Blog – Page 5 – Shelley Burbank, Writer

A Good Life In Crazy Times

“Once upon a time . . .” Several years ago now, I wrote a blog about sustainable and local living. It started as a log of the year I attempted to stay out of “big box” stores, exploring, instead, local options: locally produced, locally grown, or at least locally owned retail stores. The topics expanded into DIY, especially knitting and other fiber arts, and gardening, cooking, and storing of food. I shared fashion finds from Goodwill and other second-hand stores. The initial year turned into two, three, five before winding down to a close in year…

San Diego Open Mic Debut

So this happened. One week after arriving in San Diego, I jumped right in to the literary scene and signed up to read at the 2nd Friday Dime Stories open mic event at San Diego Writers, Ink. SDWI is a writing organization that offers classes, workshops, writing groups, and other events for writers of all ages, styles, and stages. In conjunction with DimeStories.org, SDWI hosts a three-minute prose open mic night every month in their meeting room at Liberty Station in the Point Loma area of the city. Hubby and I went for a pre-event drink…

Pink Is My New Favorite Color

I used to love the color red. I loved it so much I painted my bedroom walls a deep, vibrant poppy. This despite the common knowledge that red is too exciting for a sleeping space. Not to mention the passion/anger factor. You don’t want to go to bed angry in a scarlet bedroom, right? Well, let’s see . . .Cindy Bailen, in an online article for USA Today Network’s site Reviewed reported on a study conducted by Travelodge. The hotel surveyed 2,000 households about how the colors of their bedroom walls affected their sleep . .…

Fiction: I Never Was That Fond of Kafka

I never was that fond of Kafka. We had to read “The Metamorphosis” in high school, and I just couldn’t feel sympathy toward the main character because all I could picture was this giant bug scrabbling around a pitiful room full of shabby furniture. I mean, insects are pretty gross. June bugs thumping against screen doors on summer evenings give me the willies. Japanese beetles fornicating in disgusting insect orgies while turning my crabapple leaves into brown lace make me positively murderous. I have no problem grabbing the pickle jar full of bleach and water and…