Month: November 2013

Posted on

Those Strings of Tension

tumblr_l3x5vcFP271qzklmoo1_500Monday night couldn’t get here soon enough. First they told us probably Monday morning, then it was “sometime after four,” and we were hoping for four but we knew it wasn’t to be, and then the final time quoted us was six o’clock in the evening. We had been in and out of Alexa’s room all day, playing the waiting game, a game that no one wins. And it would have been easy to give in to the impatience that had been building all day long, but we held strong somehow, even if that strength happened to be a fragile one. They had given her no food since seven o’clock on Sunday night, in readiness for her procedure, but as the day stretched on and we found out the “four o’clock” timetable, we were definitely not pleased because it meant no food for the entire day, and Alexa was starving by lunchtime while everyone else was able to eat. I felt horrible for my little one.

Then the doctor came in at 4:30, while the strings of tension were stretched tautly, and told us the final aim was for six that night, and because it was the first time we had actually seen someone in scrubs who had obviously just been in the operating room, or because we were just all out of steam, we believed him. And like clockwork things were finally starting to happen as they should. The assistant came up with a wheelchair right around six to escort Alexa to the operating floor to get prepared for the procedure. Of course that didn’t sit well with Lex because she gets really anxious, so you can imagine even though everyone from nursing students, to nurses, to doctors told her she wouldn’t feel a thing, that she was going under general anesthesia, she still got so upset.

When I say upset, I mean upset, too. Continue reading “Those Strings of Tension”

Posted on

Paper Footballs

image

There is an art to making a paper football. Believe me. It starts with a fresh sheet of unwrinkled paper and a strong thumb. And it ends with a perfect isoscles triangle that is firm but not too firm, and may or may not have designs on it. Oh, and in between it is an unparalleled journey.

We used to make them in auto mech class, when we were supposed to be learning about cam shafts, pistons, and axles. Instead we were at the big wooden table in the back of the class with unwrinkled sheets of paper and our own dreams of those little paper footballs.

It all started with a fold, near the edge but away from it too, the perfect length, the long way, and then a tear following the fold all the way to the bottom of the page. Tearing on the fold made for a better football, in my opinion, but some preferred to use scissors. I took true pride in beating them.

Then the real fun began, the raveling of the spine. By this time, or course, Mr. Benton, the auto mech teacher, would finally start to notice that half his class still didn’t know how brakes worked. But he still wouldn’t come to the back of the room, so we continued the raveling. Continue reading “Paper Footballs”

Posted on

When It Rains…

When it rains I look out the window, just to see the droplets stick to the glass and slide down, expanding as they move, like a disappearing snail. When it rains I run outside in my t-shirt so I can get drenched to the skin, and I stand there shivering but laughing while the rain … Continue reading When It Rains…

Posted on

The Traveler

The traveler leaves Never to return But always on time Lost in the maze of time Haggard as a vagrant Trivial in disregard And soft he calls Magic like the wind Whistling through heather Dusty on the road Complicating travel Collecting companions To plot the way ahead And light the way behind Constant as a … Continue reading The Traveler

Posted on

Day Nine

varianceWords written today: 2,334
My average per day: 2,226
Words so far this month: 20,035

As you know, I’m working on my NaNoWriMo novel this month, which means my goal is 50,000 words to be written in the span of 30 days. This is day nine and my objective is to write 2,000 words each day. As you can see by my statistics so far, I’ve accomplished that to this point, nine days in. However, since I completed NaNo last year I do recall that at about the 30,000 mark it got hard to keep hitting my marks every day, especially since my marks are above where I need to be to get to 50,000 in the 30 day limit. In order to get to 50,000 exactly by the end of the month I only need 1,667 words a day. But you know me, I like to put more pressure on myself. Continue reading “Day Nine”