Tag: life

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yule logs and pumpkins and the fear of 13

It’s Friday the 13th, which honestly is a day I love, and not only because I was born on one.  I’ll be honest, most superstitions strike me as odd, but they tell us a lot about who we are, or who we came from.  The roots of such superstitions can be illuminating, and they illustrate the times and lives of our ancestors.

I’ll be honest here, I often take a perverse sort of pleasure in purposely defying superstition.  I dress in black on Friday the 13ths, today replete with skulls.  I adore black cats, the only fear I have of ladders is of falling off of them.

This juxtaposition of Friday the 13th against the landslide down to Christmas is amusing, not the least because it invokes the whole Nightmare Before Christmas scenario.  I’m that person who has Halloween decorations up (for some value of decoration, I don’t do much) year round.  Right now the area in front of my TV is filled with pumpkins and witches and candles and some pine boughs…

I don’t do a lot of decorating, mostly because I hate taking it down and putting it away!  One year I had Christmas lights up until nearly July.  I save that urge for my mother’s house, where I will be going tomorrow to help her get the tree up and all that fun stuff.

I may go so far as to decorate a Yule log and burn it in my fire pit one night, we’ll see how I’m feeling about it, and if the rain lets up long enough to make it happen.  Yule is pretty low key for me generally, as a Pagan, but I do want to recognize the rebirth of the sun and the return of the daylight as we pass the solstice and the days grow longer once more.

Christmas is a secular celebration for me, a time to spend with those that love me and to give gifts that remind them of my love for them.

But for today, I’ll just wrap my arms around the day and celebrate the overcoming of fear.  I should probably also re-heat my breakfast, which has gone cold and drink some more coffee, because coffee is life!

Happy Friday, Readers!  May the 13th shower you with good things!

 

Photo by Hannah Gibbs on Unsplash

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As a writer, I look at every experience as an opportunity to learn human behavior, to observe from the sidelines as the world goes on around me.  I mean, sure I get frustrated and even angry with things, but even then a part of my brain is taking in the color and cataloging characters in the never-ending expanse that is my “things to write” filing system.

This weekend, as my mother and I engaged in a little retail therapy at the local mall, I had ample eye candy to keep my brain chugging…from the flamboyant and awesome folks at Hot Topic, to the mother who would not keep her kids from screaming at deafening decibels while we were trying to have lunch, to the bored elves with a Santa with no one coming to see him (I tried to convince my mother she should go have turn, but she refused).

We shopped stores I haven’t been into in years.  To be fair, I do most of my shopping online these days, so going to a store is rare.  And going to a mall is rarer still.  We hit up Barnes & Noble, the afore mentioned Hot Topic, Bed Bath & Beyond and Dillards.

I haven’t been into a Dillards since I lived in El Paso, and they had closed all of them before we left there.

For being a Sunday in December, it was not very busy, and it gave us both a chance to forget the holiday frustrations for a while and just shop.  I spent far too much money for someone who said she was done Christmas shopping before Thanksgiving!  Especially in BB&B…I LOVE their candles, and they were having their sale…got a few favorite scents and a couple of new ones…because CANDLES.  Have I mentioned my love of tiny flames?  Especially this time of year.  I have candles burning pretty much every night in December, reminding the sun that we need him here, and enticing him to return.

I did manage not to buy ALL of Barnes & Noble, which, considering I was shopping with my number one enabler, is a small miracle.  But, now it’s back to the daily grind and my cup of coffee.

Hope your week is fabulous, Readers!!

 

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kindness matters

I live in a fairly affluent little city in the San Francisco Bay Area’s east bay.  It’s the kind of place where we have stand alone Williams Sonoma, Nordstrom and Neiman Marcus stores, a boutique-y place that sells $60 pajama pants and $159 sweaters, more restaurants than you could sample in a month, and a certain attitude.  Lots of pedestrians, lots of good doggos that you’ll meet while you’re out walking.

Most of the time, I don’t mind.  If nothing else, it makes for good people watching.  I like posting myself up at some cafe’s outdoor table and greeting all the puppies taking their humans out for walks. I imagine stories for the grumpy old man at the corner table and the young couple holding hands as they cross the street, and the baby trying desperately to get his daddy’s attention.

However, the whole tone of things changes as Thanksgiving approaches.  There are certain stores you can’t get near.  Michael’s might as well be on Mars, with it’s very small parking lot that it shares with a Bed, Bath and Beyond.  The place where I normally get my nails done has joined that chaos.  To be fair, it shares a parking lot with a Sports Basement, two gyms, a dry cleaners, acupuncture place, a TJ Maxx, about a dozen restaurants and coffee shops, etc.  I got there around noon on Saturday and there was no parking, with as many as ten cars circling just the one section closest to the nail salon.

Sadly, it isn’t just parking lots.  The streets are full of cars bullying their way through streets, nearly taking out pedestrians, making illegal turns, laying on their horns in an obnoxious manner, etc.  The pedestrians are little better: taking up the whole sidewalk and not letting others get by them, looking at their phones and nearly knocking over others, huddling around the door to a cafe so that no one can get in or out, let alone get around them, etc.

Normally, this behavior doesn’t start until after Thanksgiving, but it came early this year.  This is why I do most of my shopping online these days.  It is also why I don’t even leave my house on Black Friday.

I use Black Friday as Pay it Forward Day.  It is when I do my end of the year giving.  This year, I intend to donate to Heifer International and probably fund a loan or two on Kiva.org. I will probably also make a donation to a local food bank or charity giving gifts to underprivileged kids.  Far better use of my time and dollars than the further commercialization of our holiday season.

Remember that a little kindness goes a long way.  When you find yourself stressed and frustrated with the people around you, be kind.  Let your small acts of kindness lift you out of your bad mood.  And you may not see it, but it will spread out from you.  This is how we change the world, Readers.

Kindness Matters!

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is this really real?

I saw someone on Facebook say that it feels like we’re living in a simulation and wow, I felt that.  Reality seems so surreal these days where you can never be sure if “news” is actually news or parody, and even the real news is so skewed to reflect whichever side the reporter/news organization is supporting.

We seem to have lost out impartial press.

At the same time, we have a government that seems to be bent of self-destruction, forgetting that if it goes, so goes the country.  I’m not going to venture into a political discussion, don’t worry.  If you’ve read my blog for long, I’m sure you know which way I lean.

I am going to encourage you to never rely on any single source of truth when it comes to understanding the reality we find ourselves living.  Truth has become subjective and the onus is upon us to dig through the interpretations to the underlying truth.

If this is a simulation, it is a sucky one.  Maybe I’ll just go play SIMs and make the world I want to see.

Happy Thursday, Readers.  I hope your sim day is a happy one.

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time to make the words

I’m sitting here on Sunday morning, in my nice flannel PJs, sipping on some coffee and working on waking up enough to write.  Today’s writing agenda is to start/finish chapter thirteen, get the plot moving and step up to the next thing on the vague sort of journey in my head.

Of course, being a working woman with no one to help with other important things, today’s agenda also includes laundry doing, kitchen and bathroom cleaning and tons of other fun house chores.  There is the added bonus of having Monday off, so I get extra writing time this weekend.

Yesterday I worked in sprints of twenty five minutes, twenty five cleaning, twenty five writing.  I may up that to forty-five minutes each today, see if it gets me out of the weeds.  I’m also going to be making some beef stew, once I get the kitchen clean up that is.

Meanwhile, this is what is keeping me company through this whole weekend.  The album just dropped this week, from my friend Steve Carlson and his friend Jensen Ackles (yes, that Jensen Ackles).  I’ve known this was in the works for a while, and have been looking forward to it anxiously.  It was totally worth the wait.  If you like a little gothic southern rock mixed with a heavy does of blues and jazz notes and some AMAZING vocals, check this out.  You can get it on Spotify and iTunes and probably a bunch of other places.

If you dig it, you can check out the band’s website for cool merch and to get the album on vinyl.  Someone find me a record player!  My favorite is probably Drowning, but I love Cannonball and Sounds of Someday too.  Hell, I love it all, so I’ll be over here with the volume cranked up to 11 while I clean.

Happy Sunday, Readers.  Time to make the words.

 

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reading, writing and resumes

Oops, I haven’t posted in a while!  Sorry about that.  I don’t even have a good excuse!  Life has been busy, but that’s almost always true.  So, what’s been happening?  Well, next week is Sirens is happening next week and our benefit anthology is out now!

heroes and hellions cover

Heroes and Hellions is a collection of short stories and poetry that explores what it is to be a hero and where the line blurs.

Your purchase goes to support the Sirens conference.  If you appreciate some badass speculative fiction from some badass folks you should pick it up.

In other news, I got email recently from someone who will be recording my first novel, Forever!  Audio book incoming, for all of you Readers who have been asking.

I’m hoping that I’ll be able to get back into a writing habit with the conference next week.  I think I’ve been a bit stymied because I have too many stories in my head competing for attention.

 

Aside from all of that, and bouncing between three different novels in progress, I’m still sending out resumes, looking for that company who needs me and all I have to offer.  For now, I’m slugging my way through a contract position that is not my favorite, but is paying the bills.

Speaking of which, I should get to it.  Lots of editing to do!  And my coffee is getting cold.  Happy Wednesday, Readers.  Go out and be recklessly kind!

 

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nebulous nebulas and other space oddities…

I’m not going to lie, this new job is killing me.  I haven’t written more than a few words (of course, not on any of the things I have been writing, no, Brain decided that we needed more sci-fi in our writing and has offered me space!vampire!pirates…I don’t know sometimes…) and my stress level is mighty.

Still, I have a week’s vacation looming, it’s starting to feel like fall, and this time next week I’ll be somewhere in LA.  Our Wednesday isn’t fully decided, but Tuesday we’ll be at Universal Studios Hollywood, and Thursday and Friday we’ll be at Disney.  This is the second year in a row that I’ll be at a Disney property for/around my birthday.  A year ago today, I was on a plane for Paris.

I do love to travel and I am very fortunate to make enough money to support it.  I wish that money was coming from book sales, but I’ll get there one day.  In the meantime, I’ll just write when I can and keep plugging along.

I really should get to the day-job work.  I have my coffee, I’ve had breakfast, and once I get through today, it’s only two more until vacation.  Happy Wednesday, Readers.  I hope it is kind and filled with love.

 

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new job, week 2…can I go back to Austin now?

I came back from my amazing trip to Austin to start a new job, in a new industry that I know nothing about and may well be beyond my ability to grasp.  But I’m trying.  Week 2 and I’ve already had to take a sick day because I caught a cold, but hey, I’m pretty sure that wasn’t my fault.

So here I am, learning all about financial markets and derivatives trading and crypto currency.  It’s little things that are keeping my sane right now, like these pics from Austin (it’s good to have a professional photographer follow you around, at least sometimes).

fun with an axe

Also in the happy making column are my temperature sensitive, color changing nails, the tickets to Universal Studios that I just bought (Harry Potter, we’re coming for you!) and the trip to LA that goes with those tickets.  Oh, and not to mention Disneyland, though I haven’t bought those tickets yet…soon…very soon.

I get to be in Star Wars land for my birthday!  And have a tasty adult beverage at the Cantina to celebrate!  I think that’s pretty awesome. Bonus if I can find me a Chewbacca and get a hug!

But yes, the work thing is stressful and weird and I feel a little bit like I’m back in school.  I guess it’s never a bad thing to keep learning!

While I’m thinking about it, and alone in the office, I need to make a phone call about changing a plane reservation.  And coffee.  I need coffee.

Happy Wednesday, Readers!

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axes with friends

Last weekend I was in Austin celebrating a friend’s birthday, and getting to see a cousin I haven’t seen since we graduated high school together.  It was a fabulous long weekend that started on Wednesday.

The mini-vacation included getting to hang in the pool and spend lots of hours catching up with my cousin and her daughter, then music and dinner on Lady Bird lake, Rocky Horror Picture Show with friends, a buffet breakfast, ax throwing craziness (which I did not expect to enjoy as much as I did), dinner and beer at the Family Business Brewing Company, followed by more beer and a concert.

Every time I get to do one of these weekends, I’m reminded why I’m willing to spend the money to do it.  Austin is a beautiful city and I’ve met some awesome people.  And our host’s reaction to my new appearance, after not seeing me in 3 years, was worth every penny too!

I came home to an extra week off before I start my new job on Monday, which has meant that I got a good amount of writing time this week and that has felt really good.  I’m hoping that I can continue getting at least 500 words a day, even as I start my new job, which I am admittedly both nervous and excited for.

It’s a whole new industry for me, and the learning curve is going to be steep.

But hey, we all know I love a challenge!

Well, Readers, the coffee is hot (DeathWish Valhalla Java this morning) and I need to get some words flowing.  I hope to get back to a regular cadence of posting here now that I will be settling in to a new routine.

 

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getting girly

I am, most definitively, a woman.  I have never been a “girly” woman.  The most girly I get is the treat of having someone else color my hair for me, and even then, I have a pretty straightforward cut that is easy to style (or not) to keep it all pretty low maintenance.

I am, however, getting ready to go on vacation, and I was suddenly struck with a deep desire to have my nails done, so yesterday after the gym, I stopped into a nail salon and had a mani/pedi and got my face de-haired.  I originally just asked for my eyebrows, but then decided to let her do my upper and lower lip, chin and cheeks.  Ever since I started using the Nuva ring to help control my out of control menstrual cycle, my facial hair has gone bonkers.

It’s been ages since I did any of that.  Add in the massage chair during the pedicure, and I was feeling pretty pampered.  And today I have an appointment with my amazing hair stylist who is going to re-green my hair for me.

I’m feeling downright girly!

Since today is Saturday, there’s been quite a bit of writing as well, with my focus once more on the Daughters of Morru book.  Toss in some coffee and clothing I haven’t been able to wear in years?  Yeah, it’s a good day.

How about you, Readers?  What’s on your agenda for this final weekend in July?

Photo by Kris Atomic on Unsplash