No Complaining Day

I had a weird thought the other day. I'd had a day where I was talking to a lot of people. I noticed that most of the conversation was about what's wrong with their lives. I'm not talking about problems they're working on solving. I'm talking about whining and complaining about things they can't do anything about. I do it, too. So I suggested to Paul that we should have a "No Complaining Day". And I wondered if people would have trouble finding things to talk about, if they couldn't complain. I think we all need to "get over ourselves" and find reasons to be grateful for the good things we have. But, that's just my opinion. YMMV, as they say online.

I'm still walking. I think I lost a whole pound in the last two weeks. It's winter and super cold. I suspect my body is hanging onto the fat to keep warm. I don't know if that's scientific, nor have I ever seen any research on it. But thinking that makes me feel good, so I'm going to keep thinking it. And keep walking.

Today is one day I don't have a rehearsal, but I have music to do every day. Practicing the songs I'm singing is the main thing. But I'm also working on putting the Ladyesong music into my computer so I can burn rehearsal CDs for everyone. I hope they'll help people, particularly those who don't read music, hear their parts and learn them accurately. It's so hard to do that when you don't have a way to listen to your own part, without the other parts muddling up the works.

Last night the San Jose Chamber Orchestra celebrated Barbara Day Turner, the founder and music director's, birthday with a fundraiser. It was one of those milestone birthdays, so they called it "Maestra's Milestone". Good food. Lots of cool people. Fun entertainment that included a bit from a concerto for harp that will be premiered in May. And a humorous look at the birthday girl's life, put together by one of the board members. All in all, it was a great evening.

Blogging

I suppose it's only natural that when you blog, eventually you'll write about blogging itself. It's an interesting phenomenon, this blogging thing. I'm noticing that many of my posts have been sparked by what I've read on someone else's blog. This is one reason I think blogging has become a kind of conversation, not just individuals musing about stuff and hoping other people will care about their musings.

I think the conversation aspect is also why people enjoy getting comments from people reading their blogs. Blogs have a connection between people that writing essays for traditional publications don't have. In traditional publishing, pre-blog days, you waited to see if maybe someone wrote to the editor about your essay. When you write a blog, you get instant feedback when people comment on what you've written. Today, though, even traditional publishing has that more immediate connection because usually you can email the writer directly. A lot of writers have blogs, too, and you can read more there and comment.

This all seems obvious, now that blogging has become so common. But blogging is such a recent phenomenon that it boggles my mind how quickly it's become a part of our culture. No surprise to me that us social creatures will glom onto any way to try to communicate with each other. Sometimes I wonder, though, if we're really communicating because, as with every type of communication, there's what we think we wrote, what we wrote, and what you read.

Stuff

I walked an extra day this week. Paul worked overtime and I didn't want to sit at home this morning. So I meandered off to El Paseo and had coffee at Peet's. That's two miles each way. I didn't push for speed because this wasn't supposed to be a workout, yet it only took me 50 minutes to get there. That's a ton faster than my normal walking pace of a year ago, and a year ago I wouldn't have been able to make it at all. I've come a long way since I started walking and that's a good thing.

I normally don't write fanfic. But I have one that won't leave me alone. It's in a world who's creator has said it's OK to do fanfic and I'm not going to post it up anywhere or anything. It's just for me to play with. The idea includes some types of writing that I've never done before and they're not needed for my current WIP. So, I decided to explore this idea and these writing techniques as a reward after I finish my work on 50 Ways for the day. It's a just for fun thing, and I'm always up for fun stuff.

Other than that, things are pretty much the same around here. Paul and I are celebrating the first paycheck of the new job by going out to dinner. It's kind of a ritual thing we do when he starts a new job. We hope this is the last one for a very long time. We have tickets to a concert tonight, too. We're not sure we're going because it's about 30 miles away and he's worked six days this week. A late night may not be in the cards. If he's too tired, we'll give the tickets to one of our sons and just enjoy a quiet dinner and maybe a browse in a bookstore.

Walking and other stuff

Walking is becoming a bit of an addiction, I think. I get grumpy if I can't walk. That's a good thing. I discovered I can walk to the mall that's two miles away, have coffee, and walk home without any problem. That's a total of four miles. I don't think I've ever been able to walk that far this easily. It's cool.

I'm thinking that good days to update this blog are Tuesday, Friday, and over the weekend, since those are the days I don't have rehearsals and stuff. That way I won't be taking time away from practicing music and writing in order to write in the blog. So, I don't think I'm sticking to my original plan of writing every weekday, not that I've been doing that recently, anyway. It's just that I'd thought of trying to get back to that original goal. My life is much busier now, though, and I don't have as much time to blog. A busy life is a good thing, so I'm happy with making that change. It's doable, so I'm more likely to do it.

I'm settling into a good routine for my new job, my music, church, and family stuff. I don't like rigid schedules, but a general routine is helpful because it allows your brain to think about more important and interesting things than, "When am I going to do this or that?" I started a to do list in my little calendar. I don't always get everything done, but I expect that and start with the most important things first. I put things on my to do list that are fun, rewards for doing the not-so-fun stuff. I'm not rigid about it, though. Sometimes I do the fun things first and sometimes I only do the fun things. But sometimes I eat dessert first or go out and get dessert instead of dinner. Life's too short not to enjoy as much of it as you can, as long as you don't become a total hedonist and ignore your responsibilities completely.

Things are Humming Along

All of my music has started back up. Paul has one group that won't start for another week. I've joined another choir, one Paul sang with over Christmas. It's called "Funtimes Singers". I need to get back in the habit of posting concert dates and info, in case any local folks are looking for something fun to do.

It looks like spring is bustin' out with show tunes. Two of my choirs are doing a lot of show tunes this season. It's going to be fun. The music for Funtimes isn't going to be too difficult, which is a good thing, since Ladyesong looks like there will be some super challenging stuff and lots of memorized music.

I like my new job a lot. It's another musical thing, in a way. I'm taking care of phones, ticket sales, and miscellaneous office work for the San Jose Chamber Orchestra. It looks like music is going to play a bigger part in my life, now that my kids are grown up and I have the time for it.

Writing may seem like it's far from my life, but it really isn't. I just haven't been blogging about it much. This past year I've been writing the occasional blog entry, emails, chatting, and doing lots of journaling. Lots of words have left my pen, but not much fiction. I'm not super upset about that. As I look back on it, there are a lot of good reasons more journaling got done than fiction writing. It's not important what they were. What's important is that things are now working better and I can focus on fiction more this year than last year. I knew it would work out this way. I just didn't know when. It's kind of ironic, in a way, that it all changed right at New Year's, since I try so hard not to make resolutions or changes at New Year's, mainly because doing it is sort of expected.

Anyway, I have a lot of typing of stuff I wrote by hand to do. And then I can write new stuff. It will likely be a couple of weeks before the word meter moves. I have a tendency to lose words, not add them, when I type stuff in. I don't change the progress bar when the word count goes down. I just wait until I've added more, as I always do. We'll see.

Still walking. When I started walking to the shopping center, it took me 45 minutes each way. Today it took me 35 minutes to get home. So, I'm walking faster. I wonder if the cold weather is partly at fault. I walk faster to stay warm. In any case, I'm enjoying my walks and coffee and private time to write in my journal.

Happy New Year!!

I don't do resolutions, so don't expect to see a post about them here. You'll have to move on to someone else's blog for that.

Here's an update on the ongoing drama that is my life. First, Paul loves his new job. It's working out great. Benefits start after only one month on the job. I see new glasses, dental work, and routine medical stuff on our horizon, finally. I can find out how to handle the health issues that have kept me from working the past few years. I am going to have to find the "dreaded day job", as artistic types call the money work that puts a roof over their heads and food on the table so they can devote some time to their art. It's just too expensive here in CA to rent a place on one average income.

I hope to finally get a notebook computer sometime this year. I'm doing some part-time work from home for a friend. It's not a lot of money, but if I save it up, I should have enough for the machine I want before the year is up. And when I get that regular job, I can add some of that money to the PT income.

I'm still walking. I was up to 3 miles on the track. After Paul started his job, I started walking to a local shopping center for coffee. It's about 3-1/2 miles, total. It surprised me how easy the walk is. I'm thinking about walking a different direction to a coffe place that's 2 miles, one way. At least while I'm not working and have the time to do it. I don't know what my current weight loss is or my blood pressure. I started walking mainly hoping to lower the blood pressure, so we'll see, come February, whether I succeeded in that. The last time I was on a scale, which was a few weeks ago, I'd lost 33 pounds. Not bad for a person who wasn't trying to lose weight. I used Christmas gift money for much-needed new clothes. 4 sizes smaller. I'm happy with that and, while it would be great to keep losing, I'd be fine with maintaining for a while.

I didn't post for the last couple of weeks because of the super busy holidays. We had the regular stuff everyone does, plus four choirs between us to do rehearsals and concerts and stuff. It was great!! Then it was kind of a letdown because they all took a break. We needed the break, but I still missed it. It's all starting back up again this week and I'm looking forward to it. I'm going to be singing in three groups this spring. The music looks like it will be challenging and fun.

Last, a recipe, sort of, to start the new year with. It's not a recipe as much as a technique. I've been experimenting with braising these days because all the cheap cuts of meat need long, slow cooking to be tender. And that's what's been on sale. I'm looking for really simple stuff, so I started experimenting with that pot roast recipe I posted a while back.

I got a large pork shoulder roast on sale a couple of weeks ago. I had them cut it into two smaller roasts. I decided to try to do one like Pork Carnitas and the other like BBQ Pulled Pork. So, I kept the idea of putting the roast on a bed of sliced onion and cooking it at 400º F. I added one large can of enchilada sauce for the Carnitas and two regular-sized bottles of BBQ sauce for the Pulled Pork. Next time, I think I need to double the amount of enchilada sauce so there will be enough to spoon on the filled tortillas.

I cooked them on two different days using the same technique. I put them in for an hour. Then I turned the roast and spooned sauce over the top. I cooked them for another hour, turned and spooned sauce over. I stirred the sauce in the pan, too, so it wouldn't be as likely to burn. The last couple of hours, I did the turning, spooning, and stirring every half hour. Because I wanted shredded meat, I cooked them for a full four hours. If I'd wanted to slice it, I'd have only cooked them for 2-1/2 to 3 hours.

To serve them, I used two forks to shred the meat. I put beans and cooked rice in the enchilada-flavored pork, but next time, I'm serving the rice separately. I thought the rice flavor covered up the pork flavor too much. I served the enchilada filling in whole wheat tortillas. I made sandwiches out of the BBQ Pulled Pork, using ciabatta rolls, rather than softer hoagy rolls. The BBQ sauce really soaks into the bread, so you need a hard roll or it will get soggy and hard to eat.

Both were excellent and better left over, as long-cooked dishes often are. Both of these are wonderful winter dishes. The oven keeps the kitchen toasty warm while you cook dinner. Mangia!!

News!

Ok, so Paul didn't get the job I mentioned in the last post. He got the one he interviewed for last week. Good job for him as it's his favorite type of work. It starts after the holidays. It's not a temp job, so all's good here. It's the best Christmas gift we can imagine. Maybe next year we'll manage to be celebrating in our own place. That's our next goal.

We've been super busy, since between the two of us, we're in four different choirs. Last week and this week are the two busiest for us. We've had rehearsals or concerts almost every night, and a few in the daytime, too. It's fun. For us, doing music kind of makes the holiday season extra special. So, it's been a good year for that.

We're still walking. I have no idea how much I weigh because I don't have access to a reliable scale, right now. But the jeans I bought are four sizes smaller than the ones I used to wear. I'm up to three miles in an hour, five days a week. The only thing I'm doing, really, is trying to walk at a challenging pace, which means gradually speeding up. My next goal is to add another lap without adding more time. There are people who walk a lot faster than I do, so I know it's an achievable goal.

I've decided to try a different approach to getting the writing done, once we're finished with super concert season. I'm going to reward myself for working on 50 Ways by playing with an "indulgence". It's something I want to write just for fun. I have some things I want to try, but they don't fit into 50 Ways, my current WIP. It will be a way to stretch my writing ability without waiting for a project that needs those types of scenes. We'll see how it goes, but it's going to be a bit before I can start because right now my life is so busy. The other thing I want to do is to post more regularly and let anyone who might still be reading this know how it's going.

I Hate Figuring out Titles for my Posts

I'm considering numbering them. lol I want to try to post more frequently, now that I'm getting out of the funk I was in for the first part of the year. We'll see how that goes.

Writing, Writing, Writing--

I figured out why I wasn't writing. I needed to do what my friends Sheila (PBW)and Holly did a while back. A lot of the blogs I read, whether by aspiring or published writers, are very focused on the publishing industry and how hard it is to get published. How hard it is to write to that standard. How hard it is to whatever. It's a very negative and discouraging message, especially with my current financial situation. It became too easy to think about needing money and how hard it is to earn it by writing. I needed to step back and evaluate my thinking, so I stopped reading blogs and stuff for a while.

If I'm tinking about needing money, I start to feel guilty about writing. I feel like I'm wasting time I should be spending figuring out how to bring money into the house--now. The picture painted of the publishing industry by people who write about it makes it seem like it's hard to focus on what you want to do--write--once you start to sell. Because there's the sales numbers and building "buzz" and working to create a career. But you can't build a career on one book. You have to keep writing more. And it seems like a lot of published writers are crazily being obsessive almost to the point of not having a life outside of their writing and career. I don't want to live that way. I like doing a lot of other things and I'm not willing to give everything up to be a writer. (Or to be any one other thing, either. But that's a subject for a different post.)

Another aspect of it is that worrying about whether the WIP might or might not be publishable or sell stops my creativity cold. I start judging the work almost before it's on the page. The best way for me to do my best work is to just write it. Put aside all thoughts of publication, money, sales, career, etc. I don't know how that will work when I finally do sell something, but the time to worry about that is later. After it happens.

These thoughts led me to is back to the WIP. I need to focus on the current project. I need to focus on writing the book that's in my head, getting that story on the page. That's it. To do that, I've decided to limit my blog reading and other internet stuff, so it doesn't overwhelm me. And not read blogs or do internet stuff until after the day's writing is done. So, if I don't post often to your blog, don't think it's because I don't read it anymore. I just don't read as often. I have to take the same attitude Sheila once posted about: Protect the work.

Other Stuff

Everything else is pretty much going along the same as it has been. We've learned that David and his team will find out at the con whether they came in first, second, or third. That's in LA the first weekend in November. So, I wish them the best and hope they come in first. :)

I'm B-a-a-a-a-ck

Blogger tech support has been very helpful and I can now post on my blog again. YAY!!

Woo Hoo!! David and Chris and Ann and Michelle and Andrew won a finalist's spot in the D&D contest. I don't know if they won first, second, or third, but two of them are going to LA for the convention to show off their video and have a great time with other role players. Congratulations to all of you. You done good!!

I'm walking 10 laps on the track, for 2.5 miles. On the trail, I'm doing one loop, which is about 2.25 miles, but it's a slight upgrade, with two small hills to get up to the bridge across the creek. So, it's a bit shorter, but as much of a workout. I decided to add some distance because I'm at about the top speed I can go at my current weight without getting strain on my knees. Current weight loss: 31 pounds

I looked over the manuscript of my novel. And I'm working on finishing up the first three chapters. Then I'm sending them out for critique and moving on to the next section. I have a good friend who offered to give me a daily nudge to help me stay focused. So far, she's been wonderful and patient with my start/stop efforts. I'll get back to the daily discipline, one little step at a time.

I'm enjoying my two choirs. We're gearing up for Christmas and I have a nice variety of music to sing this season. Paul is singing in church choir and he's found a couple of other groups to sing with, too. He's enjoying the variety of music, too.

And Paul has another job nibble. We'll see if this one works out. If we can get some money coming in, life will be extra blessed, instead of ordinary blessed. :)

Stuff

Stuff is one of my favorite words and I don't know why. It just is.

David's movie: Voting is open until September 30. Just click on the link in the previous post and rate it to vote. You can vote as much as you like. The deal with awarding the prizes is that the official judges at Wizards of the Coast will be choosing the top three from the ten with the most votes. So, the goal here is to keep his video within the top ten, but as high as possible so more people will see it. Thanks for your support.

I've lost 20 pounds and had to replace the boring stuff in a person's wardrobe. I also need new jeans. I used to have 4 pair, but I cannot wear 2 because they're just too big. And my belt is too big, too. I hate wearing a belt when they're this much too big, anyway. It's really uncomfortable. I'm still walking 2 miles, but I'm walking faster. I haven't decided whether I want to increase my distance next week or work on continuing to increase my speed.

Life is pretty much the same, other than that. I've been studying up on writing techniques, which is a good thing. I keep getting more ideas, but they go into the idea file. I learned a long time ago that new ideas need to simmer before you can write them.

David's Movie

My oldest son, David, and some other people, who he names in the email so I won't repeat it here, made a movie. It's a 5 minute video for a contest sponsored by Wizards of the Coast. He wants anyone who's interested to take a look and rate it a 10 so it stays near the top of the list. He's hoping that keeping it near the top will increase its chances of being watched and voted on. Anyway, he gave me permission to post his email with details and a link, so here it is:

Hi All,

My friends and family (Michelle Alvarez, Andrew Haws, and Ann and Chris Sprinkle) and I have made a movie for a contest. The contest is through Wizards of the Coast, the current owners (and manufacturers) of the Dungeons and Dragons game. The movie is intended to have to do with the game. I would appreciate your comments about the movie. It would help a lot if you would watch our movie [and give it a rating of 10 (out of 10)]. Even more important, however, is that we need your votes on the 15th of September, when the the real voting begins. Voting by the public is meant to narrow the entries down to the 10 most popular, from which Wizards of the Coast will choose the three winners.

Here is a link to our video*:

http://www.gamevideos.com/video/id/5534

Although it will ask you to verify that you are at least 18 years of age, I can assure you that there is nothing more adult than the average PG movie.

I will send out another e-mail, on September 15th, to remind you to vote for our film. If you would prefer I left you alone, let me know.

-David

*Note: When I put in the code to make a live link, it didn't show up on the screen, so you'll have to copy/paste it into your browser. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Thanks for your support, anyone who happens by and reads this. :)

Summer's Almost Over

Summer's almost over and fall stuff is starting again. I think September is more the new year than January. Community and church activities all seem to start their seasons in the fall. There are lots of ads for season tickets to the theater and music scene showing up now. I feel like I should be gearing up for doing something new and different. I don't feel that way in January. In January, I feel like I should be succeeding with the old stuff I always fail at, the old New Year's Resolutions thing. Maybe that's why I prefer fall new year to January new year--new and different are more appealing than trotting out the same old resolutions one more time. That's why I stopped making resolutions in January at least a decade ago. It seemed pointless to keep promising myself to do things I never actually do.

Ladyesong started up on Monday. We have some cool stuff for Christmas this year. And, as usual, the stuff I've sung before was different arrangements, so I have to keep them straight in my head. When the music is memorized, it's easy to goof up and start singing the old arrangement automatically.

Church choir starts in a couple of weeks. I'm looking forward to seeing what Barbara has in store for us this year. We do some really cool music.

I've lost 19 pounds, as of the last time I got on the scale. This is the weirdest weight loss experience I've ever had. It's the only time I've not followed a specific food plan in my whole life. I've been walking and eating the same stuff, but less because I'm not that hungry. I'm not losing it in the same pattern I'm used to. What I'm used to seeing is that I lose it in my face, feet, hands--basically the extremities first. Then, eventually the middle catches up. But this time, I've been losing it pretty much all over, pretty evenly. I measured myself for bras and I'm down a size. I've lost 50 pounds in the past without that clothing size changing. It's a good thing, in my opinion, that it's working that way. I also think I'm repeating myself, but it kind of amazes me because it's so unexpected. So I keep thinking about it and POP, out it comes when I start typing.

Nothing new with Paul's job hunt. I find between 2 and 4 jobs to send to each week. It's frustrating how often the same jobs show up. After six months or so, we resend his resume to those same companies, which keeps him in the system.

Yet Another Update

I can't believe I haven't posted since the end of July and it's halfway through August!! We haven't heard anything about the job. It's still posted on the web site, so we don't know whether to assume they didn't make a decision yet or just haven't taken it down. Oh, well, back to the waiting game.

Paul's birthday's in the first part of Auguest. We went to Red Robin for dinner. I like Red Robin because the food is fresh. They have a lot of fried stuff, including the best fries and onion rings. But they also have a lot of grilled stuff and salads. You can eat really healthy food, or not. And it's always fun to get my family together because they're a bit nutty and always have good jokes and stuff to tell.

Ladyesong starts up again next week. I've missed it and am looking forward to singing again. I'm sure church choir will be gearing up for fall, soon, too. Next week is the last of the summer choir sessions.

I've been writing in my journal a lot lately. I've been thinking a lot about why I'm not writing like I used to and part of it, at least, is just that I'm out of the habit. There are other factors, too, but I think we often look for complicated explanations for things that are pretty simple. I've been reading Twyla Tharp's book on creativity and she talks a lot about routines. It's interesting and I'll probably have more to say about it after I'm done reading it and start doing some of the exercises.

On the exercise front, I'm still walking 2 miles a day, 5 days a week. Paul says I'm walking faster, which is cool. According to David's scale, I've lost 15 pounds. According to my jeans, I'm losing inches in the middle, where you need to lose them for optimum health.

Update & Something Amusing

Update: It turns out Paul's job interview is on Monday morning. I'll keep you posted about how it turns out.

Something Amusing:

This came to me via Bob's blog:

Your Bumper Sticker Should Be

Even if the voices aren't real - they've got some great ideas

What Bumper Sticker Should Be On Your Car?

Perfect for a fiction writer, right?

Good stuff going on

First, I hopped on David's scale on Thursday and discovered I've lost 12 pounds. It's pretty cool, even though weight loss wasn't my goal. Two pair of jeans are nearly falling off, so I'm losing some in that all-important middle where they worry about the fat causing heart disease.

Second, Paul's passed the phone interview and is going to be interviewed in person next week, probably Tuesday, for a good job with a good company. This is a real job, not a temp/contract job. With benefits. Any good vibes, prayers, finger crossing, whatever you do to wish others well will be appreciated. Paul's birthday is a week from Tuesday. Wouldn't a good job be a great birthday gift?

I've been gone a lot this week.

It seems like I'm hardly ever home these days. My oldest son has been walking with us once or twice a week. Then he always seems to have an errand or two to run. It's no big deal for us to take him, so we do.

We're finally in the cooling off stage of that heat wave. We spent a part of one of the hottest days at the movies. We went to see Pirates of the Carribbean--Dead Man's Chest. I loved it. I'd already been forewarned that it doesn't wrap up the story in a nice, neat package. We have to wait until next summer for the end, which is fine with me. That's no different from the last two Back to the Future films.

Next week, Woody Allen's new film Scoop is coming out. I think we're going to go see it. We saw previews when we went to see The Devil Wears Prada and it looks good. A bonus for us fans of Anthony Stewart Head of Buffy fame--according to his official web site, he has a cameo in it.

Other than that, things have been pretty quiet around here. Nothing happening with the job hunt. The paper says there's been an increase in hiring, but it's mostly in the hospitality industry, not the tech industry. Paul's put in applications in at places like restaurants and retail, but they won't even interview him. I suspect it's because nothing he's done uses a similar skill set to transfer over to that kind of business. So, we're still looking at whatever's out there in engineering technician work. And trying to keep a positive attitude.

This is Fun!

It's summer! It's the middle of a heat wave. I don't feel like being all serious and "writerly" today. Besides, it's my youngest son's birthday. Happy Birthday, Chris! So, it's a fun stuff day.

From Evil Editor: Want to know what your blog or web site would sound like if it were written in jive? Go Gizoogle it. Warning: the language is a bit rough, so if that bothers you, don't go there. (So, now I've done it. All of you know my little secret. I'm really not a prude. (grin) I think writers cannot afford to flinch at any words. You never know which ones you'll need to tell a story. But that's just my opinion.)

As for Evil Editor's blog--go there. It's funny and informative. He skewers and revises one of the things all writers dread having to write--the query letter. I've learned a lot about how to write one and you will, too.

Another fun thing from my friend Andi's blog:

You Are Kermit

Hi, ho! Lovable and friendly, you get along well with everyone you know. You're a big thinker, and sometimes you over think life's problems. Don't worry - everyone know's it's not easy being green. Just remember, time's fun when you're having flies!

The Muppet Personality Test

I love Kermit and I agree--it's not easy being green! :)

I don't usually post on Saturday, but...

I haven't been home to write posts the past two days, so I thought I'd better write something, just so you know I haven't disappeared again.

My husband and I have discovered Sudoku. It's actually quite fun and it does make you work your brain. Keeping our brains healthy is as important to us as keeping our bodies healthy.

We've still been walking. If I lose another inch or two in my tummy, hips, or butt, I'll be able to pull off the jeans I'm wearing without undoing them. I think I need to buy a smaller pair of jeans. I don't get it. I've spent decades of my life exercising and following Weight Watchers and doing what you're supposed to do when you want to lose weight. I struggled so much, ending up following the usual pattern of losing weight and regaining it, although I never have gone back to my highest weight. I don't know if this weight loss will continue or how much I'll ultimately lose, but it's pretty cool that it's happening mostly in my middle, which is where you need to lose it if you're going to have good heart health.

I had a couple of writing topics I wanted to post about, but I can't remember what they were. When I do, I'll write and post them. It's so annoying to have that happen. I wasn't at home to stick the ideas in my file, so out of my head they went. Rumor has it that when you're finally through menopause, you stop having so many memory glitches. I certainly hope so.

Fun Stuff

Everyone is deserting us tonight. Chris has a D&D game. Mom's taking David out to dinner for his birthday. So, we decided to go to Red Robin instead of eating leftovers. We'll have the leftovers for lunch.

I looked at my list and discovered I have a lot of fun quizzes I haven't posted on here. I'm going to post a couple and save the rest for later.

Quiz #1:
Animal quiz: found on Stuart MacBride's blog

Your Animal Personality

Your Power Animal: Eagle Animal You Were in a Past Life: Whale You are active, a challenger, and optimistic. Hard-working, you are always working towards a set goal.

The Animal Personality Test

That's pretty true, even if I do get sidetracked from the goal every so often.

Quiz #2:
From Jean's blog:

Draw a Pig personality test

You drew your pig:

Toward the middle of the frame, you are a realist. True.

Facing left, you believe in tradition, are friendly, and remember dates (birthdays, etc.). My family's tradition is to not do traditions. We don't try to force traditional times to be the same every time we celebrate because sometimes it just doesn't work. I am friendly. I used to remember birthdays, etc., but I have trouble remembering what day it is at the moment. Rumor has it that when I'm done with this menopause stuff, my memory will get better again.

With many details, you are analytical, cautious, and distrustful. I'm not distrustful. I tend to be too trusting. But I am analytical and somewhat cautious, depending on the situation.

With 4 legs showing, you are secure, stubborn, and stick to your ideals. These are true.

The size of the ears indicates how good a listener you are. You are a good listener. I try to be, but my original family was full of interrupters. You didn't get heard if you didn't interrupt to make your point. It's a horrible habit I catch myself doing way too often.

The length of the tail indicates the quality of your sex life. You have a great sex life. I'll just say, "You all can figure this one out for yourselves." (grin)

Catching Up

It's been really busy around here. I haven't been home much to post. Sunday Ladyesong sang for the church service. I heard a lot of compliments, which is always appreciated. Then I conked out and slept for an hour or so. It's been hot and we've had the windows open. It's a noisy neighborhood so I don't sleep that well at night. Thus, I conk out in the afternoon. I'd rather not, but me and not enough sleep is not a pretty sight.

Sunday night we had a snack and listened to some music by a local singer. She didn't introduce herself while we were there, so I can't give her a plug. Then we went to Mel's recital. It was an interesting program, starting with music from a composer who lived in the 1500s, I think. (I don't have the program, so I'm doing this from memory.) The pieces moved forward in time until the last two, which were by Irving Berlin. The singers sounded great and it was a lot of fun.

After the recital, we still hadn't decided where to go for dinner. We were dithering between one of the restaurants at Santana Row and Max's. It was late enough that we decided on Max's. Max's is down the street from the church and we were hungry. Good dinner, as usual. All in all, we had a really wonderful anniversary.

Then yesterday we took David to run errands and he bought us lunch. The joys of adult children--sometimes they pay for the meal. I had Laydesong rehearsal last night, so I wasn't here to post. I've noticed I've been kind of serious lately, so I think tomorrow I'll look for some fun, silly quizzes to post.

Exercise, Patience, & Writing

First, Tech, who started it, has given me permission to link to The Great Slim Down. Anyone interested in joining the gang in our efforts to lose weight is welcome.

So, how does Thursday's essay relate to writing?

1. Just like you have to think of yourself as a thin person in order to be one, you have to think you're a writer in order to be one.
   
   If you call yourself a teacher or mother or volunteer or whatever, that's how you see yourself. Those roles are where you'll put your focus and energy. And you won't get much writing done because being a writer isn't in your list of who you are. You have to add writer to your list.


2. Just as you have to see your true image in the mirror in order to be successful with weight loss, you have to see yourself the way you are in order to write honestly.
   
   If you're hiding from the dark parts of your soul or hiding them from your readers, your writing will be "fluffy bunny". Nice doesn't catch people's attention. But dark does. Dark is where the conflict comes from. It's where your themes come from. I tried writing nice and I was bored. Good thing I didn't inflict that on any readers. I had to learn to kiss the monsters, a term my online writing group uses to identify the things you don't want to write about, but are the most powerful things you could write about. That's where honesty as a writer comes from, the hard places.


3. Just as permanent weight loss takes time, so does creating and selling a publishable novel.
   
   People want their novel, their first novel, finished--now. And sold and in the bookstores. More people want to have written a novel, and have it out there being bought and bringing in the bucks, than want to sit down and write the story. But neither writing a novel nor the process of publication is fast. If you need to be rewarded quickly for your work, don't become a novelist. It's a rare person who can write and sell a novel, first time out. Most published writers have more than one sitting in a drawer or on a hard drive somewhere that will never sell. You have to take the time to write the practice novels, where you go from beginner to publishable, plus the time to acquire an agent, plus the time it takes the agent to sell the book, plus the time it takes for the publisher to get it onto the shelves. Add that all up and you have a long, slow process. Weight loss seems easier and faster. (grin)
   


4. Just as you have to "use it or lose it" to get and stay in shape, a writer needs to write regularly or you "lose" it by becoming blocked.
   
   If you don't write, you "forget" how. Now you don't really forget. Like riding a bike, when you get back on, you remember. But you get full of doubts about your ability to write again. You say, "I'll do it tomorrow." And tomorrow is just as full of procrastination or other things that keep you from writing as today was. You have to write regularly, if you want to be a writer. It's kind of the definition of writer. Writers write.