Thoughts on Writing

My daughter is taking the TAKS writing test today at school and all the parents wrote little notes of encouragement for them and the teacher hung these on the wall outside their classroom. 

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As usual, I lagged behind the other parents, especially the stay-at-home moms who get to be cute and creative. (No, I'm not hating!) I knew about it on Friday, the 18th and I had that weekend to work on it. I didn't. I forgot. I didn't remember until the teacher reminded me when I took my daughter to Literacy Night at the school on Thursday, the 24th.

On Thursday night when I got home I went blank and I felt pressured to finish it so I didn't do it. I told my daughter I would do it over the weekend for her to take it on Monday. So what happened? Yep, you guessed it. Another weekend went by and I forgot again. On Monday morning I screamed, "ARGH!" as I drove away from the house and I realized that I'd forgotten again. (Yeah, I suck!)

Yesterday I got home from the gym and that was the first thing I sat down to do after dinner. I already knew one quote I wanted to write, but I came across another quote by Anaïs Nin and Miranda really liked the second one more. I also added a note of encouragement from me, her father and her brother. Then cute stickers of a ruler, pencil, pen, crayon and some really cute button type of "cutie" stickers.

So here they are in order with her favorite first. I had room for one more short quote and I liked that one by Joan Didion.

"The role of a writer is not to say what we all can say, but what we are unable to say." "We write to taste life twice, in the moment & in retrospection."  Both by Anaïs Nin and "We tell ourselves stories in order to live." - Joan Didion


She was happy and she carried it off to school today to encourage her along in her writing. And I was happy to finally get it done. :-P
All this talk about writing really got me to thinking about my own writing. Lately I've been going through such a range of emotions that my creativity has been sparked. I have a new idea for a novel. or maybe just a short story, brewing inside my head. I'm itching to get it down on paper. I already started a short outline with the idea. Now to write it! Maybe that will be the next short story that I submit somewhere.
 
In my search for quotes on writing I came across this one. "How vain it is to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live." ~Henry David Thoreau. Beautiful and so true.

Out of the Waiting Place

I finally made it out of the waiting place! I am on my way to my next adventure that will include a role as a training coach for the new sales people.

The Places You'll Go, By Dr Seuss

I must admit that there are a lot of pluses about my new role and it's great to finally talk about it. I will continue working with our Hispanic accounts, ad agencies and the community. In addition to this I will also help train all of the new sales people and I'll help manage the fellows/interns.

I think this is a great time to bust out some of my old graduate books and to review some of the communication in training work that I did. So this is my new day job and it starts tomorrow. I'm excited to get going!

Regarding my night job, I'm still struggling to do it, to work out, and to take care of all my motherly responsibilities. I need to find a strict schedule that I will stick to so that I can get more writing and editing done. That will continue to be my biggest challenge. To have time to do all the things that need to be done.

OK I Lied, I Can't Stay Away

I always say I have to take a break to go do something else and I always come back here like a bad habit. My most recent excuse is... well that I can't stay away and I want to keep promoting this site. In order to promote it in other places,  like other website/blog directories, I really need to update it at least once a week. So here I am.

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I've been thinking about some things lately. I was told by someone close to me that I'm not "ambitious enough."  I know what they meant. What they really meant is that if I really wanted something (ie. publishing a novel) I would be going after it with a lot more gusto and ambition. And it's true. I don't put everything else aside to submit short stories to literary journals, to edit my novel and to promote myself as a writer. Well I haven't promoted myself as a writer mainly because I haven't published anything except for my master's thesis and a recipe. Ha ha!

What I need to do is stop talking and just start doing. Ya! Enough is enough! Just Write It! That's my new motto.

So, what about you? Are you ambitious enough? What do you feel really passionate about? Passionate enough that you show ambition.

I'm in the Waiting Place

"The Waiting Place…for people just waiting.

Waiting for a train to go or a bus to come, or a plane to go or the mail to come, or the rain to go or the phone to ring, or the snow to snow or waiting around for a Yes or No or waiting for their hair to grow. Everyone is just waiting.

Waiting for the fish to bite or waiting for wind to fly a kite or waiting around for Friday night or waiting, perhaps, for their Uncle Jake or a pot to boil, or a Better Break or a string of pearls, or a pair of pants or a wig with curls, or Another Chance. Everyone is just waiting." - Dr. Seuss

No, that's not for me, but somehow that's where I find myself. Wanting so much and not having enough.

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So here I am waiting for something I really want and worried that I won't get it. And the worst part about it is that I can't really talk about it until it actually happens because it's work related. If it doesn't happen then I have to continue working on getting what I want.

On a good note I started running again today and I am running again tomorrow. I have to get back in the saddle and it's been a month and a week since my surgery so I should be okay now. I did really well today so I'm pretty optimistic. It was a good start back.

On another note, but maybe not a good one, I turn 41 on Friday. It's time to revise my goals. One thing I haven't worked on is my novel. I just finished reading my first novel on my Kindle and I loved it. I'm ready to get my book edited so I can publish it electronically. That is my goal this week, to edit, edit, edit.

That said, when I start editing I may not blog as much on here. I'll probably only blog over on skirt! for a while since I am going to be swamped. We shall see.

With that I leave you with part of one of my favorite Nike quotes.

"Too often we are scared. Scared of what we might not be able to do. Scared of what people might think if we tried. We let our fears stand in the way of our hopes....You have nothing to lose and everything everything everything to gain. JUST DO IT."- Barry Sanders

Clothes Makes Me Feel Better

The Jacket by Cabi

The Sweater by Cabi

The skirt by Target

THE SHOE by Ann Roth

OK, this post is all about the clothes and the shoes. Now picture this sweater closed, under that jacket, with that skirt and those shoes. Lovely! At least I think so. I love neutral colors. I also love that I can mix and match the jacket and the sweater with different things, like jeans.

Lately I have fallen in love with two brands. Cabi for clothes and Ann Roth for shoes. I would look lovingly at the Ann Roth shoes on her website, but I just could not afford them. That is, until she had a sample sale. I was so excited to buy this shoe, that I had admired so many times, at a third of the regular price. It's the perfect height for a heel and it's just right for work.

I also love the Cabi clothes and I've bought them at the right time too, so I've gotten good deals. I am just in love with that fashion line and can't say enough about it- the design, the quality, the cut, etc..And we can't forget about the bags. I have the perfect bag to bring it all together.

I can't wait to put all these pieces together and to wear this outfit. I don't think it's superficial to say that I love clothes and shoes. Ever since I lost weight I threw away a lot of clothes and I had to buy smaller clothes. Of course now I've gained some weight and I have to work to get back into them and some of that clothes is Cabi. They give me the incentive to lose weight!

The reason I say I don't think it's superficial to love clothes is because it's important to care about how I look and what I wear. I think that's very healthy. I have found in my life experience that when women stop caring about how they look they also stop caring about themselves. And it's not even all about weight. I've been overweight most of my adult life, but I have always paid attention to my makeup, hair and clothes. I have seen people that forget about that part about their self and it shows in other areas of their life. I don’t want to be that person so I will continue to love my clothes and my shoes!