Enough About Me, Let's Talk About My Shoes

Let's talk fashion.
And just so you don't think I'm a totally uncaring daughter and mother with the whole fashion thing--everyone's doing so much better. Mom's home with a medication change and son is on an over the counter thing for a couple weeks. We're sleeping through the night again baby.

So let's talk fashion. So my girlfriend Michelle, Michelle Buonfiglio, knows the importance of good shoes. And when I say good shoes I don't mean good for you (except for the soul) I mean Good--as in, "Oh my Gawd, those shoes...they take my breath away," good. She came into town this weekend and did she have a great pair of shoes to show me. I won't do them justice describing them, plus they're her shoes to describe or not. But my point (yes, I always one) is that she understands they are the foundation of her outfit--which is also great and has nothing to do with the next paragraph.

Here's the thing with shoes, you can have an okay dress, but pair it with fab shoes and it raises the value on the dress--like a really good school district does for your house...really. But the same can be said in the opposite, which I will:

great dress + okay shoes = blah--or hiding behind the buffet table all night.

My Mom, always said, "Older boys might like you."

No, that's not it.

"Spend more on your accessaries than on the rest of your wardrobe." That's it. You can fake a lot of things, but you can't fake a great pair of shoes.

Sammy, and I Don't Mean The Good Kind

I know we all love a good sammy, here's one of my faves, Clive Owen, moi, Daniel Craig.

Now that's a good sammy! But I'm not talking about good sammys today. I'm dealing with some serious stuff lately...and so I shouldn't have even joked about the Clive/Daniel thing, but I also know I need some humor, cuz that's how I roll.

My Mom is a powerhouse, an 86 year old public speaker, author and fashionista. If you happen to say to her, "Gee, I should paint my living room." she'll show up with a ladder and a roller before you've hung up the phone.

My youngest is a different kind of a powerhouse, rarely sick (and I mean rarely) plays baseball, football, soccer and wrestling. A funny kid who's just as willing to laugh at himself as anything else.

Within the last 5 days my son has had a mysterious ailment, sometimes waking him up in the middle of the night, which naturally leads to me waking up in the middle of the night. During this same time my Mom was admitted to the hospital. So between Urgent Care and hospital time and a Pediatrician appointment, I'm feeling...sandwiched.

How do you cope? I try for lots of humor and no vacuuming. But the running has fallen off and I know I need to keep up with the excersize, 'cuz that will help me cope as well. But tell me how you cope.

Is It Live Or Is It Blah Blah Blah

I decide to get on the treadmill, 'cuz that's what I do now...actually get on the treadmill, but my son (youngest) has already become one with the beanbag (it's the world's largest beanbag) and is playing his WWE video game in front of the tv in the excersize/game room. Normally I like to watch what I want to watch, but he's got dibs so to speak, so I let him continue as I start to run.

He ends up creating his own wrestler on the game...whom I become disturbingly attracted to. Now maybe it's the endorphins from the running or maybe it's the hormones from the "are you in menopause yet" or maybe I am just nuts. But I'm thinkin' this guy is hot.

Now I know people have been attracted to cartoons before, Jessica Rabbit comes to mind, but it got me thinking about all these virtual games and websites and I wondered how many people had an alternate life and love on the web or in games.

I'm sort of freaked out by it, but at the same time I kinda get it. No hassles, no worries, the perfect mate...sheesh, what fun would that be?

Would it be fun?

A Little Dab'll Do Ya

I'm a dabbler.

I love lots of things. I don't want to necessarily learn how to do them correctly, I just wanna do them.

So I have tons of fabric swatches--sometimes I sew pillows, sometimes purses, sometimes Halloween costumes. Rarely do I use a pattern...I don't need no stinkin' pattern.

I have beads and wire and findings...and all kinds of beads and wire and findings. Sometimes I make things--earings, necklaces, wine thingies. Sometimes they even look good.

But I'm not only a dabbler in "crafts" I'm also a dabbler in knowledge. I don't want to be an expert on anything, I just want to be able to talk about anything. I had a social studies teacher in 11th grade who would give us "cocktail party" facts, little nuggets of obscure knowledge...I would eat those facts up like finger food. I still can spit out a few, even if we are bereft of cocktail parties these days--although Michelle Buonfiglio and I could make any school function a cocktail party, no we didn't carry flasks, we just made it be about chatting and mingling.

But I digress.

I love knowing a little bit about a lot of things, you'd think it would be frustrating, but it's not--it's comforting to know I could, at the very least, interject some little gem into any conversation.

Would you rather be an expert on one thing--or a dabbler about lots of things?

No, Really, This Time I Will

So I bought a shiny new book--Book In A Month--by, Victoria Lynn Schmidt, Ph.D. I'm hoping the Ph.D. does the trick. Now see, there's my problem, I know there's no trick to writing a book, no magic beans, no fairy godwriter. It's work. But that doesn't stop me from searching for the elusive trick.

What I'm hoping for is that I'll use this book like a class, with a class schedule and class assignments...I figure, what have I got to lose? A month? I lose those constantly, all the time, like every year. Plus I signed up to write a little article on a craft book for the August issue of our local RWA chapter's newsletter and I chose this book.

Kinda backed myself into a corner with that one.

So this is the first day of class--I realize I should start at the beginning of a month but...I don't want to. So it's today--week one. I'll give an update every week (another way to make me do it)let you know what I think.

Stupid or what?

Schlepping to Creativity

I feel as if my brain has been dipped in molasses and then dredged through flour and then stuffed back into my skull.

Not pretty, not pretty at all.

I have a rough draft done of a contemporary--very rough. Unfortunately there were "problems." Like the hero was not acting heroic, and I'm not just talking about being a big bad alpha bastard, I mean he had a bad goal. Badbad goal. So I had to re-work that...then I pretty much had to re-work everything else.

But not on the computer--I can't. That's where I'm stuck. I can write on the yellow legal pads and the 3x5 cards, I can even write on napkins, but set me down in front of my laptop with my manuscript open, well, I can't do it. And the stupid thing is, I know the more I say, "I can't do it," the more I'll believe it.

D'oh!

So, I like him with a good clean heroic goal--but what if I could have redeemed him even with the bad stuff, would that solve my problems? Or, do I just need to quit whining and get my butt in front of the laptop with the manuscript open and the cursor blinking?

I'm not here, I'm there...

I'm at Riding With The Top Down today, join me for feng shui fun and a prize or two.