Top 10 Tuesday

Good Tuesday to you. I'm just going to be blunt. As I type this, I am alone in my childhood bedroom with my sister who is dying. I have been saying "she is dying" to myself and to others for months now as if it's a promise setting on tomorrow's horizon, but this time it is different. It's as real as the whirring and hissing of oxygen. It's as real as a slack jaw. It's as real as floral bedsheets sagging off a bed. It's as real as two small, jaundiced fists on the chest, rising and falling with it. Any day now, any moment. Or so I'm being told, just like the other times. I look over at her and words like bilirubin and ostomy are just words. When packing in my frenzy to come home for who knows how many days, I packed books--my pacifiers. One book will teach me Spanish, another, the history of my mother tongue. I packed books on how to use language and what language is and from where it came. I'll learn to conjugate llorar in Spanish and learn what caused the death of Old and Middle English.

I wasn't going to blog today but when I came home from Altoona, I sat next to my mother and watched my sister. My mother went on about how much she loves my writing and how much she learns about me through my Top Ten Tuesday blogs. And because she's the most amazing woman in my life, I decided to blog for her. I figured that there is no better time than now to focus on good things. That's something I inherited from her.

So, I hope you enjoy.

Top Ten Tuesday

1. Moviegoing I had the pleasure of going to the movies a couple times this past week. It's cathartic for me, regardless of how awful or intense the movie may be. This past week, I saw "Insidious: The Last Key" and "Star Wars: The Last Jedi". I saw the former movie because I love horror and give all of them a chance despite all ho-hum, gore, confusion, or cliche. I wasn't really impressed by the movie and found some of the characters to be pretty tacky, even though their purpose may have been comedic relief. I did enjoy "Star Wars..." and I'll just be honest here. I'm not a huge "Star Wars" fan. When I was recovering from my broken ankles, I watched all of them "in order" and still have a hard time distinguishing one episode from the next. Mommy and daddy issues aside, I never quite understood what the wars' intentions were. Other than Darth Vader--the 'dark father'-- and Kylo Ren, I don't quite understand the whereabouts or history of any of the other villains. Like, where did Snoke come from? I find it amusing that Star Wars Die-Hards can argue over simple dilemmas but totally ignore plot holes, vague intentions, and inconsistency within the films. On that salty planet, why wasn't the ground on the inside of the cave red? I'm expecting a major butt-whoopin' from any Star Wars fan who reads this ha ha ha. "

2. Playing Board Games Brian got me Boggle for Christmas and that started the slippery slope of playing games. We've been playing Boggle, Chess, and Scattergories. I'm a sore loser (but have a sense of humor about it) and he kicks my ass at chess. He realized what a sore loser I am so after he beats me, he decides we should play Boggle (where I kick his ass) just to soothe me over. Thanks, Brian.

3. Hiking with Silas I've been sick since early December and hadn't been able to hike much. I finally got to go hiking with my dog Silas and we had an excellent time. He had a major case of the zoomies and got it out of his system. It was ten degrees outside but it felt really nice. It's hard to find anything more smile-inducing than a happy dog with a case of the zoomies, especially in the snow.

4. Virginia Woolf's "The Death of a Moth" I've been reading a lot of essays lately and I came across Woolf's essay where she observes a moth stuck in the square confines of a window sill. Believing it can get somewhere, it gets nowhere, and when it lives, it lives fully in those confines and when it dies, it dies fully in those confines, as if "...he seemed to say, Death is stronger than I am." Although the subject of the essay is the moth, I enjoyed experiencing Woolf's position in the matter, that of the viewer who lets nature take its course. She could have opened the window or further deliberated upon the moth by cupping its dusty flittering in her hands, but she let it be.

5. Macrophotography I have been fiddling around with a macro lens attachment for my iPhone and taking pictures with it. What have I photographed? Plenty of odd things. A hair follicle, pus from a black head, my patient dog's eye, and the fabric of a pencil pouch. And more!

6. Greenbean Coffee House Open Mic Last Thursday, the local coffee house hosted their first open mic--which will be a weekly occurrence. I'm not one for huge crowds, but I attended it and promptly left after about a half hour because there were too many people--which is good for business and good exposure for the musicians, but bad for introverts who'd rather be at home playing Boggle or reading a book. I was under the impression that it would be a toss-up of musicians, poets, humorists, etc., but it was mostly musicians on the schedule. I couldn't imagine any kind of spoken-word performance taking place there, but it's definitely not impossible. The crowd seemed more inclined to entertainment while they talk rather than entertainment while they paid attention and listened. I'll continue attending when I can.

7. "A Wrinkle in Time" In anticipation for the film, I read Madeliene L'Engle's "A Wrinkle in Time". I don't typically read any fiction of the fantasy or young-adult variety, but it was a quick read and kept me engaged. I admire a writer who can conjure up the fantastic by using the ever-expanding walls of imagination.

8. Homemade Falafel I made homemade falafel last night, but in addition to garbanzo beans, I also used kidney beans. I also used a crap-ton of garlic because garlic is love and so I'll smell like it for the rest of the week. <3

9. FaceTiming a Friend I'm in the process of starting up a writing group with some friends. Turns out there are people interested in the group who are not local. A friend from high school who I have not spoken to in years--and honestly didn't speak to very often in school--is interested in the group, so I tested the FaceTime app with her to see how it would work for her to join us in our meet-ups. We ended up talking for about an hour and it was refreshing! I'm looking forward to the writing group. We were supposed to meet this week but that's obviously postponed for now since I'm not in town.

10. Audiobooks I only recently started listening to audiobooks. I drive around a lot and just in this past month, I have listened to two books--Amy Schumer's "The Girl with the Lower Back Tattoo" and Jim Gaffigan's "Dad is Fat". I'm currently listening to Augusten Burrough's "Running with Scissors". I prefer humor when driving, obviously.

#toptentuesday #personal