2/18

We fully began fiction today.  We read numerous stories today, a few I liked and a few were totally confusing.  We had to chose one story from the packet to read alone and then share our thoughts to the class.  I read Walking the baby to the liquor store.  I like this story, I was quite easy to understand.  At first I thought the author was a procrastinator, if the author is his our character in the story, because of what was described in the first paragraph about how his work was piling up.  But then I saw it was piling up because he was caught up in being a father, then i thought what's wrong with that.

We looked at another story: Misdemeanors.  About a stupid criminal who went to jail from robbing a bowling alley.  It was funny because when he told the story made himself seem like a hardened criminal because he went to jail by what he was telling the kids but his wife told a different story.  You can tell he didn't plan this robbery properly.  I'm no expert criminal but I think you should've had a more reliable getaway driver and not someone who was passed out at the wheel.  And he should have wore a belt if he was going to fill his pockets with coins because at the end of the story his pants were around his knees as he was running for the cops.

We also looked a the mystery stories.  Which I found more confusing than mysterious.  The old Japanese man was by far the most confusing because I couldn't tell who was real the boy dreaming boy or the Japanese man.  The jackets one was funny because the character is always unlucky enough to get her coat stolen at parties.  The talking cat seemed to make the most sense because it's about a woman who's jealous her cat made a new friend.

Dialogue story

A girl's awkward encounter.

It was a sunny mid-afternoon on a rather boring Tuesday.  I had stopped in the cafeteria for a quick bite to eat.  Looking around for a moment I noticed how full the place was, feeling very lucky that I even managed to get a table.  It was crowded and it was loud.  People's voices filled the room completely, I could barely manage to hear myself think.  And yet, I notice a table of two girls directly beside me being just loud as everyone else.  

The girls were rather young, probably around my age.  I could see them both smiling and laughing from their conversation.  One of them had long, brown, and straight hair.  And, she wore a graphic tee that had a big heart on it and the word "You" written under it.  I assume you read it as "love you". The girl across from her had short blond hair and had on a bright blue jacket, which kept attracting my attention.

A couple minutes later, I was in the middle of my eating lunch, when a third girl walks up to the two girls across from me and says very loudly "My life is like a fucking soap, I swear!"  Her crass language quickly catches my attention.  Not having looked over yet, I could hear the other two girl ask "how?" almost simultaneously.  She begins her story, rather loudly, as if bragging.  "I had one night stand with this guy last night in the dorms..."  She was interrupted by her two friends who both said "What!" in perfect unison this time.  Even I thought "What!" and "How could someone say that out loud like that."  

Graphic tee girl asks "How was it?" and giggles.  I had to look at graphic tee girl and question in my head "how could you ask something like that."  That when I notices the third girl.  She was still standing next to the table.  She had short, dark brown hair.  With thick, black frame glasses and had on a black leather jacket with a satchel strap going across her chest.  She grinned and replied to graphic tee girl "It was good.  But that's beside the point."  She continued her story.  "It turns out this guy was in my chemistry lab and he had the balls to come up to me and ask if we could have some "fun" again tonight.  Fun! His words not mine."  She used the quotation hand gesture every time she said the word: fun.  

The two girls sitting down began to look at one another and grin then look back at her.  Even I had my eyes fixated on her, her story was quite "fun" and fascinating.  She continues, answering everyone unasked question.  "I told him no."  She smiled.  "I said look buddy that was a one time thing and I got a boyfriend, so back off,"  Bright blue jacket girl asked "You got a boyfriend?"  Graphic tee girl replied for our storyteller.  "Yeah, remember she brought him to my party a while back."  Bright blue girl shook her head.  

Our storyteller butted in "The point is.." as if there is a moral to this story.  "..it's gonna be awkward to see him in lab from now on."  She laughs and looks at her phone.  "Okay, I got to go.  I'm gonna be late for my next class."  She begins to run along and the other two girl and I resume eating. I'm not sure how to take her story but the other two girls seemed to have enjoyed it. 

Short Story Assignment 1: The Plant

My sister is two years younger than me.  We have a close relationship, like best friends.  We started to take care of a plant in our childhood after seeing our mother toil around with gardening.  When we asked her why she to become a gardener she replied "so she can measure her happiness with the plants."  We became inspired, for we wanted to be happy too.  We begged to help her in the garden, she seemed reluctant.  So she gave us a plant and told us both to take care of it together and that we must nurture with love and feed it every day.  We happily agreed with big smiles on our face.  The plant was nothing special, just a seedling for a fern, but we loved like it was a playful little puppy.

At 10 and 8 years old, having the responsibility like that felt like I could do anything for this little plant.  My sister and I would often argue about who got to feed him that day and we ultimately decided we would alternate each day.  We named him "Dog” and wrote it on the pot we kept him in.  He stayed in the living room on the window sill in that little pot no bigger than a mug.  We were surprised when he began to bud and a leaf grew.  Amazement was written all over our faces, for we felt like we accomplished something.

A year later, Dog survived and thrived.  "It's almost time to move him to a bigger pot." our mom explained.  She told us "If we want Dog to remain healthy, he’ll need to stretch his roots".  So a couple of days later we went shopping for a new pot for Dog, than we moved him into it.

Another year has passed and I joined the soccer team at my middle school and my sister is now in 5th grade.  It's becoming harder to take care of Dog because of practice and playing with friends after school.  My sister also made friends with a couple of little girls in her class.   Even so, we still find the time for Dog.  Feeding him, cleaning the dust off him, talking to him always brings us joy.  But we have noticed that the tips of his leaves are beginning to wilt.  We're not worried we know he'll get better.

Another year has passed and I am now heavily involved with my soccer team and I mostly leave Dog's well-being to my sister.  But I have noticed that his leaves aren't as green as they once were they'll getting lighter could just be my imagination.

Another year has passed and I noticed I haven't spoken to my sister in days nor have been feeding Dog.  I get out of bed to look for them both.  As I approach Dog, I noticed he has wilted beyond recognition.  I begin to panic for a second then I just get a depressing feeling.  Dejected I show my sister, who have also forgot to feed him due to her school life, you can see her eyes beginning to water.  She apologizes to me.  I asked him why she apologized.  She said for forgetting to feed Dog.  I tell him I am also at fault.  We ask our mother is there anything that can be done to save him and she replies that there isn't.  We both feel bad, my sister sheds a few tears, and our childhood best friend is dead.  My mother gives us a new seedling and asks if we want to give it another go.  We agree and my sister and I agree that once a day we find time to take care of this new plant. And never let the busyness of our live get in the way.

Feb 11th

Today we got into groups and shared our poems.  My group members seem to really enjoy my response poem to In The Trees.  I like their poems J is really deep in his poem and is very articulate and knows how to get his point across very creatively.  And C seems to dedicates her poems to her family and I like how personal she can be.

Feb 4

Today we were tasked with picking out 3 entries in the Tocqueville poem and 1 entry not in the poem to share with the class.  After some time I finally found 3 I liked.  And, my group members found the ones they liked and we shared amongst  one another.

I like one poem on pages 28/29 about how his friend was making his friend was doing wrong and how he feels guilty for not noticing and says he feels he betrayed his friends.  I don't understand why he feels responsible for his friends crime.  His friend is the perpetrator not him.  But it goes on to say that his friend's father passed and I suppose that he feels he was not there when his friend turned to crime to vent or something.

I also liked the one on pages 28/29 about how a group of bandits killed this mans wife and gave him an ultimatum to either kill himself or his young child.  And in the end he kills his child and the bandits chop off both his arms.  This type of poem seems to repeat in the book a number of times.  But personally I do not agree with the actions that the fathers took.  My classmates feel that the father was sparing the child from the whatever the bandits would have done to the child.  But in the end he killed his child, I would've told my child to be strong and would've just ended my life there.  The child deserves a chance to live.  I pray I never find myself in such a situation.

I also liked one on pages 30/31.  About how these people don't have photos of their family or themselves and they talk about themselves or their family.  I can relate to this because I don't talk about myself or my family because people don't ask or just don't seem to care.  The final poem I chose from the book is Ecclesiates because I liked how it was structured.  It has 2 sentences in each stanza that seem to talk about charity or some sort of virtue.  One of the sentences talks about why we think we do it and the other why we really did it.

"In the trees" response

To ease the waters weighing on your brain.
Try opening your mouth to let it drain.
A solo debriefing.  A one-to-one.  Monologue.
If that doesn't help, try writing it out.
Then perhaps this will cause you a drought.
And if this doesn't work take some pills, you insomniac .

"The Scent of Verbena" response

You've gotten over your first hurdle.
Did and done.  He's gone.
Raise your voice, yell, cry and scream for help.
You must not give in to the ease of death's grip.
Instead, clutch and grasp for life.
Now get up and run for your life, you must fight.
Don't be a victim, be a survivor!

The last sentence is a quote from someone, forgot who.