Garage Band...And Other Thoughts...

One of the great things about my iMac is its music software known as Garage Band. Apparently, one can play piano, guitar or download art lessons from the Web. I've always loved music, and sang in a couple of choirs growing up. During my high school years, I took basic music theory by correspondence, eventually learning to sight read.

Unfortunately, I grew up with a mother who found piano practice horrible and abandoned the piano, never to return. When as a little girl, I asked for lessons, I was told they were a waste of money. The same was said when I asked whether I might learn to ride a bicycle. My art classes in high school were seen merely as a means to obtain extra credits toward graduation, as were the English classes in which my teachers encouraged the writing of essays, short stories and poems. Though I continued to receive praise for these from students and teachers alike, my parents said little.

It was not until my first foray into graduate education that I stumbled into a small newspaper job on campus. It involved clerical tasks rather than writing but did open the door for feature writing and producing a regular op-ed column, both of which solidified my writing skills, garnering regular readers as well as a stalker, at one point.  There were companies and individuals in search of writers and while freelancing did not make me rich, it provided a respectable living and a portfolio of published work which grew with time and experience.

Because a freelancer is always in search of work and must always make the monthly bills, I became adept at budgeting, both time and money. Living on a shoestring meant that I could not travel, expect health insurance or spend on "extras." It also meant, however, that I was the one in control of my time, something my friends in the corporate world envied. A recession in the mid-nineties sent me into the job market for several years, working several lower wrung jobs for which this state is well known. I began looking for opportunities to leave and while I was granted interviews elsewhere, hiring never followed.

I wrote PR pieces and marketing copy, eventually realising the love-hate nature of my relationship to writing. It, like other endeavors, was seen as a means to an end. Rarely, if ever, did I focus on the creative aspect. It seemed, upon reflection, that I had absorbed the idea that writing for the "fun" of it, an attitude which characterized my earliest days as a writer, was frivolous, something gleaned from the parental silences of my adolescence.

Writing, like the love of music in my youth, took a backseat to earning more money when I could find work. Now, having removed myself from that world, time is once again in abundance. A friend recently asked what I would like to do. I quite characteristically responded with a list of ideas which had been popping in my head:

Go to Europe
Learn Hebrew and French
Keep reading and writing in Spanish
Learn to play the electronic Chess game that came with my iMac
Find out how to use Garage Band
Write more interesting posts and return to the story I was working on several months ago...
Swim and work with a trainer

We'll see...

As for more interesting posts, it seems my comments have been decreasing...

Until Next Time...

Where I Was Today...

Does this sculpture resemble DNA? According to the guide at the Morsani Center, that is what it is supposed to be...It was created by Art students at the University near my home. It is certainly eye-catching. According to the dermatologist, I have great skin, and I do not have to see him until next October unless something changes.

Where were you today?