Because of, not in spite of

As I sat on the toilet with Kenna in my lap trying to jam her fingers into every orifice in my face chanting "OKAY! OKAY!" and Tatum climbing on the heaps of clothes in Matt's closet singing a made up song about climbing mountains in Colorado, and Roy literally laying on my feet, I realized other people might see the humor in this like I do.

And I realized I missed writing and sharing the funny, aggravating, and crazy mundane things that happen every day. I was reminded of a distinct memory, being pregnant with Tatum and laying in our upstairs neighbor's bathtub while they were out of town (with permission), reading Alice Walker's, In Search Of Our Mother's Gardens. There is a chapter titled, "A writer because of, not in spite of, her children."

I remember thinking I wanted that to be me. Walker goes on to describe the dedication in Buchi Emecheta's book Second Class Citizen which reads:

To my dear children,

Florence, Sylvester, Jake, Christy and Alice,

without whose sweet background noises

this book would not have been written.

Alice Walker initially scoffs at this--who thinks of those background noises...of FIVE kids...as sweet? But as she gives an overview of the novel--which is largely biographical--she says the heroine "reasons that since her children will someday be adults, she will fulfill the ambition of her life not only for herself, but also for them....since this novel is written to the adults her children will become, it is okay with her if the distractions and joys they represent in her life, as children, become part of it."

Re-reading those words is so inspirational to me. There will not be many days (right now) that I can sit down with a hot cup of coffee, a clean desk, soft music playing in the background and a head full of inspiration to spill out.

As I write this, I am wearing my 2-month-old daughter in a sling, just carried my screaming and overtired 2-year-old to her nap (yes while wearing the baby), and my 4-year-old is watching an annoying episode of Doc McStuffins and grudgingly eating a grilled cheese she begged daddy for for 20 minutes but doesn't want anymore.

But I will write. I'll get it down whether it be one-handed while nursing and filled with typos and stupid autocorrects, or wearing my baby and standing at my desk (thank goodness for a standing desk), or if it hits me at 4:45 in the morning after I'm done calming Tatum down from a night terror. I'll get it down before it slips into the oblivion of wet wipes and essential oils and granola bars. I'll make digital ink because one day these three girls will be the adults I want to write for.

I'll write because of, not in spite of, my children.

Panting...

This past week has been absolutely nonstop.

Upside is I've been falling asleep a lot faster than I ever have!

Downside is I may have bitten off more than I can chew, and all this time spent on aprons and running and training and writing leaves little time just to be with my hubby.

And that's not a good thing.

So while I'm still definitely doing The Ruffled Owl thing (get your orders in soon for Christmas!), and still going to keep training for a half marathon in January (gulp), I think the area I may slack off on is going to be the writing. If you'll note the little gadget on the right hand side that shows my NaNoWriMo progress, you'll see I'm about 5,000 words behind at the moment.

I'm not ditching the effort entirely, but I'm not going to let myself feel guilty if I don't meet my daily quota.  I will let myself feel guilty for not spending time with my husband.

If only I could figure out a way to squeeze six or seven more hours into the day...

Just Do It

I'm sure all of you know Nike's mantra, Just Do It.

Sometimes I get so sick of advertising, but yesterday I was actually grateful for this one.

Yesterday was one of those days that your eyes pop open when the alarm goes off because you know you've got lots to do.

I quickly got dressed and then sat down with a mug of coffee to begin my NaNoWriMo 2010 story. Outside a storm dumped barrels of water that the wind whipped up into an all-soaking mist. I wrote without thinking, working fast to beat the clock. Within 20 minutes I had almost 500 words down, then I brushed my teeth, kissed my hubby and my dog and ran out the door to work.

During my lunch hour I cranked out another 600 words...its not great stuff but at least its down! That's the whole point of NaNoWriMo...just get your first rough draft down! I tend to want to go back and comb over the first chapter with a fine tooth comb. Its the most important part, after all. Its what sets the tone, sucks readers in and snags your attention like a gorilla in a tutu.

Maybe I've been free writing a bit too much...

Anyways, after work I raced home to do my daily training for this crazy half-marathon I'm going to attempt in January. It was in the low fifties but with the blustery wind still spraying rain it felt a lot colder.

And it was getting dark.

I really really really did not want to run outside.

But Roy needed exercise, and I've promised myself I can order the book Born To Run if I finish three weeks of training...and I really want to read that book. 

So I put on my Nikes and started off. I don't know if it was the hills or the wind or the rain, but it was the most challenging run to date. I was nearing our neighborhood and it was totally dark by this time, but I still had about a mile to go. My calved burned, I was sweating and cold from the wind, Roy was even beginning to drag, and I was getting ready to call it quits and go in and get warm when a song came on my extremely random mix of motivational tunes on Matt's iShuffle. I had the music turned down low so I could hear cars on the main street (where I was not only being pelted by the storm but by the splash of cars driving by as well), and I caught a glimpse of the chorus.

No matter how hopeless, No matter how far...

 I hit rewind and started running again.  It was the song, "The Impossible Dream," from Man of La Mancha. Isn't that what I'm doing? Me, run 13.1 miles? Four is still kicking my butt! It really does seem like an impossible dream. But of all songs on my iShuffle that one kicked me back into high gear. I rounded a few more cul-de-sacs in our neighborhood and felt like I was in some Nike commercial...just do it. I just needed a bolt of lightning for dramatic effect.

And I did. I finished the last mile and had the worst time I've had to date but didn't really care. At least I finished it.

And a hot shower was all the reward I needed.

Then I made dinner, met up for an online book club and then finished my 1,660 words for the day.

And slept really well last night.

All that to say, sometimes you really do just have to lace up your Nikes and just do it. And you find you can.

What Am I Getting Myself Into?

I've never been one to sit still.

As a kid I was perpetually twirling. Spinning. Fidgeting. Scrunching my nose.

Driving my mom and Ammah crazy.

Things haven't really changed.

For Matt, a perfect day off is when he does nothing.

For me, a perfect day off is when I cross off everything on my list.

I like having a full plate, and with the launch of The Ruffled Owl, my own BHAG (big hairy audacious goal) of running a half marathon in January, and--oh yeah--working full time, I'm also signing myself up again for the yearly NaNoWriMo.

Nanoo-what-oh?

Its short for National Novel Writing Month...which is November.

The goal is to write 50,000 words in 30 days.

Please stop laughing.

The first time I signed up for it was the month I got married. 

Told you I like to keep busy.

I've attempted it twice before and actually churned out some pretty good stuff before I fizzled out halfway through and fell hopelessly behind. Now I'm debating do I want to pick up one of those stories and write another 50K words on it? I'm not sure yet but I'm running out of time so I'll have to make a decision soon.  Actually, that's what novel writing is. Making a lot of decisions and putting them down on paper.

So wish me luck. Then more luck. Add a third cuz that's what I'll need as I plunge into this crazy insane season of sewing and crafting and holidays and writing and running and stretching and traveling and cooking and all that good stuff.

Anyone else interested in joining the craziness?

Happy National Coffee Day!

In honor of it being National Coffee Day, and the fact that this blog's name is a tribute to that wonderful beverage, I have written a hub about it! Check it out for some fun facts about coffee!

http://hubpages.com/hub/National-Coffee-Day



The Vision

I started another blog today.

I know, why do I need another blog when I have this one?

Well, originally it was to use as a tester blog while I fiddle around with the background and templates for this one.

Then when it came time to pick a url I wanted something that maybe someday I would use.

Matt and I have this Vision, you see.

One day we'd like to own a house with some land, a big garden, maybe a small vineyard and a place where we can host weddings and parties and whatknot.

I wrote more about it in my first post, but the Vision is called Thursday Farm.

Its not going to have recipes or funny stories about Roy or tips on living frugally or anything like that. Its just about us and the journey. Read if you want, skip if you want. Its more for me than anything else, but I thought I'd share it with you.

http://thursdayfarms.blogspot.com/

American Idol Auditions for My Bro

Sorry for no funnies yesterday...I was in suspension all day while my brother was at American Idol auditions. For those of you who don't know, Jeremiah auditioned at the end of june with 12,000 other people in Pasadena. When we found out he was audition (through a fluke--Matt's cousin and his girlfriend were there too but J had wanted to keep it a secret) we quickly spread the news of what he was doing. He and about 200 other people made it through that round which seemed quite grueling, but we were sworn to secrecy because producers want people to think the audition all takes place over a few days. So sorry to those of you who thought he didn't make it through the first round, but we didn't want to risk him getting disqualified.

He went back for a second audition in July and sang in front of the producers and executive producers and made it through that round with about 60 other contestants. 12000 to 60 is pretty darn good if you ask me!!!

Anyways, yesterday was the big audition in front of Simon, Randy and Kara. I don't have all the details yet, but basically he wasn't prepared to sing a second song and didn't make this cut. Maybe next year he'll have a whole slew of songs prepared just in case, but we'll have to wait until then. At least it was affirmation that people other than us think he's got talent!

Now to make you smile since it lowers blood pressure makes you prettier and a whole other slew of things I'm sure.

This one's for Ammah who refers to graduates as "gradu-idiots"

A young man hired by a supermarket reported for his first day of work. The manager greeted him with a warm handshake and a smile, gave him a broom and said, "Your first job will be to sweep out the store." "But I'm a college graduate," the young man replied indignantly. "Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't know that," said the manager. "Here, give me the broom....I'll show you how."

Hardey har har.

and this made me laugh today

Hope you all have a wonderful Labor day weekend! And if you missed my last hub on Eating well for cheap here it is again

http://hubpages.com/hub/frugaleating

I looked at our grocery bill from June--YOWSERS! August's groceries were less than HALF that! Woo hoo!

Love to you all

K8

Did that make you smile? Haha, I almost busted up at my desk when I found that one! Don't you just feel like that some days? Well, some days I feel like the ass (literally speaking of course) that's sticking his nose in every one's business, and other days I feel like the kid who's having a conniption fit.

Don't we all?

Oh a completely different and unrelated note, Matt started a hub yesterday which I finished up. Joint effort for the best results. We're a team and I like that. Roy's part of the team too, like this morning when I tried to wake Matt up and get him out of bed. Roy was right there with me giving cold wet dog kisses on Matt's face, jumping on top of him and forcibly coaxing him out of bed with me. It's good training for kids.

Oh, the hub.

Eating Well for Cheap

or http://hubpages.com/hub/frugaleating if that link doesn't work.

And if you wanted to you could click on one or two Google ads while you're there. Did I tell you we got a check last month?! My first check ever for all my writing! It went right into the emergency savings fund! And I'm already at $40...this stuff accrues faster over time! Woo hoo!

Ok, that's all for today folks.

Go hug someone you don't like today.

K8

A Cup, not a Carafe...

So thanks to Mark’s succinct words referring to my last morning cup—documentary—I’ve decided to try to shorten these up a bit. You might actually get through it without having to refill your cup of coffee! It is called “Morning Cup,” after all, not “Morning Carafe.”

Update: Mark was only teasing and I know that! I was going to try to make it shorter anyways...

Winter finally seems to be in retreat here in the northwest. The temperatures are slowly creeping up during the day (though last week it was 34˚ when I left for work!), and I’ve actually sat outside on the balcony in…shorts! Last Saturday Matt and I decided to head down to Pike Place Market for the first time since January. After deciding to drive downtown, we managed to find ourselves in the entry of the most expensive parking lot in the city. Just as we were about to reverse out way out of there, a car pulled in behind and we couldn’t just pull in and turn around without paying the initial $8. So we decided to park there and chalk it up to experience…but be back in time to pay the lower fee before we jumped to the next price bracket.

Now thorough experts of the market—or so we thought ourselves—we breezed past the craft stalls and the fish-tossing place and delved into some of the more ethnic stores there. I found masarepa flour in a Mexican grocery store to make arepas with.

Arepas are a cornbread/sandwich food stuffed with meat or cheese that we ate almost every day in Venezuela. The one time I’ve tried to make them before was with flour I bought in Venezuela. When I cooked the arepas Ammah and I discovered that there had been some sort of eggs in the flour and the heat had caused the eggs to hatch. We didn’t see them, however, until we began to dig our forks into them and noticed black specs. Ammah did her best to keep eating and not say anything, but when they began playing leap frog on her plate she had to give up. So twelve years later I’m ready to try making arepas again!

We wandered in the Asian store and bought some oyster sauce, looked at pickled ginger and coconut vinegar and other unusual items. Next we drifted into DeLaurenti’s Italian goods store. I felt like I was back in a shop in Florence—the smells, the brands, everything was so authentically Italian it made me want to shout “Viva Italia!”

Next we headed across the street to the waterfront piers and walked past the arcade with the wooden carved miners and sailors flouting fresh fish and chips, and made our way to “Ye Olde Curiosity Shoppe.” Curious indeed. We paid 5 cents to watch an vintage slides

how of Charlie Chaplin, gawked at the mummies in the back and got a bit squeamish over the two-headed cat fetus and piglets/fetus/thing. Definitely a place to bring all you future tourists.

Sunday we took Roy for his first trip to the dog park. This place is called Marymoor and is enormous—640 acres! Every time I would ask someone, though, “Is it fenced?” I’d get the same response. “Oh it’s soooo big it doesn’t need to be!”

They haven’t met Roy.

Having it be “soooo big” means Matt just got to run soooo far to catch our former stray. Oh sure he’d pause and glance back when we called his name, but there were dogs and dogs and dogs to meet and acres and acres to run! Why stay with Mom and Dad? We even tried containing him in an area—Matt and I on one side and our friends John and Carrie on the other. Roy blitzed over a Rottweiler and through John and Carrie’s defense line in 2.5 and was nothing more than a brown streak on the horizon.

Needless to say he had fun, and we learned our dog wouldn’t maul sausage-sized mutts. The picture of the three dogs is a tri-way game of tug of war with one stick, and if you look at Roy's nose you can see the swipe of slobber from other dogs giving their greetings. But we think we’ll stick to the smaller, fenced parks until he learns to come on command a bit better!

Today was a warm, beautiful day outside. I decided to keep up this new found explorer in Roy and take him to Discovery Park. Not an off-leash dog park, but a reserve of forests and meadows and bluffs overlooking the sound. Breath-taking. Actually what was breath-taking was Roy pulling my arm off for four miles. Now before I disparage him let me rave about him a little. The past few weeks he has gone from sled-mushing dog to barely pulling dog that ends up being a loose-leash dog by the end of the walk. Seriously, he’s so good we can hold onto the leash with a finger and he’s glued to our side.

Not so much today. I think he walked better the day we brought him home from the shelter! I swear it was like I didn’t exist. He was on sensory overload with the smell of the trees and the sound of the wind and the dirt trails! Ironically the times we’d be on a paved part of the trail he was back to good-walker-Roy. But once his paws hit that dirt he became “Roy the Wild Stray Dog” and took off. At first I wasn’t entirely sure I could keep it up holding him back for the whole hike! We keep him on a short leash, and attempt to keep his head level with our legs to show we’re the leader. Ha. Ha. Ha.

The farther we hiked the more I thought, “It’s ok, once he gets this energy out he’ll behave.” That dog drug my butt 3.5 miles and only for the last half a mile did he bring it down a notch! I was worried I’d collapse his windpipe a couple times as I yanked and tugged on his choke chain. Well he is still breathing and my arm is attached, although both are probably going to be sore tomorrow. By the way, if you look close (or click on it to see full size) at the picture of the sound, a little past halfway to the left is Rainier--much clearer than my cell phone could take a picture of!

Wrapping things up (see? Isn’t this shorter?), just wanted to give a little plug for my articles I’ve started writing again on hubpages.com. Not only do I get to put my intelligent discourse out there for the public to read and comment on, but I’ve got an account with Google and for every ad that’s clicked on one of my pages I get paid! Not much, it’s true, but so far I’ve accumulated $59.64!

 If I ever reach the magic $100 mark when they cut me my first check, I think I’m going to start putting it away for a plane ticket home! My favorite one I published recently is “How to Have a Country Heart in a City Life.” So if you feel like it read one of my “hubs” and don’t forget to click on a Google ad or two! If you want to read more, click on my hubpages name “Solorya” and it’ll take you to the home page.

http://hubpages.com/hub/How-to-Have-a-Country-Heart-in-a-City-Life

That’s all for now! Enjoy spring!

Charissa visits!

What is it about late nights that makes me prone to write?

 Leftover vestiges from my college days? 

I sit down in the middle of the afternoon with a cup of tea and stare blankly at a word document…I try to force myself to write and what comes out is mundane and banal. Yet at night—say 1:22 in the morning as it is now—words flow through me like tears from a teenage girl. I sit here swathed in my husband’s large warm shirt trying to type softly as he’s lying here snuggled up to my side making an occasional happy grunting noise when I rest my hand on his head. Well, you can’t fight the urge when it hits so here it is ladies and gents, your morning cup for November 13th.

Last Friday night we welcomed the first guest to our new home—my best friend/roommate from college and one of my bridesmaids Charissa. She got here on Friday night, and we all settled in to a few great episodes of Seinfeld before hitting the hay.

The next morning we woke up and drank our coffee on the patio as the sky cleared up in what looked to be a very stormy afternoon. We spent the day watching one of our Meg Ryan classics, walking all over Queen Anne, exploring boutiques and stores and of course, drinking coffee.

We started up the hill and stopped in every little store that interested us—many of them leaving me mumbling, “I’ve gotta take my mom or Ammah or Beth here…” as we wandered in vintage jewelry, adorable boutiques, and cutesy cafés. We explored pasta shops, peered in the window of a restaurant interestingly named “How to Cook a Wolf,” and stopped in an old fashioned game shop that made our heads spin.

We finally made our way to El Diablo, the same Cuban café where we got lunch and coffee and chatted beneath the brightly painted murals. A tour of Queen Anne Books and continued on our way. We ducked into a shop filled with beautifully carved furniture and Indian shawls and pillows and a GIANT Bernese mountain dog lying on the floor. We were instantly suckered in by his soulful eyes then he got us to rub his belly and we were in love. After we tore ourselves away from him, we continued walking towards the southern edge of the hill.

The leaves are falling by the bushel and carpeting the streets and sidewalks in yellow and red. We made our way to Kerry Park for the quintessential Seattle view, when we were suddenly distracted by a party of people dressed in an absurd amount of green.

“Is it a prom?” Charissa asked as we looked at the number of green dresses and tuxedos. I then spied what had to be the most awful wedding dress I’ve ever laid eyes on.

“NO…it’s a wedding,” I shuddered in horror.

“You’ve got to be kidding me!”

The bride’s dress was mostly GREEN. As if this wasn’t bad enough, it was a white strapless bodice with green boning and green ruching around the bust and green lacing up the back. To finish this work of art were gloves…if they can be called that…that look like something from medieval times. Large poufs just above the elbows led to a fitted arm that expanded to white bell sleeves. And she looked about 15. Contrasting her medieval throwback gown were her bridesmaids lime green dresses which would have better fitted a prom setting than a wedding. Call us awful but we just had to get a picture.

By the way, Matthew just woke himself up snoring and looked at me accusingly—haha!

The rest of the day we spent curled up and warm at home watching movies, talking, cooking, and enjoying the fact that we only lived 4 hours apart now.

The next day Matt was off and we took our first bus ride into downtown Seattle. After doling out the appropriate quarters we boarded the bus and listened to our energetic driver narrate the streets like a baseball radio announcer.

“And next here we’ll be rounding up on Mercer, yes Mercer folks, and after that we’ll be stopping off at the Wall Street of Seattle where all the millionaires come to play. Take a look outside folks you just might see one…”

We got off at Pike Place Market and showed Charissa around. I got my Market Spice tea which I first tasted after my mom brought it back from her trip with Charlene, and we spent a long leisurely afternoon walking in all sorts of shops and stores. After another bowl of that amazing clam chowder, we headed home.












That night Charissa left and this week has been a mish-mash of sorts. I’ve gotten to 

sleep in, take extra long walks, and wait impatiently by the phone to hear back from Delta Marine and see if they’re going to hire me or not. Yesterday I walked nearly 4 miles all over Queen Anne, found a new café where I stopped to read Jane Eyre (so what if it’s my 6th or 7th time?), wandered upon a new park with some awesome trees, and managed to make it home just before the heavy rain started.

Today Matt and I meant to get up and go to the Pike Place Market to pick up a bag of books Charissa left, but someone kept mumbling, “Mmm…snugglebumpkins…so nice…so stormy outside…nice and warm right here…” and kept convincing me to hit the snooze. But hey, can I really complain about a husband who wants to stay in bed late and snuggle with me? I don’t think so!

We did manage to make it to a new park located in Magnolia, called Discovery Park. This is one of the biggest parks in Seattle, and we donned our raingear and headed out. Though we only got 45 minutes there, it was easily one of our favorite places we’ve visited so far! Winding on trails through moss covered trees you feel as if you’ve been transported deep into the woods somewhere. It was raining just light enough to make the trees drip, and we decided rather quickly we’d soon be back.

So that’s the latest on us. I’ll keep you posted if I hear anything 

back from Delta or anyone else I’ve sent a cover letter and resume to for that matter—keep me in your prayers!