Reactions to 2nd set of essays

Mike and Erin

“Biography of a Dress”

I found it interesting that my reaction to the story and Erin’s reaction to the story were so different. I had a really hard time getting into this story. It took me forever to read and at the end I was left wondering why I had read it.  Just not one of my favorites.  

“Worlds Collide”

The author tells us what he loves about airports. We get to experience it through his eyes. I have not given a lot of thought to airports. I have been in a few but was always focused on getting where I was going and not on what was happening around me.

“Notes Toward Identifying a Body”

This was not at all what I expected when I heard the title. I was looking forward to a forensic account of identifying a dead body. The back and forth style is interesting, the piece fills like prose poetry.

Jessalyn and Jillian

“The Knife” 

The religious experience that the surgeon has in the operating room is different than the God complex that some surgeon have. He does not feel that he controls life and death, just that he aids it. He does not presume that he will make no mistakes, he is nervous about performing and wants to make sure that things go right.  

“Three Pokes” 

This thought path of a girl growing up is very relatable. The notion that the idea of something is better than the reality of it is very common.

“Cat-like” 

The use of the cats in different times of the writer’s life is a very interesting way to mark the passage of time. The fact that an animal is a running theme in someone’s life is not something that you think of normally.

Karla and Courtney

“Living like Weasels”

This story have simple, in the moment descriptions. The writer is taking inspiration from the animal. I personally have always been inspired by my first dog. She came to us from the pound on Christmas Day. She grew with us and protected us. On the Fourth of July she would have to be put on a chain or inside because she thought the fireworks would hurt us so she tried to put them out with her paws and her mouth. When our other dogs had puppies, she helped take care of them. She knew when one of us was feeling sad and would try to cheer us up. I have always wanted to be like her.

“Difficult Decisions”

This story of a day in the life of a veterinarian is eye opening. You get a glimpse into her thoughts and feelings while she is taking care of other people’s animals. You would not know that she paid for several procedures for others out of her own pocket if she did not let us know. You would just wonder why she did not have the compassion to help out just this one person and animal. You never know what someone else is thinking and going through.

“Children in the Woods”

This is a story about what disappears or changes as you age. Personally, my career goals have changed a lot from when I was a child. I wanted to be a nurse. I wanted to help people. I enjoyed watching them succeed. That goal changed when I realized just how dreadful I was at all things science related. Then I wanted to own my own business or manage a large company. I wanted to be someone important, someone big. Now I am not sure what I want to do, but I know that it is not either of these things. 

Chapter 9 Why are Children Mean to Each Other?

Some children are modeling what they see at home. Do they have siblings who tease and pick on them? Are they bullied at home? Or, at school? And now they are taking it out on another child because they feel like they cannot do anything about their own situation?

Sometimes physical actions are a result of emotional turmoil. These reactions can manifest as being mean to other children, becoming bossy, or becoming withdrawn or needy. They may see a parent favoring a sibling and therefore take out their agitation on that sibling. Some children are treated poorly by an adult and have learned that this is an appropriate way to act. If a parent yells and screams at you, there is a good chance that you will yell and scream at someone else. This learned behavior can take a very long time to change especially if the behavior of the adult does not change.

A spoiled child may believe that he or she is entitled to something that another child has and will take it from the other child. This could be because they were never taught to share, or because the adults did not set boundaries. If an adult allows a child to play with anything they want and take things from the adult to play with, a child will believe that this is the way to act with other children. If you allow a child to take your phone and play with it, you cannot be surprised when they then take someone else’s toy to play with. If you allow a child to your hair, you cannot be surprised when they pull grandpa’s beard. There needs to be boundaries and rules set for children to become productive adults.

They need to learn that life is not always equal. Equal does not mean Fair. While it may be equal to give two children the same toy, it is not necessarily fair. If I give one niece a doll and another a toy truck, it is not equal. However it is fair because each got something that they will enjoy. The one with the truck might not like dolls and vice versa. This is something that takes a lot of time and patience to teach.

Chapter 5. A Holiday with Us

A holiday at grandma’s house always included soup, either vegetable or rival. Then there was either turkey or ham, with mashed potatoes, gravy, corn, and pies. One thing you may not have heard of is Halva, which Uncle Leonard said was made of “horse milk and sawdust”. You either loved it or hated it there was no in between. I loved it, especially the marbled kind. Another thing you should know is that if you ever left a family gathering and were hungry, it was your own fault.

We love to cook. Everyone would have an assigned dish to make, but rarely did someone come in with just one dish. There was always some recipe that they just had to tryout. This was a good thing, not just because it meant we got to try new things, but also because there was rarely only the family there. The kids ate first, when you stopped being a kid was arbitrary, but generally it was before age 12. Then the men, then the women. It was not sexist, it was necessary.

Everyone was welcome at Grandma’s table, boyfriends, girlfriends, just friends, and relatives of all kinds. Even though she was my mother’s mother, I would bet that almost everyone of my father’s side of the family ate there at some point. One year my cousin, Carsa, brought her friend and his two cousins. They were made to feel welcome.

            The acceptance was not just of different people. When someone found out they had an allergy or medical condition, accommodations were made.  Smoking was limited to the deck after one of the kids was diagnosed with an allergy. When a food allergy was discovered, special pains were taken to either keep the allergen out, or to let the person know that it was in the dish and to stay away.

After dinner it was time for games. There is always at least one game of Pinochle going on, most of us learned to play by age 12. But there are dice games and matching games and marble games. There was also the stereotypical scene in the living room of the men sprawled out watching some kind of sporting event.

The day did not end with dinner. Most of us are there long enough to eat supper as well, warming up leftovers and taking requests from whoever says “Hey, can you grab me some too”. They holiday might not end until it is creeping close to midnight, when rides are offered to those who imbibed a bit too freely in holiday cheer.

Chapter 8, List of topics for literary journalism

1. Celiac
2. Diabetes
3. Pitbull Bans
4. New Library
5. Day in the life of ....
6. Struggles of a writer
7. Who are the elementary schools in Aberdeen named after and why?
8. Toys my grandparents played with
9. The life of an heirloom
10. The history of Amsden Lake

Ch. 4, I shocked the teacher.

A quiet girl sits in a corner desk; somewhat isolated from her classmates, not because she is in trouble, or doesn’t like them. She just likes her space. Studiously doing her work, not too terribly concerned with what everyone else is doing that causes the buzz of chatter around her. Then the teacher walks in, late as usual. The girl’s thoughts immediately fly to the question. It could come today the triggering event happened yesterday afternoon.

There was always a question. “Are you related to…” insert the name of a person with your last name. It might be a well known gangster, or, the man on the news last night who killed is girlfriend. Of course it was never someone you would want to be related to. “Did you see the (cow, sheep, etc.) that is caught under the bridge?” Again, it was never something good.

But today it was the worst question of them all. The one that set this sophomore’s teeth on edge. It was the dreaded, “I saw you riding around in a black Malibu yesterday after school with. You were with some older guy with long hair and a leather jacket. Who was that?” It was said with an air of superiority and mock concern. This was not the first time the question had been asked, and the answer never changed. But this time, she was tired of it, she was determined that this would be the last time he asked that insulting, slightly creepy, question.

With a deadpan expression, she answered, “It was my boyfriend. Actually, fiancé, we are getting married this week because he has to serve time and we want to be married before the baby comes.” The entire room went silent. Jaws dropped, students smirked, and the teacher’s eyes got huge. After a couple of seconds to revel in the shock, the girl stated, “I have told you before. That is my brother’s car and he was driving. We drove in to pick up something I needed to make supper.” At this the rest of the class grinned and tried to hold back laughter. They all knew her brother; he was one of the people that they looked up to in elementary school. She liked to think they were impressed with her hutzpa in putting the teacher in his place.

In case you are wondering, it did work. The question was never again asked in the classroom or by that teacher. But the answer did spawn rumors when the girl switched schools the next year. She visited for Homecoming and found out she was now a divorced mother of two, according to the rumor mill. And yes, this girl was me.

The Front Porch

The brick red color of the porch was familiar, but, this time of year it was always different. Looking up there were black bats, hand-made cloth ghosts, styrofoam filled jack o' lanterns, and huge black spiders with long creepy legs. One side of the space was filled with leaves freshly raked from the yard. Hiding among the yellow and brown and auburn shapes hid rats with glowing green eyes, dismembered body parts seemed to reach out from under the floorboards. Sitting on their child sized chairs were "Pete and Willy", the dolls Grandma made out of old pantyhose and dressed in costume for the season, a devil with his red face and horns and a clown with rainbow hair and scary eyes. On the other side of the porch, jack o' lanterns sat in a row under the picture window. At a patio table covered in a black table cloth and animal organs a werewolf, a witch, a large ghost and a vampire sit playing pinochle.

It was like this every year, with some variation of course. Then the unthinkable happened, Grandma passed away and her daughter moved into the house. The following October trick-or-treaters came to the porch. If you didn't know any better, you would think the same person had decorated. Things have evolved over the years, but every Halloween that brick red porch is dressed for the season.

The Kitchen Wall

We moved when I was 8 years old, just going into 2nd grade. We went from living in town to a house in the middle of nowhere. From a class of 30 to a class of 10. From walking to school to riding a bus. From going to Grandma's after school to coming home to just my older siblings. Big changes were happening and I was terrified.

The first thing in my new house to catch my attention was the kitchen wall. At a glance it was a spectrum of greens and blues, but, there was more to it. I had never seen anything like it. There was a forest on that wall, a waterfall and cliffs, flowers and trees all on the wall. The longer I looked at it the more I saw. There were so many different types of plants in shades of green all living together on my wall. Sitting at that seventies' style table with its teal and metal chairs, getting ready for my first day in a new school, it was the perfect place to daydream. Living in that forest, just hidden from view, were fairies and leprechauns and all kinds of other magical creatures. Every time I looked at the forest I found something new and different. A new bird flying high above eye level, almost to the ceiling. Or, a new bug waiting to jump off one leaf and onto another. Or, a new plant with flowers just about to burst. There was anticipation in every section of that forest, every creature and plant was on the cusp of a big change. They didn't look terrified, they looked excited, ready for a new start. Maybe a new home wasn't as scary as I thought it would be.