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Wednesday, June 13, 2007

My Imaginary Friends...

...are taking up a lot of room in my head this week. A LOT. I go to sleep thinking about them. I wake up agonizing over what I have to make my imaginary friends do. I have lived with them in my head for so long now, and soon, as much as I want this to be over with and get on with my next project, I'll have to say goodbye to them. I'm going to miss them!

I always had imaginary friends when I was a kid. I had one named Bobby. He was a cool guy. Bobby used to follow my dad around the farm. I have memories of looking out the big window in our apartment and seeing dad swaggering up the lane to the barn with invisible Bobby close behind, mimicking every step. Bobby hung around in the long grass with me, building forts and pretending to be horses. I talked to Bobby quite a bit but I don't remember what he said back to me. But he was a good hang. Really undemanding.

These friends? Not so much. They are demanding. They poke around inside my head and talk to each other. They want me to write it down. They think inside their own imaginary heads, and I'm supposed to hear it and translate it. It's an unsaid agreement. They make the noise, I make the words.

I worry that they've taken on such a life of their own that I won't be able to let them go. One in particular looks like he'll be around much longer. He is huge. He almost took over this whole story but I wouldn't let him. I can't see him fading away and I don't really want him to because he fascinates me. More than anything else, I'm amazed that I invented him.

Good thing I have real friends to keep me from going too far into my Brainworld. It can get scary in there. I have a couple of mammals in my life to keep me on track.

My cat, for example, constantly reminds me that sometimes I just have to take it easy.


And my dog? Well, my dog is good for a lot of reminders.

That squirrels are evil,
eating is great,
get comfy before a nap,
and of course,
have a sense of humour!!!!!





I also have this garden full of beauty outside my door, to remind me to stop and see things. And smell. And feel happy for it.







And so, blogfriends, I'm going to be hanging with my imaginary friends all day today until our after school riding lesson, after which I'll be begging my kids to cook supper so I can get this thing all sorted out.

It'll be done by this weekend...and then I can hang with my hooved mammals and my real-life friends as a reward!!

18 comments:

CindyDianne said...

Good luck finishing it up. I would assume that like reading a good book and missing the characters when it ends, that writing them is the same - if not worse!

Enjoy them!

Balloon Pirate said...

Garrett Morris (one of the original cast members of Saturday Night Live) used to be followed around by an imaginary invisible hypnotist robot. Garrett made it go away by stripping to the waist and screaming at the top of his lungs for several minutes in front of Kirk Douglas.

Oh, and also by no longer freebasing cocaine.

yeharr

Heidi the Hick said...

What a relief. I was trying to figure out how I was going to arrange that method of making the imaginary people settle down and quit bugging me, but since I don't do cocaine, it looks like I should be okay!!

Lucky for Kirk Douglas I guess...

Cindy, I've had a harder time facing the parting with these characters than ever before. I hope that's a good sign!

dilling said...

I like my imaginary friends...but, I am not writing a book. Should I be worried?!? Wait, don't answer that. I would rather not know, actually.
Good luck wrapping things up.

Heidi the Hick said...

Okay, Dilling, I'm maybe not the right person to ask about these things, but I think it's okay to llike your imaginary friends even if they aren't going to come out in a book.

Is your imaginary friend's name VINCENT????

Heidi the Hick said...

Wednesday afternoon, 1:53 pm.

fourth hour of my captivity.

with breaks for lunch and blogging.

Halfway through the rewrite.

Faced with...the Scene That I Keep Putting Off.

I can skip it AGAIN and come back to it...

or...

I can just do the damn thing.

I gotta go pull some weeds outta the flowerbed.

Plan C.

Notsocranky Yankee said...

My 4 yr. old son (Bob) has an imaginary friend named "Fighter". We love to hear the stories of what Fighter is up to!

Biddie said...

Kayla had an imaginary friend named Lisa..Thing is, I often wondered HOW imaginary she really was.
I can't wait to meet all of your other friends. Do think that we'll like each other? I'm sure that we will. You generally have decent taste in people..real and otherwise.
Good luck sorting it all out.

Heidi the Hick said...

Yankee...his imaginary friend's name is Fighter! That's great because then Bob can leave all the hard work up to him!!

Biddie, I think you'll like a few of my imaginary friends. One's really nasty. Sadly, he is a special favourite of mine.

I think I remember "Lisa"...

Got the weeds pulled. back to Plan B now, where I skip that scene AGAIN and keep going! I'lll save the hardest til last!

DINK said...

LOVE THE PICS...WE HAVE HAD 3 CHINEESE PUGE IN MY LIFETIME, THEY ARE VERY COOL LIL DOGS FULL OF SPUNK AND SPITFIRES! MISS YA GIRL

captain corky said...

Is there any room for Captain Corky up there?

Balloon Pirate said...

My son never had an imaginary friend. However, he did have a real friend named Bob who was an empty water bottle. He slept with Bob in his bed for about three weeks.

yeharr

terry said...

you post the best pictures.

oh, the words are pretty great too.

LadyBronco said...

And here I thought I was the only one with all these strange little people running around in my head!

I can't write them down fast enough to make them go away.

Heidi the Hick said...

I just wrote a drunken party scene!

maybe I shouldn't write new scenes when I'm tired.

Back at it. Must edit like a crazy person.

Oh hey guess what. I made myself cry reading something I wrote. And like, tears of intense emotion as opposed to crying cuz it was just so bad.

Ok.

katy said...

hope its going well. the photos are great and my garden needs weeding if you are offering!

Anissa said...

I think my baby has an imaginary friend--perhaps Peter Pan--who is encouraging him to fly...and dance on tables. :)

I hear you, my friends (er, characters) haven't kept quiet for days now. Must finish. Need sleep!

Heidi the Hick said...

SLEEP!! Man I hope I get some of that this weekend when I get this epic finished...