Been Looking Forward to This
Topic: WC - Daily Practice
Monday 25Dec06 8:48pm

I've been looking forward to this time all month and it's been a long time coming for sure. Well I haven't been disappointed and haven't had any bouts of sadness.

I've been enjoying the time to myself, listening to my own thoughts and thinking about what's next for me. That's bound to happen when you spend so much time alone. Maybe that's why so many people can't stand the time alone, I, of course thrive on it.

The last few days have been somewhat lazy with no particular direction and not much writing. Thankfully I did all my cooking yesterday so that was a mission accomplished. I started to go through my stuff to purge as much stuff as humanly possible, the pack rat that I am. I'll do more next weekend.

On my walk last night I had to remind myself that it's all well that I want to write in my spare time but sometimes the quiet, the lack of writing is just as important as the writing. It's that incubation period.
We're silent before we learn to talk. I just can't push myself to be all work all the time and for the first time ever I haven't guilt tripped myself for taking this time.

Went to see Dreamgirls today with a friend. I loved the movie and although I thought Beyonce was good, the movie belonged to Jennifer Hudson. When she sings, 'And I Am Telling You, I'm Not Going,' Lord have mercy she did way more than just tear the house down. The desperation and strength in that song and the way she sings it. Somebody needs to make her perform that at every freaking award show this year.

Well, that's about it for me tonight. Going to sip a little Shiraz and just enjoy the moment.

Merry Christmas to everyone who has taken the time to read an entry or more than one entry. It's really nice to know that there are eyes out there that find something I have to say somewhat interesting as I work my way through balancing my full time work life with writing and all the other things that crop up amongst these entries. May you realize all the dreams that you thought were once impossible and the love of someone who's face lights up when you walk in to a room. xo

EY

Turkey Potpourri
Topic: WC - Daily Practice
11:21am Sunday 24Dec06

The turkey potpourri and roast beef potpourri have begun. Yippee! I managed to slap that Italian Sausage stuffing together and stuff my bird within an hour. There's enough for inside the bird and still more to fill a casserole dish, meatloaf size.

Was supposed to do this all yesterday but I still had a bit of running around to do and couldn't find fresh cranberries anywhere so I had to do the grocery store tour of downtown Toronto. Kinda sucked but it made me hit over 20,000 steps when all was said and done. Plus I bought a couple bags of pistachios at one grocery store and CHERRIES (!) at another store. The one place that I finally found cranberries must have known that everyone was out because they were charging almost $3. Bastards! I only bought one bag, obviously.

I don't really have to leave the house today but it's so nice and sunny I'll have to get out and make some steps. Just to make room for all that food I plan on eating. Got some cleaning up to do and of course this is a prime time to get laundry done since most residents have gone to their families cept for the polish immigrants who live here. They all stay.

I've been opening a present each day because I can. I still have the presents that I bought for myself.

Hey Grinny! I won a million dollars! ha ha! wouldn't that be fun? I'll have to scratch that ticket now, just in case. ha ha

Safari has been giving me troubles again so I haven't been able to access my blogs. Explorer is working but it can be iffy. Oh well, it smells like food in the house, can a girlfish who loves food ask for anything better?

EY

Is It Really Friday, Santa?
Topic: WC - Daily Practice
Friday 6:29am 22Dec06

Every morning this week I've sat up in bed and said, "Fuck! It's only Monday, Tuesday etc..."
This bad boy of a week has dragged on like a mo fo. I don't know why I always believe that it's going to be a calm week at work and I'll be able to coast and hang out and crack jokes. ha ha! It never turns out that way.

Just got back from buying my turkey, roast beef and Italian Sausage for my Christmas meal. Tomorrow morning I get the veggies and cranberries and the other odds and sods.

Hmm and I also bought some reindeer antlers. I really don't know what happened this year. I'm normally not a Christmas person but this year I've been all gung ho. I've been listening to Christmas music since November 30th and worse yet singing the songs. I did a whole dance number to Baby it's cold outside in my apartment for my cats. I'm looking forward to the 5 days off, my time alone, my apartment smelling like turkey (turkey potpourri as I like to call it), and the presents I bought for myself. Oh yes and wine! I've got wine! ha ha.

Work today is our departmental party which is the best one of the year because I'm with my boys and my boss gets us great munchies and the contractors supply us with beer. Of the men in my life, I've only invited the object of my waning interest because he still makes me laugh the most.

I managed to catch about three Charlie Brown specials this week while lying in bed with my icky stomach, that was icky all week. I forgot how much I love Charlie Brown specials. Snoopy dressed up like Santa and ringing his bell. Rerun wanting his own dog and adopting Snoopy's brother Spike who carries his cactus with him from the desert. Spike's extra long whiskers. Charlie's sister Sally trying to remember her one line in the play, "Hark!" and then she says 'Hockey sticks' instead. It's just sweet humour and makes me giggle. I forgot that snoopy had so many siblings. And Woodstock and his siblings carrying help signs when one of the girls asks Snoopy if he's the real Santa where are all his helpers.

I'm going to have to get those specials on DVD. It's gotta be done.
I have yet to catch the little drummer boy. I haven't watched that one since I was a kid. The only version of that song I like is the Harry Simeone Chorale version which I still have to check itunes to see if they have it.

Yeah, it would be nice to have a main squeeze for some of my time off and Christmas cheer for the cuddle factor but other than that I'll be having a great time on my own. God! I've been looking forward to this. Just need to buy a stocking full of toys for the cats.

EY

Gonna lie down
Topic: WC - Daily Practice
Tuesday 19Dec06 6:24pm

I'm going to lie down early. My stomach has been bugging me for the last couple days. Luckily about three other people have complained about the same icky stomach. You know how it goes feel funny a couple days and think you have stomach cancer! All the bad news in the media will make me paranoid every time.

The object of my waning interest gave me a bottle of wine today, asked me if I've stopped loving him. sigh! Men!

I made plans for Thursday but can't for the life of me remember with who...

Told white guy that only likes black women and claims to love me that after all these years that he's been bugging me he has yet to buy me anything. "Buddy, if you were really serious you'd shower a lady with a gift or ten!" ha ha

Imaginary friend, AKA, beautiful eyes has become ever present. It's all too funny. Every time I think I'm going to give up a new one comes out of the wood work. My stomach hurts and so does my head come to think of it.

EY

New Orleans writers struggle to pen rebirth story
Topic: Writers in the News

By Jeffrey JonesMon Dec 18, 7:25 AM ET
Quirky characters, raucous music, jazz funerals, a warm climate and plenty of service-industry jobs made New Orleans an ideal base for writers and a rich backdrop for their work.

But, 16 months after Hurricane Katrina, the southern city that inspired Mark Twain, Tennessee Williams, John Kennedy Toole and Anne Rice risks losing its unique place on the literary landscape. The city's recovery is plodding and many writers remain in exile around the United States.

"This applies not just to literature, but to music and all of the art forms that owe something to the character of New Orleans -- they're all going to be different," said John Biguenet, author and English professor at Loyola University in New Orleans.

"When we talk about New Orleans culture, we're not talking about a place but a community. If the people who taught the next generation to make the gumbo, to sing the songs and sew the costumes for Mardi Gras don't come back, that's the end of that tradition."

Novelists, poets and playwrights are struggling to save and rebuild their scene in the city that was setting for classics like Williams' "Streetcar Named Desire," and Toole's "A Confederacy of Dunces" and Rice's popular "Interview With the Vampire."

Some have launched efforts to provide housing assistance and other aid for basic survival so writers can chronicle disaster and recovery in what previously was an affordable Bohemia on the Mississippi.

Six weeks after Katrina, Dave Brinks invited fellow poets to his funky French Quarter bar to read for about 250 people.

The "Still Standing" event at Gold Mine Saloon went long into the night despite a curfew, an early sign the storm did not wash away the city's love for the written word.

"We just closed the doors and let things keep going," Brinks, 39, said at the bar one recent morning. "It was a beautiful exposition of how everyone felt at that moment."

At the event, he and his colleagues began work to locate more than 200 writers evacuated to cities around the United States with the aim of eventually bringing them back.

"We've got to get life back so the city can do what it does," said Brinks, whose own house on Canal Boulevard stewed in 8 feet of dirty water after the storm.

He still hosts Thursday night readings. But the Gold Mine also serves as a community center where his colleagues can get information on medical and psychological help and other needs.

HOUSING SQUEEZE

Relatively cheap housing in the city known as the Big Easy lured those who could no longer afford sky-high rent in other literary hotspots like New York and San Francisco.

But after the storm that flooded 80 percent of the city, homes and jobs disappeared, problems that still threaten the recovery as the population remains at half the pre-storm number.

Neighborhoods popular with the artistic community, like the French Quarter, Faubourg Marigny and Bywater, did not flood. But rents there have risen by 50 to 100 percent, said author Robert Smallwood, who is also executive director of the Louisiana Writers' Foundation.

"If writers were scraping by with odd jobs, they can hardly make it now," he said.

His foundation and Habitat for Humanity teamed up in an effort to secure lots and build low-income housing to assist writers and their families. It's a similar plan to the Musicians Village begun by Harry Connick Jr. and Branford Marsalis.

To raise funds, the foundation in November recreated Truman Capote's famous black-and-white ball, which was held at the Plaza Hotel in New York in 1966. The 2006 version was in New Orleans, the birthplace of the author of "In Cold Blood."

NONFICTION SHIFTS TO FICTION

Katrina is an unavoidable touchstone for New Orleans writers as they get back to their craft.

Since the disaster, it's been largely a subject of nonfiction, such as Douglas Brinkley's tome "The Great Deluge: Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans and the Mississippi Gulf Coast" and "The Five People You Meet In Hell: Surviving Katrina," Smallwood's tale of French Quarter denizens who stayed put while most citizens evacuated.

Now, the storm and its aftermath are fodder for fiction, said Biguenet, who lost 2,500 books when his home flooded.

"Rising Water," his play about a couple trapped in their attic after Katrina who must make their way to their roof, has attracted national attention.

Brinks' poetry is filled with explorations of life, family and death post-Katrina.

"Only now are we returning to our creative writing to try to comprehend what exactly has happened to us and our fellow New Orleanians," said Biguenet, 57.

He describes his city as a cultural island in America that managed to maintain its unique French, African, Spanish and Caribbean character as well as its love of conversation. That fostered its literary scene.

Said Smallwood: "It's important to save this, because this is part of the soul of the whole country, to be able to have writers and artists and poets exist and create and maintain our culture."

Copyright ? 2006 Reuters Limited.