I had a hard time debating the title for this post (side note: yes, this is how I spend my days, coming up with good titles for my posts rather than finishing my option material for Berkley). It was a dead heat between “Room with a Moo” and “Click, Clack, Moo” (the title of a darling children’s book by Doreen Cronin and Betsy Lewin), and the latter was obviously the winner.
What’s up with all the mooing? I guess that’s because when I write, if I were to look up and out the window, I’d be face-to-face with a cow. Or two.
Okay, I’m exaggerating a bit – they’re not THAT close. But they’re pretty close – definitely within mooing distance. And if I wanted to give them the stink eye, they’d see it, guaranteed.
When I write, their bovine bellows are a gentle reminder that my reality of Paradise is probably different from what most people think (“You live in Hawaii? You must be at the beach every day!”). Granted, I’m not far from the beach, about 15-20 minutes away (that, and you need to drop about 2500 feet down the defunct volcano that we live on – how’s that for glamorous?), but our quiet little “green” town of Waimea is cowboy country, and at night we’re not sleeping under the hula moon beneath a palm tree, but burrowed in flannel PJ’s under down comforters.
Are there things about your life that are more fiction than fact?
Mia, what an adorable cow picture!!
Yup, there are numerous things about my life that are more fiction than fact, but we don’t have room for them all here, so I’ll keep my comment fashionably short and share only one: I often have people say, “Wow! Love the pictures of your office. It’s gorgeous.” And I’m thinking, “Hello! It’s in a BASEMENT, people. I spend hours sitting in my chair wrapped in a comforter, squinting to stare up through one tiny window to see if the suns out or if we’re buried in snow!”
At least you can go find a beach, Mia 🙂
People often think that because I live in Canada I must be surrounded by snow, mounties and rabid beavers. In this case the fact is better than the fiction they imagine.
Learning that cowboys, cows and down comforters exist in your environment, Mia, proves that fact is stranger than fiction. Maia Caron’s post from yesterday focuses on how a writer can literally transport you across the world, but now I’m wondering how much does our own imagination allow us to believe what we “see” through words? And that’s a fact!
Not all that long ago, we had more cows than people here in Vermont.
I love that you can see cows out your window, Mia. And no, that’s not what I picture at all when I think of you there in Hawaii.
Right now, when I look out my window, I see snow-capped mountains in the distance. But I also see all the buildings of downtown Barre (“Granite Center of the World”), granite quarries, a Burger King, and Thunder Road –our local race track. Not exactly the Currier and Ives vision of Vermont most people have…
How cool that you hear mooing!
The most interesting thing about my office is that, for whatever reason, no heat ever reaches this room. So when it’s cold out–which is often–I’m often wrapped in a quilt. Or I’m wearing a down vest and a ski hat. One time I wore gloves. I’m thinking of moving my office into the living room, which is toasty and has a great view into trees and the street. I can’t tell you what’s stopping me because you’d think I was nuts.
I’ve never thought about there being cows in Hawaii. I’ve got such a funny picture of you sitting at your computer typing in rythm to the cows mooing.
Nothing like a little animal reality, is there? This morning I was videotaping an episode of homing-pigeons-gone-wild for my landlord who doesn’t believe there is a party happening on our roof at 5:30 a.m. every morning (lots of people keep pigeons and then let them go for one reason or another – whatever happen to responsible pigeon caretaking? Someone needs to call Pigeon Protective Services). I’ll take a moo over a coo any day!
I didn’t know there were cows in Hawaii!!! That’s amazing! I hate them.
I live in Ohio. Rural Ohio. Cows and Corn are everywhere. I’ve even had a pet cow. And a goat. And two sheep. And dozens of chickens. Cows aren’t as bad as chickens.