And Now For Something Silly…

Okay, I know I’ve been entirely too morose lately. Blame it on economics, SAD and an extended winter.

My next novel is already cranking. It’s a bona fide chick-lit piece, and I’m trying to use all of the concepts I learned during the recent writers’ conference I attended. It’s light, it’s funny (I hope), and it’s a diversion that I am counting on changing my mood.

So I will share with you today the first couple of paragraphs.

Chapter 1

If you think I wanted to come back to the imagined warm embrace of the family home, you don’t know me at all. To return as a grown adult, contrite and groveling, tail between my legs, and hat in hand looking for a soft place to land? Oh, no, no, no. That’s not the life for me. I left this burg fifteen years ago for the sole purpose of avoiding my mother’s utterance of those death knell words “I told you so.” Making my escape from the confines of small-town living in Royal Oak and turning my back on its soul-sucking heartache was my life’s crowning achievement. The operative word is ‘was.’ My unblemished record of success now sports the big, fat ugly zit of failure.

My mother, the infamous Diana Ventimiglia, took an uncanny skill for inflicting guilt and formed a lifelong career out of “I told you so.” The “I told you so” business is so lucrative, it’s afforded her a fat retirement account. I’m sure she even gives herself periodic bonuses for outstanding performance in “I told you so.” If she ever retires as Jewish mama wannabe, which will be now… let’s see, never? perhaps I’ll find peace in my heart. By that time, there’ll be a colony on Mars, the budget will be balanced with plenty of zeros in the black and thousands of years of Middle Eastern conflict will be but an unpleasant afterthought, too. Oh, yes. And don’t forget; donkeys will fly.

I think I will go and do something creative now.

Scary Times

Sorry if this post is a downer, but I believe we are heading into scary times.

I don’t know if the culture is out of whack, or just the politicians. I’m fairly certain the politicians are on a destructive course of action. Because they’re all millionaires or better, they’re so out of touch with the Real World, it’s unfathomable. The culture, I’m not so sure. Every now and then, I’ll find pockets of sensibility, but for the most part, I think the world at large is selfish and consuming.

Everyone is throwing money around as if you could grow a field of it and harvest it next September. Of course, no one is throwing money at me, not that I would want that anyway. There’s a certain satisfaction in working hard to reap your rewards, and I’m not afraid of working. I guess you have to have friends in high places in order to get a lucky freebie catch.

I won’t even go into how crazy this is making Mr. Demonic. Even though we are losing a child deduction and expense come May 23rd when said adult person is graduating from college, it’s not going to make life any easier. I believe he’s gotten more gray and wrinkly in the last two months.

I am ashamed and afraid to say this, but I foresee a world where no one except the select few have anything, and those people will have everything. The rest of us will be like cattle or sheep, living off the crumbs of the rich. It won’t just be the value of the dollar shrinking, the value of anything good and right will drop to nothing. This includes creativity and freedom. I already see where the arts in my area are losing funding. No one has the money to donate.

I fear the future world that I have no say so in my own decisions.

Shanti Kitty… The Best Pet I Ever Had

Stealing a page from Dr. Bibey’s blog. Thanks for jogging the memories.

I was in college when I found Shanti Kitty. She was a tabby gray cat, and the best pet I ever had. I can’t remember how I got her. I think my aunt’s cat had a litter and I inherited Shanti. She had a sweet disposition. I don’t know what it is about pets, but you can tell right away if your personalities are going to click. Shanti was perfect for me at the time.

When I was in college, I majored in art. Shanti was not only a very nice kitty, she was really easy to draw, too. Unlike the spazz cat I have now, Shanti’s favorite thing to do was sleep.

I loved her so much, I explored her being in many mediums. Pencil, pen and ink, acrylic. I even put her into my self-portrait.

Like many cats, Shanti also liked to go outside. I was a dumb college kid back then, and I didn’t realize that for kitties, going outside can be a treacherous business. I lived on a busy street in a busy city. One day, I went to the bar across the street from my apartment to meet some friends. It was summer. That’s where I learned Shanti had entered the open back door of the bar, and was chased out through the open front door, and was run over by a car.

Animal control came and got her, so I never got to say goodbye. They didn’t even take off her blue rhinestone collar.

That night, I went home (drunk) with Mike Waltz. Let’s just say it wasn’t a pretty sight and I did some things I shouldn’t have.

After that, I was depressed for months.

This post sounds really sad and depressing, but I’m glad I had her for the short year and a half that I did. She was entertainment and inspiration. She was a leg warmer in the frozen Tundra. She listened to my problems and didn’t sass back.

She was perfect.

Not Exactly Luminescent Today

It’s raining. Gloomy. Cold. Wet. Gray. It’s close to freezing, so if the weather goes south, we could be in big trouble.

It doesn’t surprise me in the least that people who live in northern climates often look pale and pasty. If the sky offers pale and pasty, that’s what will happen to the inhabitants. We used to do science projects like that in elementary school. A bean seed with lots of sun will grow bigger and stronger than a bean seed grown in a closet.

I’m a sun person. Just like a cat. Today there is no sun, so I’m finding my warmth by space heater and blanket. That’s rather sad.

Sorry, folks. I’m not exactly luminescent today.