I wanted to see if I could write a book in four days in June, like Charlotte Perkins when she wrote her novella, The Yellow Wallpaper, during a heat wave on June 6 and 7 in the late 19th Century sitting in a small bungalow on the corner of Orange Grove near Colorado Blvd in Pasadena, very close to where Rose Parade takes place annually on New Years Day.
She woke up, went out on her porch, sat down with a notepad and started writing a novella that changed how women were treated for postpartum depression.
The world was never the same.
She didn’t want for any other women to suffer as she had, so she invested 48 hours in the drafting of the story and then a bit more time on editing.
The bulk of the work happened when? On two days in June. Her work on those two days impacted my life in a big way more than one hundred years later.
I wanted to do that, too.
I wanted to create something meaningful in two days in June. Bakersfield is always a heat wave in June, so I figured why not take the inspiration of an ordinary, not-yet-super-successful woman and create something of my own.
I wouldn’t be writing a gothic story.
I would be writing non-fiction.
I might not impact the minds of great physicians, but I might impact the mind and heart of one person.
"If I pulled it off, my life would change too through changing another person's life", I thought.
Even in the attempting, the devotion to it, following through and seeing it to completion – I would have a win under my notebook.
The one thing I could’ve definitely benefited from in my two day process was other people engaging in the same activity with me: devoting themselves to creating something publishable in 2 days.
Which leads us to you.
What is calling to be created through you?
What is calling to be created through you that you might accomplish in two days?
I am looking for several energized, passionate writers who have the hearts desire to make a difference in the world now, who realize that they either don’t want anyone else to go through what they’ve gone through or
What about you?
What have you experienced you never want anyone else to experience?
What story is inside you, waiting to be told?
What is your deepest passion – something you are unable to hold inside anymore?
Would you be more likely to get it written quickly if you had the support of others doing the same thing?
In our 2 Days in June Writing PlayShop Marathon we will:
Kick off with a Webinar at 6 am Pacific Time filled with inspiring can-do content, prompts and more.
Have spontaneous live broadcasts via our private, interactive facebook group where you may “hang out” for support for the week before the event until the week after the event.
Meet 3 more times on Day 1 and Day 2 with a wrap up Celebration at 9 PM Pacific time on Day 2.
A complete “How-to” guide to put that book into form once it is complete for the “After.”
Follow up opportunities within the Two Days in June community to continue to empower you as a writer and active creator/maker/artist/world-changer.
What other bonuses will be offered? Quite frankly I am sure there will be many and right now, I don't know. I am a spontaneously improvisational in the moment creator wacky enough to write a life and world changing book in two days.
You may be wondering, "What does Julie mean by (Re)Write Your Life? What's up with that "Re" in parenthesis?
Here's the thing: I love words and I love coming alongside other people who want to write or have written or want to write better and help them to feel as much love for words as I do.
It just so happens I am having a love affair with the Prefix “RE” today. Look again at all the lovely things "Re" is able to do.
Replenish. Rejuvenate. Restore.
Again and again and again I am reminded of the vitality I feel when I meander back to investigate, playfully with whatever it is that calls me. I prefer not to rush through an experience just to mark something “done”, I prefer layers of texture, a surprising flavor after I’ve held something in my mouth for a moment, a delightful end note of a piano player’s warm ups.
My laughter gurgles up from someplace deep within me.
Replenishing. Rejuvenating. Restoring.
It isn’t a surface experience, a slight “tee hee” it is a lusty, vibrato filled and at times even silent laughter – laughter that is a rejoicing song of delight.
As I write this morning my face is covered in a smile.
I imagine it a kaleidoscope over my face, a smile virus, a touch of the “where did this happiness come from?” flu.
I reminisce with my words, I re-engage with this exact moment, I celebrate with gratitude all that is, all that was and what is to be.
My fingers stop tapping on the keys as I take another look, I pause to review, I allow myself to fully feel my pleasure in this five minute dance with the prefix “re”. I could do this over and over and over again. Re. Re. Re.
Replenished. Rejuvenated. Restored.
Let's take it a bit deeper.
What would it be like if we had an eraser across our life in selected places to create a revision of our opinion, if not of the experience itself.
You know, use it to erase away all that gunk and grime and excess and fill in with bright purple rather than grey? What would happen if we could turn on a "life diffuser" flowing with with lavender and cedar rather than dust and grit we often experience?
I’ve been a writer for almost my entire life: I started writing before I was literate. I would dictate to my mother who would dutifully write my words in straight letters so I could copy them, not knowing truly how to translate but knowing this thing called language was potent.
I’ve (re)written my life several times and sometimes think my life would be an intriguing lifetime movie (if it wasn't my life!)
The last seven or so years have been amongst my most challenging (Re)visions of all.
On a day to day basis I seem pretty thrilled with my life. I veer to the side of carefree, I create my own schedule for the most part. I spend adequate time with friends and enjoy relative freedom.
And then there are the days I hang my head, uninspired and unwilling to investigate where I really want to go next because I can’t even begin to place my finger remotely near a map much less discern a compelling destination.
Most people see me as an ever smiling, patient, “zen” person who listens with her whole heart, carries a notebook everywhere, and takes wacky photos of salt shakers and flowers in the gutter and the occasional long dead writer’s grave.
Sure – that is who I am and there is so much more to who I am, just like there is so much more to who you are.
This is exactly why I have created this new program. I’ve been down this path and stuck it out. I’ve walked and fallen, skipped and stumbled, crawled and skinned my knees and found myself flat on my face in tears willing myself just to stay there. Unmoving.
In a world when most people choose to ignore the times that appear less successful or satisfying than others, here you will find a creative collaboration that takes the facts of your strongest emotions and experience and honors what you have lived.
In The Time to (Re)Write Your Life is Now, we will use all the stuff of your life of it as a means to become better writers. In doing so, we will also come to enjoy our lives more as creative people and just fellow life adventurers.
Here is some of what we’ll be exploring together -
Session One: April 20, 2016
(Re)Write: the narration of your past, those spaces where we get stuck, spots of unforgiveness and the “big” stories we can’t seem to get past.
Session Two and Three: April 27, 2016 & May 4, 2016
(Re)Write your “Guidelines for Living” based on who we know we are instead of who other people – or our past beliefs – have told us we were.
Session Four & Five : May 11 & 18, 2016
(Re)Write: our present, so our reality is based on what is – the beauty within it, the textures and scents and richness of our life right now. The truth within the facts, becoming comfortable with the tension we experience in our everyday so that we can fall in love with what is right in front of us.
Session Six and Seven: May 25, 2016 and June 1, 2016
(Re)Write: What is to Be – our dreams, our hopes, our plans, our goals. Once we have ReWritten the “Guidelines for Living” and started to live accordingly, everything will shift in a positive, more passionate and purposeful direction. It may feel wobbly at first and thankfully, we are in it together in a Creative Community engaged in the same adventure.
How will this help you to be a better writer?
I am primarily a life writer who also occasionally writes fiction or a play or poetry. My life writing fuels everything else, even the characters I portray as an actor on stage. All of it comes from inside me, from these eyes and ears and fingertips experiencing the world.
As you take the time to (Re)Write Your Life, you will also be ReWriting your next (or current) Writing Adventure.
Basic Details:
We begin to (Re)Write Our Lives together on Wednesday, April 20, 2016 at 11 AM Pacific Time
via Live Coaching – Writing Webinar.
We will meet for 7 weeks with our final Live Coaching - Writing Webinar on Wednesday, June 1, 2016 at 11 AM Pacific Time.
In addition to our live Coaching – Writing Sessions you will have weekly fieldwork, videos, audio exercises and access to me, Julie Jordan Scott, via Skype, Instant Messaging and across social media platforms. You will become my inner circle.
You are reading this, my “beta” announcement because you are one of my beloveds or because you know one of my beloveds. This isn’t polished and it isn’t precise and it isn’t “hyped up” with a carefully crafted “buy now” call to register.
This is an invitation from my heart to yours. An option to (Re)Write what isn’t working so you may live into the future you’ve hoped to experience for a long, long time – with words flowing and the cradle of creativity comforting you, inspiring you and bringing to life projects that have rested within you for far too long.
This is an invitation from my heart to yours to go deeper with your writing, to go wider with your self expression, to allow yourself the space to write again in a phenomenal community of others where you show up, you express yourself and afterwards you feel remarkably better, more energized, and ready to inject your soul into whatever writing project is in front of you be it a sales letter or a tweet or a novel.
The world is waiting for your words. The time to write them is now.
Join me – starting April 20, 2016 –
for my inner circle in this first session the registration fee is only $77. This special low registration fee is only available through April 15, 2016 so act now for your best value.
The Time to Begin (Re)Writing Your Life, becoming a better writer, and
starting to live as you’ve meant to be is now.
What would this transformation be worth to you?
Reserve your space by signing up via the PayPal Registration Page.
If you have questions, please drop me a note (find me at [email protected]) or call/text me now at 661.444.2735
Julie Jordan Scott inspires people to experience artistic rebirth via her programs, playshops, books, performances and simply being herself out in the world. She is a writer, creative life coach, speaker, performance poet, Mommy-extraordinaire and mixed-media artist whose Writing Camps and Writing Playgrounds permanently transform people's creative lives.
Newly Unveiled - The Time to ReWrite Your Life is Now: What Was, What Is, What is To Be.... a New Writing & Soul Growth Coaching Program to expand your creativity and improve your life experience.
To contact Julie to schedule a Writing or Creative Life Coaching Session, call or text her at .
Check out the links below to follow her on a bunch of different social media channels, especially if you find the idea of a Word-Love Party bus particularly enticing.
Please stay in touch: Follow me on Twitter: and on Periscope for writing prompt, tips and inspiration daily created to ignite your artistic rebirth.
Feel peaceful, restored and ready for a powerfully expressed new year.
Eliminate attachment to the events and circumstances in 2014 so you may start 2015 with a bright, clear canvas.
Be joyful due to creating a vision that serves you and your life, your business or career, your family and relationships.
How will we do this?
Reflective Writing exercises to say goodbye to 2014 with a loving, compassionate heart.
Writing time to "say goodbye" and "thank you!" (yes, really!) to what was lost and didn't happen, promises broken and the unfinished and undone.
Celebrate the best AND the rest.
Guided Meditation/Visualizations to open your heart and your life to the promise of 2015.
And surprises along the way!
Where: JuJu Lounge 3819 Panorama Dr
When: Saturday, December 20 - 1:00 pm to 4:00 pm
Facilitated by Creative Life Coach Julie Jordan Scott
Registration fee: $14 for this session or $35 for a weekend pass
This event is a part of the Solstice Weekend Celebration at the JuJuLounge. Read the details here. We are offering a complete array of experiences in moving meditation, yoga, writing sessions and a New Moon/Solstice Eve Intention Circle. You may experience one of the events or all of the events. You are welcome for any and all!
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Julie Jordan Scott is a writer, creative life coach, speaker, performance poet, Mommy-extraordinaire and mixed-media artist whose Writing Camps and Writing Playgrounds permanently transform people's creative lives. Watch for the announcement of new programs coming Fall and Winter, 2014 and beyond.
Check out the links below to follow her on a bunch of different social media channels, especially if you find the idea of a Word-Love Party bus particularly enticing.
1. Writing is effortless when I am alive to the world.
2. Putting my pencil to the page creates an automatic increase. Life expands in the direction of my word-love flow.
3. Writing – and life – is grand.
Affirming us of this:
We expand our witness of the world through our words. We see the ordinary as extraordinary as I communicate with ease and grace. Our eyes – our vision – the sights that we see and describe with my words – open to the light.
Quote wisdom from Jonathan Swift:
"Vision is the art of seeing what is invisible to others."
We begin today with a story from a moment in my life - when I was able to see something which had been invisible for me right in the path yet which came into sight one incredible morning - a morningwhich seemed ordinary to everyone else, yet wasn't coated at all in "the mundane" - it wascoated in majesty, in wonder, in divine connection.
Listen as you read the story. I know this sounds contrary. Trust me here. As you read, listen with your internal ears and your heart. Perhaps it will be easier for you if you read aloud to yourself.
It is as easy as intending to listen as you read. As I said, trust the process -
At one point you will be called to "see" the scene I describe unfold as if you were there as well. There is a reason there aren't photos accompanying this post. You will create with your heart's vision, perhaps in memory or in future seeing.
My heart and my vision expanded that day and it has never been the same ever since.
I hung up the phone after my third consecutive life coaching session. Three people across the world whose lives were forever changed by a conversation. Questions, reflections, storytelling, new awarenesses. If you add me - the coach - four lives across the world forever changed.
I didn't know it, but I was about to see with fresh lenses.
Silence embraced me, my heart charged with humble awakening and pure bliss.
What an amazing privilege to partner with other human beings through my life work.
My heart was soaring and my breath needed space. The walls of my home couldn't hold the energy I was feeling.
The sun beckoned me outside.
I stood in front of my completely ordinary Bakersfield house and inhaled deeply. The sun rays completely washed over my face as my head tilted towards heaven to greet them. My arms lifted towards the sky without any effort or thought.
Every cell of my body agreed and rang out, "Yes! Yes!"
My feet moved without my consent, taking me for a mid morning walk. I smiled contentedly as I followed, not concerned with where I was going or anything beyond each time my feet lifted off the ground and re-connected with the Earth.
Around the corner waited a magnificent tree whose friendship was new to me. From its appearance, it had been on the planet for several generations. I have been in residence less than a couple hundred yards from it for more than a decade yet it was only days ago that we had been "properly introduced".
It had called to me during a walk with my then eighteen-month-old-son, Samuel.
Since our "formal acquaintance", I would nod to the tree as I pulled out of my driveway in the mornings. It towered over all the other neighborhood trees. As I walked out my back door I looked to the North. There it was again in all its evergreen glory towering over the homes and other trees.
On this particular morning, its lessons would continue with strength unlike anything I had ever experienced.
It is time to witness the tree - to bring it to vivid reality for each of us.
Read the words first and then listen to the words and bring them to vivid life in your mind's eye. This is YOUR vision, remember - so it doesn't matter how close yours comes to "my" tree, what is important is that you tap into your vision deeply.
The tree has a massive trunk which splits into four separate sections. Each section is as large as any of the other neighborhood trees. It has one fork and then two smaller forks in its trunk branchings.
I was looking up at its majesty when I saw something new.
I stopped in my tracks right in the middle of the street.
Paused.
Halted.
The jaw dropping silence was so deep I could feel and hear the reverberations of my heart as it clattered in my chest.
I tilted my head to an angle when I saw it.
The tree took a sunbeam into its branching and made the light three dimensional. It held the light as surely as I have ever held anything in my hands.
I had seen this three dimensional light before though only in photographs. Usually the intimacy of such photographs would bring tears to my eyes.
In this moment my new friend, this magnificent tree, held the ray of light in place especially and only for me.
I moved to a different angle and the light disappeared. I went backwards and it vaporized.
I crouched down and it was simply no more.
I stood still, in the pulse of the moment, and the ray of light held me.
With shaking arms, I lifted my hands so that they would mimic the "V" shape of the branching. I wanted to physically connect with the beam of light.
With my hands lifted and my head back, I felt a surge of love. A receiving of energy. An awareness of standing squarely in place where truth and love and wholeness is conceived.
One of my feet involuntarily moved back to maintain balance as I became unsteadied by the grandeur of the moment as I bowed my head in amazed humility. My hands came down from their V with my thumbs resting at a spot that pointed to my heart. My eyes closed as a silent tear leaked from my eye.
Standing in the middle of the street, my chin rested almost on the tips of my fingers as I held the ancient pose which proclaims as it whispers, "Namaste".
Prepare to Write:
In today's lesson, the vision of light in a tree beams through the words to touch your heart.
Consider for a moment a vision of light in your life.
Energetically speak "Light" into your heart space.
"Light"
"Light"
Breathe the light into your heartspace, feeling it fill your body.
"Light"
"Light"
Now begin to write, describing your light in brilliant, everlasting detail.
If your writing begins to slow down, simply re-invoke the movement by speaking. "I see" once again and go a little bit deeper each time.
Integration:Our writing today will open your consciousness to see light - in doing so, we will automatically be more aware of light. To continue to take this more deeply - and integrate it into your everyday thinking - you will need to practice for a bit.
Write the light, being very specific. Allow it to fill your heart and soul.
Take your time. If you have setbacks, know they are simply your teachers.
Step into light. Write.
= = = = =
Writing Playground is held regularly in venues across Bakersfield, California and throughout the world via webinars, teleclasses and in-person retreats and trainings. Contact Julie Jordan Scott at 661.444.275 or at [email protected] for more information about bringing Writing Playground and Writing Camp to your area soon.
Julie Jordan Scott is a writer, creative life coach, speaker, performance poet, Mommy-extraordinaire and mixed-media artist whose Writing Camps and Writing Playgrounds permanently transform people's creative lives. Watch for the announcement of new programs coming Fall and Winter, 2014 and beyond.
Check out the links below to follow her on a bunch of different social media channels, especially if you find the idea of a Word-Love Party bus particularly enticing.
Experience writing from a fresh perspective through this interactive, engaging writing “playshop”. This is high intensity fun where the only rule is “just write and know it is just right.” Spirited activities combined with times of inspired writing create an afternoon that eliminates your writing blocks and sets your words free.
Join a community of passionate, creative people who share your love of writing coupled with joyful inspiration. Let go of "getting it right" and "fear of red slash marks over a pristine white page" and allow yourself to meet writing in a new way.
What is included?
A variety of writing warm-ups, prompts, suggestions and writing seed starters.
Engaging activities
Surprises (a-ha moments are an added bonus at Writing Playground.)
Incredible people including a new friend or two or more
A fabulous new space here in Bakersfield
Laughter
Memories
Where:nXAnnex Literary Arts Colony & Art Center
3819 River Blvd, Bakersfield 93305
When: 1:30 pm to 4:00 pm
How much will this cost? In October and November, we are offering "Pay What You Will" pricing. You choose what you would like to pay (and in some cases, are able to pay.)
You may pre-pay via paypal or simply choose to pay at the door.
To register and or have your questions answered: Call or text Julie Jordan Scott at 661.444.2735 or send an email to juliejordanscott at gmail.com
This is a word cloud of my Butt in Seat Poem, #1 for the day
It has been a challenging day for my writing muse.
I have not been the kindest companion to her.
I finally got into a writing groove but what came was
poetry, not prose.
What came was silly and then historical and not like my
usual at all.
I think it may have been thanks to the post it notes,
whispering to my subconscious.
“poetry, tags, convert pages to the Writing Camp blog.”
My subconscious has delivered. I cannot remember the last
time I wrote two poems in a day. This is
different. This is welcome. This is a pleasure.
I worked on a couple of my newest mixed media pieces today.
I came up with a new strategy for one of them.
I created and completed and have more art simmering on my work
table.
Post it Note To-Do List Delivers: Poetry and More Poetry
The prose I have written is a grand total of about four
hundred words that felt like they took four hundred years to arrive on the page.
There is always tonight to write AND whatever words tumble
upon the page is fine, too. Normally I easily string 1,000 words along in under
an hour, but today whatever words percolate is fine by me.
Even when the words sound and feel ridiculous, any words are
better than no words.
One of the joys of Writing Camp is we take time to contemplate as we create. It isn't just about pushing words off our pencils, it is also about sitting with whatever surrounds us as we begin to honor our creativity.
Please feel free to copy the photo and use it to fire up your thoughts - and perhaps words - on the subject of Light and Dark.
Julie Jordan Scott is the founder of Writing & Creativity Camps. Soon she will be announcing programs for Spring and Summer 2013. Come back here to find out more and/or like us on facebook:
I love books. I love illustration. I love children’s books.
I love dictionaries. I am deeply and profoundly in love with words.
It seems natural I would choose to make art that ties all
these loves together.
I put these two components: a dictionary page from a 1948
New Century Dictionary and an illustration from Peppermint Fences, a textbook
from the 1960’s.
1948 New Century Dictionary + 1960's Children's textbook - Peppermint Fence
Everything came when my friend gave me some picture frames
to use. It was a simple matter of cutting images and finding a dictionary image
that felt fitting for the illustration.
The outcome is so loveable!
Close up of the Collage Art - They just don't make dictionaries like they used to!
Here are two images so you can get a clear picture of the
size of the finished work. I like it so much, I am actively collecting other
images and considering what simple paper art I can make for free later. I had
the books on hand – I think they cost $3 for the entire books but they have so
many pages to use, if I had to put a page by page cost along with a squirt of
Super 77 and the free picture frame?
I would say this project cost me less than pennies.
The pleasure from it is… abundant. I’m off to create more
nearly free art.
What creative projects are you working on right now?
Here you can see how small the collage is - very "ownable" my friend said.
I was excited to sit at my desk and write this morning, but
when I logged on and puttered around a bit, I lost all interest in writing. It
was as if my desire to write a blog post was like a balloon with a slow leak.
“I have to write something!” I lamented. I had the Ultimate
Blog Challenge to consider.
I poked around my “unpolished gem” file, otherwise known as
place I put writing I think I may use someday but have not quite finished yet,
and found the makings of an article rich in images and ripe with one of my
favorite topics.
I did some editing and adding of photos and instantly, I had
a new blog post.
I still thought, though, I should write about how I dealt
with the slow leaking balloon, though.
Move away from the keyboard. DO NOT putter on
twitter or pinterest or facebook or linked in or your email. Your intention is
to get words on the page, not gush over other pages. REMEMBER THIS first and
foremost.
Getting a break from the keyboard ALWAYS helps!
Do something other than writing but still
creative. I worked on very simple collages of old dictionary pages and vintage
illustrations from a children’s book. Along the way I learned Thalia is “The
Muse of comedy and idyllic poetry” which intrigues me and may become another
blog post or I may name a future character Thalia.
Move. If you are able, walk around the block. Do
the twist, wildly, up and down the hallways of your house or apartment. If you
don’t end up laughing (naturally) do it again and laugh unnaturally until you
get to laughing naturally.
Use free flow writing (on a paper with pencil and
pen) as your dearest friend. One way to use it is to put a paper and pencil at
your kitchen table. Get up and do the twist around your house, wildly, until
you are laughing and then start to write from the simplest and most effective
prompt in the world, “I remember….”
Take photos with your phone or camera, inside or
outside your home. Experiment with taking photos of things you don’t normally
photograph. Take some macro shots. Take some shots of the ceiling or the sky.
Stack up your favorite books (or current reads) and take shots of them.
Once you patch the slow leaking balloon of writing
situation, take steps to help you the next time this comes up.
Keep an “Unpolished Gem” file.
Keep a notebook of random thoughts and ideas.
Revisit your “Unpolished Gem” file and your
notebook regularly.
Pull images and stories from the newspaper as
prompts and put them into your notebook for future use.
When you watch your favorite television show,
notice what topics are being discussed. Pay attention to how the actors, the
director, the writer and all the other crew members are telling the story.
Write your observations in your notebook.
While waiting in line at the check out, scan the
sometimes ridiculous magazines that are lined up in all their colorful glory in
hopes you will buy them. What headlines either draw you or repulse you? What
images work the best. Since you will be carrying your notebook with you always,
scribble in your notebook or use your cell phone to take notes and then email
the notes to yourself to put into your unpolished gem file when you get home.
Go on a Writing Playdate (like at Writing Camp with Julie Jordan Scott, seen here.)
Collect quotes as a hobby. I am a new GoodReads
member. I was shocked at how few quotes they had for one of my favorite women
writers, so part of my fun in reading women writers is to add the quotes I find
in their collection on GoodReads. I tend to make activities like this just for
fun and for me? It works. Collect from your reading or search for quotes along
the line of what you are writing, say “inspirational quotes” or “Virginia
Woolf” quotes. You name it, you’ll find it.
Give yourself a limited time on Pinterest – no
more than five minutes. Find a couple images to repin and then use those images
to prompt some free writing. If you don’t know where to start, start with a
visual description. What do you see in
Remember Why You Write....
the images.
Remember
WHY you write. I write because I am deeply in love with words and believe
the world will experience positive transformation via writing and other arts.
My contribution to this change is to use my writing (and my ability to write)
to make the world a better place. If you need to write your “WHY” on a notecard
or poster and pin it beside your monitor, do it. Your writing will be
rejuvenated.
Read on to discover how to use your gratitude lists (or whatever
terminology you us) as writing prompts...There were many posts at the
end of 2012 about making a 2012
jar filled with gratitudes or… I’m not sure what words people were
using. I
thought it was a cool idea but I also knew I would fill it up quickly…
so I
took a slightly different tactic.
I made a jar for Delights… for January 2013 and I plan to
make jars for each month after this one. I might use different words, too.
Blessings, Treasures, Unexpected Loveliness… whatever tickles my fancy that month.
AND! To make it a useful project year round, when I am
stumped for something to write (like I was tonight) I pulled out an earlier
delight as my writing prompt topic.
So away we go…. I will now demonstrate, doing a complete
stream of consciousness writing piece based on the delight I pluck out and it
is……
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Instant Writing prompt: pull a paper from the jar....</span>
Instant Writing prompt: pull a paper from the jar....
I am one of those friends my friends believe they can call
at 4 am and call and talk for an hour and I wouldn’t mind. They are right.
I am also one of those friends that will drive her friend
who is about to be Grandma to San Francisco and back from Bakersfield on New
Year’s Day with maybe… an hour warning the birth was imminent.
I packed a pair of socks, an extra sweater and some panties and
a tooth brush and off I went. I showered, but other than that, I was just me. I
knew I couldn’t miss this moment.
Fairy God Auntie (or something like that) Julie holds the baby.
The drive from Bakersfield to San Francisco is about five hours.
I was tired when I started. We were flying on adrenaline when we arrived at the
hospital with the new baby. Both Grandma’s and I had time holding her. I even texted some of my friends in
Bakersfield and said, “They left me alone with the baby!”
Do you remember being alone in a room with a baby?
It is like being alone in a room with the most magnificent
miracle ever and you are the only one holding onto the secret. It was
fantastic.
We were there a couple hours when we decided we better find
a place to say. This concerned me because since I didn’t pack, I managed to
forget my bank card and other important things. I was completely dependent on
my friends, minus about thirty dollars in cash I carried in my car.
We found
a questionable place to stay between Russian and
Nob Hill but had to wait half an hour before we could go into our room.
There,
on the corner, was a bar called Shanghai Kelly’s. We simply had to go
in. One
of the Grandma’s was named Kelly, so I felt like we didn’t have a
choice. Oh, and the "questionable" place to stay turned out to be
wonderful. We found it in one of those travel saver books you get at
rest stops along
Grandma Kelly spends New Years Night at Shanghai Kelly's.
the highway.
How often do you find yourself in one of the most fabulous
places in the city at a corner bar outside of the tourist traps that happens to
share your name?
We each took a seat at the bar and because I am one of those
people who talks to bartenders, I couldn’t help but ask about the Obamarama
drink they offered for only $3. He told us what was in it – sounded tasty
beyond belief, and then when he heard about the Grandma’s he turned away for
just a slice of a moment and put Obamarama shots in front of each of us.
Down they went, silky smooth. Kelly even got a t-shirt and we learned the
lore of Shanghai Kelly. I got the name of the neighborhood – Polk Gulch – and was
thrilled beyond belief to spend my New Years Day in San Francisco and receive a
tasty free drink and know that I could rely on my friends for everything I needed
while we were jetting around the city in my Mazda.
Van Ness - Walking the Streets of San Francisco
The next morning I was the first one up. I couldn't imagine sleeping in
when I was in San Francisco. The Grandma's got to rest and I got to sit
in a Pete's coffee writing poetry and people watching. I stopped my
walking when I was four blocks from the hotel. I could have walked on
and on and on.
It might sound completely zany, but I can’t think of a
better start to 2013. Naturally, it was a delight I had to add to my jar.
And now, thanks to being stumped for a writing idea –
hopefully you are delighted in sharing my delight.
This is my eighteenth post (of 31!) for the January Ultimate Blog Challenge.
Watch here for challenge posts which will include Writing Prompts, Writing
Tips and General Life Tips and Essays.
