And She Writes

I went to see Ron White Friday night. That man is standing up there for an hour telling stories and making them funny. You know he had to write the material prior to coming out and in fact, some of the stories I had heard before during other shows of his that I had seen, but I don’t think I had an appreciation for stand up comics and their creativity before. He takes every day situations and turns them in such a way that there’s a punchline that you will actually laugh at. He laughs at himself, he laughs at people around him and he laughs at the world in general. What talent to see the humor in things that other may just end up angry at.

The other appreciation I had is that I believe he genuinely finds these stories funny. Before he starts in on a bit, you see him start to smile and in some cases chuckle. I don’t know if that’s a well practiced routine, if he’s laughing at all of us sitting there shelling out $50 a piece to watch some middle aged overweight dude swilling scotch, smoking a stogie tell us stories or if he’s honestly amused himself. I choose to believe that he’s honestly amused - any of the other choices would just leave me cynical and bitter.

I struggle with what to put on here. Is it good enough, is it focused enough, or should it be mindless rambling on my other blog. Writing is not as easy as you think and I’m just trying to fill space without going for a specific theme. My hat is off to those to do it for a living and make a nice living doing it.

I was reading the newspaper the other day. We had a woman who jumped off the bridge onto I-95. Many people saw it. One guy was commenting to the paper that he feels like he took on her depression. What if? what if?

She had money in her pocket that went flying onto the highway. Many people stopped to grab a couple $100 - what happened to them. Did they think about how they got it? What happened as that bill passed hands? Could there be some psychic residue on it?
what if?

So one nice thing about insomnia - it gives you time to do things that you wouldn’t normally find the time for!! I’ve been up since 3am. By noon I’ll probably be asleep on my keyboard, but until then……

I just had the greatest inspiration to write a self help book. I enjoy tossing things out to the universe and then seeing the universe answer me. Keep watching this spot and you may see a book roll out before your very eyes.

Since I don’t think anyone even reads this, I’m not concerned about stolen material. If you do read this - leave a comment and let me know I’m not alone in the universe!

I’ve been inspired, that’s for sure, but my inspiration seems to have been taking place in the visual arts rather than the written word. I’ve gotten back into my stamping! YAY me. It’s really good to feel the creativity flowing. I think it makes me a more balanced person, able to see things from many angles and able to apply more problem solving skills to my life.

That said, it seem that I can only have one creative outlet at a time. If I’m writing, I’m not stamping, if I’m stamping, I’m not writing! That has got to change. I think it’s partially having a limited amount of time. The real life job does take up a nice 8+ hour chunk of my day! HOWEVER! This must come as well.

I was reading the paper the other day and came across an article that sparked an interest. I thought it would make a good plot. Do you think I can remember it right now? Hell, no!! I don’t think the papers are outside yet, so I will have to go through them all and see if I can find that again. Lesson #1 - WRITE IT DOWN, RIGHT AWAY (silly girl)

more coming later!

List 10 activities you plan to do more of in 2008

1. I’m going to be looking for markets for my work.
2. I’m going to create more work!
3. I’m going to take more pictures
4. I’m going to go to my writing group meetings
5. I’m going to edit some of my older writing
6. I’m going to write more often to practice my craft
7. I’m going to brainstorm ideas
8. I’m going to read books on my craft
9. I’m going to spend time reading
10. I’m going to prioritize my need to write - but right now i’m going to bed

My prompt for today and how appropriate:

A few weeks before your 30th HS reunion, your former class president gives you a call. He teases you about skipping all previous reunions and then says your absence over the years - along wwith your new celebrity status as a famous author - make syou the perfect keynote speaker at the upcoming reunion. Your topic? A quote from George Eliot: “Its never too late to be what you might have been.” Write your speech.

Class of 1987, can you believe it’s been 30 years? That’s a lifetime since the reality of four short years we spent in high school, but those started many of us on the path that we’re on today. Some of us decided how we were going to spend the rest of our lives when we could barely decide what we were going to wear to school that day. Some of us believed that those decisions we made then we would have to live with for the rest of our lives, not fully understanding just how long that would be.

Here we stand, a lifetime later. Some of those decisions were correct, some were flights of fancy and some are yet unrealized dreams. George Eliot said “It’s never too late to be what you might have been.” I’m here to tell you that is true. When I was in high school I wanted to be a writer. Rather than pursuing a degree in fine arts or English, I majored in business and MIS. I even got a dual masters in business and MIS. I had a great career as an Implementation Director in HR Outsourcing. I met some great people, enjoyed success and respect of my colleagues, but something was still missing. I wanted to write. I would dabble, I would enter contests, but because I didn’t think I could make a career from writing, or at least enough of a career, I didn’t give it the attention that it deserved. If I had gone into writing with the same passion I applied to my ‘real job’ it would have been my real job.

It took one of those life changing moments to make me realize that writing should be my passion, life is too short to only dream. It is never too late to be what you might have been. I’m finally living the dream with my only regret being that I didn’t do it sooner. What are your long un-realized dreams, what might you have been - what do you still want to become? Use this time, take those dreams and make them real. Don’t let another lifetime pass before becoming what you might have been.

Hmmm, I think I might start taking my own advice - I hope I get the chance to actually use this speech!

One of my goals for 2008 is to write more. I’m starting my 2008 goals today. This will be a short little post, but it will be a post! Time to start researching markets and thinking of things I want to write about. More later!

My writing has been sparse lately. My day job has just been so intense lately AND Jeff decided to give me his cold. Wasn’t that nice of him? I haven’t done much looking for writing assignments since last I posted on here. That needs to change. Hopefully I can do some searching this weekend. The one good thing about recovering from a cold, I don’t feel bad enough to just lay around, but I don’t feel quite good enough to want to go out and do anything, so hanging around the house is perfectly acceptable to me!

I do have some ‘day job’ work to do. Hopefully I can get through that quickly and don’t lose energy early. Weekends are just WAY too short. I may need to take a few vacation days. That sounds like a plan except for all the work that will await me when I get back, but I digress.

I’m going to work on some writing prompts today to work on my creativity. I think I’ll get started now!

So writing in 2007 is one of my resolutions. One way to keep this resolution is to actually find a writing job! What a concept. Of course, writing and practice are important as well.  Now where can I find a freelance job. Well, the internet is certainly a good place to start. I think 2007 is going to be quite the year to see what I can do both in terms of writing and photography.  After reading some of the stuff out there, that shouldn’t be so hard!

I didn’t write yesterday. I didn’t even work as much as I usually do, it was a long week, trying to get back into the groove of things. I have some things to work on this morning, and I’m STILL having a hard time getting motivated. Saturday morning, work, the two just don’t seem to go together, unless its something I really want to be doing. Well, that sentence didn’t make much sense.

Saturday mornings are a beautiful thing. Relaxing mostly, don’t have to get started right away. I think I need a cup of coffee.

And what to write about on Tuesday.

Resolutions - one of my ongoing resolutions has been around weightloss, health and fitness. The actual wording depends on the year and how i’m feeling. On thing that I’ve been thinking about lately is judgements. It’s taken me almost 40 years (ok, closer to 30, since those first 10 don’t really count) to become mentally mature and self aware. Let’s just stick with the self aware, I’m not quite sure about the maturity. While there is a certain amount of judgement that is done based on looks, I think I’m harder on myself (and others) than others are on me. Of course I don’t know that for sure, as I’ve not really asked any one lately if they think I’m fat.

The media shoves the idea (at least that’s the feeling I get) that we have to be perfect, and perfect could mean different things to different people. My definition is thin, good looking, smart, financially stable and successful. Hmmm, 3 out of 5 ain’t bad, but it’s not quite good enough. I’m driven to wanting the things I don’t have and not being satified with what I do have. Whatever I have, it’s not enough. Is it something in me (in us?) I’m not sure if this makes me good, always striving for better or if this makes me pathetic, never happy with what I have. It certainly is something to think about.