I found a few writing samples from my youth in the attic. Here is the first. Warning, it will leave you unfulfilled. Also I have left out the numerous spelling and grammatical error but I am not promising the punctuation is correct. Also this was written in 1969. Also J. K. Rowling does not have to worry.
A Day in the Life of Dona and her Owl-Focals
“Go and get the mail, Dona,” said Mother.
“Oh do I have to?” I asked, “I’m reading the best story I’ve ever read in my life!”
“Oh you always say that when I ask you to do something,” replied Mother.
“Yay! Yippie!”
“You scared me to death,” said Mother.
“I’m sorry but I forgot that my Owl-Focals are coming today.”
“Your what?” asked Mother.
“My Owl-Focals,” I replied. “I will show you when I get the mail.”
“I thought you didn’t want to get the mail,” said Mother, grinning.
So I went out and got the mail, showed them to Mother and couldn’t wait until that night.
When night finally rolled around, slowly but surely, I tried on my new glasses. They worked. So that night when I went to bed I read my book thoroughly. It was 1130 when I fell asleep that night and 8:00 when I woke the next morning. I was so tired I could hardly keep my eyes open all through school.
I learned my lesson and never used something good to do bad again.
/teacher’s note: I’m glad to see you using conversation/
Dona reading with her owl-focals. Image by Mike Popovic
Recently I complained to my husband that I felt like I did nothing but work. I went on to describe my day: Waking up at 6:30, heading to the (home) office to work at 7:30 where I would read emails from work, work on steady projects, answer emails about new projects and work more on steady projects until around 4:30 (with a lunch break somewhere around noon). Then I’d either run errands or do household chores then make dinner and/or help clean up after dinner. After dinner we’d either watch television together or do something separately until going to bed at 10:00 or so.
Now, I am sure most people would consider watching TV or reading as not working, and they would be right, but I think what I meant when I made the complaint to my husband about working all the time was that I never got a chance to write anymore. My days were spent in front of a computer and I didn’t want to spend my free time there too. But my writing takes place on a computer. I’m no good, anymore, at keeping a pen and paper journal. No spell check. No grammar check. No easy look up of things. No way to easily insert images.
The Internet has allowed me to find and do a job I love, but it has also allowed me to become lazy. It has allowed me to rely on it for its ease of everything from writing to researching to communicating with friends and colleagues.
There must be a healthy balance between on and off screen-time existence. I’ve just not found it yet.
Then a few months ago I read The Big Year: A Tale of Man, Nature, and Fowl Obsession by Mark Obmascik (on IB’s recommendation) and later saw the film based on the book. I was interested in the characters, especially the Maryland-based birder, Greg Miller — the one who worked at the nuclear power plant (played by Jack Black in the movie). I googled his name and found out he moved back to Ohio and was active in Ohio birding. His blog talked about the “Biggest Week in American Birding” festival which was planned for May — around the time the warblers were due to fly back to Canada.
Warbler season, if not The Biggest Week, corresponded with our trip to Oberlin to pick up Andrew, about an hour from Magee Marsh. I hoped to visit Magee and perhaps add a few warblers to my life list. Then Dean decided we should visit Illinois before the kids got out of school. This week did correspond with the Biggest Week and as we’d be stopping in Oberlin for the night to visit Andrew I planned on heading to Magee Marsh on our way to Illinois.
I didn’t really know what to expect, but knew that I’d be seeing a lot of birders. One of the funniest parts of The Big Year was seeing a bunch of people stare through binoculars at something in a tree. I wondered if I’d see something similar at Magee Marsh. I also knew that many of the birding folks I follow on Twitter were planning on being at Magee Marsh that week. Seeing some of the tweets got me really in the mood to go birding — something I’d not really done in years, except passively. I also knew that someone I’d hoped to meet someday, Sharon Stiteler aka Birdchick, would be around.
I did see a lot of birds, some new to me, some not. I only could identify a few. If you’ve never been birding, one thing you need to be able to do is explain where a sighting is. I failed miserably. I saw something and mistakenly announced it loud enough for other birders in the general vicinity to hear me. I then tried to describe where it was and what it looked like. No one was able to follow my directions and there was an audible annoyed sigh when I said, “It’s gone.” (I saw it later and was embarrassed to find out it was a Baltimore Oriole. I know what they look like when I see the top of one, but this was from below. The orange of its breast was muted and looked yellow to me. I thought it was some sort of flycatcher.)
The birds were fun to see, some so close I didn’t need binoculars, but my favorite part was the birders. There were birders of all ages. I was surprised to see a large number of Amish birders, but it stands to reason — there are a lot of Amish in that part of Ohio.
I did see “Birdchick” but was too shy to say hello. I was not quite sure it was her, but when I saw tweets she sent prior to me seeing her proved she was just in front of me at the time. Next time I’ll make sure to say hello.
I really enjoyed meeting Deborah. We’ve been twitter buddies for years and have even spoken on the phone. She’s a lot more gregarious than I and she was not afraid to ask folks what they were looking at and ask for advice on what she was looking at.
This has rekindled a desire to get out and bird more often. I might even go on bird walks with other birders. In the past I wouldn’t add a bird to my life list if I didn’t ID it myself. I figure if real birders help each other ID birds, I can too. Now I need to get my verbal birding skills in order.
