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Seriously, people. It’s headed up by Bono.
How much cooler can you get?
If I can stop one heart from breaking
I shall not live in vain;
If I can ease one life the aching
Or cool one pain,
Or help one fainting robin
Unto his nest again,
I shall not live in vain.
–Emily Dickinson
Do you realize…
…a BILLION people around the world live on less that ONE dollar a day?
…more than 38 million people around the world are infected by HIV/AIDS? 25 million of them are in Africa alone.
…Increasing international assistance by an amount equal to just ONE percent of the U.S. budget will:
(Information taken from the ONE site.)
You can help make a difference by visiting the site and signing the petition for America to keep the promises it made at last year’s G8 meeting. Go here for details.
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Who do you think you are? I didn’t ask for a new character, a new book, a new project. I have plenty going on as it is, ya big bully. You’ll just have to wait your turn. See that line there in the dirt? Don’t cross it. Stay on your side until I give you permission to cross.
No?
Sigh.
Okay, then. Spill your guts quickly, because I don’t have time to play around and figure you out.
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I’ve spent the day going from one task to another, mostly household tasks with a few writing tasks thrown in to break up the monotony. It’s unbelievable to me how long it can take to fold and put away all the laundry. When you add in helping small children pick up and put away the things they were playing with (but did not put away before they moved on to something else) it can be an endless cyclical process.
Luckily, writing-wise, I was just working on short, quick bursts of picture book stanzas. I fiddled with UP, UP, HOORAY (which yes, is currently submitted to my crit group but I can’t stop fiddling even when I’m waiting for feedback), wrote 3 new stanzas in MINI-RACER, wracked my brain trying to come up with a new ending for SURFER CHICK (no such luck but maybe it will appear when I least expect it) and quickly typed out two stanzas in THE DADDY WAY with two of our three children hanging from my back. (The third child was outside climbing a palm tree… yes, you read that right. Remember, we live in Brazil. My children climb palm trees.) It was a hodge-podge, mish-mash, back and forth kind of day.
The most interesting, surprising, exhilirating part of the day had to be the letter we received from the IRS informing us that we had done our taxes incorrectly and we are now due a refund. I double checked the law, the math and the address on the letter. They’re right. And we desperately need the money. So all in all, I’d say that makes for a good day. 🙂
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Okay, USA. This is it. Your game starts now. It’s you and Italy. They’re good. They’re tough. Everyone in your section has won one game now. Lose this and you go no further. You can do it. We believe in you. This could be one for the history books. Be there.
USA vs. Italy — World Cup Soccer — RIGHT NOW. 3pm EST June 17
Big breath everyone. This one could hurt.
UPDATE FINAL SCORE! USA 1 Italy 1; USA isn’t out of the CUP yet. It’ll take a big game against Ghana but it’s possible. Details to follow.
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Prairie
I am the prairie,
rolling mounds
of fertile soil
blanketing a complex
labyrinth of emotions that
at times
cower in darkness
and at times
fight for exit
to sun themselves
in the light of day.
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It doesn’t snow here in Brazil (at least where I live) but today is the closest we come to having what feels like the old fashioned, get out of school early, make a grocery store run, kind of snow day.
Brazil plays their first game in the World Cup against Croatia at 3 pm EST today. And the whole country is crazy. Traffic has been unbelievable since early this morning, people are already drunk and shooting off fireworks, SCHOOL HAS BEEN LET OUT(!) and everyone is headed to a party. People you don’t even know speak to you in the streets. And this is all for the first game. Just the first game. I can’t even begin to imagine what will happen if they make it to the finals. Well, yes I can, because it happened 4 years ago. They won. Brazil wasn’t normal for weeks.
I’m sitting here in my green and yellow, though, ready to cheer my team to victory. You know Brazil World Cup fever is a serious thing when it reaches the 35 year old mother with 3 kids who has never played soccer in her life. THIS is Brazil.
Go BRAAAAAAAAAAAAAZZZZZZIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIL!
(To understand a little more about how wild Brazilians are about soccer, ahem, FOOTBALL, check out this video:
UPDATE: Brazil won the game 1-0. The city is going bananas!
I’ve lost all perspective. I’m clueless about my own writing. I’m changing things back and forth and back again. Um, then forth…again. I know. I know. Put it aside. Put it aside. Come back to it later. I’ll try.
Revisions are like fixing hair for the prom. You wash it, you dry it, you brush it, you curl it, you pin it up and walk out the door. Then you just can’t stop yourself from checking the mirror a few million times to fix the strays.
Kristy Dempsey 