get in big trouble.  So I always err on the side of saying something, even at the expense of feeling stupid. I know, it is not an unusual feeling for me.

My boss sent me down to the nurse.  She emphasized that she could not diagnose nor even force me to do anything, but she gave me an ice pack and some ibuprofen and suggested the following:  I should continue to ice and take ibuprofen as needed and wear a wrist brace, which she also gave me, when working.  And I should rest it.  I mentioned that I type a blog every night, and she told me I shouldn’t do that.  She said I could type a very short one, while wearing the wrist brace, and explain that I had an arm problem and would not be blogging for the rest of the week.

ARE YOU KIDDING ME?  Not blog every day?  Say it ain’t so!  Still, one does not want to aggravate an injury, or whatever it is.  And I don’t want anyone at work reading my blog and getting mad at me if my arm still hurts (oh yeah, like any of them reads my blog! I have such an ego).

So this is all of today’s post.  It is longer than I had intended, and perhaps longer than recommended, but I’m even leaving some stuff out.  What can I do?  I know, sign off before I up my word count even more.  Don’t tell the nurse, but I intend to post again tomorrow.  Perhaps I will attempt to type one handed.  Then there could be no possible objection.