A few notes scribbled down on my iPhone notepad in the middle of the night aside, I finally started the physical work on my true, five minute story for the Scranton Story Slam yesterday morning.

The event will be held on Saturday, March 31 at The Vintage Theatre in Scranton. So it seems as if there is plenty of time. Except we have a show (Octavia) going up at the theater on Wednesday. And there’s that pesky day job. And the thing putting food on the table after the day job pays the rent & utilities seems to be my jewelry sales.

And there’s that play I’ve been trying to write. And the call for proposals for the September playwriting invitational that needs to be ready by Wednesday. And that guest blog I said I would do for March. And all the other volunteer work I’m committed to. And last but not least, those lovely teenagers of mine need a mother’s love and taxi service some of the time.

I love my life, all poverty aside, but dang what I wouldn’t give for the ability to stop time.

I’m pretty comfortable with the first 287 words — yeah, that’s not very much — of my story minus the fact that I can’t find the name of that blonde reporter from A Current Affair who reported on the Soon Yi/Woody Allen scandal from Drew University in 1992. These details matter when you’re telling a true story. Which is why I prefer fiction.

Fortunately, I chose a story that feels like fiction in my memory. It happened to another Alicia a couple of Alicias ago. It has nothing to do with Soon Yi and Woody really. Except that you can’t help who you fall in love with. Or who you don’t.

There is some pain in the story — mostly that kind that comes from being honest with one’s own faults and failings. Hopefully I can twist most of it into a sort of comedy. There’s a lot of comedy in the story. More than I can find in most my adult, post-collegiate life when children changed the tone of whim and made it something more akin to irresponsibility.

They’ll be recording the life out of this event — audio and video both from what I understand  and I expect the camera will be snapping. So you’ll get to taste the end results if you’re so inclined. (See future post.)

-ag