Wednesday, November 22, 2006

what I did yesterday

I attended Enrichment (a gathering of women in my church) and learned that I am not nearly thankful enough for the good life I have and the wonderful experiences I have had. Three women spoke of a Christmas from their past, and I was truly amazed. The bishop's wife, who looks like a happy grandma, had experiences in her youth that could have permanently ruined her life. But she didn't let that happen. Anyway, time for me to be grateful for the wonder in my life.

I cleaned my kitchen. For the first time in a long time (I'm embarrassed to say this...), there are not dirty dishes all over the counters. What a wonderful feeling. I also cleaned in my side of the bedroom, but sad to say it is not quite clean enough yet.

I pulled out my guitar and did some playing and singing. My playing was rusty, and I don't think I have a lot of natural talent on the guitar, but you know what? I don't care! Playing and singing give me joy, so I'm going to keep doing it. And if at some point in my life I'm blessed to be able to take guitar lessons, hooray! But until then, I'm going to practice and play on my own. And if I get good enough, maybe I'll give a concert for my family and/or friends. Because music is definitely one of my joys.

he's back

My husband is back on blogger! I'm jumping for joy. Go tell him to keep on blogging, because I have missed his posts terribly.

Tuesday, November 21, 2006

passion and purpose

I registered for a graduate course next semester. It's called 'Writing and Being'. I'm both excited and nervous. I want to improve my writing, but at the same time, it scares me to think of reading and sharing my writing with a class...

I think it will be good for me. I need a creative outlet. I want to discover and develop my talents. And if this leads to me finding my passion and joy, all the better.

call him the balladeer

Did you know Arizona has an Official State Balladeer? (Evidently Arizona was the first state to have an official state balladeer.) Neither did I. But they do, and John and I got to see him perform last week. His name is Dolan Ellis, and he's a pretty cool performer. He sings songs about Arizona, and some of them are quite catchy. John and I are still singing one of them.

This performance made me think on my cowboy heritage. I need to spend more time around cowboys (the real ones--wearing a hat and boots doesn't necessarily make you a cowboy). They seem to know what life is all about.

Thursday, November 16, 2006

thinking about tomorrow

The wheels in my mind are turning. I’ve talked before about life goals and how I don’t really have any. I encourage other people to pursue their dreams, but I don’t look inside myself long enough to know what my dreams even are. So I’m thinking.

And meanwhile, here are pictures from our trip to Delaware. I think I could enjoy autumn if I lived there. In Arizona, all autumn means is that there is darkness after 6pm. That’s depressing to me, and hence why I don’t like fall. However, Delaware convinced me that fall could be pretty nice. Most of the pictures are on University of Delaware's campus.


Pretty, no?

sad

Sometimes life gives you really hard things, so hard you don't think you can survive it. But somehow, in the midst of the pain, you do.

Tuesday, November 14, 2006

drag races visualized

So I finally uploaded some pictures. I'm really bad at doing that. But since I have pictures, I thought you might enjoy seeing what the drag races really look like...

Do you see all the nasty smoke in the air?

You can hardly see it in the picture, but even the pit crew in the van gets cheers from the crowd. Famous. They're all celebrities.

Aren't we so cute with our big headphones?

That's it for now, but more pictures coming soon...

Thursday, November 09, 2006

what are the writers thinking?!

Didn't forget to watch LOST...but geez, what a disappointing episode.

*Spoilers ahead*

If that was supposed to be a 'cliffhanger', it failed miserably. Okay, so Ben might die. Who cares?! He's interesting, but he's one of the 'Others'. So someone is holding a gun to Sawyer's head. Does anyone really believe he's going to die? NO! Everyone knows that Sawyer is LOST's meal ticket. They're not going to get rid of him. So Jack is trying to save Kate again...doesn't he do that every episode?

So where's the suspense? Very weak episode, especially since we've got three months to wait for the next one. Oh, and did they think they could write in two new characters that have supposedley been there all along and not have us notice that we've NEVER ONCE seen them before?

I really wish the writers would quit trying to increase viewership and just write the show as it was meant to be. I don't want to lose faith in LOST...

Wednesday, November 08, 2006

ampersand

I voted yesterday. There were a few tough decisions, and one where I had to vote for 'the other guy' aka the Libertarian candidate, simply because the other two choices were unacceptable to me. (I wanted to write in John, but he says he's too young.) But I voted.

And then I received two separate telephone calls from volunteers who thanked me for voting. What could I say besides, "Uh...you're welcome?" I am officially free from political calls for the next while!!

In other news, we're going to be in Delaware for the next few days ("Hi. I'm in...Delaware.") checking out the school. We should be in for some fun times.

We're not going to forget to watch LOST today. It better be good!

time is a blur

My wall calendar is still on October. I haven’t changed it partly from sheer laziness, but also because I’m in denial. I don’t want it to be November. I don’t like fall. I don't love winter. And I certainly don’t like how fast time is flying by me.

Tuesday, November 07, 2006

poems

I’ve written poetry on and off for most of my life. For the past few years, it’s been off. I think the last decent poem I wrote was in the year 2000 while I was living in Beijing.

I miss the days when I used to write poetry. I don’t know that I ever gave myself a chance with it. I submitted poems once to a literary journal (can’t remember which one), but I think it was one with a very small acceptance rate. I could have kept trying, but I didn’t.

Anyway, I’ve been going to poetry daily to get my fix of good poems, and I’m getting inspired. If you like poetry, I highly recommend the site. I love the way poetry makes me feel. I even dreamed I was writing it the other night. Perhaps poetry will come back to me soon.

Monday, November 06, 2006

nano is no more

Remember that one time when I said I was going to do nanowrimo? Well, I was wrong. I started on November 1st, and I wrote 1,066 words, which is only 600 words short of my quota of the day. Which is no big deal -- what's 600 words when you're writing up to 2,500 words a day?

But the bottom line is, nothing that I wrote spoke to me. I had to face facts: I needed just a hint of a plot. I needed at least one character I cared about. I didn't want to slog through thirty days of writing trash I didn't like.

So I quit. And then my husband tells me that I left my nanowrimo document open and he read it. He said it was so good that I *had* to finish it. He said I was wasting my talent. I was shocked by this, because my first reaction was absolute horror that any human besides me saw such crap writing. For him to think it was good...well, it's flattering. It makes me wonder if perhaps I am too hard on myself and my writing.

But it's not going to make me continue with nanowrimo. My heart's not in it this year. Maybe next year. I will say this: my nemisis Stacey Cochran (I don't know him, and he doesn't know me or have any idea that he is my nemisis) *is* participating in nanowrimo, and that provokes me ALMOST to the point of saying YES! I will beat Stacey Cochran this year! But the truth is, I won't. But next year, Stacey! Next year! You just watch out.

Friday, November 03, 2006

mini me

Okay, so my friend Erin posted a while back about herself in anime, and I created my anime self too. But I never posted it. However, I think mini me is too darn cute not to share.


Does it look like me? I think it does a little, except I accidentally gave mini me violet eyes, and mine are blue, or green, or hazel or something. And also, I wish I were as cute as me in anime. I am quite adorable, no?

Make your own anime self here. I used Candybar Doll Maker 3. Just be warned that it is addicting!

Wednesday, November 01, 2006

nanowrimo fever

Am I crazy? I just commited myself to nanowrimo -- you all know what that is by now, right? National Novel Writing Month, for the unaware. (And it started today) You write a 50,000 word novel in one month, and that's all there is to it. But 'all there is to it' means I'll be writing an average of 1,666 words per day. I am crazy.

I actually did this once before, in 2002. My sister and I joined nanowrimo, and we each finished our novels in 30 days. In 26 days, actually. We finished early. (Because of a deadline we couldn't get out of. Otherwise, I would have been up til midnight on November 30th.) We were fueled on by fellow Arizonan Stacey Cochran, who actually had a published novel under his belt. He doesn't know us and we don't know him, but we could not, could NOT let him finish his novel before we did. And I actually wrote a novel. A very bad, amateurish novel, but a novel, all the same.

But that was three years ago. That was when I was young, had energy, had no obligation to anyone or anything. However, a while back, John and I discussed nanowrimo, and we both decided to go for it. I forgot all about it. I didn't plan a plot, characters, nothing. But today, John said, "I signed up for nanowrimo. Did you?" I panicked. I can't write a novel! I don't have it in me!

But I didn't want to go back on my word. I said I would do it with him, and so I will. And thus far, I've got a page-and-a-half written. 521 words, to be exact. 1,145 words to go. I don't know if I can do it, but I'm suddenly excited to take on the challenge.