pen and wisk

2010-03-15T08:01:00.001-07:00

not here.here: shannadipaolo.tumblr.com xo.

a smear of ash, a pinch of salt, a stick of butter: worry with lemon-chive cream

2009-03-16T07:41:00.000-07:00

"my life is a listening, his is a speaking. my salvation is to hear and respond." Thomas Merton a saturday ago, i was early morning porch sitting in the sunny, chilly air, just waiting. or, i was trying to wait. instead, i was worrying. i worried about getting all of my to dos done. i worried about a friend who was hurting. i was anxious about the tires on my car. i felt guilty for something

a smear of ash, a pinch of salt, a stick of buter: tears in my lentils

2009-03-05T08:18:00.000-08:00

why are girls so terrible to each other? i don't think i've ever been friends with a group of girls where there hasn't been some back biting, gossip and cat fights. usually, you just move on, but sometimes it hurts terribly and becomes very damaging. the broad answer is that we're all depraved, and our insecurities and personal fears are temporarily assuaged by pointing out someone else's flaws.

a smear of ash, a pinch of salt, a stick of butter

2009-02-27T11:46:00.000-08:00

"Lent is the time for trimming the soul and scrapping the sludge off a life turned slipshod. Lent is about taking stock of time, even religious time. Lent is about exercising the control that enables us to say no to ourselves... Lent is the time to make new efforts to be what we say we want to be." - sister Joan Chittisterlent has always facinated me. at my non-denominational mega-church we never

motivate me.

2009-01-02T07:18:00.000-08:00

many creative types talk about inspiration. where they find it. how they wish they had some. what it prompts them to make and do.inspiration, please. i have no lack of stimulating forces sparking my neurons and firing creative thoughts.what i lack is motivation.i've often longed for a technology that allows me to download thoughts, unaltered, into a word document and then rearrange them once

query? part II

2008-12-19T09:06:00.000-08:00

"And so, I think the idea is good, but needs more direction. I don't think the topic could stand on it's own without a stronger angle."- An editor.Yes, queries are difficult, but finally having the guts to query an editor only to receive an e-mail like this is down right terrifying. Support and assert my idea? I thought I would just send it to you and then sit back and listen to your profuse

query?

2008-12-17T13:57:00.000-08:00

there are a lot of worst things about freelance journalism. developing story ideas is the worst. convincing a subject to agree to an interview is the worst. writing interview questions is fun, but sometime conducting the actual interview is terrible. nerve wracking. the worst. querying editors is the worst.no, really.querying editors is the worst. i'm not sure what other profession combines

2008-12-04T08:33:00.000-08:00

a poem is never finished, only abandoned.~ paul valery (french critic and poet 1871-1945)this is true about poetry, yes, but i think it is a universal statement about all art. i've never truly finished anything i've ever written, only gotten sick of working on it or declared it "good enough." sometimes things are done, but i believe there's a thin differentiation between done and finished. it is

2008-12-03T11:07:00.000-08:00

when writing an article, i often have to call people to arrange interviews or sometimes to do the actual interview over the phone. this is normal. those people are my primary sources and without them, the article couldn't be written. i've probably done this somewhere around 200 times by now, i'd imagine, or maybe more.there's always this internal struggle. i look up the number. i pause. my heart

concieve.create.repeat

2008-10-23T08:35:00.000-07:00

today, i'm feeling so very creativ.e.maybe it's the sunshine this morning after therain??i just discovered the answer to a question i've had for months:question: how to make over a lamp i found on the side of the road?answer: scales. trust me.also, how do you people feel about feather headpieces?not really indian style.i'm thinking more like zelda-fitzgerald-roaring-twenties-gin-martini-type

sometimes i write nursery rhymes

2008-10-08T11:37:00.000-07:00

if it grows by leaps and boundswhen it's lead you all aroundand it's written on your faceyou want to call the chasewhat do you do?sink into the blueclimb back into bedcover your little headgracefully fade awaywait for a different dayhope everyone forgetsdeal with the regrets?or do you face it straight ontell 'em they're all wrongwork until it's doneand fight till you're the onewhen you win you'll

i'm with the band

2008-10-06T13:17:00.000-07:00

friday was just one of those days. the good kind.i was productive at work. i did all of my errands. i received an unexpected check in the mail.the ak came over. we rode the motorcycle down to the crossroads. we had margs and mexican at manny's. we met up with friends and family to hear some beautiful music. we ran into our favorite waitress while she was playing her flute on the street. we popped

metal heart

2008-10-02T08:53:00.000-07:00

you know how some people are just real-life heroes?for example, my sister chelsea. she's only 21 but she's already lived in italy and costa rica, visted korea, hung out in ecuador, nicagrauga, panama and spain. chelsea can talk to you about Jesus in english or spanish, which ever you prefer.it's her goal to traipse all over the world, taking care of people in the name of Jesus.chelsea is my

fair isle socks

2008-10-01T10:01:00.000-07:00

i watched an episode of the rachel zoe project this weekend and it made me want to get my closet ready for fall. which happened to be perfect, because the weather's been fall all week.i visited a few thirft stores and my neighborhood target. i got fall-type things (it's a little blair waldorf). new tights, jumpers, headbands and fair isle socks. (which i'm wearing right now.)then i came home and

know your onion!

2008-09-30T09:42:00.001-07:00

sometimes i feel like an onion. i don't know how to describe this feeling except, well, there's the center of the onion that formed when i was a very little girl, and then every year there's a new layer, until i'm 23 and i'm quite the well-developed onion. but that part at the center, and all of those layers thereafter, are still very much me. sometimes i am the center of my onion, a little girl

2008-09-27T08:55:00.000-07:00

last night i helped with a surprise.katie and nick never get to see each other. but they're, you know, in like. so it's hard. i can understand. when nick e-mailed me to ask would i please help him surprise katie, well, what was i supposed to say? of course yes. i think the only people on earth who wouldn't want to help with that surprise are recent divorcees and dictators. too busy oppressing

pieces of our mythology

2008-09-25T09:56:00.000-07:00

the first time ak and i ever hung out (went out?), he called me for directions. well are you driving? i asked. "yes, i have a green jeep."i'm sure there was more to our conversation, but that detail inexplicably sticks with me. i think about it probably once a week, actually. (little treasures like bits of memories and people's names tend to get trapped in my mind and roll around, i guess, like

2008-09-24T10:32:00.000-07:00

i get a terrible headache about once a month. i can feel them coming on: my shoulder starts to tense up, and then my neck, and then on the third day i'm hit with a full-blown pain parade. Weird vision, stabbing in my temple, general discomfort around the back of my head. today the pain was making me nauseous, nauseous, nauseous, and then suddenly, hungry. like, ravenous. like, i had to eat

2008-09-22T07:18:00.000-07:00

jim the bread man has a curly white mullet. he drives a big red astro van with the bench seats taken out. he is mysteriously related to the amish.jim the bread man has a deal worked out with white hen and price chopper. a few times a week he goes and picks up groceries that are nearing the end of their shelf life. then he brings them over to my office and lets us pick out anything we

2008-09-18T07:49:00.001-07:00

well first, there's this:yesterday couldn't have been any better. it was just the sunshine, my little man and me.i had grapefruit.he had grass.i worked. he played.we're in love.

2008-09-15T10:26:00.000-07:00

we have finally come up for air after what seemed like days and weeks of rain. i know we didn't receive even a fourth of the worst of it, and believe me, i am grateful. but still. people who say they'll take the rain must be truly crazy. give me a sunbeam every day of the week.we made do with the rainy days, even if it meant letting the dogs wrestle in the middle of the living room, muddy paw

2008-09-11T12:06:00.000-07:00

it turns out i'm not very good about simple-blogging, am i?and anyway, i was recently challenged with the idea that the more beauty is celebrated, the more beauty the celebrator has. so i decided to use this blog to celebrate the things in my life that are beautiful, and hopefully the more i celebrate them, the more beautiful my life will become. it is a way to view life as art, something that

OZONE ALERT

2008-08-01T14:31:00.000-07:00

This weekend I'm going to extend the simple challenge into financial territory - because what fun is something if you don't involve money? AK and I made an agreement to not spend any money this weekend. No eating out, no shopping (and it's tax free weekend in MO!), no movies, etc. We have to find simple ways to entertain ourselves, with out making any financial expenditures. Expect a full

2008-07-11T09:22:00.000-07:00

If I were an X-men, or a Hero, or some kind of mutant with a specially evolved super power I'm certain my skill would be something involving my olfactory sense. Unfortunately it isn't as glamorous as a cheerleader who can heal herself or a phoenix with telepathic abilities, but we all make do with what we have. And I have a very heightened sense of smell.I have never told anyone this, mostly

2008-07-01T10:24:00.000-07:00

the simple challenge took an unplanned hiatus because for the last three weeks my life has been anything but. acquiring a nine-week-old welsh terrier named oliver: unsimple. moving myself and olly from our little one-bedroom into a two-story house with two roommates and another dog: unsimple. scrubbing, sweeping, scrapping, taping and painting a 500 square-foot apartment in the course of three

make way for bikes

2008-06-16T14:01:00.000-07:00

In Norwalk, Connecticut, they're dealing with quite the quandary. Their rail line is being outfitted with new cars soon, and the problem is this: to bike or not to bike?Gov. Jodi Rell hopes modifying the design of the car to make room for commuters to bring their bikes on board will encourage people to ride rather than drive to the train station.Not so fast! Her constituents say. Have you seen

don't be shy!

2008-06-13T09:09:00.000-07:00

It was Kanye who said we're all self-consious, and then John Mayer later echoed this sentiment. I probably have less pop-culture clout than either of those gentlemen, but I'll admit it, I am. Part of the reason I waited nearly a year to figure out public transportation in Kansas City was intimidation. For all of the mass- transit riding I did in Chicago, bus routes have always puzzled me. Just

i'm not alone

2008-06-12T09:13:00.001-07:00

When starting the simple challenge I didn't expect to be the only person who was changing my living habits. "Green" and "conserve" and "simplify" are everywhere these days. It's trendy. It's socially aware. I had a hunch many people would be looking for new ways to commute, eat and live. As part of the simple challenge I'll be looking for examples of people who are onto the same I idea I am, and

a fine example

2008-06-11T10:30:00.000-07:00

Fred Mathes, 92, of California has been riding the same Schwinn for 56 years. His typical ride is 14 miles round trip. When he takes his car to be serviced, he loads his bike in the backseat and rides it 20 miles home. On his 80th birthday he rode to Oxnard, Calif., about 380 miles. When he turned 90 he rode to the Friant Dam and back - an 80 mile round trip.He and his wife are life long

remodel

2008-06-10T10:20:00.000-07:00

"Oh yeah! I like this. These buses look new."^a KCATA bus riderIt was an exciting morning on the Metro. Passengers entering the #142 bus expecting the standard red upholstered benches were surprised by a brand new interior featuring separate seats, a futuristic color scheme, brighter lighting, more accessible overhead railing and three tiers of seating allowing room for more passengers. General

buses and bikes

2008-05-29T10:45:00.000-07:00

Since I moved from Chicago to Kansas City almost a year ago I've cultivated a little grudge against the local public transportation system, the Metro. My reasons weren't sound or logical, and they can mostly be summed up as, "It's not the CTA!" It was very possible that the Metro ran more efficiently than the CTA, was cheaper and had more comfortable vehicles with friendlier operators. I didn't

simple beginnings

2008-05-28T07:28:00.000-07:00

I suppose it could have started anywhere, but for me it started at the quicktrip down the road. Standing there in the wind, watching resources drain from my wallet into my car, I had an epiphany. "This," I muttered out loud, "is so unsustainable."Well, it was maybe not the most ground-breaking, earth-shattering, life-changing thought that's ever occurred to someone, but it was important to me. I