Weekend Conversations
Posted on 04 October 2011
Me, while passing a funeral home: I wonder what happens when the funeral director of a family-run funeral home dies. Does his family handle his remains or what?
P: I think you just described the premise of the first episode of Six Feet Under.
Me: Oh. I’ve never watched that show. Hey, maybe I should be writing for TV. Because, you know, it’s that easy to get into and also I wouldn’t hate it at all.
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Jane Doe: Pen names are a good thing. Back when I wrote poetry, I used a pen name. [thoughtful pause] Of course, I never sent my poems out anywhere, so I guess in the end it didn’t matter.
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Me: So Mindy Kaling, from The Office? She has a book coming out and an excerpt was published in the New Yorker and –
P, with a slight sigh: Yeah, everyone has a book coming out these days. [chuckles] No offense.
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Me, while out in public, listening to live music: Hey, do you have a pen and paper?
P: Let me see…I have a pen, but no paper.
Me: I’ll just tear apart this Chipotle bag and write on that.
P: Here, I’ll cut off a section for you with my pocketknife. And you can use my camera display for light to write by.
Me: So you’re not embarrassed that I want to sit here writing on a paper bag instead of engaging in normal human interaction?
P: Why would I be?
Photo: justmakeit
What kind of light do you write by?
11 responses to Weekend Conversations
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You haven’t watched Six Feet Under?
You have to! It is an amazing (amazing!) show. It will want to make you write (and I can’t think of a higher compliment for a show!).
Nope, haven’t seen even one episode. But I will take your enthusiastic response seriously and add it to my list of shows I really need to watch. Like Lost. Can you believe I never, ever watched Lost? But I remained unspoiled throughout the whole series and can always return to it. I just got into Doctor Who, too…
The Jane Doe comment cracks me up. The thoughtful pause! It sounds like something Meg Ryan would say in a rom-com.
This person also offered up a few great lines about writing haiku with “a fun guy from Parma,” but unless you live in the Cleveland area and can appreciate the particular flavor of Parma, OH, I’m not sure how well it would translate.
As someone who, just last week, tried to write (while sitting at a stoplight) on the inside of a plastic Taco Bell bag, I guess I have no shame. Though when I got home I copied said “brilliant note!” into my journal and immediately deep-sixed the bag down down down into the trash so no one would see. That I’d been to Taco Bell.
Grabbing whatever is available to write on during stoplights — a time-honored writer’s tradition!
Also, I won’t tell anyone about the Taco Bell.
Did I say Taco Bell? I mean Whole Foods.
Ha! And you just reminded me of this:
Hostages Trapped Inside Walmart Insisting They Never Shop At Walmart
Oh Teri. When I cheat, I stop at a dumpster on my way home to get rid of the incriminating evidence.
Clearly you need training in deviance.
It’s nice when they get us and P so clearly gets you.