Cite, Sight, Site

I read a post on PW’s site the other day about the difference between Phase and Faze that made my heart soar. Of course, that got me thinking of other combinations of words I see misused, and then I get confused about myself. It’s my goal to clear up confusion whenever possible.

• Cite: to quote a reference. Example: Our professor instructed us to properly cite each source for our research paper.
• Sight: A view, a glimpse, the ability to see, something worth seeing. Example: My sight dramatically improved after my LASIK surgery. Now when we travel, I can see the sights without glasses!
• Site: the position or placement of something, shortened version of website. Example: The Oklahoma City Memorial is built on the site of the Federal Building. You can find more information on their site.

If you can see something, it's a sight to see. If you can find it, you're at the correct site. If you're referencing it, remember to cite it correctly.

Happy writing!

Popcorn brain

I read this article today (online, of course), and it made me think about my life and how I deal with technology. http://www.cnn.com/2011/HEALTH/06/23/tech.popcorn.brain.ep/index.html

In a nutshell, the article says that spending lots of time online, where we can get instant gratification and constant changes, can lead our brains to physically change to crave that constant activity and the unknown. People who spend too much time online can find it difficult to let go of their electronics, and it can even hamper face to face communications. If a person spends most of their time online, it’s possible they never learn to read emotions on peoples’ faces, or hear subtle changes in the tone of someone’s voice.

In thinking about this, I know some people like that. I know a few people who seem to struggle in phone conversations, in face to face situations, and in their professional lives. I started thinking about me, examining some of the things that I think “other people” deal with and honestly asked whether I notice because I also struggle, or pretend not to.

I spend a lot of time online. At work, I use mostly locally installed programs to do my job, but I am online for a bit every day. There are blogs I check every day as part of my morning routine. I usually check out a couple of the major news sites, just to see if there’s anything going on in the world that I should know about. I don’t watch the local news because it’s all sensationalized and stupid and negative. I try to avoid online stories that have the same flavor. But, for example, I learned this morning that the town my little brother lives in is having flooding problems. I called him to make sure he’s okay. Our connection was dropped before I could really ask him anything, but at least I know he’s okay enough to answer the phone, with his company name and his full name. I take that as a good sign.

When I get home, I check my Facebook and Twitter feeds. I scroll through to see what new updates people have posted, to see if there are any new photos or funny things to look at and share, and to play a game or two. Depending on where Hubs is and what else is on my agenda for the evening, “a game or two” could turn into hours, or that could be enough. I check the downloads of our financial stuff and make sure the expenses showing on our accounts line up with what I expect. Sometimes I have a list of things I want to accomplish online and I plow through that list quickly. Other times, I dawdle and get drawn into rabbit holes of unrelated topics and trivial research (imdb.com, anyone?).

And so, taking an honest look at my online behavior has led me to start thinking of more ways to intentionally detach. I enjoy reading updates on Facebook. I enjoy reading blogs, and writing in my own. I don’t want to stop those things. I also know that when I finally pick up the phone and hear someone’s voice, it’s more fun than texting, and it’s usually not as “difficult” or “time consuming” as I thought it would be.

As fun as it is to get a big belly laugh out of a silly text or funny post, it’s much more fun to share that belly laugh with someone else, either on the phone or in person. So if your phone starts ringing more with calls from me, don’t worry. I’m just trying to find better ways to connect.

What do you think about popcorn brain? Do you think you or someone you know has an addiction to technology?

Recipe: Summer Veggie Sandwich

Hubs and I went out for lunch Saturday at Kerbey Lane Cafe in northwest Austin. I tried a new sandwich and couldn't wait to make a version at home for half the price. How I wish I had my own garden ... sigh ... next year. 

I had this sandwich in mind when we ran to the farmer's market on Sunday.

A food blogger, I am not. But this was yummy!

Ingredients:

• tomato (I used farmer's market heirloom grape tomatoes)
• spinach
• hummus (I used Sprouts' roasted red pepper hummus because I didn't want to have to make any from scratch)
• 1 whole wheat pita (the restaurant served this on hearty yummy 12-grain bread)
• Note: the restaurant added sliced cucumber and avocado; I forgot about those when I made my sandwich. Hunger wins, you know.

I opted to add:

• Greek blend olives (oh, olive bar at Whole Foods, you're going to be the end of me!)
• sweet purple bell peppers (I know! Purple? I'd never heard of such a thing!)

Slice or chop the veggies in whatever shape/size that makes you happy. I love grape tomatoes, so I halved those, sliced the pepper into strips, and piled it all on a bed of spinach.

If you're in the mood for something simple and light in the summer heat (over 100 here in Austin - ack!), give this one a try. Make it gluten free with a brown rice tortilla or your favorite gluten free "food delivery mechanism."

What's your favorite easy hot weather meal?

I Write Because it's Cheap Therapy

What kind of person blogs? Seriously, what kind of person thinks that other people care what they have to say? What kind of person puts personal information out there on the "interwebs" for digestion, dissection, and dissention?

Well, I'm that kind of person. The title of this post and the tagline on my blog say I write because it's cheap therapy. I've always been a writer. For several years, I pushed away the desire to write, so much so that the desire dwindled. Then big things happened in my life and I picked up a pen again. By that time, email was very popular, so I turned on the computer and started emailing family and friends about what was going on in my life at the time. Since then, my desire and need to write has waxed and waned.

Sometimes, I feel like I have so much to say that there's no way I'll ever be able to get it all out. Other days, I stare at a blank piece of paper or a blank computer screen wondering how many days I can avoid writing before I have to stop calling myself a writer.

Who cares what I think? Who cares how I feel? I'm not completely sure, but someone somewhere might! Maybe it's just me in 30 years, but someone cares! :-) This is my attempt at documenting my history, without the tedium of detailing what I had for breakfast every morning (today it was a sausage egg and cheese burrito from Sonic with a sweet tea on the way to HOPE Farmer's Market. Don't judge me! :-) or some other minute detail that won't matter to me 30 minutes, let alone 30 years from now.

I received this email from Sparkpeople today and it made me think again about why I write. This email is specifically about healthy living goals (and talks about pregnancy - ack!), but I think it applies across the board.

The palest ink is better than the best memory. - Chinese Proverb

Do you have a recorded history?

The secret to reaching your goals may rest in the written word. Writing is a common theme through every stage of successful goal achievement. The act of writing creates a promise, and having that visual promise in front of you every day won't let you forget it. Got a problem remembering what goals you met last week? Start tracking them on a daily basis. No more guessing and fooling yourself. The only way to get a really accurate picture of your progress is to record what you've done when you do it. Got something to say or a breakthrough to announce? Write it in a journal. Journals can show you what works and what doesn't. And the stories of your success can be great motivators in the future, right when you need help the most. From pregnancy start to pregnancy finish, you can help your memory and your goals by putting ink to paper. It can make up for fading memory and keep motivation from fading at all.

Sometimes I write about goals, but mostly, I write to preserve my memories. Both of my parents are gone and I find myself devouring anything I can find that they wrote. Letters to other people, birthday cards, anything. I don't have children to leave my history to, but I have nieces and nephews and friends' kids in my life who might someday want to read what their parents were like. I think that in some way, I'm helping document their histories too.

How do you keep memories alive?

I Coulda Been a Contender

One of the written mistakes I've seen quite a bit lately is the mistaken use of the word of in combination with words like could, would, might, should.

Example of misuse: I could of taken that exit.

This is incorrect, but likely comes from our pronunciation of contractions. What people are likely trying to say is "I could've taken that exit," where could've is the contraction.

Remember that apostrophes in contractions replace missing letters, so in that example, something is missing between could and ve. In this example, the missing letters are h and a, as in could have.

Apply that rule to the other examples listed at the beginning of this post, and you can see where the errors fall into place. Using the word have correctly, though, gives you the following examples:

• I would have packed lighter clothes than this.
• I might have read the wrong weather report.
• I should have paid better attention.

Have you ever seen this error? What written mistake makes you a little crazy?

My History as a Brat

I can't remember how many times I've been referred to as a "brat," but I'm happy to say I've earned probably every time. In my life, being a brat hasn't been a negative at all. One of my Dad's nicknames for me was "Brat," and I actually liked it. (I liked "Punkin," too!)

However I may fit the behavioral descriptions of a brat, I'm concentrating today on the definition of a brat because of my parents' chosen profession. When I was born, both of my parents were in the United States Air Force (USAF). Mom got out shortly after I came along, but Dad was in it for the long haul. And so, I'm an Air Force Brat.

I spent the majority of the first 16 years of my life on military bases and looking back, I wouldn't change a thing. I've lived in something like 13 states and 3 countries. A recap:

• I was born at Keesler AFB in Biloxi, MS, which was almost completely destroyed by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. I don't remember anything about Mississippi, but it's my favorite thing to mention when people tell me I talk fast and ask if I'm from New York. "No, actually, I was born in southern Mississippi," I tell them in my best southern belle voice. I'm not sure people believe me or the accent.
• When I was about a year old (or so I'm told), we moved to K.I. Sawyer AFB near Marquette, MI and this is where my first memories take hold. I remember our address (351 Dart) and my first best friend, Michelle Cotter. She lived down the street (I think) and we played with our dolls for hours. I remember lots of snow, and I remember Mom studying a lot. She went to school and graduated from Northern Michigan University with a B.S. in Criminal Justice. I remembered her being in school, but I didn't know what her degree was until I found her diploma several years ago. We had a cat named Sassy and I gave her a bath once in Scope. She had stinky breath and I knew Dad used Scope for his breath. I was just trying to help!
• Dad was transferred to Germany a few years later. Without family housing available, Mom and I lived with her mom in Parma, Idaho for a few months. 
• When we joined Dad, we lived in Neu Ulm for awhile, and I vaguely remember my Mom struggling. Looking back, she was 32 years old, in a foreign country where her husband worked a lot of hours, and had a 6 year old daughter. No wonder she had a hard time! I remember Mom babysat the kids who lived upstairs from us and at some point, our kitchen was renovated and there was dust everywhere. In my kid brain, it seemed like it was at least a month. In reality, it was probably a week or two, but I have no way to verify that now.
• Dad applied (I think) for a teaching position at Kapaun AS, in  Kaiserslautern (K-town). This is where most of my childhood memories really take root, and I still keep in touch with 3 amazing people I met there. (Hi, Joy! Hi, Julie! Hi Dennis!). I remember Vogelweh Elementary School, where I went for 3rd - 5th grades. I remember visiting Heidelberg and doing school-sponsored volksmarches every year. I remember learning German, and getting pretty good at it, too. 
• In 1987, Mom was diagnosed with breast cancer and we moved to McChord AFB near Tacoma, WA. Moving back to the States was tough. We'd left when I was 6 and I was 11 when we returned. I had no concept of sales tax or actually using pennies to pay for things. It took awhile to grasp multiple television channels (in English!) and the fact that I wouldn't be watching Night Court on AFN anymore. Mom died shortly after we moved there, which didn't make anything easier. I have lots of memories from this part of my life. (And friends, too! Hi Julie! Hi Angie! Hi Gary!)
• Dad remarried and was transferred to RAF Alconbury England in 1989. I begged to stay in the States (malls and fast food joints had taken over my ideas of fun by then), so my aunt and uncle graciously took me in (thank you, Aunt S, Uncle G, and cousin N!) at their home in Novato, CA until the Loma Prieta earthquake that October. Dad was having none of that, so I joined the family in England. I have several memories of Alconbury. My baby brother was born, I watched the Berlin wall come down on the news, and I learned I loved listening to Janet Jackson's Rhythm Nation 1814 on my Walkman while riding the bus to school.
• We went back to the States when Dad was assigned to Beale AFB in California. I started high school there and still keep in touch with several friends (Hi, Tom! Hi Jeni! Hi Kevin!). (Edit: OMIGOSH!! HI ERNIE!!!!) We moved off base and I transferred schools (Hi Tracy!) halfway through my sophomore year. 
• Dad got out of the AF my junior year and we moved to Colorado, the place I tell people I'm "from." I lived in Colorado longer than anywhere else in my life; 13 years. I graduated from high school, went to college, got my first (and second, and third, and ...) job, met and married Hubs, and eventually buried my Dad in Colorado. Of course I have lots of memories and friends from Colorado and I return at least twice a year to breathe in clean Rocky Mountain air.
• Hubs got a great job offer in Phoenix almost 5 years ago, so we uprooted the cats, packed the house, and took off for the Valley of the Sun. I started my current (and favorite!) job in Phoenix right after we moved, made lots of neat friends and learned all kinds of things about myself. 

You know the rest. We knew we didn't want to stay in Phoenix forever, so last month, we moved to Austin and here we are. So far, we love it!

Have you ever heard the term military brat? Did you think it was a derogatory term? How many times did you move as a kid?

When Phonetic Spelling Phails

Ah, the English language. Ever wonder why so many people are spelling challenged? Seriously, how hard is it to spell correctly? Or is it right? Or is it rite? Hm. Sounds like a blog post for another day.

As Americans, we speak a language that is a mish mash hodgepodge melting pot of a bunch of other languages. And some slang. And some words that are wholly incorrect yet find their way into our lexicon regardless (not irregardless, ahem).

My focus today is on words we pick up from other languages. Words like voilà, hors d'oeuvres, au revoir, and armoire.

The hard part is that these words are French, so they're not pronounced phonetically, at least not according to our American ear. Voilà is pronounced sort of like "wa-la" and I see people type it that way ALL the time. The truth is, we don't pronounce it really correctly anyway. It's closer to "vwa-la," but as Americans, we sometimes struggle with that. The easier alternative might be to say ta-da instead. That one is phonetic.

Hors d'oeuvres are appetizers. If you're not sure how to pronounce or spell hors d'oeuvres (i had to look it up for this post), don't! Use the word appetizer! And for the love of language, they are not "hors d-overies" and it's not spelled "or derves." Ack!!

Au revoir means goodbye for now. It's not "aw rivwa." Again, go with a simpler option, like "see you later!"

Armoire - a cabinet or cupboard. It's not spelled "arm-war" or pronounced "arm-worie."

The bottom line is, if you're struggling to spell a word, look it up. Your favorite search engine is an amazing resource. And if you can't spell it close enough to even find it, pick a different word, lest your readers will think you are uninformed or uneducated (on that topic) at best, unintelligent or disrespectful at worst.


What words do you hear mispronounced or see misspelled that you would like to educate the speaker or writer about?

Note: This post came as a suggestion to me after I wrote Peak, Peek, and Pique. What would you like to see me research and write about?

Phoenix: Moving Drama

Less than a week after our move to Austin last month, Hubs headed back to tie up loose ends on the house in Phoenix. He spent a week working at the office and working on the house, and I was scheduled to join him for the weekend.

The night before I flew out, I took my car in for the required state inspection. I had weird wear on my 2 back tires and there was a chunk missing from one of my front tires. So, I put 4 new tires on my car, which was an unexpected expense. Oh well. New tires are necessary every so often, right? Not a huge deal.

Later that evening, Hubs called from the house in Phoenix and said, “We have a problem.” While I have some exaggeration tendencies, Hubs really doesn’t. So, a “problem” to him is likely a “big problem” to me.

Remember, it was the beginning of June in Phoenix. Hubs told me the A/C was out. Ugh. He said he’d returned to the house after work and after a while, noticed the house was warm, yet he could hear the A/C running. He went to one of the vents and sure enough, the air was warm. He called a company he’d heard of and a technician came out. He told me not to worry about it, and just get ready to spend the weekend with him getting everything else taken care of.

There was pretty much no traffic in Austin at 5am that Saturday morning. I got through security, onto the plane, switched in Denver, then landed in Phoenix with no problems or delays. Yes, it seems silly to fly from Austin to Phoenix via Denver, but that flight was half the price of a direct one, so I just read a lot. Hubs picked me up and I asked how things went with the A/C repair guy the night before.

He hesitated, then told me I didn’t want to know. Again, his usual lack of exaggeration made me think this was pretty serious. The A/C tech had told him the unit was completely shot. At a very minimum, we needed to replace the compressor, the fan, and add a something else that I can’t remember now. He recommended that because the unit was original to the house, and therefore 15 years old that we should replace everything.

The bare minimum repairs? $3,500. The recommended repairs? $6,000 to $10,000, depending on the size of the unit. WHAT?!

We definitely wanted a second opinion, so spent the weekend tracking down other companies with references to check things out. We wound up going with someone who made the repairs for $1,200 – whew! Still not pocket change, but when compared to $10,000, or even $3,000, it’s a bit easier to digest.

While we were still looking for A/C companies, we discovered mildew in the carpet of one of the guest bedrooms. Ack! So we scrambled to get that carpet removed and new carpet installed.

I got to hang out and have dinner with Banana at one of my favorite Phoenix restaurants. It’s one that I’ll surely miss.

O’Kerri came over and helped with more house stuff. If she wasn’t already family, we’d owe her a tropical vacation or something for all she’s been doing to help us out. ;-)

I flew back to Austin Sunday evening to a house with functioning A/C, new carpet, cuddly kitties, and a car with new tires.

After I left, Hubs met with representatives of 2 property management companies and we selected one to manage the house for us. They charge a nominal fee when there are tenants in the house, but nothing while it’s vacant. We’re all keeping our fingers crossed that we’ll have tenants starting July 1.

Hubs loaded up another (smaller) moving truck and drove to Austin. This truck kept running the entire drive, though one of the headlights went out and earned him a brief meeting with one of Texas’ finest.

Hubs arrived home just before midnight. 12 hours later, we had unloaded the truck and were on our way to return in. After that, we started the drive to Oklahoma City for A & R’s wedding. Whew!

The bottom line is all of our belongings are now in Texas. Half of them are in stacks of boxes in the garage, but at least they’re all in Texas. Now we get to do the fun unpacking and organizing part!

With the new tires on the car, the A/C repairs, and the new carpet, that was a weekend full of high priced unexpected expenses. We are surely thankful we were able to weather that storm and take care of the things we needed to. We realize how fortunate we are to have enough in the bank to deal with these kinds of things.

Do you think bad, or in this case, expensive, things happen in threes?

Grammar fun - Mean Ol' Schoolmarm

I received several responses to last night's Peak, Peek, Pique post and all were great! I even received several notes with suggestions on what to cover next. I'm preparing to attend a wedding this weekend, so don't have time to write a new post. However, I wanted to send you to read some posts about grammar that I have enjoyed: Mean Ol' Schoolmarm, written by The Pioneer Woman. There are 9 posts, and they're all relatively short.

Speaking of they're ...

their/there/they're:

Their indicates possession, there indicates location, and they're is a contraction. Examples:

My neighbors were kind enough to invite me to their house for dinner.
OR
I called the Smiths to find out whether the bike I found was theirs.

I called my boss to let her know I would be there later.
OR
There is my book!

I really like my neighbors; they're really nice.
OR
I'm excited to see A and R this weekend; they're getting married.

OR

I look forward to being there at their wedding to hug them after they're married.

Happy writing!

Peak, Peek, Pique

I've been thinking about homonyms lately. What? Don't you sometimes think of them? Okay, these thoughts were prompted by comments I read on a blog post. Someone wrote their interest had been "peeked," and I decided to write about these three words to clear up confusion.

Mountains have peaks, people like to peek, and one's curiosity or interest gets piqued. Examples:
One of my favorite views in Denver is seeing the peak of Mt Evans from the office window.
OR
Whip the egg whites until they form stiff peaks. (From a meringue recipe)

My cat likes to hide under the bed and peek at me from the dark.
OR
I went to see a sneak peek of a new movie.

Watching the show Big Love has piqued my curiosity and pushed me to read and learn about polygamy and the FLDS church.
OR
My interest was piqued when I got a peek at their photos from the peak. :-)

What other homonyms do you get stuck on? Let's get a list going.

Austin - The Move!

About three weeks ago, we loaded up a big ol' truck, packed cars, strapped bikes to a bike rack, coaxed cats into a car, and drove from Phoenix to Austin. Like any good story, there was drama, but no one got hurt, nothing was broken, and we're well into the last phase of our move.

We really got started on the whole thing when O'Kerri arrived in Phoenix in mid-May and cracked the whip to help us pack and load our belongings. Do you have a friend who shows up and does stuff for you that no friend should ever have to do? That's who O'Kerri is to us. She's becoming much more than a friend. She's pretty much family at this point. (<3 you, O'Kerri!!) Thank goodness for her!

Hubs left Phoenix headed for Las Cruces, NM, while O'Kerri and I headed for dinner after enjoying a date with Captain Jack Sparrow. While at dinner, Hubs called to say the moving truck had broken down. He hadn't even reached Tucson yet.

At first, this seemed like a huge problem. I quickly realized, though, that having mechanical problems on the moving truck between Phoenix and Tucson was *much* better than having mechanical problems between El Paso and Austin. There was a bit of drama about the repair guy coming out, but not being able to bring parts with him until he'd done a diagnostic check (the parts places were 45 minutes from closing for the night), Hubs ended up having to take the car off the tow dolly and drive while someone towed the moving truck into Tucson. All told, I think Hubs spent something like 4 hours on the side of the highway waiting for everything to happen.

When I spoke to Hubs that night, I offered to pack up the car and cats and head his way to wait out the repairs, but he convinced me not to. We had already decided that getting the cats into the car was hard enough once. We didn't want to have to do it twice, so my plan was to drive 1,000 miles straight through, only stopping for gas along the way. Since Hubs had the moving truck and was towing our other car, he could only go so fast. I could go the speed limit (Okay, I set the cruise at 4 mph over), but he was stuck at a max of 65 mph.

The next morning, I got up very early, finished packing the car and the cats, and headed out. It was only then that I found out the moving truck company hadn't been able to take care of everything the night before and Hubs was stuck overnight in Tucson. I again suggested stopping and maybe following him along, but he again convinced me not to. He reminded me of our decision for me to drive straight through to reduce stress on the cats.

Merlin meowed at me for the first 15 miles or so that morning, then quieted down. The only time the cats meowed again was when I started talking on the phone, or when I stopped and got out of the car to get gas. Other than that, they were quiet and seemingly happy the whole trip. Whew. That was lucky!

Originally, several Oklahoma relatives planned to head down to Austin and meet Hubs to help unload the truck starting late Saturday night. Since Hubs was still in Tucson at 9 am on Saturday, we cancelled that plan. Three of his brothers, along with the soon-to-be-bride of one of the brothers, had planned to goof around in Dallas that day, then see what our progress was to help us maybe on Sunday morning. They beat me to Austin by a couple of hours, so went to dinner and somehow managed to meet a handful of our neighbors. ;-)

When I arrived, they helped me unload the car, get the cats in the house, and wind down before taking to separate empty rooms throughout the house to sleep. Luckily, our neighbors are very friendly and kind and they lent us a mattress, as well as some pillows and a few blankets. We all went to sleep sometime just before midnight.

We had arranged with the City of Austin to have a couple of guys from the Day Labor program come to help unload the truck Sunday morning and we couldn't get a hold of anyone to cancel that request. So, Hubs also drove straight through from Tucson to Austin. He wouldn't recommend it to anyone, especially with the route he took and the time of night he was off the interstate. He said the drive itself would have been fine, except that he was playing chicken with 500-600 deer on these "back" highways in the dark. That was way too stressful.

Hubs arrived at the house around 4:30 am and fell asleep with the cats and me on the floor of our room.Three hours later, the guys from Austin Day Labor came and the whole house sprang to life. I went to a nearby grocery store for juice and donuts while everyone else began the process of unloading the truck. It was a particularly "soupy" morning, weather-wise, and we were all soaked through our clothes in a matter of minutes. With so many hands, the truck was unloaded in less than 3 hours. Our sister-in-law-to-be helped me unpack things in the kitchen and then go shopping for some basic necessities for the house. Like a shower curtain so folks could start cleaning off all that moving soupy-ness. ;-)

Once the truck was unloaded and everyone was clean, we enjoyed lunch together before they all headed back to Oklahoma City. I have to say seeing those 4 that night I arrived in Austin was such a treat. We appreciate very much all their help that we just don't know quite how to thank them. We took them to lunch, but I'm not sure that's enough.

If you're reading this, A, R, W, and B ... thank you *so* very much for your help. It's always good to see you anyway, and for you to lend your time and strength to helping us really means a lot to us. We look forward to seeing you again at A & R's wedding this weekend and we promise we won't ask you to carry a thing!

Hubs and I kept the cats in our room to help them adjust to a new place before letting them take in the whole house. Merlin was not okay being shut up in a single room, so meowed and meowed for us to let him out. When we did, he went around the entire house, meowing at the top of his little kitty lungs in each and every room. He kept looking at me, so I followed him around for an hour or so, then let him wander and meow on his own. Tanner and Justice eventually followed, and by the next day, they were all sitting in window sills watching the birds and squirrels in the back yard. By now, they're pretty much completely adjusted and as demanding as ever about their breakfast.

We still had loose ends to tie up in Phoenix, so less than a week after we arrived, Hubs headed back to do some of those things. We had more drama, but I'll save those stories for next time. ;-)

Whew! Do you have any interesting stories about moving? Any drama? Ever swear to yourself that you're "never moving again?" Share your stories below!

Readin' -n- Writin'

I am an avid reader. I read blogs, articles, newsletters, books, ingredients in food products, stories on restaurant cups and other packaging, the backs of cereal boxes ... I actually turned Hub's shampoo bottle in the shower around the other day so I could read something different in the morning. This might be the main reason I often switch shampoo brands!

I wrote short stories all the time when I was younger. I remember Jodi, the protagonist in my stories. I thought she was amazing. Auburn hair, green eyes, tall, athletic. I knew I didn't want my stories to revolve around blond-haired blue-eyed girls like the twins in Sweet Valley High. So Jodi was a little darker, a little more practical.

As I grew up, I stopped writing much in lieu of driving around with my friends and trying to catch the attention of boys in school. A teacher my junior year said my writing was always sub-par, and that helped to further squash my creativity.

The popularity of blogging caught my attention a few years ago and now I follow several blogs regularly. In the blogs I read, I find education, fantasy, love, hope, laughter, tears, inspiration, at least a little bit of crazy, and topics to expand upon myself. Isn't that what writers do? Don't they read voraciously and then draw upon their readings, along with their lives and imaginations to spin a new tale that in turn inspires or educates or admonishes others?

I have a new online friend, Green Goose. She writes about life on her blog The (not always) Lazy W and I found it yesterday. Of course, I've read all her posts and they have inspired laughter, a few lumps in my throat, and the desire to meet this woman face to face someday! Today's post: When You Come From Writers, You Write got me thinking.

Writing seems to naturally follow being a reader, with a love of words and stories and ways to reach people in different ways. I've often thought I don't have one of those "talents" that others have. I'm not musically gifted, my stick figure drawings are sad, I don't have a knack for colors and fashion accessories ... but, I've learned over the years that my talent is different. Despite what that one teacher said, I am a writer.

The only writer I know of for sure in my family is Grandma Paul, my Mom's Mom. My Mom was crafty talented, but I don't know if she enjoyed writing. She would crochet, knit, macrame (I know!), sew, paint, etc. Her Mom was also crafty, and a poet as well. I have a book of her handwritten poetry that I will always treasure. I need to find that book and share her words now and then here.

I continue to evolve as a writer and storyteller and hope that someday, my words will provide insight, laughter, and maybe a few lumps as well.

What do you think? Is writing a talent? What are your talents?