Share Your World | Bright Green & Dark Blue

/ Ally Bean

Bright Green: river birch tree leaves and catkins in the spring.

Once a week Cee asks the questions on her blog, and I answer them here on my blog.

• When writing by hand do you prefer to use a pencil or pen?

A pen. No doubt this is because I was taught to write with a Zaner-Bloser pen.  This pen had what you’d expect a pen to have: that is, a teacher-approved inky writing tip, guaranteed to help make your cursive writing legible.

But on the other end of the pen was a pointy pokey plastic tip that was good for jabbing annoying boys.  As a 4th grade girl might want to do.  Should she be fed up with their silliness.

In retrospect this was the first multitasking tool to which I had access– and it taught me that if you make do with what you have at hand, you can solve your own interpersonal problems.  Isn’t that right, Danny & Tony?

• Would you rather be an amazing dancer or an amazing singer?

While I like the idea of being amazing I don’t want to be on stage, therefore being an amazing dancer or an amazing singer ain’t gonna happen, kids.

Now should you want to refer to me as an amazing blogger, then we’re getting somewhere.  😉

Dark Blue: full moon in the early evening perfectly clear spring sky.

• If you were on a debate team, what subject would you relish debating?

Ok, again, I’m not one for being on stage so a debate team wouldn’t want me.  Regardless of the subject I’d freeze up while on stage trying to declare or contradict or refute– or whatever it is that one does when one is on a debate team.

All those people looking at me… *shudder*

• What are you a “natural” at doing?

I’m pretty good at snarking.  Rolling my eyes.  Seeing the absurdity in the moment– and calling it out.

Also I can throw ingredients together, sans recipe, and usually make something edible.  And I merchandise/decorate spaces by second nature, fussing around with things until they are visually pleasing and inviting.

• Optional Bonus Question:  What are you grateful for from last week, and what are you looking forward to in the week coming up? 

Last week’s gratitude award goes to the fun little video below that summarizes my pre-Easter week shopping experiences.  Just like the red bear in the queue, no matter where I went I made some less than prudent decisions about which line to stand in. Gotta laugh, ‘ya know?

This week’s looking forward to something goes to a local garden nursery, only open a few months a year, that’s known for its unique plants.  I’ve a list of some small garden tomatoes | peppers | cucumbers that I’m hoping to find at the nursery, so that I can have a manageable veggie garden in pots on our deck this summer.

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This post is part of Cee’s Share Your World Weekly Writing Challenge.

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65 thoughts on “Share Your World | Bright Green & Dark Blue”

  1. Ask me to debate? Oh, kill me now. I’d be a puddle. I’m so much better on paper, but even then, I try to avoid challenges and disputes.

    I enjoyed your fourth grade derring-do – keeping those nasty boys in line. I recall the “write” of passage in grade school when we upgraded from pencil to pen. It was a HUGE deal. Bigger than getting to wear makeup or a bra – which in those days, didn’t happen till high school. For me, anyway.

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    • Maggie, we have so many similar experiences. No public debates for sure! I also remember how significant it was to finally get to use a pen in school. And then to have one handed to me that was useful in taming boys… it was a happy time. I started with makeup in high school, too– although the bra came a little earlier for me. Things happened, so to speak. 😉

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  2. I’m definitely on the same page with you about being on stage, and improvisational cooking. My penmanship teachers were not so fussy about the tools and probably would have looked upon the prospect of open bottles of ink on every desk with something between horror and full blown anxiety attack.

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    • bobcabkings, I didn’t like being on stage as part of the orchestra or band when I was in high school, so dancing or singing as an adult on stage now would be anxiety-producing, to say the least. Glad to know there’s someone else out there who cooks without much planning. I like recipes, but I don’t need recipes…

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  3. Not a debater either. I’d be shouting down the opposition for being stupid. Always wanted to be a rock star but I didn’t have the talent. Now I realize I don’t like the travel either. Living on the road all the time wouldn’t work for me. Blogging works just fine!

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    • Kate, I’m with you about shouting down the stupid. I cannot imagine my snarky self not doing that during a debate. I wouldn’t enjoy life on the road either. A vacay here and there is fun, but I remember traveling for work and how I didn’t enjoy it.

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      • I spent 3 years as a trainer for a large company. Traveling got tiring fast. I did a drug and alcohol awareness program for 6 months, 4 days a week, 3 sessions a day at far flung locations. I slept most weekends. That’s when I figured that I appreciate a nice 8 to 5 job in one place.

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        • Ugh. What you did sounds tiring and repetitive. I get it. I was a sales rep with a multi-state territory. At least I had the luxury of making my own hours and visiting a variety of places, but still the travel wore me out.

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  4. Too many formal rules in debate, but I think I would love the challenge of skillful communication. I suppose without the rules and regulations and proper etiquette then it’s all just arguing isn’t it?

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  5. Oh goodness, I’m not sure I could have managed learning cursive with a Zaner-Bloser, but I bet I’d have mastered the poking part. No stages for me, unless they have a magician’s trap door in the floor that I can drop through. But I’ll have you know I am the most fabulous singer and dancer in my dreams, even if she abilities are quite beyond me in waking life. 🙂

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    • Deborah, the whole Zaner-Bloser curriculum, with the special pen, was one that my school district embraced whole-heartedly. During 4th, 5th, & 6th grades we got a new pen each year, in a different plastic color– but always the same shade of blue ink. I have no doubt that your dream singer and dancer are the bomb. How could they not be? 😉

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  6. I prefer a pen too, but the other day I was writing a particularly long note, and my hand grew tired. Shows how little I write now and how much I type or tap instead. Plus my penmanship has definitely seen better days.

    And I’ll join you off the stage. On it is not where I want to be. 😬

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  7. That pen is baller, and I love that you multitasked with it (and how!). I’m a decent dancer and relish in my terrible singing voice, so I’d probably rather be an amazing dancer.

    I am also a natural at sarcasm. But I would 100% debate the value of education and reading all day e’ery day.

    This was a great set of questions. Love your answers.

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    • Akilah, those pens were such a big part of my childhood: knowing about them, looking forward to getting one in 4th grade, stabbing “useless” boys with them. What’s not to love?

      I agree about the value of education and reading. Whether I could stand in front of people and make a reasoned argument I don’t know, but my heart [snark-free] would be in it.

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  9. Yes to pens, even better pretty markers, but I’m not always thrilled with my handwriting. No debate or singing or dancing unless I am in the middle of the floor of a concert and all eyes are on the performer, not me. You are an amazing blogger, just sayin’. I feel so sorry for that poor bear. I think I would have called for a manager and I know my DH would have started a fight!
    Janet

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    • Janet, I adore markers, too. I like all their bright colors, but back when I was learning to write we worked our way up from a pencil to a Zaner-Bloser pen.

      Good point about dancing at a concert where no one is looking at you. I could be amazing then.

      And that bear! I’m telling you, he was my life last week. If there was a wrong line to be in, I was in it.

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    • Carol, I understand. Every store I was in last week was pre-Easter busy, and I never picked the faster moving lane, ever. Will keep in mind to not follow you when out shopping. Thanks for the heads up. 😉

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  12. Ha ha! Loved the little bear and his queue existential angst – that would be me. Pens in my day (oooops) were of the nib and inkwell type if I remember correctly. Good for squirting. Or putting on my sister’s hair.

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    • Susan, the little bear = me. I can’t tell you how comic it got to be the more stores I went into. Our pens were ball point but looked like they were old-fashioned ones with a nib. I can only imagine what a mess squirting ink could do. You were tough. 😉

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  13. Poor Danny and Tony I guess they got the point. I wished I could have heard that tune when I was standing in lines, at least then it would have been… (wait for it), bearable. Ally, I think I just appealed to your natural ability to roll your eyes at my silliness.

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  14. That video was so relatable!
    I’d never heard of or seen those pens, so that was kinda neat 🙂
    Could you please come over and arrange my hair in a visually pleasing manner?

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  16. I wouldn’t want to be on stage either, but I would LOVE, LOVE to be an amazing dancer. My husband and I are passable dancers – “amazing” is probably a dream lost along with our younger selves. I love to debate, but wouldn’t do well in a formal debating session (unless “you dumbs&%#” is considered a proper response).

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    • Janis, I’m clumsy so I dance like a dork. Nothing can fix that. But I’d be more than happy to clap from the side of the room while you and your husband dance for us all. Also, in keeping my natural ability to snark, I think “you dumbs&%#” is a perfectly acceptable response in a debate. Just saying…

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  18. Somehow, I do see you on Stage, Ally. I’ll just have to take your word for it that it ‘ain’t gonna happen’. Our loss – I think that you would be terrific!

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    • Donna, thanks for the encouragement, but standing in front of people with lights on me is not for me. To paraphrase some Clint Eastwood movie: “a woman’s got to know her limitations.” 😉

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  23. I have always loved your honesty and self-deprecating wit! I would choose incredible singing over dancing. I get intimidated in confrontation so debates wouldn’t be good for me either.

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    • Well, thank you, Margaret. I can see you being a singer. You’re accustomed to standing up in front of a group of people, albeit they’re teenage people, but…

      And the whole debate idea is beyond me, too. There are rules when I tell someone they’re wrong? Says who?! 🙂

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    • evil, somehow this admission doesn’t surprise me. You seem like you would have been good friends with Danny and Tony, my most frequent jabees. [a word?]

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  25. Oh, pen, definitely. And I have been Picky About Pens my entire life. As a career teacher, pens were my constant Go-To. Finding the perfect one to write scores in that teensy gradebook square and NOT have it smear was such a Win. And finding the perfect fine-point red one to correct billions of essays, write comments, etc.–priceless.

    I do precious little handwriting these days–I agree with so many other commentors about how tiring it can be–but for short notes, I try to. But my handwriting has always been eccentric.

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    • nance, my mother was a teacher and she went through the same process you did to find perfect pens. I remember those teensy gradebook squares. So tiny.

      I like your assessment of your writing as eccentric. That’s cool. My writing used to be large and perfectly legible, but time and age have reduced it to awkward and meh. Pride goeth before the shaky smudge, I guess.

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  27. Oh I loved your answers. I actually had a pen like the one you described too and reading your words made me realize that I never used it to its full potential… Re your stage fright: Maybe you could be an amazing singer only recording songs and not touring???

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    • amommasview, you’re the first person to mention that you had a Zaner-Bloser pen, too. I figured everyone of a certain age had used those dumb pens in elementary school, but I guess not.

      You make a good point about being a studio recording singer. That might work for me, IF I COULD ACTUALLY SING. Which I can’t. Believe me. 🙂

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