“Oh, you’re a good bleeder!” She smiled approvingly as she said it.
Yeah, well, maybe – but I was glad I was reclining in one of those comfy chairs at the Red Cross on Friday squeezing a little squooshy ball instead of lying in the back of an ambulance where being a “good bleeder” would put me at a definite disadvantage.
Context is everything.
I’d actually thought the same thing (about context, not ambulances) when I gave blood three months ago as well. It was Friday, October 30. People came to work in costume, as they do in lots of places. No big deal. But even though I’m pretty cool – sanguine, even – (sorry) with vampires, I have to admit that having my blood drawn by Dracula was very unsettling. So, yeah, context is important. Good to remember when writing. Or just about anything.
*
What pisses me off (okay, one of the things that pisses me off – the other is that the stupid football game went waaaay past 9 PM and by the time it was finally over, I’d missed most of Emma and now I’ll have to watch it on a tiny screen) is that early Sunday morning I woke up thinking about the blood incident and I had this clever, insightful narrative playing in my head. Did I get up and write it down? Of course not, and so more than 24 hours later I’m trying to recall it and can’t, and I’m stuck with what I wrote above instead of that possibly brilliant passage.
But I do have one teeny tiny confession about those brilliant words we think we put together in that early morning dream world. I came up with a poem last week when I woke before dawn and realized that it had finally stopped raining. I remember thinking at the time it was clever and to the point. Unfortunately, I also remembered it verbatim. Please, my friends, promise you’ll think more about my bravery in posting this than the vapidity of the poem itself:
Sun. Day.
Today.
Yay!!!
Really – I thought it was clever at the time. So sometimes it’s just as well that I don’t remember what I’m thinking at 5 AM.
I like your poem. I think I’ll adopt it for every day use. Tomorrow I’ll motivate myself to get out of bed by thinking:
Twos, Day,
Today,
Yay!!!
Hey, Shaddy, that’s almost plagiarism. But it’s just as clever as my poem…
Your entire post made me giggle! I’m sorry you missed Emma…it wasn’t even on here again for us, which is too bad because my mom missed it entirely. But the game was great (I’m a big football fan, though, so I guess it’s subjective)!
Here’s my poem today:
Mun-dane,
Today,
Booo!
Uh oh. I’m afraid that I might have started a trend here.
You’re so witty. I could listen to your ramblings all day.
Winds-Day,
Blows,
No!!!!
ohmigod. this is scary. there is a definite trend here — I am THRILLED that my friends can come up with just as bad poetry as I produce….
I am totally falling off my chair, it’s so funny!
You’re both to clever for me.
All too clever.
I must say, I would love nothing more than to spend an entire afternoon having coffee with you and chatting. I’m with DS, I can read/listen to your ramblings all day.
Make that coffee, or tea, or wine, or tequila. I’m not picking on the drink, depending on what we choose the conversation could turn more and more interesting.
Agreed. Since we’ve decided to keep pursuing these writing goals, we need to think about hitting a writers’ conference some day, somewhere. Think how much fun THAT would be!