Life in progress

Category Archives: Life


by 14 Comments

#SoCS – Reservations

Used to be that I’d have hotel reservations all the time. For a while, my ex was taking over my house when he looked after the kids and I’d go to a hotel for the weekend. Which was lovely for me, but not so lovely on my wallet.  Since I kinda ran out of money (who knew that was coming?), I’m lucky to have reservations to see a movie. That’s what I wanted to talk about though. Movie tickets. Or tickets to anything for that matter.

And the weirdness that is the English language.

Why do we have reservations for a restaurant but we don’t call them reservations to a movie or an event? Because that’s really what a ticket does. It reserves a spot in the place you’re going.

Therefore, I want tickets to a restaurant and a reservation for a movie. So there.

The next thing I have reservations for is a Glorious Sons concert at the end of July.  On June 26th, the Sons–a Kingston, Ontario band–are opening for the Rolling Stones in France. That’s a HUGE DEAL! I predict that for Kingston bands, they’re going to be the next Tragically Hip.

And I have no reservations about saying that.

The last time I had a ticket to stay at a hotel was in October 2016. I’m seriously due for a vacation. With a reservation for a seat on a plane, preferably.

This somewhat rambling post is brought to you by Stream of Consciousness Saturday. Click the following link to check out all the other posts (which you can find in the comments) and join in! It’s fun! https://lindaghill.com/2018/06/15/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-june-16-18/


by 44 Comments

One-Liner Wednesday – We speak the same language. I think.

Conversation between my best friend and I:

John: Hey, have I told you what happened since the last time I talked to you?

Me: No … I haven’t talked to you since the last time I talked to you …

If you would like to participate in this prompt, 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. To execute a pingback, just copy the URL in the address bar on this post, and paste it somewhere in the body of your post. Your link will show up in the comments below. Please ensure that the One-Liner Wednesday you’re pinging back to is this week’s! Otherwise, no one will likely see it but me.

NOTE: Pingbacks only work from WordPress sites. If you’re self-hosted or are participating from another host, like Blogger, please leave a link to your post in the comments below.

As with Stream of Consciousness Saturday (SoCS), if you see a pingback from someone else in my comment section, click and have a read. It’s bound to be short and sweet.

Unlike SoCS, this is not a prompt so there’s no need to stick to the same “theme.”

The rules that I’ve made for myself (but don’t always follow) for “One-Liner Wednesday” are:

1. Make it one sentence.

2. Try to make it either funny or inspirational.

3. Use our unique tag #1linerWeds.

4. Add our lovely new badge to your post for extra exposure!

5. Have fun!

#1linerWeds badge by Cheryl, at dreamingreality646941880.wordpress.com/


by 25 Comments

#SoCS – Posts

Posts, of the blogging kind, can be very difficult to come up with. What do you talk about that hasn’t already been talked about? It’s really why I came up with this prompt (SoCS) in the first place. Because I wanted to be able to write … whatever. And the best way I’ve found to do that is to write by the seat of my pants, whatever comes to mind.

But there are times when I have just way too much going on in my head. I need to be relaxed when I write, not have a storm of accumulating cotton balls floating around between my ears. That’s really what it feels like. They accumulate and then they clog the path to output until I’m ready to explode. Yet nothing that comes out makes any sense. Can you tell I’m kinda there already? Haha.

Distractions don’t help either.

Nor do the little gems I want to publish that I want even more to save for something like One-Liner Wednesday (I have two lined up already), or to keep for a post when I have time to sit down and really do a good job on it. As opposed to what I’m doing here.

Hey! They put tartar sauce on my Filet-O-Fish tonight!

See what I mean?

I think it’s a matter of practice, too. (Not putting tartar sauce on a sandwich–I’m back to talking about posts again. Keep up! Hahahaha. Yeah, good luck with that.) When I post a lot, say during a prompt month like January (Just Jot It) and April (A-Z), I have no problems coming up with something to write. Blogging depends on momentum. Or at least the ease of it does. In my experience at least.

How about you?

This post about posts is brought to you by Stream of Consciousness Saturday. Click the link to find all the other posts, and join in yourself! It’s fun! https://lindaghill.com/2018/06/08/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-june-9-18/


by 36 Comments

One-Liner Wednesday – Bird Dog

For some reason, Winston likes to sit on my shoulder. You can’t see it here, but his front paws are up there too.

I think he thinks he’s a budgie.

If you would like to participate in this prompt, 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. To execute a pingback, just copy the URL in the address bar on this post, and paste it somewhere in the body of your post. Your link will show up in the comments below. Please ensure that the One-Liner Wednesday you’re pinging back to is this week’s! Otherwise, no one will likely see it but me.

NOTE: Pingbacks only work from WordPress sites. If you’re self-hosted or are participating from another host, like Blogger, please leave a link to your post in the comments below.

As with Stream of Consciousness Saturday (SoCS), if you see a pingback from someone else in my comment section, click and have a read. It’s bound to be short and sweet.

Unlike SoCS, this is not a prompt so there’s no need to stick to the same “theme.”

The rules that I’ve made for myself (but don’t always follow) for “One-Liner Wednesday” are:

1. Make it one sentence.

2. Try to make it either funny or inspirational.

3. Use our unique tag #1linerWeds.

4. Add our lovely new badge to your post for extra exposure!

5. Have fun!

#1linerWeds badge by Cheryl, at dreamingreality646941880.wordpress.com/


by 32 Comments

Random, oh Random

Drinking a glass of wine tonight. Something I don’t do often anymore.

Thinking about shutting off the laptop. Something I never do before it’s time to go to bed.

But it’s been so long since I last listened to music and read a book.

With a glass of wine.

They forgot to put tartar sauce on my Filet-O-Fish yesterday. It’s still pissing me off.

Enya. I think I’ll listen to Enya.

No more editing today: I’ve been doing it non-stop all weekend. Between Candy Crush.

I hate Candy Crush.

If you say, “Well then, just stop playing it!” you’re showing you just don’t understand Candy Crush.

Stephen King is good. I think I’ll read Stephen King.

I haven’t changed out of my pyjamas today. I’m drinking wine in my pyjamas. Pyjamas that I put on last night.

Joyland. I started it a few nights ago. Enya and Joyland and wine.

Sounds like an excellent combination.

With no laptop.

Yeah.

May never forget the Filet-O-Fish. Dry fish. Oh, the irony.


by 21 Comments

#SoCS – My Own Worst Enemy

I admit it: I wasn’t thinking straight when I came up with today’s SoCS prompt. If I had, I’d have realized that because my real favourite word isn’t fit for a family-friendly blog, I’d have to come up with another “favourite” word that wasn’t really my favourite. If I’m nothing else, I’m honest. However, the real reason I wanted to use this prompt was to see what other people’s favourite words are.

The question comes from my memory of watching “Inside the Actors Studio.” (The lack of an apostrophe is something I’d never noticed before. My editor’s brain has given me new insight–love it when that happens.) I remember thinking that if they asked me the same ten questions they ask the guests on the show, my favourite word would be the same as my favourite curse word. And I also remember thinking that if I answered the question honestly, I’d blush. I loved watching that show – I’m amazed to find upon researching it that it’s still running. Twenty-two seasons and counting.

I found this from the show:

I have so many second-favourite words, I can’t pinpoint one. Phenomena, because it reminds me of the “Me na me na” song from the Muppets; moist, because it’s the underdog of all words for some strange reason; coffee, by association; magic, because of what it represents to me; there are so many!!

But my favourite word of all …

…

…

Nope. Not telling.

This evasive post is brought to you by Stream of Consciousness Saturday. Click the link to find all the participants’ posts in the comments and join in with one of your own! https://lindaghill.com/2018/06/01/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-june-2-18/


by 22 Comments

#SoCS – Grilled Cheese

I had no idea, honestly, what I was going to write for today’s prompt. Here in Canada we don’t call the thing we cook on outside “The Grill” as much as we call it just a plain old barbeque. (I spell it that way because in this household with all the sign language going on, we fingerspell it “BBQ” for Alex.) (And anyway, it’s English, damnit.) Nine times out of ten if you read the cooking instructions on Canadian food packaging, it will say “In the Frying Pan,” or “On the Barbeque” rather than “On the Grill.” Holy Hell, where am I with this post?

Oh yeah. So we do grill vegetables but we do it on the barbeque, so my idea for this prompt wasn’t to talk about cooking on “The Grill.” My idea was nothing, really, except the word “grill.”

But then my son Chris came out to the kitchen and asked me to make his grilled cheese sandwich. He has one at 11:30am every day. It’s his schedule, which can’t be deviated from. When he said it I was, like, “duh!” There’s my prompt.

When I first discovered grilled cheese sandwiches back as a teenager, I think, I was told they were made by buttering both sides of the bread. And I actually did it for a while, before I figured out I only really needed to butter the outside. What a mess! (This, by the way, is something I’ve never told anyone. You’re the first to know!) Of course grilled cheese sandwiches have nothing to do with a grill of any kind, and I have no idea why they’re called that.

I do hope my kids realize after I’m gone how much of their history (and mine) is recorded here in this blog. They stand to learn so much about their mother and where they came from before they were born. But they never read it.

I should write a memoir one day. I wish my parents had.

Happy long weekend to all my friends in the US!

This strangely reflective post is brought to you by Stream of Consciousness Saturday. Click the link to find all the other entries and join us with your own today! https://lindaghill.com/2018/05/25/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-may-26-18/


by 12 Comments

#SoCS – Empty – My Whoa Moment of the Week

This is really what stream of consciousness writing is all about, isn’t it? Emptiness.

Every time I’ve thought about writing this post today (and in the end I almost forgot to do it–imagine that), the only thing that has come to me has been the Taoist philosophy on emptiness being useful. A room with no space in it isn’t livable. Take things out of it–make space–and the emptiness makes the room useful.

For a long time I’ve endeavored to, once in a while, empty my mind. The largely western idea of the purpose of meditation–to sit and think about something, or to meditate on something–is the opposite of the eastern philosophy. I meditate to empty my mind. To clear out all the thoughts and regrets and worries for the future–and stress. Because once my mind is empty, I can fill it up with new ideas, better solutions, and calmer thoughts.

So how is writing stream of consciousness about emptiness? It’s a form of meditation. It’s the act of emptying our minds onto the page.

All together now– WHOA!

This mind-blowing-out-the-cobwebs post is brought to you by Stream of Consciousness Saturday. Click the link and find all the post links in the comments! https://lindaghill.com/2018/05/18/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-may-19-18/


by 39 Comments

One-Liner Wednesday – Smart Dog, Scaredy Cat

As a tribute to Dan Antion, our outgoing-badge designer and guy who can’t write a one-liner to save his life, my own One-Liner Wednesday is going to go a bit long.

I was sitting on the couch tonight, minding my own business, when Winston started to whine. I looked up and saw him sitting in the middle of the floor looking down at nothing.

“What is it?” I asked him.

He gave me a pained look as if to say, If I could talk, I wouldn’t be sitting here crying.

So I went over to see what he was whining at. There was still nothing.

I asked him again, “What is it?”

And that’s when he pointed to something with his nose. I bent down to get a closer look, and low and behold there was an ant. It was a fair-sized one, and it was still very much alive.

I praised Winston for letting me know we had a bug in the house, and I went to get a tissue to scoop it up and get rid of it.

Why he didn’t just step on it or eat it I have no idea. But he did tell me about it.

Good dog, Winston!

Winston, my pointer-outer/smart dog/scaredy cat.

Cheers to Dan for his lovely badge! We’ll miss it! Thank you, Mr. Antion!

#1linerWeds badge by Dan Antion

 

If you would like to participate in this prompt, 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. To execute a pingback, just copy the URL in the address bar on this post, and paste it somewhere in the body of your post. Your link will show up in the comments below. Please ensure that the One-Liner Wednesday you’re pinging back to is this week’s! Otherwise, no one will likely see it but me.

NOTE: Pingbacks only work from WordPress sites. If you’re self-hosted or are participating from another host, like Blogger, please leave a link to your post in the comments below.

As with Stream of Consciousness Saturday (SoCS), if you see a pingback from someone else in my comment section, click and have a read. It’s bound to be short and sweet.

Unlike SoCS, this is not a prompt so there’s no need to stick to the same “theme.”

The rules that I’ve made for myself (but don’t always follow) for “One-Liner Wednesday” are:

1. Make it one sentence.

2. Try to make it either funny or inspirational.

3. Use our unique tag #1linerWeds.

4. Add our very cool badge to your post for extra exposure!

5. Have fun!


by 15 Comments

#SoCS – Smoothie

I have an earworm. The song “Smooth” by Santana and Rob Thomas came on the radio yesterday, and I haven’t been able to get it out of my head. My neighbours might have it in their heads too, since I had it turned up when I pulled into the driveway.  It’s so random how some songs get stuck in my head and others are just meh. Whatever.

So summer’s coming, and that means it’s going to be time once again to be tempted by smoothies. The ones at Tim Horton’s with yogurt in them are sinfully delicious. I’d probably consume far more of them if they didn’t give me brain freeze. You know that feeling, right? When the cold goes through your soft palate and takes a grip on your grey matter like it’s being squeezed by a terrifying version of a snowman? Like the one in that movie with Michael Keaton … Jack Frost. Yeah, that’s the one. Scary. Zombie snowmen who hide in smoothies and eat brains. Wow, stream of consciousness … If I start adding food colouring and yummy fruity flavours to my snowmen next year, get me the hell out of there, would you?

Yeah, I’ll stick to Tim’s coffee from now on. Thanks.

I’ve totally forgotten the prompt at this point. Ah well. Or should I say baa humbug?

This off-topic, almost-entirely sidelined post is brought to you by Stream of Consciousness Saturday. Check it out, and gobble up some of the fun at the following link! https://lindaghill.com/2018/05/11/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-may-12-18/