Monthly Archives: May 2010

Something that The Scorpions are up to.

I’ve been reading a ton of short fiction, especially different magazines. I’m trying to get a sense of markets and a sense of what’s being published.

I bought a magazine earlier in the week and when I was reading it on the bus, the pages were screwed up and I couldn’t finish the story. I switched to another story but the pages were still screwed up and I couldn’t finish that one either.

Today I went back to the store. I wasn’t a jerk at all. I showed them it was a printing error and asked if I could get another copy that wasn’t screwed up.

Further examination showed that every copy in the store was screwed up.

They weren’t exactly jerks but they weren’t apologetic either. I know it wasn’t their fault but I didn’t want a magazine where I couldn’t even read the stories.

They were like: well do you have the receipt? I guess we can process it as a return.

They gave me my money back. And that wasn’t even my goal. I would have taken a different fiction magazine at the same cost.

I was a little perplexed by their attitude. But I’d still go there again.

March 2010, Garmisch-Partenkirchen

Hey cool. I did something different and now I have a big giant window for my post. I can’t wait until I have oodles of time to kill and learn my way around this thing. Lynda.com here I come. Except I’m not going to have oodles of time probably ever but especially not in the next few weeks. I am so overwhelmed by my calendar I could weep. Bob mentioned one more thing we could do and I had to leave the room.

March 2010, Garmisch-Partenkirchen

On Sunday I tweaked my back. Doing yoga. Not even doing anything fun. Just easy things to get warmed up. I’m not even sure what I did.

It seems like I do a major back tweak every couple of years but this one is uniquely horrible. If I move in the just the right combination I can barely breathe. Getting around during the day isn’t too bad but at night it gets all stiff and I have to psych myself up just to roll over. This morning I walked down the hall hunched over like a woman twice my age, grunting instead of exhaling.

March 2010, Garmisch-Partenkirchen. A man with a beard saw me taking pictures and kindly introduced himself and told me he was a local tour guide. He wanted to make sure I didn’t miss the “golden roof” and then went on his way.

Meanwhile I can’t seem to cross one single thing off my list.

Our kitchen sink faucet was screwy so I bought a new doohickey and it didn’t work so then I bought another one that did work. But it eventually broke so I bought another one and it didn’t work and then I bought another one and it works but it makes a really annoying sound. And my mother’s day present is going to be late. And how come I can’t find regular brown socks at Target? The one pair in a pack of 6 different colors does not count. I don’t want black, grey, purple, blue or yellow. I want brown socks.

When I sat down I thought I was going to be able to weave all this whining into something but I seem to have failed and I really need to get to work.

Look gross or look good? It’s like a trainwreck. You can’t stop eating even though you know you should. My digestive system wasn’t sure what to think.

I have scribbled notes all over my desk that I can’t understand. One item says “side window mark”. I have no idea what that means.

Timbers friendly game last night with a Costa Rican club team. There were louder cheers for the Puntarenas goals than there were last week when the Vancouver Whitecaps were in town.

Now I’m finally got this thing back up and I’m too preoccupied to post.

I have a vague memory of someone talking about wanting to read Lynda Barry, Cruddy. I remember thinking, I used to have that book. Well, I found it. If you want to read this book you can have my copy, Drop me a note at pam(at)pamrentz(dot)com.

For the record: I am a huge Lynda Barry fan. She can do no wrong but I violently hated this book and was surprised to find I still had a copy. In fact I found a whole box of books I didn’t know I had when I did the garage cleaning.