Last week, I posted an assortment of goodies that had, once upon a time, been displayed upon my college dorm room door. One item was too big and complex to include then, and I decided that – since it had been a Valentines gift to me from my friend Alain – I should share it with the world on Valentines. This is dedicated especially to all my girlfriends who are still struggling to find that special man in their own life. If anyone wants to borrow Xavier, please help yourself!

The text, if you can’t make it out in the scan:

“And I’m fed up with this women’s college existance!” fumed Staci with pent up frustration. “Even the view over upper lake is starting to pall.”

The helpful pal at the end of the line smiled knowingly. Being a senior she could understand. So she fixed up a surprise date for Staci on Valentine’s Day ‘89. Xavier, having learned about Staci’s vivacity and wit, desperately wanted to impress this paragon of womanhood.

The first date went swimmingly, and the next, and so on…

Xavier got to thinking…

Well, as you might have guessed, they were married. The wedding was beautiful, only marred by the bridesmaid’s dress falling off. Stacie helped her back into it with great aplomb.

And this is how we find them today.

Happy Valentine’s Day – Love, Alain

And the photo captions:

Have I got on enough mousse?

She’s smart, sexy, and boy can she master a dungeon!

Next time wear a bra!

It was sunset, nearly, and a break in the rain made it a good time to run a quick errand. The clouds were still thick overhead, and in the east gray mountains were only darker shapes against an ominous sky.

To the west the clouds had cleared. Not completely, but a swath of blue appeared along the horizon, somewhere in the general direction of the ocean. And in the moment before the storm front could reassert its dominance over the day, the sun cast a brief, ferocious light across the valley.

Everything was caught in its golden glow – trees, hills, houses – and transformed by the stark angle of the light into something … Unreal, I thought. But at the same time more real, as if the shadows of everyday life had been burned away, leaving Plato’s ideal forms to shine through. No longer did I see a tree, a hill, a house; I saw The Tree, The Hill, The House. I saw perfection.

I briefly wished I had a camera, to capture that moment, to keep it and to share it. Instead, I have to make do with a few inadequate words (and we know language is never perfect). But even if did have a camera, and I was an expert photographer, I doubt film or pixels could have done it justice. True moments aren’t something you can replicate at will. All you can share are shadows.

If you weren’t doing what you are doing now, what would you be doing? Interesting question, akin to, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” When we’re kids, the possibilities seem endless (Anna, who’s not yet 8, has 6 different careers planned already), but somewhere along the way we become focused on a single path, and alternatives seem out of the question.

But alternate realities are fun to contemplate, even if you’re perfectly happy with the life you’re leading now. Here’s 5 imaginary lives that sound like fun to me:

1. Horse rancher: I’m not sure if I favor the wild skies of a Western range or a genteel horse farm in Kentucky, but getting to spend all day in a barn or on horseback would be awesome.

2. Photographer: Again, I’m torn between the options. Nature photography, scouring the globe in a quest to capture epic grandeur? Or something close to home, helping people document their lives in a beautiful way? Either would be neat.

3. Bookstore owner: Anyone who loves books must have imagined their own crowded little shop filled with overflowing shelves of classic treasures.

4. Astronaut: Why not? I would love to see the Earth from space.

5. Nun: Though I’m not particularly religious, the appeal of withdrawing from the world for the purpose of spiritual contemplation is immensely appealing.

What alternative lives have you imagined?

*Based on an exercise from Julia “Morning Pages” Cameron, in her book, The Sound of Paper.

I saw this on another writer’s blog and couldn’t wait to jump in. It reminds me of an idea I read elsewhere, to boost you out of the mid-book doldrums: make a list of all the cool things about your story that excited you and made you want to write the thing in the first place. This one is briefer, but could serve the same purpose.

Rules: List 25 single-word teasers from your WIP. Tag no one or anyone!*

1. wasteland
2. oasis
3. nomads
4. stallion
5. prank
6. moon
7. mother
8. wedding
9. duel
10. artifact
11. exile
12. enchantment
13. djan
14. journey
15. defender
16. lost
17. scholar
18. slavery
19. hunted
20. temple
21. ascendant
22. posession
23. divinity
24. nature
25. rebirth

* While it seems intended for written projects, I think a visual artist enmeshed in a lengthy project could get some use out of this exercise too.

I’m too excited about this painting not to share. This is the preliminary sketch of “Firebird”, which I began yesterday afternoon.

I kept seeing paintings of firebirds everywhere — in the bathroom at the craft store, a set decoration on a tv show — I finally decided yesterday that I ought to try painting one myself, and the composition just popped into my head right then. Within a couple of hours I had not only this sketch done, but I’d begun the work on the canvas itself. If I had good lighting, I might have kept working on it for hours. As it was, only the the bare outlines and rough background are complete. Hopefully, I’ll have a chance to work on it a little bit more this afternoon.

Right now, though, I need to go get ready for a writing date, and make some progress on the other work in progress — my novel! Free time is about the only good thing about being unemployed, I guess!

A few days ago, I was looking for some papers that are in storage. As I sifted through a few boxes, I happened upon an envelope (one of those yellow, over-sized, interoffice delivery things, with a red string to hold it closed). I knew immediately what was inside, though I was baffled about why I had decided to save it all this time.

What the envelope contains are the decorations that adorned my dorm room door my senior year in college. I suppose that, after graduation, I felt a reluctance to let go of that (in retrospect) idyllic life of a college student. So I stuffed these tangible reminders into an envelope and have hauled them all over the country these past 18 years.

I’m trying to get rid of stuff, though. Letting go of things that don’t have any functional value, and whose sentimental value has declined over time. These items fall into that category. The good news is that, though these items are now destined for the trash (even the battered envelope!), I don’t have to relinquish them entirely. Even better, I get to share them all with you! Yay for technology!I present, for your amusement, a snapshot of what was significant to me way back in 1991.

• Because I went to a women’s college, men were rare on campus. When I jokingly told my friend I wanted a man for my birthday, this is what she provided. In retrospect, he was the perfect boyfriend — he always looked good, didn’t have any bad habits or obnoxious friends, and was always around when I needed him.
• One of the postcards shows the Japanese Meditation Garden on campus, which I never actually visited while I was a student.
• “To be a star, you must shine in your own light, follow your own path, and don’t worry about the darkness, for that is when stars shine the brightest!” Deep.
• I’m sure if my older sisters had any newspaper clippings, I would have posted them as well.

There’s one more thing from the envelope, but as it is large and elaborate, it deserves a whole post to itself. Coming soon!

Happy New Year!

I know, I know. I’m a month late. But having been kicked down pretty hard at the outset of 2009, I decided it was time for a do-over. Fresh start. Clean slate. It’s the first of a new month, and the start of a new week to boot, so it seems like the ideal moment to begin again.

I have been pretty down the past few weeks, not truly depressed but not focusing on more than just the necessities, either: taking care of my kids, job hunting, that sort of stuff. My New Years intention (not resolutions, really, but really just a word or theme I intended to mindfully embrace) fell by the wayside, which, of course, only made me feel even worse.

Then I decided that it was okay to feel bad. I mean, I was kicked hard. The thing was not to let moping last indefinitely. So I set a deadline for myself – today – and then let myself indulge in all the comfort food (potato chips) and activities (MySims on the Wii) that I wanted without letting it make me feel bad. Self-indulgence without guilt is necessary, sometimes more than others.

It worked, too, because I feel better this morning, brighter, than I have in a few weeks. Ready to tackle 2009 in earnest.

I read a comic strip the other day that made fun of how by the end of January most people have abandoned their resolutions from that start of the year. (It’s not a very funny strip, so I won’t bother to look for an online link to it.) What about you? Are you starting to feel guilty about letting your resolutions slide already? And if you are, do you want to take this opportunity — a new week, a new month — to recommit? Who’s with me?

Photo Credit: Nelson. D. @ Flickr