Today’s assignment is to take a page out of a book and do a black-out poem. The page suggested was 612-613 of Moby Dick (The Chase-Second Day.)
See space spread
See nothing
Turn sail – no matter
Pertinacious pursuit
prescience, circumstances
swim out of sight.
Sagacious evanescence
baby’s pulse
collateral cry
Ha! Ha! launch me–
Speak out
now growing awe.
http://austinkleon.com/tag/tea-drawings/
I found this interesting artistic blog by Austin Kleon that shows drawings made from tea stains. People create such interesting things.
My assignment today was to attempt just such an artistic endeavor, though that is not my forte.
Instead, I’ll write about the cup of tea I actually drank earlier, without making any art from the tea bag.
One of the most comforting moments in my day is the brewing of a cup of tea. I usually boil a pot of water in an electric kettle, place a P.G. Tips triangle shaped tea bag imported from England into a cup, pour the water over the teabag and only let it brew for a minute. I don’t like it too strong. The final touch to my tea is Coffeemate’s Italian Sweet Cream creamer. It is the quick equivalent of cream and sugar and just makes it creamy delicious.
I grew up drinking sweet creamy tea thanks to my grandmother – Mema. She also shared that gift with my children because she babysat them prior to their school years. I am assuming she will continue to pass forward the gift to my grandchild since they spend so much time together.
Once I have a perfect cup of tea ready to sip on, I usually write, read, or engage in something creative. So I guess I have come to connect hot tea with both comfort and productivity/creativity. Maybe it’s the little boost of caffeine that gets me motivated. Whatever the case, hot tea is a staple for me and a lovely part of my day.
I am thinking about doing a mystery/thriller course with James Patterson even though I’ve never written anything mysterious or thrilling in my life. My next assignment is to randomly search stuff in Google and write down the auto suggestions. I thought it might be interesting to see what happens if I search some of my ideas or terms related to this topic.
Mysterious: skin, universe, serum, stranger, challenger
Thrilling: adventure, intent
Missing: you, plane, money, at 17
Fearful: symmetry, avoidant attachment
Confusion: hill, matrix, poem
Mystery: room, men, movie, science theater 3000
Thriller: lyrics, Netflix, Michael Jackson
Shadow: doubt, Colossus, hunter, dancer, run
Dark: side, horse, place, moom
the: usual suspects, wall
Today’s assignment is to create a mix tape for someone who doesn’t know me.
Side A – Honesty (Billy Joel), West End Girls (The Petshop Boys), Hungry Eyes (Eric Carmen), Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’ (Michael Jackson), Footloose (Kenny Loggins), Sussudio (Phil Collins), Everybody Wants to Rule the World (Tears for Fears), Little Red Corvette (Prince)
Side B – Book of Love (Book of Love), Vogue (Madonna), Bitter Sweet Symphony (The Verve), Stand By Me (Prince Royce), Nature Boy (Nat King Cole), Fortress Around Your Heart (Sting), Save the Last Dance for me (Michael Buble), All You Need is Love (Beatles)
Today’s assignment is to appreciate things people have taught me in life.
Thanks to Charlotte who taught me what it feels like to be a grandmother.
Thanks to Boaz who taught me how to let go.
Thanks to Lydia who taught me to love unconditionally.
Thanks to Tony who taught me to endure difficulty and remain compassionate.
Thanks to David who taught me how to relax and love again.
Today I am assigned to paste four pictures of my heroes.
Oprah, Jesse Owens, Spock, and Jimmy Carter
The journal I’m reading highlights the artist’s way of looking at the world as though always “casing the joint”, finding inspiration everywhere, using ideas from unlikely places, and creating new art from all those great ingredients.
Today’s activities ask me to make 8 captions for a triangle. 
I’m not sure the real purpose of this exercise, except to maybe get the brain thinking a bit more globally, but there it is. Tomorrow is circles. By the way, I thought of the words, then went and found images for them afterwards. I don’t think it would be cheating, though, to scroll through images for ideas, especially since this whole book is about stealing for artistic use.
Ready to celebrate some successes! I finished my creativity course, got married, wrote a novel in the month of November for NanoWrimo, and feel back on track with writing daily.
Today I bought a new journal called The Steal Like An Artist Journal – A Notebook For Creative Kleptomaniacs by Austin Kleon. He opens the book with a quote by Mary Oliver – “I think we’re creative all day long. We have to have an appointment to have that work out on the page. Because the creative part of us gets tired of waiting, or just gets tired.” This sums up my new writing plans perfectly. I am attempting to set aside time daily to work out my creativity on the page. I plan to start sharing some of that experimentation here.
Activity #1 in the journal is Ten Things I Want To Learn:
I have thoroughly enjoyed this vacation. I have filled it a bit too full at times, but I made up for that yesterday with two long naps! My creativity course is proceeding splendidly. I am in week 2 and have done all of my writing exercises each and every day. I’m learning a little bit about my own habits and weaknesses that tend to interfere with my time for writing. I am also learning a plethora about my own creative potential and how much untapped awesomeness is contained in this universe. I don’t have to believe that every ounce resides in me, but simply that I can be a channel to get it on paper. I have to develop the willingness to let all that energy and beauty flow through me. Part of the willingness is simply showing up to the page and taking the steps to do the work. I do a ton more daydreaming about writing than actually writing. 🙂
Also, I am very excited to report that my sweet fiance has a three day weekend, which he will be spending with me when he wakes up. He was up during the night with a sick dog. I was no help. I was conked out. The dog and I are fine this morning, but my poor man is exhausted and needs to sleep the morning away.
Super amazing news – I have reached my summertime swimming goal of 60 laps. I’m not resting on my laurels, though. Now I’ve decided to set a new goal of 66 laps because my grandfather figured out that 66 (considering all the measurements of his pool) would equal half a mile. I just like the sound of swimming a nice round half mile.
This has been one of my best vacations ever. I have Salsa’d, written, read, sipped tons of tea, played with my granddaughter, attended support groups, worked on my creativity course, cleaned house making my environment more livable, swam, had outings with friends, gone to the movies, taken myself out to eat, roamed bookstores, and napped to my heart’s content. This is the way to live.
This was how I felt by the last day of summer school — white knuckling it — and so left my room like this:
Ok, maybe not quite that bad, but I certainly did not leave it in any shape for the start of school. I will deal with that when I return for the year. I am on vacation!
A kid asked if I will miss her and I said, “Probably not. I’ll only be gone a week.” She looked a bit wounded, but, come on. I couldn’t muster the energy to come up with a creative response and I don’t lie to my students. I should have said something like, “Probably as much as you’ll miss me,” but my brain was sluggish…due to her and her cronies exhausting me.
My dream goal five years from now is to be able to summer in Colorado or somewhere else cool (literally not hot like Texas.) I will rent a cottage in the mountains and write for three months straight. It will be a true retreat and I will return refreshed, enlightened, and ready to teach because I have truly had a break.
This is a real goal, not a far-fetched pipe dream. I became a teacher so I could read and tell stories all day and have the summers off. I have not had the summer off for the last 14 years. Not cool. I do get to do the story part, though.
For this vacation, I am writing, beginning The Artist’s Way 12 Week Course by Julia Cameron, dancing, swimming, and taking naps every day. So far, my vacation has been a blast and I am appreciating every single second that I am not at work.
rebekahjmarshall 