Cathedral, Castle, Mill, Pyramid, Mosque. What do these have in common? Yep, all buildings. Also, all names of books in my home bookshelf. Yep, I’m a big fan of author, David Macaulay, who wrote and illustrated masterfully all these books.
That is why, when I noticed the advertizement about BIG DRAW occuring at the National Building Museum on Saturday, I decided to attend. The author, David Macaulay, would be speaking. Plus, it was occurring at one of my favorite spaces in DC. I did have Saturday afternoon plans but Big Draw started at 10am. Yep, I was going!
Who is David Macaulay? Being married to an architect, we own all his tall, white paperback books – Cathedral, Castle, Mill, Pyramid, Mosque, City, Underground. In each, he tells the story, accompanied with brilliant black sketched drawings, of certain structures built on our planet.
So glad I went! He even signed a copy of Castle for my granddaughter!
PS – If you find yourself in DC, I definitely recommend a visit to the National Building Museum. Just stepping into the atrium space is worth a moment. Plus, they have a lovely gift shop. If you bring along kids, they will love the hands-on lego room! Plus, David Macaulay helped design the newest exhibit, Building Stories, which “brings kids and adults alike on an immersive exploration of the world of architecture, engineering, construction, and design found in the pages of children’s books.”
“Friday, 7-9pm” the advertisement read. As I continued, it explained the poetry event was occurring at BLOOMBARS, which is located in Columbia Heights, DC. My husband is teaching Friday night and I really haven’t done anything poetry-related in a while (unlike many of the slicers who are writing a poem a day this month.) Then, I recalled how before Covid, poet, Joseph Green came to my school and did a poetry workshop for the English teachers. I remembered his powerful, deep voice. I remember his passion for words. And now he is celebrating his first published book of poetry. I clicked the event and reserved my ticket and one book.
Usually on a Friday night, I’m enjoying a slice of Friday Night pizza and relaxing on the couch, watching Jeapardy. Last Friday, I shock it up and programed my phone to an unknown address 25 minutes away from my home. The google maps’ voice started speaking, sharing left turns and right turns to follow to arrive at Bloombars. First, across the Potomac River, then up the Rock Creek Parkway, just pass the National zoo and into a a neighborhood of old row houses. I traveled down Irving Street, crossed 16th, then crossed 13th (the street my mom grew up on.) As I stopped at the traffic light, I saw the Tivoli Theater, now a Target. People of all ages were crossing the street, out walking their dog or walking home from the Metro. I turned right onto 11th and the voice from my phone announced, “You have arrived.” After circling the block, I found a spot to parallel park the car. The clock read 6:45pm.
I entered a row house turned into an event space. In front of me were stairs upstair, the risers each painted a different pastel color with a saying painted to each: “K is for kindness. J is for Joy…” Art covered the walls of the once living room and lively music played. The far side of the space was a stage with a microphone and a DJ, working his tunes. “Welcome,” a deep familiar voice proclaimed. It was Joseph and I explained how I was a teacher and he had taught me many years ago. With a twinkle in his eye, he smiled, remembering our time together. He handed me his book and I took a seat on what used to be a church pew hugging the wall to the left of the stage. And for the next 15 minutes, I read!
Joseph Green’s book, Talk Ugly and Other Poems, is a unique poetry collection. It is three poems shared graphically. Each poem is shown across about 20 pages. The graphic images and colors hold my interest as the poetic words sink in. Then in the end, the three poems appear on the page, with just text and line breaks. Then at 7:10pm, Joseph takes the stage. His thunderous voice performs the first poem. Hearing the words spoken is so powerful!
After he signed my book, I heading back to my car. As I held his book, I think about how powerful poetry is. With just the right word choices and the arrangement of the text, a reader is moved. But then add colorful images across comic-size squares. Then add my memory of having the privilege to hear the poet speak the words. A trifecta!
So glad I treated myself to poetry last Friday night. So glad Joseph Green is a published poet.
Standing outside Dorothy Hamm Middle School at 2:28pm. I watched as the moon appeared to start to cover the sun on its lower right hand side. At 2:58pm, I noticed the sun through the leaves showing shadows on the ground which matched what the partical eclipse looked like at this moment in Arlington, VA.
Grateful for a beautiful Spring day. Grateful for my school system who supplied NASA glasses for all to wear. Grateful for an administration who encouraged us to take our Period 7 students outside to enjoy the unique show in the sky.
Glad I took part in this event today. The next one is to occur in 2044. I’ll only be 81 years young!
“Hello?” I questioned as my cell phone rang and it showed my doctor was calling.
“I’m calling from the VA Hospital imaging Center. You have an order for a mammogram. Can I help you schedule that?”
“Why, yes. That would be great!” I replied in a sheepish voice, as my physical was weeks ago and I was told to call and schedule this preventative appointment. “When is your next available appointment?”
“Could you come Sunday momrning at 8:30am?”
“That would be perfect! Yes,” I answered. Sure, it is the first Sunday of my Spring Break I think to myself but I’m not traveling until Monday. And then I won’t have to take time off from work.
So this is why I found myself walking four blocks over to the hospital center two Sundays ago. I entered a brand new building, one I had watched for the past year being built. I was greeted by a friendly receptionist who told me the woman’s imaging center was to my left. Once I logging into the electronic ipad, I was called backed within minutes. I was handed a warm pink smock and directed to the changing room and the hallway of lockers to store my personal belongings. A patient technician described each step of the process and clearly directed me through the four images taken.
“We are half-way through….Now just one more, place your right hand here and turn your head to the left. I know I talk alot but I always finds it helps to know what is happening.”
“I totally agree. It does help!”
By 9am, I was walking back home, by way of my favorite bakery. Yesterday I remembered to check my patient portal and the results reported that there was nothing unusual. This is want I call A+ service!
It’s time to celebrate!! I did it!! My 11th year writing daily, posting, reading t least 3 others and leaving at least comments. Now it is time for me to reflect.
As I look across my last 30 slices, I see I wrote on these topics: my granddaughter, Aden – 10x my school – 10x my family – 3x my Spring break trip to Cleveland – 2x my reading and writing life – 2x and once each, about a cold, being nudged by cool people, and mature love.
As I look across the last 30 slices, I notice I wrote in these styles: small moment narrative – 17x poem – 1x list – 3x Bingo card – 1x photo collage – 8x
For fun, I tallied the number of comments I received – 337x – WOW!! I can’t thank YOU enough. Comments allowed me to feel seen through my words. Plus, your kind words kept me going!
As I reflect on this year as compared to the last 10, many days I simply posted, read just three others and left just three comments. The bare minimum. In past years, I know I spent many more hours reading and leaving comments. Why not the same this year? My granddaughter’s visit istracted me and in the middle of this month, I came down with a bad cold. But I can still proud that I completed the basic requirement of this challenge.
As I reflect, I was honored to read humbleswede all month. I felt as if I “meet” his mother, as he blogged about spending his last days with her. A real honor to share his grief through his wriitng.
As I reflect, I offer a special Thank You to Stacey for starting this community and keeping it going and another Thank you to Betsy, Melanie, Laine, Leah, Jenna, and Sarah for their inspiration and guidance all month long.
With the writing challenge this year ending on the last day of Spring Break and Easter, I did not plan a Slice party. However, I am celebrating with myself today, a little pat on the back! Looking ahead, I definitely plan to keep writing on Tuesdays throughout the rest of this year and into 2025 and I plan to be back here next March.
Happy Spring, all!! Let’s all keep writing and sharing the stories that only we can tell!!
I saw the invitation from Leigh Ann Eck, back on March 14th. It read, “accept my invitation to the word buffet and write a slice sharing five of your favorite words”. Today is a day I’m feeling tired from my trip to Cleveland and as Leigh Ann predicted, I might have a writing day when “ideas just aren’t coming”. Thanks to Leigh Ann’s idea, now I’m baking up my contribution to add to the buffet and calling it my slice for this last Saturday of the challenge.
Here is my addition to the word buffet:
shenanigans – silly or high-spirited behavior; mischief – for me, a fun-sounding word.
skedaddle – depart quickly or hurriedly; run away. – for me, another fun-sounding word which I learned when reading Charlie Skedaddle years ago while teaching a Civil War Book Club Unit.
discombobulated – confused and disconcerted – for me, a third fun-sounding word
curious – eager to know or learn something – for me, what I strive to be.
travel – the action of going from one place to another – for me, what I strive to do
Now, I plan to visit the Guest List and imagine “all of us slicers sitting together with our favorite notebooks and pens in hand and sharing our favorite words.” Thanks, Leigh Ann!
PS – If you ever find yourself in DC, plan a visit to Planet Word, a new museum devoted to WORDS!! It is filled with interactive galleries and exhibits that bring words and language to life in all sorts of fun ways.
As many in this community admit, I also love a good list. So the idea of choosing 10 topics and listing my top three in that category sounded easy. And on this third-to-the-last day of the March challenge, I was ready for easy. Then I spent way too much time going down rabbit holes to look at ALL the Top Threes for inspiration. I started with https://humbleswede.wordpress.com/ where I saw the first list (and smiled when I saw connections between his list and me!). I started a list of topics used by others. Soon this list was 30+ long and I only needed 10. So now I needed to do some revising. Then, once I narrowed it down to 10, I had to think of JUST three to list. Whew. This was harder than I thought. But a great brainstorming writing activity. I’m glad I did it!
Starbucks * Grande Hot Chocolate, no whip * Grande Hoeny Citrus Mint Tea * Turkey Bacon Egg White Sandwich
Smells * Lilac * Freshly Cut Grass * Rain
Months of the Year * October (birthday time!) * December (winter break time!) * July (Anniversary trip time!)
Favorite Podcasts * Wiser Than Me * 99% Invisible * Black Creators Series
Favorite Older Movies * Princess Bride * Sound of Music * The Thin Man
Sports Teams I Follow * Norfolk TIde * Baltimore Orioles * UVA Men’s Basketball
Best Series I Streamed * West Wing * This Is Us * The Wire
Last Books I Read * Freewater by Amina Luqman-Dawson * Daisy Darker by Alice Freeney * Beartown #1, #2, #3 by Fredrik Backman
Awesome Places I’ve Visited * Venice, Italy * Storm King Art Center, NY * Cordes-sur-Ciel, France
Things I Love Best To Do With Aden * reading books * singing songs * puzzles
What will you choose for your Top Ten Top Three List?
My husband’s grandfather, a Polish-American, and his grandmother, a Hungarian-American, raised my mother-in-law in suburban Cleveland. To honor them during my trip, I googled “Restaurants in Cleveland that serve pierogies”. This search led me to Prosperity Social Club. The website said they opened daily at 4pm and definitely served pierogies. This seemed like the perfect place to take my mom and her friend for an early dinner!
“You were both 3 when this restaurant opened!” I told my mom (on right) and her friend, after seeing that this restaurant has been opened since 1938. We each ordered the The Ethnic Platter: 2 pierogies, 1 stuffed cabbage roll, 1 potato pancake topped with apple-cranberry chutney, cabbage and noodles with kielbaski. Yummy!! As our dinner was served, an accordian player started playing. A true Eastern European dinner experience. So fun!
“Cheers to Spring Break in Ohio!” I said, as my mom and her friend since 4th grade raised their wine glasses with me.
Before that, we parked in front of Our Lady of the Woods retirement home and slowly strolled down the corridor to M’s room.
Before that, we sat in a booth with my mom and we enjoyed some soup and shared the appetizer platter at Applebees.
Before that, we picked out a pretty purple pot of flowers from the floral department, a bottle of wine from the wine aisle and picked out some snacks for our hotel room from Heinens grocery store.
Before that, we stopped outside of Pittsburg for a McDonald’s ice cream snack and a bathroom break.
Before that, we stopped at Breezewood, PA for lunch at Bob Evans.
Before that, I loaded my mom’s suitcase, tote bag with water bottle, her can and her walker into my car and got her situated in the passager’s seat.
Before that, I pulled into the Exxon and filled up with gas.
Before that, I used the Starbuck’s app, ordered a honey citrus tea and turkey bacon egg white sandwich as I sat at a table inside to post my 25th slice this March and add a few slicer comments.
Before that, I heard my husband say, “Have a fun trip and drive carefully,” just before he left the house for an early Monday morning work meeting.
Before that, I pulled down my Levels luggage from the top shelf of my closet and started filling it with enough clothes for my Monday-Thursday Girl’s trip.
Yep, it’s Monday and I’m not at school. I’m on Spring Break! How about you?
Writing Stories by Sally 