13 Thursday: On the Couch
1. Right now I’m unemployed with two full-time jobs, writing and therapy.
2. When I first became a stay at home mother, I remember saying that I had never worked so hard in my life. I’m learning that retirement is similar and that there’s hardly ever any downtime when there’s no separation between my life and my work.
3. My favorite quote of the week was made by my blogging friend, Elissa. She recently signed a book contract and was posting about her writing background when she said this: “I’ve always felt my freelance work is better than a free education because it’s an education I get paid for.”
4. When my poet friend Mara went back to school for creative writing, she said, “Maybe you should go back to school too, Colleen.” I answered, “What, and spoil my reputation (of being self-taught)?!
5. Elissa also said that it was her first rejection slip (at the age of 17) for her first novel that made her feel like a real writer!
6. Writers are like wild creatures that have been counted and tagged. Only instead of getting a wrist band, we get a pen to track the environment we live in.
7. Or else we’re like homing pigeons. No matter how far we go out to explore, we come back to our computers to report.
8. Years ago, my friend Ed had a T-shirt on that said “Hug Therapist,” but I read it as “Hug The rapist.” He never wore it again.
9. The nature of therapy is that you feel a lot worse before you feel better. It’s like driving a car at night. You never see further than your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way. ~ E.L. Doctorow
10. I once did a family tree of all the couches I’ve owned. In my first apartment that I shared with my sister, Sherry, we were broke and used lawn furniture in our living room. For my next apartment, I bought an antique couch that I eventually got reupholstered. Years later, I dreamt this couch was being lifted up by a large crane. It might have been a premonition. A year later I lost it in a divorce.
11. It’s interesting to me that the word “crouch” has “couch” in it and one of the verb definitions of couch is to crouch.
12. I wonder how many 13 Thursday players I could fit on my couch. THIS many?
13. Most people like to ride shotgun in a car, but I prefer the backseat because it’s like a couch I can stretch out on. I also love the pubs in Ireland because they have couches (not like THIS or THIS one). There’s no couch involved in my therapy sessions, but there is a reclining chair.
Thursday headquarters is here. My other 13’s are here. View more 13 Thursday’s here.
November 16th, 2006 10:06 am
Good post, Colleen. I like the potato heads on the couch.
November 16th, 2006 10:12 am
Boy, did I relate to this post. Love the Doctorow quotation. My current couch came from IKEA, and I assembled it myself (including attaching the buttons to the cushions.) I was so pleased when I sat down on it and it didn’t fall apart! My favorite car, the 1959 Chevy El Camino, has a front seat like a couch. It doesn’t have a backseat, so if I drove one, everyone riding with me would have to squeeze into the front.
November 16th, 2006 10:36 am
interesting TT! i’ve heard many say the same about retirement- that they are busier now than they were before.
November 16th, 2006 10:44 am
if rejection letters make you a real writer, I’m REALLY a REAL writer. 🙂 i’ve amassed quite a collection. i’m saving them all to publish on the back cover when i get my first book on the shelves. 🙂
November 16th, 2006 10:46 am
Colleen, I loved #6- so true. I have been riding shotgun or being the driver for far to many miles of late but I am now with feet planted and staying put for a bit.
November 16th, 2006 10:50 am
i love it! happy tt!
November 16th, 2006 11:11 am
Thanks for the seat on your couch! We all need to recline just a bit more. My therapy is w. a massage table. 😉
November 16th, 2006 11:24 am
Wow on the Hug Therapist – that’s pretty wild. Funny how we see differences in different things – I never would have saw that.
Did you know my name has “Car Tire is Flat” in it and all my life I have had car tire issues?
My TT is up – been awhile, but I’m back to it.
I need to get Mom aka Ben-gal, to show me how she got the TT banner up on her site so I can be “official”
Luv ya!
November 16th, 2006 11:24 am
I am so looking forward to my retirement and filling my days with my passions. I try to do that now.. but work keeps getting in the way. 🙂
November 16th, 2006 11:49 am
I’m not technically retired and I draw no retirement $. Besides writing, I still doing a little foster care respite work. Compared to fulltime fostercare (for an adult with disablities who lived in our home), which I did for 9 years, I feel retired.
The couch is getting full. Maybe we’ll move into my bedroom!
November 16th, 2006 11:57 am
When my dad retired he said “I wonder how I ever had time to work”.
Great to keep busy!
November 16th, 2006 12:04 pm
Great list. 🙂 Very cool observations on writers in #6 and 7.
Happy T13. 🙂
November 16th, 2006 12:47 pm
I taught school for nine years before I had my son. I thought staying at home would be a “piece of cake,” but I soon realized how easy I had it as a teacher! Haha!
http://www.chelleyoung.com/index.php/archive/thursday-thirteen-37-thirteen-favorite-games/
November 16th, 2006 1:14 pm
Highly enjoyable reading as always! Make room: I am coming over to sit on your sofa!
November 16th, 2006 1:33 pm
You always can think up such interesting things for TT. I love 6 and 8. It’s micro storytelling.
November 16th, 2006 1:39 pm
I’m enjoying your 13’s. 🙂
I laughed out loud at Hug Therapist. I needed that.
Hope your day is cheery and sunny.
~S 🙂
November 16th, 2006 2:10 pm
I see signs and words in a mixed up way too…recently I saw the word “lingering in my yard” as “lingerie in my yard”! and “Chess and Checkers” at a pub as “Cheese and Crackers”!!(It’s the fibro-fog!)
November 16th, 2006 2:18 pm
Reading 3* made me laugh…but it was delayed! Poor Ed!
November 16th, 2006 2:29 pm
Love the couch history .. I could tell an interesing couch story myself.. I’m kinda new to blogging- what is the Thursday Thirteen? I’ve seen it mentioned several places but don’t really comprehend it?
November 16th, 2006 3:09 pm
Chelle, I really believe that some people’s jobs are a vacation from their real life.
Ruth, I see the same things you saw in those phrases…even though you told me, I totally saw Cheese and Crackers.
Janet, I know; I had to think about Elissa’s quote and read it twice. Once you get it you can see how good it is and how much sense it makes.
Rebekah, click on the 13 Thursday link at the end of my list and the hosts of this pary game meme will explain what it is and how to play.
November 16th, 2006 3:27 pm
In order to justify getting rid of a couch, I have to hate it first. It’s a lot like when I was dating. “It’s just not comfortable any more.”
November 16th, 2006 6:03 pm
Is that 13 people on the couch or is it ten??
November 16th, 2006 7:37 pm
I’ve been on the “couch” reading almost all day (sorry I’m late getting here). Speaking of writers; I can’t say enough about Dennis Lehane! He writes like…like…like…like I can’t define – but saying I can’t put his books down sums it up pretty good (I’ll have to blog about that tomorrow).
Good list Col.
November 16th, 2006 7:38 pm
Oh my gosh, hug the rapist. Too funny!
November 16th, 2006 7:43 pm
Sherry, remember when we worked at S&H Couch factory? No couches involved…just phones and fire alarms.
I’m going to see how many people I can fit on my couch at our Christmas Eve party.
November 16th, 2006 8:07 pm
The varied things in your TT this week are as always, WONDERFUL! I love that picture of the couch with People Piled on it! lol…And that other picture of the two Cookies? on the doule seated couch…also very amusing….!@
And I LOVED your remark about keep your status of being ‘self-taught’…! I’m with you on that one, dear Colleen!
November 16th, 2006 8:15 pm
Poor Ed! My mother in law, 84 last week, tried retirement for about 6 months and couldn’t take it! She’s back to work and a happy human again.
November 16th, 2006 10:19 pm
You do realize that your writing is a lot like Virginia Woolf’s?
Well, at least the Thursday Thirteen lends itself to this.
November 16th, 2006 10:39 pm
Great post! Happy Thursday Thirteen!
November 17th, 2006 2:17 am
I’m honored for the quote! Actually, I got my first rejection for my first novel at age 17 — my short stories were being rejected earlier. I’ve got one slip where the editor had begun by writing, “If you’re really only 16…” and then went on to give me some great advice that I now share with my own students.
November 17th, 2006 9:18 am
Hi Colleen, love your 13s as always!
Listened to you on WVTF! Great to hear your voice, and all about blogging!
November 18th, 2006 3:03 pm
Amen to the retirement thing! When people say “Don’t you get bored?” I just reply “Are you kidding me? I do more than I ever got to do!”
November 21st, 2006 9:30 pm
Loved your # 7 and 8.
Another great 13. Hopefully, I can be organized enough by tomorrow to get my second one up for Thursday.