Feeling Too Lazy...

So I'm already sucking it up with the whole "daily" thing.  In my defense, it was a three-day weekend after all.  And my labor day was actually extremely productive considering it's supposed to be a day you don't work.  But anyway, maybe my laziness from the weekend is carrying over because while I am supposed to be using my writing journal to come up with ideas for a picture book, I think I'm going to just free-write instead.

OK now the idea of free-write is to just write down whatever pops into your head, and in my case, hope to heaven that it's interesting.  Unfortunately, nothing is magically making itself manifest in my head at the present.  Except that yesterday we finally broke out our grill.  Happy faces all around!  It was great, we took it out of the box and found a million little pieces to put it all together with.  Andrew was like, "Oh look it's just 8 easy steps!"  And I was like... "I still have to put the ice cream away..."  (we'd just got home from a grocery trip to Target).  Anyway, it wasn't as bad as it sounds to put it all together and soon enough we were barbecuing up some burgers, brats, and corn on the cob.  Combine that with the most delicious watermelon I have ever had and it was heaven.  What I'm wondering now is why we didn't break it out before...  I'm sorry I can't remember who gave us the grill as a wedding present, but whoever you are, you are my new best friend...

Anyway, I'm trying to think of something else...and all I've got is how freaking excited I am for the new Harry Potter movie.  I mean seriously, seriously excited.  I keep reading early reviews from the first screening of the movie in Chicago and they all say it is the most perfect Potter movie yet.  And that's coming from some really hard-core Harry Potter enthusiasts.  And that's without all the special effects finished and without a score!  Does anyone know when tickets go on sale, because I am SO there!!!  In the words of some people much more clever than I, "It's going to be totally awesome!"

OK so it looks like I am going to work on my picture book a little bit because an idea just popped right into my head.  Hooray!  So in class the other day, our guest lecturer read us an example of a picture book that did everything wrong.  It was about a boy named Freddie and how he got hit by a car and broke his arm because he ran into the road after a ball.  He comes home and he has magically learned his lesson, not only about running into the road, but about all safety lessons.  It listed all of these safety rules that kids should follow and it was the most ridiculous, patronizing thing I've ever heard.  It actually got published because guess who it's by?  Danielle Steel...figures.

Sorry all you Danielle Steel fans but them's the breaks.  So anyway I was thinking maybe I'd try to do a safety-based story from my own life but without all the problems that we discussed with Ms. Steel's book.  So here's the story:

When I was 4, we were going to have my birthday party at a little park in Murrieta.  It was in the middle of a ravine, just off a busy road.  To get to it, you had to go down a steep asphalt road that was poorly paved and therefore often covered with gravel.  I was so excited to get to my birthday party--I ran down the hill as fast as my little four-year-old legs could carry me.  But there were some loose stones and dirt and about half-way down the hill I tripped and went tumbling down.  When I'd stopped sliding down the hill, my head hurt and I was stunned.  I didn't even lift my head.  My parents had been walking sensibly and were still at the top of the hill.  It felt to me like they were a mile away and there was no way they could get to me in time.  I remember thinking, "This is it.  I'm going to die."  What's funny is that to a little four-year-old's mind, that isn't as sad as it would be to you or me:  I was pretty resigned to my fate.  But then this big, strong stranger lifted me off the sharp asphalt and carried me up the hill to my parents.  I remember he was blonde and I think he had a bit of facial hair.  Anyway, he took me to my parents, they said thank you, etc.  As he was leaving, I said, "Thank you for saving my life."  He laughed and said, "Anytime," and walked away.

I ended up with a pretty good gash on my head.  I'd never seen so much blood at once before and it scared me silly.  Every time I went to that park after that, I was sure to walk very, very slowly...But of course I still ran down every other hill I came across...That last part won't be in the story though...

PS. I believe it was this particular incident that finally made my mom decide I was too clumsy for my own good, and made her decide to put me in ballet in a desperate attempt to make me more graceful.  FYI--it didn't work.