Brain Freeze

I have a writing assignment that is due and I have been avoiding. I was given a set of words and I was to work four or five into the narrative. I usually do really good with this type of assignment, but this time was different in that it had to be a complete story, beginning, middle and end and it had to be 1000 words or less. These added restrictions seems to have stalled my creativity. I don't remember all the words right now, but the ones I chose were: Whisper, Patch, Float, Brush and Sing. Tomorrow creative or not I am completing the assignment. I hate when I get like this, I spend all morning on the Internet looking at stuff that doesn't matter, then I read absolutely anything that will keep me from picking up my journal or computer. And it is actually worse if you do open up you computer, because the Internet is right there. I cleaned, I organized, I messed around, I napped, but I did not write, not one word. I knew that taking this correspondence course was going to be hard for me. I always start these things but I can never seem to finish them. But I made a promise to myself and for once I am going to keep my promise.

In other news I highly recommend last nights Bill Moyers Journal, an interview with historian Simon Schama. It was truly fascinating about the American Future. He separates four things out that he feels are converging in American and that will define the Obama presidency: War, Religion, Immigration, and abundance (plenty). They showed clips of an upcoming BBC America documentary on Schama's work, one that was particularly scary was the clip in Houston Texas with a group of citizen border patrol men. They don't go out to the desert and patrol the border, they drive around town looking for Hispanics and get in there face demanding their 'papers'. It was truly frightening. I would have to say that in the last 8 years the only thing I ever agreed with George Bush on was immigration. We need to find a way to work through this.

I'm from what I like to call hillbilly stock, I prefer that term to redneck and I also feel it fits my family more. My mother grew up in what use to be the extreme back woods of Lake Taps/Ravensdale/Black Diamond area of Washington State. This is now elite territory, but when she was growing up with her 10 brothers and sisters (way Catholic) it was the country, and as country folk with that many kids they were poor. Grandpa was a carpenter, a handy man and did lots of odd jobs, Grandma raised babies and gardens, and together the whole family picked berries, cascara bark and went to eastern Washington to pick apples in the fall. The whole family worked to make a living. I don't know too many families that will do that now days....except for Hispanic families. And yes I know some, maybe many are 'illegal' (such an inappropriate term), but when need there labor and they need the jobs. I think we need to find a way to work this out before it gets uglier then it already is.

Well that is all for tonight. Tomorrow I will be posting that I HAVE FINISHED MY STORY!!! at least that is the plan.