Unusual Girl Studios

So, here I am. I have a new class that I really have to concentrate on. I mean really- I need to concentrate. But instead, I am thinking about opening an Etsy store. Let me back up. I bought a cool machine that allows you to bind your own books. It was as if it were meant to be. Why? I have a couple of manuscripts (that sounds funny to me- pretentious- I don't know) that I have sent off to publishers and they have all come back rejected in various formats. I keep thinking, perhaps, it's the presentation. They don't get it. They don't get me. Maybe I am deluded but I can't change that- my self image is what keeps me going. If I am not talented and creative and endowed with a strange, hard earned wisdom all my own- then who the hell am I? I don't want to pay thousands to self publish and then do my own marketing. What to do, what to do. The beast inside me will not be quiet and must be heard, must be authenticated and must be validated. So, I'll make my own b...

This is a re-post from 2 years ago.  I like to get the story out of the storage bin along with the rest of the Halloween decorations.  I thought I'd make it a tradition.  (Plus I am all out of clever things to blog about and way behind on grading homework!) One wonders, is the mean girl still lurking just outside the dressing room? The mean 20 year old at the dressing rooms told me there was no flash photography allowed. So I promised not to use my flash. She then said "no pictures at all!" I said "Seriously?" You have got to be kidding!" Really, does she think I was going to run home and copy the super girl outfit on my sewing machine? Couldn't she tell by merely looking at me- that I am almost 40, that life has been very hard recently as I rush around trying to get two little girls off to different classrooms with different schedules and different events going on every freakin' day with different homework every freakin' night and that not o...

Sorry, oh one follower of mine, I have been so busy. December spun by so fast, two consecutive days of grading, family Christmas party, Christmas Musicals at school after dark during snowstorms, family Christmas, New Years Eve, small procedure that required two, not one, but two days of fasting and drinking a gallon of salt water, muffler pipes falling off but not all the way off and dragging down the road all the way from Ten Mile road all the way to work, good memories to be sure. Now, I sit at my computer finding ways to put off finalizing my plans for teaching the "New" class. I am very creative that way. Just as full of angst as I was in 2008. Still trying to define myself by polar opposites. All the things I should accomplish, all the things I want to accomplish, all the things I haven't accomplished. I have so many thoughts to share and ponder. I promise at some time I will get into all of them. One thing I have not figured out is why some people are so drive...

She leaned back into the crook of the tree. Even with the mid-day sun the woods seemed damp. Turning her head she said "Gelatinous. You look ... gelatinous ." With one slow blink of his eyes the frog replied "Forty. You appear forty- ish ." "Just barely, if don't mind, just barely." That came with a tilt of the head and a narrowing of the eyes. How did a tree frog master so well the sound of " Harruumph !"? He seemed unmoved from his previous statement. Starting anew, she offered a question. "Tell me friend, do you ever wish for more?" "Yes, on a slow day I wish for more insects." She sighed, he was obviously a difficult fellow. "I meant do you ever wish you were more? Do you wonder why you are here, is this all you are, is it enough, do you matter?" The frog tilted his head and blinked his eyes. Just as she thought he would surely answer her, his mouth opened, out shot his tongue to wrap around a bug and draw i...