Gooseberried

Touched, in all the right ways

Quite possibly one of the best comments I've ever gotten:

first, LOVE the new (ish) design. big improvements, girl.

second, your post reminds me a lot of a book i just finished, 'fifth business' by robertson davies. in theater, 'fifth business' is the odd man out, the character to whom nothing in particular happens, but who plays an important role in the lives of the main characters. there is always a hero and a heroine, and a male and female counterpart to the hero and heroine (often a villian, or supporting character). and the fifth business usually plays the role of friend or confidant to these other characters. his life is not necessarily extraordinary, but it is no less significant, as the drama would not unfold around him if he were not there.

i am sorry that you are a protagonist. but you are living life as more than just a supporting character, and that sure as hell is something.

Posted by: helena | August 21, 2008 at 02:28 PM

Wow.

Beautiful Gooseberried

Hot damn, Gooseberried!  You be lookin' fine, I must say!

Input anyone? 

I bet you're all going to say, "Um Michelle, what exactly is different?  Looks the same to me!" 

And then I'll say, "Fuck you, slut face!  I just spent four hours on this."

Just kidding!

Except about the four hours part. 

2 years

Because my life has been INSANE lately and because I'm stupid (mostly due to this reason), I totally forgot about Gooseberried's two year birthday on the 4th! 

So Happy Birthday, Gooseberried! 

And in the spirit of lateness, I just want to say that one of the best things about having this blog for two years now has been gaining and getting to know so many of my readers.  Thanks for reading y'all.  I hope you stick around for the years to come. 

Kisses. 

Finally

Listen:

I finally got settled into my new apartment thanks to the four days off I had in a row.  Ladies and Gents, I now have the Internet.  So, expect more things from me including, posts and PHOTOS!  I'll have you know I love my new place.  It's a place all for me and Bowie and NO ONE ELSE.  Those last three words are important to me. 

Like I mentioned before, I did go see an orthopedist and it seems I have iliotibial band tendinitis.  Not good.  I have to see a physical therapist for four weeks and then see how I'm doing.  That means, no running.  Well actually, yesterday I got to run a whole lap around a track.  Whoopdedoo! 

In the midst of all the craziness going on in my life, I got hired to a new job.  I start next Monday.  That means more hours (boo) but more money and better benefits.  I'm stoked!  New apartment, new job...

Things are looking up!    

Penmanship - A Useless Talent

Hello Gooseberried readers, my name is Aaron.

No, Michelle has not been abducted, nor has she grown a penis and changed her name to Aaron.

I’ve been fortunate enough to be paired up with this wonderful blogger for The Big Blog Swap. Michelle will be guest posting here and today I’ll be guest posting here… hope you don’t mind… and if you do, just deal with it!

Friday afternoon while at work, and while not really working, I was thinking about what I could write for the Gooseberried.

"What to write! What to write!"

Then I thought, "Who even really writes anymore?" Who actually writes sentences and paragraphs using pen and paper? This intense level of pondering brought me back to my childhood schooling where teachers were paid to coach the kids on how to write.

Did anyone else have a penmanship class back when they were in primary school? I grew up in the Trinidad, where our education system is fashioned under the British system, and apparently, under that system ones writing style warrants an entire class.

We had a dedicated class once per week, where the teacher would make us use these god-awful fountain pens and specially designed double-lined note books for us to practice our handwriting skills.

Now these pens may look cool and neat, but don’t let its sleek and shiny curves fool you. When you’re a 10 year old boy, in a class with bunch of other 10 year old boys, a pen such as that can be used for many other purposes… like a sword. Because it’s sturdy and metal, it was quite appropriate for stabbing your class mate in the arm purposes. Also, those fountain pens are quite messy for regular, well adjusted adults to handle, let alone, manic, off the wall 10 year olds. If you shake the pen vigorously enough, the royal blue ink would squirt out of the pen, and if your aim is good, splash nicely on your class mate’s shirt.

Could you image a room of overexcited kids wielding these weapons around for 40 minutes every week in the name of penmanship? Yes, this is what I endured. And for what? Looking back now, I realized that class was a waste of tax payers’ money. Today my writing skills are atrocious. I’m pretty sure it has not improved since the days of me being that hyper 10 year old in a penmanship class. Well… maybe a little. I probably write like a 12 yr old boy now, so there’s been some improvement.

Honestly, the only real writing I do consists of bullet points on post-its, bullet points on white boards, and bullet points on note pads so I could pretend to take notes during office meetings. I don’t ever do any writing where I have to construct sentences and paragraphs. That’s just way to much work. There’s no backspace and spell check on a real piece of paper for deity’s sake! And you know what else sucks in actually writing stuff? There’s no font style & color change. I mean, I know you can just adjust your writing to look differently and switch pens, but that’s just lame. Also, let me see any writer try to write 100 words per minute using pen and paper. That’s not happening. Plus real writing hurts my fingers after a while. L

So what’s my point? Well I’m not sure. Maybe I’m saying we should just stop teaching kids how to write since it’s a wasted talent. Instead we should give them all MacBook Airs at the age of 8. In some warped way I think that’ll make the world a better place.

Thank you all for actually reading this nonsensical post.

*Also, can we invent something for all the doctors out there so they don’t have to scribble their illegible prescriptions down on flimsy paper? I applaud those pharmacy workers for having the talent to decipher those doctoral codes.

Here are some excuses for you

Last week, 6-6's parents were in town.  They're from Massachusetts and I had never met them before because they live so far away.  6-6 invited me to meet them one afternoon for coffee and everything went spectacularly.  I really liked them!  I was nervous, first of all about meeting them and second of all, I was afraid I wouldn't like them or they wouldn't like me.  Apparently, they really liked me too because they/6-6 invited me to join them on their vacation here in Arizona three more times.  I was surprised.  I thought I would hardly see 6-6 that week because he would be with his parents.  But I was there too and it was pretty cute. 

So my point is, my posting skills have been lacking lately for this reason.  I have simply not had time to read Google reader or even update my own blog.  In fact, I've hardly even been home. 

As for now, I'm going through a mean case of writer's block.

Plus, it's my birthday tomorrow and I'm going to be busy.

So, I'll be back soon!

Love you, readers and miss you like woah.  

Real quick

So, I was tagged with a meme by my new Facebook friend, which makes us true friends now, Angela over at Angelaboration.

The rules are:

1. Write your own six word memoir.
2. Post it on your blog, with an illustration, if you like.
3. Link to the person who tagged you.
4. Tag five more blogs.
5. Leave a comment on the tagged blog to make them aware.

So, I'm not sure I'm doing this correctly, but I'll take a shot:

It's better to go without underwear.
It is more fun that way.

Har-dee-har.

I tag thee:

-iheartmacncheese
-Periodic Encounters
-Jimazoid
-Everyone loves a Boston girl
-That woman speaks eighteen languages and can't say no in any of them.

All about good bloggers 101

I really can't express how much I've appreciated 20 Something Bloggers lately.  I've always kept diaries and journals growing up and then when I got to college, I heard about these new things called blogs.  I immediately started one up over at livejournal and maintained it for several years.  I was then inspired to start my own .com and such from Dooce whom I also started reading in college.  I knew I'd never be as popular as she was, but I thought it'd be fun. 

When I first started Gooseberried, it seems like the only kinds of blogs I read were mommy/daddy/family blogs.   While these blogs are great and I still read a lot of them now, I eventually kind of got sick of reading all about this family stuff because I never really could relate to it.  For a while I was looking for some kind of online forum or something that had a list of bloggers who were without their own families just yet or even single and looking like a lot of us out there.

20 Somethings has introduced me to a lot of the types of blogs I was looking for for new reading material.  Bloggers that were single.  Bloggers that actually went out at night.  Even bloggers who were married but not having children just yet.  Honestly even if it was funny, I got pretty tired of reading about people's kids over and over.  No offense to you parents out there.  I'm crazy about my dog alone; I can't imagine what I'll be like when I have an actual kid.  I know I'll be the same way.  But for now, I wanted to read some blogs with authors I could connect with. 

To celebrate, I updated my blogroll which you can find here.  Some of the new additions:

A Parrot Head Life - I first came across Courtney's blog through my site tracker.  Neener neener, I found you.  When I was redirected for the first time my immediate thought was, why the hell is my blog listed with a bunch of rock star bloggers on her blogroll?  I felt like I should be deleted from that list immediately.  Then I was intrigued by her simple "about me" which made me laugh.  Since then, I've literally never missed a post because Courtney needs to update more!  Get on it.

The Truth Shall Set You Free - Yay, another male reader!  I think I might have five or so now.  Let's all say, woot!

Atravovi - I'm quite entertained by Liah lately.  I'm enjoying reading about the familiar college/dorm life I used to be so into.  Now, I'm old.  But I'm stayin' young with this read.  And cool name too, eh?

chasing twilight - Cute layout, cute design and awesome photos!

Chickbug - I bow down before thee.  I love this website!  It makes me ponder things I would never have thought of before.  Like the other day they had a post about 'work spouses'.  After that I realized that I have a work spouse too, which I never would have thought of before.  And Chickbug's latest stories about 'baby cane' are pretty hilarious, to say the least.

ConfusedK - Her life story is almost as complicated as mine.  She's very humble and sincere and I enjoy reading this blog a lot.

Flagstaff Daily Photo - Dustin writes his blog for the same Flagstaff Tourism website I write for which is how I came across his site.  I fell in love with it immediately because I love Flagstaff and that's all his blog is.  Plus, he's an excellent photographer.

I Think - A.K.A. Cristy.  Totally indie lovely and completely interesting.  She just got married!  Go congratulate her.

memoirs of a 'gee - Really.  Good.  Writing.

MetaAnomie - Not the typical family blog.  They live in Japan for Christ's sake.  And all I want to do is squeeze his little girl's cheeks.  So cute.

Periodic Encounters - A Flagstaff blogger like me!  Her blog furthers the evidence that bloggers who went/go to college at NAU are good writers.  Yep.

truth bombs - My abs hurt from reading this blog.  So funny, man.

So check 'em out, people, if you haven't already.

Por favor?

Survey be here.

So?

Bowie, George, their green eyes and I would like to know...

what did you think of Part 4?