Category Archives: Personal

On Why I Think Tina Fey Should Be My Best Friend

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Oh, Frank. The neglect!

Well, readers, I’m really sorry that almost two weeks have gone by with no post. I’m going to apologize if I seem like I have wicked A.D.D. or if this is really rough. I’m easing back into writing. Building up my chops, if you will. Remember a few weeks ago when I said I’d had about the busiest week that an unemployed person could have? I lied. That was actually last week, carrying over into this week. And let me tell you, it wasn’t all very pretty. But I’m here now. And also, since I had a lot of time on my hands at the end of last week to sit and worry about something over which I had no control, I decided to read a book. My criteria for this book included being funny and being smart.

Enter Tina Fey.

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Frank’s 30 Day Song Challenge…In One Day.

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I didn’t post anything last week (call it about as busy as someone who has no real job can get). I’m making up for it by posting twice this week. One non-writing and one writing-related post. Ready? Break!

Every once in a while, a really good meme out there on the Interwebs will catch my eye. They usually have to do with either books or music or writers or something that doesn’t ask my favorite color and the name of my “bestie” (I’m on a crusade, by the way, to take that word out. I find it irritating when anyone over the age of 12 uses it and expects to be taken seriously). When I see those good ones (and they’re few and far between) I just can’t pass them up. This 30 Day Song Challenge is going around, so of course I wanted to participate. The problem is that I’m entirely too impatient to space my answers out over a whole month, thus giving me the opportunity to over-think them (like I do most things). So I’m going with the Kerouac “first-thought-best-thought” method here. Anyway, this ties in nicely with my Desert Island Top 5 Albums post. Anything that’s linked will take you to YouTube (in a new tab/window) where you can listen to all or part of the song (this is a good way to find some new music, anyway).

Also, I encourage anyone else with a blog to participate (it’s fun and it’s a great way to procrastinate). If you don’t have a blog, I’m still interested in your answers, and welcome you to leave them in the comments section.

But be warned: decisiveness is not always one of my strong suits. There might be more than one answer sometimes.

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Things That Don’t Make Sense

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There are certain things throughout the course of writing this blog that seem to come up again and again. Though I try not to beat things to death, I’m sure I’ve repeated myself more than once. While I try to not broach subjects that could potentially cause a lot of controversy, there are times when I need to write it out because I feel like my brain is on fire.

This is one of those times.

On Tuesday, my governor announced unprecedented cuts in funding to public education, and try as I might, I can’t find any sense in it. In fact, like many, I’m sure, I’m pretty enraged about it. Sure, I could keep these thoughts to myself, but I suppose I’m also curious to see if anyone can tell me why this makes sense.

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Frank Listens: Desert Island Top 5 Albums

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It’s cold. I’m talking “wind chill is below zero and I keep thinking about how this time last year, I at least had Florida to look forward to” kind of cold that seems endless. Because I have no warmer climates to visit this year (although if someone else wanted to foot the bill, I probably wouldn’t decline), I’ve just been trying to imagine them in my head. Naturally, the whole desert island scenario came up for me, and I started thinking about my desert island top 5 albums.

Of course, this causes my pop culturally sensitive brain to go two places at once: first to the film High Fidelity, one of my favorite Cusack movies. How can you even consider any kind of top 5 list without thinking about that movie? Second, my brain goes to that episode of LOST when Hurley is listening to his Discman and the batteries die. That makes me wonder if the whole concept of “Desert Island Top Five Albums” is kind of dead. When I went to Ireland, I took four CDs with me and three of them were “mix tapes on disc”. But now I have an iPod and all of my music is at my disposal all the time. I wouldn’t really need to choose my top 5 albums. I’d just need to pray for an iPod battery that never dies.

Clearly I’m over-thinking this and should just get to the list. So, for technicality’s sake, here’s my list.

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Therapeutic Writing

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Last week I read this article about the correlation between writing and stress/anxiety levels. It summarized a study in which students were given the opportunity to write for ten minutes before major tests. The students who were given the time to write about their concerns and anxieties, etc., ultimately had better test scores than the students who went into the exam cold. It was then noted that writing could, indeed, be quite therapeutic.

I figured that out on my own years ago.

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A Strange Fascination With Tragedy…

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When I was in third grade, we learned about The Challenger explosion, which happened 25 years ago today and is the reason why I’m thinking about all of this. In some way, my nine year old mind managed to turn this lesson into a cause for concern, that perhaps something equally as tragic could happen to my beloved teacher or even to me someday when I became a teacher. I managed to convince myself that if I really paid attention and became totally fixated on in, I could somehow prevent further tragedy from happening.

When I got home from school, I told my parents all about what I’d learned. In turn, my dad told me about how he remembered watching it live in the kitchen at my grandmother’s house where we were living at the time (whether I was there with him or not is still unclear. I may have been at pre-school, but he thinks I was there). He was talking to my mom on the phone and told her that it had just blown up, and she didn’t believe him. I have a memory of being in my grandma’s kitchen, of my dad sitting there with the TV on. I can see the coiled phone cord stretched across the room. I just don’t know if that’s the same memory. It’s been driving me kind of crazy for 19 years.

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An Open Letter…

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Dear Friends in Relationships,

While you are my friends and I do like your significant others, sometimes I miss hanging out with you. This is a general rule, and the only exception is if, as a result of your relationship, you’ve either a.) forgotten that I exist or b.) started talking down on me because I’m suddenly beneath you and I can’t possibly understand what your life is like now. While this doesn’t apply to all of my coupled friends, it’s a general issue that’s been bothering me. Please let me explain.

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Resolve

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I’m not typically the kind who makes New Year’s Resolutions. It’s not really my style. That being said, the only resolution I can ever remember making was on the final day of 2005 when I let a friend make my resolution for me: I’d start carrying a purse and not just my keychain wallet. Sigh. Okay. I stuck to it too, and now it feels weird if I don’t have my purse (mostly because it’s full of the gum that I compulsively chew).

The theme of my 2010 seemed to be, coming off of a terrible 2009, that I was just trying to figure out what I want. I don’t know if I’ll ever totally figure that out, but as I’ve been sitting on these first couple of weeks of 2011, it’s occurred to me that there are a few things that I want to work on.

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Lost: Christmas Spirit. If Found, Please Return.

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What is it about growing up that makes the holidays seem so much less fun? Or is it just that everything is so commercialized? I really have no idea, but this year I can’t seem to find my holiday cheer anywhere. I’m hoping it didn’t get stuck in my pocket and go through the wash because that’s just bad business.

In any case, I really feel like I need to write some of this out, so if you’re already thinking this is something you’re going to hate because it’s personal & might involve emotions, there’s probably no need to read on after the jump, but thank you for stopping by anyway. I’ll be back with something literary next week. Continue reading →