Category: Fiction

Categories
Family Fiction Humor Memoir Self improvement Work

over the rainbow

Let me start out by saying, I really like my job.

But it’s hard to be away from B for 9+ hours a day, counting my commute. So sometimes I find myself wondering, Where is that Perfect Job for me?

The one that’s a career, not just a job.

Flexible hours, but generally 9-5.

Preferably there’s a daycare onsite.

They pay me what I think I deserve to get paid. Plus awesome benefits (including dental and vision) for me and my whole family. Plus a retirement package.

There’s the possibility of advancement.

It’s something I enjoy doing, ideally in the arts. It is both challenging and satisfying on a daily basis.

Casual dress code, friendly work environment, fun coworkers.

A boss who’s also a mentor.

Maybe I can work from home some of the time.

I guess as long as I’m reaching for the stars, some Google-style cafeterias offering free lunches wouldn’t be so bad. And maybe, like, an on-site gym? I guess it’d be cool if they issued me an iPad too. And paid for my personal phone? Which I use for work stuff occasionally.

So if anyone hears of a job like this, ideal for a San Francisco-based almost-30-year-old with an English degree, could you let me know?

Categories
Awesome Beginnings Books Fiction Games Writing

Is it already almost November AGAIN?

It’s October 11, which means we’re into the middle of October, which means it’s almost November, and November, as you know, is National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo).

Dangit. It just kind of snuck up on me this year. If I’m going to even attempt to do it again this year, now’s the time to think about it, so that we don’t get to November 1st and I just panic and start writing and then end up with 12 pages of third-person narration where the main character is obviously just a thinly-veiled version of myself.

I want to put some thought into it, and come up with a storyline ahead of time. Even though all of the Nanowrimo propaganda is about how fun it is when you hit a wall and you don’t know what’s going to happen next, and then your characters do something crazy that you weren’t expecting, I don’t work well like that. (See above, re: 12 pages, thinly-veiled version of myself.) I need to have a storyline to follow, and some idea of where things are going. The details that crop up on my way to the already-envisioned end can surprise me. And the ending can surprise me too, ultimately. But I have to at least think I know where it’s going.

I’ve been getting the year-round emails from the crew at the Office of Letters and Lights (they are in charge of Nanowrimo, as much as you can be in charge of a concept), and I haven’t unsubscribed from them, although I have to admit I haven’t opened and read them either. I guess I’m just walking a middle line, refusing to commit to either participating this year, or to making a decision to not participate. (I have 20 more days to decide before November 1st – technically I could still join in after that, but I’ve never been successful at starting late.)

I would love to make this work this year, especially since I’m not going to work and so you would think that I would have more time at home to write. We’ll see how this unfolds. If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave in the comments. In the meantime, a Google “I feel lucky” search for “plot generator” suggests this: “The story starts when your protagonist buys a new car. Another character is a gypsy who put a curse on your protagonist.” I don’t know…

Ooh, but refreshing the plot generator gives me this: “The story starts when your protagonist shoplifts. Another character is a thief who is the most attractive person your protagonist has ever met.” I kind of like that.

Categories
Fiction Friends Memoir Not awesome Theatre Work

Lying at a wedding

We went to a wedding yesterday. At the reception – which was a full-on 9-course Chinese banquet, although I counted 11 courses before the cake – the girl next to me started making small talk. Her date (fiancee? husband? boyfriend?) was part of the band and so he was up and down through most of dinner, so somewhere between the shark fin soup and the abalone with mushrooms, she asked me what I do.

When I told her I work at a theatre company, she asked me which one, and it turned out she’s actually kind of into theatre. She’s actually been to see shows that we have put on, the most recent 3 years ago, but that’s still far better than most people I find myself making small talk with. I immediately upgraded my conversation from the standard “talking about my work with people who don’t care about theatre.”

“What have you seen around here that’s good?” she asked me, and I reached out for anything, anything we’ve seen lately.

But it appears I’m a theatre major failure, because it’s been months since I’ve seen anything. Well, I guess I’ve seen shows at my work. I resorted to fibbing and talking about shows at other companies, that I’m sure were very good, but they closed before I had a chance to see them.

Erin recently saw Chinglish at Berkeley Rep, and she raved about it, so I almost said that I’d seen that, but luckily something stopped me, because it turned out that my tablemate LOVES David Henry Hwang and saw Chinglish last week. Yeesh, that could have been messy.

After the reception I got to thinking: we should really see more Bay Area theatre. There is so much here. It’s just that a lot of it is so spread out and/or difficult to get to. And let’s face it. I’m into being at home and in pajamas by 8pm these days. I missed opening night of my own company’s current show, and haven’t actually managed to see it yet – and this is the last week of performances.

But I think I might see if I can get tickets to see Chinglish. I’ve heard such good things.

Categories
Fiction Nonfiction TV

The Valentine’s Day Episode of “Glee” Was Really Not So Bad

Anyone who knows me knows I’ve kind of fallen off the Glee train. What started out as this super fun show about high school kids singing and dancing, has turned into a mess of tangled/unfinished plot lines, overly cheesy characters, and some uncomfortably bad acting.

But the Valentine’s Day episode was a pleasant surprise in many ways. **Spoilers below…although is that kind of redundant?**

For one thing (and everyone knows that this is key), the teachers were, for the most part, absent from the episode. The appearance of too much faculty/staff of McKinley High always brings the episodes down. Too much teacher-singing and I tune right out (no pun intended). But Tuesday’s episode focused on the students and their romantic escapades, and I appreciated that.

One of the arcs in the show right now is that Finn has proposed to Rachel and she finally said yes. So they’re now navigating their new relationship, and in Tuesday’s episode, Rachel’s two dads have found out about the engagement and are surprisingly supportive. They even invite Finn’s mom and step-dad over for dinner, where the four parents reveal that they are leaving Finn to spend the night with Rachel! OMG you guys, high school students having sleepovers!

One continuity thing that bothered me here was that they had dinner, drinks, dessert; Finn’s parents took off; Rachel and Finn “went to bed,” meaning she took a shower and went through her nightly beauty routine (which she says is longer than her morning routine); she and Finn get into an argument; somehow kiss and make up*; and are snuggling in bed (scandalous)…at which point he looks at the clock and says, “It’s 7:30.” Meaning 7:30pm, meaning they get up, get dressed again, and head out to the Valentine’s party with all their classmates. Meaning…this dinner party started at what, 4:00pm?

But then we find out a twist! The parents do NOT approve of Finn and Rachel getting married straight out of high school, and are instead trying to reverse-psychology the two into realizing on their own that it’s not a good idea. Which, of course, backfires and they decide to hurry things up and get married in May. Oops!

*They somehow kiss and make up – I am disappointed that the writers skipped straight from the two of them getting into a fight over what the future holds for each of them in NYC…to everything being snuggly and back to normal. Why did they skip the making up scene? Seems like a cop-out, and also, this would have been an amazing time to show us a rational discussion and apology between two “adults.” Maybe if I’d seen how each of them had handled their part of that coming back together, I would have more sympathy for them and see them more as adults. This could have been a great “role model” moment for teens.

The students, although all vaguely somewhere between 15-18, are all portrayed as adults, making adult decisions we’re supposed to go along with (“Let’s get married” or “I’m switching schools to go to school with my boyfriend even though my parents paid for me to go to private school for 12 years of my life”). I cringe uncontrollably when, in glee club, couples are paired up to sing songs to each other about undying love, when they all keep trading off partners with each other. (I did like Quinn singing “Never Can Say Goodbye” to all three of her glee club boyfriends…but that was in one of those metaphorical spaces, we weren’t literally watching her performance in glee club.)

(And what is glee club anyway? Is it a class? Is it before school? After school? Sometimes it seems like no one else is around, sometimes a bell rings at the end of it. What is this weird time-glee continuum we’ve been dropped into?)

Thirdly (?), I find myself fascinated with Karofsky’s story. David Karofsky is a football player who used to torment Kurt for being (flamboyantly and fashionably) gay. In one episode last season, Kurt finally confronted Karofsky in an empty locker room, asking why he focused so much energy on bullying him, and Karofsky “hate kissed” Kurt in a moment that, I’m pretty sure, shocked most of the viewing audience. Not in a boys-kissing-boys kind of way, but in a I-did-not-see-that-coming-at-all-and-now-everything-makes-sense-and-I-feel-sympathy-for-Karofsky-now-that’s-so-weird kind of way.

Karofsky has since moved to another school – the details are fuzzy, sometimes I feel like I must have missed weeks of episodes because I have no idea where this person came from (Sugar) or that person went (Shelby). But for Valentine’s Day Karofsky came back and was revealed to be the person sending “Secret Admirer” Valentines to Kurt. He tells Kurt that he has feelings for him, and Kurt actually turns him down with finesse, which I appreciated.

Oh and! If we’re talking about same-sex couples, I like Brittany and Santana together. Is that officially a thing? What’s going on there? When did that happen? I don’t know, but whatever, I like Santana when she’s happy and focusing her catty energy on people we can all agree are the enemies (like Sebastian the Warbler).

One last thing that I liked a lot: Mercedes’ rendition of “I Will Always Love You,” which they say was planned before Whitney Houston’s death made it incredibly relevant. (I believe them that it was already planned, since the entire episode is based on “the greatest love songs ever” and this one just fits right into the storyline.) They even let Mercedes sing the entire song, which doesn’t always happen, especially when someone’s doing a solo. She did a great job with it.

I realized that my intent in writing about this episode was to applaud it for being better than its mediocre brothers and sisters. Then I accidentally heaped more criticism on it. Oops. Oh well. Guess I should just watch something “better” that I know I’ll like more. Arrested Development is very good so far.

Categories
Books Fiction Nonfiction Religion Technology

Google > Bing

Today I learned from the radio that soma is a modern drug, also known as Carisoprodol. It’s a muscle relaxant and pain reliever.

But I remember Soma as the drug in Brave New World that everyone had to take, that kept them apathetic and “happy.” What a reference!

Apparently, Brave New World borrowed the name from a mythical (assumedly hallucinogenic) drink consumed by the ancient Indo-Aryans.

Indo-Aryans are now most highly concentrated in the following areas: India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, the Maldives. There are one billion native speakers of the Indo-Aryan languages.

You should try to learn one new thing every day. Now we’ve learned four!

Or maybe you already knew one or two or three of these things. If so, you’re still good. If you knew all four, then you’ll have to find your own new thing for today.

Categories
"Other people" Fiction

Maybe she thinks I’m stealing her Fung Wong menus

When our neighbor moved in, I admit that I entertained a little thought that we might become friendly. Not besties – I know I don’t need a bestie living next door – but I thought maybe we would be friendly enough to chat outside, or she might even ask us to water her plants. I don’t know.

She wasn’t very friendly though, and still isn’t. She’s been kind of forced to talk to us because we’ve run into her while she’s walking her corgi a couple times, and the dog has been very curious about us. But instead of taking that opportunity to have a conversation, she’s just acted all uninterested and pulled the dog away.

She recently has lost a lot of weight, and started dressing much nicer. Before it was a lot of long flowy skirts with long flowy tops. Now it’s all fitted vests, although I still don’t think I’ve seen her wear pants. I guess she could just be exercising and dieting, but I’m pretty sure this is the result of gastric bypass surgery.

She has a very specific car, and naturally I notice when it’s not in her spot, or in the prime spots right in front of our building. She’s frequently gone for long weekends. I once wrote a 6-page story about her loading her dog and her JC Penney luggage into her Sebring and driving down to Santa Barbara to visit her mom. In my story, she and the dog stopped for sandwiches, and they got one roast beef and one egg salad, and shared. I think Drew was a little weirded out by the detail in my story, and how I started referring to her sick mom in Southern California in everyday conversation, like it was truth.

Other good hints that she’s gone for a long weekend:

  • the conspicuous absence of the furiously barking dog behind her door, whenever I walk up to my door
  • the take out menus multiplying on the door knob
  • sometimes packages pile up on her door mat as well

Sometimes I think that all these Chinese food menus are just a big neon sign telling strangers, “I haven’t been home for days. Feel free to come in and take anything you want.” Sometimes I take the menus off her door (they’re all repeats anyway) because I think that might discourage prowlers who are scoping out the neighborhood. Then she walks right past me in the parking lot and doesn’t meet my eyes. Oh well.

At least when she’s gone I don’t have to worry about that annoying dog barking at me going into MY OWN APARTMENT. Which I have lived in longer than you have lived in yours, RILEY.

Categories
Awesome Fiction

MUSED – Published

Today is the spring equinox, which means it’s the date that the spring issue of MUSED, an online literary magazine, comes out.

You can find the spring issue here.

You can find my poem, “Bryant Park,” here.

I’m chipping away at those New Year’s Resolutions!

Categories
Awesome Books Fiction Not awesome

I hate when someone else gets the good idea first

There’s this guy who has set out to tweet an entire novel.  Here are the salient points.

  • He is tweeting 5 or 6 days a week.
  • He started on 1/11/11 and intends to finish on 11/11/11, so it’ll be 10 straight months.
  • It appears that he tweets more than once a day. (Looks like about 100-150 words per day, according to his website so far.)
  • It’s about a girl who lives on the streets in Berkeley, and she gets a cell phone and starts tweeting.  Apparently the point is that it will circle back around and be about the redemptive qualities of social networking.

Here are things I don’t like about it.

  • That I didn’t think of this first.
  • That he’s writing it day by day…I feel like if he doesn’t plan ahead and outline at least a little bit, how is he going to create a good story?  I suspect reading this will be a waste of my time.
  • I don’t really care for all the text speak.  I get that the medium is twitter, but it’s obnoxious to read all the 4s and 2s and Us and Rs and thxs, etc.
  • So, doing the math…there’s no way this thing can be much longer than 25K.  That’s not a novel.  So I wish he would stop calling it a novel.

This is a really interesting concept and now it’s something that I’m just thinking about, in the way you just let things marinate.  I think it could be a really amazing way to “publish” something.

I’m reluctant to put his website here, because I don’t want to give him any traffic, lol.  This is an awesome concept and I love the idea that the book speaks to social networking bringing about redemption.  So it bums me out that a) so far I’m not impressed with the writing or the story, and b) he’s hardly committing if it’s only 10 months and less than 30,000 words.

But, his website is tweetheartnovel.com, and you can follow him on Twitter and get all the text-speak updates if you want.  (I’m not.)

Categories
Exercise Fiction Work

November 30th

I know this is silly, but I’m inordinately proud of myself for completing NaNoWriMo this year.

The past two year I’ve done it, I haven’t really written a “novel” – I’ve written more like “50,000 words that are mostly stories about someone who bears an uncanny resemblance to me, and occasionally straight-up journal entries.”  So I’ve gotten to 50,000 but it’s sort of been cheating.

This year I stuck to it and wrote an entire story about one person – and yes, you might be able to point out a large number of things that she and I have in common, but so what? – and it has a beginning, a middle, and an end.  I suspect there is some good stuff in there, too, which excites me.  I’ll find out when I reread (but Stephen King says to give it at least 6 weeks before then).

In April, the same team of people responsible for Nanowrimo hosts Script Frenzy, which is 100 pages of scripted material.  I am so there.

Dude, look at these stats.  I was so far behind for most of this:

I’m so grateful for those Week Three sprints.

So today I’ve been able to relax a little bit and run a bunch of errands (probably one of my most favorite things in the entire world).  I recently got the chance to wash all my clothes (usually I kind of cycle things through, and the bottom of the basket collects things that I don’t really care about), so my dresser drawers are stuffed with clean things.  That feels nice.  I’m going to go read Deathly Hallows and feel smug.

Categories
Fiction

National novel writing month

I don’t want to turn this into a month-long thing, but this is about Nanowrimo.  I have a problem.  I admire, respect, envy, and (yes, even) love the writing styles of Ira Levin and Emily Giffin, in particular among all writers.  I want to sound like them.  I don’t sound like them.  So far I feel like my writing is much more “Dear Diary, Today this happened, then this happened, then the characters went over there, then we talked about this.”  I know it’s probably not as bad as it sounds in my head but it’s certainly not the crafted language of Ira Levin or even the devourable writing of Emily Giffin.  I’m hoping that if I keep pushing this out I will at some point (hopefully by this weekend) hit my stride and find the voice, and then I can go back and tweak the beginning.

It probably doesn’t help that I’m writing backstage, sitting on stairs, hunched over a UCD notebook, illuminated by blue light.  It’ll be nice when this show is over.

The End.