I am learning. It’s exhilarating and exhausting. I lifelong journaler, at the age of 48 I am finally learning the craft of writing stories. The annoying thing about it though, is that I want to just get started on *actually writing* this memoir. But I know when I look back it will be fully clear to me that this all was a necessary part of the process. All of the brainstorming, list making,…

What if the tendency to make a short story long is not a flaw but a gift to be embraced?? What if the explaining of one’s experience in all the ways possible is useful rather than redundant? I’m pondering these thoughts but also, practicing brevity with haiku.Life of a writerSo many thoughts in my headSwirling all around

Y’all, I just get so overwhelmed sometimes by all the information. My email is constantly overflowing with news, memoir training videos and articles about writing. Today I woke up from my mid-day nap and declared today a day to clean house. Decluttering my office corner, I scanned, I shredded, I deleted. I feel so much better! Until it creeps up again, of course. I’ve been working to…

I had my husband drop me off for my infusion this morning. It went well. I met some new-to-me staff, Kelsey who is a nurse and the clinic manager and Lyndsey, who is also a nurse. Kelsey started my IV and I swear I didn’t even feel it going in. She must be a witch. A good witch, of course. My ride home was a whole other thing. Per the usual. Spec-tran was really late picking me up, I think 45…

Last weekend I ran the Pi Day 5k with my sister, her boyfriend, and a friend of mine (who has run this race with me for the past 4 years). None of us were running alongside each other, but you know what I mean. We all ran the same race and got our pie and medal at the end. This race is local, on trails I am familiar with, so I’m always comfortable running it alone. I had originally signed up for…

My husband and I experienced our first escape room adventure with a couple friends who have done countless escape rooms. I was really nervous leading up this, not knowing what exactly to expect. I kept accidentally calling it a panic room, which was kind of funny. I knew that I probably wasn’t going to be a lot of help in solving the big puzzle, mystery, whatever you want to call it. It involves…

Every time I make a frittata, my husband likes to jokingly call it Nelly Frittata (a play on the singer, Nelly Furtado). Last night I made a frittata for dinner. It had bacon, potatoes, green peppers, onions. It turned out so great, my husband and I both went back for seconds. There were zero leftovers! I didn’t use a recipe, I just followed my gut. I cooked with my heart. I was so proud of the…

Is there another word for emerging that starts with F? Something about alliteration soothes me. I know I’m weird. I’ve embraced it. I’m popping my head up, finally. Happy new year! I had a good holiday season. A lot of relaxing and spending time with my family. My son was home from college for an extended period of time, so that was nice. After he went back to school his absence was almost…

I’ve been sleeping late, as I tend to do in the winter months. I get up early to feed the dogs and see my daughter off to school, and then I usually head back to bed. Getting out of bed for that second time is significantly more difficult for me, and it takes a good amount of willpower to do it. Usually it’s my bladder that urges me up. Today it was the mental reminder that I needed to put a…

You guys. I’m neglecting this blog. I do apologize. I’ve been hiding. Hibernating a little. But still active! Just not feeling the urge to broadcast my life. I’m still making the super slow shift from “over-sharer” to “intentional storyteller”. Finding where I want to hold boundaries with my writing and the sharing of it with others. Part of this hesitation with writing is that I am becoming…

I have had an aversion to sand and flour for as long as I can remember. I love to bake, so I have always avoided recipes that call for rolling and kneading. If I had to touch the flour with my hands, it was a deal breaker. Drop cookies and batter breads were the lanes I stayed in. This changed in 2020, after a trip to Michigan’s Upper Peninsula when I stepped into the sand and surprised myself…

I was listening to a podcast interview with an author awhile back. The author talked about her writing as a relationship, and that stuck with me. I feel similarly. I’ve always had a relationship to writing. A relationship *with* writing. Some days we are close, spending all our time together. Other days not so much. We haven’t been all that close the last few years. With all the running and…

I was standing at the coffee counter at the back of the church one Sunday, chatting. Clay came up to get a cup of coffee and was asked which kind he preferred, dark roast or regular. Clay answered, “Either one. To me, they both taste the same.” But I started chuckling, because what I heard – with these amazing but fallible cochlear implants – was, “They both taste like shame.” I told him what I…

Hope Fights Back: Fifty Marathons and a Life or Death Race Against ALS by Amanda Lytle Peet and Meredith Atwood. Against my strong Type A sensibilities, I’m going out of order with these books. The thing is, I finished this one and it was so good I just don’t want to forget it, so I’m jumping the line and posting it now. Last year I caught an interview with Amanda Lytle Peet and immediately…

The Queen of Sugar Hill: A Novel of Hattie McDaniel by ReShonda Tate I started reading this book a couple months ago, but didn’t finish in time for the digital book to be returned to the library. I picked it back up with the audio version recently because that’s what was available. I was able to find my place and pick up where I left off. This was a work of fiction, but was based on true…