whoops, did i do that?

my mistakes, as well as answers to your questions…

Today’s prompt from the Ultimate Blogging Challenge is to tell you about a mistake I made and how I worked through it…

Before I tell you about my mistake, I need to share a story. My dad had an economic consulting business, and he had a few employees. At one point, he hired a secretary named Marlene. She preferred to be called “Marvelous Marv.” And what a character she turned out to be. She had some real gems that she liked to share when she wasn’t busily typing reports. They included: “I go shopping like a knight in shining armor. I go into the store and yell, ‘Charge!'” Also, there was: “Alice, in this world, there are more horse’s asses than there are horses.”

And then there was this gem: every time she made a mistake, she announced, “That was the first mistake I’ve ever made in my entire life!” She said that one frequently!

Sometimes, when I’m painting, I get a little bit too enthusiastic. That enthusiasm leads to the sad mistake called “overworking the painting.” I’ve put too much into it, and it’s really a disaster with no focal point. The painting is literally competing with itself.

When I started attempting to make nonrepresentational paintings, I created the disaster nearly every time. These paintings were definitely attempts. And not very good at that. In fact, they were so bad that they were funny. Each one was, of course, the first mistake I had ever made in my entire life!

How do I work through it? There have been times when I’ve painted over obvious mistakes and I’ve simply started over. The two creations above were definitely past that stage. What I did with those was “extreme cropping.” I chopped them into little pieces and turned them into bookmarks. Little pieces of those overworked images of chaos actually made cute bookmarks. They are so much fun and so vivid without being excessive.

And now…. answers to your questions…

Barbara asked: What makes you laugh out loud?

Thank you for asking! Things that make me laugh out loud include slapstick comedy, puns, bloopers from TV shows and movies (especially actors cracking up in mid dialogue), detailed and gory descriptions of food that I don’t like, and stupid crook stories. Satire in writing and especially in cartoon form makes me laugh. My mom said that I am easily amused, and she was right about that. Also, bad dancing and pies on the face, but that’s slapstick. I also laugh at bad movies, failed auditions, and my own overworked paintings.

Kebba asked: Is Grand Island actually an island? How big is it and how do you access it? And why are you living there? Is it expensive to live there?

Yes, Grand Island, New York, actually is an island. It’s the biggest island in the Niagara River. People used to advertise Grand Island as the biggest freshwater island in the world, but that was more than a bit of an exaggeration. It’s not even the biggest freshwater island in the Great Lakes. That honor belongs to Manitoulin Island in Lake Huron, which is actually thirty times larger than Grand Island.

Grand Island is 33 miles/53.1 km around. I’ve actually managed to walk around most of it. Well, about twenty miles/32.1 km. The way you access it is via bridges. One set of two bridges leads to Buffalo, and the second set of two bridges leads to Niagara Falls. During the summer, tourists travel on these bridges. Some of them seem to think that the top of the bridge is a good place to stop for a photo op. Unfortunately, that’s not especially safe so please don’t do that. Some people walk over the bridges or ride their bicycles. But the bridges are loud and they tend to move… a lot. Which makes it scary for me to walk on them. I get on a bus and go over the bridge to avoid the effects of hyperacusis and vertigo. I used to have this nightmare that I was standing on the truss arch of the bridge screaming my head off. I could see the water churning beneath me. I don’t have any idea of how I got there, but I was there, screaming. I woke up, gasping in terror from the fear of edges thing.

Is Grand Island expensive. Well. Yes. If you go to the one and only supermarket in town, prices are higher than they are off the Island. If you are like me and don’t have a car, you’re kind of a captive audience to this supermarket. I do, however, buy produce at a nearby farm. Still pricey, but the quality of the produce is so much better. Lastly, why do you live there? Um. I have family here. Also, I write and take pictures for the local newspaper. That’s about it.

Nonnie Vivian asked: How do you decide what to write about?

I should tell you that some bloggers write their entire set of blog posts in advance and schedule them with their blog programs. If you have a business and you’re using your blog as a way to market your business, that’s probably a really good way to do it. My blog is more of a storytelling blog. I respond to current events and to I share adventures that I’ve just had. So, I need to make my decision daily. For this version of the Ultimate Blogging Challenge,. I chose to closely follow each day’s prompts. I receive the prompts daily in an email, and then, I have to decide how to interpret that prompt. I brainstorm a few ideas before coming up with my idea for the blog post of the day. And then, I write! Sponteneity is always a great adventure.

Thank you for the questions!!! They were great, and I really appreciate you. I am so grateful to everyone who reads my blog posts. As for tomorrow’s blog post… nope, I don’t know what that’s about!!!