On Writing...

I've always attempted journaling but I can't say that I've had very good luck. There are journals piled around here everywhere, some of them full, some half-full, some sporadically drawn and written in. Doodles, phrases...sentences if they're lucky. Periods of manic scribbling and years of silence.

My computer has become more of a journal than any bound volume could've ever hoped. I can type much faster than I write. In light of this simultanous compulsion to write and total lack of consistency, my computer has lots of little bits of me floating around in it. I write snatches...thoughts that seem particularly poetic or promising. Blips of frustration. Collections of mild insanity. Since I can't sleep, I was reading through some of my niblets and found a diatribe on writing short stories.....

I don’t particularly like short stories. They’re premature novels…brain puffs that never got loved into life. They’re the angsty teenagers of the literary world standing bold and defiant amidst authorities but really longing for love and maturity. Maybe I’m just bitter because I’m no Flannery O’Connor or Annie Proulx. I’m not even a second-rate John Grisham or Dan Brown. Maybe I’m just mad because I don’t think I have a good short story in me. A friend says we all have one novel in us. I happen to know I have four novels in me, but short stories…I don’t feel those knocking on the inside of my head antsy to be loosed upon the world. The novels are insistent. Bratty even. They claw and scratch and scramble. Short stories don’t whip themselves up in my head. They don’t jump around like magic beans..

I feel like I should write short stories. Shouldn’t I crawl before I walk? And that’s a cliché I wouldn’t put into a short story unless it was a particularly naughty one that I felt needed punishing. If I wrote a short story I’d want it to be gritty. Completely unlike me in every visible way. I would step half out of myself. I would put the academian aside and embrace my past. The one I don’t think about too often. I would embrace my upbringing. The one that most “refined” people would hope I’d find embarrassing. The Texas’ness in me. The street dances and the rodeos. The smell of cow shit globbed on the foot rail at the stockyards. Grease and rocks and fried fish. Baby rabbits in shoe boxes—a surprise from my grandpa. Crawfishing with bacon on a string, my grandmother chasing my cousin around with a cigarette in one hand and a flyswatter in the other. “Y’all” and “yesterdy night” and horses and trail rides and thunderstorms. The dirtiest, most precious station wagon on the planet. Johnny Cash and Hank Williams, Sr., and Big Red soda. My ancestors would kick my country girl ass for calling it soda.

And then I went back to work on a short story that I've left languishing, loveless for a year or more.

FYI

"The era of procrastination, of half-measures, of soothing and baffling expedients, of delays, is coming to its close.

In its place we are entering a period of consequences."

-Sir Winston Churchill, November 12, 1936

To locate your nearest recycling or Household Hazardous Waste Collection center, as well as electronics recycling, to find out beach water quality, tips for preventing air pollution, and simple things you can do to save energy (among many other resources), visit Earth911.org.

Me! MEMEMEME!

I've been laying down on the job! Both Tanabata and Bookfool tagged me with really fun meme's but the thesis work got in the way for a minute.

First, the restaurant one:

The rules:1. Add a direct link to your post below the name of the person who tagged you.
Include the city/state and country you’re in.
Nicole (Sydney, Australia)
velverse (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia)
LB (San Giovanni in Marignano, Italy)
Selba (Jakarta, Indonesia)
Olivia (London, England)
ML (Utah, USA)
Lotus (Toronto, Canada)
tanabata (Saitama, Japan)
Andi (Dallas [ish], Texas, United States)

2. List out your top 5 favorite places to eat at your location.

3. Tag 5 other people (preferably from other countries/states) and let them know they’ve been tagged.

The Tip of the Top!

If you're in Texas, you have to have bbq, right? The best bbq around can be found at Ernie's Pit Barbecue in Greenville, TX . This little joint is about 7 miles from my house and with convenience comes a big ass because I could eat this stuff for-e-ver. Ernie's is a simple place with brisket, brisket, brisket and sides. And if you drop off a brisket and $9 they'll smoke it for you for a holiday gathering and even provide the sauce. We've done this for a number of family functions, and they're meat is always amazing.

As many of you know, if you've been here for more than about 5 minutes, I love Indian food. Love actually doesn't even begin to cover it. The Clay Pit (locations in Dallas and Austin) was the restaurant that got it all started. It's contemporary Indian cuisine and has a great atmosphere. My favorite thing to eat there is the seafood grill, a mixture of grilled salmon, white fish, and prawns over a bed of roasted onions served along with basmati rice. Everything is served family-style, so it's a great place to go with friends, order a mountain of food, and share off of each other's plates.

If you're in Texas you also have to eat the obligatory Tex-Mex cuisine, my favorite of which comes from a small now-chain that started in Texarkana, TX--TaMolly's. One of its first locations, once it branched out, was Greenville, TX (again, right down the road). They have THE best Mexican food around, and it's where I take all of my friends who might be having Tex-Mex for the first time. TaMolly's has a large menu with all the staples: flautas, enchiladas, quesadillas, and nachos that will blow your socks off. No wonder it became a chain!

Another favorite place, also located in Dallas and Houston is Fadi's Mediterranean Grill. First, I have to just say, they have the best baba ghanouge I've ever wrapped my lips around. I even like it better than the hummus, and that's sayin' a lot. It's a gorgeous but still casual restaurant where everything is served up cafeteria-style, and it's not even scary! I like to order the big sampler which is, literally, a little of everything. Dips, breads, every veggie on the line (and it's an extensive line) and a hefty serving of the day's meat specialty (usually a choice of beef or chicken). Fadi's is the only restaurant that ever made me think I could be a vegetarian. Their veggies are just that damn good.

Last, but certainly not least, is one more Texas favorite...catfish! Ole Whiskers is a buffet that started small and has now ballooned into a chain. For about $10 you get all-you-can-eat fried catfish, grilled catfish, chicken, fried shrimp, boiled shrimp, salad, soup, bread, onion rings, fries, baked potatoes, etc. Everything on the buffet, in other words. It's just a huuuuge selection. And to keep costs low, they're only open Thursday-Saturday. It's certainly busy when the doors are open, but it's worth fighting the crowd!

With these luscious goodies in mind, I tag:

Heather F., Amanda A., Iliana, and whoever else wants to play!

One book meme comin' up!

Writing writing writing writing writing. Writing.

I've been hard at work. Hard at work indeed. Instead of reading literary theory I've been putting together a somewhat plain, but hopefully functional website to showcase my growing list of publications and writing/editorial work in general. HERE it is.

And, of course, all I need is another blog. I started one to chronicle the ups and downs of this writing thing. It certainly won't be taking over the role of this blog, but it does have far fewer uses of the word "fuck" and fewer embarrassing stories about bodily fluids, running around in my underwear and other tomfoolery.

In other words, I can let people I know read it!

HERE it is.

I had a real post in mind, but I'm starving (damn South Beach) and I have a shrimp and spinach salad on the way from Applebee's, so I'll be back in a bit.

Oh, and if you see mistakes, just don't tell me. The site hasn't been unleashed upon the world yet, so I still have time to edit it, but right now I'm tired and beginning to wilt.