Poetry Friday: Photo Meme and Comic Strips

Meme Rules:

Take a picture of yourself right now.
Don't change your clothes, don't fix your hair -- just take a picture.
Post that picture with NO editing.
Post these instructions with your picture.




DONE.

Then I went all Top Model and tried to do "Tyra Eyes."









It's harder than it looks, I swear.

I gave up and went for Comic Book Me.



I like this one. A lot.
What's the big deal about being two-dimensional?


In case you've missed them, the Poetry Foundation is doing a series called "The Poem as Comic Strip." Here's the beginning of the poem they've chosen for #6:


Recitative

by A.E. Stallings

Every night, we couldn’t sleep.

Our upstairs neighbors had to keep

Dropping something down the hall—

A barbell or a bowling ball,

And from the window by the bed,

Echoing inside my head,

Alley cats expended breath

In arias of love and death.

Read the rest (as a comic strip) here. Look for the link at the bottom of the introduction.

Graphics by Maui-born artist, R. Kikuo Johnson.
Or for the straight text by poet A.E. Stallings, here.

And if you have PhotoBooth on a Mac, I'd like to see a ComicBook version of YOU. Please.

Poetry Friday is hosted today by Author Amok.

Summer Goals

I knew it was gonna happen. I've been tagged to state my summer goals. Thanks, Jen! Really, thanks. 'Cause last year, to my shock and amusement, I actually accomplished all my goals. So maybe I've become a convert to this goal thing. (Although, as you can see, it's taken me some time to get to it.)

Goals
(Things that will make me look back
on this summer as a good one)

• Get out of the house and see a few summer flicks with popcorn (I love you, Netflix, but you make me a hermit. )

• Go on my first working writer retreat (I've got one lined up, and I'm looking forward to it like a pee break after six cups of coffee. Oh, was that rude? Sorry. I'm excited. Yes, I am.)

• Stop feeling guilty about everything I haven't read yet and just read. (It's not like I ever will catch up, so why stress?)

• See an art exhibit, any art exhibit. (I swear, if art came on an ice cream truck, I'd run out every time the little song played. But ask me to spend 45 minutes getting to it, and I totally wimp out. No more! I will make the effort.)

• Be brave and steadfast in my writing and in my revisions. (I like this quote from Kelly's Quoteskimming: "Your writing should be smarter than you are." Amen.)

By Fives

Kelly tagged me for a meme. I don't do memes much, but this one seemed easy, so I bit.

What were you doing five years ago?

• Good thing I keep a journal, or I couldn't answer this question. Living in Columbus, Mississippi while my husband was the Operations Group Commander for a pilot training base (attended a graduation every three weeks for the two years I was there.) Reflecting on turning forty. Homeschooling my kids (a short stint.) Trying to give up on being a writer and do something else. Reading What Should I Do with my Life? by Po Bronson. Also, Lying by Lauren Slater, Atonement by Ian McEwan, and the script for Arcadia by Tom Stoppard. (My reading life has gone downhill, for sure. Yesterday, I read InStyle: The Shape Issue.)
  

What are five things on your to-do list for today (not in any particular order)?

• Help my daughter pack her car
  
• Walk the dog/myself for exercise
  
• Make non-creamy pasta salad for my son's crew team, and deliver it, along with a large cooler half-filled with ice
• Put myself back in write/work mode to tackle revisions
• Tell you guys that I'm going to SCBWI L.A. and that I would LOVE to see you there
  

What are five snacks you enjoy?

• Popcorn
  
• Apple w/peanut butter
  
• Graham crackers dipped in milk
  
• Almonds
  
• Cheese of any kind/bread or crackers
  

What five things would you do if you were a billionaire?

• Go on long, outdoor adventure trips with my family
  
• Build a house with porches on every side
  
• Hire a gardener to create and maintain a gorgeous walking garden
  
• Fully fund the arts in as many schools as possible
• Have my own plane
  

What are five of your bad habits?

• Worrying
• Leaving junk in my car
• Writing hunched over on the couch, instead of ergonomically at my desk
• Filing by piling
• Shoes
  

What are five places where you have lived?

• Knoxville, Tennessee
  
• Okinawa, Japan
  
• Las Vegas, Nevada
  
• Stuttgart, Germany
  
• Newport, R.I.
  

What are five jobs you’ve had?

• Waitress: Pizza Hut, Cajun's Wharf, Williamsburg Hospitality House (breakfast shift--yuck)
  
• Historical interpreter, Colonial Williamsburg (I had a green dress with a lace-up vest and a purple one with hip hoops. And a wicker basket "purse.")
  
• Student work/study jobs: Research on Mennonite family records, and marketing for the Virginia Shakespeare Festival (free theater tickets!)
  
• Program Coordinator, USC Master's Degree in Systems Management program, Okinawa, Japan (free half of a master's degree!)
  
• Writer (no tips, costumes, free tickets or degrees. But the best job I've ever had.)
  

What five people do you want to tag?

You, you, you, you....and you.

A very short post

Erin challenged me to write my life in six words. I didn't have as much trouble with it as I thought I would. Here it is:

Girl raised by wild books: survives.

Want to try it? Consider yourself tagged.

Seven Things on a Wednesday

Jennie tagged me to post Seven Things About Me. Run away now if you'd rather not know.

1. I would like to be Aretha Franklin. Yup, voice and body. If I can't have it in this life, I'm hoping we can swap in heaven.

2. I still have a piece of pencil lead in my right hand knuckle from where a boy jabbed me in third grade. (What did I do to him? I honestly don't remember.)

3. I don't really mind spiders, snakes, or mice. I hate bees and eels. Maybe it's the double "ee" sound.

4. I once pretended to have a major crush on The Bay City Rollers because my best friend did.

5. I like camping and staying in five star hotels; fried baloney and Rachael Ray's Beef Tenderloin Bites; getting as gross as possible when exercising and as glamorous as possible when dressing up in slinky gowns; watching My Name is Earl on TV and Shakespeare on stage. I do not like choosing just one thing.

6. I once had a job where I posed tourists for photos with a cardboard cutout of Ronald Reagan. Please don't hold it against me---he was president at the time.

7. I think Tuck Everlasting has the most beautiful opening line ever: "The first week in August hangs at the very top of summer, the top of the live-long year, like the highest seat of a Ferris wheel when it pauses in its turning." I think The High King has the wisest closing line ever: "And in time, only the bards knew the truth of it."

If you want to play along, consider yourself tagged. Or tell me which of these seven things you think is the most blog-worthy.