Just a quick note to say I’m finally off to see Queen and Adam Lambert in Toronto today. Full report tomorrow.
And I reached my Nano Camp goal of 30,000 words! It’s a happy day. 😀
See you tomorrow!
Category Archives: Life
Can a Life be made Beautiful?
There are moments out of my ordinary, often boring life when I see it as something beyond what readily meets the eye.
There are days when I feel as though I was meant for more than just this: my life as a single, stay-at-home mother. That I was born to live a life of luxury seems obvious to me, even as I put on one of my two pairs of jeans and one of my four t-shirts every day. My one pair of shoes that I wear for every occasion is all that adorns my front hall closet, and yet I know this is not “it.”
There are minutes, and sometimes hours when everything I see is in a brighter technicolor. Everything I hear is an infinite song. Every taste blooms as though it is the beginning and end of life.
There are times when the energy of the universe surrounds me and I feel one with everything and everyone.
Is this how life can be made beautiful? Is the existence of a beautiful life all in our imaginations? I believe it is.
My life can be made poetic by the creation of a poem. It can be made inspirational by a scenery or by music. It can be anything I want it to be.
My life is beautiful. I make it so.
On the Buses
The people in my town are polite – I’ve written about how dangerously polite they are in the past. But today, on the city bus, I found out how far it really goes.
Take, for instance, the graffiti:
Here’s something a little edgier: It originally said, “All your base are belong to us,” until a handy grammarian came along and corrected it to, “All your bases belong to us.”
I swear it wasn’t me.
One-Liner Wednesday – Writer’s Block?
“Trying to understand is like straining through muddy water. Have the patience to wait! Be still and allow the mud to settle.”
― Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching _____________________________________________________________________________________
Anyone who would like to try it out, feel free to use the “One-Liner Wednesday” title in your post, and if you do, you can ping back here to help your blog get more exposure. As with Stream of Consciousness Saturday, if you see a ping back from someone else in my comment section, click and have a read. It’s bound to be short and sweet.
The rules that I’ve made for myself for “One-Liner Wednesday” are as follows:
1. Make it one sentence.
2. Make it either funny or inspirational.
Have fun!
Random Update
I spent a fun-filled day playing Scribblenauts Unlimited on the WiiU with Alex, John, and John’s youngest daughter. That’s only slightly sarcastic – I could do without playing the game again, but we did have a few laughs. Alex is generally glad to be back home. He enjoys playing with his half-brother at his dad’s but routine is routine.
On the Camp NaNo front, I was within 1,600 words of completing my goal of 25,000 and there are still ten days left so I upped my goal to 30,000 words. I know I’m not going to be able to stop writing this one until I’m finished but I am forcing myself to take a break occasionally and edit the first one.
However, I’m having a bit of a difficult time with genre issues – or at least theme. The issue is with my new villain. She’s oversexed so of course the topic of sex keeps coming up. Where the first novel has its erotic moments, (and okay, a couple of decent sex scenes) this one is beginning to compete with 50 Shades of Grey, if not with the constant porn then at least the mention of body parts and, let’s say, warmer feelings. I may be able to tone it down but I can’t cut it out and keep my character in character. You can see my dilemma, right? What would you do? Have you ever read a sequel that strayed far away from the tone of the first… and did you like the second one? Or is this just a recipe for failure?
On that note, and in the spirit of randomness, here’s a picture of the sun setting over Boston Pizza.
And I’m Back
Real life starts again in a couple of hours when the kids come back home from their dad’s. For now I think I’ll just share a few pictures I took in Kingston a week ago, before I got sick.
Will catch up with everything and everyone tomorrow. Click for larger images. Enjoy!
I’m Away!
I made it to Kingston again! Remember, that place where I got so sick last week on holiday that I ended up in the hospital? Yep, same place. But a different hotel this time.
I’m sitting now in the same motel where one of my characters fled after finding out some very bad news in my novel. I’m finding out little details about the place. Like, for instance, how the rooms are numbered, what the rooms actually look like and oh yes! That it took ten full minutes for my WP stats page to load on their pathetic free WiFi service. I’m typing this in a document and will try to post it when… oh look, now no internet connection at all. I can’t really complain though. My character didn’t have a lot of money to work with, and you get what you pay for, right?
I did spend some time downtown again tonight. I went to a delightful restaurant (with no food poisoning this time) and sat on the patio with a glass of Pinot Grigio and a grilled seafood salad that was entirely divine. Then I went to for a walk by the lake and took a few pictures.
Strangely enough, I felt lonely. That doesn’t happen to me very often, but tonight, seeing all the couples hand-in-hand and noticing that even the ducks were in pairs, made me feel a little sorry for myself. Most of the time, as I said, I’m happy to be alone. But there are times when I feel sad at the prospect of growing old alone. I wonder if I’m missing something. Scratch that – I know I’m missing something. Just reading my own novel makes me remember what it was like to be young and in love. Ah, the things we throw away without realising the consequences. By the time we’re wise enough to see it, it’s too late.
Anyway, that’s where I am, and that’s what my connectivity is like. I’ll catch up with everything tomorrow when I get back home.
Hopefully I’ll actually get this posted before I get there.
Stream of Consciousness … Errr … Monday – The Best Laid Plans
…and SoCM pretty much sums up my weekend.
It was a lovely Friday evening when I arrived in Kingston. I walked a bit, I managed to get some editing done, and then I went out for a late dinner. I took some pictures of the moon which will follow. It was, so far, the perfect getaway.
Then Saturday morning happened. By the afternoon I was being pumped intravenously with a cocktail of drugs to treat what the hospital thought was likely a migraine. Luckily my dear friend and saviour once again, John, was able to rescue me and bring me home, and then go back for my car on Sunday to tow it back to town.
That’s the news. (I’m okay now.)
It occurred to me however, when I was laying on my apparent death-bed in the hotel, that there are various ways to get away. There are vacations, there are trips we can take using mind-altering substances, there is meditation, there is sleep. Then there are the times we just WANT to get away – like when I’m so sick I say to myself, why can’t I just hurry up and die and get it over with? But fortunately I’m still here.
As I sat on the steps of the hotel, pasty-faced and braless, in a pair of yoga pants and a t-shirt that was three sizes too big, waiting for John to pick me up in the car with nothing but a bundle of tissues in my hand (I was too weak to carry my purse) and adults avoided looking at me with the same intensity as the children stared, I thought to myself, this must be what it’s like to look homeless – only I just spent almost $200 for one night in the same hotel I was sitting on the steps of. I had to rush back in to throw up and the desk clerk didn’t recognize me. (John checked me out.) I thought she wasn’t going to let me use the washroom for a millisecond, but then I saw the look in her eye that said it’s probably better than cleaning up after me.
It goes to show how quickly things can change. Getting away isn’t all it’s cracked up to be when all you want is your own bed, your own toilet, and your own space.
I might try to go back on Wednesday to do the research I wasn’t able to do on the weekend. On the other hand, I may just stay home.
P.S. I’ll catch up with everyone’s SoCS posts ASAP! Thanks to everyone who participated! It looks like it was another great weekend. 😀
This is (kind of) a post for Stream of Consciousness Saturday. https://lindaghill.wordpress.com/2014/07/11/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-july-1214/
One-Liner Wednesday – In the End
“In the end, what we regret most are the chances we never took.”
~Frasier Crane
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Anyone who would like to try it out, feel free to use the “One-Liner Wednesday” title in your post, and if you do, you can ping back here to help your blog get more exposure. As with Stream of Consciousness Saturday, if you see a ping back from someone else in my comment section, click and have a read. It’s bound to be short and sweet.
The rules that I’ve made for myself for “One-Liner Wednesday” are as follows:
1. Make it one sentence.
2. Make it either funny or inspirational.
Have fun!
Just Jot it July – Busyness
On Monday, Alex started camp, and silly me, I thought that meant I’d have time to myself this week.
Monday morning started at 4am, with a very excited camper. Most of my day was lost having a nap.
Tuesday wake-up time was better, but I still had to go to camp to feed him, since it’s not “allowed” at YMCA day camps for the employees to “do anything like giving kids medicine, etc.” …which apparently lumps in feeding my kid because he’s tube fed. … It’s FEEDING! You’re not going to overdose him! After that, I had to go and meet a real estate agent at my mother’s condo. I’m trying to sell it since she’s in a retirement home. The good news? I may be able to get $1,000 more for it now than I bought it for five years ago. (Yes, I own it. Long story.) (And yes, that’s only three zeros.)
Tomorrow, Alex’s brother, Fred, is going to feed him, but I have to go in the morning to bottle my white wine (at this point I’m thinking maybe that should be whine) (unless my dear dear best friend does it for me *bats eyelashes*) and then I’m picking up mom for a trip to the bank and the doctor. Woohoo! Fun times.
THURSDAY, I have 124 papers to deliver in the morning, then take a nice hour long drive to feed Alex because they’re going on a field trip that day, and an hour back home. To the same city I’m going to for my vacation on Friday. Because I needed to drive there twice.
But the bestest news is, I’m on vacation next week!! Four days and three nights in Kingston to do research/get inspired for my novels (I can say novels with a plural now, because I’m almost 8,000 words into the sequel) and then a week at home all by my lonesome. Isn’t that awesome??
Now all I have to do is get through the next couple of days.
P.S. For all you SoCS participants, I’ll be posting the prompt early Friday and scheduling my own Saturday SoCS post but I won’t be online for the weekend. More about that on Friday.
P.P.S. If you’d like to join in Miss Lou’s Just Jot it July, go here to find the rules: http://misslouella.wordpress.com/2014/07/07/just-jot-it-july/
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