What I Did Today Instead of Write

Listened to NPR, love that Joe Wilson’s rival got over $400,000 in campaign contributions without even asking (what’s going on with South Carolina anyway??);

Made Coffee

Checked e-mail

Went on Facebook

Looked at ranking of the Stories Book on Amazon

Organized Day

Reconciled bank account

Checked e-mail

Went on Facebook

Organized Writing Files

Made 2^nd cup of coffee

Checked e-mail

Read internet article on anti-wrinkle creams

Went on Facebook and Amazon

Did neck exercises (don’t want the tinnutis to return)

Tidied up apartment

Did dishes

Went on Facebook

Checked e-mails

Did stretches (don't want back pain to return)

Went for a walk

Stopped at grocery store; fortunately didn't have run-in again with the lady who yelled at me for eating samples from the salad bar

Stopped at comic book store, asked about the graphic memoir Stitches by David Small

Came home, checked e-mail, Facebook and Amazon

Made lunch

Read the Red Eye, keeping up on popular culture (Ellen is replacing Paula on American Idol)

Read parts of Stein on Writing, got an interesting idea to use in my next writing workshop

Checked e-mail

Went on Facebook

Biked to university library, cruised the periodical stacks.  What a treasure trove!  In addition to the usual popular magazines like Time, Newsweek, The New Yorker, and Vogue (Vogue???), there are tons of academic journals including  The North American Journal of Fisheries Management; Middle Eastern Studies; the Huntington Library Quarterly; and The Scottish Journal of Theology.  Can't wait to crack those open.

Read parts of the Summer 09 issue of Paris Review

Left to meet private writing client at the local indie coffeehouse

Biked to Sears to pay Discover bill

Went to networking event at Uncommon Ground

Biked back to the university library

Read more of Paris Review, found much solace in Billy Collins’ poem about not writing:

 

Returning the Pencil to Its Tray

 

Everything is fine---

the first bits of sun are on

the yellow flowers behind the low wall,

 

people in cars are on their way to work,

and I will never have to write again.

 

Just looking around

will suffice from here on in.

 

Who said I had to always play

the secretary of the interior?

 

And I am getting good at being blank,

staring at all the zeroes in the air.

 

It must have been all the time spent

in the kayak this summer

that brought this out,

 

the yellow one that went

nicely with the pale blue life jacket---

 

the sudden, tippy

buoyancy of the launch,

then the exertion, striking

into the wind against the short waves,

 

but the best was drifting back,

the paddle resting athwart the craft,

and me mindless in the middle of time.

 

Not even that dark cormorant

perched on the NO WAKE sign,

his narrow head raised

as if he were looking over something,

 

not even that inquisitive little fellow

could bring me to write another word.

                       

                                    ---Billy Collins

 

 

P.S. I love you Billy Collins.

P.P. S. Came home, checked e-mail, went on Facebook and Amazon.