According to Trish

not worth reading since 2009

Playin’ catchup

Whew. It feels good to breathe.

Hey there, little blogmuffins. This is the first time in months I’ve had to sit down and write to you. Keep in mind, I’ve been writing to you all in my head that entire time but I’ve noticed that you’re all too lazy to get into my brain and read that stuff. So I guess it’s time to dump it all here so you can see it. (I hate to enable your sloth in this manner, but what can I say? I’m codependent.) Consider this entry a little catch-up from the last few months, I guess. I’m feeling pretty rusty writing-wise at the moment so let’s just be sure to manage expectations here, shall we? This entry is going to be more like ground beef than filet mignon …

So what’s been goin’ on? Lots. Obviously, from my last crazed entry you might’ve figured out that my kids have been sick a lot. Like, a whole lot. Turns out, my little guy has probably had strep throat continuously for months and the antibiotics he was on weren’t working. I won’t bore you all with the details but I’ll just say that part of the solution was that both of my kids had to go on the antibiotic that they use for Anthrax to finally knock it out. This med is blood red and Benjamin hated it and refused to take it. So every morning it sort of looked like I’d been giving blood transfusions in my kitchen by the time I finally got it down his gullet. Also, it turned all of their bodily fluids pink for three days, which Megan found endlessly entertaining.

On top of all that, my dog got sick in an End of Days sorta way. I was already sorta drowning in copays and whatnot with the kids and then the dog came and blew all of those costs right the hell out of the water in the matter of a couple days. (Random thought: I wonder if I can add him to my health insurance? He has a person-name rather than a dog-name so I might need to think about that…) Anyway, it was extremely upsetting and hard and there were many difficult discussions between myself, my ex and the vets, but we opted for surgery and it turns out that he’s … fine. Whew.

So sick kids = a momma who is home a LOT. Since I have a “when they’re sick, they’re mine” rule, I was starting to feel like a shut-in. But … I did manage to get out from time to time and do some cool stuff.

First, I’m so, so, so crazy-happy to report that Food for Thought – Philadelphia (which is the official name of what used to be the food drive) has been launched. We had our first board meeting (don’t we sound official?!!) on Friday night and we have some awesome stuff in the works. We are going to spend the summer getting up and running — creating our web site, taking care of all of the paperwork to make us an “official” entity — and then we’re going to hit it hard in the fall. I ran two creative writing groups at the school in the last few months and it was simply magic. I worked with four girls — all of whom showed a real talent for writing. It was a challenge to draw them out at first but then they all took to it like ducks to water. I gave them notebooks to take home and told them that they could write in between sessions if they wanted to, but that they didn’t have to. When I went back the next time, every single one of them excitedly told me about all the things they had written — and two were upset that they forgot to bring the notebooks back because they wanted to share their work. I wanted to cry. It was such an amazing moment. I’m hoping I can work with a few of them again in the fall. My Hallmark Movie of the Week-style dream is that writing will change their lives now that that  door has been opened for them. But I’ve worked with enough troubled kids to know that it’s not always so cut-and-dried.

In a similar vein, did you all know that the Philly area is building up quite a storytelling/literary scene? It’s pretty cool. In the last few months I’ve been to several First Person Story Slams (see here: https://www.firstpersonarts.org/programs2/storyslams) and also a Literary Death Match (https://www.literarydeathmatch.com/), which is just as kooky as it sounds. Anyway, my point is this: I LOVE that people will get dressed up, go out, pay a cover charge and make an evening out of someone telling them stories. For a writing goober like me, that rocks.

Also, right here, I have to give props to Sarah Rose Etter. She’s an uber-talented writer who competed at the Literary Death Match and she has an actual, real book coming out later this week called Tongue Party. At the LDM she read from a new collection she’s working on about Benjamin Franklin’s lovers and it was giving me total wordgasms. For example, she has a great section that talks about how when Benjamin Franklin is washing his dick off in your sink, you should really just focus on how fucking brilliant he is instead of remembering how his fat sounded when it slapped against your belly. (I’m so not doing her justice here … but I’m in love with that.)

What else? (How do I follow up that Ben Franklin shit? Won’t even try…) Went to the shore. Got a million bug bites. Rescued a turtle. Befriended some stray cats. Tried (unsuccessfully) to catch some frogs. But had a lovely, lovely time with my wee little munchkins who were finally all better.

Oh yeah. And then there’s that whole dating thing, isn’t there? Yeah, there sure is. Oh, you silly little bitches. I have stories. So many stories. Yes, I owe you. I know you’re waiting. While I still pledge to stick to my rule about not writing about any dates that I’ve been on, I have plenty o’ stories with which to entertain you about the dates that I didn’t go on. So that’s coming next, peeps. Promise. (It’s going to be so much fun …)

I have missed you, my little readerkins. I’m so excited to be back and I’m hoping that next entry isn’t going to be too far behind this one … see you then!

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