Friday, 01 February 2002

Clarion classmate Beth Adele Long asked some folks for freewrites on certain specific words. She plans to use them as raw material for something she wants to put up on the Turbocharged Fortune Cookie web site.

I found myself writing about Hamid Karzai's capes. Aren't those great looking? I've always loved capes and have long been bitter that a grown man wearing a cape is about as lame as it gets. But Afghanistan's interim president has shown is that it needn't be so. It is possible to wear a cape and look great. Maybe I just need a great-looking green or blue or purple silk cape, but I think there's more to it than that. Part of the key may be wearing it over a suit. The best cape in the world would still look lame over a t-shirt and shorts.

I wrapped up my rewrite and printed out my final draft. I hadn't quite gotten it all packaged up and ready to go, but I didn't want to admit that here, and that was enough to prompt me to take the last steps. So, that's done.

That gets me back up to six stories out. I have one that came back a few days ago. I'll get it back out tomorrow. I'd have done it this evening, but I'm torn about where to send it next.

It's my mom's birthday. I called her in the middle of the afternoon to wish her a happy birthday. My nephew Daniel, who is three and a half, answered the phone. We had a pretty good talk, although I couldn't really understand most of what he was saying. I wasn't sure if he understood what I was saying either. In any case, he didn't manage to get my mom on the phone. He did understand when I said "good bye" and answered "bye bye" himself.

I ended up sending my mom happy birthday email.