13 Thursday Happy Camper
1. When I stumbled upon a flesh colored oyster shell on the campground shower floor, for a few seconds and I thought it was a disembodied ear.
2. No, I don’t bring my camera into the shower. You’ll just have to use your imagination.
3. “Campsites are like rows of motel rooms with the doors left wide open,” I wrote HERE about camping on my own in a post titled, “What Would a Hobbit Do?”
4. Watermelon cherry plunks into a sunset drenched ocean … It floats on the rim before it sinks in…. and burns as it goes down… AKA: A beer induced verse written on the beach.
5. Hermit crabs are the beach version of spiders. Don’t blink or you’ll miss the quick exit THIS one made after seeing me.
6. I just discovered a whole cult of hermit crab videos that make the one I made pale in comparison. I especially liked THIS one: It’s about a hermit crab that wears the plastic bottom cup of a chair for a shell, and it has a happy ending.
7. I remember next to nothing about losing my virginity, but I can remember every detail of the first time I heard Leonard Cohen sing “Suzanne” when it played on the radio in 1969 in a boutique in Boston where I worked.
8. I played the song for Joe on the ride home from the beach and told him, “THIS is the song that woke the poet up in me.”
9. I remember well my first real kiss at the age of 13 because it woke me up to boys the way Leonard Cohen woke me up to poetry. Ironically, the boy who I had my memorable first kiss with was the same one I had forgettable first time sex with (six years and several boyfriends after the kiss). Maybe I should have quit while I was ahead.
10. I’m feeling burned out from the pace of September. It was full of work on the Hotel Floyd Writers Room and writing a total of five stories back-to-back for publication. I made THIS little video clip to help me slow down in October and to remind me about what is really important in life.
11. My mother tells everyone that I have a “google blog.”
12. I want to keep track of THIS writer’s resource that I found at Blue Country Magic, so I’m posting it here.
13. After being immersed in WWII study via “The War,” an in-depth and un-glossed documentary series by Ken Burns, I think maybe our country was too isolationist before WWII but that now we have gone too far the other way. There were many tears and some turning away to cover my eyes while watching. I said to my husband from under the blankets, “Why would anyone need to watch fictionalized horror movies when such real life horror exists?”
Thursday headquarters is here. My other 13’s are here. View more 13 Thursday’s here.
October 4th, 2007 12:58 am
Colleen — what an inspired post!! You made me giggle — everything from kissing to losing virginity to hermit crabs!!
I really enjoyed it — great TT!!
October 4th, 2007 1:10 am
I would have commented on your google blog earlier but I just spent some time dwelling on #2! I love those hermit crab clips.
October 4th, 2007 2:07 am
yes, giggling did happen at this extremely late…or is it early, hour. That was wonderful.
thanks.
October 4th, 2007 2:28 am
Magical post! I too adore Leonard Cohen – am so proud that he’s Canadian. I don’t remember my first kiss and losing my virginity was well-planned by me (I was 21) so it’s something I do remember – but wish I didn’t. My TT is about Le Petit Prince. Have a great weekend, XINE
October 4th, 2007 8:37 am
Hey Colleen, loved the crabs…such busy little critters. I’m a fan of LC too. I well remember how much I liked “Suzanne” – and it was so long that many radio stations wouldn’t bother playing it…was there a shortened version put out? Anyway, earlier this year I was getting a massage and instead of the new age fare usually played, there was LC! It was a newer album of his and his sultry voice now had another sultry voice accompanying him a woman. It was hypnotic.
October 4th, 2007 8:50 am
June, I only heard LC sing Suzanne on the radio once. It was in Boston and was probably WBCN, a station that played more obscure music. After I heard it I yearned for more and searched for who it waas but never found out until a couple of years later. I was 19 at the time. If it happened now I wouldn’t have been at peace till I found him, back then I was resigned to more yearning.
October 4th, 2007 9:14 am
i had never heard that song….. very beautiful.
you’re becoming quite the you-tuber! 🙂 do you use a digital camera for the videos?
October 4th, 2007 9:28 am
I love your beer-induced verse! try wine next time!
You’ve had an interesting history with your first kisser!
I love the beach video by the phantom lady with the hat!
I so agree with #13. The pendulum swung too far the other way.
October 4th, 2007 9:30 am
Yes, my digital camera has a video making feature. The quality is good when it goes directly to my computer but once it’s on youtube it seems to blur. Also, they only will accept my videos of a minute or less.
October 4th, 2007 9:38 am
Love the comparison of hermit crabs and spiders. Very true.
October 4th, 2007 9:42 am
I dread when my girls will be old enough to camp, because then my husband will want to go camping. SO not my thing.
October 4th, 2007 10:20 am
Ruth, I love wine but can’t drink it. It makes my fatigue worse whereas good beer feels like food. And about the kisser of the kiss, you don’t know the half of it. The rest of the story would have to be told offline. But after that first kiss he was the only one I wanted and it took six years for that to come true.
Lady in hat: I think I do haunt the beach when I’m not there.
Carrie, For me, it takes a good camper to make a good camp experience. Ours is so easy to use and has everything in it.
October 4th, 2007 10:58 am
I watched a hermit crab negotiate 15 cement stairs at a fairly quick pace in St. Thomas last weekend. I tried to help him at first, since he was a good way from the beach, but he freaked me about by wrapping his claws around me finger…EEK!
October 4th, 2007 11:08 am
Your mom is so cute about the “google blog”! we don’t have hermit crabs around here, at least I have never seen one! maybe that’s why I could watch them for hours, loved the youTube links!
Oh, first kiss, first time…the first kiss was wonderful and memorable. Won’t comment on the second first, lol!
Happy TT!
October 4th, 2007 12:15 pm
Wow, what a hodge podge! It made my head float (in a good way). Glad you liked the Chicago Q&A.
October 4th, 2007 12:55 pm
I couldn’t watch the War documentary. Maybe some day I will have the energy. My husband used to draw a large circle in the sand and catch several hermit crabs and then the kids would race them!
October 4th, 2007 12:59 pm
Ear-less, virgin, hermit craps kissing on the beach…
Sounds like a great story line for a sitcom.. 🙂
October 4th, 2007 1:40 pm
Fun TT, and the pics in the post below it, I love the spiral image.
http://moondancerdrake.livejournal.com/
October 4th, 2007 6:22 pm
“Motel rooms with the doors open.”
Well, that may have been the final nail in the coffin that is my desire to go camping. lol
I liked the hermit crab. 🙂
Great list this week, and I found the grammer link fascinating.
I remembered it was Thursday this week.
~S 🙂
October 4th, 2007 7:28 pm
Leonard Cohen! I haven’t heard “Suzanne” in years. My husband ordered a series on WW2 with his birthday money that would make me cry if there weren’t so much to cry about now.
There are some excellent links here; I’ve bookmarked it with the few, the proud, the honored T13s.
October 4th, 2007 7:42 pm
I remember “SUZANNE” too, but who else sings it? I don’t remember Leonard Cohen being the original artist.
But I sure remember losing my virginity!!!!!!!
October 4th, 2007 9:09 pm
Fun post!
I googled “Cohen” and “Suzanne” and found this 2006 article about the song’s muse, who is now homeless but still finding ways to live an artistic life. Sad but also inspirational.
October 4th, 2007 9:31 pm
Hey there Colleen. I just wanted to pop by and say “Hello.” I love the hermit crabs.
October 4th, 2007 9:35 pm
I’m sad that you don’t remember your first time all that well, Colleen. Too bad he didn’t have enough experience to make it memorable for you.
October 4th, 2007 9:41 pm
A very interesting article, musing, and it also answers Sherry’s question. It seems that Judy Collins had the first hit with the song, but I only ever heard Leonard sing it and his version is the one that made me want to write poetry.
Sherry, the story of Suzanne reminds me of the woman we were recently talking about who inspired many of Dylan’s early songs. Her life turned even more sadly.
October 4th, 2007 11:14 pm
Well, Shephard and I both noticed #12 about grammar. I was struck this morning (when I read this but had no time to comment) because I woke up today from a dream where I had told a young man he needed to get White’s Elements of Style (my dream self totally forgot Strunk) and that, even better was Turabian’s style book. Turabian, in case you didn’t know, was the person who basically WROTE the Chicago Manual on Style that you “saved” as part of your T13. Now that, my friend, is really freaky! I haven’t used a style book in over a decade, since my doctoral work in the 90s. Why in the world would I dream about it? I dunno. And why did you happen to write about it on the very day I dreamed about it? Strange. Very. Wonder what Jung would make of that? Is Joe a Jungian?
Oh, one more thing about grammar. I noticed a need for a style book in the post BELOW (earlier than) the one you shared with us, but I’ll write about that for a Words from a Wordsmith post I’ll write about the dream connection with your post … mostly because I saved it “over there” this morning and only remember the gist of it tonight. I’ll write it tonight so you can read it in the morning, here:
http://wordsfromawordsmith.blogspot.com
October 5th, 2007 12:21 am
I don’t doubt that my writing could use an ongoing editor. Sometimes I catch it myself. Other times Joe and my sister Sherry love me enough to tell me.
Joe and I are both Jungians. We have been doing therapy together since we met twenty years ago. We like Gestalt and other traditions too.
October 5th, 2007 5:12 am
No, no, no, Colleen! YOU didn’t make the mistake … the other blogger did. Here’s a link to the post, just for you (and your millions of fans): Doing it in style
October 5th, 2007 7:44 am
#10 so true, Ken Burns however so good and thorough , Remember his Twain?
October 5th, 2007 9:24 am
Twain?
October 5th, 2007 3:24 pm
Ahhhhh Colleen..Another rich and varied TT…From Hermit Crabs with Bottle top Helmuts, to Men with Helmuts in that amazing Masterpice “The War”…This should be required viewing in schools, etc….
LOVED the Ocean video…Too short! (lol) I need a longer fix, my dear.
And “Suzanne”….Beautiful, Beautful….Right next to the one you posted is one with Leanord C. and Judy C. Amazing, too!