Homophones

Did you know that the word "canvas" is a homophone?  It's match is "canvass".  The former is an artist's tool, the latter, a politician's...I learned this just today.

On another note...my seventeen year old son just walked up behind me.  The conversation went like this:

Him:  "Are you blogging?"
Me:  "Yeah."
Him:  scoffs
Me:  "Why are you laughing at me?"
Him:  "You're blogging."

End

Funny

I was explaining writing techniques to my seventh graders yesterday.  Humor came up as an effective technique for connecting with one's reader.  I had been looking at spelling words from the kids all morning, and I came across one that made me giggle (I was alone and I giggled).  One of my students had spelled the word "particularly" like this:  PARTICURLY.  I said it out loud and laughed, silently thanking her for not knowing the spelling because I found it so cute the way she phonetically spelled this word.  (By the way, that is a difficult one for some seventh graders).  I shared this story with my class while wearing my tiara and proclaiming myself queen of my classroom.  They have not quite figured me out, but I think they enjoy me.

musings on friendship

As I enter the uphill swing of my forties, I am starting to realize some things about friendship. 
1.  It is not as easy as it used to be. 
2.  Geography makes matters difficult. 
3.  People I thought would always be a part of my life, those powerful vivid and beautiful intense friends with their history intermingled with my own, have disappeared and left a dark smudge on the canvas of my life. 
4.  I don't know why this has happened.

Is it me, or time?  Why can't I find that common ground on which we used to effortlessly tread?  It matters to me and causes me a great deal of frustration and contemplation.  I have no answers.

writing

I am starting this blog in an attempt to begin my illustrious writing career.  I have, for some time now, had the aspiration to write something.  At this time, I am not sure what that something might be.  I have stories to tell.  Ideas are always Pop-pop-popping in my head...I just need a jumping off point.  A place in which to smear the stain of my ideas and hope that art is what I find, and not just something that needs to be removed with a Shout stick.  There is much to say.  That person I see in the mirror, that girl, that lady, she has something to tell you...I just need for her to start talking.  She is funny, smart, and mildly good-looking, so you may want to take a seat and listen.  Stay tuned.