Dejunking: My Life and Home, 2015

One of the most frustrating things I’ve encountered recently is my growing desire for a Big Change.

I’ve mentioned it before here, here, and here, my itchy feet syndrome. My inability to be content with the same place for more than a few years. It has hit again. Hard. Especially towards the end of 2014 when I kept looking at 2015 with hope and excitement. 2015 represents a clean slate, a new start, a tangible end to a crappy year and the beginning of a year that isn’t crappy - in fact, 2015 has the potential to be awesome. It is, of course, what we make it, and I am determined! Determined to make 2015 a Great Year!

Back to my itchy feet. About every three years or so, I get the urge for change. Change of jobs, change of location, change of something. Unfortunately, Scott and I have already made the executive decision that a relocation right now is not feasible. We want to get Cyra through middle and high school without another move. We want to save up money so that in a few years Scott can start his plan to go to brew school. To do that we need to do a few things:

1. Stay on target - with our budget and our long term plans.

2. Keep put - no moving or major life changes.

3. Live modestly - we are planning on living on his salary while socking mine away into savings.

These three things…well, actually, just the second item on the list, put a real kink into my BIG CHANGE and ITCHY FEET plans.

What’s a girl to do?

Well, it all goes back to one of the things I’ve been obsessively googling lately: the Small House Movement. Tiny little portable homes, with tiny little footprints, being all handmade, cute, and minimalist.

I. Love. It.

Scott and I talk all the time about buying land in the middle of nowhere and building a tiny little house, a chicken coop, and a garden. Maybe even a couple of tiny little houses, one for us and then an extra one or two for guests. Ah, the dream of living off the grid and off the land.

But, in all reality, I probably couldn’t go that way, at least with the house size. I like my dvds, crafts, and games way too much. Those three things alone could take up an entire 150 square foot room!! But, I find more and more, as I look around my cluttered home, there is a lot of stuff that I really could do without. I might not be able to reduce enough to live in 150 square feet but I can certainly pare down what I have to live in my 1300 square foot home without feeling claustrophobic.

Now, by no means am I a hoarder. I’ve seen that. I’ve got a family member who is one. But I do have a tendency to collect a lot of crafting supplies. You can see my craftway here. It takes up my entire entry hall (that we don’t use anyway). But with so many crafts (I really do know how to do pretty much every. Single. Craft.) I get overwhelmed with all the supplies. It is time to pare down. I have roughly 60 pounds of scrapbook paper. Who needs 60 pounds of paper? Not this girl!! Not anymore!

So, to alleviate my itchy feet and appease my need for Big Change, I’m down sizing my life. I’ve made a list of rooms, closets, and cabinets I want to tackle and each week I’ll put a dent into my life. That being said, I’m not touching the girls or Scott’s stuff. For one, Scott doesn’t actually have that much stuff and what he does have: books and clothes, are already at a minimum. As a child of military parents, he already has a minimalist mind set. As for the girls, I’m hoping that as they see me donate, toss, and yard sale stuff, they’ll get into the dejunking.

I’ve actually already started. Remember I mentioned my recent weight loss? Well, I’ve donated roughly a third of my clothes and thrown away another quarter. My closet is much more accessible now. And I felt great about getting rid of stuff I never wear!

I think I’ve found the cure for my itchy feet and restless urge for change. Next up: The Kitchen!

I Made It Monday (Or We Now Return To Our Regularly Scheduled Program)

For those of you who have recently joined my legion of minions...um...followers...I had been doing a regular Monday post called, "I Made It Monday." I'm a crafter and a professional chef (at least in my mind and according to my kids) but that isn't the only thing I am. That being the case, I do like to occasionally display with pride my creations. Most people refer to this as bragging and I do that too. But I'm totally modest about it.

Before I show off my accomplishments for the week, let's talk for a second or two about Pinterest. How many of you have a Pinterest account? I bet it's a bunch. Pinterest is the coolest thing since hot glue. Would it astound you to know that I do not have a Pinterest account? Well I don't because I already spend too much time lurking about on the internet wasting time that I should be spending in productive activity.

But every once and a while, I'll scroll through the Pinterest front page just taking a gander at what's there. I mean I am a crafter and a would-be chef so I should always look to expand my horizons and talent, right? The only problem is that each time I visit Pinterest I find myself feeling more and more inadequate. Interestingly enough, I am not alone in this feeling. A recent news article talks about how moms are feeling stressed out by the amazing things they see on Pinterest and like me feel bad about how perfect everyone else's life seems.

So last week I was perusing Pinterest and low and behold I found two recipes that looked really fantastic. The first was for a zesty shrimp and avocado salad and the second for something called "magic cake."

Now I won't print the recipes here because of copyright and all that but I think this is the original site for the salad. With the salad I was a bit hesitant to try it because it called for a bunch of things that I just don't like all that much like red onion and cilantro. And to be honest, I'm not the biggest fan of avocado but I have had it and enjoyed it in sushi and on a sandwich. But the photo looked so amazing and I really love lime and I'm on a low carb diet (which is working nicely, thank you) and this salad seemed just the thing to change up what I had been eating.

Not pictured: the avocado lurking just beneath the cucumbers.

So I replaced the onion with cucumber and the jalapeno with bell pepper (in the hopes the kids would be more willing to try it) and left out the cilantro. Looks pretty, right?

I hated it. It made me want to puke. I brought a small one cup serving with me to work the other night and as I ate it, I hated it more and more. I didn't even finish half of it. I'm not sure why. Maybe all of the replacements I made turned it into a disaster, but all of the ingredients separately I like just fine. Together? UGH!

After that fiasco I was really, really nervous to try the magic cake. Magic cake is all over Pinterest like glitter and there are so many rave reviews about it. What could be the harm here? A cake that magically separates into three different layers as it cooks, sounds pretty neat to me. I got the recipe from JoCooks but you can Google it and about 14 quadrillion recipes for it will pop up. It was a simple recipe with ingredients that I had - so no special trip to the store on a non-shopping day - and it looked pretty sprinkled with powdered sugar.

First of all the batter is so thin it might as well be instant pudding. As I was mixing it during the last stage, it started separating in the bowl and there were chunky bits floating around. I had my doubts, let me tell you. But I was making it for my gaming group and only had an hour before they arrived, so I knew it was too late to bail on a new recipe in favor for a more familiar one.

I wish I had taken photos of the process, because it was a seriously creepy batter. It smelled good as it was baking and when I took it out, it looked...done.

From this angle it's hard to tell, but it did indeed separate into three layers: a bottom rubbery crust, a middle custardy filling, and top cake-like consistency. Instead of just powdered sugar I opted to dust it with a bit of cocoa powder which actually helped cut down the intense sweetness of it. The guys liked it and honestly, it wasn't a bad cake it just wasn't magical enough for me, it was just kind of...meh. I will say though, that on a second try, after it had sat in the fridge overnight and didn't have anything sprinkled on it, I liked it a bit better. I think it would benefit from a sauce and more vanilla.

One of the guys suggested a sprinkle of vanilla sugar and I would have to agree that vanilla sugar would make a nice addition to the cake and to my kitchen!

In fact, I be there's a recipe on Pinterest somewhere for it.

Z is for Zooted and Zozzled

Way back in my early college days I had two over indulgences with alcohol. And yes, only two because that’s all it took for me to learn that while I could hold my liquor fairly well (as in there was never any puking afterward and I always remembered everything that happened) I disliked the feeling of being out of control.

The first time I was inebriated isn’t a fun story – nothing overly exciting happened, there were no lampshades, no strip poker, no naughtiness at all. Just me being silly.

The second time, however, that’s one of my favorite stories.

I was working at a tourist trap and one of the guys that worked there invited Scott and me to a housewarming party. I didn’t get off work until after ten so by the time Scott and I got there, the party was in full swing. The guy hosting apologized that there wasn’t much left in way of drinks…unless of course we wanted to do some shots. Of course I agreed that this would be a great thing to do. Scott, the designated driver, chuckled and muttered something about me not being able to do shots.

What I heard was a challenge.

We’d only been dating a few months at that point and I was out to make an impression. And boy did I!

Ten to fifteen shots of varying alcohol later – I’ll admit, I lost count – I felt pretty good. Except for the fact that I hadn’t had dinner and my stomach was now grumbling everything was peachy. The party kicked into high gear, but within a few minutes, it became clear that Scott and I only knew a handful of people and so we decided to book out to the beach. A few others joined us and with Scott behind the wheel, we backed out of the driveway.

I was fine.

Scott drove down the street.

I was fine.

Scott stopped at the stop sign.

I was drunk.

I went from slightly hungry and fine to holy crap why is the car spinning in the span of three seconds.

Long story short (because really, let’s get to the good part) I decided that going swimming in the middle of the night in January was the best idea ever. Thankfully, I had some very sober shoulder angels who convinced me that getting in the car and heading back to the dorm was a better idea – although they had to lock me in the car to convince me of that!

Now Flagler has a tough policy regarding alcohol and drug use. As in if you are caught drinking, drunk or high on campus you get kicked off of the campus and put on academic probation. So now, imagine if you will, a very drunk me with a few friends trying to quietly sneak up to my dorm room while avoiding security and the RA.

It was beyond hilarious and amazingly we didn’t get caught (or people chose to look the other way). Once I got back into my very tilty dorm room, I went to my wardrobe to get my pajamas on. Did I mention the tilt-a-whirl way the room was spinning? I required more stability at that point than my own feet and went to lean up against the closed door of the wardrobe. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that door that I always kept closed was wide open! I fell into to wardrobe with a loud crash, upended my laundry basket all over the place and managed to crawl out sporting a bruise that ran from my butt to my hip to my knee.

The next morning Scott came to drop off my car and shook his head in amazement when I demanded a huge breakfast at Shoney’s. He was also slightly irritated at how zooted and out of control I had been. 

But I had learned my own lesson: Never do mixed shots on an empty stomach.

Zooted and Zozzled are both adjectives from the 1990s and 1920s respectively that mean drunk or intoxicated. 

Example: Zinia stumbled and tripped along the sidewalk. A bicycle cop watching her laughed, "That woman is so zozzled right now, it's amazing she can even stand!"

This post has been brought to you by the Letter Z and the fine folks at Blogging A to Z. Check out more A to Z blogs here! 

Updates, News, and Other Info

UPDATES:

Blogging A to Z - Guys! Can you believe that it starts Monday? HA! Me either! Remember back when I said I was going to work at getting everything set and prewritten and...yeah. That didn't work at all. So I had a theme, I dropped a theme, I went back to my original idea, struggled to plan it, got a job, and almost decided to forgo the challenge. Then I read a news story in my local paper the other day that made me go, "hmm."

And with that, I present my new and improvised theme:

Archaic Slang Of America's Yester Years Through The Ages And Across The States

I'll admit, the title might need some work - it is a bit wordy, but I like words. I especially like words and sayings that not many people use. So there you go. 

NEWS:

Did you catch up there how I mentioned getting a job? Skimmed right over that part, didn't you? Well! I never...okay, I have but that's not the point. The point, Friends, is that I am once again  gainfully employed. Scott and I had a super long talk (seriously, it's been going on for about a year or so) and after nearly two years of playing the application game with the local school district we came to the decision that I needed to look at other options (really, it is wicked hard to get a position in this district. I'm pretty sure that unless you know someone, it just isn't going to happen). 

Interestingly enough, just like we found our current home on craigslist*, I found my job there too. I am back in the hospitality industry as a front desk clerk at a local hotel. I had my start in hospitality/service way back after I graduated high school and then all through college so I am familiar with it and honestly, I'm good at it. As much as I like to try to deny it, I am a people person and I like interacting with...you know...people. 

That being said, I'll be working a couple of wonky shifts and until I adjust completely, interneting and blogging will be taking a backseat. I'm going to do my best with the A to Z but I honestly don't expect my posts to be very long or story-like as they were last year. FYI - if you are recently joining me, you should check out last year's A to Z when you have a chance.

*remind me to share a really funny-creepy story about looking for jobs on craigslist! Honestly we should do a craigslist bloghop with funny-creepy stories because oh man! do I imagine that you guys have a bunch!

OTHER INFO:

Umm...Okay, yeah, you got me. I don't have anything else to add right now. How's about I leave you with a photo?

Mysterious Cinder Block Circle found just off a trail at Girl Scout Camp.

Exciting! Two Posts for the Price of One. (FYI: If you did pay could you let me know because I've not seen a cent of profit here!)

So I don't usually post twice in a day, but some rules are meant to be bent. Bent because I don't actually have a rule about posting twice in a day. I've done it before and thus far Blogger Police have left me alone.

As you know I am big into games. Big! I love them. I've posted about it here and here if you're interested. And as many know I subscribe to Felicia Day's Geek & Sundry channel (and you should too. Because. It. Is Awesome. Can you believe I'm not even getting paid for these endorsements? I really should be.).

Apart from the Guild, my favorite show on Geek & Sundry is TableTop hosted by Wil Wheaton, actor and all around awesome guy. I say that knowing that I don't know him personally but he seems like a pretty decent fellow. Each episode of TableTop features Wil and a group of friends playing a game. Hilarity ensues. Some games I was familiar while others were completely new and nifty! TableTop played a huge role in Christmas presents this year: Dixit, Gloom, and Star Fluxx to name a few. 

Anyway, a few days ago, Wil Wheaton posted about a BIG announcement for TableTop and I bet like many, I assumed the worst. No second season? No Wil? No table?

Turns out my fears were for naught. TableTop has sparked such a response that Felicia Day and her team of intergalactic superheroes, unicorns, and friends have declared March 30th to be International TableTop Day! Here's Wil's announcement about it on his blog.

So I will be participating. I'm hoping that somewhere in my town a small coffee shop, bookstore or game shop is planning on it as well. Although even if I just spend the day playing games with my girls it is still going to  be a great day in my book!

I wish I was cool enough to declare an international day...but alas, I haven't reach that level of awesome yet.

Someday.

(Was my fangirl showing a bit here?)

I Made It Monday

Can I tell you a secret? I really hope this doesn't ruin my baking street cred, but I have never made pizza from scratch before.

Still think I'm awesome?

Look, pizza from a pizza joint has always been more convenient albeit expensive. It just never occurred to me to make it on my own. Maybe because making a yeast dough, until this past year, was intimidating. Maybe because until we moved ordering a pizza didn't seem like a luxury.

We love pizza. Back in the day, we had it almost weekly. Now it has become a special event item, ordered for a celebration, a reward or a special night. Our taste buds live for the days when a visiting family member offered to pay for some pizza.

I had a hankering last week for pizza, a desperate yearning that gnawed at me for days. But rent, power and groceries told me that pizza would have to wait. While I was menu planning (the only thing that keeps me on budget when I grocery shop) I was flipping through The Pioneer Woman's cookbook and found her recipe for pizza dough. (FYI - the recipe I used from her book, is not on her website so far as I can tell, however, this link will bring you to her page for a number of her pizza recipes. All of which look delicious.)

Light bulb!

If I want pizza, I thought, why not just make it. Yeast no longer scares me, we already have veggies down on the list, what's adding one or two more and the only major expense, cheese and meat, could be wiggled into the budget if I got rid of something, say like cereal, and planned more pancake breakfasts.

Pizza, my friends, was back in our lives! Bigtime!

Cast of delicious characters minus the sauce. The sauce was shy (I forgot to take it out for the photo and didn't feel like a reshoot.) Also, although I have sausage out, I ended up just using the pepperoni and some diced ham I already had in the fridge.

I chose to make an minor investment in pizza pans although I'm sure I could have used my cookie sheets. I figured if I had pizza pans I would be more likely to make pizza again to justify the cost the pans.

Pizza dough is a sticky dough unlike bread dough. And there isn't any kneading. Although I used the Pioneer Woman's recipe, I modified it slightly to make it a bit more zesty with the flavor. I added basil, marjoram, garlic and pepper to the flour before mixing in the proofed yeast. My dough looks nothing like the photo's in PW's book but from the get go it smelled heavenly.

Three hours of rising later, my dough still didn't look like the pictures, but I figured if it had risen I must have gotten something right.

I really love chopping vegetables. It's relaxing and delicious all at the same time.

Parmesan. Yum.

Fresh mozzarella. Double and triple yum!

The pizzas assembled. It was hard taking photos while I was in the middle of added the toppings so I just took shots of the finished products. The dough was stretchy and although I wanted to try my hand at tossing the dough, I refrained. I have marvelous self control.

Pizza #1 - half Hawaiian, half pepperoni

Pizza #2 - I guess you could call it a supreme.

And finally the finished and cooked homemade pizzas:

 

Now, certainly there were some problems. Stretching the dough out was an issue. I tended to stretch it too thin in places. Also, I left the dough for the second sitting out uncovered while I made the first pizza and the dough got a tad dried out. Scott (who knows a thing or two about pizza, having worked in the industry) said that I overloaded the middle with toppings which prevented the crust in the middle to fully cook - it was a bit on the mushy, doughy side. The sauce I used was store bought and more of a marinara than a pizza sauce and I probably should have stuck with a plain pizza sauce. But other than that and despite the mushy middle, these were phenomenal and I could have kicked myself for not attempting homemade pizza before this. 

Maybe after a few tries I'll look to making my own sauce too. And maybe, just maybe, if my gardening goes well this year, I'll truly be able to call a pizza "totally made from scratch." 

Well, except for the flour. And the yeast. And the cheese. So I guess I'd just be able to call it mostly almost totally made from scratch.

Tis the Season

November is pressing down upon me and as my busiest month of the year I am not exactly looking forward to it in the traditional sense. Actually, I’m kinda freaked out about the whole thing.

November brings NaNoWriMo, a writing challenge that I have participated in since 2004. In past years I’ve run the gamut of writing: planning, note cards, winging it, basic ideas, just a character. I’ve done it all. This year is the first year I haven’t had a direction before October hit. In fact, I just got my ideas together and drafted a nearly naked plot with a few hazy characters. The years I’ve planned I’ve done better but I’m hopeful that I’ll continue my winning streak.

November also brings a last ditch frenzied approach to finishing craft projects for Christmas. As usual I have set myself very high craft goals and then there was the incident earlier this month that accidentally ruined three projects that were near completion. So I’m restarting three projects, continuing two more and trying to find the time for a good half dozen not even started yet.

November is also Cyra’s birthday month. In previous years we've gone camping, thrown small parties, had a simple dinner. This year? It’s bowling. We haven’t established if it will be a bowling party or just us bowling for fun. Either way it will be fun. She’s a whole decade old this year. It seems hard to believe. I cleaned out my closet last week and pulled out the girls’ baby boxes. I love how amazing they are, what wonderful people they are turning out to be but, still, I miss them as babies.

If I have a second favorite holiday, it is the completely made-up Thanksgiving feast. I love to cook and bake and it's like Thanksgiving was created just to enable my cooking obsession. Thanksgiving is often treated as a week long event in my house. I bake far too many desserts, way too many side dishes and a turkey three times larger than we actually have need for. I think the largest group of people I’ve fed in recent years was maybe ten. Typically there are six or seven.  But that doesn’t stop me from cooking as though I was feeding twenty-seven! This year might be slightly different as we certainly don’t have the budget for a proper feast.

Knowing myself as I do, I doubt that I will be writing much for the blog and that distresses me. I have let myself get out of the good habits of regular blogging and commenting and so of course I want to rededicate myself to daily postings. With all my focus on NaNo and crafting, I think I will once again participate in fatmumslim’s Photo-A-Day for November.

Tis the season alright! Season of crazy. Season of fun. Season of self-induced stress. I work best under pressure and deadlines. If I don’t have one or the other I tend to be lazy and self-indulgent.

Friday Photos

Last month I met up with Sara and Geordie at the Dunlawton Sugar Mill Gardens for an afternoon of exploration in what is supposed to be a very beautiful botanical garden - alas not much was in bloom and they were doing some minor construction on new garden areas so it was breathtaking in terms of the gardens. Fortunately for us, the real reason I wanted to go to gardens was Bongoland!

I first read about Bongoland about two years ago when the girls and I were first getting into camping. I had it in my head to explore as much of Florida as possible and, of course, the first book I turned to was Weird Florida.

Life being what it is, my plans to go to Bongoland always got scrapped. But when I finally got to go, it was almost as good as I hoped. The only thing that could have made it better would have been more...dinosaurs?

This was the only one of the five concrete monstrosities that "looked" semi-normal...and by that I mean ... never mind, just keep scrolling down.

Okay. Dinosaur eggs are pretty simple enough to make. These kind of looked cool. I liked how they had one that was broken open almost birdbath-like.

I've always been a fan of stegosaurus. They make me smile as I imagine them clodding around in the forest.

Cool I like tricertops - they always look tough, like they are just sitting on the edge of a major spaz out. Umm...okay so maybe his horns got broken in a fight...

Why is he trying to KISS US????

smootchy-smootchy

Behold the giant land sloth. Watch out folks, his a maniacal stalker! Look at how he is pushing back the brush... just like a velocioraptor!

"I'm watching you...With my shiny Frank Sinatra eyes!"

 And finally the majestic king of dinosaurs... The T-Rex?

Yikes! Rexy Baby! What happened to you? Where is your third finger? Have you dislocated a shoulder, you poor thing!

I'm pretty sure there isn't anything left to say but oh how these made me crazy happy!

I Love Dudes

Through a few blogs I follow I have stumbled across a new blog. A blog for Dudes. About Dudes. By Dudes. Some of the funniest writers I've read on the internet are over there. Editors WilyGuy and Youngman Brown have turned a fun weekly link-up into a man-sized contest (isn't that just like a dude?). Each week boy bloggers (like boy bands but 5 gajillion times better because 1. I don't listen to boy bands and 2. I totally read boy bloggers and 3. I am a totally fan girl of many male bloggers) link up a post and readers get to vote on their favorite.

So, check it out. Because Dudes need love too!

Friday Photos

Get ready for the Cinder Block Harvest Fest!!

When we first moved to our new house, I noticed a large pile of bricks and cinder blocks sitting just beyond the fence line. I was curious about them but didn't give it too much thought because as they were on the other side of the fence, they weren't mine.

Every so often over the course of the past year, I'd give them a glance and sigh because if only I had those cinder blocks I could do so much good in the world...well, in my yard at least. Specifically this - a raised garden bed made from cinder blocks. But alas, with out the cinder blocks, I went ahead and repurposed my old milk crates into a a container garden. Still...I yearned for the day when I would make a "real" garden.

It wasn't until my landlord came over to supervise the recent yard work that I made a startling discovery. The cinder blocks were actually on this property! The previous tenant was the one who put up the fence for his dogs and, being sort of lazy about it, just fenced around the brush and pile of cinder blocks instead of following the property line.

I asked my landlord if I could use the bricks and cinder blocks and after he looked at me like I was crazy said he didn't care at all what I did with them!

So I have started harvesting the bricks. They are easy to get as they are lighter than the cinder blocks. In order to get those, I need to disassemble part of the fence and I haven't gotten to that point yet.

Here they are...just waiting for me...waiting to fulfill their purpose.

See how sad they are behind the fence? Poor things! They long to be made into a garden!

These are some of the bricks I was able to save. A sad little pile now, but when I have some more, I plan on making a couple flower beds with them.

It's hard to see in black and white, but the sun filtering down through the branches above really made the cinder blocks pop out. It was pretty in a creepy sort of way.

I love the vines that crisscross over, around and through the pile as though trying to hold onto them.

The bricks are in the best of shape and I have no idea how long they sat neglected, but it will make an interesting juxtaposition  - old bricks, pretty flowers... Nice!

I Made It Monday

I've decided that I will take a break from my "I Made It Monday" series. I find that the summer is not a time I am very focused on crafting and while I have a few projects I am working on right now, they are intended as gifts and as such, I will not post them here until after they have been, you know, gifted. "I Made It Monday" will return in late August or early September.

I am thinking however on doing a Strange Florida Saturday...so many day trips to so many odd places in this creepy state!

I don't want to leave you without any photos though, so here is one of a scarlet ibis I took at the zoo. Scarlet ibises freak me right the heck out because 1) look at that eye! Can you not hear the ibis' thoughts? "Just one little step closer and I can jam my beak straight through her eye! 2) They are far too flashy. Kind of egotistical if you ask me (and as a Leo I totally know all about being egotistical). 3) I once got into a near shouting match with my 9th grade English teacher because of the short story "The Scarlet Ibis" by James Hurst. I held the older brother accountable for killing Doodle and the teacher disagreed. Really?

"I will cut you if you don't give me some fish. Right. Now."

Who Needs A Truck?

I do. Seriously and for real. Need a truck.

I was only able to fit two in the back seat and I need at least four! By the time I got back to the store that gave them to me for FREE the other two I wanted were GONE!!

I bet someone saw me joyfully cramming pallets into my car and they were all like "HEY!! Let's ruin that lady's day and take the other ones BEFORE she comes back! Bwa ha ha!! That will keep her from ever being able to complete her awesome pallet project!"

My project, by the way, is indeed totally awesome. Check it out here.

I is for Impulsive

I knew I shouldn’t antagonize bees. Our neighbors kept hives and I’d been stung before. It hurt. I certainly didn’t like it. So when I discovered a ground hive just off the front porch, I knew I should stay away from it. In fact, I knew I should tell my mom about it.

Instead, I sat there and watched the bees fly in and out. They buzzed lazily around the big lilac bush, landed on flowers then flew back to the hive. They would land just outside of the hole in the ground then crawl into the darkness.

I knew that I also shouldn’t play with sticks. But I had one that I was using as a sword that day. Before I found the hive, I was a pirate on the high seas. The front porch was my ship and I had just captured some booty!

I twirled the stick in my hands as I sat on the steps watching the bees. I knew that honey was good but a hive in our front yard was bad. I twisted the stick on the ground and inched closer to the hive. I scooted down to the next step. The bees didn’t seem to mind me being so close.

I drew a circle on the ground around the hive with my stick. Then without even thinking, without even pausing to consider what I was doing, I jammed the stick into the hive. I jumped up and ran up the steps on the porch.

Nothing happened. A few bees scurried around the stick on the ground while a few more, returning from the lilacs buzzed in confusion above the stick. I eased closer to the hive again curious as to why the bees weren’t doing anything about the stick.

As I got closure, I could hear a faint hum coming from the hive. I knew I shouldn’t have stuck a stick in their home and now I felt bad that I had. The bees weren’t bothering me and I knew that I shouldn’t bother them.

“I’m sorry,” I told the bees flying above the hive and I reached for the stick.

I plucked the stick from the hive. Bees erupted from the ground like a geyser. They arched up above my head and then in a split second, it seemed like every single one of the now very angry bees turned towards me.

All at once bees were over me. I screamed and jumped up from the porch. My brother, near the pool house saw what was happening as I fled from the bees.

“Over here!” He called and I ran towards him, bees in full pursuit.

He met me at the edge of the pool and in one swoop lifted and flung me into the water. I don’t remember if he jumped in after me or how long I was in the water. But I do remember my mom rubbing meat tenderizer into each of the stings.

“Did you learn a lesson?” My mom asked.

“Yes,” I told her knowing what she wanted to hear. “Think before I act.”

The problem was I thought about the consequences. I just figured that the bees would be happy I saved them. I didn’t think they’d know I was the one that caused the problem in the first place.

Traumatizing The Pets

Call me brave because that’s what I am. Yesterday I took all the critters in for the yearly vet visits. Doesn’t sound so bad, right? I have yet to find a new vet in the area so I brought them back to the old neighborhood. And because I didn't want to make the trip twice, I decided to take all of them at the same time. Factor in a 35+ minute drive – both ways – and the nearly two and a half hours in the office itself. Then all of a sudden I’m looking mighty brave!

"These smell really familiar."

Junie becomes even more concerned once the cats are trapped inside.

"Just wait," Zoe thinks, "One day you will regret this!"

Junie didn't know what to do with herself: pace, drool, whimper? She ended up alternatively licking my arm and licking Simone's carrier. Neither action seemed to help her panic disorder.

The cats are still not speaking to me and Junie hasn’t left her kennel except to go to take care of business outside. The grudges don’t bother me. They’ll eventually forget that I made them go to the doctor.

Except…Zoe and Junie both have raging ear infections which require antibiotic drops. In both ears. Twice a day. For two weeks.

I wonder how long that grudge will last?

Inspired.

I’m more of an ideas person. Ask anyone* and they’ll tell you. I have Ideas! I think it comes from my deep seated idealism that I can’t seem to shake (but that’s another story). So having Ideas to write about has never been a problem. I can come up will all manner of plots, characters, settings, worlds! It’s all there in my brain just waiting to escape out onto paper.

Which as it turns out is actually a problem because when it comes to writing down my ideas, putting the thoughts into actually words, dialogue and description, I fizzle and falter and eventually frustrated, I walk away.

Above my computer desk I have the following quote by William Faulkner:

I only write when I am inspired. Fortunately, I am inspired at 9 o’clock every morning.

It is there to remind me that waiting for inspiration to strike will not get a story written. Only actually writing can accomplish that. I look at it every morning when I sit down at the computer to write. An hour later, I look at it again and shake my head at the screen in front of me.

Waiting for ideas isn’t a problem. I’ve got those. Waiting for inspiration isn’t an issue. Why is it then I have nothing to show? Words and words that don’t connect or worse blank screen, blank paper, unloved and unused pens. It’s sad really. But then when NaNoWriMo comes around I can blast out 50k without a problem!

Is it the deadline? I’ve always worked best with one. Is it the self-inflicted pressure? Who knows best but me? So I am hereby giving myself a deadline. I will write, edit and be ready to send out a manuscript by June 1^st.

This year.

End of story.

*By “anyone” I really mean Sara as she bears the brunt of my “ideas.”

Dreaming Big

I only discovered Miss Britt a few short weeks ago and I’ve been lurking ever since. She’s totally living my life! Well, the life I totally want to live.

Liquidate the assets.
Buy an RV.
Home school the Small Fries.
Travel the continent.
Blog about it.

Totally. Want. This. Life.

But for now, the best I can do is to vicariously live through her spectacular blog.

More Wonderous Discoveries

Slowly, notebook by notebook, file by file, I am re-exploring the world Sara and I created, and I have stumbled upon a vast treasure trove of notes and information I had completely forgotten. It is a bit like going to your hometown: nothing has changed, yet everything is different. Is it me? Have I changed? I’m sure I have and now my older eyes are looking upon our creation with an appraiser’s eye, questioning every letter, doodle and rushed memo.

Take a look for example at the storyboard brainstorm for one of our stories. Sara and I got distracted at one point by a side story and we pondered and discussed how to get a character out of a certain situation. Sara, from what I recall, stared at me blankly while I explained my idea, a complicated and detailed shenanigan where the princess’s bodyguard rescues her and there were horses and a carriage (it made sense back then!) …when I realized she looked confused, I took the time to sketch out what I was talking about.



Clearly, this solved everything.

Some of the notes make no sense although at the time of writing, I’m sure that they made perfect sense. When Sara and I first started this project we were single-mindedly devoted to the world, the characters and the creation. Now, time and distance has tempered my enthusiasm. No, that’s not right; I am full of enthusiasm (although I am not sure where to start). Maybe I am more realistic? More reflective?

In any case, I have a lot of material to work with and I am ready to dive in! I am ready to focus on one storyline at a time and let the other stories Sara and I brainstormed bubble in the crock pot while I work with the Quads.

And trust me, Sara and I have more than enough material to fill up a couple of shelves at Barnes and Noble and Borders!

Back to the Story

Way back in 2004, before we left Flagler, Sara and I came up with an awesome idea: a story that spanned an arc of at least five books. While I claim credit for the initial concept of a set of quadruplets (another brilliant shower idea), Sara and I were equal partners in the development of everything else. We spent a good year working solidly upon it. We made maps, religions, creatures and a royal genealogy spanning centuries. We (and by “we” I mean me) even created a song about the main character!

As time went on, we developed side stories to our main arc. We fell in love with some of the minor characters and ideas. We developed ideas for other books and story arcs. We talked, emailed and took notes but we never actually got around to writing anything solid.

We had cultures, back stories, political intrigue and wars, but no story.

Time passed. Our notes and ideas were filed away as we moved on with other projects. Four Nanos ago, I decided to try my hand at starting our story with Sara’s full support. I didn’t get very far and got frustrated that one character, the villain, began taking over the story and took me away from my main character. I put it away.

When Sara left for Japan, she gave me all of her story notes and files. I dutifully put them with mine and they have been floating around my house ever since, taking up space but not being used.

Last year when the computer incident occurred (Scott crashing my system and me not having anything backed up*) I thought I had lost everything that I wrote for the story I finally started. I was devastated. All the time spent, all those hours of typing…not just the story but all the notes that were saved on the computer – gone! I was thankful I had hard copies of some of the material, but at the time, I didn’t even look at the hard copies. Knowing I had something of the world Sara and I created was enough for right then.

Recently, I’ve been thinking about the story, the characters, and the world. I've had some more of my brilliant shower ideas: snippets of conversations, scenes and plot ideas. For the past three weeks or so, I’ve come home glanced at the files and thought to myself, “You’ve got to do something with those!” This world that we created, I thought, deserves to be more than just a bunch of notes. Sara and I invested so much into it, to have it all just sit and wait seems such a let down. Not just for me or Sara but for our characters that we poured so much of ourselves into.

But between work, the girls, and everything, I never picked them up…

…Until today.

Waiting for my gaming group to arrive, I took out my file folder of story notes and began to thumb through them. I couldn’t have been more surprised! Apparently, a while back, during a time I don’t remember at all, I printed out what I wrote for the Nano novel! I had tucked it away in the file and left it there, forgotten and alone!

After the gamers left, I sat at the dining room table and thumbed through all the files. What I thought I lost – the genealogies, the country backgrounds, character notes, one of us (probably Sara) had the foresight to make hard copies. While I am missing some of the original email discussion we had, I have so much material that I don’t know where to start!

So, what to do…

Well, with Sara’s blessing (which I have no doubt she’ll give) I am going to revisit our world. I am going to give voices to our heroes, to our villains and our world!

* I haven't figured out how to imbed a link to previous posts, but for the computer incident check out Silent Fury from Feb. 13, 2009 and Live and Learn from Feb. 14, 2009.