Just blogging

This would be the way I would choose to start my day.  Lucky dog!  As it is, I usually have about an hour of quiet before the CO Boy gets up and begins talking.  You see, once he starts talking for the day, it never ends-:).  I drink my coffee check emails and make a mental list of tasks I need to take care of for the day.  Gershwin and Mercer snuggle on the couch with me and grab a few more winks while all this goes on.

Been missing the ocean lately so this pic seemed perfect.  I wasn't one to take a swim, but I miss the smell and the general sound of it. 

You know how I resisted Facebook for years?  Well, you should always follow your gut instinct. 

I like to blog.

I like the blogging format better than the quick posting of FB. As I mentioned in one of my first FB posts, I finally acquiesced and got a FB page because I wanted to get on Pinterest.  And then I was happy to connect with some of my old friends so that worked out.  But I just am not fired up about using it for anything else, really. 

So you will see me blog and I'll post the blog link on FB with a very very occasional fly-by FB post.  I don't think you'll mind-:). 

I do have to wonder if I'm getting to that point where one just decides they no longer want to advance with technology.  You know how someone always has the aunt or grandmother who just won't work a cellphone, or the internet and then everyone gets irritated with her?  Well, I completely understand.  These poor folks have followed technology up to a point and have now said, "Nope.  Not doing it.", to anything else.

I'm there.



Lament of the demise of the handwritten letter

Elegy for the Personal Letter

by Allison Joseph

I miss the rumpled corners of correspondence,
the ink blots and crossouts that show
someone lives on the other end, a person
whose hands make errors, leave traces.
I miss fine stationary, its raised elegant
lettering prominent on creamy shades of ivory
or pearl grey. I even miss hasty notes
dashed off on notebook paper, edges
ragged as their scribbled messages—
can't much write now—thinking of you.
When letters come now, they are formatted
by some distant computer, addressed
to Occupant or To the family living at—
meager greetings at best,
salutations made by committee.
Among the glossy catalogs
and one time only offers
the bills and invoices,
letters arrive so rarely now that I drop
all other mail to the floor when
an envelope arrives and the handwriting
is actual handwriting, the return address
somewhere I can locate on any map.
So seldom is it that letters come
That I stop everything else
to identify the scrawl that has come this far—
the twist and the whirl of the letters,
the loops of the numerals. I open
those envelopes first, forgetting
the claim of any other mail,
hoping for news I could not read
in any other way but this.

"Elegy for the Personal Letter" by Allison Joseph, from My Father's Kites. © Steel Toe Books, 2010.

I just started a Meetup Group called the Denver Letter Writers.  The purpose is to share in the act of letter writing.  I love paper, sealing wax, words, stamps, you name it.  And I plan to keep the post office in business all by myself.  We are actually doing a little Salon Tea at DTR in July where we'll kick off this Meetup Group.  I'm so excited - I have 6 other folks like me who want to attend!!

The poem above was shared with by one of the Meetup members.  I just love how you can "see" it.

Let's Reflect..

I am out of sorts and have been for awhile.  Bit of a funk.  Lots going on with home, family, work, etc.  Long story short - I need to change some things.  I want to be happy and I have lots to be happy about.  Lord knows, others have a much larger plate of challenges, so I should just make it all right.  Some times, it can be difficult to do that.

I'm worn down with the needs of others.  I love those I serve.  But I'm sort of over it at the moment.  I'd like to be served, or at the very least, left alone.  Now that won't happen for a long time, I imagine, so I need to figure out how to get what I want out of my life, all the while taking care of others.  This post must make me sound like a mean ol' bat, but I normally don't whine about it, so I'll just do so for now.  Just this time.  Just this post.

I want. 

I keep starting my sentences with, "I want," and I'm sure someone somewhere will tell me it's a sin of some kind-:), and it probably isn't a good way to live anyway.  But I do want.

(It would be nice to be sedated-:))

I want some peace.  I am the biggest worrier on the planet and if I had a gazillion dollars, I'd still worry that I wouldn't be able to afford things.  Guess that comes from growing up poor and sitting at the kitchen table with my mom, counting her tips from waitressing.  Always a measure of anxiety over money.  I want it to go away.

(Snoopy's real, I keep tellin' ya.)

I want time to create.  I feel guilty when I try to create anymore.  Someone or something always needs to be taken care of so in my mind, that is the priority, not my writing or my drawing.

(NOT my closet, but oh how I wish...)

I want order.  My life is totally messy right now.  My house, my car, the list can go on.  As I've heard it said, if one part of your world is out of order, chances are, other parts are a mess too.  That'd be me.

Beautiful - must draw him one day.

I want to be around horses again.  You'd think I would, with the RD and CO Boy always riding.  But I'm usually at work when they do that.  Besides, I'm already spending a minor fortune on the CO Boy's riding.  I don't need to ride all the time.  I just want to be around the animals.

(Never looked like this, but at least I knew where my waist was)

I want to not be fat.  This spare tire disgusts me to no end.  It is the single biggest reminder of how I have let myself down.  And it saddens me that there are some folks in my life who feel satisfaction over seeing it.  (Sidenote:  I was cheering for Maria Menounos on DWTS - bummed she was kicked off.  Also, I miss dancing, but that's another post!)

All of these wants can be fulfilled.  But I am at a point where inertia has just taken over.  Rather overwhelming, but there you have it.

Okay.  I'm finished.  I will figure it out.

Thanks for listening.

Do I Look Crazed???

I sure feel crazed.  Been a busy couple of months.

Summer has just breezed by and I want about three more months of it.  We've had a good time the past couple of months but it's been chock full of stuff.  The CO Boy begins 3rd grade on August 10th!

I need to post photos of my living room floor!  (sorry for the nonexistent transition there). I simply adore it.  When the RD comes back from his gig, I'll steal the camera and take a few shots.  So once I got the floor finished I moved on to getting the remaining carpet clean and it really makes such a difference.  Of course Ella, Gershwin and Mercer will soon take care of my clean carpets.  If they weren't so darn cute, I'd make throw rugs out of them-:).

My nerd group meetings with the niece and nephew have been sporadic this summer, but the last one was extremely helpful.  The niece read the manuscript that has been waiting for finishing touches, and she was able to offer some substantial suggestions.  I'm actually eager to write again.  I've tried focusing on one manuscript at a time - finish it and then move on.  But my brain doesn't work that way.  I'm a butterfly, not a panther.  So I work on MS for a bit and then my attention is captured by another.

I've had precious little time to write these days but I can never go too far from it.  It's like a rock in your shoe.  Just bugs you until you take it out. 

I'm halfway through cleaning out the Lego room, people!  It could happen!  But perhaps not tonight.  The CO Boy has gone up to Vail to visit the RD's cousin so we have a weekend without him.  The RD and I have a hot date tomorrow night, but tonight, he's at a gig and I'm going to crawl in bed with my pups and read.  Yesterday's bootcamp kicked my butt, or rather my legs.  Waaaay too many squats. But remember, bounding is the objective here...I shall be a bounder one day instead of collapsing on the grass.

Revamping the Lego Room

Do you like this room?

from Houzz

We have three bedrooms in our home.  The third one is supposed to be my office, but it has been taken over by any number of items a family member wants to make dissappear but perhaps not throw away.  As a result, I can barely walk through this room without tripping.  The CO Boy has dumped a bunch of Legos in the room along with a Hot Wheels race track.  He goes into the room to play with them and now he refers to the room as the Lego Room.  sigh....

I'm working up the courage and fortitude to clean out this room and reclaim it for my office/writing/art space. You know how they talk about Man Caves for guys?  Well this will be my Girl Cubby, as I could never be happy in a cave, but I could be happy in a small space of my own such as "the cupboard underneath the stairs" ala Harry Potter.  I don't need a lot of room.  In fact I LIKE small spaces and always have. 

So now I'm looking at images to inspire my Girl Cubby.  It needs to be cozy for certain.  I like to write on my laptop on the bed with pillows behind me or on the couch with pillows.  So a bed or daybed is a must.  No writing desk but need a place to put computer things such as printer, scanner, etc.

The room has a beautiful big window and faces South so you get lots of sun.  A good thing for me.  Still undecided about color.  Pink?   French Blue?  What?

So look at these photos and tell me what you think?  What makes a room feel cozy and make you not want to leave it?

Again with Room #1 - There are many things I like about this room.  Bookshelves, pillows, even the wallpaper.

Room 2 - I like the day bed and the vibrant color.  Wavering on the color though.  Not quite warm enough.

image from Houzz


Room 3 - The color obviously makes me happy.  Again with the bed.  Is this too orderly for my creative, messy mind?

image from Houzz

Room 4 - Again with the color.  This has more of an office feel to it.  I like the giant bulletin board which is framed and I like how the work area is facing the window.  But not very cozy, huh?  Efficient, but not so cozy.

image from Houzz

Room 5 - This is Kim's office from Daisy Cottage.  She loves red and yellow and black.  It's inviting.

image from Houzz

So what do you think?  Which one do you like and why?  What makes a room cozy, but not so cozy that you fall asleep and don't do any work (a problem that could definitely arise!)

Off to work at the tea room now...

PS:  It was 80 degrees yesterday and we are expecting snow this afternoon. Sigh...again.

Book Love

I devoured this book.  I absolutely adored it. 

Gothic themes are probably my favorite themes in books.  When they are handled well, as in Kate Morton's book, it makes me ache to be a better writer. Family inheritances of secrets and how the past impacts the present.  Minds that crack under the weight of these secrets.  I love it!

I can't begin to summarize the book.  I tried to do so for the Roping Dummy (aka husband), but I couldn't communicate the language of the book and do it justice.  Although he seemed to get the idea as he went to bed last night and had dreams about his own current reading.

Note:  I posted photos of the North American cover and the UK cover.  Which do you like?  I think I like the UK cover best, especially after reading the book.