Tiny Little Victories

So, I’m having one of those days today where everything seems to take more effort than it should.

You know the kind, where you pick up a pen, drop it, pick it up again, drop it again, and it rolls out of reach under the sofa. Then, by the time you retrieve it (with the end of the broom handle you had to retrieve from wherever it lives), you forgot what you wanted to write anyway.

Yeah.

But then I went out to pick up groceries and the gal at the deli counter called me Miss!

Miss!!!

I haven’t been a Miss in ages.

I’ve been firmly living in Ma’am land for at least the last six or seven years now. But today, after the morning of internal chaos forcing me to be gangly and awkward, I became a Miss again.

If only for that one moment, leaving the house today was totally worth it.

And I’m sure that was a big part of why I was a disaster this morning – I didn’t want to leave the house for errands.

Because yesterday I clocked in another 3,000+ words in my new manuscript and I was feeling particularly ready to write this morning. But then there’s that pesky thing called life where I won’t write too much without food.

And if you know me you know I’m not one of those writers who lives on coffee and cigarettes. Bleh. Even in the days when I was a smoker and drank coffee non-stop there was always, always, food in my life.

I eat, like, five times a day. So grocery shopping was a necessary evil because all that consumption leads to an empty fridge eventually.

But, if I waited, ordered a pizza, ate panko crumbs on peanut butter just to survive (the last 2 things in the house, seriously), and gone shopping tomorrow, I may never have been a Miss.

And now I’m back home, ready to blow out another huge word day, but I can’t seem to force myself to work on this new book. 

Because I'm a Miss! And it’s been a hot minute since I’ve posted a blog. After the morning I had, it felt like the right time to catch you all up on the doings around here.

I’ve had a super busy spring / it’s-already-summer-in-Phoenix.

At least this post isn’t three months since my last blog (like my last blog post was), but it has been two solid months of living life, seeing people, doing stuff, typing words.

I’m also getting back into nail art and picked up some supplies to make designs that are more fun and artsy. Which is good because I’d been wearing tan nude nails every week for somewhere near four months.

Over it, time for fun again!

Doing something to my nails (on the regular) started back in junior high school. I’d use markers, polish, whatever I could get my hands on to put color and design on the tips of my fingers. I even used my ballpoint pen to dot flowers onto my pinky finger.

And I didn’t care what color I used as long as there was some color at the ends of my hands. When I was a kid it wasn’t “cool” to use black, navy blue or other colors considered freaky.

I used them.

Because they’re colors. I mean, why was red or pink okay but not black? Why did wearing black nail polish make people think of me as a certain type of person? That shit just never made sense to me and I’d think about it while I slathered shiny blue polish on every other fingernail.

These days I’m trying brushes, sponges, vinyl decals, creating my own decals, acrylic painting, and stamping to get some fun designs going on. And it’s so relaxing to sit and paint for a couple hours without the need for climbing a ladder.

Tiny little canvases. I love it.

Aside from nail art, I released a book, the 2^nd in my California Dreamin’ Series: Alternate Plans. I won’t go into great detail on the book here. You can click on the title and read all about it over on Amazon if you’re so inclined.

Already read it? Then while you’re over there checking out the link, please leave me a review!

Reviews are the lifeblood of authors on Amazon and I’d be forever grateful for your honest feedback. All reviews are awesome because they help me write better books the next time. So, go, review one of my books right now!

Thanks 😍

In the midst of work and life, Matt and I even managed to take an extended vacation for the first time in almost a year. We started out with friends in Temecula, California on a wine weekend of debauchery, madness, and so much fun.

From there we drove up the coast to San Francisco, back down to Big Sur (as far as possible due to the coastal highway being washed out), inland to Paso Robles, back out to the coast (just below the closure), and wound down the entire coast to San Diego before driving home.

It was freaking awesome!

It had been ages since we took a long road trip and it was so much fun to get out, take pictures, reconnect, see the beach. Can’t wait to do it again. Soon.

But, for now, I’ll be finalizing the next book release slated for September (30 Chapters in 30 Days, a writer’s inspiration for getting big word count down in a month or less), and working on this new California Dreamin’ Series book.

And something tells me my main character (who is 44 this year) will get to experience the joys of being called a Miss for the first time in years.

Then again, maybe I’ll just keep that little joy all for myself.

• • • • • • • • • • •
In addition to this drivel I also write books, both fiction and non-fiction.
Learn more on my author page.

Dave Matthews Band: There when I need them

There isn’t much I can write about this song or Dave Matthews Band. Well, not a specific personal backstory type of piece anyway. Dave has been part of my musical catalogue for so long now I barely remember a time the songs weren’t playing on a device of mine. Every Dave song seems to have some kind of meaning, deep connection to most of the people in (and out of) my life, work, jobs, houses, everything.

DMB is just part of the soundtrack of my life. And “Lie in Our Graves” is one of those songs that always seems to play at the very moment I need to remind myself of the lyrics. In a nutshell – don’t die without living first, enjoy life and everything it has to offer so your mind, body and soul are satisfied.

For me right now the thing that’s unsatisfying is the financial aspect of my job. Which has really been taking a toll on the mind/body/soul if I’m being completely honest. So I finally came to the conclusion that I’m just a person who needs to have an income associated with the work I do all day to feel fulfilled. I don’t want to be a starving artist stereotype anymore. I’m over it. Luckily there’s a way to garner the income I’d like to earn from the work that I love to do.

Over the past week or so I’ve been reviving my desire to be a Freelance Writer, something I’d started researching last fall before I was sidelined. I really love writing in my own voice. And I’ve been writing direct response sales letters since as far back as I can remember. Since way back in my selling Tupperware days. Maybe even earlier than that.

I know everything I need to do to get this going so I can make some money as a Freelance Writer. And the very first thing to do is learn how to become a Freelance Writer.

I know you’re saying – wait, what? If you have to learn how to become a Freelancer how is it you know everything you need to start doing it?

What I mean by I know it all is that I put an outline together for studying every facet of the business in becoming a professional Freelance Writer. And there’s a lot to learn.

I figure once I break it all out into subjects, reading, and practice time it’s going to be like going back to school. So I guess I’m designing my own Freelance Copywriting study program, something I can use to learn the industry from the start. I figure it’ll take about four weeks to get through all the information that I have on my lesson plan.

Books are on order, websites bookmarked, and time during the day earmarked for research and studying (this is a part time thing for me, going back to “school”, I’m still working on my personal projects as well). Just thinking about learning more about this industry has me really excited about the prospect and possibility that lies ahead for selling my words regularly enough to garner a stable income.

So thanks for your reaffirming lyrics today Dave. I’m definitely not going to be lying in my grave wishing I’d gotten out there to start living the life I really want, I’m just going to take life by the balls and live it so that when I do die it’ll be with a big smile on my face for having followed my own path to being “ok, ok, ok”.

May’s Month of Music

Lie In Our Graves – Dave Matthews Band (iTunes first track)

May’s Month of Music

The A to Z Challenge was fun and as I already said yesterday I plan to keep up with posting as much as possible this month. In fact here’s what my calendar looks like right now:



Aw, it looks so fresh and clean and optimistic right now!



It should resemble April with all the check marks and notes by the time we roll into June:



And everything got a checkmark. Boom!



Anyway, you see that coded writing all over my calendar? Well each set of initials represents the project I’m working on during May. Back in April I had each letter of the alphabet on the particular day of the week I was supposed to blog and each was checked off once completed.

So what does my code mean? Since this is kind of the central hub of all my endeavors I suppose it can’t hurt to fill everyone in on what is it I’d say I do here. This blog is the center of the wheel. The space where all my other personalities, er, um, projects, branch out from. And I have a really strong month planned so I can’t wait to get it underway. Oh wait, I’m doing that right now!

But I digress…back to my not so cryptic code…

RL – Randomness and Lunacy. I have seventeen spaces allotted for posting on this blog during May. Not as much as April but that’s okay. I think this will be easier to keep up with while still increasing over what I was doing all winter (read: not a whole lot).

JFS – Jenn Flynn-Shon website. Since I really use the blog you’re reading right now as my primary virtual soapbox, I don’t update my Author website too often. Once a month should be enough to give a brief career-only type update.

Writesy – Writesy Press. Twice during May I’m going to get something Writerly out there. I’m kicking around book reviews, more writing tips, interviews with Authors I know and a few other writing-only type updates.

GLR – Green Leaf Reviewer. It’s baaaaack……… My long dormant eco-blog is back up and rolling again. I think I started posting over there again this past February. I was finding so much Green news in my local paper and all over Phoenix that it seemed like a good time to give the planet a little bit of love again. But twice a month should work for now. I’m just looking to build the current portfolio and keep the peeps informed.

RAII – The sequel to Reckless Abandon is still on my radar and I’ve got about 15k words already invested so I’m going to get back to work making that a little longer, more polished and complete. My self-imposed deadline for the complete edited first draft is Tuesday June 11. I think having five days in May to work on plot, outline and word count should produce anywhere from 1000 to 2500 words a day. By the end of May I’ll have a jumbled mess to mold during the first two weeks of June.

TFTM – Trying for the Moon edits and revisions should be done by the end of the month. I also have to pick a theme, a tone, and start grouping each of the poems under the right chapter headings. Then I’ll need an introduction, table of contents, acknowledgements page, and chapter briefs. I don’t actually plan to have this finished until mid-summer so four days seemed like enough time this month to dedicate to this project.

And last but certainly not in the least bit least…

YDAS – This is a project that it’s safe to say is my longest running so far. It’s getting up on forty years in fact. I haven’t hashed out all the details yet but this is going to be a memoir or something in that realm; creative non-fiction. I got most of the introduction written a couple days ago and I’m in love with it. Because it’s just me. Honest and real and in your face direct from the inner depths of my head.

I posted during the A to Z challenge that I was tired of being afraid of writing what I really wanted to say when I talked about overcoming setbacks. With that post still stewing in my mind I set out to get the beginning stages of this hashed out. With memoir/creative non-fiction there’s a lot of different kinds of work to do from that of constructing fiction. The storyline is already set because I already lived it. The trick is making that story cohesive and only including what really needs to be said in order to tell the base story. No filler or it doesn’t work for the reader.

But you can bet your ass the voice you read over here at this blog is going to be the same one you’re getting with this new book. In fact there are some stories I’ve written here that I plan to snag, expand, etc. and incorporate into the book. Many things I’ve written about over here will work within the confines of a memoir. This one in particular.

Oh, and yes it is on purpose that I haven’t revealed the name just yet. I’ve reserved the url (did that about six months ago in fact) but only have the first 3400 words written right now so it’s still a little too early to put it all out there just yet. Needless to say I’m giving myself four days this month to be that person during the day and I think that’s plenty.

Especially since I have seventeen others to basically be the same person. Me. My voice, my snarky attitude toward life and its many head-shaking moments.

It’s going to be really nice to spend this entire month doing not much more than writing.

But anyway, I said in the title it’s going to be a month of music. So let me explain.

For Randomness and Lunacy I really liked the idea of last month’s theme. It helped me to stay on track with writing because it limited the countless options down to a single suggestion – the day’s letter. Well I’m a music lover and each morning after I ride my bike to work (four miles every morning on the stationary bike in the living room “gets” me to work every day!) I boot up the computer so I can get my music playing.

During May I’m going to try to write something either directly related to, inspired by, or fictionalized from the first song that comes up in my playlist every morning. Obviously you won’t know if I’m just forwarding songs to get to something that sparks some creativity but I can assure you fine readers that I’m unlikely to do so. The point of this is to push myself to see what kind of creativity comes out under a more stringent guideline.

I want this exercise to help me uncover stories -

Did I spend time with someone and that song was playing? Was this song on during a time I got dumped? Was I still a smoker when this song came out and did I still smoke in my house while writing? How many times did my sister and I try to make up a dance for this one? How embarrassing was it to do that dance in front of the hottest guy in the neighborhood? What kind of smell does this song bring back to mind – was it summer or winter? Do I have nothing in the memory banks for this song so I have to write a fictional piece inspired by the words and lyrics?

And so on.

So starting tomorrow prepare for the onslaught of ‘who knows what might come out of my head’ because ‘who knows what might come out of my speakers’.

May’s Month of Music

Interesting Experiment

As most of you know I just took part in the A to Z Blogging Challenge in April. So you’re probably thinking ‘why the heck is she posting already, its only May 1!’ In an effort to stay in the word game I’m thinking my blog is going to become a daily occurrence in the months to come.

Hey, if I can write 11,271 words over the course of one month and have even one or two of the posts involved produce something of value then I’ll have done my job. So I might as well keep that train rolling.

And yes, I did actually go back to all of my posts and add up the word count so that number up there is dead on accurate.

When’s the last time I even considered writing that many words in a month? August last year when I penned Reckless Abandon? The November before that when I did my final NaNo? Some other blog challenge month long thingie?

The answer is that it doesn’t matter when it was, if I can write 11,271 words in a month here imagine what might come out of me if I just keep writing here every month.

If things come to me and I want to write them, I will. Lots of stuff is going on right now so my guess is I’ll have quite a bit to say for a while (you’re welcome). One thing that I really enjoyed about the A to Z Challenge was that I scheduled a couple posts in advance every day. Writing up 2-3 posts every day while posting once a day meant I finished writing most of the month in the first couple weeks.

That allowed me plenty of time to do other things. Other writing projects, other projects, life stuff. It kept my writing muscle working, kept me challenged but also kept me on my toes. If I wasn’t done writing up the posts by lunchtime I knew I’d never have a chance to work on other types of writing that day (fiction, poetry, etc.).

And you know what? That was completely okay. I loved that there were some days I was inspired to move on to other stuff after blogging and there were times I loved spending the day on nothing other than the blog. It’s all still writing. It’s all still valid. Any of it could produce something that turns into something. Writers will understand what I mean.

In addition to finding how much I enjoyed doing the posts I discovered a few new blogs that I’m so happy to have run into. Whether I found them by clicking through the participating links on the sign up website, or they found me and left a comment first, doesn’t matter. I’m enjoying reading their daily posts as well.

The final thing I noticed is that in doing a themed type of post (letters at least in my case since the posting collective had no theme) meant that I had to think long and hard about how to relate a post to every day’s particular letter. That pretty much meant my posts would be short and soft.

The richness of the content may have been edited down but I kind of liked that aspect of this challenge as well and will likely strive to post shorter burst posts all the time from now on (well, okay not all the time, I know some of you know me better than that!). Especially when I’m posting every day. Well maybe I’ll take weekends off. But I can schedule that in advance if I like. It feels more like a job when I’m doing it every day. And I like that. Plus I’m looking forward to doing it because I love it. And loving one’s job can never be a bad thing!

The Letter Ex

I could see them standing inside the xyst but from where I was down on the lawn below it was impossible to hear what they were saying or even try to read their lips. I was dying inside to know what the outcome was going to be. It had been too many years of agony on his part and she wasn’t in a much better situation. Their collective misery was a recipe for catastrophe. I was afraid the culmination of that chaos was set to diffuse within minutes.

With a look around I decided to see if I could get a better vantage point to maybe sneak a listen. With trepidation in my steps I edged closer to the covered portico where they stood about a foot apart from each other. I took no more than two steps then watched as she stepped backwards from where he was standing. He immediately reciprocated the gesture and took another step toward her. I stood stoic as she took yet another step back. Her motions were definitive and he didn’t mirror them.

Instead, he hung his arms at his sides in a loose manner and I watched his shoulders hunch over ever so slightly as his head dropped into his open, ascending palms. With her attention full on him, I decided to make another approach and took a small sideways step closer to the stone stairs that rose to meet the entrance of the garden path. Neither of them flinched or turned to look at me so I covered a little more ground. They were almost out of view but I assumed I would be at a better listening advantage.

I sat down on the third step from the top but all I heard was silence. Not a peep came from the other side of the long corridor of trees where he and she stood facing each other. I was anxious but didn’t want to make my presence known. After what felt like an hour, with nothing to hear or see, I had to admit defeat in my eavesdropping endeavors. I got up and started to make my way all the way across the lawn, toward the guest quarters, west of the main house and xyst.

Posted for April 2013 A to Z Blog Challenge X is for Xyst

The above story is fiction.

Possible V Posts

Very late and very short – What this post will be by the time I finish writing it because I’m out of preloaded posts now.

VW – Matt’s car did pretty great on the way up and back to the Canyon for the wedding (tomorrow’s post!).

Variety – The musical selection on my iPod/iTunes/Pandora. It just played Matchbox 20 and Ani Difranco, then busted right into Soundgarden, Mackelmore and Ryan Lewis, and Air Supply. Yup. Because that’s how I roll. By the end of the day I’ll have heard every Nineties grunge/Alt band, most of the Adult Contemporary from the Seventies and Eighties, a big handful of solo female folk, and probably a healthy smattering of current pop.

Vampires – I’d love to write about this topic but you already know that if you’ve been hanging around here for a while. My favorite vampire type stuff is here, here, and here, if you’re interested in some extra credit feel free to peruse these earlier stories.

VHS Tapes – Yes I still have some as well as a VCR. I’m pretty sure the VCR is on its last leg though as it keeps losing time regardless of how many times we re-set the thing. We’ll watch them until we can’t anymore then add the whole kit and caboodle to the yard sale pile in the garage.

Vacillate – One of my favorite words of all time. Phonetically it sounds exactly like what the definition is, if that makes any sense.

Vacation – The reason I’m so behind on pre-written posts, comments, exercise, Blog Tour promotion, and quitting smoking. Time to complete at least four of those five things. Later.

Posted for April 2013 A to Z Blog Challenge V is for Vagaries

Too Many Topics

As I’ve been writing most of these posts way ahead of time I haven’t had the benefit of going through the whole day for inspiration on the letter at hand. It has forced me to think a lot more about what I want to say and how I want to say it.

So when I get to a day like today with a letter of such commonality it ends up leaving me blank. Because there’s just too many topics for T.

T! The letter T! It’s so easy, just pick anything and it probably has a T involved.

Tea

Tristan Prettyman (who’s singing on my Pandora right now)

Tongs

Toasty temperatures

Travel

Tops

Totally unrealistic character traits

Torture

And so many more I don’t have time (Time!) to go through the dictionary to document them all. So why can’t I just get one of those topics up there as my quick blast creative writing assignment and tell you all about it?

I could tell you how I like to sip a cup of iced tea in these toasty temperatures while listening to Tristan Prettyman and spinning a top.

But that would pretty much be bullshit. I’m not much for iced tea, don’t own a top and really have to be in the mood to listen to Tristan. Even when it is toasty outside.

After my “Blue Shirt” experiment the other day I know that those particular topics above would have a different feeling, resonance, vibe for everyone who reads them. Someone might not know who Tristan Prettyman is and wouldn’t think to write about her. Maybe someone else has never traveled outside their hometown so that would be their travel story. What tale might be told related to tongs?

I think I’ve just been writing so many posts per day at this point I feel like maybe I’ve run out of interesting stories to tell. Or something like that. I’m still rambling on so clearly it hasn’t taken too much of a toll. But I seem to be struggling right now because I’m actually looking forward to getting back to working on my fiction.

Only six more posts though and this challenge is in the bag. Then I can get back to torturing my beta readers with totally unbelievable character traits.

Posted for April 2013 A to Z Blog Challenge T is for Topics

Nothing in Particular Just a Little of Everything

I’m feeling random right now. Feeling kind of basic too though. This is going to probably become a broken thought process type of post. About everything and Nothing. Stream of consciousness. My own self-contained, self-proclaimed, meme. I can feel your enthusiasm through the monitor.

So I started taking on the role of grocery shopper in our family because honestly I don’t get out much as a writer so for a day or two every week I get to at least interact with other humans in the real world. It’s a total Catch-22 though – I hate grocery shopping. It is quite possibly my least favorite type of shopping. Except maybe for landscape stuff. Yeah, that’s all Matt’s department.

Anyway, the grocery shopping. The reason I dislike it is because it seems no matter what time of day, which day of the week, and/or who is shopping, navigating those places becomes a blood sport. Something I can’t ignore in the grocery store is people’s sudden lack of desire to adhere to any type of personal space.

Ever notice in the checkout line people have to be right next to their own groceries? As if the cashier is going to accidentally put 10-20 of their items into the bag of the person in front of them. They have to stand guard to protect their foodstuffs. This sadly forces those people up the ass of the person in front of them because grocery stores place the pin-pad thingie right at the end of the belt. And out the window goes all personal space.

The one store I’ve been to that gets it right is Target. The machines are past the cashier at ours so the paying customer and the produce bodyguard behind them never have to crash.

I can’t be the only one irritated by this practice, am I?

So the truth is that I’m actually writing this post on April 9, 2013, the day that ‘H’ posted. I wrote that one on the seventh after attending the Coyotes game the day before. But this one, letter ‘N’, isn’t even due to post for another seven days.

Does that mean I’m writing for a future that you’ll be reading when its already the past? Whoa. Okay, I kind of freaked myself out with that question. Never mind, I just hope you’re enjoying it.

My office has stayed relatively clean and organized since this challenge started, which makes me pretty happy. I went on a tear the day I set out to organize my space and ended up doing so much more than just the one room. It felt good to get some stuff into the right spot in the house or at least out of bad spots in the house.

The exercise bike is definitely getting some good use since we bought it. I can’t say I’m on it every day but probably 3 days a week and then two others I’m doing another workout of some sort. Haven’t lost any weight yet but really can’t expect Biggest Loser type numbers or anything, I only have fifteen to lose. Of course that’s a double edged sword because it’s a small number, which is nice, but it’s always those last few that are toughest to shed.

I’ll get there, I know this for fact in my head that if I keep working hard I’ll achieve my goals, but my least virtuous trait is my extreme lack of patience.  

Patience is boring and I hate to be bored. Truth.

Hmm, yeah I think that's it.

I guess Nothing really became something huh? 600+ words of some kind of something. You’re welcome.

Posted for April 2013 A to Z Blog Challenge N is for Nothing

The Movie is better than the Book?

Although it will come out sounding awful and all of my Author friends will deny knowing me after I say it I’m just going to come right out and say that I’m much more apt to see the movie than read the book. There. I feel so much better just for getting that off my chest.

I think visually, even when I write I’m envisioning the scene in my head and how it will play out. But it isn’t just the characters I can see. I see the setting around them, little chotchkies surrounding the characters, the color of a car they’re riding in, the use of lighting and color to evoke emotions, and any host of other tricks a film director might employ to evoke a specific emotion. And I’ve been told that my books read like a movie sometimes. That’s pretty cool.

One of the first movies I ever saw was “On Golden Pond” and no I wasn’t nearly close to old enough to grasp the overall concept of the movie at the time. I was probably around eight years old.

My mom and aunt had taken my sister and me to the drive-in. Yes, I’m that old. Sort of. Anyway, we were supposed to stay up for the first movie, crash out in the backseat, then mom and my aunt would watch the second movie in peace. I want to say the opener was “Snow White” but my mom can weigh in on that one. It barely left an impression but still, after it was over there wasn’t a chance in hell I was going to sleep.

Are you kidding? I mean I was a kid in a car watching movies. It was, like, the coolest thing I’d ever experienced to that moment of my young life and I wanted it to last as long as possible. My sister was out like a light. Long before the first movie even ended I think. I hardly made a peep while I watched, with wide eyes, the grown-up movie from the backseat.

From that moment on I was hooked on movies. I loved how big everything was, it really added to the whole concept of a fantasy world when the actors were ten feet tall. It's true that "On Golden Pond" wasn't originally a book but let's just say in the years following my viewing of that movie, nine times out of ten I saw the movie before (if ever) reading the book. Not for a lack of imagination but simply for enjoying someone else’s take on what it would look like instead of just relying on my own.

So it shouldn’t be a shock that not only am I a big time movie quoter but I have an array of categories for when I’ll enjoy specific movies. With some flicks you just have to be in the right frame of mind to enjoy them ya know?

Movies for when I’m sewing/crafting

Armageddon

Sixteen Candles

Almost Famous

Can’t Hardly Wait

St. Elmo’s Fire

High Fidelity

The Breakfast Club

Movies for when I need to laugh and quote

Old School

How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days

Legally Blonde

Drop Dead Gorgeous

Clueless

The Ref

Just Friends

America’s Sweethearts

Napoleon Dynamite

Idiocracy

Waiting
Mallrats

Forgetting Sarah Marshall

Movies for when I’m in a music mood

Singles

Spice World

Dazed and Confused

Reality Bites

200 Cigarettes

Almost Famous

School of Rock

Movies for days when all I do is think

Chasing Amy

Girl, Interrupted

Fight Club

American History-X

Love, Actually

Leaving Las Vegas

Stand By Me

The Crow

Movies for when I need adventure and excitement

The Goonies

Indiana Jones (first three)

Lord of the Rings Trilogy

X-Men (all)

The Bourne - original trilogy

Groundhog Day

Back to the Future Trilogy

Red

Movies for nostalgia

Rudy

9 to 5

Better Off Dead

Say Anything…in fact

Pretty much any movie John Cusack made before 1994

And for that matter, every movie Sean Astin made before 1994

Glory Daze

Practical Magic

An Affair to Remember

Dazed and Confused

Forces of Nature

It Could Happen to You
Mallrats

Movies I hated after reading (and loving) the book

Carrie

Pet Sematary

Thinner

OK, pretty much everything written by King then adapted for the screen except…

Movies I loved after reading (and loving) the book

The Shining

Lord of the Rings Trilogy

Movies for when I’m in a Sports mood

Rudy

Goon

Fever Pitch

Major League

Rookie of the Year

Jerry Maguire

Miracle

Posted for April 2013 A to Z Blog Challenge M is for Movies

Kidding Myself?



The first time I asked it said Ask Later. This was my second response.
Uh-huh.



Who was I trying to fool when I set that goal of losing ten pounds before the wedding? I’ll be lucky if I lose two at this rate. Not to say I haven’t been eating healthy or working out. Quite to the contrary I’m trying to do some form of exercise every day and making much smarter choices for nutrition most of the time.

The operative turn of phrase here is ‘most of the time’.

For some reason I’m not taking into account the fact that I go out with friends and enjoy happy hour once a week, or at least twice a month. In which time I’ll happily imbibe a few glasses of wine and whatever bad for me food is sitting on the table. I’ve also somehow failed to factor in that I enjoy going to sporting events and the beer that goes along with them.

I’ve put on about twenty pounds. How come it’s so much easier to put them on than to take them off? Especially when I’m actually trying to take them off, not just sitting on the sofa with a glass of wine lamenting the fact that I’ve gone up two dress sizes in the past handful of years?

Starving myself is not an option, I enjoy food way too much for that. Plus I enjoy not passing out and since all this wonkiness started last fall I’m finding it’s crucial to keep my blood sugar at an optimum level. Any type of crash effects my weird head shit.

Because I need the added challenge apparently. So maybe it’s time to cut out or at the very least cut back on drinking. Because those empty calories found my midsection and are reluctant to let go.

I’m not a stress eater and I don’t tend to binge on unhealthy snacks. In fact during the day I’m much more likely to eat small meals at intervals of every couple hours. Oatmeal (steel cut, no extras) with a little agave & cinnamon to start the day. Mid-morning I’ll have a granola bar and water. Lunch is usually something small like a can of tuna with light mayo or a can of soup with a few pita chips and hummus. Mid-day snack is usually an apple with some cheese melted on top. Dinner is sometimes a larger meal but we’ve been doing a lot of broiled fish, salads, veggies and either vegetable starches like sweet potato fries or healthier brown rice. And I usually don’t eat desert of any kind or another snack late night after 6:00 dinner.

Add in my hour workout every day and I’m at a complete loss as to why I can’t seem to shed these useless and much too heavy pounds. Am I just kidding myself that I’ll ever be a shape other than oval again? Has the cottage cheese effect come to stay?

I’m only forty (and not even there yet damn it!) so it can’t be that much more difficult to lose weight than it was in my thirties. Can it be?

It isn’t practical for my schedule to think about working out longer than an hour a day and I don’t have the money in the budget to actually join a gym so I’m doing it all at home, usually during my lunch hour.

But with only a couple weeks until this wedding the outlook doesn’t look too good. I guess I better start considering investing in a pair of Spanx and just keep pushing play so I can maybe lose something before summer and pool season are upon us.

Posted for April 2013 A to Z Blog Challenge K is for Kidding

Magic 8 Ball CGI by Steven C. Santy

The Toughest Letters in the Alphabet to Relate to Anything Fresh

There are some who would argue that Q, K, X, J, Y and Z are the toughest letters to conceive a subject for but I disagree. To me the vowels are always the toughest. Sure there’s A for Apple, E for Elephant or U for Umbrella but doesn’t it get boring to write about things that are so predictable? Well it does for me and that’s why coming up with something for the supermodel shaped letter ‘I’ has proved to be an almost insurmountable task.

Bear in mind I said almost.

Because insurmountable seems like a pretty great word to focus on right now. Right now I’m looking to prove it wrong. And you all know how I love me some adjectives.

Let’s start with this blog challenge I’m taking part in right now. In addition to this A to Z Challenge there are so many other pursuits that hold my interest. Hockey games, fun with friends, time with family, road trips with Matt, writing the sequel to Reckless Abandon, working out on an almost daily basis, getting started on a memoir I hope to publish someday, cooking healthier meals every night, working on the revisions and intros for my book of poetry I also hope to publish someday, replacing my wardrobe, painting the exterior of my house…the list goes on. So to some, adding in the daily task of writing a blog post might seem insurmountable.

Not to me.

Just a few months ago I was having all kinds of weirdness so the fact that I’m able to get back to work has felt reviving, refreshing and all kinds of awesome. Anything I can do to write something, anything, is going to take a front seat right now. I’m loving it.

Now, have I actually worked on my poetry book? No, not so much. Have I written even a single word of the sequel since early November 2012? Again, nope. What I’m going to focus on right now is this blog challenge. It’s pushing me a little out of my comfort zone by having to write. Well, my comfort zone of the past couple months spent sitting on my ass doing nothing productive.

Yeah I know all of that time can be classified as research for a writer, and perhaps I did need some time off to get healthy (in many ways), but I’d so much rather spend my days in my office clicking away while listening to Pandora than out on the sofa watching hundreds of episodes of Castle and Friends while playing Angry Birds.

Besides I almost collected 3 stars in every level now so why go back to keep playing? That would be lame.

Or maybe it just proves I was a tad obsessive.

And in need of some serious brain crash. Which I got in spades and now I’m enjoying capitalizing on being able to let go of the old stuff so I can tackle the new pile of stuff I need and want to do instead.

Posted for April 2013 A to Z Blog Challenge I is for Insurmountable

Golden Opportunity

Today’s post comes with some visual aide. These pictures are of my dress, shoes and bag that I’ll be rocking at the end of the month when D and her fiancé fly out to Arizona to get married on the south rim of the Grand Canyon. And they’re doing it at sunset. It is sure to be spectacular.

The odyssey of finding just the right pair of shoes took me the better part of an entire shopping day to track down. Between the mall and a few other freestanding stores I must have scoured the racks in fifteen places. Of course I found them, and the bag, in the last store I intended to shop at that day. Oh well, at least I got them. And on sale to boot, score!

The real reason it was so complicated was because it’s a wedding so they needed to be somewhat dressy (especially considering the dress) but the wedding is taking place on top of rocks and dirt at the edge of the Grand Canyon so they had to be durable enough to withstand that. And I wanted at least a little shoe around my foot because in April the Canyon at sunset is going to be mighty chilly on my little piggies. It was fun explaining this to sales people all day and watching their faces read “um…yeah, good luck with that.”

I should probably confess that I haven’t stepped foot inside a shoe store (hello, Aldo my old friend) or even a mall for that matter in a very long time. After the Springfield debacle I’ve been like the Gestapo over our finances. You know, to ensure that we have some. But of late Matt and I have both been pawing through our respective wardrobes only to realize we haven’t updated them in close to a decade. And it’s really starting to show.

Really, it got so bad for a while there I actually considered rocking a jean jacket with jeans like 1992 hadn’t called for their very bad fashion choice back.

So every month for the past few months I’ve been slowly but surely turning over my wardrobe. But because I’ve also started working out again I didn’t want to go and pay Dillard’s prices for something that I know for a fact will be too big on me in six months to a year. That fact alone had me combing through the racks at all the local thrift shops for that perfect thing that will look good on my current body shape and show off my best assets while still staying budget friendly since it may end up replaced soon.

Don’t get me wrong, I love thrift shopping – the hunt, the thrill of the find, the dust bunnies rolling around a big warehouse sized building stuffed to the gills with items other people cast aside – but there’s that former retail worker side of me that still thinks

“I love the smell of commerce in the morning!”

So when the time came to start hunting down the right outfit for a Matron of Honor in a second wedding at a truly breathtaking but sketchy-footed destination, I knew the mall was the place I wanted to start. And here’s what I learned by shopping in the mall on a late morning mid-week:

*        No one shops in the mall during the late morning mid-week. Well, close to no one. The place was as inactive as the mall in Mallrats.

*        Directories seem to be a thing of the past. I saw two in the whole place and our mall is pretty big. I guess there’s probably an app for that.

*        Shoes have gotten bufugly. Seriously, can’t I buy SOMETHING other than 4” stripper heels or gladiator sandals? What happened to the slides? The mules? The kitten heels? Thankfully I didn’t see a single sneaker peep-toe pump which means that awful trend has phased out but what the fuck is up with this:

Or this?

Or most of all, this leg breaker?

I guess art-as-shoe, wood veneer, and whatever the hell that disc is under shoe 3 are technically something other than only-a-stripper-can-walk-in-them heels and gladiators-don’t-even-look-good-in-them sandals so I shouldn’t complain. But these aren’t haute couture, they’re on sale in multiple different sizes at DSW. Maybe I’m officially considered old now because I just don’t get it.

So when I found my adorable satin heels and the sparkly disco ball-esque clutch at DSW (after spending more time fascinated with the sculptural art in front of me than the actual wearability of the shoes in the store), I secretly thanked the other old ladies out there who understand that not everyone wants to be sky-high or wielding a lance.

Posted for April 2013 A to Z Blog Challenge G is for Golden Opportunity

Mallrats image from http://www.imdb.com/media/rm1228705280/tt0113749

All shoes can be found at DSW