Finally: the first of completed Alices, all frilly and sugar-soaked. But I want to tell a non-doll related story, accompanied by doll photos. Is that just too mind-bending? I think you can handle it...
Tuesday evening I met with my most-fabulous Ladies Literary
Auxiliary a-Go-Go. (That is our official title - I swear I didn't just
make it up.) The Ladies Auxiliary is made up of yours truly and five
super-smart and talented women who I've met since starting my master's
in creative writing. We were all in a writing workshop together last
year and we appreciated each other's writing and critiques so much that
we decided, once the workshop was over, to get together once a week and discuss one another's writing. Every week a different lady sends everyone a chapter or story, and then we take turns making dinner and hosting the workshop. So then we get together, drink wine, eat yummy food and rip someone to shreds.
Oh, look how sad that makes these two. No, we are quite tactful, but still honest and direct and the whole experience is so much fun and also tremendously helpful. As writers, we are usually squirreled away in our quiet little corners, sitting in silence and begging the muse to sing. It can somewhat isolating, so it's great to get together and encourage one another (and of course bitch a little about the writer's life).
But why the title of this post? Well, many writers teach to pay the rent and you might remember some of my own screeds about teaching, back before I decided to throw my lot in with dollies full-time (try explaining that career choice at weddings - I'm nothing if not practical!) But one of our group teaches full-time and the other night she told us about an email she got in response to a class assignment she'd given that I have to share here:
Yo Miss,
I didn't understand ur ass. one little bit. Pls. clarify.
So, gentle readers, a reminder to us all: in this era of blackberries and twitter and MSN, let us choose our abbr.s carefully. (We all agreed, however, that the student's correct use of a comma after 'Miss' was admirable.)
But what about the Alices??? No need to yell, imaginary reader. (Oh wait, that was just me yelling at myself again.) They are coming along well, if a bit slower than I'd hoped. Some of the little details like striped stockings and the eensy-weensy hairbands have been quite fussy and time-consuming, but I worth it, I think, because they're pretty dang cute. I've also given most of their dresses double layers, to suggest the traditional Alice-y apron. Layers and ruffles and all-round girliosity.