Auntie Up

So here's where my head is -- when I saw this tag today I read "Auntie Up," as in I'm an auntie and "up with aunties." Something along those lines. Because, it is all about me, no?
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The non-aunties among you may read it differently.
Ante up, I guess, or up the ante, in 2 different adjacent tags down on 1st Avenue South.

Prost!

Another weekend of birthdays is coming up--my sis over at bylynnkrestel, a passel of cousins, a good friend. Prost, all you Cappies!
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I hear a lot about astrology from various quarters, and still have no idea what my birth chart is, nor my moon sign. I have learned when crazy shit starts going down to say wisely, "Is mercury in retrograde?" and solemn heads will nod all around.
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My nieces and I like to page through French fashion magazines and we always read our horoscopes aloud, in our best accents a la Francaise, and then translate them as literally as possible. It makes us laugh, and I'm guessing we're getting close enough.

Mon anniversaire

Welp I have to say, a pretty good birthday weekend all around:

• Drinks'n'giggles with my sis Friday night at Lola
  
• Complimentary Greek muscat and coconut cream pie from a very cute waiter
• Then I wore 2 different sneakers around most of Saturday
• Mad fun--drinks/dinner at La Isla, funk at The Tractor--a sweet Saturday night with eleven of Seattle's hottest, finest people
• Cupcakes from my nemesis, how I love to hate you and your red velvet
  
• And, my car did not get towed this morning and the dog did not get impounded
  

A meelion little pieces

My mother (English teacher and grammarian extraordinaire, rest her soul) abhorred any kind of misspelling. No big surprise, I don't mind it at all. Phonetic transcription is a skill linguists practice for years. A creatively spelled word here and there slows your reader down, gets meaning across in a way a correctly spelled word can't.
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Par exemple:
Hey, mind your own business. (Direct, a little hostile.)
Hey, mind your own biznazz. (Direct, but funny. Am I right?)
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Posting this picture because it's how I feel on the brink of another birthday. Creative. Somewhat fractured. Sparkling.

Do it again, only faster

I'm a bit of a movie junkie (and my sis and I quite rightly agree that anyone who knows zilch about the Hays Code is a few syringes short of junkie status) -- anyway I'm not a George Lucas fan but this story about him makes me laugh. And it makes a point.

I'll quote IMDB.com: The actors [in "Star Wars"] found George Lucas to be very uncommunicative towards them, with his only directions generally being either "faster" or "more intense". At one point, when he temporarily lost his voice, the crew provided him with a board with just those three words written on it.

I've been thinking about my glacial pace in getting short stories accepted. In lieu of being a Lucas (although given his net worth maybe that wouldn't be so horrible), I think I need to change things up.

• I re-joined the writing/reviewing community on Zoetrope.
  
• I'll submit a story a week somewhere, even if it's to a fanzine with a subscriber base of ten.
• And, I'm considering digital media. The Rick Moody Experiment had its problems, but like Thelma and Louise going over the cliff, it's where things are heading.

Twenty Ten

About a year ago I wrote about a very cold but cleansing trip to Port Angeles on New Year's Day. I still had a lot on my mind as 2009 staggered out the door, so I repeated the trip a few days ago.
No snow this year, but rain thrummed gently against the windows. Moss sprouted in light green tufts across the sodden ground and coated once-bare tree branches in airy, snowy clumps. Blown-over trees and cut cedar trunks lined the gravel road, still red, like raw meat, a testament to recent windstorms (and industrious neighbors).
The moon was out the second night, round and intense and bright. Waking up at two a.m., I fumbled for the switch overhead, thinking for a minute I'd left a light on.

How very

Last night I pondered the similarities between the movie "Heathers" and the TV show "Gossip Girl." "Heathers" predates GG by 20 years. "Heathers" could be GG's alcoholic stepmother.