Technical Assistance Please...

image by Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

This post is specifically for my fellow bloggers...an SOS if you will.  I put out a cry for help on Facebook, but unfortunately to no avail. 

If you read this blog regularly, you may have noticed that I recently changed my template.  Blogger is now offering new designer templates.  I'm very happy with the look of the blog, but ever since I changed to the new template, I'm having some difficulties with a couple of the features.

First, I used to be able to click on my gadgets in the sidebar and they would immediately link  to their respective websites.  For some reason, it's not doing that anymore.  The URL addresses are all correctly written, and I've tried numerous times, but it won't link! I'M SO FRUSTRATED!

Second, some of the images I use start off centered in the center of the post, and then, for some reason, they move over and there's this extra white area surrounding and adding to the photo! I hate it.  It's driving my Virgo sensibilities crazy!

Can anyone help?  I've posted on the Google Blogger Help forum and no one has come to my aid.  Infuriating!  I don't really want to go back to the old template, but I may have to if I can't get these features to work properly. 

Hoping to hear from you kind-hearted souls out there!  Thank you in advance for your help!

Write On!

photo by slim arts girl

I submitted a proposal to teach a playwrighting course online and it was accepted!  I'm excited.  Now the work begins...I need to submit the curriculum and an outlined lesson plan by the end of the week.  When all of that is approved, and I know for certain the class will occur, I will post all the specifics here on the blog.

If there are any budding playwrights out there who may want to try their hand at this, I hope you'll stop by and sign up! It's a lot of fun. Even if you only have a tiny shred of theatricality coursing through your veins, you should give playwrighting a whirl.  It's a lot different than writing fiction, but equally rewarding.

I will let you know when I have all the details.  You may just be the next Tennessee Williams and not even know it!

Rest in Peace Sweet Friend...

photo by xlibber

Yesterday a dear friend of mine from days gone by passed away.  I hadn't seen or spoken to her in many years, but she lived in my heart.  Reading the tributes to her on her Facebook page, I realized she lived in many people's hearts.  She was a magical person.  I always thought so then...I know so now.

What is interesting to me, is my own grief.  We were no longer in each other's lives, yet my emotions run deep and my sadness is profound.  I suppose, with her passing, I am aware of the passing of time, and how things slip away from us before we even know it. 

She was a very bright light and loved life to its fullest.  So it does seem (I won't say unfair but maybe ironic) that one who embraced life with such gusto should be taken so young.  No one can understand these things.  We find ways to console ourselves and one another, and we move on. 

I spent a lot of time today mourning, and saying goodbye to her in my own private way.  And though I debated whether or not to blog about this very personal subject, I decided it was the least I could do to pay tribute to her.

So I send out to the Universe, my deepest gratitude for having known her, and my hope that she is truly at peace and out of pain. Rest in peace sweet friend.  You touched the lives of so many and you will be sorely missed.

Fruit and the BP Spill

photo by Steven Depolo

I don't think it's irresponsible of me to NOT talk about the BP spill.  Discussions regarding that topic are all over the internet. Photographs abound of the wild life that is being destroyed because they can't seem to figure out how to PLUG IT UP!  So...I'm not going to talk about it.  If you want to talk about it, go to another blog.

I will change the topic dramatically by discussing WATERMELON!  I once wrote a monologue about watermelon being my favorite food. I think it may very well be the ideal fruit--second only to the banana.  I had a huge bowl of watermelon today for breakfast!  Wow! Talk about summer in my mouth.  It was delish.  I have no idea what I'm doing when I pick melons....but leave it to my beloved Trader Joe's to stock fantastic, ripe, red, juicy seedless mini melons.  Nectar of the Gods.

If it seems like I'm in denial over the bigger issues and wanting to write about something as mundane as watermelon...you're wrong.  First of all, watermelon is NOT mundane; and second, I'm not denying all the pain and suffering that is occurring as I write these words...but frankly, I needed a breather.  It's all too much sometimes, don't you think?

I am continually trying to make my life simpler and that includes the constant influx of information that bombards my brain every single second of the day.  It's not denial...it's survival. I breathe.  I acknowledge.  I do what I can.  And I move forward. 

Talking about fruit makes me feel better.  Don't ask me why.  Watermelon and bananas.  How simple can you get?

Blocked?

photo by psyberartist

The images of what I want to say are swirling around in my head but the words don't come. I won't give into calling this "writer's block," because I'm not blocked. Not exactly. I'm just having difficulty finding a through-line. Finding my voice. Finding my character's voice. Telling the story!

Ok...well, that might indeed be a block. It's just that everything is very chaotic these days, up there in that old attic head of mine. Lots of cobwebs, lots of clutter. And I have tales to tell and plays that want to be written, but they're hiding in the corner, collecting dust and reluctant to be found.

How do I begin to clean out the jumbled mess up there? Where do I start? I need to sidestep the frustration, roll up my sleeves and dig in.

I'd take a deep breath, but all this dust is giving me an asthma attack...

"Word Fall" by psyberartist

The Late, Great Dorothy Parker

I turn to her when I need to be inspired and amazed...she never lets me down.  Here's two from the incomparable Mrs. Parker:

"Symptom Recital"
I do not like my state of mind;

I'm bitter, querulous, unkind.

I hate my legs, I hate my hands,

I do not yearn for lovelier lands.

I dread the dawn's recurrent light;

I hate to go to bed at night.

I snoot at simple, earnest folk.

I cannot take the gentlest joke.

I find no peace in paint or type.

My world is but a lot of tripe.

I'm disillusioned, empty-breasted.

For what I think, I'd be arrested.

I am not sick, I am not well.

My quondam dreams are shot to hell.

My soul is crushed, my spirit sore;

I do not like me any more.

I cavil, quarrel, grumble, grouse.

I ponder on the narrow house.

I shudder at the thought of men....
I'm due to fall in love again."

— Dorothy Parker

The two most beautiful words in the English language are 'cheque enclosed."

— Dorothy Parker

Some things never change, eh?

Choices...

My cluttered mind has never been more apparent than right now.  I was going to sit down and write a philosophical and meaningful post, but it came out as a mindless stream-of-conscious-rambling that bored the hell out of me; I can only imagine what it would have done for you. Click...I'm outta here....let's blow this self-indulgent pop stand!  Rantings from a very confused mind.  Maybe I should rename the blog:  Confessions of a Confused Mind.  Nah...I'll leave it. For now, anyway.

Here I am...once again at a crossroads.  Seems like I'm ALWAYS at a crossroads.  What's the matter with me? In the movie in my mind, I somehow seem to think that "this" (whatever "this" is) will be the next chapter of my life.  The next BIG moment.  And the orchestra swells, and we hear the strings, and the drums and the camera zooms in for a close-up...and then...as I gasp in anticipation... 

NOTHING happens. 

 Because it's not a movie.  It's my life.  Damn!  All this time I was hoping this was a movie.  If it were, I think it would be either an old-school Woody Allen flick, or a Wes Craven horror film.  "Don't go in there Deb...it's BAD in there."  Wouldn't that be great, if you heard that advice everytime you were about to make a terrible decision?  "Don't do it...it's bad..."

Ah well...life just doesn't work that way, does it?

I'm trying to reinvent myself; yet, it seems all the good inventions have been taken.  Anybody got any ideas?  I can use all the help I can get...