The Seat of My Pants

Everyone has their own writing process.  You'll often hear writers talk about whether they're a plotter or pantster. 

I fell into the former category.  The first short stories I wrote and the first book I wrote all had lots of notes and outlines and lists.  I even went so far as to do a storyboard for the book.  I changed the heroine's picture later because I found someone who looked more like I thought she looked.  But I digress.

This story was mapped out chapter by chapter.  The blue sticky notes were the hero's POV; the pink were the heroine's.  I could move things around if I needed to thanks to the wonders of 3M.

That method worked for that book.

And it worked for a lot of short stories.  But last month I wrote and submitted a story and by golly I did something different.

I flew by the seat of my pants.  Well, not totally.  I had a few notes with the characters' names and ages and a general idea of the plot (two people end up booked into the same mountain house at the same time).  But beyond that, I really didn't have much of an idea what was going on.


I just started writing.  And by golly the story took me places I hadn't imagined.  The characters ended up being different than I'd originally planned, especially the hero.

A couple times I had to backtrack a bit and write myself out of a corner.  But the really amazing part was that this writer, who used to struggle to hit the minimum word count for a story, ended up with 700 words too many!  I had to go back and cut the equivalent of almost three pages.  I discovered I apparently have a love affair with the word "just."  50 of the 700 I cut were probably "justs."

But the whole process was FUN!  And it was surprising and revealing and by golly I think I'm going to try it again for the next short story once I figure out what that story is going to be about.  I saw the phrase "the new normal" in a book I was reading and think that may be something worth pursuing.

So... writers, are you plotters or pantsters?  Or are you one of those hybrid plotzters?  Have you switched from one to the other method and lived to tell about it?

P.S.  I got an email from the editor that she wants to hold onto it for future consideration.  Good news!

The Order of Things

Order:



~ the disposition of things following one after another, as in space or time; succession or sequence: The names were listed in alphabetical order.



~ a condition in which each thing is properly disposed with reference to other things and to its purpose; methodical or harmonious arrangement: You must try to give order to your life.

It's cotton growing season here in the Tennessee Valley, and I pass this field every day on my way to work.  I've watched it go from a field left over from last year's crop, to a freshly plowed patch of earth to wee seedlings poking up toward the sun and now to these well-established plants.  And there are rows and rows and rows of them -- in this field and the one across the road and along roads all across the southern United States.


This field makes me happy, because I like order.  I like things to be in nice, neat rows.  Not OCD crazy-as-a-loon order, but within-the-range-of-normal-mental-health order.  I know where things are in my apartment (most of the time) because everything has a place (or the vicinity of a place).  The Playfriends kid me about my car because it's all clean and neat (hey, you should have seen it when I had kids) and it's like flying in an airplane used to be (there's a small pillow and blanket in the backseat and I think I walked off a Continental flight with the blanket because they had turned me into an icicle).

Lately, though, my sense of order has begun to wane.  I still keep my day planner on my desk and my life is in that book.  My cabinets are all arranged with dishes one place, glasses another and the silverware is in an organizer with knives, forks and spoons all separate and lined up like good little soldiers.

But the front closet I've been saying I needed to clean out for the last six months is still in disarray.  I finally cleaned out under the guest bathroom sink mainly because I was sure I had some Benadryl cream under there that would soothe a rash on my neck (and yes indeed, I did).

I used to make my bed every single day.  Now, I pull up the sheets and blanket and prop the pillows against the headboard.  I can't make myself leave it all messy, but I don't do the comforter/shams/extra pillows thing every day. 

I suppose I've hit a balance.  I've stopped (for the most part) expecting perfection, though you'd never know it from my obsession over my recent photo shoot.  More about that in another blog.




I guess now my life has become a little more like this part of the field.  There's still order but you can see some gaps and a few weeds here and there.  Not perfect, but good enough.



And sometimes "good enough" is well... good enough.



How about you?  Are all your rows in order?  Or do you have some gaps and weeds?  Or do you even have rows?

And now I need to stop messing with this blog post and quit trying to make the spacing perfect. 

Gnilleps *

To say I've been under stress for a couple years would be an understatement.  According to the Holmes and Rahe Stress Scale, I score pretty high.

Here's their list of stressful life events and the points associated with each.  Add the number of "Life Change Units" that apply for the past year to get your score.  Interpretation of the score is below the list.

Death of a spouse 100
Divorce 73
Marital separation 65
Imprisonment 63
Death of a close family member 63
Personal injury or illness 53
Marriage 50
Dismissal from work 47
Marital reconciliation 45
Retirement 45
Change in health of family member 44
Pregnancy 40
Sexual difficulties 39
Gain a new family member 39
Business readjustment 39
Change in financial state 38
Death of a close friend 37
Change to different line of work 36
Change in frequency of arguments 35
Major mortgage 32
Foreclosure of mortgage or loan 30
Change in responsibilities at work 29
Child leaving home 29
Trouble with in-laws 29
Outstanding personal achievement 28
Spouse starts or stops work 26
Begin or end school 26
Change in living conditions 25
Revision of personal habits 24
Trouble with boss 23
Change in working hours or conditions 20
Change in residence 20
Change in schools 20
Change in recreation 19
Change in church activities 19
Change in social activities 18
Minor mortgage or loan 17
Change in sleeping habits 16
Change in number of family reunions 15
Change in eating habits 15
Vacation 13
Christmas 12
Minor violation of law 11

Score of 300+: At risk of illness.
Score of 150-299+: Risk of illness is moderate (reduced by 30% from the above risk).
Score 150-: Only have a slight risk of illness.

My score for the past year is 206.  Ugh.  If you add in events that go back three years, I top out over 400 points. 

My divorce, a move and change in financial status and living conditions, a new job, death of a close friend, my mother's two surgeries, the auto accident and my injuries, holidays, vacations -- it all adds up.

So it's no wonder I've struggled with some stress-related health issues.  And that's what led me to watch a fascinating National Geographic documentary called STRESS:  The Silent Killer.  What an eye opener!  And sometimes in a scary way.

I'm going to recap some of the info I found most interesting.  (CAUTION:  Geek Alert!)

Stanford neuroscientist Robert Sapolsky says that that people, apes and monkeys are intelligent and sociable creatures with a lot of free time.  So why do we suffer from more stress-related illness than other animals?

"Primates are super smart and organized just enough to devote their free time to being miserable to each other and stressing each other out," he said. "But if you get chronically, psychosocially stressed, you're going to compromise your health. So, essentially, we've evolved to be smart enough to make ourselves sick."

Not encouraging, huh?

We respond to stress by releasing hormones that increase our heart rate and energy level.  It's the fight or flight response.  These hormones help us survive threats.  But we also release these hormones during non-threatening stress.  And the long-term exposure to them increases our chances of cardio-vascular disease, diabetes and gastrointestinal disorders.  The immune system can be compromised and brain function related to learning and memory can be affected as well. 

Children who suffer massive stress often exhibit a syndrome called stress dwarfism because normal growth hormones are suppressed.

Sapolsky studies baboons, which live in social environments where there are type-A baboons and low-ranking ones -- very much like our society.  He found that social rank and personality play significant roles, but social isolation may be even more important.

Another scientist, Dr. Carol Shively of Wake Forest University, has studied macaque monkeys for over thirty years and found that psychological stress increased the amount of visceral fat (AKA belly fat) in her subjects.  This same phenomenon is found in humans.  I have only to look around the divorce recovery group I facilitate to see woman after woman after woman with extra weight around the middle.  It can't be coincidence, since divorce is #2 on the stress list.

What was very encouraging, however, were the findings that social support can help reverse some of the deleterious effects of stress.  According to Sapolsky, happiness and self-esteem are important factors in reducing stress.  And contrary to popular opinion, neither are necessarily related to money.  Some of the poorest countries have some of the happiest citizens.

Studies have also suggested that chronic stress affects our DNA.  The ends of our chromosomes are called telomeres.  They shorten with age and the exposed ends begin to fray.  Stress accelerates the shortening process.  Telomerase is an enzyme that heals stress damage to the telomeres.  This is getting pretty technical, but hang with me folks because there's good news.

Dr. Elizabeth Blackburn, the 2009 Nobel Prize winner for medicine, has found that connecting with others helps increase production of telomerase. Compassion and caring for others can help us heal ourselves.

Several of us here at the Writing Playground have blogged about Random Acts of Kindness.  You can go up to the top left corner of the blog, type in "random acts of kindness" and find all the blog posts about it.  Well, it seems those RAKs really are good for us.

Getting together with others and talking about your problems is good too.  Dr. Blackburn visited a group of mothers, all of whom had children with special needs.  She found that their fellowship and camaraderie helped them cope with the brutally stressful roles they played.  These mothers laughed and cried with each other and left each meeting feeling uplifted and a little bit better about the day.

I have the Playfriends to get together with.  We're actually in the process of planning a dinner and sleepover soon.  We'll talk, we'll plot and brainstorm and no doubt we'll bitch.  But we'll all feel better when our time together is over.

I also have my divorce support group.  We talk, we help and encourage each other and we bitch.  And we always feel better when our time together is over.  I also act in the capacity of facilitator, and invariably helping someone else deal with the grief of divorce helps me chip away at the grief of mine.

Do you have a group you get with to help you cope with whatever it is that stresses your life?  Just remember that stressed spelled backwards is DESSERTS!



*Gnilleps is one of the spelling challenges in the board game, Cranium, which is a favorite pasttime of the Playfriends.  And in case you haven't figured it out, gnilleps is spelling spelled backwards.

LensDay

Writing can be a solitary endeavor with lots of time spent dressed in sweat pants and a t-shirt in front of a computer screen. The activity is frequently called BICHOK -- Butt in Chair, Hands on Keyboard. It's just you and the story. You and the characters -- characters who sometimes get minds of their own and wander off where you don't want them to go.

And you sit there in your sweats and t-shirt, with no make-up and your hair pulled back in a ponytail or pushed back with a headband, mindlessly snacking on cheese doodles or jelly beans or microwave popcorn while you and you alone try to figure out how to tame these characters and make them behave.

Alone. 

That's how most writers spend a lot of their time.  And that's what I thought of when I snapped photos of these flowers one day.

All alone.  The only one seeing what you see.  The only one hearing these characters. 

The.  Only.  One.

Do you ever get the feeling you're the only one out there?

P.S.  We'd like everyone to join us today for a birthday celebration.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SMARTY PANTS!

Invisible or Fly

I'll apologize up front for the poor quality of the following video. I used my digital camera and filmed this off my TV. But I'll never apologize for Dean Cain. ;-) This is a scene from the 1990's era TV show "Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman." WE all know Clark Kent is Superman, but Lois doesn't, and at this point in the show (it is the fourth episode of Season 1) she's intrigued and smitten. In this episode, Superman has become a big celebrity and Clark is overwhelmed by the growing industry of Superman t-shirts, ball caps and anything else someone can put the "S" logo on. Meanwhile, an invisible Robin Hood has appeared on the scene. Then folks begin reporting serious crimes, and our intrepid Daily Planet reporters are trying to figure out what's going on. The original Invisible Man appears to help them, and this scene occurs just after they've met with him.





Over the weekend I dreamed I could fly. I love dreams like that -- the freedom, the joy, the exhiliration. And then I started wondering (actually, I've always wondered) what these dreams mean. So off I went to Google and here's what I found at Dream Moods.

Flying dreams fall under a category of dreams known as lucid dreams. Lucid dreams occur when you become aware that you are dreaming. Many dreamers describe the ability to fly in their dreams as an exhilarating, joyful, and liberating experience.

If you are flying with ease and are enjoying the scene and landscape below, then it suggests that you are on top of a situation. You have risen above something. It may also mean that you have gained a new and different perspective on things. Flying dreams and the ability to control your flight is representative of your own personal sense of power.

Having difficulties staying in flight indicates a lack of power in controlling your own circumstances. You may be struggling to stay aloft or stay on set course. Things like power lines, trees, or mountains may be obstacles that you encounter in flight. These obstacles symbolize something or someone who is standing in your way in your waking life. You need to identify what or who is trying to prevent you from moving forward. Difficulty flying may also be an indication of a lack of confidence or some hesitation on your part. You need to believe in yourself and not be afraid.

If you are feeling fear when you are flying or that you are flying too high, then it suggests that you are afraid of challenges and of success. Perhaps you are not ready to take the next step.

In reality, we cannot really fly, of course. Thus, such dreams can be representative of things that are beyond your physical limitations. In your mind, you can be anybody and do anything. Another way of interpreting flying dreams is that these dreams symbolize your strong mind and will. You feel undefeatable and that nobody can tell you what you cannot do and accomplish. Such dreams are sure to leave you with a great sense of freedom.

In my dream, I flew with ease, so apparently I have a new perspective on something or have risen above it. I should probably dig out the manuscript I was working on or the short story I began last month and give them another try.

And to follow up with Lois Lane's game, I checked to see what Dream Moods had to say about dreaming you're invisible.

To dream that you are invisible signifies feelings of not being noticed or recognized for what is important to you. You feel you are being overlooked. Alternatively, the dream indicates that you are trying to withdraw from the realities of life.

I've never dreamed I was invisible though many times I feel I am. However I can see some advantages to being invisible. They're all situational though I expect a person might end up learning more than they really wished to learn this way.

So what about you? Invisible or fly?


SP is at the next stop on her blog tour today - Minxes of Romance. Come read and comment on her insightful interview to get another contest entry! Also, she will be featured as a debut author on Dear Author later today. Come see.

Pareto's Law of Maldistribution

You know what this is. You've just heard it by another name: the 80/20 rule. It's the law of distribution that has 80% of the work done by 20% of the workers. Microsoft found that if they solved the top 20% of the most reported software bugs, 80% of the errors and crashes would stop. In health care in the US, 20% of patients have been found to use 80% of health care resources. And criminology studies have found 80% of crimes are committed by 20% of criminals.

The law was named for Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto. He developed the law after observing that 20% of the pea pods in his garden held 80% of the peas.

But I'm not going to blog about workers or customers or criminals or peas. I'm going to blog about...

Clutter.

I've been doing some spring cleaning. You'd think I wouldn't have much to clean since I've only been in this apartment for about 2 1/2 years (has it been THAT long???). But I'm amazed at the stack of stuff in my front bedroom that's ready for the church yard sale.

I caught part of an episode of Nate Berkus a while back and scribbled "clutter 80/20 rule" on a piece of paper and just recently found it on my desk in the pile of stuff I cleaned off. When I Googled it I found a blog post about Peter Walsh, clutter guru, and his appearance on Nate's show. I'll quote a couple of very insightful things from the post.

Without looking around, could you find the following?

Car keys
Unpaid bills
Insurance policies

A. I know exactly where everything is 71%

B. Not sure where some important things are 26%

C. I need an hour to find important things 3%

That's encouraging! This was a group who was on top of things.

Could you have a party without cleaning up first?

A. My house is always party-ready 22%

B. I need to clean up first 67%

C. I can’t ever throw a party in my house 11%

Well, they were only on top of their car keys.

Peter said, “If you de-clutter your house, it will save you 40% of the time you currently spend cleaning.”

40%? Wow!

Do all of your clothes fit easily and well in your closet?

A. Clothes are hung in perfect order by color and season 39%

B. I have no idea what’s on the top shelf in my closet 42%

C. My clothes fall on my head when I open my closet 19%

Obviously they don't keep their car keys on the top closet shelf. ~snicker~

Here's what Peter had to offer about clothes:

You wear 20% of your clothes, 80% of the time. To prove that to yourself, when you go home today, turn everything back to front. Turn it back after you wear it. At the end of the month, get rid of everything you haven’t turned and worn.

Put your winter clothes in bins under the bed or top of the closet.

Wow again! Of course, that doesn't include the winter coat you only wore a few times this winter because it was the warmest winter on record. Or the formal you bought for RWA conference and have no other place to wear. But the everyday clothes? It's a radical concept and I'm going to try the hanger-turning thing and see the results. I can't promise I'll toss things I haven't worn.

And some of Peter's other tips for controlling clutter?

~ Keep flat surfaces clear. That means tables, counters, desks. And to do that he suggests you

~ Maximize vertical space. Put up bulletin boards, magnetic boards, hang bins on the wall, put up hooks for purses, backpacks, coats.

~ Create a message center for your home. This is where you control the business of your home. It's a place for mail, charging phones, posting your schedule. It ties in with the vertical thing too.

~ Go digital. He suggested using any sort of online capability to eliminate paper like online bill paying, online schedules and digital photo sites. I have very few paper photos these days. I have one entire external hard drive devoted to nothing but photos. I need to de-clutter that too because I have a lot of duplicates.

I love this quote from Peter: Letting go of stuff you don’t need or use lifts the weight off your life & lets your life soar!

I don't know about you, but I like to soar. And I definitely don't want to get to the point of this:



Have you done your spring cleaning yet? Got any good de-cluttering tips?

I'm late to the games

The Hunger Games, that is. While the rest of the world has been talking about this book (and the movie, which opens on Friday) since its publication in 2008, I just read it. I have to say my interest in the book was piqued by the movie trailers and the fact much of the movie was filmed in my home state of North Carolina. Some scenes were even filmed in my hometown of Concord.



For those who might be like I was a couple weeks ago and totally in the dark about this book and film, I give you a short blurb.






Sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen lives with her mother and little sister Primrose in what is left of North America. They reside in District 12, which is the Appalachaian region of the former United States. All twelve districts are run by the Capitol, which is located in the Rocky Mountains (NORAD anyone?). Katniss and Prim's father was killed in a coal mine explosion, and it is Katniss's hunting and foraging skills that keep the family from starving.

To remind the Districts who's in charge, the Capitol holds the Hunger Games each year. The names of all boys and girls between the ages of 12 and 18 are put in large bowls and one boy and one girl are selected at random from each District to compete in the ultimate reality game. These twenty-four children fight to the finish, and the last one standing wins a life of luxury.


The selection process is called the "reaping" and the children selected are called "tributes." After assuring her little sister her odds of being picked are slim because it's her first time in the reaping, Primrose's name is drawn anyway. To spare her sister, Katniss steps up to take her place in the deadly competition.





Dictrict 12's other tribute is a boy named Peeta Mellark whose father is the town baker.

Katniss and Peeta are transported to the Capitol, accompanied by Effie Banks (the pink-haired lady who selected the tributes) and Haymitch Abernathy (their mentor and District 12's only Hunger Games victor). There they are groomed and trained and paraded before not only the Capitol but the Districts as well (the games are televised live and watching is compulsory -- the only time television broadcasts are predictable) before being set out to compete in the games.






This former Phillip Morris cigarette plant in my hometown was used for scenes of the Capitol.


So have you read the book? And the two other books in the trilogy (Catching Fire and Mockingjay)?

And are you going to see the movie? As compelling as the book was, I'm still undecided about seeing the film. If I do decide to go, I'll probably wait for the initial hubbub to wane and the crowds to thin.

PS. Smarty Pants kicks off her blog tour today. Check out her facebook fan page for the schedule and links.

Might as well face it, I'm addicted to...

For months and months I've seen Facebook posts about it. I had no interest in the least in even seeing what it was all about. Then I got Netflix and there it was in the "Recently Added" section. Still I had no interest. Why watch it when I could catch up on old episodes of Bones and see the golden days of Saturday Night Live with Gilda Radner and Jane Curtin (who is now playing the medical examiner on Unforgettable).

Then a couple weekends ago when the weather was dreadful and I was still in a cast and confined to my recliner, I thought, "Why not take a peek and see what all the hullabaloo is about."

And that's when it happened. I became addicted to...



The show is set in the fictional home of the Earl and Countess of Grantham. It depicts the lives of the Crawley family and their servants -- an upstairs/downstaris view of life. Season one opened with the news of the sinking of the Titanic, an event which affected the inheritance of Downton, and ended with learning Great Britain was at war with Germany. Season two took viewers through the war years and ended in early 1920. Each season has only 7-8 episodes, so there's not a lot to watch really. It's not like the 5 seasons of Bones I watched in a two-and-a-half week period last summer so I'd be caught up when the new season started. Talk about a marathon! But I digress.


The cast is brilliant, and the MOST brilliant is Dame Maggie Smith as Violet, the Dowager Countess of Grantham. The plots involve an entail, world events, aristocratic life, valets, ladies maids and footmen, a dead Turk, a cowardly soldier, cover-ups, scandals, crime, forbidden love and more, more, more.

While I'm not normally a fan of British period pieces, this one captivated me, especially the above-named Dowager Countess. PBS has even compiled a video of great Maggie moments.

Watch Downton Abbey: The Best Maggie Moments on PBS. See more from Masterpiece.

Sadly, season 3 will not air in the U.S. until next winter. But they've given us something to look forward to: Shirley McLaine as the mother of the American-born Lady Grantham. Woohoo! I can already guess there will be fireworks between her character and the Dowager Countess.

Are you a Downton Abbey addict fan? Who's your favorite character? Your least?

P.S. We're participating in Barbara Vey's 5th Anniversary Party over at Beyond Her Book. There's lots of fun, hunky cabana boys and some great prizes. Pop over and say hi!

If You Can't Say Anything Nice...

All my life I've heard, "If you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all." I think it's a pretty good philosophy and I try really hard to stick to it. However, it's an election year and apparently many of the politicians didn't have that phrase pounded into them like I did. Political barbs, personal attacks and downright lies abound. Since we don't talk religion and politics on this blog, I won't go into any details. You can find them for yourselves in any newspaper, online and on television.

What I will go into is how saying something nice can pay off.

Back in the summer of 1998, the ex and I had reason to fly to Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. After looking at airfares, we decided it would behoove us to drive to Nashville and fly Southwest Airlines. We'd never flown with them before so we had no idea what to expect. But as long as they got us to our destination, we didn't care what color uniforms the flight attendants wore or whether we got peanuts or crackers as an in-flight snack.

Boy were we in for a surprise! The flight attendants wore casual attire; one was even in nice shorts. And talk about friendly! On the return flight from Ft. Lauderdale, we had one who was a wannabe country singer and she entertained us with her singing while the male attendant who was nicknamed "Bingo" told us to wait until the seatbelt sign was off before getting up, to make sure we took all our belongings with us and said, "If you are connecting to an airline other than Southwest, we really don't care." It was THE most fun I'd ever had on a flight, and by the time we'd reached Nashville, we knew all our neighbors on the plane and had practically exchanged addresses and phone numbers.

I was so impressed that I decided to write a letter to Southwest and tell them how much I'd enjoyed not only their flight crew, but also the level of service we'd received.

So color me very surprised when I received an envelope from Southwest Airlines with the following letter:



I didn't get a free ticket or a t-shirt. Even better (well, not better than a free ticket but...) they actually appreciated that I'd written to them and responded in kind. Also included was a copy of a Memorandum for the personnel files of each of the three flight attendants.

"The product is basically the same from one airline to the next -- it's the type of service received that makes the difference. Thanks, gang, for always giving our Customers terrific CRACKER JACK service -- we LUV you for it!!" the memo said.

I thought it was cool that Herb had written me. Then I took a closer look are realized Herb was the Chairman of the Board, President and Chief Executive Officer of the whole darn Southwest operation. This busy man took time to send a personal letter in response to my compliments of his company. That's service too, and I've never forgotten it.

Sure, I'm quick to complain when I feel it's necessary (and sometimes when it's not), but I also try to be quick to say please and thank you, to open doors for folks and to just smile at people. We're surrounded by crap and I believe those little acts of kindness can make a real difference. Random Acts of Kindness week was week before last, but you don't need a "week" to do nice things.

What RAK have you done lately? If you haven't, go do one!

P.S. Happy Leap Year! It's not often I get to blog on February 29th. Any of you celebrating a birthday today? Know someone who is?

P.P.S. I saw this after I'd written my blog post but it just seemed to fit, so here it is as a post postscript.

Beware and Be Aware

Alabama's governor has declared this week as Severe Weather Awareness Week, and all citizens were encouraged to conduct their own tornado safety drill today. After the events of last April, I'm very attuned to the weather and take the threat of tornadoes very seriously. I still shudder when I think of my first encounter with a tornado warning in Alabama. I stood at the window and wondered if I could see it. OMG! What was I thinking?

Now I run for my safe place, which is my bathroom. It's in the very interior of my apartment building and backs up to three other bathrooms. I think that's about as interior as one can get and all that plumbing has to be good support. I have a plastic tote under the sink with a flashlight and extra batteries, some small candles and matches and the emergency radio my granddaughter gave me for Christmas. It's run by batteries, solar power or you can crank it for power. I can even give my cell phone a brief charge with it -- enough power to make a short emergency call.



You can download an Alabama All Hazards Awareness booklet and get other good information here.

Do you have a severe weather plan? Don't think it can't happen to you.

Here we go again

Remember in the movie "Groundhog Day" how the day kept repeating? I don't have it quite that bad, but remember this? Foot? Short leg walking cast? Six weeks of hobbling around?

Well, folks, I don't have it quite as bad as Bill Murray, but I have a cast again. Same kind. Same color. Same foot. Remember that wreck I told you about? It seems I have a fracture after all.



The red arrow points to a red spot and that's what's cracked off my big toe bone near the arch. The doctor wanted to know how I'd been walking around on it for three and a half weeks. Well, I had to. And they kept telling me it was just bruised. But the orthopedic doctor has super-duper digital x-ray equipment and can enlarge x-rays so your foot looks a yard long. And that's how he found the fracture.

So I'm back in a cast for six weeks. But this time I have to use crutches for at least the first three weeks to keep weight off the fracture so it can heal.

~sigh~

Everything takes twice as long and twice as much effort when crutches are involved. I carry everything either in a backpack or a cross-body bag. My employer has been terrific about accomodating for my special needs. But I'm already counting the days til March 5 and this thing comes off.

Meanwhile, to put a positive spin on things, it's a new month. And it's a leap year, so all those February 29th-ers can celebrate a birthday. And what else?

* One for the Money hit theaters last week. I haven't been yet but I hope to go this weekend.

* Super Bowl Sunday is February 5th. I have no clue who is playing. But it's time for great new commercials!

* It's American Heart Month, and National Time Management Month. Watch your fats and cholesterols and get yourself a good desk calendar.

* Groundhog Day is tomorrow. Phil will let us know about the state of our winter. It's also Crepe Day, Marmot Day and Sled Dog Day. Go hug a husky.

* February 3rd is The Day the Music Died, when Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and J. P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson were killed in a plane crash near Clear Lake, Iowa.

* Solo Diner's Eat Out Week is February 1 - 7.

* Jello Week is February 12 - 18.

* Random Acts of Kindness Week is February 13 - 19.

* Get a Different Name Day is February 13. I think I'll get Katherine Hepburn. Or maybe Audrey Hepburn. Or maybe Audrey Meadows. Or Jayne Meadows. Or Jayne Mansfield.

* International Sword Swallowing Day is February 25th. I think I'll skip that one.

* And here's my absolute favorite: February 20th is Northern Hemisphere Hoodie Hoo Day. Folks, I had to look this one up. At noon local time, you are supposed to go outdoors and and yell "Hoodie-Hoo" to chase away winter and get ready for the first day of spring, which is a month later. Let's all do this, okay?????

And one last bright spot, we're a little bit closer to new episodes of Bones and The Closer. I cannot wait for Brennan to go into labor and to watch Booth's reaction. We know it's a girl. I'm thinking maybe they'll name her after Brennan's mother. Or maybe Joy, which was Brennan's name before she was Temperance. Just wild guesses.

Any bets on what they're gonna name the little tyke?

Food for thought

I am taking a "Me Vacation" to both have a good time and to do some soul searching. I find the mountains are a great place to sort things out. After several dry years in the writing department I am quite discouraged. I saw this on someone's Facebook and decided it was good food for thought for the new year.




I'm working on a cranky old laptop that shuts down whenever it takes a notion to, so that's all for my blog today since ole laptop could close at any moment.

Have a Happy New Year's Eve!

Have You Ever Been Flashed?

Not that sort of flashed, silly. I'm talking about a flash mob. Wikipedia defines a flash mob as "a group of people who assemble suddenly in a public place, perform an unusual and sometimes seemingly pointless act for a brief time, then disperse, often for the purposes of entertainment, satire, artistic expression. Flash mobs are organized via telecommunications, social media, or viral emails.

The term, coined in 2003, is generally not applied to events and performances organized for the purposes of politics (such as protests), commercial advertisement, publicity stunts that involve public relation firms, or paid professionals."

Maybe you've seen videos of them online. Or maybe you've seen one up close and personal. I think it would be awesome to be sitting somewhere and suddenly have folks singing and/or dancing.

Travellers at the Denver airport were treated to this one two days before Thanksgiving. What a treat for the tired and weary.



This one was November of last year in a mall food court. I wouldn't call it pointless, though.



And in December 2009, a flash mob in a Portland mall took a decidedly different twist. Watch and see what happened.



Admit it. You sang along, didn't you? I did.

Have you ever seen a flash mob? Or been part of one?

PT

I've been having knee problems for a while now and finally went to the doctor back around the first of September. After x-rays and a lot of poking and bending and questions, he determined I have inflammation under the kneecaps and possibly a torn meniscus in the right knee.

The doc put me in a knee brace for six weeks. Within hours it had rubbed a raw spot on my leg, and when I wore the protective sleeve under it the next day, I got an very red and very itchy welt from whatever keeps the sleeve from sliding down. So I improvised with the cut-off top of a sock until the doctor's office gave me some cotton material they put under casts. I also left with a prescription for an anti-inflammatory medication and orders to take it easy on the knee.

When I went back for my check-up, the pain had improved a LOT but he was still concerned, so he ordered physical therapy -- twice a week for four weeks. At that point he will re-evaluate and possibly do an MRI. He is hoping I can avoid surgery with the therapy (and I an hoping for this in a very big way).

Physical therapy is also called PT, and I've come to believe those initials also stand for Pain and Torture. Heaven bless her, my assistant therapist is as sweet a woman as they come. We talk about all sorts of things while she's ripping my hamstrings and quadriceps from my body. She tells me I'm doing a good job, but darnit, I swear there's a little gleam in her eye when she sees the tears in mine or watches me breathe through a series of 60 leg lifts.

What sort of person becomes involved with pain and torture... er... physical therapy? The curriculum is tough. My main therapist has DPT after her name -- Doctorate in Physical Therapy. After she got her B.S. in Kinesiology, she did three more years of study in physical therapy plus an internship. She's a smart cookie.

But geez it hurts. And I have exercises to do at home too. If it means I can avoid surgery, I'll do my Lamaze breathing and tuck a tissue in the pocket of my yoga pants and gut it out.

Keep your fingers crossed. And if you see me, ask, "Have you done your pain and torture physical therapy today?

Have YOU had to do PT for anything? Tell me about your tor... er... treatment.

Things That You Think Work But They Don't Really

You've read about placebos, haven't you? The sugar pills they give to certain segments of a drug study to see if the real deal really works or if just thinking you get the real deal helps you? They work on the principle that sometimes just thinking something will make you feel better actually will. This involves something called confabulation, which is a fancy word for making up a believable excuse to explain something we don't understand. I guess mothers have been doing it for eons -- blaming everything on teething. Junior cried all night? He's teething. Sally cried at her birthday party? She's teething. Tommy flunked out of college? He's... uh, no.

And here are some examples of things you think work but they don't really.

The Elevator "Close Doors" Button

Color me stunned to learn it's really a dummy button. Well, it CAN be used, but only by the right person who has a key. Maybe it's to give passengers the illusion of control? The article said they could put up a sign explaining it doesn't do anything, but that would cost money and there'd still be folks who push it, convinced the sign is part of a government conspiracy to take away elevator door rights.

High-Def TV

In order to really get a high definition picture, you not only have to have a high-def television, you have to watch a high-def channel and have high-def service and everything hooked up correctly. But according to a Dutch study, when folks were shown identical video clips on different TVs but were told one was high-def and the other was a standard TV), the viewers overwhelmingly said the "high-def" picture was better.




Walk Signal Buttons

In many cities, crosswalks have buttons to allow pedestrians to make the WALK signal come on. But in New York City, officials admitted several years ago they'd deactivated the buttons and put all traffic lights on an automated system. The WALK signals in the Big Apple are like the CLOSE DOOR buttons on elevators.

Leg and Fanny Toning Shoes

I'm sure you've seen the shoes with curved soles that claim to tone up your legs and fanny. Well... the Federal Trade Commission just ordered a major shoe manufacturer to pay twenty-five milllion dollars in refunds to customers for whom the claim didn't work. Despite this FTC ruling, many of the shoe's purchasers sing their praises. Confabulation perhaps?

Office Thermostats

In my office, we have a definite heating and cooling problem. Areas of the building (which has a reception area, two conference rooms, a break room, three storage rooms, a file room and offices for the three attorneys, two paralegals and me) get too hot in the afternoon and we have to adjust the thermostat.

But can you imagine the results if a company in a fifty-story office building let employees adjust the thermostat on a whim? That would be a utility bill catastrophe. "Just lock up the thermostat," you say. But then the employees would complain.

So what do they do? They go to the fake elevator button people and order a fake thermostat. The buttons work, the digital numbers go up and down but it's not connected to the heating and air conditioning system. Yet the employees are happy because they think they're making the office hotter or colder.

More confabulation.

I guess I'll stop pushing the close-the-elevator-door button now. I have a high-def TV AND high-def cables so I'm really seeing high-def broadcasts. I don't have to cross too many streets in my daily life. I never thought those shoes worked anyway. And as I said, the thermostat in my office really does work.

Are you surprised to learn these things? Or did you already know and I was the only one who was taken aback about the close-the-elevator-door button?

I finally got there

At 10:06 a.m. this past Monday I finally got there -- the last page of the Internet. It was a long journey that began some time back in the 90's when I discovered the 'net.

I love the Internet. Yeah, it can be a huge time suck, but it's also entertained me, informed me and helped me earn some money.

Now that I've reached the last page, I took time for a little retrospective look down memory lane at some of the sites I've bookmarked as favorites.

Google -- Need I say more?

eBay -- I'm a buyer and seller.

etsy -- A world of wonderful handmade items.

Internet Movie Data Base -- How can one live without this site?

US Newspaper List -- Another great resource site.

Free Rice -- Improve your vocabulary and help others. What could be better?

Facebook -- I plead the 5th. Actually, I've reconnected with childhood friends and a best friend from high school, among others.

Snow Days -- Winter fun.

Snopes -- Great place to debunk urban myths and those annoying emails about getting money from Microsoft for forwarding emails.

All Recipes -- When you're looking for a new recipe.

Max Talent -- Terrific place to find photos to use as visuals for hero and heroine of your book.

Squirt's Place -- My favorite hunk site. NOT SAFE FOR WORK though.

Vista Print -- I just love all the great things you can order for just the cost of shipping.

Grammy Tales -- THE most adorable child in the world.

Go ahead. Click on this link and visit the last page. And then come back and tell me YOUR favorite sites. One randomly selected commenter will get one of my handmade beaded bookmarks.

Git 'r Done

So I'm working now and even though it's a part-time job, I'm having to adjust how I do things. All appointments must be in the mornings now. Housework is a morning chore instead of dusting at 11 P.M. Two nights a week I facilitate a divorce recovery group so I don't get home until after nine o'clock. I really like having my weekends free for fun things, so I was excited when this email popped into my box -- "13 Tips to Get Your Errands Done Quicker." I love it when the Universe knows what I need and sends the answer ASAP.

So without further ado here's my paraphrased version of the email.

1. Bunch things up. This is the golden rule of errand-running, according to the article. NEVER RUN ONE ERRAND AT A TIME. You save all the way around by grouping errands together. Map out your stops and hit them in order. If you have to go to the drugstore, take the route that goes by the bank where you deposit a check and by the grocery store where you pick up milk and bread. You'll save time and gasoline, and your stress levels will be lower too.

2. Avoid rush hour. Raise your hand if you've spent a Saturday standing in check-out lines along with everyone else on the planet. Most folks run errands on the weekend, which is precisely when YOU don't want to be running yours. See if you can find a bank, grocery store, gas station, cleaners, etc either near your home or your work. Drop off your cleaning on the way to work and pick it up on the way home. Fill up your gas tank during your lunch hour. Shop for groceries after dinner. If you're single, just go. If you're married with kids, let one parent stay home while the other buys groceries. It's less crowded plus you won't have the check-out-aisle candy tantrum.

3. Designate an "Out Box." Tell everyone that all items involved with an errand should be put in one spot in the house -- library books, dry cleaning, outgoing mail, etc. If you can have this near the door you use most frequently, it helps as a visual reminder. Or you can put things on the passenger seat of your car to remind you. I have a tote by my door for this very purpose. It really helps keep me on task.


4. Make a list. And keep it with you all the time. Using a small notebook or legal pad makes this work better than trying to keep up with a single sheet of paper. Put your usual errands on the list (groceries, gasoline, mail) but also write down the less often tasks (make dentist appointment, buy three-hole-punch paper at the office supply store, return the sweater that didn't match your burgundy skirt). Having everything on one list helps facilitate #1 too. You can see mine on the right. Since I wrote this blog, I've crossed more off the list. I've also added more.

5. There's power in numbers. Toilet paper, personal care items, dog food, etc can be purchased in bulk, thereby reducing the number of times you have to go to the store to buy them. Don't have a lot of storage space? Try storing them under your bed.

6. Make it fun. Carry a novel, crossword puzzle or sodoku book with you when you run errands. You can read or work a puzzle while you wait in line.

7. Automate. Computerize your grocery list. Most people buy the same things every week, so why not have a master list on the computer? You can add or delete items easily. And you can organize it by aisles in the store to streamline your shopping.

8. Let Your Fingers Do the Walking. Do as much by phone and online as possible. Why pay for stamps when you can pay bills online or have them automatically drafted from your account? I absolutely ADORE my bank's online Bill Pay service. And ordering from various online retailers beats the heck out of driving to the mall, especially at Christmas.

9. Be a bag lady. Put a bag or tote in your car to hold note paper and a pen (how many times have you remembered something while at a stop light?), store coupons, sale flyers from your favorite stores, etc. When the coupons are handy, you're more likely to use them.

10. Chill out. Keep a cooler in your trunk. This way you can keep foods frozen and cold while you do other errands. Also put a large tote in the trunk so you can carry more inside at once. I like using the cloth shopping bags at the grocery store because the cashier will put more into them. If I buy twelve items, they'll all go in that one cloth bag. But without it, I'll come home with three or four plastic bags.

11. Remember yourself. A motivated errand runner is a happier one. ~grin~ Pick up a bouquet of flowers at the market or stop for a latte to give yourself a little treat.

12. Take turns. Do you have a neighbor you could share errands with? You could shop for groceries one week and she'd do it the next? If you have children, you could watch her kids while she tackles the supermarket and switch tasks next week. This could work with bulk buying too. Don't have room for 50 rolls of toilet paper, even using space under the bed? Maybe your neighbor would like to split the package with you.

13. Get dad involved. The article said a study showed that children who do household chores and errands with their fathers were better behaved and had more friends than children who didn't. Who doesn't want better behaved kids and for their little darlings to be well-liked? And a little bonus -- the study showed these men's wives found them to be sexier. That should be motivation for the guys to de-clutter with the kids, right?

Do you have any other tips to share? With fall in the air, I'm eager to keep my weekends as free as possible to take advantage of the cooler temps and various activities going on in the area.

More What Knots

Last summer I blogged about a red string I wore around my wrist. The strings came from a Buddhist practice my minister learned about when he visited India. The string was all about the knots in our lives -- the problems we work to resolve.

My string finally rotted and fell off a few weeks ago. I'd hoped it meant all my knots were unraveled, but alas, it isn't so.

~ I still have loose ends with the divorce.

~ I have an unfinished manuscript.

~ I have a request I haven't acted on.

~ My spare room looks like a bomb went off.

~ The closet for this room looks even worse.

~ I'm having to study the Level 2 facilitator's manual and workbook for the divorce group I work with so I can co-facilitate this starting next month.

~ My other foot still needs to be operated on.

Some problems are easy fixes -- like a burned-out light bulb or a squeaky door hinge. I can fix those myself.

Others aren't so easy. They require a lot more effort and/or require the help of others.

So I'm thinking of pulling out the spare red string I had and tying it around my wrist to help remind me about the unfinished manuscript, the year-old request (she DID say it had no expiration date), the junk in my spare room and closet, my foot and the Level 2 program study.


I'll get it done. I just need to get it done sooner rather than later. But some things can't be rushed, so I have to be patient. I'm not always good with patience.

And once again, rather than have you bear your souls about the knots in your lives, I'll ask you what's going on in your life and/or what good book you've read lately. I've mostly read divorce group manuals. They're good, or rather I should say they are helpful. But they're not entertaining like a good novel. And I just started a new part-time job on Monday. I'm an administrative assistant in a law firm. Ain't that a kick?

What are you reading and/or doing?

Grammar counts. EVERYWHERE!

I found this on Yahoo

Court kicks out frivolous Title IX cheerleader suit with gusto
By Cameron Smith

What happens when two cheerleaders get into a lengthy feud over a boy, then the younger is left off the varsity squad the following season? In Texas, a lawsuit happens, with said suit being laughed out of an appeals court upon its official review date.

As first reported by the Dallas Observer, the Title IX lawsuit filed by Liz Laningham -- the mother of former Carrollton (Texas) Creekview High cheerleader Sami Sanches (who is not pictured among the most recent group of Creekview cheerleaders below) -- was thrown out of the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals with the legal equivalent of a good, forceful kick to the rear end.


The following passage comes directly from the legal opinion given in the Laningham-Sanches case. In fact, it's the statement that starts off the lengthy court opinion, which you can read in full at the bottom of this Deadspin post right here.

Reduced to its essentials, this is nothing more than a dispute, fueled by a disgruntled cheerleader mom, over whether her daughter should have made the squad. It is a petty squabble, masquerading as a civil rights matter, that has no place in federal court or any other court. We find no error [with the lower court's judgement] and affirm.

Now, one might wonder how the mother of a high school cheerleader could possibly be delusional enough to think that a claim of a vast school conspiracy against her daughter would be validated by a federal court. In fact, one might also wonder what made her feel entitled enough to cite prior legal decisions that found proof of sexual harassment and discrimination against rape victims and students who happened to bear an unfortunate likeness with Monica Lewinsky, in that aforementioned court claim.

The answer, it seems, is that Ms. Laningham was quite delusional indeed. Among a serial list of issues raised in her original legal writ, the Dallas Observer pulled out the following salient complaints … none of which, one could argue, have absolutely anything to do with the kind of systematic discrimination Title IX and sexual harassment laws are intended to protect against:

1. The school did not remove the freshman cheerleading squad captain after she told Sanches she'd kissed her boyfriend.

2 The way the squad chose jump sequences at homecoming was patently unfair.

3. Rank favoritism.

4. The scheduling of the end-of-year banquet for cheerleaders was too favorable to senior girls.

5. Laningham was threatened with a lawsuit by other parents because she failed to return cheerleading videos.

Ladies and gentlemen, there is a test case in when you know a lawsuit is extraordinarily frivolous. The fact that other parents had to file a suit against Laningham just to get her to return cheerleading squad videos is proof enough that she didn't have the greatest track record of responsible "cheerleading stewardship," for lack of a better term.

Still, the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals wasn't yet finished in its criticism of Laningham's irresponsible legal advocacy. In fact, it went so far as to criticize the grammar of the original filed brief in its footnotes, which it did with the following piece of exceptional intra-documentary referencing:

"Usually we do not comment on technical and grammatical errors, because anyone can make such an occasional mistake, but here the miscues are so egregious and obvious that an average fourth grader would have avoided most of them. …

"And finally, the sentence containing the word 'incompetence' makes no sense as a matter of standard English prose, so it is not reasonably possible to understand the thought, if any, that is being conveyed. It is ironic that the term 'incompetence' is used here, because the only thing that is incompetent is the passage itself."

Ouch. Laningham just got served ... a really nasty court decision.

Thus concluded what Prep Rally can only consider to be the greatest review of a frivolous high school athletics lawsuit of all time. It's a legal opinion that may be incredibly difficult to top in the future, too, given its brash handling of the case and willingness to try and set a precedent for how such future frivolous lawsuits will be handled.

So believe your English teacher when he/she tells you that grammar counts!

It's Back-to-School Time

I'm going back to school this weekend -- to writing school. I'm taking a workshop given by Margie Lawson. It's called Empowering Characters' Emotions. The blurb about the class is below.

Want to add a psychological punch to your writing and editing?
Want to learn how to capture the full range of body language on the page?

Want to turn your work into a page-turner by powering up emotion and hooking the reader viscerally?

Look forward to learning:

The EDITS System
Basic, complex, empowered, and super empowered passages
Backstory management
Kinesics, Haptics, Proxemics, Facial expressions, Paralanguage
Proprioceptive stimuli, Involuntary physical responses
Ideomotoric
shifts
Mirroring, Communication Accommodation
Levels of intimacy, Love signals
Nonverbal gender differences
Emotional authenticity
Backloading
In-trancing the Reader
Writing fresh . . .
Projecting Emotion for a Non-POV character
Carrying a Nonverbal Image Forward
Objective Constructs
Empowering Characters’ Emotions Checklist

I have to tell you that none of that makes sense to me, and I was a psychology major. Of course, that degree is thirty-mumble years old and I was more into maze-running rats than Freud and Jung.

But I saw this workshop and had heard good things about it and decided, what the heck! Maybe this will jump-start my recalcitrant muse. If nothing else, it will get me back into the book I wrote 50K words on for NaNoWriMo 2010. Of course, after I cleaned up the manuscript, there are only about 42K words left. I need to finish this book. My soul needs for me to finish this book to prove to myself I can do it again.

And aside from taking the class, I'm going to get to meet a new friend in person. Pam Asberry and I met online, and she's actually the one who told me about the workshop. When I decided to take it, I let her know, and to make a long story short, we're going to be roomies on Friday night.

Whatcha doing this weekend?