I have a sound in my head.
Well, maybe just in my left ear.
I was hearing a thrumming sound and I thought it was from wall vibrations from our radon removal system but that is fixed now and the sound is still there.
If it doesn’t resolve soon, I’ll contact my doctor…
*****
Linda’s prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday this week is to use a word that ends with “ound.” Join us! Find out more here: https://lindaghill.com/2024/04/12/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-april-13-2024/
Linda’s prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday this week is to write about a memory of the room you are in. I’m in my living room, looking at our empty couch and remembering a holiday photo when out-of-town relatives arrived to visit after Christmas. We had gathered in front of, on, and behind the couch.
There were my parents, my sisters and one brother-in-law, daughters and son-in-law, niece and nephew. My other brother-in-law isn’t in the photo because he was the photographer.
The person who was there but declined to join the photo was my mother-in-law. We wanted her to join in but she didn’t want to because it was “my side of the family” and she didn’t feel that she belonged. To me, it was just family and she belonged in the photo but, of course, we accepted her decision.
We didn’t know that she would suffer a heart attack that next March and pass away. We just passed the anniversary of her death.
We’ve since lost both my parents. Daughter E and her family are living “across the pond” in London. With my parents gone, I don’t have as many opportunities to see my sisters who came to our area to see them.
So, this morning, empty couch. Lots of memories.
Whew! Launching into the last written post of Linda’s Just Jot It January ’24! There is one more day in January, but I’ll be posting a quote tomorrow for One-Liner Wednesday, which means no running on about things.
Thanks once again to author Linda G. Hill of Life in Progress for offering this opportunity to get the blogging year off to a good start by posting every day in January.
I’m grateful to have met this challenge again this year, although I can’t carry this posting pace into the rest of the months. I’m planning to spend a lot of time through mid-April revising my full-length poetry collection in preparation for work with a professional editor, which will probably be followed by another round of revisions before a decision point on next steps toward publication. I should probably also devote some time to doing single poem submissions. I tend to be diligent about that for a bit and then fall off the wagon and go for a few months without putting work out to journals and presses. The places that are still actively considering my work have dwindled so I guess it’s time to get back on that.
Thanks also to the other Just Jot It January bloggers and readers. I appreciate having a blogging community for support and inspiration.
Write on – in whatever way works best for you – and let’s all meet up at Linda’s for Just Jot It January ’25! Don’t forget, though, that Linda coordinates One-Liner Wednesdays and Stream of Consciousness Saturdays year-round. While I don’t manage those every week, I do them often so I hope to meet you there sometimes, too.
*****
You can find out more about Just Jot It January and join in here: https://lindaghill.com/2024/01/30/daily-prompt-jusjojan-the-30th-2024/
At this point in my life, I’m not a big fan of the telephone.
It can take a lot of time and energy to convince myself to make the call, especially if I know I’m likely to have to work through endless phone menus or get put on hold multiple times and shuffled between service personnel.
(Yeah, looking at you insurance companies, utilities, etc.)
There were periods in my younger years when the phone was an important lifeline and source of connection – when B used to travel a lot on business, when I was away from my mom.
Even after my parents retired near us, I usually also spoke to them every day by phone, even on days when I also saw them in person.
Those calls were not hard to make. Or receive.
I still use my landline for calls whenever I can and still have an answering machine to pick up if I can’t – or if the caller ID suspects spam, which is most of the time these days. All three of us happened to be out together earlier this week and I went to check the machine for messages when we got home. I realized that since Paco (my father) died over two years ago I seldom get personal messages on my phone.
Actually, it’s longer ago than that because Paco forgot how to make phone calls in his last months.
Somehow, though, I keep checking for a call…
*****
Linda’s prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday/Just Jot It January today is “make the call.” Join us! Find out more here: https://lindaghill.com/2024/01/26/the-friday-reminder-for-socs-jusjojan-2024-daily-prompt-jan-27th/
As a writer, or even as a speaker, I have a lot of trouble with putting things in a nutshell.
I don’t like to commit things to print or speech unless I’ve had a long time to mull them and reflect on them deeply. By the time I’ve done that, there is too much material to stuff into a nutshell. (She says while writing stream of consciousness with minimal reflection time…)
I guess I save my “nutshell communication” for poetry, when I’m usually looking to distill the essence into as few words as possible. Just the meat of the matter. Still, though, carrying depth.
Metaphor helps…
*****
Linda’s prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday this week is “in a nutshell.” To find out more about joining the fun of Stream of Consciousness Saturday and/or Just Jot It January, visit here: https://lindaghill.com/2024/01/19/the-friday-reminder-for-socs-jusjojan-2024-daily-prompt-jan-20th/
My family is not that big on taking photographs all the time. I am particularly disinclined to selfies, so there are not a lot of close-ups of me.
As a poet, though, one often has to submit headshots to accompany poems and bios, so…
I was lucky that relatively early in my publishing experience I wrote a poem on a prompt from Silver Birch Press for their MY MANE MEMORIES series, which was about our hair. My poem was called “Crowning Glory.” We had to send a close-up photo of ourselves, illustrating the poem, so spouse B and I went into our backyard on a sunny day to show off my silver locks in the sunshine.
Since then, I’ve used this photo whenever I needed to submit a headshot. It’s appeared in a number of journals and is on the back cover of my chapbook, Hearts (Kelsay Books, 2023). It’s the photo that is used here at Top of JC’s Mind and on its Facebook page. When I don’t have a more relevant photo to go with a blog post on Instagram, I use this headshot.
At this point, this close-up is a bit out of date. After cataract surgery, I no longer wear glasses on a regular basis. Due to some dental issues that required using orthodontia to correct my bite, my smile looks a bit different. I have a few more smile wrinkles now.
I really should have a new close-up taken.
Still, I’m so attached to this one and have spread it around to so many places, I’m not quite ready to replace it.
Maybe, someday…
[I should have included that I use this photo on my new author site (joannecorey.com), too. I really have plastered it everywhere!]
*****
Linda’s prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday this week is “close up/close-up.” Please join us for SoCS and/or Just Jot It January! Find out more here: https://lindaghill.com/2024/01/12/the-friday-reminder-for-socs-jusjojan-2024-daily-prompt-jan-13th/
I am not one of those people who can “just do it.”
I think I’m constitutionally unable to be. (Not constitution as in government document but as in my personal makeup.)
If I am going to commit myself to do “a thing,” I need to consider it first to make sure it is the right thing for me to do at a certain time. I consider this being thoughtful, although it is sometimes mistaken for being slow, uncaring, indecisive, disapproving, etc. This can be frustrating and I sometimes have to explain to people that I just need a bit of time to process/think. People who know me well realize that it is just how I am.
There are times, though, that it might be helpful to be better at “just doing it.” There are times and tasks that I don’t like at all, such as housecleaning, when it might be better if I could just make myself do them rather than deferring.
Admittedly, on these cold, dark winter mornings, it can take an attitude of “just do it” just to get out of bed!
For the most part, though, I am grateful to be able to take time to consider before jumping into action. It may be slower but I make fewer mistakes/missteps when I take time to think rather than “just doing it.”
*****
Linda’s prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday this week is “just do it.” Join us for SoCS and/or Just Jot it January! Find out more here: https://lindaghill.com/2024/01/05/the-friday-reminder-for-socs-jusjojan-2024-daily-prompt-jan-6th/
Linda very helpfully posts the prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday on Friday so that we have a bit of mulling time – although in-depth planning is against the rules – but, lately, I haven’t been remembering to check on Friday.
Today’s prompt is to write about a word that contains “ph” and the first thing that popped into my head this morning was cell phone, so here goes with straight-up stream of consciousness…
I know I’ve written before about my love/hate – much heavier on the hate than love – relationship with my cell phone. I seldom use it for calls. I prefer people call and leave a message on my landline if I’m out and about. I don’t want to talk to my dentist’s office while I’m out grocery shopping or something. I use my phone mainly for communicating with my family, for example, to text to let them know I’m on my way home.
I almost never use text or calls with businesses unless I have to. It annoys me if I have to use my phone to authenticate all the time. I turn it off at night and am often in a different room than it is during the day.
I seldom even turn on the data. I connect to wifi at home and sometimes when I’m out and about, for example, in a waiting room so I can read mail.
I don’t play games on my phone.
I do sometimes use it for photos but I’m not one of those people who takes photos every day. I’m not one of those people that needs an image to convince myself that something actually happened.
A lot of things that most people do on their phone, I do with my Chromebook. I appreciate a large screen and a keyboard. I also like that it is easy to turn off and leave behind.
So, in our 24/7/365 culture, I am a bit of a throwback. Even though I have a cell phone, you can’t reach me on it anytime, anywhere.
But I will get back to you.
Sooner or later…
When my spouse B was growing up in rural southern Vermont, his family always had a blue spruce as a Christmas tree.
They are beautiful trees with a nice fragrance but they are dangerous!
The needles are very stiff and sharp so they are very prickly to decorate.
Unfortunately, B is also allergic to them, so he would wind up with his hands covered in red, itchy pricks and blotches on his hands.
In our own home, we do not have a blue spruce for a Christmas tree or a spruce at all. We do have a live tree but it is a fir. We used Douglas firs until they fell victim to a pest and climate changes. Now, we usually have a concolor fir. Also beautiful with a lovely scent but no itchy, pin-prickly hands!
Wishing a happy Christmas to those who celebrate and peace, joy, and love to all!
(Photo: our tree this year)
*****
Linda’s prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday this week is “spruce.” Join us! Find out more here: https://lindaghill.com/2023/12/22/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-dec-23-2023/
It’s been a busy week and I didn’t look at Linda’s Stream of Consciousness Saturday post until just now, early Saturday morning. (Linda puts it out on Friday so folks have a bit of a heads-up, although huge amounts of advanced planning, as well as edits, are against the SoCS rules.)
As it happens, my post yesterday goes very well with the SoCS prompt today, which is “bake.”
I wrote yesterday about a poem that was just published by Silver Birch Press, “My husband and daughters make Christmas gingerbread.” Yes, it’s “make” rather than “bake” in the title, but baking is definitely involved in the poem.
B has turned into the main baker in the house. This year, with no visits from extended family planned and just the three of us at home, B is not doing our usual Christmas practice of having at least a half dozen kinds of cookies available at once. Instead, he is doing serial baking. So far, he has made pfeffernüsse and pecan puffs.
No gingerbread yet, but I’m sure it will be coming…
Joanne Corey 