Wruth's Writings and Art

[Ruth]

placeholder

[Debbie, sardonic princess of cheerfulness]

Placemat? Potholder? Holding pattern? Potboiler?!

[[deleted user]]

Bookmark!

[Ruth]

Holding, holding...

R

[Debbie, sardonic princess of cheerfulness]

Do I sense a poem coming on.....?

[Ruth]

I wish I did.

R

[Marian]

Placeholder as in somone who holds your place in line for you while you run to the bathroom?

Or those people who earn their living by waiting in line for people who have such busy lives they can't waste the time? So they have to hire somebody?

If I know there's going to be a wait, I'll bring a book along. So I don't have to hire a placeholder.

[[deleted user]]

and we fill your whole place up with our idle banter
bother dither rather dan the nightly news guy

[Ruth]

Finally I have something to say. I just uploaded another poem to my writings section. It's called Last Bus to Paradiso, and it's one that makes much of the sounds of words--third/curve, freezing/fingers/fjord, luscious/rump, etc.

http://www.goodreads.com/story/list/3...

[Debbie, sardonic princess of cheerfulness]

Read it, loved it, commented on it! :-)

[Ruth]

Thanks, Debbie.

[Ken, Moderator]

I, too, have wread Wruth's writing and wreally liked it. Almost as much as I like silent "W's."

[[deleted user]]

bravisimo or ma!
or some such

loved it haha

[Ruth]

Thanks GR & NE. It's an old poem, but one I'm still fond of.

[Ruth]

The famed artist Robert Rauschenburg died last night at 82. What a loss to the art community. His exuberant embrace of life and everything in it was an inspiration to so many of us. See the NYT article here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/14/art...
And here is a slide show of some of his work. Click on the arrow in the upper right of the picture to scroll thru:
http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2008...

[Ruth]

ust so you can see what it looks like here on a hot, sunny Saturday. We just got back from an hour's walk at the edge of the water.

I love to watch little kids at the water's edge, running back and forth with the slosh, their little legs pumping like chubby sandpipers.

Check out the surfers next to the pier. I never thought I'd live someplace where the high school has a surfing team.

See it live on the webcam.
http://san-clemente.org/cameras/hqcam...

[Ruth]

Today was my husband Leif's 80th birthday. We're having a big party next weekend, but for today the Birthday Boy wanted to go to the San Diego Wild Animal Park.

Migawd. I signed up for a trip to the Wild Animal Park. I did not volunteer for duty in Africa itself. I’m sure that’s where we were. It couldn’t have been merely SoCal in June, it was 107 degrees. Try walking around in that with about 50 gazillion other people. That’ll separate the men from the boys, or in this case the geezers from the young’uns. I almost keeled over.

We’d have liked to ride around in a Photo Truck and get really close to the animals, but after walking about 75 miles in the sun to get to the tour-around train, and then sitting on the sunny side of the train, being neither mad dogs nor Englishmen we just couldn’t face bumping around in the back of a truck with a dozen or so other sweaty bodies in the full heat of the noonday sun.

It was fun to feed the lorikeets, though. They come and sit right on your hand and drink “nectar” from a cup. They told us not to pat them, but Leif couldn’t resist, and got bitten for his trouble.

After we staggered back out to the car, where the thermometer read 113, we blasted the AC up to Antartica, and drove to El Galeon, where we had enormous tacos. An hour later we were home, comatose on the couches.

[Ken, Moderator]

Sounds like a fun day! And why not? You only turn 80 once! Congratulations and Happy B'Day to Leif. "Norway's the Only Way!" and all that.

BTW, what's a "lorikeet"? A cross between a parakeet and a girl named Lori? No wonder it bit!

[Ruth]

one leif, two lorikeets

[Debbie, sardonic princess of cheerfulness]

Lovely pic Ruth! Many happies more to Leif....lorikeets hail originally from Australia I think?? I could be wrong. Spare room at my place if you ever decide to see them 'at home'! (I am just a hop and a skip away...and on the way!)

[Ken, Moderator]

The lorikeet doesn't fall far from the Leif... great pic! In living color, yet! (Channels NBC peacock from the 60's.)

[[deleted user]]

Happy Birthday to the hubby Ruth! (sorry it's a little belated)

Y'all are a lot braver (and obviously in pretty darn good shape to have dealt with all of that without passing out from heat exhaustion) than I am. I draw the line at leaving the house at 105 degrees-- I spent one too many hot days walking around Old Sac as a kid. But ... it did make the dim pizza place and cold rootbeer seem that much cooler and more of a treat when we finally got it!

[Ruth]

I'll give all your greetings to Leif. Thank you. He's never paid this much attention to a birthday before. I think he's totally flabbergasted to find he's that old.

We moved here to the coast from Redlands, Sarah, where it's hot like Sacramento.

Hate to bust your lovely pun NE, but Leif is pronounced "Life." And yes, we're all wrong when we say "Leaf" Erikson. It's "Life" Erikson.

[Ken, Moderator]

Hmn. Is that just him or is it the Norwegian pronunciation? Like others, I go by the "Leif" Ericson pronunciation. Oh, well. That's Leif. (A pun for every pronunciation and a chicken in every pot!)

[Ruth]

It's the correct Norwegian pronunciation. We're all off base over here, including pronouncing Leif Erikson wrong.

[[deleted user]]

SO it's "Life" Garrett, too? Now, for some reason, that just busts the rocker and teen idol image- heh heh heh-- not like watching him grow older and struggle with various problems hasn't done that already.

Oh well.

Thanks for setting us on the straight and (not so) narrow for the correct pronunciation-- now we've just got to get the word out that our Americentric ways are not always right :)

NE- how about a turkey in every pot and a Model-T in every garage (or carport)?

[Tyler]

Ruth -- Just to let you know, I can never resist peeking at a bookshelf labeled "Total Crap."

[Ken, Moderator]

Where's the "Partial Crap" category -- for those still working at it?

[Ruth]

Actually, that Total Crap category should be much larger. I know I've read more losers than that. I must be suffering from protective amnesia.

[Ruth]

in case you've wondered at my new typeface here - i'm reduced to typing w/ my lrft hand - v painful tendinitis/.rotator cuff - right now i'd sel me soul to be able to lie down - th las few nights i'veb spent sitting in a chair trying to sleep with my face on the dining room table

[Debbie, sardonic princess of cheerfulness]

Poor Ruth!! Been to a doctor? Had painkillers? Got that gorgeous Norwegian to massage it? I hope you get some sleep soon.

[Ruth]

lotsa vicodin - doesn't hlp much - orthopod gave me cortisone shot - didn't hlp much - massage?? ack no, can't even stand to have it touched

[Ken, Moderator]

Poor Ruth! Thinking of you with tea and sympathy...

[Gail]

Ruth, I'm so sorry about your shoulder/arm. Are/were you a teacher? I've learned that this type of injury/problem is all too common among us: too much writing on the board, too much time spent bending over students and their work, just too much of everything, I guess.
I hope this gets better soon...so sorry that nothing's working so far.

[Ruth]

thx gsil, bun, ne. last night i actally managed to sleep while semereclining on the couch - taught at the local jr college , bot seldim wrote on board - done in i think by years of oainting, handwork, and comptermousing.

[Boreal Elizabeth]

voice recognition keyboard would be a very good thing
my wrists are going to give out eventually also

i have a wave keyboard at work and it helps

my minimalist style is in part due to bad wrists

[Ruth]

After about a 6 month dry period, I've had an acceptance. My poem Now is the Time of Black Lizard has been accepted by the Chicago Quarterly Review for their 2008-09 winter issue.

Oh frabjous day!

[Ken, Moderator]

Hoo as in ray, Ruth. That's a prestigious literary journal, no?

[Debbie, sardonic princess of cheerfulness]

It SOUNDS very prestigious!! Congratulations Ruth.

[Boreal Elizabeth]

eggselent

[Ruth]

Thannks, NE, Debbie, Elizabeth and Bun. It's nice to have an occasional acceptance. Keeps me going.

[Debbie, sardonic princess of cheerfulness]

You'll always be accepted here!

[Ken, Moderator]

Hey, at least you're sending stuff out. As a writer, I'm terrible at marketing myself. Stuff just sits in my computer (or, if I copy it, on the bookshelves gathering dust). I keep saying I have to correct that.

I have to correct that.

[Ruth]

I hate to send stuff out, too, NE. I'll do any amount of pencil-sharpening to avoid it. It's not the printing and writing and gathering and stamping that does me in, though. It's the decisions. Where shall I send to? What shall I send?

[Ken, Moderator]

Exactly. I wish I had a full-time marketer.

[Boreal Elizabeth]

be careful what you wish for

[Ken, Moderator]

Yes. Anonymity not only suits me, it's custom-made. I guess I don't have to much worry about writing fame, then.

[Boreal Elizabeth]

i was thinking more along the lines of you being the full time marketer which may be a good thing
why do we hate to help ourselves so
i can work for others quite willingly and happily but can't seem to work for my own heartfelt dreams

it's an old dilemna
a bit ne of us as in self deprecating to offset the sin of pride?

crazy old puritans still haunting us?

[Ken, Moderator]

Or laziness...

[Debbie, sardonic princess of cheerfulness]

That is why publishers and agents were invented! My mum's wonderful writing would never have seen the light of day without them!