Sunday Post

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LOOKING FORWARD TO JANUARY

 This week I had Thursday off and went to Target and got some things like ear buds and markers for my son.  He loves to color these Roblox characters and to make squishies out of them with construction paper. I loved having the day off because I got seven hours of sleep which is something I haven't felt in months.  They actually say that Minnesotans in general are less stressed because of the amount of sleep we get(And that we have corporate jobs here) but I still question that theory.

My son at the Coffee shop

Earlier in the week, I did improv with Oozebear and we did a lot of scenes about Rick and Morty while the main characters were stoners.

It's been warmer here with temps in the 30's.  I've been calculating in celsius on TANDEM, the language learning app.  It's been interesting to hear people around the world comment on how cold or warm it's been. Of course Canadians  say it's quite cold there, followed by Petersburg, Russia and Moscow.

On Saturday, I met some writers at a library and we migrated to a coffee shop and talked shop. I took my son with me, which was a big thrill. It's often quite hard to take him to some of my hobbies and interests like writers groups and improv activities because sometimes they don't allow kids but I LOVE, LOVE Love tagging him around with me all day.  

One of the writers in the group is visually impaired and he talked about how he translates manuscripts for schools.  His biggest laughable moment was when he was listening to a podcast and a visual-abled person said, "Wow, there was a blind woman at the library." 

"Yes, there's always been blind people at libraries."

"Yes, but she was reading those bumpy papers."

"Yes, blind people have always always read braille."

He said he doesn't like it when people on the bus often grab him but the waist to direct him.

Lastly, I took my son to the Eagles Nest to burn off some energy and run around with other kids. 

I tried exercise myself while there by walking up and down the hallways and reading books.

ON THE BLOG

In Rapt, acclaimed behavioral science writer Winifred Gallagher makes the radical argument that the quality of your life largely depends on what you choose to pay attention to and how you choose to do it. Gallagher grapples with provocative questions—Can we train our focus? What’s different about the way creative people pay attention? Why do we often zero in on the wrong factors when making big decisions, like where to move?—driving us to reconsider what we think we know about attention.

I spoke about Maqluba which is a Palestinian dish 

Seasoned rice, baked vegetables like cauliflower, potatoes, eggplant, and tender pieces of lamb.

Sunday Post

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LOOKING FORWARD TO January

This week was extremely cold in Minnesota.  The first thing my UBER passengers did when they got in the car was talk about how cold it was. I wanted so badly to sit in a hot tub to get warm and thought about how I could do that at the YMCA but alas, it did not happen. Surprisingly even though it was very cold I still managed to walk nearly five miles a day, and would often walk between rides or around the track at the Y. I was extremely proud of myself.

Outdoor Minnesota Gopher stadium

The ritzy area of Edina

On Saturday, I went to do improv at Inver Grove studio. I did a lot of scenes that had to do with lunch ladies. We played a game called switch characters. And then I was in a game called Two line Phrase, where I was only allowed to say these two lines:

 "Is this supposed to be there?" And "That's a terrible smell," while the main character was doing the best to respond to my inoculous phrases.

I've been watching Loki and I love the time travelling concepts in this Disney Plus series.

Mohamed Al-Arasi YouTube Channel.  I met this individual recently on the tandem language app. Orginally from Yemen, Mohamed talks about the Journey of becoming a new Vlogger and I find him to be quite eloquent and I believe he will go real far in the influencer community. He talks a lot about the distractions in our lifes and how meditation and reflection is important.

ON THE BLOG

(top tier, second to the right) With Kay Marie & Carol's school of dance.

Sunday Post

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LOOKING FORWARD TO January

This week I went to spontaneous writers and actors and I wrote a fun piece about the CEO of an airline admonishing his employees for some really funny things he's been noticing at the workplace. Several other people wrote pieces about sitting next to someone on the plane and them letting out gas or chasing after a loved one in the airport like a comedy rom-com

Earlier in the week, I was going to meet a friend at a place called the Fox Den which is like a warehouse room with a lot of board games, but by the time I got there I realized I was so loaded up on caffiene that if I didn't eat something, I was going to go crazy, so a friend of mine just went to Dairy Queen and had some food and played Dominoes and Uno with my son Zulfi.

I got into a Discussion with some people about Turkey and we talked about a city called Pendik and I noticed this city has a small theme park for kids to enjoy.

Earlier in the week, one of  y YMCA dance instructor's was on vacation and asked two of her student's to lead the class, and I got the idea that I would take her up on this offer in the future and see what it was like.

Lastly, we talked about this turkish food called Borek, which I'm reminded of eating foods similar to this several times in my life.

ON THE BLOG

Reading

Accidentally Amy

When the line at the coffee shop is taking too long, she finds herself claiming an abandoned drink meant for someone named Amy. So when Izzy accidentally dumps that drink all over a handsome stranger, he's under the impression that the cute girl he just had the perfect meet cute with is named Amy.

I'm loving this book.  The main character sends texts back and forth to her love interest who is also some she works with and she justifies her frat-inizing by saying things "Well, it's not a date if I just happen to be at this cafe at this time, and he just happens to be there (she wrote down his habits and routines). Or he can take my bike home, but I'll run home, and therefore we won't be in a car together.   The two of them also play this elaborate game with their friends that involves drinking games and various silly athletic competitions that reminded me faintly of games from the tv series, "New Girl." 

I loved this Nonfiction self help book and plan to reference it several times in the next few weeks to get back into the habit of my own writing..  It's similar to the Power of Habit and it talks extensively about the habits of a writer and it made me think and want to discuss some of my most important habits. This included

Sitting down to write continuously,

Turning off the smartphone

Writing for at least twenty minutes.

Writing in a different environment-In my case at the Library

Have a structure to the writing process

Committing to the process-it gives the example of how one writer was taking master classes, while also writing a book and how long it took him two hours of writing everyday at a specific time in the day.

Here are some other ha

1. Focus on the wildly important. This means a small number of extremely essential goals. ...
2. Act on lead measures. ...
3. Keep a compelling scoreboard. ...
4. Create a cadence of accountability.

Sunday Blog post

 

LOOKING FORWARD TO NOVEMBER

On Thursday, I met with a friend for her 50th birthday. It was a night of getting henna done, and eating delicious sweets and my son spent time jumping on the trampoline.  I took some pictures from the party. My friend has spent a great deal of time in Ethiopia and has built schools there, and a lot of friends who attended her party were students that had went to her schools.

Women doing a Ethiopian Tea Ceremony

Then on Saturday, my friend Leea and I met a friend at Starbucks and comiserated about life and being a writer and our friend Carol told us some extraordinary stories.  She's quite active at 70 years old and still works part time giving wine and beer samples at a local shop.

Tonite I will do some improv at HUGE's new theater which is down the block from it's original location.

The Average Joe's(Improv) and Sunday 101 class show case at HUGE theater

ON THE BLOG

Reading

Sunday Blog post

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LOOKING FORWARD TO OCTOBER

Last Saturday, I went to an event at Hamline University called Beyond Bars:Voices of Incarceration.(Mnprisonwriting.org) . The Minnesota Prison Writing Workshop works with the Creative writing programs at Hamline University to help prisoners learn how to write essays and express themselves. I spoke with a man named Paul who also works with Veterans Telling Stories, which is a Minnesota-based project dedicated to teaching creative writing to military Veterans and their family members. This program offers a 10 -week free course online to veterans and their families.

 

 I listened to essays that explored prison life.  It was very emotional and uniting.  They have something called the Reentry lab that helps those previously incarcerated.  They are calling people who work in capacities like duplex owners or spiritual leaders to help the community get rehabilitated.

This week,I went to Writers group and wrote a few stories and read them for a room of 25 people.

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On Monday, I went to the periodontics to do more work towards a crown on my back molar. Boy did that hurt! Luckily not as much as the previous time, because I didn't have any exposed nerves during this visit.

We also performed improv inspired from "Whose Line is it Anyway" 

I'm in the Video posted below  on YouTube

That's my week. Tell me about yours in the comments below.

ON THE BLOG

Reading

American Precariat

a Book of Fifteen essays coedited by a collective of award-winning incarcerated writers, pre-order the book here