Daily writing prompt

Describe something you learned in high school.

View all responses

When I was in high school, I wasn’t very popular. It had gotten better from the constant harassment I had gotten in previous grades, but I was not the student with a boyfriend ever.

It was my junior year, and of course when prom came around, I didn’t have a date. In physics class, the girls who had dates for prom were chattering non-stop about who they were going with. I knew the purpose was to show off their popularity, but it still brought me down.

Our teacher for physics was Mr. Miller, and he talked about more than physics in his class. He would impart nuggets of wisdom, calling them “Miller’s Unsubstantiated Opinion”. He had one for the girls in the class, which sobered them up. “Do you think you’re going to marry your prom date? Do you think you’re going to remember who you went to prom with in three years? Probably not. You’ll have gone on with your lives, gone to college. This might seem a big thing now, but it won’t be in a few years.

I don’t know if the popular girls had learned anything from that, but I did. My high school years, it turned out, were not going to be the be-all and end-all of my existence, the cornerstone of my memories. I could see how quickly the memory would fade. And from that moment on, the girls’ chatter didn’t bother me. This was just a moment in time, after all.

Daily writing prompt

What is your favorite restaurant?

View all responses

My favorite restaurant hasn’t existed for years. A restaurant that was simultaneously fancy and playful, quirky and upscale, Bluestem in KC was a place I had only gone to once, but wish I had gone to at least another time. By the time I had an opportunity to go again, it had closed.

I remember an amuse-bouche (a nibble of curiosity), a wonderful cheese tray, and a comforting atmosphere. I felt like I didn’t have to be someone else to enjoy the place, I didn’t have to play dress-up in a black dress or a red suit, and I could enjoy imaginative and upscale food without impersonating someone sophisticated. I appreciate great food, but not so much pretension.

Another favorite restaurant which is still open would be Waldo Thai, again in Kansas City. They do Thai and Thai fusion food. Their dishes are authentic and show the best of Thai food: the melodious use of spices and citrus, rich coconut milk and sweet soy; all the things I remember from cooking at a Thai cafeteria in the late 80s. Much more sophisticated, though. I would like to work my way through their drink list.

A restaurant doesn’t have to be fancy to capture my fancy. I enjoy going to Swagat north of KC, which is a very solid Indian restaurant with an excellent buffet. I especially love their goat curry, although that is always served bone-in, so it takes some care to eat. If it were closer, I would try to eat there weekly. There’s also Raku in my town, where I go for their relatively non-brothy ramen, which has become one of my favorites.

I am always looking for new favorites. If I were to visit you, what restaurant would you recommend?

Daily writing prompt

What place in the world do you never want to visit? Why?

View all responses

The place in the world I never want to visit is Dallas, TX. From everything I’ve heard, it’s big, excessive, and ugly. And rich. With cowboy culture, which does nothing for me.

The entire state is offputting to me — “Everything’s bigger in Texas? Never mind.” I don’t like rugged individualism, bravado, or bluster. San Antonio was nice, however; I especially liked the Riverwalk. I’ve been to Houston, which seemed generic with a lot of medical facilities.

I enjoy visiting places with lots of coffeehouses, eclectic people, great ethnic restaurants, an arts scene, a lot of diversity, a chill attitude. Dallas at least has the arts scene, and Tex-Mex restaurants (I’m not motivated by Tex-Mex). But it’s not enough.

Finally, there’s the politics. Texas is as deep red, Trump-loving as a state could get. I can’t deal with that these days, with Trump tearing down the country out of his usual sense of spite.

I don’t see myself visiting Dallas anytime soon.

Daily writing prompt

Where do you see yourself in 10 years?

View all responses

When someone asks me what I want to be, my flip answer is “retired, published, and a cat.” I have already been published, if self-publishing counts. Realistically, I will never be a cat, although a lifetime lounging around and not paying the mortgage appeals to me. That leaves retirement.

I should be retired by 10 years from now. I’m 61, and I could retire now if I wanted. I could have retired two years ago, but I wasn’t ready. I plan to retire at 67, so by 10 years from now, I should be retired.

What will retirement look like for me? Probably writing and gardening, like life looks now, only without the classes, meetings, and internship visits. A lot calmer. I look forward to time that is mine.

Daily writing prompt

What Olympic sports do you enjoy watching the most?

View all responses

I’ve always liked to watch ice skating. It has rhythm and flow and moves that thrill. This year, however, I have discovered Ilia Malinin, the world champion at the moment (although not Olympian), and he’s a world apart.

Never mind the quadruples that only he can do. Those are nice. But what about that backflip? That looks like a great way to kill oneself, but he nails it every time. I don’t know how he does it and makes it look easy. Not a single error that I could see.

I’ve watched his short routine six times so far. I’m obsessed. It makes me want to watch more ice skating, which I realize I haven’t done in a while.

Daily writing prompt

Describe one positive change you have made in your life.

View all responses

The most positive change I made in my life in the past 15 years was getting on psychiatric medication. It’s not as easy a decision as one might think, even though I was in the middle of a mixed episode, which resulted in suicidal ideation in the middle of a hypomania. It was bipolar II, something I had lived with all my life, and which I thought I had managed well.

I had not managed it well, I discovered when I went on medication. Despite the fear that it would take away my creativity (a fear of many people with bipolar disorder), it gave me the discipline to sit and write. Rather than take away my personality (another common fear), it stabilized me to where I had a personality rather than mood swings. I looked back on various parts of my life where I made risky decisions, and realized that those decisions weren’t me, they were the disorder steering me toward stupid actions.

I wish I had found the medication sooner. It takes the average person with bipolar seven diagnoses before bipolar is breached. Mine was considered dysthymia (mild depression), then double depression later. The hypomania was not diagnosed because it looked like mood swings rather than a constant mania.

The medication doesn’t fix everything. I have a precise sleep schedule that keeps me on an even keel. I take care of myself and stay away from highly stressful situations when possible. I have been doing this for years and have only had minor outbreaks of hypomania or dysthymia; medication tweaks keep those in control.

I like the decision I made to go on medication. It’s made all my other good decisions possible.

Daily writing prompt

What’s the most fun way to exercise?

View all responses

There is no fun way to exercise, according to my overweight, 60-year-old body. Unless typing is a calisthenic exercise, I doubt I can call any exercise fun. And yet …

I think fun exercises are ones where you don’t feel like you’re exercising. Walking is a great exercise if you have some place to go, like an ice cream parlor. Or if you’re bird watching. Someone is going to tell me that walking slow is not vigorous enough to be exercise, which means they want to turn walking into a less than pleasant exercise.

Playing sports is a fun way to exercise if you like competition and mastery and you’re good enough to not be a liability for a team. I am slow and painfully uncoordinated, and have not found the competitive sport that will not shame me. People get hurt when I play softball. I can’t even play miniature golf.

Gardening is fun exercise, if you have fun pulling weeds. I don’t. I garden because there’s food at the end of the process, and I plant unusual herbs just for the joy of tasting something most people don’t use fresh. The exercise is just an unpleasant side effect of bending down repeatedly to pull weeds.

My favorite exercise, in other words, is accidental.

Daily writing prompt

What animals make the best/worst pets?

View all responses

I once visited a place called the Exotic Feline Rescue Center in Crown Point, Indiana. The man there rescued big cats like lions and tigers, previously owned by people. The owner kept them behind chain-link fences, where they had enough room to roam in their pens. If it weren’t for people who would adopt cubs, only to find out that once they got big, they were not cute, but dangerous, the place would not exist.

Big cats think they’re playing, but they’re far too rough for a human to withstand. A friend of mine got knocked down by a half-grown lion who stole her hair bunchie and started playing with it. She had strained muscles down her back from the tackle. She was lucky it was only that. Sometimes big cats turn on their owners.

I don’t know why anyone would keep a big cat except to invoke fear and admiration. To have a status symbol. But the cat can strike back, cost a lot of money for their carnivore diet, and propose a big problem if one wants to get rid of it. I don’t think anyone should keep a big cat.

Daily writing prompt

If you could be a character from a book or film, who would you be? Why?

View all responses

If I could be a character from a book, I would be Mary Russell from The Beekeeper’s Apprentice by Laurie R King. The beekeeper, in this case, is a retired Sherlock Holmes, and Mary becomes his apprentice. She is a renaissance woman — she is a student at Oxford in chemistry and religion, she takes up acting and other escapades, and she helps Mr. Holmes solve crimes, often in disguise. I would love to be the sort of person to attract the attention of Sherlock Holmes.

The best compliment I have ever gotten is from my friend Celia, who told me once that I reminded her of Mary Russell. Wow, how could I live up to that? I wasn’t an adventurer, but I had an encyclopedic knowledge of a lot of disparate things. Not deep, per se, but wide.

I don’t think I could live up to Mary Russell, but I can sure fantasize about being her.