My first love in writing is creating mystery or romantic intrigue fiction. I’ve trained myself to find story ideas from some of the most unexpected places. Take this classified ad I came across recently. All it said was, “Limo New Jersey, danger, mystery, magic,” plus it listed a phone number and a web site. I was intrigued.

When I checked out the website I was disappointed. It turns out the company specialized in taking people to interactive mystery events where the participants get to solve a staged murder. That was much more prosaic that my imagination had hoped for.

And that imagination wouldn’t let the idea go. Before the night was through, I’d plotted a tidy little fantasy story about a limousine service that transported its customers to another realm where magic reigned and getting back home to the “real” world was harder and more dangerous than they ever imagined. Now, of course, I have to sit down and write this story. But that’s another … well … story.

Sometimes I try to come up with a title before writing a post. This one typed itself. And then a …well, jazz song wrote itself down, too, complete with instrumental sound effects: (dit-DAH-dee-DUM). Just imagine a blues singer crooning the phrase a capella and a good ol’ jazz band playin’ the dit-DAH-dee-DUMs. Kick back and groove along with me.

If you want new windows, (dit-DAH-dee-DUM)
Then here’s what you need. (dit-DAH-dee-DUM)
Go buy vinyl windows (dit-DAH-dee-DUM)
They’ll please you, indeed. (dit-DAH-dee-DUM)

They’re easy to care for. (dit-DAH-dee-DUM)
They look real good, too. (dit-DAH-dee-DUM)
No scraping or painting (dit-DAH-dee-DUM)
Will you have to do. Oh, no, you can’t go wro-o-ong if you’ll just listen now to me.
(DAH-dee-dum-DAH-dee-dum-DAH-dee-dum-DAH)
Uh-hunh!

You can get tilt-to-clean ones. (dit-DAH-dee-DUM)
You can get standard, too. (dit-DAH-dee-DUM)
Easy-lock, easy-open. (dit-DAH-dee-DUM)
Are just waiting for you. (dit-DAH-dee-DUM)

And replacement windows (dit-DAH-dee-DUM)
Won’t clean out your purse. (dit-DAH-dee-DUM)
So go out and buy some (dit-DAH-dee-DUM)
When I finish this verse, because you can’t go wro-o-ong with an Illinois window company.
(DAH-dee-dum-DAH-dee-dum-DAH-dee-dum-DAH)
Oh, yeah!

I have two genes that I’ve never seen written about in research journals — not that I regularly read genetic research briefs. The terminology makes my head spin.

Should I submit myself for genetic testing, I know they will find the “putting an unexpected creative spin on things ” gene, and the “quirky sense of humor” gene. When these two get together, look out!

Just the other day I was supposed to be writing about sports medicine in Orange County. (I know. The things I do to support my writing habit!)

The next thing I knew I’d written the article as a blues song. I won’t torture you by including it here. Suffice it to say that it came directly out of the intersection of my creative gene and my humor gene.

Fortunately, my boss loved the piece. (He made me include an introduction, however.) But I don’t think either of us will ever see athletic injuries in quite the same way again.

I don’t know if I’ve ever written such a big load of crap as I did when I wrote my management essay this past fall.  Nothing I wrote in that essay was true and it made myself to be someone who is so far from away and I had to laugh when I read it.

The essay would have worked very well as an arts essay or a creative writing assignment because it took so much imagination to make myself into somebody completely different than who I am.

I am really looking forward to the sociology essay that I get to write next semester.  I always thought essays would be something that would be very hard for me, but I have made them very fun and I’m interested to see what I can come up with next.

For as long as I can remember, I have always wanted to be a writer. I have been making up stories since I was a little girl, and now, as an adult, I still have a great imagination. I can spend hours entertaining children with my stories. When there was a creative writing class offered at our community college, I knew I had to take it.

I was doing so well and was getting a lot of compliments form the teacher on my work. I told her that I had been doing this very thing for as long as I could remember and that creative writing would never be a challenge for me. She just nodded her head and smiled with a sparkle in her eyes.

The next week, we were given the assignment to write a piece of creative non-fiction work. Okay, I admit that I was finally challenged. As it had to be non-fiction, I could no longer just rely on imagination. The story had to contain facts and I had a difficult time writing it. I was finally challenged and it felt great.

I don’t want to bore you with all the details of the six classes that I’m taking this term in college.  Sure, for the geeks out there it might be something interesting, but I would guess for most of you that wouldn’t be the case.  So instead, I’ve decided to go with the generalization of my classes and let you know what I’ve been doing at school.

The coursework this term has been challenging, it has been a great opportunity to learn many new things.  I have been taking classes to develop your creative side as opposed to classes (like calculus) that developed analytical skills.

I found myself writing many different essays on a multitude of topics with none of them being alike.  I specially like essay writing when I can choose the topic.  For example, I wrote an essay about the environmental impact of my car on the world around me.  Reading these essays, has been a great experience to explore my creativity and my thoughts and have the opportunity to share them with others.

So there you have it, a short, simple summary of my classes this past term.

Ever since I wrote my first book report in elementary school I have loved to write essays.  Call me weird, call me crazy, but an essay allows the creativity inside of me to flow out onto a piece of paper.  It is an opportunity for me to utilize the writer inside of me and share my thoughts on the topic that I’m writing.

I found writing the application essay for college one of the easiest and most enjoyable things to do in my life.  I liked it so much that I wish that any job that I ever would apply for would allow me to write an essay instead of going to an interview.

Once I did start my classes in college, each time that a professor would assign a research paper as the assignment, I would jump for joy.  Sure, I was the only one in the class of thought that way, but for me essays are just easy to write.

The only times that I had in college, was getting used to writing an online essay for a final exam that I had for English.  The problem for me was it was a new experience for me and I had issues writing it is my creativity flows better onto paper.  But at least I was able to do what I love in college - write essays.

One of my favorite things about the Internet is it is an outlet for creativity.  I mean, where else can you share an idea, put up your own virtual poster, and share a part of yourself with the world?  Well, there are not really any other mediums that I can think of that you can connect with as many people as the Internet allows you to do.

I came across a good example of creative writing today.  By accident, I came across a site called End of this World.  Right now, they are having a writing competition in an effort to write a novel.

This is the first time that I have seen this kind of collaborative writing - and what is written so far looks good.  So good in fact, the short story that has rivaled many stories that I have read in books.  It will be truly interesting to see the final product which will be the collaborative work of many authors.  So check it out - you won’t be disappointed.

I am learning that I have a creative side to me. I can see what other’s don’t and have gotten a lot of compliments on it. I didn’t know that I had one of these before because I had never actually sat down and enjoyed making something. I am glad that I did and I think that it will be fun exploring different things to see what I like.

The only reason I found out that I had a creative side is that I somehow found myself volunteering to help my best friend with her practical favors for her wedding. We made a few and then I made some suggestions as to how we could better them. She was amazed at that and at how creative I all of a sudden was.

I was amazed as well. We created all of these and I realized that I had such a great time doing this with her that I may have to become a crafty person. My husband laughed at that, but said it was a better idea than me all of a sudden deciding that I wanted to take up gardening. I can’t see that one ever happening.

After having our last baby, Alexandra, we received a number of gifts.  We received a lot of the common stuff like diapers, sleepers and a blanket or two.  You smile and nod because you are thankful for the gifts, but in reality, these types of gifts are really not that exciting.  Now, I am not trying to be thankless, but sometimes you just want something a little more exciting.

A friend of mine took some photos of our baby at the baby shower and contacted us a few days later.  She said that she had her present for us and that we should come check it out.

Packing everyone into the car, we went over to her house to see what Alexandra’s present would be.  What we saw was the exciting gift that I had been waiting for!  You see, she put the photos onto canvas which turned the prints into exciting pieces of art.  It captured one of the early moments of her life and it is something that we can keep forever.

It was definitely one of the most unique baby gifts we have ever received.