Ryan & Brittany » School

The ABCs of Brittany

Brittany — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 02:41:10 +0000

This was the BEST semester I’ve had at Hollins yet. Here is a fun exercise from my memoir writing class. We wrote the ABCs of our life from our childhood point of view. This is a simple and easy writing prompt if you want to try your hand at it. Here is mine (ps this is the first time EVER that I’ve posted my creative writing):

A is for absent minded
toes digging in white sand.

B is for basketball talking,
playing,
watching—
my boyfriend’s mistress.

C is for “So, you’re a Clark,” said
by every school teacher.

D is for dandelions dancing down
my arm in a yellow streak.

E is for earth beneath
my back cool and soft, glowing
with bug’s ephemeral light.

F is for full-figured
raspberries picked
fresh from Uncle’s farm.

G is for grass flying
off cleats scoring
a GOAL!

H is for high on that rock. “Help!
I’m stuck” at the top
for fear
of the drop.

I is for my summer island. I dream
of bike rides
for bagels.
I want to go
back.

J is for jump, tuck and roll
from the roof at night.

K is for kayaking on the ocean with butterflies
fluttering towards
the shore.

L is “I like
like you.
I
love
you.”

M is for milk,
gagging you with
its ‘lk’ in your
throat.

N is for ‘nasty’ a fun
word to say.

O is for ‘ostracize’ my first
big word.

P is for “Pretty, what an unusual name.”
“No, I said Brittany.”

Q is for quizzical looks. Practice
like so: lift one eyebrow
or squeeze both together.

R is for rollered-hair. The worst
kind of sleep.

S is for the sacred word:
sisters.

T is for tunneling through
snow high
as my head.

U is for all those days
I called out ugly
from school.

V is for hand-sewn deep
red velvet doll made
from mother’s
wedding dress.

W is for wishies whisked up
and away on the wind.

X is for xeric Utah
I can’t
breathe out here.

Y is for “OOPS, AM I TALKING
TOO LOUD?”

Z is for the Zipper trapping
me inside
with my friend
who peed
and cried.

Another Semester

Brittany — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 21:18:54 +0000

Ryan is starting his 3rd year at the end of this month, and I am starting my fourth in September. Ryan first has to finish his qualification exams. Ugh, someone please hangout with me while I am a “single mom” that week. After two relatively easy first years at UNC, I am prepping myself for Ryan’s last few to be busy and difficult.

At least I have my studies. I skipped Hollins this summer to acclimate myself to mommyhood, and now, it’s back to the grind with an online class about Middlegrade novel writing. Maybe this will be the age group I write my thesis for. I better choose quickly or I will become an eternal grad student…which doesn’t sound too bad if it weren’t for all the loans piling up.

Summer’s Almost Over

Brittany — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 23:31:37 +0000

I have one week left of classes, and I can’t wait. This year at Hollins has been fun, but I am ready for it to be over. We are headed out to Ryan’s family reunion at the beginning Aug, then off to San Diego for a few days, then to my family reunion, and finally back home so Ryan can start school again. Hahaha, I love going to school for 6 weeks. Ryan is such a sucker.
We can’t wait to be back with all our friends.

Roanoke, VA, Here We Come!

Brittany — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 15:04:16 +0000

Ryan and I have been searching around Roanoke, VA for the past few months trying to find someone willing to rent to us for only 6 weeks while I go to school. No apartment complexes were accommodating, so we had to think creatively. We found a few motels, extended stay hotels, corporate housing, and vacation rentals. Our first trip to VA was very disheartening and disgusting. The weekly rental motels were something out of a horror movie. The “kitchen” area of the room had creepy little critters waiting to greet us. They were just hanging out on their backs with their legs kicking in the air on the linoleum floor.

Gag.

We ran out of there and decided to do some more searching for our next trip up. Last Saturday we had some good prospects lined up, and we struck gold. We found a beautiful, quite, serene, relaxing lake house that is fully furnished. The owner agreed to rent to us for just 6 weeks. There are 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms and a hot tub, plus dishes and a washer and dryer.

We saw this dream house in the afternoon and still had a few appointments. But even our next stop at a creepy man’s house could not sway us with the grand tour of his basement (that Ryan couldn’t even stand up in) with no walls in the “bathroom,” two nasty cats roaming around, and a sheet hanging up as a divider; his mom (yes he lives with his mom) tried to seal the deal with Ryan by scratching her boobs while she was smoking in our faces and giving us a wary eye. It was a tough call, but the lake house won.

We are so excited not to be staying in a skeevy motel for my time at grad school. This place will definitely help me as I take on my first creative writing class. Hopefully we can send more pictures of the place as we live there for the next month. Now all we need is to get our hands on some kind of boat. Anyone have a canoe?

What I’m Reading

Brittany — Thu, 21 May 2009 15:09:16 +0000

Another summer at Hollins. Hooray for me. I am taking my first creative writing course this semester and a Tomboy’s in Children’s Lit. course. It is so nice taking only two courses a semester, and both classes are in the afternoon. I am going to be one lazy dude this summer. Here is my list of books for the semester:

Little House on the Prairie
Little Women
The Secret of Shadow Ranch (the old and new versions)
What Have You Lost?
What Katy Did
Deliver Us from Evie
Caddie Woodlawn
The Hidden Hand or, Capitola the Madcap (American Women Writer’s Series)
Lost in the Tunnel of Time (Ziggy and the Black Dinosaur)
Uncle Elephant
Canto Familiar
On the Fringe
Who Put That Hair in My Toothbrush
I am the Messenger
Bud, Not Buddy
Places I Never Meant to Be: Original Stories by Censored Writers
Rattletrap Car
Water Steps
When I Was Young in the Mountains
And whatever scholarly articles, last minute books, blogs or whatever my teachers decide fits the mood of the moment.

I only have 4 weeks to complete the list, and then I’m off.

Another Semester Down…

Brittany — Tue, 12 May 2009 23:51:30 +0000

Only a few years to go! We did it; we finished another semester. I am so relieved I could squeal like a pig. I took on two distance ed classes, one of which I had to create the syllabus for. I felt like I was cheating making my own assignments. I didn’t get to grade myself, but I did get to direct my learning. I love my school. It really encourages creativity, personal interests, and practical uses for writers.

Ryan is done with his first year of grad school, and he got EXCELLENT grades. I am so proud of him. Woo boy! What a fast year. Thank goodness we love it here, because we have a ways to go.

Mr. Moms in the NY Times

Brittany — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 15:07:52 +0000

This is an article I read for my mother class. So much good can come from hard times. Human resiliency is amazing.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/23/fashion/23dads.html?_r=1&pagewanted=1&th&emc=th

A Dose of Sunshine

Brittany — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 21:47:42 +0000

We are living in a time when Pediatricians need to medicate children with a healthy dose of free-play. Read this article:
http://www.aap.org/pressroom/playFINAL.pdf

Simply Messing about in Boats

Brittany — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 00:14:11 +0000

The Wind in the Willows is supposed to be such a great classic. A book for boys of all ages and times. I do not think this is a kid’s book at all. It is a book for adults who cannot let go of their childhood. A book for adults who idealize the freedom of children and wish they could go “simply messing about in boats” forever. Rat says this phrase at the beginning of the novel to Mole, and it made me think about all the adults who do their own messing about in boats in order to hold onto their childhood. Here is what I mess about with:

Swinging on swings

Seesawing

Playing in a pile of leaves

Reading children’s literature

Suddenly bursting into a run while on errands. Usually, Ryan is with me so he either has to run to catch up or be left in the dust.

Making sand castles

Twirling in a dress when no one is looking

Quoting undeniably childish things, ex.: Meatloaf, meatloaf, double beatloaf. The nonsense ones are killer

What are you messing about with?

Mother-Hood

Brittany — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 15:19:31 +0000

I am taking an online course this semester for graduate school. I am studying mothers and mother figures in literature for children. I wondered what the suffix -hood means. I looked it up on m-w.com and found -hood means these things:

1 : state : condition : quality : character

2 : time : period

3 : instance of a (specified) state or quality

4 : individuals sharing a (specified) state or character

The online dictionary didn’t use “motherhood” as an example for any of these. I think that is because motherhood is all of these.

Living in married student housing with so many other LDS people makes me feel that number 2 is the induction to motherhood. Once you have a baby you live in the time of motherhood forever after. Then you move on to number 4 and become part of the club. Move to married student housing and you will see motherhood is a clique. Not that any of this is necessarily bad, only that motherhood is exclusive. Number 1 and 3 are a matter of pride and living up to the ideal mother image.