When someone tells you something big, it’s like you’re taking money from them, and there’s no way it will ever go back to being the way it was. You have to take responsibility for listening.
–Banana Yoshimoto/Lake
Usually what is going on in my immediate surroundings and what I’m writing about in the blog are at least a little bit disconnected in time. I might write about something that happened in the recent past, but typically it’s not going on at the moment I’m writing about it.
When I am actually writing, I try not to get distracted by a lot of “stuff” around me. No TV, no music. I’m not very good about enforcing my own “no music” policy though. If husband is home, and there’s football on, chances are there’s also going to be TV noise. Normally, I don’t hear it, but words do sneak in. Usually it’s something I think I heard but didn’t. The other day I thought I heard something about a caged penis on TV. It was a completely un-penis-related commercial. To make a very bad pun, the word penis is penetrating. If anyone says it, or if I think they do, it will distract me from whatever I am doing. I’m sure that is not a positive reflection on my character.
Or maybe there are a lot of words that sound like penis.
A lot of times when I’m writing a quick note, though, there are other things going on around me. In fact, it’s probably something in my environment that has caused me to want/need to write the note. I might be at work, or in a bar, or in my car. Since I sing and think in the car, I do seem to feel a need to write things down most often while I’m driving. Writing while in the car is apparently considered dangerous, so I do a lot of repeating things to myself over and over until I get the car stopped and can actually write safely.
So if you ever see me driving, and I appear to be saying “caged penis, caged penis, caged penis” over and over to no one in particular…don’t worry, I probably am. It’s so I don’t forget. You should try not to interrupt me, especially if I pull over and am fumbling with my phone because that means I’m trying to write it down before it vanishes. The caged penis, not my phone.
The Notes app on my phone is great for writing random shit down. My notes are very organized. You all recognize sarcasm when you read it, right? Very organized means that I have one huge random string of text that includes various movie quotes, song lyrics, snippets of books, book titles I want to read, passwords to wifi routers all over the place, a couple of dates that I have no recollection of writing down, and what appear to be notes from a work meeting. And the letter B.
The other day I wrote myself a note about balls getting stuck in a desk because I overheard someone say it at work. Now I’m writing about it and the circle of life is complete. Hakuna Matata.
The latest entry in my Note is this: Fucksox Siri Abby
What do you mean, you don’t know what that means? How can you not know what that means? OK fine: the woman who did the voice for Apple’s Siri also did the audio versions of some books by Christopher Moore. ( Bloodsucking Fiends, Bite Me, and You Suck–you should read them. They are funny.) One of the characters calls herself Abby Normal and one of her favorite expressions is fucksox.
I found that noteworthy.
Shrug.
At least it isn’t about penises.