Monday Likes&Loves

I spent much of this weekend cleaning, doing laundry, ironing, figuring out my husband's homework, and making lists of what we'll need once we move into our new place. Fortunately, I was able to get everything under control before Sunday, which is when my niece came to visit. We spent time together all of Sunday, and we even did some baking. It was a nice and relaxing end to my otherwise busy weekend. Here are the things that made my weekend great...

On Saturday, I made a list of what we'll need for our new place, but the best part was picking colors for the walls! I love color!

My niece and I watched two movies--one of which was Tangled. I hadn't seen it yet (can you believe it?), but I'm glad I finally did. It was definitely entertaining.

Okay so one of my guilty pleasures is going to Target and browsing their clothes and home items, but this weekend, I didn't! If I make a shopping list for Target, I usually end up buying a million other things that I don't need, but I stuck to my list this time! If you have an addiction to buying too much stuff from Target like I do, then you know this is a big deal; therefore, I felt it deserved a spot on this post. 

Among the items on my shopping list were a few ingredients for these chocolate chip & mint cookies. My best friend, who is amazing at baking all sorts of goodies, came over and baked these cookies with my niece and me. They're super chocolatey and yummy!

Lastly, my dog Carolina has made it onto the blog once again (sleeping once again) because she has kept me company not only this weekend--but the whole week since Joe has been gone. She has been sleeping at my feet each night and kept me nice and warm. *On a side note, she has also managed to chew 4 holes in my blanket, but I'll overlook them until Joe is home.* 

That was my weekend... How was yours?  

Monday Likes&Loves

It seems to be incredibly easy to complain on Mondays about how the weekend is over and how none of us want to go to work, BUT wouldn't it be so much better to start off the week with a few positive things on your mind? Here are some of my favorite things/events/activities/etc that I encountered this weekend. Enjoy...

I finished the first book in The Hunger Games Series, and I loved it! I just started reading the second book... Hooray for new books!

I've been lusting over this shade of purple/grey for a while now. It's called Grey Area. Love.

This gold leaf brooch is definitely making its way into my fall wardrobe this season, and I can't wait!

My dad plants flowers, and they grow. He plants random vegetables, and they grow. As did this nice and round pumpkin. It's beginning to feel A LOT like fall!

Lastly, here is a vintage Gucci purse. You could say that I sort of inherited it. I absolutely love it! It's wonderfully practical. Though you can't tell from this image, it is a well-sized structured square purse in a fab shade of brown. Notice the Brown Derby matches? They were inside the purse when I opened it! When I think of The Brown Derby, I automatically think of the I Love Lucy episode where Lucy dines there with Fred and Ethel, but runs into a waiter who drops a ton of food on a celebrity (I think it's William Holden) and runs out of the restaurant embarrassed. Then, Ricky unknowingly invites that same celebrity to their hotel, so Lucy uses some sort of putty to make her nose look larger, and lights the tip of it on fire while trying to light her cigarette. Have I mentioned that I also LOVE watching I  Love Lucy? 

These five things made my weekend wonderful. How was your weekend?

Home

Lately, it feels like I've been everywhere but home. I would love to have a lazy day right now. And although it is a long weekend, and I may get to have my lazy day tomorrow, it won't be the same without my husband. Here are just a few images that make me feel at home.

The heart sticker that greets me at the freeway onramp...

The pink & purple flowers that adorn the mailbox...

Zoe & Carolina, who have a love/hate relationship...

Carolina, who keeps me company and sleeps at my feet when Joe is gone.

The Inspiration Behind "The Umbrella"

A few years ago, my (then) boyfriend (now husband), best friend, and her boyfriend took a mini vacation to Yosemite. On our way there, we stopped to get gas because that's what you do when you drive to faraway places. As we pulled up to the gas station, I saw a man struggling against the wind to keep his umbrella grounded. He was indeed selling strawberries, but there was no little boy there; however, I instantly considered that he may have a child at home--a family.

Now, I live in California, and I see people selling fruit and flowers on the street all the time, and to be quite honest, it irks me. Why? Because I wish so badly that they didn't have to do that. I wonder if that is one of the ways they make their living, and if so, I wonder how much they either enjoy or despise doing it. I wonder how much more they have to offer. I wonder about how many people disregard the fact that they may be very well-educated individuals but write them off as illiterate or untalented. I wonder how many people take the time to think about and consider the lives of these individuals. There are various social implications that can be read into my poem, but it is ultimately the reader's right to make up his or her mind on what those implications may be.

P.S. Thank you to my best friend, who tracked down the picture we took of the man we saw peddling strawberries.

The Umbrella

The umbrella was ascending

As the wind tested its fullness

And threatened to invert its perfect metal frame

It was a rainbow with its infinite colors

Against the crisp celestial backdrop of spring

It spun in its struggle

And danced with the wind,

But holding it down was a man

Stout—with a plump belly

A straw hat balanced on his head

As he pleaded with the umbrella

To shield him from the sun

But his skin was already russet

And looked like worn leather.

He had knocked back his chair

In his clumsy attempt to conquer the umbrella

He lunged after it with heavy feet after each strong gust of wind

Then I saw the strawberries in crates not far from his overturned chair

They were a bleeding crimson sitting in the sun

Begging to be bought.

The sign read:

Straberies $2.00

Fresas $2.00

And I thought this scene comical

Until I saw behind the sign

A little boy with huaraches staring at the man and the umbrella.

No one bought any strawberries,

So neither did I. 

twenty-four

Today is my birthday, but I did most of my celebrating throughout the past week. I got my hair done, I got to sleep in and eat french toast, I watched The Help and Cowboys & Aliens, and most importantly, I got to spend time with family and friends.

Joe, my husband, and I decided to book a cruise that departs to Cabo in November as an all encompassing gift for our birthdays, anniversary, and Christmas. I am so incredibly excited!

When I woke up this morning, I didn't expect to receive any other gift from him, but he had a little surprise for me hidden in the trunk of my car.

This was a completely unexpected gift, and I love it. I had mentioned to him that I wanted to read the series, so he bought me the first book to get me started. He's an avid supporter of my reading habit, and I love it! And I love him too!

where have i been & what have i been up to?

Lazy

Idle

Lethargic

Languid

Sluggish

Unproductive

Inoperative

There are quite a few words for how I have been feeling, and they're all listed above. My favorite is Inoperative: not working. It's not that I haven't been doing anything at all, but it feels like I have been doing nothing. I have been going to work, and I have kept up with my daily chores. I have even done some writing. But somehow it all amounts to what feels like nothing. I strike things off of my to do lists, but I don't feel accomplished. I want to feel accomplished. Let's hope that August brings some new opportunities along with its rising temperatures.

The Help

It has been a while since I've posted anything--my apologies. I've been working more, and although I haven't written much, my brain has produced a few ideas. My husband is out of town, which means that I get more free time to do things like, write. So I will do just that... tomorrow.

Today, I finished reading The Help. It is awesome! I couldn't put it down. The teacher in me thinks that it would be a great book to pair with To Kill a Mockingbird because it is so new and probably more appealing to teenagers than TKAM. I cannot wait until the movie is out. I am definitely looking forward to it.

the before 30 list

I'm constantly making lists. To do lists, shopping lists, wish lists... all kinds of lists. Remember sitting in class on the first day of school? Remember when your teacher asked you to write a set of goals for the year, and then maybe a set of goals to be accomplished within the next 5 years? Well, that's the kind of list that I haven't created in a long time. So... in keeping with my tradition of lists, I've come up with a list of goals to accomplish by the time I'm 30. I'll be 24 in a little over a month, so that gives me 6 years to cross everything off of my list. I'm at a bit of a crossroads, and for the first time in my life, I don't have a plan. I suppose the following list is my own weird way of creating a more fluid plan.

Introducing, "The Before 30 List"...

1. Travel to 2 different countries

2. Learn to speak French

3. Go skydiving

4. See the northern lights

5. Visit the Grand Canyon

6. Learn to sew

7. Buy a house

8. Write a book & get it published

9. Enter a master's program

10. Find a career

happy independence day!

I'll be enjoying the festivities of this weekend with my family. The picture above is of a portion of the chocolate-dipped pretzels that I made for my sister's BBQ. I got the idea from this blog and am quite pleased with how they turned out.

in between writing

This blog will never only be about writing because life happens in between writing one piece and starting another. Life is what inspires, calms, and often knocks us down. In my creative writing classes, I regularly heard that it's wise to write about what you know. During a workshop, one young woman read her story about an embalmer, and it was great! Why? Because her mother was an embalmer, and she was familiar with the science behind it. I'm not saying that every bit of our lives should be documented in writing (although some people abuse the use of Facebook for such publications), BUT we should take what we enjoy, what hurts, what we've experienced and run with it in any and every direction that makes sense to us as writers and as readers. I say all of this because I will often post about day-to-day things--things that may not seem to be important in isolation, but may add up to something greater. For example, the nail polish in my previous post... totally unimportant. However, if I should ever decide to write about a girl preparing for her first school dance, I may choose to include the color of her nail polish: First Kiss, and that my friends, may be a very significant detail once the story unravels.

delights

Through the course of this week, I was able to get quite a few errands done and was also able to enjoy a few selfish pleasures. Below, are some of the things that brought me delight this week.

I revised the last story I needed for my contest submission & am ready to mail everything on Monday!

I found this wonderful summer nail polish at Target. Its name: First Kiss. Adorable, right?

On the right is a bag that my mom crocheted for me. I love it!

My sister gave me this fabulous floppy hat. It's amazing! I used it several times while working on my tan this week.

While running some errands, I stopped by Jo-ann fabric store to try and find a bright printed fabric that I had seen the previous week, but it was nowhere to be found. I was very disappointed to say the least, but I fell in love with a black, tan & coral printed chiffon, so I bought it. Because I've become a little obsessed with this store, I couldn't get the original fabric I had seen out of my head, so I decided to return to the store a few days later, and guess what... it was there! I think I may have squealed in excitement a little bit when I found it. Embarrassing? Yes. Do I care? No.

That was my week, and it was pretty great.

realizations

Realization #1: I thought that a week would be enough time to work on the new story I started last week, but I have been unexpectedly busy these past few days. Instead of rushing the story, I have decided to put it off for now, and I'm going to let the format of the piece be fluid. I'm not going to force it into a story if it would be better as a poem. I often throw ideas out because I don't think they'll make good stories. BUT they may make good poems. This is one of my realizations: Material can take any form as long as it complements its message and doesn't reduce it. I was having trouble with the idea I had for my story because I felt that I was forcing it to carry a bigger meaning just so I could write a story... when in reality the idea itself wasn't bad, but fewer words would do it more justice than letting the message drown in pages of unnecessary words.

Realization #2: Because I won't have enough time to write a new story and mail in my submission before the deadline, I have decided not only to revise, but to re-envision a story I wrote a few years ago. There's something about coming back to a piece I have written in the past and making changes to it that makes me feel comfortable, older...different. My next realization: It's easier to see opportunities in one's own writing after some distance and coming back to it with fresh eyes.

Realization #3: My mom is a pretty amazing woman. She was born in a rural town in Mexico where she didn't always have shoes to wear on her feet. She worked in her parents' fields picking tomatoes after school. She could carry a bucket full of water on her head after fetching it from the creek nearby. She always wore dresses as a girl because back then, women didn't wear shorts or pants. She grew up across the street from the man she eventually married and became a father to her 4 children. She learned to sew at age 15. In her twenties she raised two daughters with the help of the women in her family while my father worked in the U.S. through the Bracero Program for two years off and on. She has raised 4 successful children, who are now adults. She has survived one bout with cancer in 2008, and is now fighting her second. Like I said, she's pretty amazing. My final realization: My mom's life has been anything but ordinary and it deserves to be shared.

attempt #1

I attempted to write. I did as promised, but I stopped after an hour and one page because I became totally disillusioned with my story. I think I tried to make that story larger than it really is. It's thought-based, so it's a kind of stream of consciousness piece, which is something I haven't really done before. I wanted to stop ten minutes into it because, in all honesty, it's difficult. I think I can make it work, but it'll take just that--work. I'm trying to take it sentence by sentence, but I need a little more direction so that I know where it will start to pick up. I have about a week to work on it before I need to submit it, and I hope that will be enough time for this particular piece. I do not want to give up on it.

On a brighter note. Isn't my flash drive cute? All of my fiction, non-fiction, and shorts are on this flash drive. To distinguish this one from the others floating around my house, I decided to add the bow because you can (almost) never go wrong with a simple bow. Love it!

inspiration?

I've been trying to keep busy these past few days by going to the gym, crocheting, and watching TV. Unfortunately, I have not read or written anything. A few ideas for a short story have been rattling around in my head, but I admit that they feel... well, inadequate.  My "inspiration" feels limited. A few weeks ago, I revised a story that I wrote over a year ago, and I can honestly say that I really enjoyed writing and revising that piece. But now, I need to write another before the end of this month in order to submit them to a short story contest, and all I can do is talk myself into doing something else besides writing. However, since I am working very few hours over the next couple of days, I hope (fingers crossed) to get something--anything, done. I've promised myself that once I have at least started a new story, that I can then begin reading a new book. I'm particularly looking forward to reading The Help because I plan on buying a copy for my mom to read as well. Here are my current Top 3:

a first sentence

I most definitely do not consider myself a writer, but I do enjoy writing. The title itself is rather presumptuous and should be reserved for those whom actually consider it their career. Me? I'm just someone who longs to be in an MFA program and has way too much time on her hands.

I love to write, but I must confess that I do not write as much as I should or as often as I should. It has become easy for me to make excuses for my lack of practice because, quite honestly, I have no idea where to start. I've been waiting for some idea to come to me... some fabulous new concept that I could write about for days. But I have nothing. There's a strained dialogue between my mind and my heart. They both want me to write, but they cannot agree on a topic. So now, instead of searching for a topic or concept, I am simply looking for a brilliant first sentence... something I can run with. Here's to hoping it comes to me soon, or I to it.