Week in review

I've been keeping a writer's journal for the past couple of weeks. I've always had a notebook to write things down in...but would go for quite a while without actually writing things down. Apparently there's a reason every creative writing book and class tell you to keep a journal and write something every day: because then you start to notice things more, and your subconscious kicks in, and all of a sudden you have all this Material.

A lot of that material is going to end up here. This entry is from an exercise in a book called What If... which has a lot of suggestions to jump-start your writing (if you write fiction.) The "assignment" was during a week, to write down 10 things that made you happy and 10 things that annoyed you. I decided to modify it to "up to 10 things" because I had more things that made me happy than annoyed me. And I'm an easily annoyable person. So yes, I realize this makes me a lucky girl.

THINGS THAT MADE ME HAPPY
1. The cilantro-lime rice at Chipotle

2. Eating at least half of a bag of Starburst Sour Jellybeans (over several days, mind you, but it was still a lot of jellybeans) and sharing them with Mr. Blue

3. When Miss Pink told me she didn't have to pray for what she wanted; God had already heard her mention it because "He has excellent hearing."

4. Mr. Blue "answering" a pink plastic cell phone by putting it against the back of his head

5. My friend R inviting Miss Pink over for pizza and a movie with her daughter from 6-9 pm tonight. Too bad we don't have anywhere to send Mr. Blue.

6. The lyrics to the Lyle Lovett songs I've been listening to. It's such a shame, 'cause you've been so good up till now...

7. George Pelecanos' book Hard Revolution has made up for the other disappointing books I've started reading this week.

8. The cluster of people waiting outside the library for it to open. They made me feel that all is not lost for Western civilization.

THINGS THAT ANNOYED ME
1. When Miss Pink yells across the house, "Mommmmmmy! I want strawberry milk!" and then proceeds to throw her cup in my direction--oh no, that does not work on me, if you were wondering.

2. This woman in my neighborhood who, I swear, every time I drive by, is outside talking on the phone. It's not a cell phone, but a cordless. What, she doesn't own a couch? The fact that she is a large woman who doesn't wear enough clothes and doesn't appear to own a comb, either--that bothers me too. I don't know why.

3. Today I followed up my one and only workout of the week by buying a quart of ice cream.

4. Apparently it was Senior Citizen Day at Wal-Mart.

5. I will never again let the baby eat two boxes of raisins in one day. I'll leave it at that.