micro-memoir challenge: 31 days of bite-sized life

I had the opportunity to listen to two fantastic memoirists speak yesterday and absorbed so much inspiration that it ought to be illegal the talk was free. I won't rehash too much of what they said, but you should visit Shirley and Angela when you get a chance.

The bottom line was this: we are all memoirists, especially bloggers. Part of the problem is that we feel we need some sweeping, drastic events to happen before we should be allowed to tell our stories. Notice the word "allowed" that I used...like there is some gatekeeper to creativity who deems the Angies and Shirlies of the world as worthy of memoir writing and the rest of us as "not ready yet." That's bunk and they'll tell you so.

I struggled with what stories I could share. I'm not really funny when it comes to parenting blogs. Honestly. My kids are too cute for me to be snarky. Not much of a food blogger because HOLY CRAP, the honest to God truth is that I'm a crap cook. What's interesting about me? What stories do I tell people that they actually respond to? That are different from the 8 million other stories floating around out there?

And it hit me sitting in that library conference room. My days as a B-league, underpaid reporter (both now and in the past) are GOLD. I've been paraded with a real live reindeer, my mother, and a toddler through downtown Anchorage. I've gotten lost and driven over the West Virginia line in search of a less-than-spectacular Hops farm and gotten caught peeing on the side of the road because I was so lost. (Last week, folks.)

These are the stories I'm going to tell and I'm going to write a memoir that speaks to people who aren't the Anderson Coopers or Diane Sawyers of the world. (OR whoever the big leaguers are in your business or life). Some of us are living tiny, hilarious lives and they're worth capturing.

That's the idea, anyway.

I have a really nice mentor helping me with an honest-to-goodness book proposal because he thinks there's a chance in hell someone else might think this is funny stuff. But those things take forever, so in the meantime to help me prepare for TWO classes I was chosen to host in the fall on memoir writing (for seniors in a retirement community...awww!) and journaling to unlock creativity (at a local rec center, yay!), I put together a mini challenge for myself.

31 Days of Micro Memoirs. 

No more than 500 words. Capture a scene. A memory. A glimpse into a moment in life and write it down. These will eventually get bigger and become chapters (or parts of chapters), but for now, micro is just fine for me.

This is completely an invention I came up with, like, this morning on the way to work. SO there's no fancy button yet. No blinky. No linky. But if you're bored this month and you want to practice writing tiny little memoirs, please please please join me.

Challenge Recap:

Day 1: It Began With a Firing 
Day 2: Me and Dubya
Day 3: Down in Flames

...happy happy happy...

it's about that time: makeover edition

the last time i revamped this whole site, we'd just moved from alaska to texas and i spent a couple weeks calling this site "texas skies and lemon pies" or vice versa. i can't remember because obviously the name didn't stick.

for two years, it was crowded tub and for a while, the url will still be crowded tub because i'm lazy. but why the change?

for one thing, i've never really nailed down what i'm doing here. i'm a food blog. i'm a funny parenting blog. i'm a craft gawking blog. but i've never really done a lot of those things very long (or very well) and when it came right down to it, all i was every really doing was writing. with bad pictures.

from the beginning of adult megan time, i've been a writer. a reporter. a creative writing grad student. a poet. all these things.

i was looking for a website about me and the stories i tell. all of them...

here's to a new look!

...happy happy happy...

signs of life: virginia

did you know that we moved? it's pretty much all i've talked about on facebook and i've just about drowned my instagram friends with pictures of cows...but if you haven't heard, we totally moved, ya'll.

texas to virginia by way of louisiana, mississippi, alabama and florida. then north by way of alabama (again), georgia, south carolina, north carolina and finally, VIRGINIA!

we moved in to a pretty place called the shenandoah valley. people use the words blue ridge in describing all sorts of things (like businesses and mountain ranges) so there's that, too.

we found a cheap farmhouse, complete with a herd of cows that jumps our fence a few times a week and stomps on our sunflowers.

i found a job that was pretty awful. but then, as of last thursday, i found a much better job more aligned with what i want to do with myself. i'll finally be a reporter again and i can. not. wait.

i spent a few weeks driving around this new hometown (and a few other hometowns) and i took a few photos. mostly, though, we've been trying to make this house ours and that means being creative when you run out of bookshelf money. (hint: use cardboard boxes to hold your stuff off the ground.)

not our house. Just one of many sort of creepy, awesome, and beautiful old buildings around here that just sort of ...are. not in the process of being torn down. not being rebuild. not lived in. just...there.

love this barn. not on our property, but one i pass often. not sure why i love it. i just do.

this is my very favorite animal on the planet. his name is chippy. he moos at us all the time. the farmer told me that when the steers get to be about 400 pounds, they get moved to the family's other field north of town. from there, the trucks from the slaughterhouses come by and gradually pick them up. i tried to block that part out. i'm also putting chippy on a diet so that he'll never get near 400 pounds. when you see chippy with a sweatband on his head and ankle weights on his feet...you'll know why.

old chicken coop or pig stalls next to our house. i'm not sure which and i refuse to investigate to figure out what it is. thar's snakes in them thar buildings. no lie.

a field on a stormy, foggy day. our house is just beyond those trees a ways.

i know, this studio/writing room will never make its way to pages of  "where women create" but i am so happy, happy, happy to finally  have a room where my art supplies and projects can live and breathe. i just sort of tacked up everything that inspired me to that wall you see. it's hodgepodge but, hey, so is my brain. there's a san pascual acrylic in progress taped to the wall. i got bored before i was finished, but i'll get back to it soon.

i'm in an angel/folk art phase right now. oh, and a "94-cent wood plaque at Walmart" sort of phase, too. cheap is good...

happy happy happy....

this is creative: fiep westendorp

i love the illustrations of the 60s. seriously. the whimsy and the "chicken scratch" aspect of the composition. LOVE IT.

one of my favorites is fiep westendorp, a dutch illustrator (1916-2004) who did a lot of work with annie m.g. schmidt.

speak dutch? (not the jump rope game double, of which i failed miserably, but the language...) here's a great fiep westendrop site.

stuff of life: state plates

my mom's an expert thrift store shopper.

in her world, i'm the noobest of noobs and add in the fact that now i usually have four kids in tow, i'm a near nightmare when it comes to thrifting.

but i've been itching to poke through used stuff lately, so early on a thursday morning, we dropped off the fourth grader and zoomed up and down the aisles.

first things first.

is it just me or does it seem that whatever the color of the day special is (it was yellow tag day when i was there), there are NO items in that color on the shelves? are they messing with us?

i don't have the patience or the stomach to zip through the clothes. they usually smell like cigarettes and mothballs. or pee.

i'm always on the hunt for three things:

1. furniture that i can do gruesome mod podge experiments on
2. kitchenware (namely china cups and saucers, milk glass, and all sorts of pyrex)
3. art. i like frames mostly, but i've found a few winners this past year

what i was NOT in the market for, however, were those kitschy state souvenir plates from the 60s.  but i hit the motherlode this week and in a flish/flash/bang instant i was addicted.  i picked up six for a buck each and now i'm on the ebay/etsy hunt. i love these things and i've stopped to wonder more than once...where have they been all my life?

i also found a really, really ugly china cup and saucer that looks like its straight outta the 80s, but it makes the clink sound (as opposed to the clunk sound) when cup hits saucer and i bought it for a whopping 0.79 cents! a small investment for feeling fancy when you drink your tea, friends.

also in the haul were two 1973 commemorative glasses from a railroad station in new hampshire and some caverns in missouri. never been to either place, but i'll dream about them while sipping lemonade outta the glasses this summer.

...happy happy....

stuff of life: some tea with me

i didn't grow up around my grandparents too much, so i don't have many of those memories that start with "my grandmother always..." or "my grandfather loved to..."--i just don't have them. but if i were to guess, they were coffee fans. i'm almost sure of it.

my mom was the tea drinker and if memory serves me well, it was her grandmother who also was a tea drinker. it's all very murky in my mind because i never paid much attention to things like tea and traditions when i probably should have been.

 a big box of red rose tea sat in my aunt dee's pantry when i visited her this fall. i think she drinks tea when she's not drinking coffee. half her house is decorated with those adorable little collectable figurines red rose gives away. i took so many pictures of the funny places she displays them because it gave her house such a magical feel. aunt pam? i'm not sure. coffee? tea? i'm going to ask her next time i talk to her....maybe it's a genetic thing and all larsen descendents know their way around a tea pot.

my mom is funny about tea. it's always a black tea (even decaf if the hour was late) and always half and half. sugar was rare for her and more than once in my adult life, she's raised an eyebrow at me for sugaring up my own tea. we also disagree on earl grey. i love it. she loathes bergamot. she loves a good irish breakfast tea.

i didn't drink much tea in my 20s. as far as i'm concerned, done correctly, your 20s are best reserved for other types of beverages that we spend the rest of our lives healing from.

it wasn't until i moved to alaska in 2005 and i met my best friend fawn (if you're reading, hi fawn! i miss you!), that i rediscovered tea.

she's fearless with tea. herbal, blend, decaf, black, red, white, orange. there isn't a cup of tea that girl won't try and my favorite favorite memories of friendship (any type of friendship) involve her kitchen table, a house full of toddlers, and tea.

and her, obviously.

i also think about my alaska friend cindy when i wax poetic about tea. we started a random tea conversation back in the hdr office a few years ago and she gave me a bit of a chuckle when i asked her if she "drank tea." she slid open a desk drawer to reveal the sickest stash of loose leaf teas i've ever seen. to this day.

 ah-may-ZING.

these days, tea is a constant. i love black tea with creamer AND sugar (sorry mom!).

 i dig the wacky blended Yogi teas that promise to detox my liver and enlighten my mind. i love love LOVE bags of chai tea something fierce. i'll drink a nice chamomile honey. i'll pour you a cup of raspberry zinger.

trust me, i've hoarded them all like gollum and that ring. they're my preciouses...

i never paid much attention to tea cups versus mugs. i'd microwave water in a crappy mug and toss a bag in, often forgetting it and having to repeat the process.

lately, though, i've been paying more attention.

giving the process more respect.

i pull out a small teapot and warm it with plain hot water while the awesome electric kettle my mom got me (thank you , mom!) warms the tea water. i use two or three tea bags in the pot and i let it steep like i'm supposed to. i pour the brewed tea into a cup with a saucer and i take my time to sit at the table and drink it. nothing more. no computer browsing, no clearing the dishwasher. just sitting. and drinking. magic.

a few years back, i came across a couple recipes for hong kong milk tea.

 it's also called pantyhose tea, but i don't call it that because i don't want to imagine drinking tea that was passed through somebody's pantyhose.

it's a simple recipe. i drink it when i'm writing. it's a ritual of mine now.

my simplified version goes something like this: boil black tea leaves. add evaporated milk and sugar.

voila.  hk milk tea.

albert yang explains it better in his video: how to make hong kong milk tea.

you should watch it and let me know how much you love it.

here's a tangential tea story for you...

my favorite youtuber recently passed away. sad. have you ever heard of the internet grandad? shame if you haven't.

i always loved watching peter's videos.

whether he was talking about geriatric cooking (his microwave bangers and mash looks fantastic), the loneliness of being a widower, or serving in the british army during wwii, he was such a charming, lovely man.

he passed away march 23 and i'm so sad.

silly, isn't it?

a man thousands of miles away who wouldn't know me from anyone else on the street and he'd made such an impression on me that the news of his death last week left me a little bit empty.

anyway, his was the first youtube video about making the perfect cup of english tea that i ever watched.

you really should watch it, too: making an english cup of tea. raise a tea cup in his honor if you happen to drink some today. lovely man.

etsy fan? you should search "tea" and see what freaking cool wallet zappers you find. a few examples:

from the sweet little tea things i love, above:

1. Dachsund & Gnome Tea Towel (VivaSweetLove)
2. Tea Pot Shaped Pink Sugar Cubes (WishingWellArts)
3. Some Like It Hot Hand-Stamped Spoon (Milk and Honey Luxuries)
4. Loose Leaf Thai Tea 2 Ounces (BlueLadyTeaShop)


i wish we closer, you and i.

i'd totally have you over for tea. and biscuits...which are really cookies. did you know they were the same thing?

peter taught me that.

boxes piled high

in one room at least. if anybody is going to have their stuff when we get there, it'll be the girls and all 4,356 of their broken, mismatched doodads and thing-a-mah-bobs.

we leave in about 22 days for virginia to find our sweet spot. texas has been great, but we're so far from my folks it's almost like, what's the point? the hardest part for me was telling my mom and dad. silly, right? 35 years old and afraid that i'm hurting their feelings by making a decision that's such a good thing for my kids. but still. it was hard. i'm definitely leaving a part of my heart behind in texas. again.

that said, this time around texas hasn't been quite right for me.

houston is isolating. but at the same time, it's crowded. we don't have shiny new cars and we don't have a zero lot line in cinco ranch, so it's hard to feel like we fit in. never really found our groove in a church. never pushed ourselves to get out and get social and do things. for two years, i've been a bit of a house mouse keeping the kids indoors because the apartment complex outside is changing so, so much.  break ins. a couple domestic spats right outside our windows in broad daylight. junk like that.

katy is gorgeous, but we didn't give it the old college try and i don't think it was on accident. it's just not us.

virginia is his stomping ground. his mom and sisters and nieces and nephews live there and while i'm pretty scared they're going to think i'm weird (they probably already do) and a little eccentric (guilty), it means our kids have cousins and cousins and cousins to play with and room to run and ride bikes and get muddy and act like hooligans.

that's the hope anyway.

with all these moves (we moved alaska to texas two years ago. two years before that, we moved to anchorage from eagle river), it's hard to feel solid. hard to know exactly who you are and what you want.

but maybe that's the idea. new scenery. new life. new interests. new jobs. new memories.

and hopefully, this time, the right fit. roots, ya'll. we're putting them down...

amc's turn: episode 1

i'm covering amc's new revolutionary war thriller "turn" at flickering myth. first episode write up here: pilot.
are you watching? what did you think?

vikings season 2, episode 6

jarl borg realizes that ragnar's not as magnanimous as he seems...you know, after killing ragnar's village while he was away and chasing his family into the wilderness. what's not to forgive? read about unforgiven over at flickering myth.

sunshine shots

Just a few snapshots from last week around Katy. Sunshine and 70s.  Doing my best to wear them out before bed!