Blogging with Summer Institute 2008

Writing into the Day and Welcome to Tuesday:

Baggage

From Panning for Gold in the Kitchen Sink

For every person who brags about spending a summer traveling around the country with nothing but a small backpack containing three pairs of socks and a camera, there is another person who packs an entire wardrobe for a two-week stay at a nearby beach.  When we pack, we are forced to confront our essential natures.  The classic worrier hides traveler’s checks in the three separate bags and memorizes his credit-card numbers in case they are stolen.  The workaholic packs an extra batter-pack for her laptop. And the serious sightseer brings three different travel guides.
Still, we make mistakes, anticipating formal dinners only to wind up eating fast food.  We forget that drugstores exist in other cities, and even other countries, and we scoop up handfuls of trial size bottles of shampoo and shaving cream and line our suitcases with them only to take half of them back home again.
And no matter how well we think we’ve packed, most of us have had the experience of forgetting something as basic as a toothbrush or as important as the first page of a report for a business presentation.

Panning Instructions:
1. Make a list of several items you have forgotten to pack for a vacation or business trip.
2. Make a second list of items you have packed but didn’t need or use once you got to your destination.
3. Make a third list of unlikely things either to pack or to forget to pack for a trip. For example, a pink flamingo, my first-grade report card, or a towel Mick Jagger wiped his forehead with.

Excavating Instructions: Psychologists claim we all carry psychic “baggage” around with us—wounds from our childhoods, betrayals by ex-lovers.  Make a list of the baggage you carry.  For example, anger from that time my father grounded me for two weeks when I got caught shoplifting, or sadness from my mother’s death.

Pack the story, poem, or essay that you begin by bringing emotion to your writing One way of doing this is to have the items you have either forgotten or remembered become metaphors for an enduring feeling.
The Diary of a Fly on the Wall Log for 7/21/08

8:35 a.m.

Wow, this place is a piece of cake, easy to sneak in!! A lady was coming in the door with so much stuff in her arms that she needed help to get in. She was so busy with all her stuff, books, a roll of big white paper, markers, what a pile of stuff. She must be important. She distracted everyone, so no one noticed little old me slip in….

Everybody was so busy, something about a halfway point, and “how you’ve changed as a writer during this institute”. This must be the institute, and they must be writing at those little tables. Humans are wierd, but at least they don’t notice me when they’re busy writing.

A lady named Bonnie asked for something called “two volunteers”, and I know how to count, and she only got one. But everyone laughed at that one volunteer when she said, “Am I nuts? I am retired. Why am I working so hard?”

Then a lady named Mary read something off the screen, about antipasta and primi at a tratoria. I didn’t understand much, but again everyone laughed when Lilah’s cortisone creme “provided relief in a war zone” and Mary’s secondi was a ,,,”Old Lady Terri who can’t hear a blessed thing.”

Then came a different kind of laughing that was more complicated, I think. A lady named Cathy stood up to read more words off that big screen. Everyone laughed at her “Hamstermobile that went 0-60mph in 8 minutes”, and her “note to self” to “kick Steve’s ass”. I noticed the laughing started changing when she said “giving birth was easier than this” and “I am so totally, completely screwed.” At the end, we saw a picture of her and two other people in front of some big rocks. She had her long middle finger straight up in the air, and the laughing got even louder. I’ve noticed that finger really gets humans going, but I’m not sure why.

Then a bunch of people showed a bunch more pictures. It looked like what humans call a “travelogue” to me, but the funny thing was they all looked like they were doing that writing thing again.

The really good thing about all of this is I can just fly around, and check everyone out, with no fear. They’re all too busy to notice little old me.

The best part of the day came next. So, I was right about that lady with all that stuff that wouldn’t fit through the door. She was important, real important! And her name was Paulette.

Her part came next. She said she wore “three hats” except she seemed to be wearing none. The hats were: an Army captain, a social worker, and a teacher. She posted long white sheets all over the room, then everyone got to read books about, guess what….a spider, a worm, and a fly!!!! Humans actually write books about guys like me, and boy, are they funny. My favorite part was the story of Melvin, the fly who gets sick on a regurgitated sandwich, so all his buddies send him a get well card. I also liked the part about the spider “avoiding the wrath of the vacuum cleaner”, and the “worm poop” that “makes plants grow”. Sometimes humans and flies can laugh at the same things.

Paulette, the important lady, seemed to be doing an experiment. I think she was trying to show how something called “science notebooks” help kids learn science better. All the humans loved the drawings of the “life cycle” created by a girl named Mia, but I wasn’t impressed because she left out flies.. How stupid is that?

Everyone applauded after the important lady finished, then everyone was quiet, writing again at those little tables.

The morning was fun for me. While they were so busy with “content area literacy”, whatever that is, I was quietly nibbling on scrumptious chocolate muffins and croissants. Gourmet grub for us flies!

A boss lady named Mary said everyone had “air time” until lunch, and then everyone would meet back in the computer room at 1:40. I hope those muffins are still around then….

1:40. This room is coooool, but where’d those muffins go?. A man named Steve is teaching everybody how to create what he calls a “wikispace” which he shows them on this huge screen. My little fly brain is starting to spin: “no spaces, no capitals, public, protected, private, word walls. unit based discussion, student publishing.” He finally paused, and said, “Wikispace helps me get my act together”. Right about then I was dreaming about those chocolate muffins, then he started up again with “What is love?’ and all these pictures of humans in wierd clothes, kissing and wielding swords. By the time he got to “Film as a Modern Mythology” and student-generated “Code of Ethics”, I was looking for a quick exit. This place might be cool, but where’s the muffins?

Back to the man named Steve, who’s telling everyone about about “coordinating wikis with other districts” and allowing absent Meghan to find an “electronic niche” with the class wiki. He said he “learned this technology by experimenting by the seat of my pants”. How does that work?

The humans were quiet for awhile. I guess they were playing with their wikis. I was safe, but had my eye on the door for a quick exit…so boooring!

Than a lady named Bonnie jazzed it up by telling everyone they had to come back from “cyberland”. She showed everyone how to write on their “SI blogs” . She called what they were writing a “process piece” . I noticed that Paulette, that important lady from the morning, was writing about spiders and flies. She must love us!

The last thing I heard was those two important boss ladies talking about having a glass of wine or a double martini. I know that means the end of the work day in the human world.

Humans sure are wierd, and boring, too. Gotta get out of this “cyberland” so I can at least score some muffin crumbs.

Susan Logger

Digital Documenter: Diane

Logger: Susan