Writing it Down

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At embarkation time, the elevator brass was always covered by wooden buffers to save them from damage. Ryndam, 2009.

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Himself: Lighthearted this morning. Continuing to go with the worst case scenario en re work. Applied for his Class A and B licenses, passed 2 of the 4 tests too….without reading the book. A good sick day. Herself: Yesterday: swam, wrote, picked up three ladies and almost picked up several crashes, we all read, and later did the new elephant enclosure at the zoo with G, ate there and it didn’t agree. His job affects my thinking directly which affects my IBS. Reading: James Beard on Pasta….really good reading. Balance: The Ying and Yang of the Elephant Enclosure. The answers Tehachap gave me that solves my food problems.

I know when something isn’t quite right. I can roll out a pie crust, and, after baking, it shouldn’t turn into a hockey puck. I can start the car, and it shouldn’t do a buck and wing. I write a brief essay and all I have is boring. I worked really hard on a piece yesterday, and all I ended up with was really boring.

Even buck and wing would have been better than the stilted piece I took to class. Factual…yes. Clear and concise…yes. Boring….oh, yes.

So I arrived at the poetry group and asked then how could I make this humorous. Lighten it up. Make it a delight instead of a lead weight.

Start with an anecdote, one poet said. Something real to bring us into the story. She’s a real poet. Why have they invited stilted-prose-me to their group….I do not know. The other’s wrote enthusiastic notes in the margins of my boring article such as put it in present tense. I went to bed having nightmares over present tense. Use a double entendre. Gee, if I have to look it up, will I be able to understand it much less write it?

I came home to my ever present critic, G. He responded that I was a much funnier person now than I used to be before vanishing into his computer game. Is that damming with faint praise. So instead of being the straight man this weekend, I’m going to consciously attempt to write humorously. In the present tense. I’ll let you know if I live.