A morning ramble, and a dedication



So, I woke up this ‘morning’ a little before noon-thirty.  I’m rarely up before noon on the weekends.  I don’t even feel guilty about it.  I know a lot of people accomplish a multitude of things by, say, 11:00 a.m., but at 11:00 a.m. I’m still trying to catch up on sleep. (9).  In typical weekend fashion, I was up late last night watching T.V.  I think around 11:00 p.m. I was texting my nephew (11) in a brief conversation about the show I was watching (Unsolved: The Unsolved Murders of Tupac and the Notorious B.I.G.). 

Armed with a cup of coffee from my Verismo coffee maker (10), I opened up my tablet and eagerly searched out this week’s Blogo topic – an Ocean’s Eleven theme with a “meet & greet”.  The prompts this week are crazy – so many and all over the place.  I felt like a squirrel trying to cross the road, darting here and there and back with those sharp, quick moves that remind me of Daffy Duck in one of my favorite Looney Tunes episodes (“duck, dodge, thrust, parry.” Damn, I miss those old cartoons.  I feel like the programmers now might as well be on Mars, they’re totally missing the mark). (8)

Anyway – the prompts.  Though we can divide them between two consecutive weekly writing assignments, the masochist in me had to try to incorporate them all in one write.  I do love writing challenges.  I’ve been participating in them since my early days at Myspace (4).  (Ah, Myspace *nostalgic sigh*).  A quick aside about me:  I love writing. I love music.  I love flowers (the name Dahlia Ramone comes from both flowers and music and was inspired by the now-defunct band The Blue Dahlia (which also incorporated my favorite color, a happy coincidence) and, of course, the Ramones.  Also, I love my friends. In fact, my FB crew (3) is primarily comprised of the same circle from my Myspace days.  I love the love, comfort and security they bring me.  One friend in particular who has been with me since the beginning and who has been instrumental in introducing me to many of my lifelong friends (as well as a little writing project known as the PRT), is someone I fondly refer to as My Rock – Michael.  He introduced me to Blogophila back when I was in self-imposed exile from MS.  He coaxed me over with these three words “Is it time?”  I will never forget that. And I wrote my very first entry for Blogophilia that week.  As it so happens, that topic was “The Ides of March.” (1)  Funny how things are circular.  And since one of the bonus prompts is to repost a previous write, I am including it here. (6)

I write about love, mostly.  Sometimes I write about the moon, but since I believe the moon to be synonymous with love, I guess I pretty much just write about love.  I saw this quote by Paulo Coelho, (from his book “Eleven Minutes”) (7) and it pretty much sums up why I do:

 “I need to write about love. I need to think and think and write about love - otherwise, my soul won’t survive.”
(Paulo Coelho, ‘Eleven Minutes’)

Of course, you can’t have love without grief.  In Richard II, Shakespeare wrote “grief makes one hour ten.” (5)  Using that formula, perhaps I’ve spent more hours writing about grief (looking through my archives, this is quite plausible).  But since I hate math and I love the moon and I love love and my soul must survive, I will continue writing about love, with the help of Blogophila and its weekly prompts, for many hours and many moons to come.

Now, I’ve written at length (congrats if you’re still with me), and I have one prompt left to incorporate.  I’ll close with a quote from Ocean’s Eleven: “Don’t use seven words when four will do.” (2) This quote resonated with me because it instantly made me recall these four words: “I’m mad about you.”   You know the song.  And today, for the eleventyseventh time, I’m dedicating it to Michael.

Michael, you started me on this journey with three words.  So here is our song, and my three words for you:

Love you madly ~

 

This was written for Blogophilia

Week 1 Topic: “Ocean’s Eleven”

Bonus Prompts (Choose from below)

Prompts:

1.    Incorporate the “Ides of March” in your blog *

2.    Integrate a line from the movie “Ocean’s Eleven” (Rusty, last minute tips to Linus: “Don’t use seven words when four will do.”) *

3.    Name something used in planning a casino heist (a crew) *

4.    Incorporate a song title from the group Eleventyseven (Myspace) *

5.    Use a quote from The Bard’s 11th Play (Grief makes one hour ten,

      from Richard II)*

6.    Repost one of your favorite Blogophilia posts (please provide the link to the old favorite blog) *

7.    Incorporate a line from Paul Coelho’s book “Eleven Minutes” *

8.    Mention Mars and include a Looney Tune *

9.    Name something you do at 11 AM (sleep) *

10. Name something you would give as an 11th anniversary gift *

      (steel, coffee maker)

11. Name something that you might do with a friend at 11 PM (text) *

 

*** 

(Original ‘Ides of March’ poem):

She was a young girl

and he was her world.
He told her often that he loved her
and she believed it to be true.

He bought her flowers and small trinkets

that brought a smile to her lips;
the thought never crossed her mind
that perhaps he was buying her.

She thought their love was perfect

for he said it often enough.
She was more than happy to do his bidding
her friends saw her less and less.

She never seemed to notice,

she was so wrapped up in his web,
until one day a friend convinced her
to look beyond the façade.

The friend said “search within your memory

can you tell me one time
that when he said I love you
he looked you in the eye?”

The seed of doubt was planted

and her perfect world began to crack.
She began to notice other things
that she never saw before.

Deceived and played the fool

she realized now he had been using her.
The flowers have all long died
and the trinkets lost their sheen.

She tasted love but it turned to bile

and eroded her virgin heart
She vowed never again
to fall victim to hollow words. 

If truth is the daughter of time

and lies became all she knows
then she is an iron maiden
with an iron heart that cannot bleed.

© Dahlia Ramone:  March 13, 2008

Blogophilia Week One (2008)

Topic: The Ides of March 

Bonus points (hard, 2 points): Mention a band which recorded a song entitled "The Ides of March" (Iron Maiden)

Bonus points (easy, 1 point): Quote a Roman author (“Truth is the daughter of time” Aulus Gellius)