Playing in the pool...

Zane: I want to die, mommy. What does die mean, mommy?

Me: Uhhh...I...uhhh...hmmm..

Personal Essay Writing - Class 2

This homework assignment was to write a 1-2 page Character Study about anyone. Here's mine...

He wakes up early this morning: 6:34. He lies in bed for awhile just thinking out loud, remembering what he was thinking about before he went to bed. Getting up is sometimes hard for him, but this morning he’s ready to go. Not bothering to get dressed, he pads over to the couch to munch on whole grain cereal and catch up on his shows. TV in the morning is strictly intellectual to get his mind moving.

After awhile he switches to fruit and the iPhone. Blueberries, his favorite, are finally in season and readily available. He can’t get enough and sometimes breaks down if he runs out. He chugs some good ole moo juice to balance it all out - he knows all about the nutritional value of milk, what with the calcium, proteins and vitamin D, but he’d drink it anyway because he loves it.

Not that he needs the vitamin D - he obviously spends his share of time outside. His sun kissed hair is proof of that. A little long and shaggy right now, but cool enough for him - and the ladies certainly like it. Though diligent with the sunblock, his baby smooth skin has been caressed by the sun, too. Exactly seven tiny freckles punctuate his golden farmer’s tan.

This morning is for running errands. HEB for groceries, maybe a stop at Ikea to see his friend, Maria, and check out what’s new or what’s in As-Is. These days it’s really too hot do much outside. If he were to get moving earlier, a run at Memorial Park might be in order, but not today. While not entirely in control of his time, he has a lot of freedom. His job is simply to be himself and he’s good at it. Unapologetically impulsive, his moods change in an instant and he wears his heart on his sleeve. He’s quick to tell you what he thinks but if something comes out wrong, you know that it’s without malice.

Getting dressed is hit or miss. Most of the time he is content to wear anything, with a penchant for the extreme casual. Today it’s his favorite cutoffs and his ‘vintage’ Star Wars t-shirt. His biggest decision will be footwear: Chuck Taylor low-tops, Keen sandals or his robot flip flops. After reminiscing about his long-gone brown low-tops, he settles for his sandals.

Heading out the door to the titanium silver BMW (Bimmer, he likes to call it) in the driveway, he grabs his red-flamed sunglasses to protect his Caribbean blue eyes. Eyes that, under those mirrored lenses, see everything that you don’t: a Fruity Cheerio lodged in the crease of his seat, a dog with a red leash, an orange backhoe loader at a construction site, a fast red bicycle. Eyes that gleam with mischievous humor when he tells his favorite joke. Eyes that turn flat and dark when he doesn’t get what he wants and reflect only unfocused calculation.

But today is easy going. He’s got everything he wants. He sings the Spanish alphabet under his breath and lets his fingers caress the yellow wildflowers growing haphazardly along the sidewalk. He pauses to pick up a piece of chalk and draw a circle on the concrete. After a little prompting, he discards the chalk, brushes the dust off on his shirt, reaches up to hold my hand and asks me, “What kind of nuts do you like, Mommy?” “Cashews,” I answer. “Bless you!” he retorts with mile-wide smile.

I was the lucky first to read mine in class and have it critiqued. I liked much of what was said, good and bad, and will work on revisions this week.

I don't know doesn't cut it anymore

For last night's bedtime stories, Zane requested his Hannukkah counting book which has words in English, Hebrew and Yiddish. I usually just read the Yiddish words because they're the most fun. He really likes the page about Dreidels and has memorized the letters that are represented on each of the sides. For variety, I decided to read the Hebrew letters last night. I started with 'nun' and he immediately wanted to know what 'nun' means. How to explain that it's a letter in the Hebrew alphabet? Would he then want me to sing the Hebrew alphabet (can't)? I gave my standard "I don't know" with the clear 'let's move on' intonation while flipping the page and Zane retorted "You can look that up on the computer!"

So now I have to resort to "Go ask daddy."

(I thought it was so funny that I left his room to write down his quote. When I came back in to finish the story, he asked me if I had looked it up. I told him "no" and to remind me to look it up in the morning. He hasn't yet)

Pickle

Zane: I want a pickle without daddy eating my pickle.

Freckles

Since Zane was born, I've often wondered who's skin he has. Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Silence of the Lambs jokes aside, I wonder if he's inherited my incredibly difficult skin or John's incredibly easy skin. Clearly, he's inherited my good looks, although I do believe he's inherited John's nose (the original one). Of course, under that beautiful baby smooth skin, he's so much like John that it makes me giggle just thinking about it.

Over the past week or so I've noticed a few tiny little freckles popping up on his skin. They're teeny tiny little brown specks that I've tried to wipe off. He's got one on his left cheek (face, that is), four on his right arm (2 up and 2 down) and two on his right leg (over and under). He can point them out to you, too, but he won't sit still and let me get pictures.

Still, that doesn't answer the skin mystery, as both John and I have freckles (albeit very different ones).

Love. Them. To. Bits. Don't know why.

Personal Essay Writing- Class 1

So, I'm taking a summer writing workshop. Personal Essay Writing. Tonight I had my first class and we were required to actually write something. Writing at the spur of the moment is hard for me, so I had a little anxiety about it. In addition, we had to read it to the class for critiquing. It turned out OK, though.

We were asked to interview one of our class mates and we were then, in turn, interviewed by someone else. We then took 15 minutes to write an essay based on our interview. Here's my essay...

Peter sits across from me, quietly checking messages on his phone. Who is he? By all appearances you might presume that he's a former frat boy - goatee, flip flops and cargo pants tell the story. Perhaps he just finished an early happy hour with some buds before heading off to his decidedly not "bro-ish" writing class.

In fact, I don't really know if Peter or "Petey" as his high school mates dubbed him, was even in a fraternity. Perhaps he had no time for such things while pursuing his chemical engineering degree (all the while dreaming of writing).

Had I not asked, I might never have guessed his home-state was New Jersey, but Houston does have a way of softening up any "foreign" accents. Love and money is what brought Peter down south, but it's not what's kept him here.

I noticed Peter's tattoo immediately, as he had intended. It's a squiggly black line encircling his left wrist. A permanent bracelet, like my grandmother's medic-alert bracelet that declares she's a diabetic and allergic to penicillin. I know that anyone who puts a tattoo in such a prominent place is making a declaration, so I ask him about it. "Do you want the real or the fake story?" he replies. I ask for the fake one first, knowing that he really wants to tell me the true story. He says it's his mother's heartbeat after her heart attack. Sweet. Now what's the real story?

It's an EKG of his former boyfriend's heartbeat. Apparently the ex has covered up Peter's EKG on his own wrist. Why hasn't Peter? Does he know that you can't ever really cover that love up - that you just have to move on?

There we go. I'm a really slow writer and tend to freeze up when someone says "OK - go!" I was really impressed with how many people in the class were able to write a complete essay in so little time. I didn't feel like mine was complete, as there was a lot more information about Peter that I wanted to present. That said, I felt good reading it and appreciated the critiques.

I'm very much looking forward to my next class and am already enjoying taking a class just for fun.