02/13/01 - Spoonless yogurt ... I love yogurt, but I don't think I could eat it out of a tube. I guess this would be the answer to not having to buy little white plastic spoons to go into the lunch bag. Or maybe people have forgotten how to sit down and savor their food; everything must be to go or on the go. Anyway, this is what happens when I sit down to read the grocery ads. I try to be humored by it all, instead of disgusted. I was trying to pare down the pile of paper that is growing on my kitchen table. I read the front page of the paper today. I can't believe I even have a newspaper in my house. My mother used to read every word of the newspaper every single day. Every single word. It took her hours. I could come, go, live or die and she might look up for a second, but then it was back to the paper. I used to tell her you can't believe everything you read. That was the only comment I ever made. That's why I find it funny to have papers around me these days. It was Eric's idea. He said yes to a telemarketer not too long ago. I let it go. He likes the sports pages and reads them religiously. I figure that any kind of reading is a plus, so I let it go. Anyway, the front page caught my eye; Allegations of past child abuse threaten Hare Krishnas' existence. There was an interesting picture of some Krishna children from the Berkeley temple too. I've been to the Krishna temple in Berkeley, it's a very interesting place. There are more pictures on pages 7 and 8. It's a keeper. I'm going to put the article in my clipping file. Lots of thoughts are coming to my mind, past thoughts. I knew some Hare Krishnas. My first husband grew up with a guy who became a big-time Hare Krishna. I knew him before he joined. Later I attended his wedding at the Berkeley temple. So many past thoughts. My ex grew up in a pathetic part of San Francisco, Visitation Valley, so did his friend. When I met my ex he was still very close to his childhood friends. They were a mixture of red-neck and peter pan, mid twenties that never wanted to grow up. You could find them in the pathetic, ugly little park at the end of the main street in the neighborhood. They'd be there in the middle of the day drinking beer, hanging out. Anyway, that's more than I really want to think about now. But, I might do some outlining ... could make a good story some day. When I journal I always write from the top of my head. But my story writing seems to go smoother with an outline. I've tried a few different ways to do this. The map method works when I know what I want to say. I make a circle in the middle of a page and then draw circles projecting out from the main circle (usually 10 or 12) and just fill those in with the main thoughts I want to put into the story. It centers me. Sometimes I don't know what I want to say. I found this method that goes something like ... This is a story about - and you finish the sentence. Then you just keep writing more this is a story about sentences. Usually after a page or two of sentences, I'm raring to go. But my favorite way is a combination of the two. My outline becomes very messy. It figures that messy works best for me, the messier the better. I write the words Brain Storming at the top and just start filling a page with thoughts, sentences, single words, whatever. Then I go back and circle the ones that call to me. This is a great way for me to save ideas for later. Well, see ... I haven't been blocked after all. Just doing a little brain storming.