Giving In To Blogger....

the wanderer is gone

she left for parts unknown

some time ago

now she journeys  south

and is close to home

if you wish to journey with her

find her here

My Confession

Anyone who's known me for a while knows I blogged before. I was therainydaywanderer. I had a blast as the wanderer. Met lots of nice people, made some really good friends. Learned a lot, too.

July 23, 2011 was the last time I posted as the wanderer. I couldn't do it any more. My blog had become my life. It was my safe place, my haven, but it also became my obsession. In a complicated way.

I learned a long time ago that safety nets become traps. That doesn't mean that I don't repeat the cycle over and over. I do. Books, music, television, the computer-these are my hidey-holes. But they also become the means to avoid dealing with things. And there's been a lot to deal with in the last couple years. The last straw was the night I was trying to visit blogs and the new Blogger drove me crazy. It's why I moved to WordPress. There were many straws before that, though.

Our center went through rating scales, which is stressful beyond words. Thankfully, we retained our 5 stars. On top of the ratings stress, certain situations at work were...shall we say, enough to make me almost walk out. Screaming. More than once. 

I was sick. A lot. Only this year have I gotten a handle on the wicked-horrible migraines. Zyrtec is a mixed blessing. I'm a sleepy zombie, but hey-fewer migraines!

Lots of family issues, again-mixed blessings. And again, this year. Lots of things have been a long, long time coming. Other things have happened so fast that I'm still reeling. Good and bad.

I was able to get into the last class I needed to graduate with an Assoc. Degree in Early Childhood Education. It was the hardest class I've ever taken, but I really enjoyed it. Science rocks.

In July, I will have finished writing the new curriculum I'm using in my classroom. What makes me feel really good about it? Two things. My Director suggested it because I love culture and science. It's been hours and hours of work at home every month for a year. The kids love it. Parents do, too. Lots of participation. And it's been so successful that the two pre-K classes are doing it too, beginning with the next school year (August).

Then there's the issue with ADHD. Certain things I can focus on and everything else suffers. Very typical problem. I focused all my energies on the blog. Even now, I struggle with balance. My Director has given me tools that have helped to a degree. Last week, she gave me another one. I'm trying to clear the way to implement it.

I don't want to go on meds. I've watched too many family members take dozens of meds-and largely to no avail. I'm terribly cynical. I honestly believe that, in some part, meds are just a way to keep the public dependent while certain companies make money hand over fist.

At work, I cope pretty well with the ADHD. At home? All bets are off. Less accountability. More distractions. The long and short of it is that some things had to give. Blogging was one of them. It was hard to walk away from blogging. All the friends I'd made. I walked away from lots of things in 2011. It was a very difficult year. Last year was worse. And I had no more hidey-holes. I went from reading 6 to 8 books a month to reading less than 6 in a year. I've barely written anything.

So imagine my surprise when I woke up one Friday morning in April with a blog in my head, title and all. That little voice, you know the one I'm talking about, told me to do it. So I did. Still don't know the purpose. Am I supposed to go say hello to everyone? Am I supposed to just post and see who stops by? Not a clue. It's frustrating. But I'm doing it....

I don't know if this is confusing, if it's helpful, or even if it matters. I know I skimmed the surface, but clearer, deeper explanations would take too much time and be way too long for a post.

Basically, that's it. The where and the why. I listened to my inner voice and here I am again. In the blogverse without a clue.

So this is me. On the raggedy edge....and I aim to misbehave :)

I couldn't resist that Firefly/Serenity quote.

I CREATED A NEW BLOG ON WORDPRESS. WORDPRESS HAS ONE MASSIVE FLAW. IT'S IMPOSSIBLE TO COMMENT!!!! THE WANDERER IS FINISHED. SORRY. BUT I FOUND A WAY TO DEAL WITH BLOGGER AND SO HAVE MOVED MY NEW BLOG BACK TO BLOGGER. YOU CAN FIND IT HERE. I used all caps to get attention. not to yell!

KNOCK KNOCK

WHO'S THERE?

NO ONE!!!!


Yep, I did it. I really really don't like the new dashboard. It takes way too much time to scroll up and down and up again on the blog roll, constantly having to start over at the top, etc. So, I've moved my blog. If you want to follow me over, here's the new address:

http://therainydaywanderer.wordpress.com

I haven't figured out how to have a followers widget, but that's okay. If you don't see your name on the blog roll, I'm getting there, I promise. I just now figured out what I did wrong the last time I entered everyone's name.

I'm slowly getting everyone's name added; it may take a couple weeks, though. It's a tedious process and I don't do well with tedious. I have to have breaks.

So anyway, I hope to see in my new neighborhood! Take care and stay cool!

*****For those of you concerned about the commenting on a wordpress blog: though the information box still shows up, it is not necessary to fill out any information. The requirement has been disabled. All you have to do is post the comment and click. Personally, I dislike filling out all that info myself and I wouldn't ask anyone else to do it, either.*****

News, Updates, And Stuff

Wow, what a summer, huh? I hope everyone is surviving the terrible heat wave we've been having. Although, yesterday and today have been dreamy. For me, anyway.

I have all kinds of news. First, I gotta say-I'm not too sure about the new blogger. The dashboard is weird and creating this post is interesting. By the time I finish this, I'll now more about whether I like it or not. Anyway....some news.

When I got my tattoo, I was disappointed when the scabs came off. There were spaces with no ink, and parts were lighter than others. Everyone told me that the guy who did it doesn't do touch-ups for free. His online reviews said the same thing. Sorry. I'm not paying someone to fix their mistakes.

I recently found someone else and had it redone. Guess what? I have ink in all the right places! And no weird shading, either. Yay! Know what else? She said that if there were still spaces or shades, she would fix it. For free. Um hmm. She will get all my business in the future. (Yes, NOW I can plan for my next one *happy face!*)

In other news, my former teacher GOT ME INTO THE CLASS!!!! Yes, Friends, I will be graduating in December. Finally!

Now for writing news. My intended goals have been shelved and that's okay. I'm not good at forcing creativity. The new shiny I mentioned before is patiently waiting and I really hope to begin working on it again before the summer is over.

To date, I've written 4 short stories and I have 2 more that I really want to get completed. I've learned a few things during this process. For example, I can't write humor. My hat is off to those of you who can.

Fortunately, my Muse knows this and steers my path into other directions. Basically meaning that the ideas I've started with have consistently morphed into something else. I've also discovered how difficult it is to keep short stories short. William found several magazines who want stories between 3 and 6K, and a few more that want them up to 8k. I'm averaging 4+ to just over 6k.

The weird thing is, just like during nano, I'm finding naptime at work to be extremely conducive to writing. Yay for sleeping children :)

Speaking of weirdness, I'm ready for this:

Yep, the rainy, cloudy weather we've had the last 2 days has put me in the mood for fall and all its accouterments. Part of it may be my desire to leave summer behind and get on with cooler weather. (Okay, a lot of it!)

Mostly, though, it's because I like to decorate the house in fall and winter. I don't really do much decorating in spring and summer....

Lastly, has anyone seen the new Harry Potter movie? If you're planning to go, a word of advice. Take Kleenex. Especially if you've read the books, because you'll be able to appreciate what's happening on a deeper level. Yes, there are changes and differences, but it's still a wonderful ending to the series. I want to go back.

One of the things I really liked about it was these guys finally got their due in the movies.....

That's it for now. I hope you're home, cause I'm dropping by for a visit!

HEY!!!!!

Well, more like a quick visit to say hello and see what's going on with everyone. 

It's been a little crazy the last several weeks. Initially, I took time off to work on my two wip's. Part of the way in, I realized that Tangi had backed off again, though I did manage to get several scenes written and a few others sketched out. Hopefully, they can be used. ***update: as I was writing this, she showed me something!***

With the nano book, I rewrote the beginning (I learned that agents won't read anything beginning with someone waking from a nightmare.) The new intro is actually much better than the original, so that's a plus. Then, I found myself rewriting the whole thing, not something I have time for and it was loosing something in the retelling. So I decided that I would try and just rewrite pages at a time.

Finding how difficult and time consuming that was becoming, I decided to put both wip's on hold and follow another idea. (Can you spot the ADHD coming into play here?) One that I'm keeping under wraps for right now. But the neat thing was that it would be quicker and aimed at a wider target. Cool, right? Well, it was cool, for about a week. I was 10,653 words into the new project when the A/C went out. During the hottest week in May. (Director's father said his porch read 103 degrees F.)  And the prednisone was still coursing wildly through my system. Yep, a total meltdown occurred. At one point, I simply started crying and was unable to stop. *Sigh*

Since about the age of 14, I've been unable to abide extreme heat. I'm told it's probably a hormonal thing. I'm no better than a wrung out dish rag. So all writing/blogging/and facebooking came to a screeching halt. Eight days later, we had air again *silent prayer of thanksgiving* but the damage was done. I'd lost all my motivation. The writing train had derailed. Three weeks passed. Not one word written.

Till William came back to the Center for the summer! He's my only face-to-face friend that writes and understands/gets excited about all things writerly. He'd done some research about short stories and where to submit them. Since we're both pushed for time, we decided to concentrate on shorts, working on the wip's when time allowed or the muses insisted. We're both writing like crazy and I'm finding it fun and challenging. I'm finding he's also quite the crit buddy!

Since this is a longer weekend, I hope to get a few more written, (I've sketched out ideas for several!) then concentrate on polishing them up. I also want to resume work on the new shiny, finishing it if I can. Ambitious, but the summer is passing quickly and I want as much to show for my time off as possible.

That's pretty much what's been going on as far as writing goes. During the A/C - prednisone drama, I reverted to my bad emotional eating habits and paid for it in spades. Consuming an estimated 3 to 4 thousand mg's of sodium caused the wicked-bad migraines to return. Lesson learned. I've had my tatt redone (when it healed, there were blank spaces) and Honey finally had time to do some landscaping in the front of the house (I looks a lot better).

Work has been almost non-stop activities/happenings/events, but this week was really mellow. Lots of families on vacay, so I got to come home early yesterday (Friday). A couple of our kiddos are having some serious health issues and could use some positive thoughts and prayers, please. (I can't mention names or conditions, sorry.)

Right now, I'm going to get some of my Saturday stuff done and then I'll see if the Muse is with me. If she is, I'll be writing for most of the afternoon and early evening. Then, I'll be around to visit. I've missed you guys!!!!  If Ms. Muse is absent, I'll visit sooner!

My weekend plans? To see Transformers! And I'm sooooooo looking forward to HP7 part II. The last trailer makes me cry. 

So, how have ya'll been?

Fun And Games Blogfest

 Today is Alex's Fun and Games blogfest. If you don't know Alex, take a minute and check out his blog. 

He reviews movies, keeps us updated on new technology, and is very supportive of his fellow bloggers.

We're supposed to list our 3 favorite games and why. 

I, of course, bent the rules a little bit.......

 Oh my gosh, if you've never played this game, you really should check it out!

On the rare occasions that my family can get all together, we play this. 

It's totally hilarious and it's fun trying to figure out what's really being said.

I imagine it would also be a fun drinking game, ;}

 Pictionary is another game we play when we're all together.

It's challenging and fun and sometimes, our talents are um, questionable.

We're terribly competitive, which makes for lots of fierce hilarity.

A hint: you can go to Lowe's and have shower board cut.

Makes for an awesome dry erase board for a fraction of the cost!

 Now, here's where I bent the rules a little. 

Those are games I like to play with others.

Sometimes, though, I need to just de-stress. 

The only game I ever play on Facebook anymore is Country Life.

The crops never wither and die! And it's pretty mindless, so.....

 I have a Nintendo DS Lite and these are some of the games I have to keep me sharp *wink*
or to just help get me out of my head when I need it.....

I love, love, love Mahjong!!!!

Honey bought me a PC disc with all sorts of variations of the game and it's likely my favorite.

I also have it on my DS, but it times out on me, hee.

So, those are a few that I love. 

When I was little, we played I Spy and Punch Buggy. Owww!

Wanna share your favorites?

TicTac Toe? Hangman? Global Thermonuclear War?

Lenny-Lee Fest!!!

Hey Lenny, guess what? We're spreading some Lenny Lee Sunshine all over the world by having a blogfest just for you! Pretty cool, huh?

Every time you visit my blog or send me an email, I smile and say to myself, 'oh, Lenny was here and he left me a comment!' or 'oh, cool! Lenny sent me an email!' And I just wanted to tell you how much I appreciate it when you take the time to visit and comment or write me a letter. 

I love reading your posts on your blog, too. You're an incredible writer! I especially love reading the interesting facts you share and the advice you give. I've actually learned a lot from you. You inspire me, being so young and doing what you love - writing. You're just super cool all over the place:) Know what? Shhhhh, don't tell anyone, but I even talk about you with my friends. I tell them about this cool guy who's a blogger and he's only 11 years old! Wow! They're really impressed by that!

So, now, it's my turn to put a smile on your face.

I love lolcats, so I picked out some funny ones to share with you. I hope you like them! See if you can find the one I made especially for you :)

I also love Calvin and Hobbes. They're my all time favorite cartoon/comics. I don't know if you're familiar with them, so just in case, here's a rundown: Calvin is a 6 year old with a stuffed tiger he names Hobbes. To him, Hobbes is real and they have all sorts of adventures together. Here's one that's funny.....

Here's a hug from me to you. A big, warm, fuzzy, squishy one. Just like Hobbes would give Calvin :)
Well, minus the claws!

I hope the sun is shining on you today, Lenny!