My Fresh Hell
Life in Scribbletown.

A New Chapter

2005-08-03
Want a glimpse into my mind? Here�s how I operate: Notes. I live by the notes I write because if it�s not written down? I don�t do it. Not because I don�t feel like it but because I fucking forget to do it. Because it wasn�t written down. I can think of something I need to do while I�m taking a shower and by the time I step out and dry myself off, the thought is gone. And, it takes more than just a note. It has to be a note that is attached to something in my field of vision or a part of my body in order for me to do it. To remember to do it. It almost has to be written on a post it note attached to my windshield (the inside, facing me, obscuring my vision) in order for me to remember to do it. Or in my underwear. I might remember to do something if there�s a scratchy piece of paper down there. If it�s a good day.

That�s why I have a perennial note in the otherwise useless catch-all container in my car (what is that for, exactly?), near the gear shift. It is a rotating note with one word on each side. I flip it over depending on which thing I need to remember to buy. This note reminds me to purchase the two most important things in my life these days. And neither of those things is diapers. On one side, the note reads:

GAS

The other side reads:

BEER

I do not kid. If this note were to disappear? I would be stranded on the side of the road without any gas in my car and nothing to drink to drown my sorrows. And remember, I do not own a cell phone so I could be in the ditch a damn long time!

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Dusty has suddenly gotten interested in chapter books. We�ve already read "The Wizard of Oz" and "James and the Giant Peach". Now we�re reading "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory". A couple chapters each night. My husband�s reading her "Alice in Wonderland," which apparently makes absolutely no sense. Because, lord only knows what Lewis Carroll, Mr. Dodgson, was smoking in that caterpillar hooka pipe. It must have been good stuff, though.

So I might have to start a secondary reading list for Dusty along with my own. You know that reading contest she entered at the library last month? The one where she had to read 30 books by August? It took us about 5 days to get through 30 books, not counting the ones that were read multiple times.

Now, all these books were or are being read TO her but she�s beginning to learn to read on her own and likes to transcribe books. This week she�s �writing� one book by Alice Provensen about a dog named Murphy. Dusty sits at the computer, with the book open, and types the sentences out. She wants to write the whole thing. Guess her next lesson will be one about plagiarism, huh?

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Well, gosh. That�s all I got. Good thing I don�t have to write every day � I�d bore the pants off you! I was gonna give you a review of The Wizard of Oz (have you actually ever read the book?) and compare it to the movie version but I�ve run out of steam and it�s lunchtime. And I�m hungry.

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12:36 p.m. ::
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