Saturday, December 31, 2011

MY MIND UNLEASED for GBE2 ~ Week #32

 

THE CHALLENGE:

WEEK #32 (12-25-11 to 12-31-11): 15 Minute Free Write
This week, we’re doing something a little different. Instead of a word or picture prompt, we’ll be free writing. For those of you unfamiliar with the process, it is exactly what it sounds like. You sit down and write whatever comes into your mind for 15 straight minutes. The goal is not to write a story, article, or even anything coherent.

It’s a word purge. A stream of consciousness babble-fest, and it’s a wonderful way to unleash your creativity. Will what you write be crap? Almost certainly. Will the resulting paragraphs (if there are even paragraphs) be dull, repetitive, gripe-o-ramas, list-o-worries, and inventories of what’s been gnawing at you lately? Yep. When you are done, will you look at what you’ve written and decide that it’s simply too revealing to publish? Very likely.

 ME:  YEP, IT’S CRAP, BUT I’M PUBLISHING…LOL…  So, without further ado, here it is:

GBE challenge this week is to spend 15 minutes in free writing. This is a first for me – well, except for journaling which I haven’t done in quite a while.

So…here goes… I tried all week to find 15 minutes to do this exercise. If you think I didn’t try very hard, you are right. LOL My life isn’t that busy, but bright shiny things are distracting for me. Every time I sat down to write, I got distracted. Also, if it isn’t something bright and shiney, it’s one of my pets demanding my attention…or my husband…or the phone. I long for the days when I was able to multi-task. On second thought, maybe I don’t.

I am so guilty of assaulting my senses. It seems like I need constant stimulation. I can read blogs and watch TV – neither gets my full attention. I go to sleep with the TV on. I am quite good at sleeping through anything loud. Like the time I slept like a baby through a tornado that was approx one mile away, but my husband said was loud as a train even here. I wish he had woke me up. I would have liked to hear what it sounded like. You can’t count the tornado that raced through our yard during Hurricane Charlie in 2004 because the wind was already loud enough to drown out any train.

We are going out for Chinese dinner today. We love Chinese food. Back when we both worked, it was our Saturday date. After retirement, we scaled back to once every other week. I don’t know why except that I just love living in my pj’s and I would rather lounge around the house in my pj’s than go out to eat. Is that wrong? Well, I don’t care. I love being retired. I think retirement brought the sassy rebel out into the open. I just don’t care what anyone thinks of me. I know I’m a good person…in spite of what I see people write about me on the internet. If you haven’t seen any of it, well, let me say that I have a former friend or two who are quite brutal. But, here again, I really don’t care. I love and I love well. If I don’t love you, there is a good reason. End of that…

I was really disappointed in the weather we had for Christmas this year. I HATE the heat. I hate that my parents dragged us to Florida. I hate that I never left! Now I’m retired, I have a whole new attitude. I didn’t, after all, have the hassle of moving to FL to retire because I am already here…LOL. But, I still need to do something about the property up north where I will never live. I still dream a bit about building a log cabin up on the hill so that I can spend summers there, but…that probably won’t happen. It nags at the back of my mind…

Tomorrow is 2012. I wonder what the new year will hold for us. 2004 was a really bad year. 2008 was worst. Just 4 years apart each. Now here comes 2012 after another 4 years. If I had more than 2 minutes left, I would ponder 2000, but all I can remember about that year is that my 17 year old dog died and my heart was soooo broken.

Well, I have about one minute left and I am stumped, so I will just say that I enjoyed this exercise! (end of time)

10 comments:

  1. Darlene, this was awesome! Nice word purge! Glad you're enjoying retirement. Chinese food is awesome! Sorry, about your doggie. Sounds like he had a long life and was loved much. We love our furry friends.

    Happy New Year!

    Linda

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thank you, Linda. I really enjoyed this exercise and think I will now do it often.

    Thank you for the condolences for my dog. I had a lot of pets in my life, but only a few were that "love you to eternity and back" kind of pets. Elvira could look me in the eye and it seemed she could see right into my soul. Right from the first time I laid eyes on her and locked eye contact with her, I knew she was something special. I will always miss her.

    Happy New Year to you too! May your blessings be many!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hi...I am locked out of FB for 24 hours, 22 left, but I was able to get in here from google+...so

    That was a fun read! I am also sorry about your pup, but I am so glad you had that love. I have been lucky enough to have a few doggie love of my lifes and after 13, 16 or more years with their humans they were just done. It is heartbreaking, but also the kind of love that last FOREVER. Miss my girls and am so glad I had them.
    And btw...loved the line, "If I don't love you, there must be a reason!" It's perfect.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Wish you an awesome 2012. Thanks for visiting my blog.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I wish I were retired and living in Florida. How bad can it be? I have to go back to work tomorrow and I'm dreading it. Vacation was wonderful!

    Joyce
    http://joycelansky.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete
  6. Glad you enjoy retirement. Sorry about your dog. Hope 2012 will be an awesome year for you! Great job!

    ReplyDelete
  7. This was a true stream of consciousness. I got a great kick out of it. I love chinese food too. Happy New Year Darlene

    ReplyDelete
  8. Retirement is such a lovely, lovely word. :O)

    Oh, and let me just say that while I've seen a few of the nasty comments you mentioned, my take on them (and those like them) is that they say more about the person writing them than they do about the person they're meant to demean. ♥

    ReplyDelete
  9. I love this!! Almost every mornig when I get up I write in my journal and usually it sounds a lot like what you've written here. I'm not sure I'd be willing to post much of it. ha ha

    HUGZZZZZZ!!!!!

    ReplyDelete
  10. I lost a tree to Charlie, and I hate the heat. See, we could be sisters. Have a great year Darlene.

    ReplyDelete