i love cheese - and it shows
I've been trying my hand at some short stories. I'm hoping with lots of practice, they will get better. Right now they have all the cheese factor of the Star Trek TNG episode "Up The Long Ladder" or Star Trek Animated Series "Bem" - the idea had great potential ... but, well... maybe you should watch the episodes to understand what I mean, as I'm not posting any of my stories here yet! Other great cheesy shows to watch include "Eerie, Indiana" and anything with William Shatner hehe :)
Mystery of the Ratty Couch Transport
When my brother and I were little, I'd guess around six and eight years old, he had a bunk bed in his room. His room also had two large windows that looked out across our driveway with an excellent view of our next door neighbor's back yard. Every so often we'd convince mom to let me camp out in his room. Then we'd sneak in some papers and pencils, and each lay on our respective bunks next to the window and watch across the driveway to the yard. The yard consisted of gravel and a generic assortment of grasses and weeds and wasn't very interesting in and of itself. The neighbors, however, were interesting - at least to a couple little kids who can't imagine being outside past ten o'clock at night. There were always people stopping by just for a few minutes, then leaving quickly. Occasionally someone would go in, never to be seen again (or not to leave until after we'd fallen asleep on our pages). The mysterious guests would always pull right up to the back step, and we'd write down their licence plate numbers and the time and other details, like "wearing plaid shirt" and so forth. Once, they even moved a ratty old sofa onto a decrepit trailer. Imagine our disappointment that there were no license plates to be seen - they backed the trailer in at an angle. The thing is, I don't remember what started all this, and what we did with the note pages. I'm just glad I didn't wake up with a pencil in my nose, falling asleep writing like that. Decades later, I still remember wondering WHAT was the point of moving the couch so late at night? For all our sleuthing, we never discovered the Mystery of the Ratty Couch Transport.
Telling Myself: I am Energetic
I did this for a while. I reminded myself, "I am an energetic person." This would trigger thoughts of the most energetic, get things DONE person I know, and I'd realize I hadn't even come CLOSE to what she could accomplish with all the energy. This kinda sounds like a downer, putting it all out here in blog land, however, it was a real motivator for me. I kept myself on my feet, getting a ton of things accomplished around my house that I'd been putting off in my lethargy. Then there was an incident with my pantry: I decided it was completely unacceptable. I emptied the entire thing, threw out anything I couldn't justify as good enough to feed to my children, and made a big donate box of all the random containers, dishes and thingamabobs that I couldn't remember the last time I had used. Sounds great? Sounds energetic? I ran out of steam about 10 days ago, about 87.3% done with the task. The last bit is piled up on a folding table in my kitchen, being a real hassle to get around. Turns out I'm energetic with a bad memory for reminding myself that.
LOL. no, really, i'm laughing out loud!
Things that made me laugh out loud today:
. . . On Facebook:
"Warning: Girl Scout cookies are no longer made with real Girl Scouts. I blame the economy."
"Tonight i saw a spork being used as a knife. Two uses not enough? I will never understand this kind of utensil greed."
"And so it begins....one dog out one cat in, one cat out. another dog out., one back in...one dog wants out again...one cat is black, can't see if it wants in ...both dogs in ...to hell with the cats.......good night!"
. . . On a website:
What do vegetarians eat? . . . FOOD!! hahahahaha
. . . On a blog:
Where does Fat go when you Lose it? ... i was laughing so hard by the time i got to the end i started to worry i'd wake up the kiddos!
This post . . . when I realized that all this is so much more funny when you are very, veryspelp
speel slepe sleep deprived! *giggles*
. . . On Facebook:
"Warning: Girl Scout cookies are no longer made with real Girl Scouts. I blame the economy."
"Tonight i saw a spork being used as a knife. Two uses not enough? I will never understand this kind of utensil greed."
"And so it begins....one dog out one cat in, one cat out. another dog out., one back in...one dog wants out again...one cat is black, can't see if it wants in ...both dogs in ...to hell with the cats.......good night!"
. . . On a website:
What do vegetarians eat? . . . FOOD!! hahahahaha
. . . On a blog:
Where does Fat go when you Lose it? ... i was laughing so hard by the time i got to the end i started to worry i'd wake up the kiddos!
This post . . . when I realized that all this is so much more funny when you are very, very
let the light shine on your efforts
"The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun. Is there any thing whereof it may be said, See, this is new? it hath been already of old time, which was before us" Ecclesiastes 1:9-10
Don't let Solomon stifle your creativity - pick up the Book and get the context of the futility of trying to create some temporal immortality, toiling under the sun. Bearing that in mind, just because it's been said or done before, doesn't mean that your personal touch on something won't make it ring true for someone now.
There's all these inspirational quotes about going for it, you can do it, some followed with an at least you tried (anyone else thinking of Lord Tennyson's famous "Tis better to have loved and lost"?)
But then there's that crystallizing moment, when something you've seen, read, heard, so many times before, suddenly clicks. This quote was it for me when I read it the other day:
Don't let Solomon stifle your creativity - pick up the Book and get the context of the futility of trying to create some temporal immortality, toiling under the sun. Bearing that in mind, just because it's been said or done before, doesn't mean that your personal touch on something won't make it ring true for someone now.
There's all these inspirational quotes about going for it, you can do it, some followed with an at least you tried (anyone else thinking of Lord Tennyson's famous "Tis better to have loved and lost"?)
But then there's that crystallizing moment, when something you've seen, read, heard, so many times before, suddenly clicks. This quote was it for me when I read it the other day:
Telling Myself: to live HERE
Do you ever get so busy, you forget you had a goal for the day? Maybe in all the craziness of real life, the To Do list was updated to the To Do Tomorrow list. I've been feeling like that for a while. Come to think of it, probably since I was sixteen years old, which feels like both forever ago, and only a few days past.
On those nights when I didn't collapse into bed and immediately pass out in exhaustion, I'd lay there trying to slow my brain down by making a mental list of the things I'd do tomorrow, then wistfully imagine my magical home once I got things organized. My children would be well behaved, the dryer would never gobble another sock, I'd cook fabulous meals from scratch out of thin air, things would be simple, relaxing, and beautiful.
When I was in college, I thought it'd be so much simpler when I had a career. When I was working, I thought it'd be so much simpler if I could stay home with the kiddos. Here's the shocker: now that I'm home with the kiddos, life is as complicated as ever. Maybe even more so, as I'm responsible for more than just my own self.
The commonality to all this, besides the busy craziness and wishing for a calm existence? In this case, it would be me. My commitments made, to do lists of both the necessary and completely unrealistic, the mental picture of an ideal home and family life . . . in all these "should do" and "could be" things I've collected, what did I do with myself? What did I do with that handsome, wonderful man I married and sweet, angelic little babies? Well, they'v stuck with me, though all my craziness. Lately I've been reminded (or been noticing all the blatantly obvious hints!) that one can do wonders with what one has on hand. That life slips by far to quickly, and I've slipped back into the mindset of spending every day wishing it was Friday instead - wishing my life away.
So I'm giving up all those aspirations. I'm going to sit on my duff! Wait! That's not where I'm going with this rambling :)
I'm re-evaluating all these illusions I've adopted of what an ideal life, home and family would look like. I want to scrub away the nonsense and get down to what is true, right, and good. I'm reminding myself of the things that I need to be and trying not to include one of the stereo types tagging along. Right, I'm human, and I'm sure at times this will be an abysmal failure. Will I be a better me? Wife, Mom, Friend? I hope so.
One day I'm going to reread this post with aged wisdom and realize what a goof I am/was. That's okay, I'm going to do the best I can with what I have now. :)
On those nights when I didn't collapse into bed and immediately pass out in exhaustion, I'd lay there trying to slow my brain down by making a mental list of the things I'd do tomorrow, then wistfully imagine my magical home once I got things organized. My children would be well behaved, the dryer would never gobble another sock, I'd cook fabulous meals from scratch out of thin air, things would be simple, relaxing, and beautiful.
When I was in college, I thought it'd be so much simpler when I had a career. When I was working, I thought it'd be so much simpler if I could stay home with the kiddos. Here's the shocker: now that I'm home with the kiddos, life is as complicated as ever. Maybe even more so, as I'm responsible for more than just my own self.
The commonality to all this, besides the busy craziness and wishing for a calm existence? In this case, it would be me. My commitments made, to do lists of both the necessary and completely unrealistic, the mental picture of an ideal home and family life . . . in all these "should do" and "could be" things I've collected, what did I do with myself? What did I do with that handsome, wonderful man I married and sweet, angelic little babies? Well, they'v stuck with me, though all my craziness. Lately I've been reminded (or been noticing all the blatantly obvious hints!) that one can do wonders with what one has on hand. That life slips by far to quickly, and I've slipped back into the mindset of spending every day wishing it was Friday instead - wishing my life away.
I'm re-evaluating all these illusions I've adopted of what an ideal life, home and family would look like. I want to scrub away the nonsense and get down to what is true, right, and good. I'm reminding myself of the things that I need to be and trying not to include one of the stereo types tagging along. Right, I'm human, and I'm sure at times this will be an abysmal failure. Will I be a better me? Wife, Mom, Friend? I hope so.
One day I'm going to reread this post with aged wisdom and realize what a goof I am/was. That's okay, I'm going to do the best I can with what I have now. :)
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