Back on the Horse

Hey there everyone.

I figure it's time for an update. And by "update" I sort of mean "shameless self-promotion."

1. MURDERED TO DEATH!

I've spent the past month rehearsing for a play with the NEYT (New England Youth Theatre) alumni called Murdered to Death. It is a 1930s Agatha Christie-style mystery parody. I have been both acting in it and working on props. There is murder. There is intrigue. There is hilarity.

You should come. Really. Here is the info:

When: June 17th - 27th, Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays at 7PM, Sundays at 2PM

Where: NEYT, 100 Flat St. Brattleboro, VT

How Much: $5 for students/seniors, $7 for adults

Why: Because it's going to be awesome.

For my dear Amherst poets, this would be a lovely opportunity to come visit me! Consider it, I miss you guys. And for everyone else, you have no excuse. You live here.

2. CHAPBOOK! finally...

Yup. That's right. I have finally printed my first book of my poetry. I have been sitting on a pile of finished poems for months now, and just this week have at long last put together a volume and had it printed. It is called Fountain Change, and consists of over thirty pages of original poetry.

If you want to buy a copy, let me know-- They are $7 each. I'm pretty excited about it. It would make me very giddy if you were too.

3. OH MY GOD LOOK, it's real. You can buy it on the interwebs. Why...?

Love,

GennaRose

PS I'm going to try and be better about writing in this. Promise...

Wildlife Tally

Yep. I'm home.

For the Win.

This is How I Procrastinate

The Four Wombats of the Apocalypse

1. By the end of this week, I will be done with my first year of college. Yikes. When did that happen? Time frightens me sometimes. It feels like just a month ago that I spent my first night at Hampshire-- sitting in my room, unsure of what to do with myself, then hearing music coming from the quad, wandering out and finding one hundred students milling and listening to gypsy jams, accordion, fiddle, guitar. I seem to recall "Wagon Wheel" being a crowd favorite. Still is. And now, I have less than a week left before I am a second year. I feel like the older I get, the faster time moves. All of a sudden, I'll spin around and be home.

2. I shouldn't speak so soon, as I still have to write a ten page research paper on Revelations (that shit is craaaay-zayyy). My favorite characters were definitely the four horsemen of the apocalypse and the Whore of Babylon. Because honestly, just look at 'em-- what's not to like?

3. It has been far too beautiful to do work. Today was sunny and 75 degrees, with a gentle breeze twirling through the new leaves. Now that the sun has set, the pavement is still holding on to the heat of the day. I switched monitoring shifts, so I am working the Wednesday 10pm - 2am shift tonight instead of Friday night. This is awesome because it means my Friday night is free, but unfortunate because I can't be outside enjoying the evening.

4. This evening I watched a one-woman show by Peggy Shaw, one of the pioneers of feminist theatre. It was pretty interesting, and I always appreciate seeing different types of performances, now that I am thinking more seriously about pursuing playwriting. Her play was about the body, as a sort of theatrical map of her body. She incorporated some really fantastic theatrical devices into her show, combining lighting, projected visuals, sound, and live performance. The entire set was just a white projector screen in the center of the stage and a stool. The most unique and interesting moment of the show for me was the ending, when she stripped off her shirt and stood with her chest to the white screen, her back exposed to the audience, and projected different patterns of light across her skin, many of them being microscopically close images of the human body, which switched to the beat of a song. She had a lot of really unique approaches to using theatre as a multi-media experience.

5. The other day, Yahoo News, my favorite ridiculous, unreliable news source, featured an article entitled, "Wombats: A Quieter Alternative to Lawn Mowers." I cannot for the life of me locate the article now; they must have taken it down. But by god was it glorious.

Love,

Genna

Classy Snacks and Joss

Eating a chocolate croissant in a silk kimono-- yeah, I make dorm living classy.

Having only one episode left of Firefly, I am attempting to distract myself so as not to watch it, thus allowing myself to live without a crushing sense of loss for a few hours longer. However, there was just a scene where Mal (Nathan Fillion) has sex with Julie Cooper. And that was just weird. But hey, it's a space western. Anything goes.

I did a lot of work on my play today. I'm thinking after these revisions it is pretty much done, which is quite exciting.

In addition, I made a delicious sandwich today. Turkey, avocado, tomato, and cheddar cheese, on an everything bagel, accompanied by apple cider. It was great. Good day. Filled with eating and writing, which is all anyone can really ask for, isn't it?

Love,

GennaRose

I Suppose I Can Deem this Productivity

1.

I spent the past two days hanging out with my little brother, Rustin. We ate wings, filled a kiddie pool by pouring water into it from a second story balcony, wandered around campus, played some frisbee, watched a play (Drawn to Water), and stumbled upon a random hip hop concert on the library lawn in the middle of the night. 'Cause that's how we do. It was a successful visit. We also attempted to combine his mad rap skillz and my ukulele playing. That was not as successful. I really don't know why I thought that would be a good idea...

Anyways, twas good fun.

2.

After debating all year long whether to attend or not, I finally went to Shake and Bake today, the Hampshire club which consists of reading Shakespeare and baking/eating pie. This, as my friends from home know, is totally my thing. Sadly, I have not been partaking in much of my old quirks since coming to Hampshire, so it was fun to get back to that. We made peanut butter pie and read a Winter's Tale, which was a crazy high school blast from the past from all sorts of angles. The summer after my sophomore year I played Perdita in Winter's Tale, and reading the lines again was bizarre.

These are photos of me from that production of Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale, 2007. The boy is my friend Clark, who played Florizel.

I also ate a lot of peanut butter pie in my early days of high school. For those of you who went to BUHS, I'm sure you recall the Hideaway's pie, a tiny restaurant alternative to our cafeteria.

This afternoon was like my sophomore year in one compact vitamin pill for easy swallowing. Both nostalgic and disconcerting, all in one. But I guess that's high school...

3.

I GOT THE NAPKIN OUT OF MY PRINTER. Hellllll yeah.

4.

For the past couple months I have been slowly chipping away at a one act play for a playwriting class I am taking. This evening, I finally finished the first draft. The ending needs work I think, but I am pretty proud of myself. Dialogue has always been my weak spot, but between screenwriting last semester and playwriting now I have started to consider dialogue one of my strengths. Recently, I have actually been considering becoming a playwright as a career. I figure little to no money will be coming my way no matter which of my passions I go for, so hey, I can choose whatever I want! With my one act, I've never tried playwriting before, let alone written a full thirty page piece, so I am quite pleased.

5.

If I asked you what would be the worst possible time to start watching an addictive television show, you would probably say "Finals time!" You would be absolutely correct. Unfortunately, the powers of logic and reasoning are useless against the demi-god that is Joss Whedon. Thank god Firefly is only one season...

Actually, that is really upsetting.

Love,

GennaRose

Triumphant Attire in Ma Mail!

Upon checking my mail today, a package was waiting for me from my father. I had no idea what this package might contain. When I opened it, there was only one thing inside, without explanation. The item in question was THIS PAIR OF PANTS:

Yeah bitch, that's right. I've got Marvel characters all up on my trousers.

I am so incredibly pleased.

Love,

GennaRose

April Drizzles Bring May... Um..?

1. Spring has decided that were getting spoiled by too much nice weather. It has been raw and rainy for days, the kind of cold dampness that numbs your fingertips and rattles your breath. It has been good Scrabble weather, though, I'll say that. But I suppose all weather is good Scrabble weather in my book. Speaking of Scrabble, I feel I must share my views on the new rules: I am left wondering whether those who decided that proper nouns are now allowed have ever actually played Scrabble. Anything can be a proper noun-- there are very few combinations of letters that aren't someone's name somewhere. Thus, I have decided that I am not adhering to these new instructions. However, I will play with one exception. That exception is Beyonce. My reasoning behind this is that if you have drawn a handful of letters that successfully spell Beyonce, it would be an abomination not to make that happen.

2. I have been spending a lot of time thinking about giant crabs lately. The internet told me that three foot long crabs ate Amelia Earhart and hoarded her bones in their crab burrows. If you read Emily's blog, you may have seen the video we posted discussing this. If you want to see images of this creature for yourself, click here.

3. In other news, I am getting closer to putting out a chapbook. Prior to discussing crabs, Emily helped me edit fifteen of my poems in one sitting (thank you!), and now I feel like I am about ready to compile and print them into books. I'll keep you updated on when that is happening, but it will be soon. I think they will cost $6 each, so start... saving up?

4. Because I obviously have nothing better to do with my time like homework or writing or hunting wild boar, I am instead starting to teach myself how to read Tarot cards. Remembering I had a deck lying around, I figured it would just be a neat thing to know. I memorized eight cards in the major arcana the other day in one sitting. Seventy more to go...

Sure. That'll happen...

5. I cleaned my room so thoroughly, it could aptly be titled an excavation. This space had reached the point where if I had trash, I would just fling it in a random direction, letting it settle in some pile or another on the floor. There were also three month old dirty dishes piled on my desk, hidden under stacks of books. But I fought the good fight, drew my sword of cleanliness and braved my most defiant foes. I killed them.

I also had a dream last night about killing. I repeatedly stabbed a man with a fork until he died.

Love,

GennaRose

All of My Light Bulbs Burned Out at Once. This Is Literal. It is Quite Dark.

Once again, I have been terrible about updating this-- I spent the weekend in Boston for CUPSI, the college national poetry slam, which was hosted at Emerson this year. I didn't compete, but went to support my friends who were. It was pretty phenomenal, lots of great poetry. Also lots of... less... great... poetry. But all in all, it was a lot of fun and I am so glad I had the opportunity to go. I would put pictures from that up, but I left the USB cord necessary to do so at Emerson. However, hopefully I will get it back tomorrow night. Until then, perhaps I can hold you over with some photographs of horrible, ridiculous tattoos. Because this is what I do instead of sleep. Of course.

And now that you have endured that (because I really just couldn't do it alone), I'll refresh the palate and attempt to erase some of the trauma with some rather nice images:

Maybe I should get a tattoo of a baby platypus on a breakfast plate, wrapped in christmas lights and floating on the ocean. Combining good things together just makes something even more good, right? ...Right?

(I wanna see that tattoo. I dare ya.)

Love,

GennaRose

PS. I got a napkin stuck in my printer. Do not ask me how this happened because I do not know. Just tell me how to fix it.

Wonders of the Modern Music Industry

So... Um...

Terrible, beautiful things happen sometimes. This particular case occurred on Wednesday night.

Song: Smell Yo Dick

Artist: Riskay

Rather Questionable Cover Band: Molly, Paul, and Me

And if you haven't seen the original of this song, youtube it immediately. Somehow, this band takes itself entirely seriously. And takes this song seriously. Hooooowww...? I do not know.

Rainy Day in Amherst

Music by Jeff Pianki.

Rain by the sky gods.

Documentation by me.

p.s. My inner geek has been nudging me to start watching Doctor Who. There are 40 seasons. I need to know if this is worth it...

My Room is Beginning to Feel Like a Bear Cave

1. In regards to the second Percy Jackson book, which I read in the past couple days, I believe this photograph speaks for itself:

However, it did dawn on me that this series has literally the exact same plot as Harry Potter. But hey, gotta love young adult fantasy... It's the peanut butter and fluff sandwich of the literary world.

2. In the two semesters I have been here at Hampshire, I have only been awake for weekend brunch once or twice. Then, this weekend, I made it two days in a row. I consider this achievement to be a huge step in the general productivity of my life. Please ignore the fact that weekend brunch is open until 1:00 PM. If we too closely ponder this fact, the legitimacy of my achievement might be slightly overshadowed by the pitiful fact that I consider waking before one a significant feat. However, lets just pretend that arising triumphantly at the early hour of 12:30 is akin to winning a battle of one against ten thousand men. With this mindset, banana chocolate chip muffins and scrambled eggs are the foods of champions.

3. I have had a serious craving for board games lately (I know, man, I live on the edge). Unfortunately, I have no board games in my possession. Monopoly is at the top of my list, closely followed by Scrabble, and perhaps Life. Or N*Sync trivia games (*cough23cough*). If you have any of these delights, we should seriously get a game night going.

Love,

GennaRose

The Fight Against Productivity

I am growing more and more terrible at keeping up with this blog. Dastardly!

It's Wednesday, which means slam was last night. At least four different people asked me to send them poems I read at the open mike, so that was really nice. The "feature" yesterday was the first round of the National Poetry Slam qualifying competition. I didn't compete because I want to live in Brattleboro this summer instead of Amherst (NPS is in August, and the team practices all summer), but next year I probably will. Regardless, the show last night was great, and the team is going to kick some ass no matter who gets in.

My 31/31 March poetry project is going alright-- a good deal of utter goop is dribbling out of my brain, but a few things I like, too. I think I'm just running out of immediate inspiration. My recent technique has been to go on StumbleUpon and write a poem about whatever photograph pops up first, but that can only work so many times.

Thus, I would be endlessly grateful for any prompts you, my darling readers, might want to offer me.

On a related note, I have been spending (or wasting, depending on your personal opinion) a lot of time looking at photography on the internet. Because I obviously have nothing better to do, like, for example, schoolwork, writing poems, getting a life, etc, etc. I also just really miss doing photography, and would very much like to do a photo shoot in the near future. Unfortunately, I forgot my camera at home (Mom, it's in my room, in the case. Bring it to me when you visit?).

Anyway, here are some images I've liked in my time consuming interweb perusals:

So yes. Those are nice. Other nice things include:

-HAND ME DOWNS. Because I got a whole bag of em from Cass and Emily. And I'm so damn excited!

-Tony Hoagland, whose book Donkey Gospel I just finished reading for poetry workshop. He is a beautiful poet, immediately rocketed to the top of my favorites list. If you haven't read anything by him, you have to. As proof of this, I showed my mother (who titles herself "poetically impaired") one of his poems, and then throughout the next few hours kept catching her reading the book. Willingly. Because she actually liked it. That's a big deal. So yeah. He's the bomb.

-(500) Days of Summer, which I watched again while I was home. Oh Joseph Gordon Levitt, how I love you and your pretty smile. And I have decided that I would be deliriously happy if I could dress like Zooey Deschanel's character all the time for the rest of my life:

My goodness there are a lot of pictures in this entry. OUTA CONTROL.

...I need to go do some actual, productive work.

Until next time,

GennaRose

Never Underestimate a Dinoshark

It's spring break, and I'm back home to good ol' Brattleboro, Vermont. Yesterday, I got to spend most of the day with my buddy Marty Cain who I haven't seen in months, and then I headed over to my friend Shannon's house, as it was her birthday and such an event merits a doozy of a celebration. So we ate a lot of food, as is often a popular way to commemorate the anniversary of anything whatsoever.

I must say, the gift I made her is without a doubt my proudest creation of all time. I bought a game of Guess Who?, and replaced all of the faces with pictures of our friends and various things we laugh about. It came out pretty kick ass, if I do say so myself (it's better in person).

After a few rousing rounds of Guess Who? Shannon Ward Edition, we decided that naturally, the best thing to do would be to watch a B-Movie entitled Dinoshark. This, my curious readers, is Dinoshark:

Reviewing this film may be difficult for me, simply because my immense passion for it will likely blind me (both figuratively and literally) and make it difficult to write a review void of bias. So instead I will just highlight a few of the most noteworthy moments:

-The Dinoshark leapt into the sky and took down a CGI helicopter. Unfortunately, the actors didn't seem as impressed as we were. Or shocked. Which seemed odd seeing as their characters just witnessed Dinoshark tackle a giant airborne machine into the ocean, but hey, that could have been a conscious character choice... Sure...

-The lead female character was on her computer, researching what in the hell this giant dinosaur/shark creature could possibly be. When she discovered through this research that it was in fact a Dinoshark, she stared horrified at the screen and then ripped off her shirt. With absolutely no explanation.

-Dinoshark always goes for the jugular.

-Despite the fact that Dinoshark had been killing many, many people, and the authorities knew about this, there seemed to be no shark warning whatsoever. Meaning games of water polo played by thirteen year old girls went on as scheduled. THAT went well...

And a bonus tidbit:

-After Dinoshark ended, a film entitled Dinocroc began. However, the two films somehow seemed to have absolutely nothing in common whatsoever save the name and the fact that they were played one after another on SyFy (that is really not how sci-fi is supposed to be spelled, by the way...). While Dinocroc had much better production values, we found it more difficult to follow. However, that quite possibly could have been due to the gelatinous state of our minds after sitting through Dinoshark.

All in all, I oh so highly recommend Dinoshark to everyone. EVERYONE. RIGHT NOW.

Love,

GennaRose

A Fifty Degree, Blue Skied Afternoon

1.

Last night was Moustachio Bashio, aka the night where everyone at Hampshire sports a moustache and goes to a party in this moustache bearing fashion, inhabited by other moustache wearers. My moustache was drawn on with eyeliner, not the flashiest of methods but effective nonetheless. It was the variety one might expect to see on a butler named Pierre, with some extra curl for emphasis. There was much debate among the students as to what is the best strategy for facial hair application-- for example, which is preferable, the drawn on moustache or the stick on moustache? Should one choose the more formal stick on moustache, the individual risks letting it slip off while dancing rambunctiously, unless they choose to apply it with spirit gum (and no face should ever be subjected to the horrors of spirit gum if there is any feasible alternative). However, if one goes with the drawn on option, it is less realistic and runs the risk of smearing. Of course, the most pleasing of options would be to close your eyes, concentrate hard, and hope a moustache just pops out on its own. Unfortunately, no such luck.

2. I spent today exploring the woods with my friend Kelty, on a heart wrenchingly beautiful day. We wandered through the forest and to the Hampshire Tree, which now has a ladder stretching up to a perfectly human-sized nest of a space in the tree's center. It seems as if I have survived the winter, and can begin to come out of hibernation. Hallelujah!

Next, we went to the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art, which I have always absolutely loved (last time I visited, I met Tomie DePaola and saw the original artwork from Winnie the Pooh. I pretty much died.) On the visit today, I found out that Hampshire students get to go for free. This was possibly one of the more exciting discoveries of my young life. We made crafts in the art project room, possibly more enthusiastically than the three year olds also occupying the space. We probably worked for about two hours on our little books which were illustrated with victorian illustrations. I made a pretty fantastic little journal, which includes the following images, among many others:

3.

OSCAR NIGHT!

The Academy Awards ended just about an hour ago, and goodness do I love the Oscars. Unfortunately, I hadn't had the chance to see most of the films nominated this year-- last year I saw every best picture nominee in theaters, which made the awards quite exciting. While they were still exciting, I wasn't invested as much seeing as I wasn't sure who I was rooting for. I did know, however, that I was not rooting for Avatar, and lo and behold, it only won in the categories it deserved to win, involving special effects and such. I am pleased.

In lieu of having favorites to root for, however, I was looking at a predictions sheet that my friend Colin composed where he listed all the films nominated for every major award and calculated its chances of winning. All I can say is that next year, find out what Colin Hinckley's predictions are and place large sums of money on these guesses immediately. On the list he sent me of 11 predictions, 9 of them were exactly right, and the two that were off were each his second guess. Apparently, of the 24 awards, he guessed 20 correctly. The man has a gift.

Plus, how could one be bored with Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin and their awkward, occasionally nonsensical jokes?

4.

I read Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters a few days ago. By God I love J.D. Salinger. There is really not much else to say on that matter. Just thought I needed to make that statement. Again.

Aaaaand with that, I shall say adieu and goodnight.

Oh, and a prompt.... Right...

Ummmmm

Write a piece entitled "The Plumpest of Men in the Tallest of Trees."

Love,

GennaRose

Mangoes are Ripening On My Bookshelf.

1.

Last night, I finally watched One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. I had been planning to watch this film for years, and thank goodness I finally did-- I don't think I could have forgiven myself had I deprived my life of it any longer. If you haven't seen it yet, do immediately. It is on Netflix Play Instantly. It was hands down the best ensemble character cast I have ever seen. Each actor is absolutely brilliant, bringing poignance, depth, and a good heap of madness to every role. There was not a single weak performance in the bunch, down to the smallest parts.

Holy shit, it was great.

In the IMDB search that inevitably follows every brilliant film I see (and every fictional character I fall in love with-- that's you, Billy Babbit), I discovered this:

Billy Babbit and evil Wormtongue from Lord of the Rings are the same person! Gahhhh NOO!

This discovery broke my heart. And also greatly intrigued me. But mostly broke my heart.

2.

I have decided to write a poem every day of March. That is 31 poems in 31 days. By posting it on here, that means I have to do it. Otherwise, I'll have told everyone I will and then just end up looking like a fool if I don't follow through. SO point being, if you see me on a given day and I have not written a poem, give me a hearty slap. Hand me a pen and paper. Or just ask me what I have written lately, and then I'll get more excited about writing more.

I wrote two poems last night (one of which was about Billy Babbit; I do love my imaginary boys), so I am better than on schedule. However, that really means nothing as it is only March 2nd. But seriously. I'm going to do this. Fo realz.

Yikes...

3. PROMPT TIME

From now on, I'm just going to post writing prompts as opposed to specific questions. You can use them how you wish-- write a poem, a song, a short story, a computer science article, whatever. If you want to share them with me, that would be lovely. If not, that's cool too. I just think one can never have enough writing prompts at his or her disposal.

Prompt: Write about this image.

Love,

GennaRose

If You Don't Like the Weather in New England, Turn Your Back for Fifteen Seconds and then Look Out the Window Again

Percy Jackson:

After completing the first book of the series, I was ready to see the movie. Unfortunately, just about every single plot point of the book was changed. Lame. And by "just about every," I mean it seemed as if someone systematically went through the book, and said lets see how we can take this scene that was kinda awesome, and turn it into something unrecognizable and not quite as cool.

And then there was Uma's severed snake-haired head being tossed around throughout the film. Which is a different matter entirely.

Fantastic.

Visiting Extravaganza

My brother Rustin came for the weekend. Twas good fun. We ate a pound of honey mustard/sweet onion barbeque wings (oh. my. god.), and once we were able to move again, proceeded to bond further by harassing strangers on chat roulette. We then galavanted around Merrill while Rustin rap battled strangers and lectured them about economic hit men.

Goodbye Ruby Tuesday

While watching The Royal Tenenbaums during my 10 - 2 AM shift on Friday night, I realized two things:

1. I actually quite enjoy that film. A lot. I didn't used to, but after rewatching it years later, I changed my mind rather strongly. Developments such as these make me fear that my inner hipster is devouring my brain. This frightens me to no end.

2. When the song "Ruby Tuesday" by the Rolling Stones came on in the background of a scene, I discovered that I have always really loved that song and just never thought about it. Now I think about it a lot. Because it has been stuck in my head for the past three days.

Typewriting Inquiries

So as it turns out, my typewriter works fine for the most part. One predicament, however, is that when I type, the ribbon spool doesn't turn, which ends with holes being punched straight through the ribbon. As I have never had an antique typewriter before, I don't quite know how this works. I assume it is supposed to turn as I type, but if I was supposed to be turning it by hand I'm going to feel like a bit of an idiot. So if you a). know how to fix this, or b.) know what I am doing wrong, I would greatly appreciate the advice.

An Additional Tidbit: My typewriter's name is decidedly Samson.

Participation Attempt, Take Two

Though I gave up on the prompt idea, I did get a few answers a bit after the fact. So I'll post another one, if anyone feels like answering it. Again, you can post on here or on the facebook link.

Prompt: While reading the Bible for class, I was struck by a line that an angel says when asked his name. He chastised "Why do you ask my name? It is too wonderful."

What name would you consider to be worthy of being "too wonderful" to repeat? Can it even exist?

I will leave you with this super cool picture. I don't even know how one would go about putting together something like this:

Love,

GennaRose

So Much for Vampires Being Indestructible

Another Hometown Visit

1.

I am currently sitting in the Twilight Tea Lounge, writing and sipping Mexican chocolate tea, and realized something; if all of my thoughts, feelings, wishes, and imaginings could manifest themselves into a physical space, it would look exactly like the Tea Lounge. Being in here feels like crawling inside my own chest and curling up there for a while. Mismatched tea cups, jars of dried herbs housed in glass jars stacked ceiling high, paper lanterns and white lights strung across walls, and bookshelves piled with notes, paperbacks, and board games-- if one were to ever wonder what it is like to wander through my mind, just stop here, order strawberry cream tea, play a game of scrabble, and write a poem. That's all you'll ever need to know.

2.

The reason for my visit home was to see my old high school's production of the musical Crazy for You. It was quite an impressive show, complete with tap dancing show girls, harmonious cowboys, really delightfully terrible puns, awkward lap dance situations, and breaking stuff in half. All essentials in any successful play, of course. But yes, well done!

Plus, it's also always fun to be that super awkward person who graduated but still hangs around for some ungodly reason. You know the one-- everyone wonders what the hell you are doing there, and feels kind of uncomfortable about your presence. Yeah, that one. My dear friend Shannon and I felt the urge to play that roll this weekend. Which we did. Quite thoroughly.

3.

Upon arriving home, my father said to me, "Oh, by the way-- when you asked if we had an old typewriter, and I said no, I lied. Turns out we do. You can have it."

Oh. My. Goodness. I have a new best friend.

It needs some work, but all of the keys function properly and such. Aaaahhhh yes. Happiness.

I think it needs a name. I'm leaning towards some kind of natural disaster, like Cyclone or Pompeii. Or maybe a planet. Like Pluto (yes, Pluto is a planet goddamnit). Or perhaps something more like Rufus or Quentin. Oh lord, too many choices. Naming things is always quite an undertaking for me...

4.

I read Loose Woman by Sandra Cisneros during my Friday 10 - 2 shift a few days ago. Though I hadn't really liked her work in the past, I loved her poetry. It is very fresh and succinct. Accessible. I highly recommend it.

5.

While home, my brother decided that he needed to introduce me to Chat Roulette, despite my adamant and squeamish opposition (If you don't know what Chat Roulette is, it connects you to a random person via webcam... Many unpleasant encounters ensue). However, this argument ended in the two of us reading Hop on Pop by Dr. Suess aloud to a stranger with a large beard. He appreciated it. Oh sibling bonding...

6.

No one responded to my prompt in the last entry. Seriously lame, guys, come on. But I'm not putting up a new one, because that was just too utter a failure for me to repeat. Instead, I'm going to go read the Bible now, and enjoy horrible genocides and this really egocentric asshole of a protagonist named God. I must say, the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible is really not my thing. I just don't quite get why anyone would chose to follow a holy scripture based around war, fear, power, and hate. But hey, to each his own...

Love,

GennaRose

Correction: Breaking news-- Cass responded to the prompt. Thank you, Cass. You rock.

I Awoke From a Dream About Raspberries and Chocolate

The First Order of Business: COOLEST. COSTUME. EVER.

The Second Order of Business: I made a hat!

Yes, after months of borrowing my dear friend Katy's hat (and by borrowing I mean pilfering away to my room and refusing to give back), I finally have a hat of my own. And it only has one or two little bumpy mistakes in it... SCORE.

The Third Order of Business: Ummm... what?

Yes, this is indeed who you think it is. Christopher Walken. A very young Christopher Walken. My emotional and mental well being were slightly unhinged in discovering this photograph. Why? Because finding one's self attracted to Christopher Walken is enough to cause anyone to reconsider their existence. I can't undergo this alone, so I have decided that I need to share this image with all of you, so we can reevaluate our lives together.

The Fourth Order of Business: Audience Participation Time

So I know that there are a number of people who read this, but it feels odd writing so frequently without any feedback or participation. Thus, I am beginning a new installment. At the end of every entry, I will give a new prompt or question or challenge or something of that sort, and then you, dear readers, will respond to it. Preferably everyone. Even if I don't know you, or we are only acquaintances. Seriously. As I do more than my fair share of internet stalking, I would really only get excited at knowing that I am being internet stalked in return. So post a comment on here, or if you are reading this through facebook and don't have a blogger account, leave a comment on the link I posted. It'll be rad.

Today's Topic: Write down something bizarre or interesting you overheard someone say today.

Do it.

Love,

GennaRose

PS A Single Man is in theaters! Huzzah! Iwannaseeit.

Literature and Slug-Like Creatures

1. Exciting Happening

I won a slam for the first time tonight! I wasn't even planning on competing, but I realized I had enough poems memorized to slam, so I was convinced to do it. And it ended quite well. I am rather pleased. It was also Erotic Open Mike tonight, which was equally kick-ass. I didn't read an erotic poem, but I wish I did. Next year...

2. The Geoduck

These are geoducks. The geoduck, pronounced gooey-duck (yeah you heard me, gooey), can grow to be very large (as in over 1 meter long), and have little wings, as well. They kinda gross me out. They look like intestines dangling from a clam shell. And the presence of wings worries me. I would not want to encounter an airborne geoduck at any point in my life. Knowledge of this creature was introduced to me this week, and I therefore felt the need to share it. For how can one go on living if she knows of the geoduck and does nothing to help spread this enlightenment?

3. Ancient Texts

I finished reading Genesis yesterday, and I must say, I thoroughly enjoyed it. There were siblings named Huppim and Muppim. There was the repeated occurrence of men entering towns, pretending that their wives were really their sisters, letting other men take them as wives, and then being told essentially "Dude, that was a dick move. Why the hell did you tell us that?" when they got busted. This happened not once, not twice, but three times. Twice by the same person. I'm not quite sure why he felt the need to repeat this slightly pointless scheme, but eh, whatcha gonna do. And lets not forget the incest; there was a bountiful amount of it, and it would be a shame not to mention that.

While I didn't necessarily consider the text to hold a great deal of wisdom or valuable lessons, I couldn't help but be in awe of the stories. As Biblical tales are fair game for writers, I kept finding myself scrambling to remember names, events, details, and dialogue, with the thought that absolutely any of it could become a poem or a short story or a play or a novel or essentially anything I ever wanted to write. Reading the Bible makes me feel like all the inspiration and foundation I would ever need to write my life's work are housed snuggly in a few thousand pages. Perhaps I'll write a series of poems based on Bible stories.

I started Exodus today. There are many more pages ahead of me.

4. The Epic Nature of Young Adult Fantasy Novels

I am currently reading Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Book One: The Lightning Thief (yes, there is a movie out of it right now). It is about a twelve year old boy who finds out he is half human, half Greek god. So far, he has been kicked out of school, arrived at a summer camp for demigod kids, found out that his math teacher was a demon, his mythology teacher was a centaur, and his best friend a satyr. However, for some reason, anytime anyone says anything like "My mom is Athena!" he goes "but those are just myths, pshhhh." I find this quizzical as he is consorting with mythical beasts. Does he not realize there is some crazy shit going down? Because it would seem rather obvious to me at the point where the minotaur attacked my mom and my best friend revealed that he was part goat.

Despite Percy's pesky ignorance, I am thoroughly enjoying this read. Young adult fantasy is pretty much the literary incarnation of the warmest, gooiest comfort food you can consume. It just can't be beat.

I am also currently reading poetry by Charles Bukowski and Sean Conlon. These, added to Percy Jackson and the Bible make for a rather odd combination. Very, very odd.

BUT THEY ARE ALL AMAZING

Love,

GennaRose

Toothpaste and Temp. Tatts

1. Decorative Delights

Saturday night left me adorned with four temporary tattoos: a bee on my hand (as seen above), a flower on my shoulder blade, a crocodile on my wrist, and a triceratops behind my right ear. I feel the need to inform everyone of this.

2. In Case of Tangled Cosmetic Emergency

I awoke this morning with a large wad of gum lodged solidly in my hair (this is what happens on Valentine's Day to single people). Having heard rumors of peanut butter being a remedy for such a situation, I went to search it out but to no avail. Am I now missing a chunk of hair? No! Apparently, toothpaste works just as well. Therefore, my morning was spent smearing mint toothpaste into my matted locks. Score.

For future reference, other methods of removing gum from hair include vaseline, cooking oil, and freezing the gum with a baggie of ice cubes.

Remember these things. They will come in handy one day, promise.

Love,

GennaRose