Another Year Over...

When I created our cards this year my main focus was to share a little bit of everything we did throughout the year. I didn't want Christmas card specific, more of an overview instead of just holiday. And man, did we ever have a busy 2013!

Some other people made it onto the card - we were in two weddings (1 each, Matt and me), had family and friends in town multiple times, traveled, started some home renovation and even waited so long for a table at a restaurant the baby occupying it started to grow a beard. Or something like that.

2013 started out great, we celebrated the New Year with some friends and had a nice quiet night with food, fun and a champagne toast. In February my aunt came to visit and we found ourselves at a Coyotes game in our short sleeves. Gotta love Phoenix!

Spring brought more fun stuff. In March we went to a spring training game where I got to see Terry Francona coaching the Indians and Matt got to enjoy his favorite sport in a cool ballpark. April was jam packed (a trip to Cali for Matt's birthday, touring Jobing.com Arena, The Run for Boston initiative, the Bruins made the playoffs...) but the biggest event was D&D flying across the country to get married at The Grand Canyon. It was amazing, a perfect spot for a wedding. A perfect wedding for a perfect couple! In May Matt's mom came out to visit and the three of us plus my mom went up to Sedona to explore and take pictures.

June was a milestone for me - I got to celebrate my 40th birthday! What a surprise it was for me too. After seeing a movie and hanging out all day with my mom & Wendy we came back to the house to find a back yard full of friends from Phoenix and Tucson and then I heard a voice...my first roomie, Keith, was somewhere in my house. His voice was coming through a speaker. And then he announced there was a surprise guest. My aunt Sue walked out my backdoor. I lost it. It was too much! So much love, so many people showed up to share my special day I couldn't have asked for a better fortieth birthday if I tried. Matt pulled it off...complete with graffiti and all.

July was pretty slim, we mostly just hung out in the pool all month, but Wendy came up a bunch of weekends while dealing with an out of order air conditioner. We all got to spend the weekend of her birthday together as well. And enter bearded baby.

The end of summer brought the beginning of us tearing apart the house - tile up, fireplace and wall down. That was about all we did in August. It's still going but getting closer to done.

In September we saw the Tucson Botanical Gardens and we did the Walk to End Alzheimer's. Plus we spent a good chunk of time in California. For our anniversary in September we went to see Dave Matthews Band in Chula Vista. Never a bad time at a Dave show - I danced my ass off all night long.

In October we headed out to another wedding when my sister's close friends got hitched right on the beach in Laguna at sunset. Ah-mazing! October also saw me increase my client list and start making a real income which was awesome. And we had all our drain plumbing replaced, which wasn't as awesome but certainly makes it more functional around here now.

Matt rounded out the year of weddings in November when he stood as a groomsman for one of his oldest friends. We were on a plane and back on the east coast in Washington D.C. for that one. Met so many amazing people, made some new friends and even got to spend some time with family while we were in the Maryland neck of the woods.  Matt & Wendy's boyfriend both went ice skating for the first time and Wendy & I both got on skates for the first time in the better part of a decade. That was fun! Having Thanksgiving with my mom, Matt, my in-laws and my Step-MIL's daughter and family was so much fun and a great way to end November.

December so far has been a great month for bringing closure to another calendar year. Between home improvement store shopping and installation of flooring and a brand new guest bath we've seen tons of Christmas lights, taken a trip to Tucson and I've helped my mom prep and paint her house.

By the time January 1, 2014 rolls in we'll have also been to another hockey game and toasted with a rendition of the Boston Pops on TV.

I had a great year, so much fun, family, friends, food, travel and adventure its hard to believe it all squeezed onto a tiny 4" x 8" Christmas card. But the back really says it all about 2013:

I can't wait to see what 2014 brings! Have a safe, festive and Happy New Year everyone!

• • • • • • • • • • •
Content Marketing Strategist and Blogger for hire, Jenn has over 12 years of freelancing experience. Let her write your next webpage, blog post, article or newsletter. Get in touch with her today info [at] copywritethat [dot] com

Samantha Baker, Eat Your Heart Out

Last night I went to my first ever book reading and signing.  The evening was made possible by Jen Lancaster, Author of many memoirs.  Hilarious, snarky and bitterly honest memoirs.  Now her first fiction novel called “If You Were Here” is out and I’ve wanted to buy it since the day it dropped.  Not only because I love her work as a general rule but also, see the linked tab up above on my blog - “Vacation In the Ghetto”?  Yeah, well her book is apparently the fiction equivalent of my real life experience.  It has to be read.

Since arriving in Arizona last year I’ve run around doing all kinds of stuff I’d never done before.  It started to occur to me that life is just way too short not to enjoy myself.  And why would I ever want to limit the possibilities of things I might enjoy because maybe somewhere in my mind I convinced myself it wouldn’t be fun?  I wouldn’t.  That’s why I decided to go to this book reading and signing last night.

And insert complete dork here.

Why did I consider myself such a dork?  Well, it occurred to me while I was standing in line, waiting for my turn at the table, that this woman is probably in my top five Authors of all time.  And there she was.  Right in front of me in real life, not just a photo on the back of her book.  Sitting at the Barnes & Noble at Desert Ridge in all her hilarious, tan and fabulous, snarky and brutally honest beauty, with a black Sharpie marker and a head full of the same movie references that I’ve been spewing for over twenty-five years.

But here’s the trick, I only know one other person who devours her work like I do and that friend lives in California.  I was on my own for this experience.

If there is a Chick-Lit equivalent in memoir writing Jen Lancaster has cornered the market.  Her work is witty, sharp, self-depreciating, honest, self-educational and bitter.  These are the kinds of events a girl is supposed to go to with her girlfriends so they can grab a glass of wine afterwards and rehash all the hilarious bits of the night.  Instead, I had Matt drop me off and he went to get us a Kinect while I giggled and nodded alone for an hour.

As I inched slowly toward the front of the line I realized that, not only had I just listened to one of the funniest passages from a memoir I’d ever heard in my entire life (because oh goodness how it resonates), but that I was literally about ten people away from meeting my I-aspire-to-be-you inspiration Author.  My palms literally started sweating.

I don’t run in any kind of celebrity circle or anything but I’m pretty sure celebrity types would all say that unless you made the most lasting impression ever – threw up on them, squealed uncontrollably, got arrested for trying to kidnap them – they are never going to remember you specifically.  Your face, clothes, inane stories about how your friend spells your name JenN so she doesn’t forget the second N, and pout when your favorite Author calls that second N “superfluous”, will all just blend into a vast sea of other idiot dorks who think their stories are somehow going to be the thing that makes her want to get your cell phone number and ask you to hang out after the event to grab a drink.

Because they do that, right?

Okay, in all fairness to myself here I wasn’t quite that deluded, I’m not a total moron, but I did at least want to make a good first impression on this woman.  I’m a Writer.  A Writer of snarky, witty, punchy, Tomboy-Lit.  The chances we will find ourselves in the same room at the same conference or event in the future is more than very possible.

So I didn’t want to be a complete fan-girl dork.  But I was.  At least in my head I was.

After my verbal equivalent of throwing up on the very person I aspire to mimic (career wise) was over, I came around the back of the table and headed for the door where Matt had stowed the escape vehicle that would hopefully get me out of my own head. 

As soon as I got in the car I texted my sister (who knew I was going to this because I believe I somehow managed to evoke jumping up and down, clapping and squealing in a text when I was on the way there).  I professed my utter dork-hood.  I lamented that I’m just freakishly awkward and that meeting people I admire forces the dork-o-meter up about a billion times higher. 

She said “Bet you only felt awkward you were great I’m sure.”

And somewhere in my head I heard “I don’t think you’re a dork.  I don’t think Mom thinks you’re a dork.”  “Mike thinks I’m a dork.”  “Mike is a dork.”

I Got the Ill Communication

I haven't been using the word "but" as much as I used to which goes right along with making no excuses this year. So far everything I've done has been something I either wanted to do or it was going to be a direct long term benefit.

Then there was the dentist last Friday and it was tough to remind myself how it could be considered a good thing.

About a year ago the tooth around the root canal filling I had put in many years ago, cracked. Because there was a root canal the crack didn't hurt or anything it just started becoming an annoyance and I knew the tooth really shouldn't be there anymore. It had to go but...and this is where I attempted to make an excuse...my fear of the dentist had me wanting to cancel and curl up in the corner instead.

But...and this is where I reversed the excuse on myself...I stopped listening to my nervous but(t) and made the appointment to have the extraction.

I won't go into detail all I'll say is my dentist said she never saw someone metabolize Novocaine that fast before. Yeah, I probably should have told her about my inner racing mind & body. Multiple shots of Novocaine plus one of epinephrine later and my poor little face had one more hole created inside it.

Matt was sure to be happy, I was finally going to keep the random babble to a minimum for a couple days.

Like I said on FB, pain is not my BFF so I picked up my prescription for vicodin on the way home & started taking it right away.  I felt no pain throughout the day but other than that benefit I started to wonder why people were clamoring for that on the down low.  I didn't feel anything.  Hmm, I guess maybe that's the point.  At any rate, the day went by fine, I drank soup and protein shakes, swallowed some strawberry yogurt, and ate cheezy puffs that dissolved in my mouth to stay nourished.  Truth be told I was starving (shocker), plus I wasn't allowed to smoke all day which was a nice side bonus.  I took my last pill of the day around 10:00 and went to bed around 11:00, glad to have the whole thing behind me.

Then at 6:30 Saturday morning I found out why I will never take that much sought after white pill again. I woke up so nauseous and with such heavy clammy chills and shaking body that I started to freak out that something had gone wrong with the extraction. I could hardly get to and from the bathroom without weaving all over the 8 feet between me and the door. 

It nerved me so much I woke up Matt, something I'd never do on his sacred weekend hours of sleep under normal circumstances. These weren't normal circumstances.  He rubbed my back for a few and then made a bunch of sense that I was probably dehydrated & lacking in protein since my body was probably using anything I'd put in the day before in trying to heal my face. I agreed and grabbed one of the protein shakes I had picked up for my liquid diet.  I drank as much as I could as quickly as I felt my body would let me and then went back to sleep.

I spent until about 10:30 in bed then until about 3:00 on the sofa purging that heavy medication out of my system through ingestion of lots of liquids. Luckily I never lost my cookies. It scared the crap out of me though and today I'm just thankful my pain is almost gone because I don't even want to take a Tylenol.

At least I found out and it will be quite unlikely I ever have the need to go on that stuff again. Guess I can add it to percoset as another prescribed med I just can't handle. And people wonder why I keep smoking and drinking, they're my only possible vices, no pills for me!

I'm back to my usual self today except a little achy pain but my plan for the rest of the day is to lie down.  For a while anyway. Enjoy your Sunday and I'll catch up with all of you next week.

Garden of the Sun

School started up again last week.  Hooray.  Can you feel my enthusiasm?  Don’t get me wrong, I’m enjoying it in a broad sense and it’s definitely helping with my composition, thesis, outline, reading, etc.  What’s killing me about doing it is two fold – 1) that’s a pretty significant amount of extra debt I’m taking on there and 2) I don’t have time to work.

The thing is, every single novel I read has a little blurb in the back about the Author and all of them (yes, seriously all of them) say ‘so-and-so big semi-famous author person got their degree at this college you’ve never heard of before’.  I want a degree from a college no one has ever heard of so a whole bunch of people can read my book and skip right over the author blurb and never see it!

I have wanted, for a long time, to join the ranks of the college ed-u-ma-cated.  Don’t ask me why because I’m not really sure how to answer that.  All I know is that I want to be wicked smaht.  Because it isn’t like people ask an almost 40 year old where they went to school.  That kind of stuff just doesn’t come up in casual conversation anymore like it did when I was 26.

Because what people ask an almost 40 year old is ‘what do you do’.  And maybe the problem is I can’t seem to wrap my head around saying I’m a writer without something to back it up.  I haven’t accepted it yet.  I don’t have enough experience, or haven’t really gotten paid to do it so it just doesn’t count.  In my head I mean, you don’t have to tell me how it does count because the other side of me knows you’re completely right.

I practiced this past weekend in fact.  We went to see my sister and ended up at the local dive bar where she and her friends hang out sometimes.  A lovely gentleman from Italy, with a thick accent and the most fantastic brown leather shoes I’ve ever seen in my life simply posed the question ‘so what do you do?’

It surprised me actually that we’d met all these people all night and that was the first time someone even asked that question.  I said I was a writer.  Of novels.  But that I also wrote a blog.  Oh and I’m a painter too.

Like I had to throw in that last bit so it would sound like I make money and pay my bills or something.  As if being a writer isn’t a legitimate enough profession that I can just own it?

Apparently I couldn’t.

So I thought a lot about that incident.  I know that he probably doesn’t remember it happening, and no one else who was there has any recollection of my bumbling, stammering, attempt at trying to decide what it is I do for a living.  The conclusion I came to is that, in order to feel more like a writer, I have got to stop doing things that don’t at all relate to being a writer.

Which really won’t be easy to do considering I have a company, people who want to hire me to do faux and a whole bunch of teammates that rely on my other endeavors as my day job (if you will).

So then I thought about it some more.  If I’m going to stay in school, which I intend to do because that shiny, useless in the real world but important to me degree is only about a year and a half away, why can’t I just write part time and place a little focus on the other stuff part time as well?  Why beat myself up over not writing full time when I’m not going to be writing full time anyway because of school right? 

Right.

One of the big reasons Matt & I moved to the Valley of the Sun was to kick back and relax, to enjoy life, take in the beauty of the little things, and leave the hectic chaos of the northeast pace 3100 miles behind us.  If I get here and immediately start stressing out over old habits how can I accomplish that goal?  You’re right, I can’t.  So this past weekend, I made up my mind to pour a cup of coffee, go sit out in my patio chair and drink it all in.  Then I made a few mental shifts…

• I’m staying a part time student, not fast tracking to full time, because a year and a half is a perfectly reasonable amount of time to complete a degree without having a heart attack before it’s even in my hand. 
• I will give it my best effort but I’m not going so far above and beyond anymore that I may as well be the Instructor of the class. 
• I’m going to be happy with any grade I get as long as it’s above a 3.5 GPA; even if it isn’t the A I’m striving for no one is going to care so why should I? 
• I’m going to see the clock as having plenty of time, the sun as having plenty of hours to shine and my brain as having plenty of capacity to store it all. 
• If I start getting stressed I’ll do something different like write a blog post or workout.  Walking away is sometimes the best solution of all.
• I’ll do a few projects related to paint, take on some jobs painting (especially for existing clients and those people who I already discussed projects with!) and keep the company open, but I’m not actively pursuing it as a full time thing anymore.

And anytime someone asks I’m simply going to state ‘I’m a novelist’.

Because I am.

(As a side note, I started doing the iPod song title/blog post title thingie I mentioned the other day.  If you don’t know Emily Elbert, the gal behind the title today, I totally suggest getting out and checking her out, she’s pretty sensational!)

Some Call It Insane, I Call It Necessary

NaNoWriMo. A term familiar to over 120,000 people worldwide who are willing to take on the writing challenge, is now going to be a household word around these parts. I just signed up this morning and it feels great!

Immediately after doing so, and before even reading the welcome email telling me I should do this, I sent an email to everyone I know detailing what I am about to embark on. Here is the content of that email:

“Well folks the time has come to put up or shut up. NaNoWriMo is here again and this year I have signed up to participate. Holy shit. What have I gotten myself into?

NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month and from November 1 - 30 I am taking on their challenge to write a 50,000 word novel. Again, holy shit. It is simultaneously liberating and scary as hell to know that with this kind of structured approach that I will finally have a completed novel after all is said and done. Regular postings of content and word counts are done and although no one will be ringing my doorbell to point and laugh at me if I don't complete the challenge, it is going to feel a whole lot better to win than not fulfill it.

In my recoculously OCD brain I worked it out that I have to write about 2,000 words a day on average. That isn't really all that bad; between all the procrastinations I complete on a daily basis I estimate my current word count to be somewhere upwards of 5,000. That's good because it makes me feel a little less insane for taking this on and also makes me realize how I have been squandering my time on unfocused priorities for just way too long now.

What does it mean though? Well pretty much I will be just as available as I was up until November 1 -- read: basically non-existent (yeah sorry about that) -- its just that my focus is going to drastically change because its time to be a novelist. Period. My ability to stay connected won't really change its just that no one will likely hear about anything but my characters for the next 30 days (yeah sorry about that too).

I will still post GLR blogs (this week I am working to try to get the entire month of Nov. front loaded, I'm about 1/2 way there) and will still see people but my time in email/comment land/FB/text/phone is going to basically be nil. The product of that is going to be a completely crappy, unedited, first version of a novel that I will be able to refine and publish. About effing time.

So I guess really I'm just looking for the validation (shocker right?) and to kind of let everyone know what's what with me. If you want to see me in Nov. just come over because I only get a max of 5 days off and I plan to spend them sleeping.

spread love
Jenn”

And there it is. I put a PS on the email that I would be posting all over the place from email to here to FB so I could be held completely accountable. One of the things it should have said is that my first task is to go out and learn how to spell words like fulfill and existent. Ugh. Regardless, like the wonderfully supportive people over at NaNoWriMo have made very clear “editing is what December is for”.

I had fully intended to write one of my novels by hand and strangely enough that one is coming along really well, albeit slow but definitely steady so I will not be looking toward that project for this challenge.

In process right now I have at least three other novels. Well stuff that I think could become novels if expanded; I guess more appropriately they could be expanded, not every story can be. One of them has been in the works since 1999 and its early character development and outline is likely what I am going to use as my basis for this November writing project.

Sorry fellas, its kind of chick lit, modern woman blah, blah, blah boring kind of stuff to you (unless you embrace the inner humorous romantic in yourself and in that case I say bravo!). Luckily though, I know a lot of ladies.

Here’s hoping I don’t forget to do things like eat, sleep, pee. Then again isn’t that what furious writing is all about anyway? I will keep you all updated on the progress.

Holy shit. It’s on.

Stuck in Your Head All Day

When I woke up this morning I thought to myself how nice it would be to go back to bed for like three hours, which is something I never do. As much as I do not enjoy getting up with that alarm, the minute my eyes open, I am awake for the day. I tend not to nap during the day, even when I am sick, and although I am up early-ish every day, it is typical I stay up until midnight or later. I refuse to miss anything and it has been that way since I was a kid. This is how I came to love cheezy, syndicated, television programs like Hawaii Five-0.



Back so many years I can barely remember the actual time frame, but somewhere around age eleven, I would fall asleep with the television on. My sister and I shared a room and she would be snoozing away while I laid wide eyed and transfixed on the Hawaiian State Police force catching the bad guys at 1:00 in the morning. Right from the opening credits it had everything -- a catchy theme song, hula girls, lava, big waves and of course the freeze frame of Jack Lord. Hawaii Five-0 was the show that paved the way for programs like Law & Order, Miami Vice and all those fast paced forensic shows like NCIS. In fact, the leading men on Hawaii Five-0 and NCIS had quite a bit in common.

On NCIS Mark Harmon plays Jethro Gibbs, a former Marine with a propensity to scowl for the full hour episode, but you love his gruffness because it is understood that although his past is something that hardened him as a man, he is a softie for the ones he loves. Touching. On Hawaii Five-0, Jack Lord played former Navy officer Steve McGarrett. He too had a tendency to avoid smiling unless absolutely necessary and almost always wore a full suit but he did a whole lot of running if I recall correctly. And Jack had much better hair.

After staying up most nights to watch it there is no doubt how I became fascinated with all the wonders Hawaii has to offer from towering waves and picturesque waterfalls to live volcanos and breathtaking sunsets. I would imagine being able to move my hips like a hula girl or having the guts to surf triple overhead. My renewed fascination with the show brought a resurgence of the interest in learning to surf.

I have wanted to try my hand at surfing since I was about eleven, back then it looked like a cool sport to try and I had no fear of the ocean because I had learned how to swim at such a young age. I can not remember when I found out but my dad used to surf in Humarock every summer; he has this amazing handmade wooden board just begging to be ridden again on the wall of the beach house in the basement.

Every year when we go on vacation with S&B to Martha’s Vineyard, B is boogie boarding but there are always a few surfers out there on longboards, catching the same small waves but looking like they are having a blast doing it. This year I decided, since we are going so late in the season (September instead of our usual July), the ocean will have warmed up significantly and it is the year I need to try gliding on water. In the spirit of not holding back, trying new things, and wanting to get into better shape, it seems like the right thing to do. And finally feels like the right time to do it too.

No question I will sleep like a baby after a day of salt air, falling over, and paddling. I’ll use the theme songs to Hawaii Five-0 and NCIS as my motivation to amp up. I don’t even care if I never stand up but I am sure going to give it my best shot.