The Love Project {part 1}

Per mention in this delightful post, I am working on a little writing project. I'm actually sort of stuck at the moment, so I have been re-reading the bits and pieces that I have strung across various computers, attempting to form some sort of semblance of order. Here are a couple bits that I think might actually be worth using. Possibly. Maybe. If I EVER figure out what direction my meandering thoughts will take. Oh, and to keep things interesting, I included some highly entertaining photos of my younger self. Let the mocking commence.

"As a growing girl with an enormous imagination, and no mammary glands to speak of, I spent a great deal of time dreaming of how my love story would begin. I was at least 95% sure that I would have a love story one day, and whiled away the hours of my youth ignoring the more athletic children in honor of a wide array of day dreaming. I went through a phase where I was convinced that my love would come and rescue me from a sprained ankle on the playground, and then one where I thought we would meet over the barbed wire fence that surrounded the five acres of feeding ground we gave to our incredibly decrepit horse. The older I got, the more variations I realized my love story might take, and the more eager I was for it to begin."

 

"When I left the great state of Montana to venture to Oklahoma for college, I had no idea what I was getting myself into, but in the back of my mind I was convinced that this might be the start of something important. The blistering heat and festering wind aside, I had a whole new culture to learn and absolutely no idea how to go about it. Needless to say, as the indigenous creatures were a bit more… demure… than I was, my college romantic experiences were fairly non-existent while everyone who met me attempted to discover exactly what planet I had beamed in from with my elk antler necklace and unkempt hair."

"The fact that love is hard probably doesn’t come as a surprise to you, because you are likely not a grade A oblivious idiot like I am. For any of you who ARE my kind… allow me to bring you tidings of the truth:

Love is hard. And not just hard in a “oh my this is somewhat challenging” way, but in a way more akin with “I think that teaching my cat to speak in several languages might be easier than this” kind of way. Not all of the time, but definitely some of the time. "

The "love" project

It is a little-known fact that I grew up dreaming of being an author. The best friend and I whiled away the majority of our childhood writing and dreaming of stories (when we weren't exercising our overly active imaginations with embarrassing made up games). I even attended college with the intent of pursuing an English degree, only to be distracted by the very bright and shiny art department. Despite my turn-coat ways, writing is still my first love (evidenced here by the fact that a what was intended as a brief introductory sentence is now a full paragraph long). I haven't given up on my dream of writing a book, but I have adjusted my expectations a bit to include non-published books in the category of "book", thus allowing myself a bit more wiggle room to actual achieve my goals.

My point. Right. Wouldn't that be nice?

The "love" project has been rolling around in the back of my mind for a couple of years now, occasionally surfacing and being added to before descending back into the part of my mind that doesn't think it will amount to anything. Finishing the "love" project is on my list of goals for 2013, so I pulled it out and give it a glance while the smartest watched basketball and the puppy attempted to dislodge the bow that the groomer put on her collar.

Here are a few snippets from the section entitled "Love is: Unexpected".

"I always expected love to leap out in front of me in a dazzle of lights and applause. I also had some pretty specific ideas about what love would look like- which included a guitar and some snazzy converse sneakers. Needless to say, when love dropped in on my communications class with an 8 inch afro and a soccer shirt, I very nearly missed it."

"As children, we are exposed to a wide array of romantic ideas. Disney movies, combined with the intoxicating power of our imaginations can lead us to have some truly unique expectations about the world. I once had a neighbor who told their daughter that she could have a kitten as soon as she found a pink one, and she was fully convinced that there was a fluffy ball of fuchsia in her future. Sometimes, I think that we view love a little bit like a pink kitten- we will know it when we see it, and nothing short of spectacular will do. While we are hunting for the mystical “pink kitten love”, however, we are trotting past enormous and relevant opportunities, all because we think we know what we are looking for.

I almost missed the beginning of my love story, because I didn’t realize it was happening. I was keeping an eye out for a man who knew how to wear a plaid shirt properly, not a man who knew how to do long division in his head." 

As I work my way through the rest of the "love" project, I will probably share the more embarrassing bits and pieces with you, so stay tuned for that magic. 

Love,