So, how ya been?

I have been woefully out of date with keeping this blog up since starting my new position over 3 years ago. Being an active mom, wife, and skater has meant precious little time to sit at the computer for leisure.

In trying to keep creative juices flowing, I started thinking about the challenge and appeal of the short story. From there, my thoughts went to a book published a few years ago, where an author challenged friends to write a full, compelling story in 75 words or less. THEN I started to think about my ArtPrize project in honor of Geno. From that project, I created word art, attempting to create a visual picture of a person in only one sentence.

For the summer, that will be my challenge: one sentence, daily.

Because I'm the kind of girl who loves a challenge.

New Lease on Life

As you can tell, I've been a little busy since getting a new job. I want to keep updating this for the pure pleasure of writing but admittedly, most nights I collapse exhausted in my chair while me and Dave binge watch Mad Men.

It's been great getting back in my field, officially but with the freelance gigs and writing my stories, I feel like I never left.

April Playlist: This is Me in Grade 9

I'm very giddy to be skating to the Barenaked Ladies' Grade 9 for this year's comedy/light entertainment event. Grade 9 happened to be the '83/'84 school year, and the height of the MTV/new wave/second British Invasion.

To compile this list, I went with international acts that put my heart and head squarely at the Lumen Christi Friday night school dances, pogo-ing with my girlfriends, wistfully wondering if any of the guys were going to ask me to dance. Answer: no. *sigh*

Every Breath You Take, The Police

Down Under, Men at Work

Sweet Dreams, Eurythmics

Hungry Like the Wolf, Duran Duran

Let's Dance, David Bowie

Electric Avenue, Eddy Grant

Too Shy, Kajagoogoo

Goody Two Shoes, Adam Ant

Come Dancing, The Kinks

Pass the Dutchie, Musical Youth

True, Spandau Ballet

Don't Cry, Asia

Stories for the Boy: Happy Birthday

HBD baby

So you've had your sixth birthday this year. In case you forgot, your day included blue and blue baseball cupcakes with custom made Whitecap logo sticks for your party at school; presents in the morning which included a Star Wards pretend shaving kit and Lego accessories for your iTouch; and dinner at Applebees by request.

Since you share your birth month with your dad, I think it's appropriate to tell you about how we celebrated his birthday, our first as a couple. That would have been 1992.

Since I didn't have quite enough money to go whole hog on the day, I recreated our first date for him, the best I could. I "took him out" on a date in his living room, serving pizza and a six pack of Killian's Red. We opted not to return to Bilbo's in Kalamazoo. There was no cake, but we met with friends after. I know I got your dad a car, but cannot remember if I got him an actual present. Maybe a bow on the beer. Kind of a big deal.

Typing Out Loud: At Last!

Woooo!

It's been a long time coming. In a few days, I start a new marketing position for a local university.

When I started this blog back in 2008, I had a feeling change was on the horizon, and my fears were later confirmed when my position was eliminated, and I faced coping with defeat. To paraphrase the recently departed Toller Cranston, he based his creative career, artistically and athletically, on making up for loss of the Olympic gold in '76.

I think I have too.

I became a runner.

I rediscovered myself as an artist.

I became a silver level figure skater and an ice dancer.

I became a gold level figure skating judge.

And I chronicled it all the last 6+ years over the course of 260 blog entries.

Writing this blog was not only a way to cope, it was also a way to fire up my creativity and keep my writing skills sharp.

I've taking a lot of hits too. I've joked often about the interview process being like a series of blind dates and I have had my share of nightmare situations that have, quite honestly, done a number on my self esteem over the years. I could really write a book about this series of disasters alone.

Which makes it deeply satisfying to move on.

March Playlist: Marty Robbins, El Paso

First, some facts:

El Paso was a number one hit, pop and country charts, in 1960.

It won a Grammy for Best C&W recording in 1961.

It is considered one of the top 100 country songs of all time.

It was used in the finale of the show Breaking Bad, a perfectly heartbreaking narrative.

So why the love?

My grand mother was a huge Marty Robbins fan. My dad used to sing this song while listening to the oldies station.

The song is a narrative ballad and tells the story of a cowboy in love with a dancer from Rosa's Cantina named Faleena. I love the flamenco guitar work and the haunting harmonies. And the end is so damn heartbreaking...

Why Art Matters: John Irving

Wrestler turned author.

I backed into Irving fandom in '88, a homework, dinner and a movie date with a boyfriend at the time. The homework was chemistry, the dinner cornish hens and the movie The World According to Garp. The relationship (and my pre-pharmacy major) didn't last, but my relationship with Irving's stories did.

His work has been described as similar to Charles Dickens, a fact I can hardly argue but I see his style as uniquely his own. He set his characters in absurd situations for which they act perfectly normal. His worlds are filled with bears in crisis, hookers with sage life advice, horny teenage boys, the world of wrestling, mental illness and finding yourself in Vienna. What is consistent is his blend of comedy and drama, like the grudge one man held against a baby since his dog was hit by a diaper truck. Strong female characters are also a constant.

Memorable characters include Owen, who believes he was conceived in a VIRGIN BIRTH; Garp, conceived by an asexual nurse who rapes a patient as he lay dying; Freud, the Viennese innkeeper who believes he is training a bear, who is actually a woman in a bear suit; Dr. Wilbur Larch, head of an orphanage who is also an abortion doctor; Piggy Sneed, a man of no consequence made heroic by a child's blatant lies; Ruth, used as a pawn in her parents dissolving marriage turned novelist, who of course befriends a prostitute in Vienna.

Even though Irving has his own unique set of tropes, he never relies on cliche to complete his story. His stories are never neatly tied in a bundle, yet you do not feel cheated out of a satisfying ending. You are offered redemption in one way or another, at the end.