What Happened in Class on 7.11.06

HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT CHOICES: Write about your experiences with roller coasters and/or write about hair...good hair days, bad haircuts, perms gone bad, stylists you love or love to hate. If you like to laugh and you missed class on the 11th, that's too bad. Why? Because we laughed a lot. In fact, Leslie J., in the marketing dept., next to our meeting room in the Annex came over TWICE to see what all the joviality was about! To start, Meredith didn't just "read" her homework assignment she performed it. She creatively took the '60s song "Hair," and wrote her own lyrics about her husband's hair. We also heard from Sue who chronicled in hysterical, SueBesque detail about the trials and tribulations of having naturally curly hair. We started the class as we usually do, with a writing prompt. This time we thought of someone we have an emotional attachment to and wrote the line: "All (person's name) ever wanted was.....". We wrote our thoughts for 10 minutes and three or four times I would make a short statement, like, "What's the fuss?" or "Time will tell," and the writers would write that down and continue writing. Meredith's line said: "All Brad ever wanted was love." Sue's was: "All Melissa ever wanted was to be normal." Mark's..."All Andy ever wanted was to get high." Jenny's..."All Ernie ever wanted was a hug." Interesting, isn't it, how each one lends itself to a bigger story? I read a piece called "My Salon Surreal Experience...Surreal Being the Operative Word." I explained how I returned to a salon I had gone to 18 months prior, hoping I wouldn't run into the stylist who gave me such a poor haircut. I mentioned to RaeLynn, the stylist assigned to me, that I worked at HOV. She said, "What a coincidence. One of our stylists was on your service." I asked who she was. RaeLynn said, "Oh, it wasn't a she, it was a he." Yes, it was the stylist I had 18 months prior. And, to top it off, he had died that morning! Surreal, indeed. Sue gave us a light-hearted, verbal account of her roller coaster experience at Six Flags Great America in Chicago. It had to do with a sadistic, wooden coaster, her husband's glasses and Sue's yellow tube top. No wonder Leslie came in twice to see what the laughter was all about! Next month's class is Tuesday, August 15th, 3:30 in the Annex. The homework assignment is to think of a person, place or thing in popular culture and write a series of questions to it, or about it. Write for at least a half page and end the piece with a sentence. If you would like an example of the assignment I'd be happy to email you one. Also, feel free to add your comments to the posts. I'd like it to be an interactive blog. If you have questions or suggestions I can be reached at jennywritenow@aol.com or jfisher@hov.org.