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Freedom: To Snuggle, Write and Change my Hair Color


 

 

The second day of the new school year and I am enjoying a quiet breakfast while catching up on my blog reading and commenting. BabyD is at school. Rob is at work. And as soon as the harsh rays of morning light pass, MidKid will emerge and finish packing for her move back to the city.

BabyD did not get her preferred teacher for grade one but assures me that as long as Mr.S doesn’t raise his voice to her specifically, she is fine with the outcome. It’s funny but, in a way, she is living her own life now that she is in school all day. Hundreds of things will happen in her life now on a daily basis that I will never know anything about. Amazing how quickly we become individual entities.

After I dropped her at school yesterday, I did a quick workout and then raced back home to spend some snuggle time with Rob. He stayed home yesterday morning with a bad headache but was sufficiently well enough for snuggling. Later I told him he will have to take the first morning of school off every year. A nice rite of passage for us to look forward to as we commence countdown to the day BabyD heads off to university.

I didn’t get any writing done yesterday between first day of school duties, snuggling and a hair appointment in the afternoon. A much needed appointment. My previous hairdresser was not to my personal liking. There was just no rapport. But between traveling and camp and mothering and reno work, I haven’t had the time this summer to search out a new salon.

The young lady who did my hair yesterday convinced me to go with brown lowlights and I think the results turned out quite well.

 

 

Not the best photo but good enough for illustration purposes.

Not the best photo but good enough for illustration purposes.

 

Yes, the curl is natural. I am actually a red-head but went blond at 18 and stayed that way for the most part since.

However, I am too old to do the bleach-blonde look now. When you first get grays, going lighter is a good way to hide them. Eventually you just start to look haggard and Madonna cartoonish and something has to be  done.

On a writing note, I read my Kumari story at writing group last night and they loved it. I received the best compliment on my writing I have ever received too when someone (Nate I think) said,

“I never have to work at suspending my disbelief with your stories.”

That sentiment was echoed and I was giddy. I just love reading my work and hearing the reaction.

I was invited to tag along to a writers’ conference in Surrey at the end of October. Though it sounds like fun and could be a great opportunity for meet/greet with agents/publisher’s, I don’t have anything really ready for that yet and the drive is nightmarish. And would be with people I only know through the group. 16ish hours in a car with people I only see once or twice a month? Plus sharing a hotel room?

Yeah, I am a bit too faint of heart for that despite the people in question being very good and dedicated writers.

My plan is to do writing conferences in the coming year and spend the rest of this one finishing up projects and preparing a portfolio of work and querying a few agents via email or letter.

Today, I have lunch in town with Rob after stopping by school to pay fees and hitting the post office – need to get some subscriptions sent off for work related journals. Then a nice workout and home to finish Kumari. I think I might submit it to Apex, but I am not sure if it is dark enough for them. They like their sci-fi/fantasy dark. Says so in their guidelines. But maybe I will let them be the judge of that, eh?

My t-shirt Friday post is still generating a lot of traffic. Perhaps tee’s should be a Friday theme? I don’t want to steal Nurse Myra’s idea out from under though she only does it on the last Friday of the month. I will await reader feedback (and Myra’s thoughts) before deciding.

No hump day hmmm. Julie was busy at the convention in Denver. Perhaps next week.

So What Brings You Here? Lisa Parker, Maybe?


In the month of July I had no fewer than 56 searches for Lisa Parker in one form or another. 

The first time I mentioned Lisa was in reference to the dedication on the movie Eastern Promises. Later I wrote a piece commenting on all the traffic my one mention of her has generated. People were curious about her because of the dedication and the lack of any real information about her on the Internet despite the fact that we view the ‘net as a place of endless information.

Over time I have heard, via comments and emails, from people who knew Lisa and it’s obvious to me that she was much loved and still missed terribly.

Dudley DoRight. Hairless (not bald, sans hair, people) and all things Angelina Jolie lure searchers into my lair as well. 

I couldn’t figure out the DoRight thing until I remembered that Brendan Fraser played him in a movie back in 1999. Does that guy only reprise corny cartoon characters for the amusement of Gen_Xer’s – when he isn’t milking the summer block buster teat being the Mummy’s bitch? Anyway, there is a new Mummy movie and I imagine that is causing the odd landing here.

Once, I think just once, I wrote about shaving. Down there? No, I think it was about my disinterest in shaving my legs these days. And now, all manner of fetishists are stopping by. There are no pictures, ‘k? Go away.

Angelina Jolie. 

Sigh.

She is simply my foil. I could care less about her personally, really. But she makes such a nice metaphor, I find it hard not to single her out for special attention. To me she is the epitome of what happens to a woman who hasn’t a single clue about who she really is or what she wants out of life. Jumping on causes. Falling for the motherhood as a soul filler myth. Trying to stave off age with skeletal thinness. 

The great tourist mecca of Southern Illinois is next up. 

Seriously, who knew? Not me. I just hope the guy who rented us the cabin by the pond hasn’t lost business because we thought his place was aromatic and rustic.

YWBB still comes up. It’s usually a wordpress specific search which means the searcher finds Rob or me. Me mostly. I hope I haven’t discouraged anyone who needs to hang out there from checking it out, but I do hope I have made it clear that it isn’t a place for the long term. It’s a cherry picking place where you might find like minds, maybe make a friend or two but not a substitute for thinking for yourself and doing what’s best for you.

Truthfully, Rob pays more attention to my search terms than I. I am not much interested in how people find me but in whether they bother to read once they have arrived. I would say more arrive than stay, but that’s okay. I don’t read every blog I land on either.

See My New Piece at Moms Speak Up


In honor of the first day of school and the start of my new career as author, I have a new piece up at Moms Speak Up. Please check it out and let me know what you think.