I was treated to this sight this weekend. The moon was bright, close and loomed large in the night sky!
Last Wednesday night, we were treated to a couple of inches of snow. Yes, Houston had snow. To the south and east, they received up to four inches in a short amount of time. I had enough on cars for a snowball fight. Sadly, by morning, it was all melted. It was fun while it lasted!
Today would have been my brother Scott’s 43rd birthday. I think about him often and have many pictures that bring back happy memories.
Macho man reading The Little Ballerina to his sister.
My first band. Maybe Scott wanted to be Lawrence Welk?
We were always out in the snow!
Just after my first major, major haircut… after which my mother cried for days. The little twerp in front of me is my little brother, Danny.
On his birthday in 1994 with his daughter, Ashley.
Happy Birthday, Scott. You are missed, but never, ever forgotten.
A few snapshots of the season so far.
And, finally, when the sun shines through some of my ornaments, the light makes it’s own constellation on my wall.
Today, as I was looking around my apartment mentally planning my Christmas decor, I realized that I was without an Advent wreath, a Christmas tree skirt, and misc decorations. In a flashback to a time when Jene’ had to make us an Advent wreath in the buckle of the Bible belt, I knew I would have to start from scratch or spend time driving all over town trying to find a place with pre-made Advent wreaths.
Since my friend Amy mentioned the word, “crafty” (in the arts & craft sense) earlier today, I thought I would try to make my own wreath. I went to Michael’s and bought a wreath and some decorations for it. I could not, however, find any taper candle holders (all gone), advent candles or any comparable candles that wouldn’t choke me to death.
Fortunately, I often shop at Hobby Lobby, one of my favorite stores. I figured if I could find Advent candles nearby, it would be there.
Success! I found Advent candles, and candle holders, AND all ornaments were 50% off. Hobby Lobby is having crazy sales every week this season, and I encourage you to shop there. Every week a different set of seasonal items are marked down. I love their ornaments and bought a couple and got some garland for over the door and some Buffalo snow rather than material to make a Christmas tree skirt.
I have too much Christmas stuff… BUT I have an extra room, which will become the Christmas Staging Area (or CSA) and I will once again sort and pare down what I have and I can get stuff out and not clutter up any other space in the apartment. I have already started decorating (Ok… I made the Advent wreath and a tiny tree for either my room or to take to work) and hope to get in the Christmas swing soon.
In other news… I am behind on my word count for NANOWRIMO, but hope to catch up over the next couple of days… and now I can’t use the Advent Wreath Emergency for a distraction.
When I was 19, I stood at the crypt of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and wondered if his dream would ever come true. Growing up in the midwest in a county that is still, as of the last census, 98% white, I was, up until that moment, unaware of the importance of Dr. King’s dream.
Walking the halls of The King Center, I saw the images and heard the speeches of a man who gave his life to the cause, the dream, that people someday would be judged by the content of their character and not the color of their skin… which is a big leap for someone who grew up where nearly every person I knew or met was the same shade of white. I was overwhelmed, to put it mildly, to think I was part of Dr. King’s dream and spent the next few years endeavoring to understand why the dream was important to me.
I remember thinking, all those years ago, that I would never see a non-white President in my lifetime. Never. I’d seen too much injustice, heard people use racial epithets about people they didn’t know, just because their skin was a different color. I could never understand why people would choose to act that way, but they did… many because they learned to act that way at home or in their group of friends, and the hate and ignorance was passed down as easily and earnestly at times as someone passes on their faith.
I’ve been guilty of prejudice and it happens from both sides of the fence. Maybe my prejudices aren’t color-coded, but I still struggle with seeing everybody from every walk of life on the same playing field, let alone wearing the same uniform. At least I have come to the point in my life where I am willing to acknowledge my weaknesses and seek knowledge so I can be informed and make changes inside myself so I am part of the solution and not the problem.
When I heard Barack Obama announced as the President-Elect of the United States, I was so overwhelmed with emotion, I cried. I watched as a crowd of thousands of people of all shades, shapes, and sizes cheered and wept together.
Regardless of political affiliations, I hope people can look back one day and see the significance of Tuesday night. I can pinpoint moments in my life where I remember where I was in crisp detail when history was made. The Challenger Explosion. The fall of the Berlin Wall. So many more.
Now I can add Tuesday night to the list, the night a giant leap was taken toward making the dream of unity come true.
I don’t care who you voted for, I just care that you voted.
Either way, no matter who wins, history will have been made. The first female vice president will be elected, or the first African-American president will take office. Either way, the result is encouraging in that this country is taking steps to break out of the mold it’s held for over two hundred years.
Minds are opening. Change is in the air. Though I early voted, I went out this morning and people everywhere were talking about the election, asking others if they voted. People early voted in record numbers and lines were long this morning as people waited to exercise their right to choose.
I will try not to watch so much election coverage, but I can’t help myself. I’m excited and hopeful for the first time since I have been old enough to vote. I am excited that the election has people’s attention and that people are talking and engaged and listening and thinking. This is one of the reasons I love my country and the privileges I have, but most of all, I have the privilege to choose.
I don’t care who you voted for. I just care that you voted…and if you didn’t vote, I don’t want to hear you gripe.
I have creatively distracted myself enough this weekend, which is good in many, many ways. Though I am well over 6,000 words in my quest for 50,000, I did not write on Sunday. Instead, after taking some awesome Ultimate Frisbee photos, I went to the Menil and then to Miller Outdoor Theater to enjoy a concert by Barrage.
I was completely saturated with creativity, but still struggled to write 1800 words yesterday. I believe my story idea is good, I’m just having trouble with takeoff. Again, I usually have a bit more time to prepare for NANOWRIMO and have usually dreamt through most of the beginning of the story at least a few times. It will all click, I know, I just need to keep feeding the creative side of me.
I love to tell stories – stories of places, people, and their journeys. Any story of mine does not live without its soul coming to life. I am on the brink of that moment, I can feel it!
The countdown to NANOWRIMO is on! Though I have been sick most of the weekend, I am excited about writing my brains out come next weekend.
I have tried to write an outline but as usual, haven’t completed one. Outlines frustrate me and limit me, so I while I am plotting (writing down what I’d like to the story to say and where I’d like it to go), I have tossed the outline aside.
Six days out, I have compiled a list of NANOWRIMO essentials.
SNACKS – Check. I have stocked up on munchies that don’t weigh me down.
CHECK OFF DISTRACTIONS – Check. I am early voting this week and will plan out my days off to maximize writing and also get those pesky things done (like getting my license renewed). By the end of the week I will replace those dishes I broke (don’t ask) and have my “miscellaneous/non-essential” shopping finished. Check, check.
PLAN CREATIVE DISTRACTIONS – Check. So far I have one concert and a trip to the movies planned. While I am trying not to add too much during this month, I do have ample days off and can’t write all day long you know.
DAYS OFF – Check! I will have three four-day weekends in November. It’s just how it worked out. I should be finished well before Thanksgiving again this year.
MINIMIZE PERSONAL DISTRACTIONS – Che…Yeah, this never works, but I have to try. Actually, the more I interact with people, the more creative I am. So as long as the drama is kept to a dull minimum, I should be fine.
PAPER BALLOTS IN CASE THE ELECTRONIC VOTING MACHINES DON’T WORK… or, rather, EXTRA PAPER IN CASE THE COMPUTER DOESN’T WORK – Check. Have pens, too. Check.
NANOWRIMO SOUNDTRACK – Check, check, check. It’s loaded with British rock (Oasis, Coldplay), a little bit of The Autum Film and puts me in the zone.
PLOT – (laughs). That’s for me to know and you to find out!
I’ve had some unexpected turns lately, which, in hindsight have proven to be beneficial, though it may take months to figure out just how beneficial. Painful as those turns have been, I know everything will work out as it should, as it always does.
That said, I’ve suddenly been put in a position to do NANOWRIMO again for myself. So far, I have about eight characters and a title, which is more than I usually have at this point, so I am happy about that.
I had a long weekend, and today while it was raining, I went to Borders to look around and breathe in ink and paper and listen to some good music. I went all over the store (it was raining really hard out there) and while I was in the periodicals section, one of my characters jumped out at me from the cover of a British music magazine. I love it when that happens.
My characters are taking more shape and coming to life, which makes this whole process flow. I still have no idea what I’m going to write, but I now have a better idea of who is going to tell the story.
I’ve been back at work since Friday and it’s weird, after two weeks off, to try and pick up where I left off. When I walked in Friday morning the first thing I noticed was that my computer was connected to a long, heavy duty extension cord. I could tell things had been moved, but it probably took me twenty minutes to realize that of all the desks in the room, mine had taken on some water during the hurricane.
The outlet in the wall got wet, the filing cabinet had been wet on the bottom, and everything on top of the filing cabinet and my wall calendar had been soaked. I know it could have been much worse and I am so grateful to whoever took all the wet files off my desk and spread them out so they could dry while I was gone.
The saddest file was the one full of papers printed on an inkjet. I’ve been able to make copies from nearly everything from the wet files (love those laser printers) to send out with the invoices to customers, but this one contains a report that is now all crinkly with ink that runs the full length of the page, totally unreadable, yet very pretty in an I’m a survivor sort of way. I am waiting for the engineer who wrote it to get back from wherever he is in the world to print me out another one.
I managed to cram 12 days of work into four. Not sure how, but I managed. I am already up to my eyeballs in October work. I am grateful to be busy and have a good job in today’s economy!
Most of my friends have power now, even though some can’t plug in two major appliances at a time. I saw some pictures from a friend who had a tree uproot in the driveway, pushing concrete up under her truck and then landed on her roof. So many stories, so many lives affected. Most people I know are back at work or school, and as the traffic lights start to work as they should, life feels a bit more normal.
I have seen tree trimmer trucks from New York (they have put their hometowns in black tape on the back of their trucks), New Jersey, and Michigan and electric company trucks from Oklahoma and San Antonio. I’m sure many states and towns are represented. They gather as an army in vast parking lots and drive off into the neighborhoods to clean and light up homes and yards. I wish I could thank them all individually. I guess I’ll just have to keep waving at them like a crazy woman when I drive by.
Sassy Dreams Awake 