not everyone follows baseball

I will practice my dialogue work. From yesterday at the Legion ~
I returned to the store after messing around in the storage area.

Sweet Young Thing: "Mary Ann, Dennis called about an author or
something, I wrote it down."
(The note said "Lincecum" and "Young".)
I called my boss: "Lincecum won the Cy Young again!"
Dennis: "yes, but I don't think SYT knows baseball, she asked if
it was spelled 'Jung' and I had to spell Lincecum very carefully."
Mary Ann: "and she thought Lincecum was a writer."

In any event, congratulations to Tim on his 2nd in a row Cy
Young award! Yeah....

more about fiction writing

I can't say I really LIKE these fiction classes I'm taking. First, it
means work. Sitting down and writing kind of work. Then it
entails actually going to class for two plus hours every Monday
night, but thankfully I live close by The Writing Salon. I
finished the first half and now we have a new teacher (Karen)
and she expects us to be writing our novels NOW. What? I
didn't see that in the class description. The nerve.

So I have been getting up earlier and writing for just a little
while every morning. Here are some interesting thoughts about
the whole elusive plot business. From Karen's class notes:

There is one sure thing about writing a novel: there is
no sure way to do it. But there are things you can and
should do as you work. You should know your character
intimately. You should have some sense of his or her
conflict because that will drive the plot. You should create
for the reader an enticing and believable world. Most of all,
you should concentrate on getting that first draft done.

yes, but do I really need it?

Faithful readers know that I love Verizon and have been a loyal
customers for years. I keep hoping that they'll wrench away the
iPhone from AT&T, but I don't think that will happen. So now we
have the Droid and it could be all mine for $200 or so. Two things
are worrying me:
1) will my inexpensive monthly rate go way up?
2) could I become one of those people who puts my phone on
the table in front of me when we go out for lunch or dinner?
Yes, I could go into the Verizon store and do some research,
but we all know that I'd be walking out with my new Droid.
So I will do some technological stewing for awhile.

back to last year

Always in my work life I have been blessed with friends, usually women,
but a few men too. Here we have my delightful co-workers: Frances,
Patrice, Tanya and the blonde Lucy(belle). They keep me sane and
smiling as they help me on this journey at the museums. Just think,
a year ago I didn't even know them. Now we all know a LOT about
each other, and all of it good, of course. Lucky, lucky me!

a little more magic, please

Last night we thoroughly enjoyed Mrs. Whitney at the Magic Theatre
down at Fort Mason. It's the sad/funny story of people reconnecting
after a few decades. Great acting with Rod Gnapp as the Mister and
Patricia Hodges as the delightful Mrs. Whitney. You will recognize
Patrick Alparone up there in the right hand corner, he was Billy
in SF Playhouse's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.

from Mary in Bisbee!

Today while I was out running my errands, I stopped off at B&D Lumber to pick up some wild bird seed and one of the folks there happened to mention that the Capitol Christmas tree is in Bisbee today. It's touring Arizona on its way to the White House, stopping here and there for an hour or so. It was supposed to be parked just down the road from my house outside of Warren Ball park at Farmer's Market. So I drove over there and, sure enough, there it was, blocking the road on my way home, with a large motley crowd of desert mountain people gathered around. So, now being an official inhabitant of this outpost where any diversion is a big deal, I got out and walked over to see what was going on. The truck is draped with a huge banner so that all us Arizonans can sign it and send it on its way with Christmas greetings. This is the first time Arizona has been chosen to provide the Capitol Christmas tree, so there was a lot of excitement about this historic event. It seemed like everybody in Cochise county was there, chatting, clapping, laughing, cheering - eating the bad cookies and drinking the bad coffee that was provided - and just having a good time. Speeches were made. The highschool band played 'Arizona' and 'Oh, Christmas Tree'. A big ugly Christmas tree ornament (I couldn't tell what it was supposed to be) made out of copper was 'presented' to the tree. Then they opened the side of the truck so that we common folk could all line up and peer inside at it, giving our good wishes, I suppose. Why they included Bisbee on the grand tour is anybody's guess. But it was a very celebratory event for this little place down by the border.

I enjoyed it very much! (I think I am becoming a simple soul.)

a touch of nostalgia

I hardly ever read old posts, even though I have them printed
out for Husbando every year, but I couldn't resist checking
out last November when I left the big box, for all intents and
purposes. It was a tough time for me, but I'm so pleased that
I took that major step. Life at the museums is a lot easier and
the pay is better, the benefits fantastic. I have made some
wonderful new friends and I can even identify a precious or
semi-precious stone from time to time. But not always...