Category: Home Life

Zing, I felt that

~ tahenryauthoress ~ 13 Comments

Every Sunday one of the bloggers I follow posts the blogs she has read for the week and recommends to others. I check them out. Pass them on sometimes. But today something I  read over at WriterUnboxed just resonated so much with me I needed to post about it, now.

we writers have thinner skins because we need them to absorb the world at large, not just to accurately portray its events and its people, but to convey them authentically on the page to others.

Wow. I was feeling my thinner skin this week. Someone at the co-op my kiddo goes to sent an email explaining they hadn’t done the work they said they would because they don’t like me, I’m unpleasant. I walked around feeling physically ill about that for days. Partly because I don’t like to be told I’m unpleasant, but largely because I couldn’t wrap my head around the kind of thinking that goes on in someone’s mind, where “I don’t like you” is reasonable justification for letting 150 other people down.

The kiddo has inherited my thinner skin. He acutely feels other people’s pain. Often when we talk about it I tell him to embrace his feelings. Those warning bells are great indicators that something is wrong. They are an opportunity to stand up for those who can’t, help someone who needs it, or change the environment he’s in. Maybe he’ll use that thinner skin to be a writer, or maybe a musician, since that seems to be his leaning right now.

But maybe, just maybe, he’ll use it to change the world.

 

Fiendish Friday: The Doctor is in

~ tahenryauthoress ~ 4 Comments

I’m not sure what it is about me that makes people share their deepest darkest secrets. Maybe I just seem safe. Or maybe they read the total lack of judgement in my eyes. Maybe  I’m just really good at the gentle eyes and mild head nod thing. But2016-09-01 12.30.11.jpg I hear stuff.

From the CFO who shouldn’t have told me things that could have got us in trouble for insider trading to my FIL who asked me to tell my husband he had a new girlfriend, LOL.

My husband is convinced I missed my calling as a therapist. I think if I’d become a shrink I would have ended up hearing too much of the wrong things from people who shouldn’t talk and the next thing you know I’m on the run from the CIA or wearing cement boots in the ocean. LOL

But the other day I took the kiddo to MOHAI and I couldn’t help but pose for this….

The Doctor is in, tell me all your deep dark secrets….

Wednesday Writer’s Update

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I’m off to spend the day in Portland with the kiddo, a friend, and her kiddo. The friend and I are both foodies and Portland is a mecca of amazing food. To quote Hercule Poirot, the great sadness of my life (on days like these) is that you can eat but three times a day. LOL

We’re also going to Washington Park. maybe the zoo, maybe the children’s museum, maybe the arboretum. Maybe the forestry center. That’s the cool thing about Washington Park.

We’ll definitely hit Powells. Some day they’ll carry my books. LOL

So a quick update on my world:

My first 6 week session curriculum is 70% done. Haven’t started any other sessions yet.

I just realized I owe my script for Bard and Starlett by tomorrow.

I am struggling to find programming teachers for classes we have students for because our previous teacher, cough cough Microsoft, backed out over the summer.

I’ve mulling over my  beta feedback on my spy novel. There is a lot of dichotomy that needs to be resolved. People seem to want different kinds of novels. I need to sort out what kind of novel I want and look at the changes people who are shaping in that direction want to see, if that makes sense. My brain is working on it.

I owe Beta to my nephew. By the weekend. sigh.

I have to send nasty grams on behalf of the pool board to the members who still haven’t paid their second half dues, which were due July 1. Seriously people?

But a lot of that work, actually makes me happy. It’s what matters to me. I care about the coop, I want to be writing again, and god knows I wanted someone to encourage and help me when I was my nephew’s age.

Just that last item can go away. LOL

Fiendish Friday: Esoteric

~ tahenryauthoress ~ 2 Comments

I don’t talk about religion. My views on religion and God and personal responsibility tend to confuse people and someone ends up with hurt feelings. But I noticed something lately that made me willing to post this.

I was in a very depressed, stressed out, creatively empty place for the last four months. It was not good. I was not me. I was a shell that used to be me but the inner beauty that is me had moved out. I can’t really blame that inner me, my life had become a very inhospitable place.

I stopped writing. I lost the desire to write as well. The two are different and the lack of desire is by far the sadder one. I had to really work at it to even be funny in my blogs anymore. Oh the horror…

But slowly over the last few weeks, I’ve come back. And my muse has returned. I penned some new words on a new novel. I’m happy again. I feel whole. If a bit pressed for time. But several times recently, God, yes I said the G word, has demonstrated he’s clearing the decks for me to focus on what really matters.

A new treasurer for the board popped up out of the blue and I am going to be able to resign at the end of the year. Little happy dance!

A writing teacher I have been filling in for, emailed to say she is ready to take back over the SnoValley Writes classes at the library, allowing me the choice to continue Nano to Publish or not as I WANT. Choices are so awesome.

Things keep popping up for the coop, which I am devoting more time to, and each time they do, people step up to help. I almost need to say it twice. People step up to help out and make it work. And that leaves me feeling energized and like I am spending my time for that board wisely and on a population that appreciates it.

And I found myself giving advice that I needed to hear. And I could actually process that I needed to hear that advice and take it myself.

To me, these are gifts from a power higher than myself. They are things I could not have produced on my own, no matter how hard I tried.

Let’s not have a discussion of religion. Please. But I would love to hear any gifts you’ve gotten recently.

 

Eleven Years

~ tahenryauthoress ~ 7 Comments
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On vaca in Hawaii this past spring. 

The hubs and I have been married eleven years now and it’s been long enough.

Long enough for me to know him.

To know what he likes.

To know what he doesn’t.

To know how to laugh with him.

To know how to cry with him.

To know when he’s reached his limit.

To know how he makes decisions.

To know when he needs me to cuddle him

and when he needs me to just take off all my clothes.

To know how to help him.

To know how to cover all the rough spots for him.

To know to let him help me and cover my rough spots.

To know what a partnership is and how to give everything in one because your partner is right there with you.

To know he forgot it was our anniversary the second I said good morning.

And to know his forgetting has nothing to do with how much he loves me.

Imagine what I’ll know in another 11 years.

Fiendish Friday Vanity

~ tahenryauthoress ~ 8 Comments

Wednesday Writer’s Update 8/31

~ tahenryauthoress ~ 8 Comments

Good evening my friends. It’s been a bit of a rough day. I had a fat migraine. Probably due to too much painting, house painting that is. I clearly rearranged parts of my spine and they are registering their disapproval. Loudly.

Speaking of registering disapproval. The President of the coop my son goes to went off to Italy a week ago. Turns out she didn’t do anything she said she would handle before she left. And worse she didn’t tell anyone she didn’t handle it. Hot potato in my lap in the last 24 hours. Did I neglect to mention I’m the VP of Education? LOL

The lesson to be learned here. Do not volunteer for things. LOL. Ever.

I’ve decided to report on my stated 2016 goals each Wednesday for a little prod of accountability.

– Participate in one flash fiction challenge per month.

√ Finally a writing challenge. Dan posted this one last Friday to kick off the challenge season on his blog. Finish the following sentence. The most important thing about writing a book is…

…. finishing it.

– Prepare and teach “Nano to Publish”.

√ We covered using create space last weekend and a bit about cover design.

– Any time I am not actively working on my 2015 Nano Novel, write 2500 words per week on my spy novel until it is done. (After four years, it’s time to put this mess to bed.)

√ I am no longer dreading digging into my beta changes. But I am wondering why I bother. Seems like everyone has an opinion and they all conflict. LOL. What I really need to do is find my base, my solid, my home. Then the changes will be obvious.

Non writing goals

– Prepare and teach two classes at the coop for the 2016-2017 school year.

√ Preparing, preparing, I swear. LOL

– Take better care of my body, ie. stop compulsively painting, crocheting, and writing until my back or shoulder is so tore I can barely use either.

√ Er, totally broke this. Painted the house to much I could barely raise my right arm this week. oops.

– yoga daily.

√ five out of seven. Good enough for government work.

 

Fiendish Friday: The REAL Washington Weather

~ tahenryauthoress ~ 6 Comments

Whenever someone hears I’m living in Washington I always always get the follow up…

“how do you live in all that rain, I couldn’t do it.”

sigh. Yes, it supposedly rains 300 days a year in this state. Which is true. Except….

90-95% of that rain happens at night. So what they should really say is we get 275 nights of rain and 25 days. And to someone who loves the sound of rain on her roof, heaven.

The real problem with Washington Weather is the schizophrenia. Stay with me here.

It’s the second week of August. Wednesday I wore jeans, a tee shirt, a sweater, and a scarf. I eventually took the sweater off around 4 but only because I was home.  Friday I wore a sun dress and baked in 93 degrees.

I’m telling you Washington weather needs some medication. Lithium perhaps?

 

Saturday Surprise

~ tahenryauthoress ~ 4 Comments

This morning the kiddo and I cleaned the hamster cage. I try to get him to do it every week and if he won’t then inevitably at a week and half (the max the pet store suggested) I clean it myself. But today kiddo was all on board. Let’s get it done mom so we can go to the BBQ.

Awesome!

So we have a process. I always wash the ball part first so the hamster can run around the house in his nice clean ball while we wash the rest of the cage and re-bed it.

Generally taking the ball off and moving the cage to the laundry room wakes up Lego, the hamster, but not today. So I clean the ball and kiddo dries it and then he goes looking for the hamster to put him in. Big Surprise. Any guesses?

Nope, the hamster wasn’t dead.

The hamster pulled a Houdini. Somehow he escaped his locked cage. He was there last night. This morning he was gone.

huh….

Fiendish Friday: BSD

~ tahenryauthoress ~ 6 Comments

Back in my previous life, ie, before the kiddo, I worked in the tech world. When I was first starting out in said world I started at the bottom of the food chain, in desktop support. What that meant was you whined and I came to your desk and fixed it. It was a good gig. 500 end users, a couple of desktop people,  network guy, and a server guy. We all did our jobs and some of us went drinking afterwards but I won’t be sharing those stories tonight. Nope this is about trauma.

So the funnest call was always the one that started with panic. “I came back from” insert lunch, meeting, getting coffee, etc “and my screen is blue, totally blue. What do I do?”

“You have everything saved to your server directory right?”

“ummmmm, no….” ensuing tears.

Cue me hitting the mute button before laughing uproariously. Blue Screen of Death and you are screwed.

Yesterday I had my own personal version of the blue screen of death. Not on my PC, oh no. Myself. Picture me hysterically crying in my kitchen while I try to explain to the hubs that all the crap currently weighing on me, combined with the kiddo thinking he was going for gold in arguing with mom that day, and a 19 year old sorority girl laughing at me because I expected her to do what she said she would do (no joke) had broken me. I was BSD.

You know it’s bad when a friend shows up before her party and then suggests maybe you should stay home because you look so tore.

Broken. Just crying all evening off and on.

I must get off the pool board. If I could just get free of that I would have both the time (20 plus hours a week back) and the energy (hello, 20 hours a week) to deal with everything else.

But I made a commitment and I hate shirking responsibility.

What say you oh loyal readers? Shirk or BSD?