Thursday, December 20, 2007

Today was a slightly less productive day. We did make plans for going over Misentity submissions, and I googledocked my poem, and I am thinking about adding slamming to my checkpoint for January. I am concerned, howver, that I will have to do college apps that night. Plus, if I slam, someone else would have to pick out judges, or we risk them all being tilted in my favor.Anyway, I started a plan for the rest of the year, too. That's really the bulk of my checkpoint. I've had enough of a break now that I can think about my novel enough to make a plan.

So. Updates to be continued in 2008! Yeah!
I might update the Misentity blog before that, though.

Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Today, I-

wow. I don't remember. Ah, yes. We were gettign ready for the slam, so I sorted numbers and hole-punched them, after Frau laminated them for us. (<3>

Friday, December 14, 2007

The usual. Only now, all the lit submissions have been logged, keyed in, and saved on my h and flash drives, with the exception of ones emailed after school, 3 that presented technical difficulties, and anticipated submissions from CWIII kids.

^_*accomplishment*_^

So basically what I did was go through all the emails to misentity and save things and log things, and now that's all done. We had a meeting about checkpoint-making and productivity near the end of class. I actually think I'm pretty well on track, though I do still have to write my Santa letter.

Also, I had the theme song from that one old sitcom stuck in my head, and inadvertently annoyed Jeff with it.

Also, I sent Jeff and email to say that I had looked over his poem, even though he was sitting net to me int eh lab. This was out of habit of responding to every email sent to the misentity account, which I asked him to send it to becasue that's what I was logged into, and gmail won't let you log into more than one account simultaneously.

Monday, December 10, 2007

Got all the submissions filed. Having trouble dling pics at school, because school comps don't ahve winzip. Still much typing to do, though kudos to Jeffo and Mily for helping out. I'm gonna miss most of class on Wednesday, and I'll probably catch up on typing over the weekend, actually. I should probably submit some additional things myself. We'll see.

December 6, 2007

Today was good in that we fleshed out Misentity stuff with CWII, and made plans. Hopefully, we will follow through on them. I guess I'll just stop pretending that I actually posted this on thursday so that I can also say this: I am not amused by the number of paper submissions we received. Typing them will take more time that I had anticipated (because there are more of them than I expected, considering the simple format for submitting via email), and may derail my plans for this month. I'll have to see how much help I can get on this front. (will be posting in the Misentity Blog on this subject to try and enlist help.)

December 4, 2007

Sorry if this is late! I forgot that school blocked blogger because it involves daily living, so I'm posting after school.

Checkpoint summation

I won and all. ::remembers to print out certificate:: I dropped my plan right off the bat, and from there, I used the schedule only to remind me of things that I could write, if I wanted to. I didn’t get through all of my planned storyline; I also added a lot that I hadn’t thought of until I started typing. So it goes.
In retrospect, I probably should have made a blog post for every day of November, not just A-days. But I did do some extraneous ones. So feel free to look back over the past month’s posts to see what I’ve been up to, and all. I'm fairly certain that I tagged them with certain topics that are large and recurring for ease of browsing.
I didn’t have myself scheduled for a revision plan until next checkpoint, which I should be able to handle. Phew. As much as I am confused by what I have done, I'm looking forward to turning it into something.
---------------------

Today I mostly took care of the Misentity submissions that we have already, putting all the information on an excel sheet. I didn’t get to working on artwork today, though. Anyway, I’ll probably be doing Misentity stuff for most of December, and maybe some reading also, if I’m going to have time. We’ll see.

p.s. I fixed up one of the vignettes that was a part of the story, and submitted it to Misentity. It was pretty much all I have to work with at this point, and I thought this one stood alone better than the other reasonably short ones. So.

I WON!!! (Friday, November 30, 2007)

Word count for today: 2,024

Total word count: 50,117

Topics covered:
Losing slinky the cat
Persephone and Rapithwin
Alethiometer

I basically holed up in Mrs. Chandler's room for the whole period and drove it all the way in. I validated seconds before the bell rang. Have yet to print out my winner's certificate and order my T-shirt, but at a base level, I made my checkpoint. More on this later.

Wednesday, November 28, 2007

Word count for today: 2,662

Total word count: 48,093

Topics covered:
Lacey drives
Intro to Atum
psuchay
Statuary

November 26, 2007

Word count for today: 1,361
Total word count: 43,535
Topics covered:
Puns
video games

November 20, 2007

Safely at 40,471. I'll only need to write for about an hour tomorrow to stay on track.

Word cout for today: 2760. My highest ever for a class period, and I didn't even work through a whole lunch shift, onve a little Misentity time is subtracted back out.

I basically only write about Lacey and Rick eating at Muffotopia for four pages. ;)

Novemner 18, 2007

This is Sunday, but I am now 4,000 words ahead of schedule, and so, if I stick to it for the rest of the month, I don't have to writ at all over Thanksgiving weekend, which is especially good now that I might be trying to fit in the game too. By this point, it's pretty obvious that:

1. I won't finish the story by 50,000
2. I don't know where the story is headed anymore
3. ie, it diverged a little (lot from the plan)
4. I was so right about that happening

Total Word count: 36,023.

And congrats to Felicia for winning already!

<3 & Peace

So last time, I was going to write at home? No. But this time, I worked in Mrs. Chandler's room, and no one else was there, and no Msientity meeting happened, so no excuses.



Word Count: 2,078

Covered:

• remembering the pioneers
• remembering move, adapt or die
• a little of the shower

I might writ emore at home, or in Wilson's after school. I'm not sure.

I hit the halfway point at home last night. I was just under it, and then I was over it by about 2,000. Joan Baez is good like that. She helped me, actually. ;)

November 14, 2006

So I didn't get a whole lot done today, because we had Misentity meeting and distracting Mulan ridiculousness, but I guess I'll just shut up and go down the list.

Word Count for today: 1199

Total word count: 24357

Topics covered (on both today and monday)

• GS rememory (getting lost while orienteering)
• eating at the restaurant
• preparation for remembering social studies
• preparation for more ecosystems!

I plan to write more at home.

adieu!

November 8th, 2007

Word count: 2002

Gorund covered:
-gymnastics with dad memory
-"Ropsook" memory
-Yunkie tells about the suicide dive.


Misentity Meeting at the beginning, so I didn't get as much done. Only, I worked through lunch, so I actually got a fewmore words in than last time. Last time, there was no lunch.

November 6th, 2007

Writing went pretty well with Jeff. I got 1,997 words down, about the following thigns:

• going over the dam
• orienteering vingette
• intro to talking about gymnastics

I'll go on and update my word count later, and add all my widgets and whatnot. Jeff writes at a third grade level, apparently, so I fear what mine may be...

November 1, 2007

IT'S ON!

Word count as of 1:35: 2,060

Monday, October 29, 2007

Today I wrapped up everything; put it all in a list, and decided what to write each day. I haven't put in on the gmail calendar, so I'll be emailing the document to Wilson. I feel all planned and stuff. Woot.

Research Update

So today I got some more information from my dad about exhibition gymnastics. I figure I'll lay it out here, both as proof and for my own reference.

He didn't do any competition, thought eh team went competitive after he graduated and some of his younger brothers did pretty well. The team just worked out through the year and put on a 2-night show, like the dramatic productions at NHHs near the end. He described it as sort of circus-like, with more of what we would consider acrobatics and showmanship. He outlined a couple of routines:

1. Statuary, which involved a whole lot of silver body paint. The performers would move into a position while the lights were down, and then freeze, usually with someone balancing or in a difficult position, before they were turned back on.
   
2. Ladders, in which the guys would go in between two ladders and hold them up vertically, then girls would climb the sides and do stunts.
   
3. Vaulting, done in choreographed, criss-cross lines.
4. Trampoline stunts, especially one teammate who did a suicide dive: jumping really high and then going down head-first, tucking at the last minute.
   
5. Rings, on which he did a giant routine.
   
6. Dive-rolls, for which you have to get a running start, jump over people, and dive into a roll.
   

I have determined that I should look up an internet site that has good vocab I can use. I definitely want to have Yunkie be the one who does the suicide-dive. I can do somereally neat stuff with that and trust. I've also decided to include another flashback near the end- to Lacy's dad telling everyone that Yunkie will be coming to visit. That way, she can know without the reader knowing at the beginning. Also, I'm changing Alethia's middle name to Cassandra (or Kassandra; I haven't decided), because Sandrilene reminds me too much of Circle of Magic (well, that is where I got it from) and Cassandra fits with the Greek theme of her first name.

Sweet.

Thursday, October 25, 2007

Today:

1. Misentity Meeting. Stuff came out, stuff got locked down. I think we have a workable plan of action now.
2. I made a slip for attaching to paper submissions, and fit six or seven of them on a apge.
3. Got some stuff worked out with NaNo- people registered & people friended.
4. I started planning which things to write each day. W00t.

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Today, I came up with names for my characters.

The family

1. Alethia Sandrilene Wheeler
2. Questions Patrick Wheeler*
3. Wonder Jimothy Wheeler*
4. Mark & Mary Wheeler

The others

1. Gerrick Hogarty Youngdahl = Yunkie
2. Girl Scout troop member= Molly, Skye, Megan, Amanda, maybe others, & leader = Miss Louise

The town will be called Eropsook Creek, PA.

Also, I came up with some more vingettes, these from girl Scouts:

• camping at skylodge
• Hiking at furnace hills (do I want to bring horses into this?)
• orienteering at camping carousel

*For these first names, I want to translate them to, I think, Arabic

I also thought of making Alethia's older brother into twins. I think that could work more to my advantage.

Then we had a Misentity meeting, and I didn't ahve time to do any more research.

October 18, 2007

First, we had a Misentity meeting.

Then, I went to the library.

Next, I got some books about mythology.

After that, I helped Ms. Duncan look for her keys. It turned out that she loaned them to someone.

Finally, I read the books and took some notes. The following things came of this:

1. Partially becasue there were filing cabinets in the way, and partially becasue it seems hackneyed, I decided to saty a bit away from the greco-Roman tradition, and came away with books about Egypt, Persia, and China. Also, I learn more new stuff thsi way.
2. There was one Egyptian god, Atum, who created himself by speaking his name in the prymordial soup. I think this would be a really cool thign to include when Alethia and Yunkie get to the island. Atum is also Ra, and there is a whole gamut of theogony that I can inlcude if I do this. Yayness!
3. The Persian Rapithwin= Lord of the Noonday Sun and Summer Months. I don't know, I really liked something about this guy. I think I will definitely use him if they end up having to walk part of the way home. And maybe even if they don't.
4. Anjie cam in at the end. She thinks Alethia should go by Lacy. I will have her family call her that, like her brother and parents in the flashback scencs. Otherwise, she will go by her middle name. And in the school flashback scence, she won't correct the pronunciation of her first name, merely state this.

October 16, 2007

I have determined how I will spend the remainder of the month in order to meet my checkpoint. Most of the story ahs been figured out; now, it's just a matter of writing it and putting it all in order. I made a Google calendar for NaNo. So far, all I have on it is word count goals. I filled in everything I could think of on my general calendar for November, because I plan to miss to A-days, and togther, that's 9,000 words to make up. Unfortuantely, it looks like there is only 1 weekend in Novermber when I'll be able to write, and that's the first one. My officail goal for then in 10,000 words, which is typical for NaNo, but I might be able to push out 5,000 each day. I'm going to have to really do all my college stuff then, too, so I don't know.

Some new elements I came up with today:

• The girl's first name will be Alethia, and she will go by her middle name. Thus, I can flash back to people not being able to pronounce her name/wondering who she is on the first day of school.
• Yunkie majored in classical studies, or somethign the like. This links up with Alethia, and it's something that interests me, and it will provide filler- he can retell Greek myths and random stuff.
• Something I'm considering- a vingette about the boy and her brother lying ont he roof of their grandmother's house in ithaca, and girl doesn't like that she can't see the stars. Boy doesn't care. Maybe.
• A dream about dancing muffins.
• I think I might move the whole thing to a small town in Pennsylavnai. Maybe they can stop at a small town in Upstate New York, or in Ithaca. Maybe her dad went to Cornell. But I'm afraid to write about thigns that I don't know, and I do know a little more about Pennsylvania. I can just have them shoot up 83, or whatever.

And now, this is how I will use the rest of my time in October. Because I have the plot mostly figured out, I'm down to research now. These are thigns I need to do.

• Talk to my dad about his high school gymnastics experiences. This will also serve as make-up work for when I was out, since I will have to do it outside of school.
• Information about Greek Diner owners. Would they even have corn muffins? Maybe they stop somewhere else and get corn muffins. Anyway, I need to find out about this sort of thing.
• Girl Scout Handbook. I want this girl to be a scout. especially because I have personal experience with that. I think I have a junior handbook, but I think I also need her to be a little older than 11.
• Maps. Maps, maps, maps. I need to plan this road trip.
• Of course, I need to look up more mythological stuff. I'm by no means an expert. I might go ahead and start woking on some of it today.

Between all this stuff, I should be able to fill up my time, and eventually, my event details on the google calendar, to meet my checkpoint.

I am a little concerned about Misentity. I'll say that. I think I'll be doing a lot of Misentity work in homeroom, because November is the month when I need to be typing constantly, especially since I'll have so little weekend time to make up for word-count lapses.

Anticipatory Post

I will probably be going on a field trip tomorrow, and so will miss class tomorrow. I'll do an appropriate amount of work before the next meeting and log it.

I thought I'd start working on the schedule, and so far, I have figured the following:

1. There are nine A-days in November. Currently, I plan on missing two of them (ach! I know! but at least I do know, this far ahead of time) I will include them in the schedule, though, becasue I'd have to make up classwork for any other class.
   
2. 50,000/9=5555.555555555555555555555555555555555555, or about 5556 words per day.
3. I would have to type 70 words per minute, every minute of every period to make that. It's physically possible, but not a good idea for me to type that fast. So I will have to figure on some outside writing time to win NaNo. I think I can handle that, considering I won last year doing all of it outside CW.

I also sorted out my NaNo account. I know my password (ie, I wrote it down) and I'm affiliated with Maryland (We're taking back the top this year!! WOOO!!!) I might try to attend some regional events this yea, especially becasue , if I do NaNonext year, I might have to be in a different region.

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Following is the combined progress of today and the previous class. It doesn't seem like much, but this comes after a lot of discussion, and come on; plot development? We know how I am about that.

• diner- this will be the first stop, but probably after some conversatiopn or something. It's about three in the morning. Suggested inclusion of a scandal about the local diner being bought out, but I might make it the diner Mrs. O'Leary mentioned in Ithaca. Reguardless, it is here that the pioneer conversation takes place, and henceforth, the journey is to Manan Island. Also, they get a sack of corn muffins that is their main food source for the rest of the story.
• Uncle Yunkie is not actually related to the father, but is a friend from high school (or college) gymnastics. They lost toush, but found each other recently, and he is coming for a visit that only the fater know about. He recognizes girl on sight from pics or something she says (not sure)
• There is going to be a scene where Yunkie ltes the girl drive,s that links to a time when her brother cajoled her into going for a spin
• Yunkie is going to bring up video games, ands he will remember a good time playing them with her brother
• butt-cheek planner- this will be somethign that her brother did tyo a kid at school, and she won't think its funny.

There are some other thing s I'm thining about, but not for certian including_

• maybe car breaking down part of the way home, and them having to walk the rest of the way- Originally, I was going to amke aher a hardcore Girl Scout, but that doesn't seem to fit now.
• Something about not being able to see the stars in the city
• the poetry in general. I think I've taken thigns in a different direction.

Monday, October 8, 2007

I want to go outside today with Anji and Sarah, so I'm going to try to work on plot a little more, maybe discuss my ideas with some poeple. I also looked up the farthest east point in Mass- it's Chatham, on Cape Cod. So that's where they're going to go. But then there's this island, Grand Mana, off theMaine coast, and I think it would be better for themto go there. So I don't know.

Thursday, October 4, 2007

Toooooooday:

Finish up the essay, and send it off.
Lay more down on the master plan.
Establish NaNo account.

What I accomplished:

Something's still off with NaNo
Ready to send esay, but didn't do it b/c Kim ahdn't gotten back to me yet.
reworked the master plan a bit.

East of Everywhere

The plot, un-chopped up:

It is Friday. Girl runs away from home. Walking down a 23-type road, she is offered a ride by a man who looks like her dad. She takes his offer. They spend the weekend driving around, and she returns home on Sunday night.

Setting: I don’t know. Woodbury, maybe.

Charcterization:
The last thing will be the letter that girl left for her parents, stating her intention to be back before school starts the next week.

Problem: girl has determined that she does not belong in her home. So she packs a backpack and leaves. The first car to pass her on the road is her uncle’s, and he agrees to give her a ride to somewhere. Eventually, girl wants to go east of everywhere. A conversation between the girl and her uncle, about pioneers heading west, spurs her to want to go east all the way east. Then the only way she’ll have to go is west.

The beginning
I) Phone call between uncle and parents says that he is coming for a visit over the weekend
II) Straight girl walking along the road. She gets in car with uncle.
III) We do not meet any of her other family members
IV) (see problem)

The middle
I) Sense of time is lost.
II) Majority of telling is poetry/dream sequences
III) Meet the family- older brother, much-older sister, parents.
IV) Fleshing out of the problem


The end
I) Girl and her uncle get to the nearest point that is very east.
II) Girl decides to go home
III) I don’t know what will happen with the uncle.


Poems that girl will write:
First, they are all about water, sometimes in a scientific way.
Algal blooms
Winding river
Love is the strongest force

Dreams:
I want to have a recurring dream, but I don’t know what about. Rather than the dream ending at the end, I’d have it go the same as before, but then the girl understands anyway/doesn’t care.

This sparks a new list: things I need to research

• where is the farthest-east point in the US? Connecticut?

Today was a waste. I tried to write things. It didn't work. I went to the library. I read soem thigns, I angsted in the communal daybook, I talked to Anji, and now I'm going to lunch with her. Hopefully, this trend will not continue.

Wednesday, September 2

• went through the task list by myself
• read over Brit's college essay
• we held a group discussion about the tasklist
• I read Sarah's poems and gave her comments
• the communal daybookwas DISSED

Proxy-Post (September 23, 2007)

I will be missing class tomorrow to attend the Harford County Environmental Summit, which I helped to plan last year. I have included my basic storyline plan in a previous post, and right now have about 3 pages ready for workshop, which I will post here just to make things easy. I haven't decided whether I'd prefer paper or web-based WS, which would mean either printing or google-doc-ing. Also, I wrote in the communal Daybook last class. So far, I'm the only one. I'm alone, yes, yes, yes, yes, I'm alone.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Devil

Last night I met the devil at dusk,
coasting closer to the end
of the steepest court in the neighborhood, the wind
dried out my contacts and I could only see enough
to keep my front wheel on the black.

Old Scratch had no body, just a voice
like steaming asphalt
in my ears, swearing from both
sides, and I wanted to
swerve, but I knew
that wouldn’t throw him off.

The paved circle rushed toward me, and he asked
what would happen if I didn’t turn. He told me
to keep going straight. He told me
he’d carry me through. Don’t act,
just let go, let me carry you,
let me lift you, let me
take you.

It wasn’t that I believed the voice,
hollering louder with each increment of acceleration,
but I wondered whether anyone would care
if I lied,
if I plowed into a mailbox, and explained away scratches
with slow reflexes, skinned knees
with the fallen leaves, broken spokes
with negligence.

As mephisto screeched,
I tensed with potential energy,
legs like coiled springs held steady on the pedals,
“Don’t, don’t! let go, let go!
Don’t don’t Let go, let go!”
Knuckles blanched to bend,
Held back from braking by the shouts;
“Don’t, don’t! Let go, let go!
Don’t, don’t! Let go, let go!”
I blinked like the ocean,
Imploring my vision to clear…

There’s a boy playing catch with his father;
the ball arcs between them like trust that I
won’t let Old Scratch take from me.

Fingers flex, brakes
Screeching, I lean
Nearly to the ground,
and like a cheap Target watch my legs spring
into action, pulsing up the hill,
past the boy and his father,
and mephisto’s murmurs dissolve
into action.

How it all Began

I watched the 2004 Summer Olympics sporadically. Opening Ceremonies were a must, and I was amused to note that the nations were called out in order according to the Greek alphabet, not the English one. Athens had to stay true. After that though, I wasn’t too invested in any particular sport. If something really grabbed me, I stuck with it until things got boring then changed channels.
That’s how I got started watching the women’s pole-vaulting. I couldn’t believe how the laws of motion allowed such possibilities. If I’d had a basic physics course, I probably would have, but that’s aside the point. It just knocked me out. The competitors ran, and timed the fall of the pole perfectly so that it would slam into the box just as they got to the right spot on the runway. The plants lined up perfectly, bending the living daylights out of the poles, and then, those women flew, usually right over the bar. Of course, I didn’t know all the terminology then. I was just watching, and took to rooting for Sofia Chevchenko. I don’t remember how well she placed, or who won the three medals. I do remember thinking to myself, “I’ve got to do that.”
That fall, I started high school. Foundations of Technology found me half-asleep every A-day morning. My friend Sarah was in the class with me. We got through all the ridicules projects by talking about almost everything else all through class. She was on the JV soccer team, so sometimes we discussed her games. Mostly, we complained about our other classes and planned fun things we never found the time to do. During one particularly excruciating book assignment, we got to talking about track.
“Know what I want to do?” I paused in my definition-writing and gazed up at the window as I considered my own statement. “Pole-vaulting. Looks like it’s really fun.”
“Yeah!” Sarah agreed, complete with pencil-waving. “I want to do that too! Our school’s probably not cool enough to have it though.”
“No, it does.” I assured her, looking back to my textbook. “My sister used to do track, and when we’d pick her up, I’d always see people standing out on the field with poles. They were always the last ones still there.” Identical grins mean that we agreed to go out for pole-vaulting that spring, together.
On March first, I donned my gym uniform and headed to Mr. Knoll’s room in the science hallway. The head track coach was also the cornerstone chemistry teacher. Upperclassmen laughed and bellowed inside. Freshmen were easily identifiable by their frightened looks and the fact that they, like me, for the most part wore gym uniforms. Older kids had bundled up in sweatpants and hats, gloves and jackets. There was a brief meeting, paperwork was turned in, and then we went outside. It was probably in the thirties or forties. We ran. Sarah and I stuck together She was more appropriately dressed, but I don’t feel the cold very much, so I was more worried that she’d get cold looking at me. I didn’t dare complain. Our warm-up was two laps, and twice we ran past the cluster of coaches; Mr. Knoll for sprinters, Harris for the middle-distance kids, and a third figure we couldn’t name. He was tall and lean, dressed in workboots, jeans, and a blue jacket.
After the warmup, we stretched. Senior captains led us, making everyone count to twenty out loud. Everyone lined up at the fence to do quads and leg-swings. Then on to calisthenics. Jumping-jacks got our blood flowing again, then down on the track for push-ups. We rested for a moment before switching to crunches. Sarah and I found some senior pole-vautlers. They identified the mystery man as John Butler, Olympian and North Harford vaulting coach. We introduced ourselves at the end of practice.
“Hi,” Sara said. “My name’s Sarah Meehan. I want to polevault.”
“Sarah?” He extended a hand.
“Yeah.” They shook.
“Good to meet you.” He smiled. “I’ll forget your name, though.”
“Aren’t you cold?” That was Harris, addressing me. A skinny distance runner, he was probably colder in his sweats than I was in my gym uniform.
“No,” I said.” But if you have a tissue, I’d like it.” The coaches all showed empty hands.
“Do you want to polevault too?” Butler asked me.
“Most definitely.” Okay, I probably didn’t say anything that cool-sounding. But since I’m telling the story and can’t remember exactly what I said, I’m going to pretend that I did.
“Good,” He said. “That’s great. We’ll probably start splitting off to do some drills in about a week…Mr. Knoll wants to do just conditioning this first week, then we’ll add on technique after that.”
“Okay,” I said. I was too numb to think of saying anything else.
Then Sarah and I followed the rest of the team inside. My frozen fingers somehow got my gym locker open, pulled out my things, and dialed my home number on the pay phone. Gloves, I thought. Bring gloves tomorrow, and sweatpants. I won’t need the wings until next week.

Why I shouldn't drive

I mix up left and right. It was never a chore to figure out which shoe went with which foot, but it took me the longest time to remember which way certain letters went. If a word had two g’s in it, there would be one bottom hooking off in each direction, just so I’d be sure to get one right. It wasn’t until third grade swooped in, with its lessons in cursive, that I was able to keep my writing consistent..
The first time I went to a concert at a club, I was reminded of my childhood struggles. As members of the under-18 set, we were all required to receive slashes on our left hands. I watched as this procedure was carried out for my friends. Then I handed my ticket to the lady with the scanner and held out my right hand for the man with the marker.
“I need your left hand,” he told me.
“Oh,” I quickly swapped them, flashing a grin. “Sorry, I mix up left and right.”
“If you hold your hands out like this, the left one makes an ‘L,’” he explained, speaking slowly and enunciating. I held my hands out as he showed me, four fingers together, thumbs perpendicular.
“They both make an ‘L,’” I declared, and joined my friends, heading up to the juvenile section.
“One’s backwards!” the man said over his shoulder, in a sort of muttery shout that was half to himself, half meant to make me look like an idiot for the other people in line.
“And if I knew which one that was, I don’t think I’d need a pneumonic device to tell left from right,” I informed my friends as we climbed the stairs. “Just the other day, during my eye exam, I was reading the chart, you know, with the letters, and I paused partway through this one row and said, “I think that’s a backwards ‘L,’ and my mom and the optometrist laughed.” We all laughed then, and went on to enjoy the show, but this problem can have very serious manifestations. Enter the car.
I was about to make the return trip from a study circle in Edgewood. That’s a straight shot down 152, which is only two turns and about ten miles away from the intersection right by my house. I just say, “that way,” in my head and remember which way to go without assigning the terms “left” and “right” to the directions. It works most of the time. I just have to really concentrate when I’m using internet directions, and prefer to have a map so that I can get a visual with which to use the “that way” method.
This experience began, however, not with faulty directions but with failure to look. As I was backing to pull out of a parallel-parking job, I rammed straight into an SUV. But I was in a small car, moving uphill, so our license plates were knocked off a little, if anything. I didn’t see any damage to either car, so I just left. But as I reached the first intersection, 152 and route 40, I felt increasingly uneasy. I pulled into a gas station at the corner, parked the car, called my mom, and told her what had happened. She didn’t seem concerned. While we chatted, a man pulled into the air station a few yards away from me. The call ended in under a minute, and then I no longer had an excuse for sitting in the lot.
I started her up, did a tight U-turn. Three boys on bikes zoomed by in front of me, throwing quick glances back before entering the highway. I pulled up, checked traffic. A left on Route 40 would enable me to come up to the light and turn right onto 152. Then it was a straight shot to Upper Crossroads, miles of steady driving to shake off the SUV incident. The light was red, holding back all the traffic on route 40 while the cars on 152 sped through. I wondered if I should go out the other way instead. I’d have to drive all around the parking lot, but it would simpler once I was out. No need to turn right around that other lane. What the heck kind of intersection puts the oncoming traffic to your right, anyway?
The car behind me started honking like crazy. I looked. It was the guy from the air station, waving his arms around. Must be in a hurry, I thought, then went ahead and turned. There, on the other side of the red light, four lanes of headlights waited to surge towards me. I pulled into the lane between the yellow line and the concrete divider. Concrete divider. I needed to be on the other side of it. No. Yes.
“Wrong way, wrong way!” I could hear the man shouting then, and I think he had gotten out of his car. But it was too late. I was already in the highway. Wait. No one was moving. The light was still red. I checked traffic like a madman, then pulled right back into the gas station, went around it, and made a right onto 152. Green light. It turned yellow as I drove under it. Story of my life.
It’s debatable whether this was really a case of mixing up left and right, or more one of inexperience with night driving and divided highways. Whichever, I prefer to stick to my local, two-lane or unmarked roads. It is easier to negotiate with curves than with oncoming traffic.
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On my honor, these add up to at least four pages in Word, when appropriately spaced.
Regularly scheduled programming to be continued on Wednesday, September 26.
Bis Dann!

Misentity meeting....I'll have to write stuff over the weekend to make my checkpoint.

September 18, 2007

So this weekend I decided to be an optimist. Thigns are gonna change around here, just a lil' bit.

Today:

• worked on poem I starrted last class, incl. revision and extension
• consolidated novel ideas
• watched Jeff laminate our passes
• did gymnicetics to regain focus
• worked on devil poem more- I call first draft finished now

Premise:

Early one summer, a girl runs away from home. She hitches a ride with middle aged man, who, unbeknownst to her, is her uncle. The story is told in her dreams, and flashbacks (vignette-style), and in his letters to her family back home. I’m not sure, she might write poems too, if she feels like it. I’m not sure exactly how it will end. I think I want her to go live with her uncle, or bring him home with her or something. But. That’s what I’ve got so far.

Today I considered the possibility of dropping this class. I don't think I truly belong here.

The sequence:

• Finished going over the vingette I started last time. I declare it ready for workshop.
• Attempted to give constructive critisicm to Kalie. Highly unsucessful.
• Wrote down some thoghts I had yesterday about my novel.
• Had an idea to develop an idea I got over the summer. Worked on it at breakneck speed.

It's too late though. The guidance office won't change classes anymore. I guess everyone will just have to deal with me sucking all year.

September 11, 2007

Today is the first day under the plan in CWIII. I'm thinking of adjusting my checkpoints. Can I really have a final idea by the 24th? We'll see.

I thought of another side project I want to do, and will probably work on a lot before the first checkpoint. I want to write a bunch of vignettes about track, all the good times, like our debate about abortion, that bad times, like when Amanda got hurt, and the weird times, like when Becca got suck in the mat. Then, I can print them all out on nice paper, find some photos to go with, sew up the binding, and give it to Butler at the end of the year. I think Sarah was going to write some too. That would be extra-special. This isn't my year-long because I don't think there is enough stuff to write, and I know I'll get tired of remembering stuff even more quickly than I'll run out of memories. It'll be a nice way to break up to noveling, though.

Things I did today:

• Devised idea for communal daybook
• started revising a polevaulting vignette I wrote over the summer
• anguished about checkpoints

I think I will revise my first two checkpoints to allow for more exploration before I settle on an idea. I do know for sure that I want to avoid writing the whole novel in straight prose. I'd get sooooooooooooooooooooooooo bored.