Pencils! Points: July 24, 2007

ANNOUNCEMENTS

PENCILS! PARTY ON SATURDAY IS RAIN OR SHINE. We will be outdoors if it doesn’t rain, indoors if it does. Okay, gang…Saturday is coming! Hope you all RSVP’d. I know I’ll be seeing quite a large number of you there! Kinda busy with stuff, so here’s the low-down on the meeting in case you missed it.

LEON!! WE’VE MISSED YOU!! IT WAS GREAT TO SEE YOU AGAIN!! We hope you’ll be able to find time to drop in again soon…this time with one of your poems/lyrics.

1. Judith was up first with SHU (we are back to the novel’s original title). “Dr. Grieg is going to be your new therapist, Sheila. Isn’t that nice? Why don’t you tell her why you are here?”/ “Because I put my baby in the microwave,” Sheila said flatly.”

2. Next up, Roger with Chapter 10 of How My Retirement Went South called “Health Careless.” “It was not unusual for her to spot prescription meds lying about unattended on cabinets in the hallways outside of the treatment rooms.”

3. Nick presented “The Worshipful Company of Fishmongers,” an essay about his time living in London and meeting Prince Charles. “I realized then that “His Royal Highness would like to greet you” because his attendants thought I was someone else.”

4. Joyce shared more of Venus Ascending: “Estelle remembered her mother decorating the room when she moved in after Poppa died. The sewing machine had hummed as she’d worked her way through her loss.”

5. Newcomer Claudia shared a short called “The Dead End Street,” which had an interesting twist at the end. “I’m not afraid,” he said out loud. He repeated this a second time, just in case the ghosts that he did not believe in did not hear him the first time.”

6. Vance was up last with a story called “Careful” (I think that was the title—he didn’t bring copies, but he did it, he said, ‘just so people like Kaye wouldn’t read ahead.”) It’s just as well, because that way I can’t blow the ending. But, hey, something must have been in the air—three pieces with twist endings this week!