August, 2010:

This week’s episode of Scurvytown shall be known as the one I wrote while in the throes of a migraine so bad that I spent three hours curled up in a ball sobbing on and off. Oh well, everyone should suffer at least a little for their art, right?

Migraines are hideous creatures. Sometimes, you feel like you’re finally getting better, but usually you’ve just gotten used to the drone of constant pain, enough to muddle through the day.

Light hurts more than sound. And it also grates right on the mental plate of frustration when a beautiful day that one could be enjoying, instead is spent cursing the gorgeous sunshine. I think the frustration is even worse than the pain for me. It hurts to think, it hurts to cry, but in the middle of a migraine, both of those things are hard to turn off. Sleep helps, but waking up once again to a pain that was only kidding when it started to subside is another poke at frustration on the frontal lobes. And ouch, indeed, adding insult to injury. Pour a little more salt on the surface of my mind, will ya?

And then I discovered Excedrin Migraine, which I am now in love with. I will stop short of turning this into an advertisement, but wow, that stuff certainly is a life-jacket for someone drowning in of sea of headache pain.

I needed to get out of the house for a bit last night, so I went to the patio at Northside Tavern, since the weather was so amazing. Plus, that is one of the oddly magical places for me where I love the ambiance so much, the words just sort of spill out of my fingertips. I stayed there til 10pm, and wrote 1500 words while there. (And bonus, got some dinner from Melt, which is always a delicious treat.) I really wanted to ditch my lappy in the car and check out the bands that started at 10pm, but there was no way my head could have taken that amount of din. Driving home was a hell of a chore, with every bright light in the darkness, causing me to wince in pain, except for one: the low red moon hanging gently in the sky.

So this morning, I managed to drive myself to the drug store and get the pills that brought me back into feeling human again. I have a few paragraphs left to churn out for this week’s episode, and then some editing, and then I shall work on my school stuff. This week’s episode is a flashback episode, because I didn’t really have the mental capacity to progress the story, but had it in me to write some back story just for fun. Selfishly, I am writing this more for myself and the weekly writing exercise than for my audience, but I still hope it’s fun for my handful of readers.

There will definitely be a lot more skip weeks in the coming months, given the load of my coursework. Grad school is a lot deeper than undergrad work, that is for certain. Of course, I expected that, but still was not prepared for it, having been out of school for so long.

And now, back to it.

First of all, on the forefront of my mind is a serious bundle of nerves for grad school. That is what I am blaming this morning’s heartburn on. Because seriously? All I had to eat yesterday in the solid food realm was an egg white omelet and salads.

Anyway, it will probably all be fine. Getting up earlier to get work out of the way so I can get to school on time = win. I prefer getting up earlier in the morning, and for the past 2 weeks, I have been conditioning myself to the early to rise mentality, and have gotten the added bonus of witnessing a few amazing sunrises.

Second, and to get to some fun/funny stuff: finger puppets. I went to the Full Art Spectrum meeting last night, which I am now calling that organization “FARTS.” I decided against reading any of my typical poetry or short stories, because it is really difficult to pay attention in such a short time span and actually give decent feedback.

And really, my main problem with FARTS is that it’s too fluffy. Look, I’m not going to become a better writer by hearing things people have come up with right that second that are good about my work. I want to know what you didn’t like about it, what didn’t work for you. It’s only through that kind of critique, for me anyway, that I can hope to improve, learn, and grow as a writer. “Oh I like x and y and whatever comes after that in the alphabet” is such a broken mechanism for what I’d hope to get out of it, and that’s maybe selfish, but I want to be a better and more effective storyteller, and tweaking what I already do is the only way to do it. This format can make an artist walk away thinking, “Oh, they liked that, so I should keep doing that” instead of, “Oh, I totally know how I can make this better/more effective for next time.” I guess I am of the mindset that no matter how good something is, it can always be better somehow. I don’t exactly strive for perfection, but for what I like, and telling that kind of story in an effective and fun manner for my audience.

Anyway, that little rant aside (because in the end, having FARTS is better than not having FARTS), I chose to read “The Ballad of Squid Vicious,” because it’s an audience kind of piece. It didn’t need to be printed out and passed out to the group, or projected on an overhead. It’s short and to the point. And on a silly whim, I remembered I had purchased a bunch of nautical themed finger puppets from Ikea ages ago, back when I lived in Pittsburgh, with the thought that it would be fun to replicate them. They seem simple enough, but my sewing skills are, um, beneath basic. I guess I can lug my sewing machine to my parents’ house the next weekend I spend visiting them and my mom can help me figure it out. She’s pretty awesome at sewing and artsy stuff.

Squid Vicious

Anyway, one of the finger puppets was a squid, so I spent the day playing with it, and when I decided, “Eh, what the hell, I’ll just read Squid Vicious,” I brought my little puppet friend with me. It was funny, but made me feel like to appreciate the full scope of puppet theatre, I needed a cast of characters, a broken ship, and a few scenes/ dioramas to fully make it the most fun it could be. Of course, I have no time for such things right now, but maybe someday?

ETA: The little puppet show was well received. Laughter in all the expected places. And decent “feedback” afterwards.

And now to get back to finishing this week’s episode of Scurvytown, which is stalled out at 946 words. I have a few jokes in there that make me giggle so hard that I am having trouble getting my focus back to finish the damn thing.

And I leave you with this: Finger Puppets? You’re going to do WHAT to these puppets?

So, there’s a lot of awesome in the air lately, and one of the awesome things going on in Cincinnati is Play Me, I’m Yours.

It makes me wish I knew anything on a piano. So I have been watching some total dork’s “How to Play Piano” on youtube, and it’s actually pretty fun, partially because this dude is so totally a dweeb who is in no danger of getting laid EVER. I shouldn’t make fun, not just because it’s mean, but because he could be a serial killer. You really never know about people.

My coworker and I checked out the piano in Sharonville near our work, and it is so cute. Silly me forgot to take a photo and will have to do it that tomorrow. A couple of girls were skulking about, and one of them sat down and played Regina Spektor’s “Us.” It was incredibly awesome and unexpected. Then I tapped the keys a few times once they were gone, but my co-worker and I had to get back to work, so that was that.

Anyway, today on lunch break I wrote a song about a squid while we were having lunch at Alreddy Coffee. It was started as a joke but then I just kept writing it until it was finished. It’s rhyming couplets, and I think it’s pretty funny. It’s called “The Ballad of Squid Vicious,” and it’s most likely going to be this week’s skip week filler for Scurvytown, because I have had a stress filled icky sort of week, which I shall blame on the weather instead of my inability to cope with bullshit this week and churn it into something creative. Well, heck, this silly little song did just that, if I think about it. (but like, it’s all hot outside and thinking is hard!)

Hoping to pick up Scurvytown again next week, and trying not to freak out about grad school starting in just over a week, and the fact that I somehow managed to lock myself out of my school user account earlier this evening. D’oh! and *eep*

And with that, sleep now, editing my silly little song tomorrow!