Famous Last Words: Just Making It By - Week 12

(Permanent Tiredness; online source, www.funnycaptions.com) 

     Well, this week has been a little bit better, depending on which aspect of life I'm looking at. I'm still "sick" with really bad allergies. I can't stop coughing and I'm having a difficult time breathing most of the time. However, I am feeling slightly better and I've got an appointment set up for next week with an allergist to get the ball rolling on a new allergy test. Hopefully they can pinpoint what my problem is and give me something to help make me feel better soon.

     School has been okay this week. I didn't do any reading or write a weekly story for mythology, because I've got plenty of points so I decided to take a break from the class. Mostly, it's because my computer decided to fail on me. The month before finals isn't really the best time for this to happen, so I'm really frustrated. I lost several homework assignments for my Spanish class and I borrowed my mom's laptop to help me scrape by for the time being. They said it could be April 29th before I get my computer back. *sigh* I'm just trying to make the best of a not so great situation, using the time I have this weekend to try and catch back up on my Spanish homework. I'm not very confident in my Spanish skills right now, but I'm slowly working towards improving. I am a lot happier with my mythology storybook project this week than I initially was. I was having some major writers block, but I think I worked through it and the end product turned out pretty good.

     This weekend has been frustrating too. I agreed to trade shifts with a co-worker to help her out, but I did not realize I had a late night overtime shift the night before. So, I ended up working until 2:00AM today and had to be back at work again for a 10 hour shift at 6:15AM. Since I couldn't get anyone to take my overtime shift for me, I had to work both shifts. I took my pillow and blanket to work and slept in my car for about 2.5 hours. I'm pretty exhausted at this point, so I'm finishing up this assignment and heading to bed!!

Famous Last Words: No Motivation - Week 11

(No motivation; online source, www.presby.edu) 

     I can breathe again!!! I’m still not feeling terrific, but after my hospital visit last Sunday, I’m at least “better”. They gave me two steroid shots at the hospital and I’ve started a new prescription allergy medication along with a new nasal spray daily. I’m not really sure which things have really made the biggest difference, but I’m happy that I’m at least getting there. I’m still coughing a lot though, which is frustrating. I’ve been sick for somewhere around 2 and a half weeks from all of this. So I’ve requested a new allergy referral so I can get testing done and figure out what I’m having such a bad allergic reaction to this year. It is miserable though!

     I got a little behind again while I was so sick the last couple of weeks. For the first time this semester, I missed one of my reading assignments in this class. I promised myself that I would make it up later in the week, but I didn’t. I also ended up doing story planning for a couple of my story posts, which I told myself I wouldn’t do, because I wanted to write actual stories as much as possible throughout this course. I’m doing well on points though, so I shouldn’t be too upset about it. I’m just a little disappointed in myself is all… Going into week 12, I’m honestly not sure that I’m going to locate my motivation again before the end of the semester… For example, it’s technically Sunday of week 11 now and I haven’t finished my project assignment for this week yet. Which means I’ll be doing that tomorrow on the last day of the week. I’m hoping to prove myself wrong and try to get motivated again in the next few days. Other than that, I’m doing well in school. I think I’m behind by one homework / practice assignment in Spanish but I’ll get that caught up this week too, hopefully.

     On a slightly more somber note, it has not been a great week at work. As many of you probably remember, I’m a 9-1-1 dispatcher. So, when I say I’ve had a bad work week, you usually don’t want to ask questions. I’ll just say that sometimes my job is mentally taxing. Some of the things I’m exposed to regularly, people don’t want to see in their worst nightmares. I’m not complaining, because I really love what I do. I tend to keep a cool exterior and I think I deal well with the things I’m exposed to but occasionally, the emotions I’ve been blocking out force their way in and I’m forced to face them. This has been one of those week where I just have to face the reality of the horrific world we live in. I just have to remember to take care of my mental health first and foremost. I've found myself in a pretty dark place due to my job at some point in the past. So, I have to make sure and work through any negative emotions I'm feeling so I don't go back there again. =)

Week 11 Story Planning: Inner Beauty

Image coming soon...

     This week I read the "Canterbury Tales" set of stories. I noticed a romance theme throughout most of the stories involved in the first half of the reading and I thought this would be the perfect section for me to use for my storytelling this week. I love romance stories and I enjoy writing them, so it works out. I think I'm going to write a story based on "The Wife of Bath's Tale: The Unknown Bride" next week. I think there is a lot of potential for a more metaphorical style of writing and that tends to be something I like to do, so it fits. In the original story, a knight was condemned to his death because he treated a woman very poorly. However, for some reason all the women in the land particularly liked him and begged the King to spare the man. The King gave in and ended up leaving the man's fate to the Queen who determined that the knight could be spared IF he could come back to her in one year's time and tell her what it is woman wish for most. In the end, on the very last day of the year, the knight happened across an old lady that tells him the answer. Once he was freed from his death sentence, she announced that he would be in her debt since she saved his life. She wants him to take her as his wife and he's mortified because she is old and plain. He agrees to marry her, however, and in the end she turns into a beautiful woman. In my story next week, I'd like to rewrite this story in a unique way. I think my story will be more metaphorical than the original. The young man will probably just be a commoner and he won't be set to death or anything like that. He will just be searching for love in the wrong ways (looking for outward beauty) and will need to find his way to the right path eventually. I don't want to give too much away but it should be fun to write and hopefully fun for you all to read!

Characters
A young man, looking for love in all the wrong ways and a few love interests. I want to keep a fairly simple character set on this one. The love interests may even just be mentioned in passing, rather than actually described in any manner. I really want to focus in more on the young man and his journey to discovering what true inner beauty is and how much better it is to hold than outward appearances.

Plot
The young man will be looking for love by going after the most beautiful women he can find, but he will never feel satisfied with his romantic situation. He will eventually see that he's been looking for the wrong things all along and find his way to seeing his true love's inner beauty.

Setting
There probably won't be too clear of a setting with this one. Again, I just want to focus in on true inner beauty and how important that aspect is in life. I'd like to write this in a way that allows the reader to kind of place the story wherever they see fit. It could be in a small village or a big city or wherever the reader feels it fits best.

I’m hoping to use this story to exemplify all kinds of beauty and shine a light on the most important kind, the beauty we all hold within ourselves.

Source
"The Wife of Bath's Tale: The Unknown Bride" as retold by Eva March Tappan in "The Chaucer Story Book"

Reading Notes: Canterbury Tales, Part B

   

(Fool me twice, shame on me; Online source, www.whisper.sh)

     All I can really say about this section is that I'm honestly just really confused. I had a really hard time taking much from this reading of use for me in my own writing. Most of the stories I couldn't get one main point from and I had a hard time reading them.

     The one main thing I can pull from these is that we should be careful who we trust, because often times we are easily fooled.

     "The Prioress's Tale: Little Hugh" was beautiful and well written but I'm not sure that it's something I'd really use as inspiration in my own writing.

     "Nun's Priest's Tale: The Cock, the Hen, and the Fox" was one that I mostly just took "don't be easily fooled" from. I liked the idea of someone having premonitions in their dreams, so I could possibly use that in a story but most of this story just seemed really long and drawn out to me.

     Finally, "The Canon's Yeoman's Tale: The Priest as Philosopher" was really confusing for me to read. Again, I took that we're prone to easily be fooled but I honestly didn't take much from this reading. I'll definitely be using the first half of the reading for my story telling this week!

Source

"Canterbury Tales" as retold by Eva March Tappan in "The Chaucer Story Book"

Reading Notes: Canterbury Tales, Part A

(Love Is In the Air; Online source, www.goodmorningtextmessages.com)

     This week I chose to read the Canterbuy Tales section. I really enjoyed the stories and felt they were easy to read and provided a lot of good material to be used as inspiration for my writing.

     One thing I really liked in this section was that there seemed to be an overarching theme about the importance of love weaved into most of the stories. Some in particular really stand out to me, such as "The Wife of Bath's Tale: The Unknown Bride" and "The Franklin's Tale: The Promise of Dorigen".

     Some were more obvious than others but they all spoke to me in a similar way. I felt these stories were written in a way that makes them easy to read, which in turn makes them easier to understand and ultimately to write from reading. "The Wife of Bath's Tale: The Unknown Bride" was one I found particularly enjoyable and I really liked the moral of the story. If I were to use this story to write from, I'd probably use a very similar story-line without the mythical involvement. I think I'd like to just use a metaphorical style for this one, where the woman doesn't really change form at all.  The man would see her differently in the end, because he would finally see her inner beauty instead of her outward appearance.

     I also found "The Franklin's Tale: The promise of Dorigen" very inspiring and heart-touching. Love is shown in so many different ways in this story, Dorigen for her husband, he for her, Aurelius for Dorigen, and even in large part the magician for Aurelius when he frees him of his promise to pay for the magician's services.

     I also really liked the irony used in "The Pardoner's Tale: The Revelers". The young men went on search for Death, trying to kill him and in the end Death outsmarted them all and took each of their lives. I'm not really sure what I might be able to do with this one for my own writing but I did enjoy reading it and would like to find some way of incorporating the theme into my writing.

Source

"Canterbury Tales" as retold by Eva March Tappan in "The Chaucer Story Book"

Famous Last Words: Sick and Tired of Being Sick and Tired - Week 10

(Fry [Futurama] meme; online source, www.imgflip.com) 

     Week 10 of the semester in the books! I’m still struggling with my health this week. I can barely breathe and I can’t stop coughing. My head is congested and it sounds like I’m in a weird bubble and everything I hear is outside the bubble. Lol. My doctor said it is just severe allergies, which I’ve struggled with for most of my life, but I’m still not convinced. At one point this last week, I completely lost my voice just from drainage and dry coughing. Obviously, since I talk on the phone for a living, that wasn’t an ideal situation. My doctor changed my allergy meds and gave me a prescription for antibiotics in case things got worse over the weekend while they’re closed. I decided to go ahead and start the antibiotics, because things seemed to just keep getting worse. I’m still feeling pretty awful right now, but hopefully that will change soon. ***edit*** I ended up in the ER last night, April 2nd, due to all of this. They still think it's all just very severe allergies. They gave me two steroid shots at the hospital and they definitely helped calm my cough down. I'm still not feeling real great yet but it's a start! I should at least make it to school this week, so that'd definitely a small step up at the least!

     On a similar note, most of you probably remember that my husband and I moved at the beginning of March. Getting my medications filled has been a nightmare. I use Walmart pharmacy usually. I asked for them to be sent to my new pharmacy at the Walmart close to my house in Yukon. Then I got THREE separate texts about my meds being ready. One was ready at the old Walmart that I used to go to all the way in Newcastle (about 30 miles from my current house), one was ready at the Walmart I requested, and the third was ready at still ANOTHER Walmart (which I’ve never been to in my life)!!! So I tried to get them all pulled over to the right one… and I still don’t have them, because they’re now saying my insurance won’t cover “another” refill on the meds until next month (because they’re counting the first fill at the wrong stores as actual fills). *Sigh* Long story short… never move. HAHA. Just kidding. This is frustrating but it isn’t the end of the world.

     This week in school wasn’t too exciting. I missed two classes because of this sinus / sickness / whatever this is that’s going on. Hopefully I don’t regret that too much next week… My reading for Mythology and Folklore was exciting and terrifying a little this week. I read Native American stories this week and for some reason I was very nervous that I would write something offensive. Most of this unit seemed to be very grounded in religion, so I guess it just struck me as culturally important material that I didn’t want to ruin. I guess I kind of took the “easy” road by writing “A Forbidden Love”. I hoped this story would bring to light the very serious issue of how stigmatic mental illness still is but the original didn’t feel as seriously grounded in something spiritually important to the Native American culture. So, it felt “safe” to use “The Bear-Woman” as a source story.