Power shoes and my tools for the heroine's journey--the final result from my Valley Ridge workshop 

Stories of frustration and plans gone awry!

After wrangling last night to add pictures--unsuccessfully--and a link--unsuccessfully--I'm wondering if I am ready for this part of the 21st century after all. It's all quite odd; I've become fairly proficient with computers and the online world, yet can't send a photo to the blog? I try to create the hotlink and all I get is text? Perhaps the learning curve for this is just a bit higher than I might have thought at first. No matter. After this long weekend off work, I'll be back in the rush of work and life, and time for such self-absorption will be gone!

Driving around in the dark last night to deliver Taylor and a friend to a party, I drove over the small stone bridge just outside town. If the weather cooperates at all today, I hope to go and photograph that bridge. I fear it may be gone before much longer, only a memory in the minds of locals. There was such a bridge on Highway M until about 10 years ago, when that one was replaced with yet another anonymous guardrail bridge that could be anywhere. The skies are dark and looming at the moment, much like the rest of this school break, but hopefully between storms, I can do my photo shoot. Hopefully, between frustrations, I can also figure out how to get photos here and share my work. And dare I dream? Maybe it will clear enough that I can still do my long-awaited hike in the bluffs without fear of slipping and sliding in the mud?

If nothing else, Dick has returned with the movie "Big Fish," one I've been wanting to see. As usual, I've already read the book!

October 29, 2004...warm and misty, under a nearly full harvest moon

Somehow, it seems the height of narcissism to think that anyone would have any interest in reading the musings and ravings of another person. Yet, one look at any message board on any topic will show that, like the current fascination with reality tv, blogs are a trend of the 21st century. So here I am, still without a cell phone or voice mail, yet writing a blog. As they say....
whatEVER!

What is the story of my life on this particular day? Not a whole lot; cleaning dirty bathrooms, ushering teenage sons to various events, welcoming a husband home from a funeral for a family member. Hearing the stories of that event from his perspective. Oh, and becoming totally absorbed in a book. Wicked, by Gregory Maguire, to be exact. Elphaba has just declared that she MUST get the shoes of Nessarose back from the girl Dorothy. I first heard of this book when I took a creativity workshop this past summer at Valley Ridge Art Studio.

Valley Ridge Art Studio

Karen Wallace was presenting her workshop, Reclaiming Your Ruby Red Slippers. To begin, each participant chose one of the characters from The Wizard of Oz, not giving the choice much thought but grabbing the figure of choice instinctively. I took the Wicked Witch. As a storyteller, I explained when my turn came, I felt that most often, characters such as she were simply misunderstood, and in fact, were FAR more interesting than the supposed heroines. At that point, Karen told me about the book. I sought it out, and next in my pile are two more of his retellings, Mirror Mirror and Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister. How I would love to create a book club with other storytellers to read and discuss any and all of these books. I've heard some say they didn't care for the concept of Wicked, as it simply would ruin a much loved story. But didn't the Hollywood movie do the same thing? Wasn't the original series of books somewhat a veiled allegory for repressive viewpoints of the times?

To my mind, Wicked is a rich and detailed story, full of depth and inventiveness. It's one of those novels that allows the reader to ponder Serious Themes, such as the origins or even definition of evil. Give it a read; just make sure you don't have other things to do, since your household will have to wait!