Write On

A student ended his first writing challenge post like this:

My goal is to try to make it 100 days but I highly doubt that. Personally it’s a lot harder than Ms S says it is, because you have to write something about your day but most of the time my days are boring and routine so I don’t know how long this will last.

To which I immediately replied:

I never said it was easy! I just said it would be worth it.

You never know; you might surprise yourself.

I like how this is going so far! 

Nulla Dies Sin Linea

Another year, another 100 Day Writing Challenge has begun. I always kick off the activity with a description of the day I started this blog, March 1, 2009. A Sunday morning, it was threatening to snow, and I carried my coffee and my laptop over to the fire and clicked through some of my favorite teacher websites. It was then that I stumbled across the 2nd annual month-long slice of life writing challenge sponsored by Two Writing Teachers and starting that very day. Why not? I thought.

Writing every day was a fun challenge, but it was the readership and the sense of community that really captured my heart and imagination. When on April 1 I woke up with no real requirement to write, I decided to continue anyhow for as long as I thought it was worthwhile. And here we are today, 3285 days later with, as that old writing teacher guru, Donald Graves, would say, nulla dies sin linea, not a day without a line.

It's a bit of a brag, but shared with the intention and hope to inspire my students to give first 10 days, then 20, and then 100 days of writing a crack. I know from personal experience they won't be sorry.

Hippo Birdy to Lucy

All my life people have told me how lucky I am to have a summer birthday. "I guess so," I usually shrug without giving it much thought.

Heidi, born in November usually takes her birthday off; she is serious about celebrating. She even insisted that we always did something fun for our dog, Isabel, on her July 17th birthday, and our cat, Bingo, on his July 31st birthday.

Well, today was Lucy's first birthday, and, like most Mondays, we went to work and came home late. Wow. I guess school-year birthdays do kinda suck. Oh sure, she got the usual love and kindness and a walk to the dog park, but there was nothing special. Rather than feeling guilty, we consoled ourselves today with the promise that Lucy would spend all of next weekend at the beach with her cousin, Rosie.

AND, since she was born on an Oscar weekend, it's almost like having a holiday birthday.

Almost.

Our Canine Village

After being out of the house all day, Heidi and I were running a quick errand before going home to our pets. We had had a fantastic Sunday of brunch and documentary shorts, but Heidi worries about the three of them-- tomorrow Lucy will be a year, but she is the senior member of their group, and believe me? Such a fact is sobering.

"Oh my gosh!" I cried, glancing out the window, "look at that golden doodle! It looks exactly like Lucy!" As we rolled past, I started to laugh. "That was Lucy!" I said.

Our good friend and neighbor Lauren had taken her for a run with her dog, Lady. As it turns out, several of our neighbors had stepped up and entertained little Lu Lu. Her day was just as fun as ours, and Heidi was very relieved.

You Can't Please Everybody

We said goodbye to our old carpet this morning by inviting three neighborhood dogs to come in out of the foggy rain and take advantage of our cleared out living room. For a solid 90 minutes it was practically an indoor dog park with plenty of runnin' and wrasslin'.

Lucy? Loved it! And it made it possible for her to rest (somewhat) easily, closed in the bedroom with both of us and the cats all afternoon.

They are finishing up the trim on our new floor right now, and as nice as it will be, I don't think the dogs will like half as much.

Shoulda Woulda

"February? That would be this weekend!" I said to the floor salesman. "I don't think we can clear out the rooms by then."

"Oh," he assured me calmly, "you don't have to move the furniture, just anything loose or breakable."

I surveyed the living room with its loaded bookshelves and considered the discount. "Deal," I told him.

And now? 20 bankers boxes later? Well, I guess it's too late to reconsider. 

Pleasantly Surprised

"How long has it been since you've had a filling?" the dental assistant asked.

"It's been ages," I told her, "I really can't remember."

I was there not because I had a cavity, but because some of my old metal fillings were ready to be replaced. On the walk from school I had made peace with the unavoidable sharp sting of the novocaine needle, and I was actually very relaxed in my reclining dental chair.

"This tastes terrible," she said, placing a cotton swab against the inside of my cheek, "but it's pretty good numbing. You'll feel pressure but no sharpness."

She was half right. The stuff didn't taste too bad at all, but from that point on, the procedure was painless. Thirty minutes later I was out on the street and headed back to school, two brand new composite fillings in place. The left side of my nose felt a little weird, but, as promised, it wore off within a couple hours.