Character monologue OMG, right in front of the whole school, my mother pulled up and started yelling to me that we need to go to JC Penny, like I would EVER go there. I was SO embarrassed. Everyone was looking at me. We got to the mall, it seemed like everyone I know decided to come and see my embarrassment. First we went to Pennys to get me some new bras and she buys the same bras for herself. Said that we could be sisters. As if! Totally bent. Then she decided that it’s been too long since we’ve rode the carousal and bought us two tickets. I refused to get on. I have my limits. She rode the biggest…
Author: Karin Armbrust
The Pringle Affair
“Tea?” Barb asked. “Thanks,” I said going over to select my tea while she laid out a small plate of celery sticks, organic flax crackers, and hummus. I took a few moments to look around her kitchen, and felt a twinge of envy. Every cooking tool I could think of was on display. Cookware hanging from the ceiling, a Veg-O-Matic Food Preparer, and a series of knifes marching in military formation across a magnetic strip above the oven. When she opened the refrigerator, I saw an over abundance of produce. Barb knew how to live. Sipping my tea, my eyes came upon something I didn’t expect. A Pringles can. There was a can of Pringles peeking out from behind the…
2 Karins on a Bench
This story will be made into a short film. I won’t look very much like this story since film is a visual medium. The goal of the film is to experiment with film editing, especially split screens. I’ll post the film when I’m done with it. -Karin I’m rummaging around in my purse looking for my cell phone when I feel the presence of someone else. Someone is sitting beside me. I turn, and see myself. “Are you going to get that?” myself asked looking at my ringing cell phone. What do you call someone who is you but who is not you? If she was you and you were you you’d call her by your own name since you’re…
Repeat…
“I am done with drama! I ask you, with complete compassion and understanding, to quit yapping in my ear about this!” The voice inside of me nods her head, smiles gently, and then belts out, If I Could…Make a Deal with God…. It’s been three days! Three days with that song rummaging around inside my head like some absent-minded chocoholic pirate who forgot where she stashed her booty. Yes, I love the song. Yes, every time I re-watch that episode of The Vampire Diaries, I think “I should download that song. I can add it to my list of other songs that have terrorized me.” Yes, I am masochist intent on my own mental destruction. But I would have never…
Whose “Meaning”?
I have been working through a career coaching book, trying with all my might to figure what I should do with myself. I’ve been following the exercises, even sent out questionnaires to people who know me, to try and figure out who I am and what I should be doing with myself. It plagues me. I would rather have toads raining down than try to quantify and qualify myself. Yet here I am again, terrorizing myself. It’s a big question and it’s one of many big questions. What should I do with my life? What is my purpose? What is the meaning of life? Should I follow this dream? Why does bad things happen to good people? Would my life…
End of Days or… what do you mean it’s due now?
Sometimes I wonder who I choose to live this life at the End of Days. Am I stupid or something? I don’t even know if it’s the End of Days. I don’t know if it’s Solstice 2012 or Oct 28, 2011. I don’t know if any of it is true. I feel something in my bones though. I’ve been “working on myself” for a long time and now it feels like I have a deadline. A deadline that I didn’t agree to! WHO IS THE PROJECT MANAGER OF THIS PROJECT! Once upon a time, I was a woman who was fairly isolated. I had just a few friends and I spent most of my time working on my projects. Now,…
Zumba….A Spiritual Practice?
So it’s January. So it’s right after the New Years. So it’s time for our six weeks of attempting to fulfill our resolutions until life gets the best of us and we end up back in front of the TV watching reruns of the Vampire Diaries. So what if the place is packed with resolution adventurers and there is no room to shake my bootie. So what if I didn’t make any resolutions this year, at least consciously. Here I am in a Zumba class at Seattle’s Community Fitness. And I have no clue, half the time, what’s going on. This is my third Zumba class and my third instructor. What is Zumba? It’s a latin-based dance fitness crazy! I…
On Creativity, Morality and Information Overload
Recently, I was at my writer’s group and we were talking about the barrage of information given to us by the media. I’m in an Artist’s Way workshop and I had taken my “artist date” at the local Barnes and Noble. I let my inner child artist free and we wandered the aisles looking at anything I took a fancy too. I spent time in the comic book section, looking at journals and checking out all those all-in-one how-to books that teach you how to juggle or knit. I ended up over at the artist section where I looked at books of works of art and photographs. Then I saw a book with Pulitzer Prize winning photographs, and I pulled…
The Nature and Promise of Connection
I have been trapped in a maze of my own making. For several months now I’ve been contemplating what it means to be connected. What is connection? Is it possible for me to have it? Do other people have it? Can they, or anyone really, show me the way? And so I watched people and what I saw was that yes, people are connecting! And I don’t seem to be a part of it. And so I started getting very depressed. Yesterday I went to a workshop called “Heart Play”. I had no idea what they were about, in fact, since they were having the meeting at the Sharma Center in Seattle, I thought that it was about Sex and/or…
Art and The Art of Living
Yesterday, at my voice-over class, I asked my instructor about how she deals with just the mechanics of living while still pursuing her dream. You see, in the world of acting and voice-over, the actual job is to audition. We spend a lot of time trying to get the gig, much more than actually doing any gigs we might get. And since most of the auditions are during the day, and when we do get the gig, it might be days and nights, we have to have work that is very flexible. They have to be okay with us running off periodically or not working for periods of time. The world isn’t set up this way. Most employers are not…