School Countdown

T-Minus Nine Days.....

First day of Kindergarten for the boys... bit worried about my Bear, he's not happy about it, Turbo is... well... ready to get on with the rest of his life already.

First day of 7th Grade for Drama Girl. Hoping there is less drama this year... really, could use a less dramatic year!!!!

Harry Potter summer fun

Saw Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince.

I just think Snapes is very cool, I know, it's weird.

Family had fun, and I can't think of a better way to spend an overly hot summer day than to hide out in a cool movie theater watching a fun family film.

Day = Success.

BACK with news

Nothing grand or exciting news but news :)

I have a serious site here.

I work as a career advisor (crazy I know).

I'm working as community manager for an indie game -- re: no money :) or community yet heh.

I'm one month away from finishing my MBA and being done with school for, pretty much, ever. :) cuz you know, when you're done, you're just SO very Done.

My boys are starting kindergarten at a charter school I've drooled over since we first moved here and I heard of it :) Yay.

I survived my tween surviving sixth grade.

I've decided to 'go for it' and you should see me blogging about a variety of attempts to actually get published in print in various mediums.

I'm going to be a writer that gets paid for writing.

Come hell or high water.

Wanna come along for the ride?

Best Writer Blogs

Okay people,

Who are still reading... ha ha ha....

Best writer blogs? Any favorites?

Welcome to the Darkness

So,

We're in a recession, unlike anything ever seen before, except the Great Depression.

Which isn't going to happen. But boy oh boy we might get close...

Doom.
Darkness.
Destruction.

Any paper you open, any news article you read, any opinion, it is nothing but bad news.
Where is our American spirit? Where is our American faith? Where is our American 'we can do this' attitude?

According to our papers, our media, our 'fourth estate' there is no American optimism, no American spirit, nothing to work toward.

I can not believe that.

Times may be hard, but are not the strongest borne from hard times?

Ahh, February

I disappeared again. It just happens.

It's insane what working full time, going to school and taking care of kids will do to time. Mainly, make it disappear.

What I have discovered, however, is now I have a clearer direction than I did before working.
I have... a plan.

Goals. Ideas. All these things I thought I didn't have time to make, it turns out, whoa, that it wasn't time that I needed, but a jump start, a boost, a new beginning...

So... I've got my job. But it truly is just the beginning, and I'm excited to think of the possibilities for where I can go from here.

Not the sky, I'm not aiming that high. Just the realization of long-held desires (that, ironically, have absolutely nothing to do with the job I know hold...).

It's going to be an interesting year!

Employment -- welcome back to work

Well,

Five years I stayed home and took care of Turbo and Bear, and Drama Girl.
Five years, while I stayed home taking care of them, being the stay-at-home-mom of these kids, I went to school.

I've gotten my masters. I'm finishing up my M.B.A.

And I have a job.

I start in January, and while I'm happy I have a job, truthfully, I have a lot of mixed feelings.

It's not the ideal job, it's not the job I would have wanted to go back to work for, but I am taking it because jobs are quite quite scarce.

It is the first job where there seems to be little amounts of freedom and creativity. They did mention there would be creative latitude in the job, but we'll see.

It's further away than I'd like -- I hate driving at night, and I hate driving in the winter. I'll be driving at night in the winter because the hours are... off-hours. I get off work at 7.

Saying all of that,

It'll be good to make a paycheck again.
I'll still get the kids off to school in the morning.
It seems like a job I can leave at the office.

It's just that, I had jobs before that were cushy, nice, jobs, and I wonder, is this the right job?

Now, clearly, I'm not wondering so much as to turn it down. Not an idiot, here... The second income is going to help us, it's going to be nice knowing I can work, it's a start into a new career that will potentially lead me to exactly what I had before, only in a field I like.... but... I'll miss being a stay at home mom, and I"ll miss having a creative job and I'll miss all sorts of things I'm not aware of right now. I'll certainly miss the freedom!

It's a new thing, on a new road and I have no plans for it. I have no idea where it will lead me, if anywhere. It's an unknown.

Honestly, though, I don't know if I should be receiving congratulations or condolences!!!!

I will, however, be going shopping for new clothes.

One of those days

This sums up my feelings today:

Lisa's Mood!

I'm so Angst! It should make my friends proud ;)

Writing writing writing

One thing I've discovered, is when I write, I blog less.

Thus, this blog, is less... ha ha ha ahh... coffeeeeeeeee........

Where have I been?

I am sorry. I know Idisappeared for a few weeks. I know I tend to do that.

This time, it was for reflecting.

There were a few weeks when I stopped doing everything and started thinking instead. Doing and Thinking are both important, but often we spend our lives simply Doing and never stop to actually Think.

I did some thinking, and here's what I came up with:

It's not too late, after all, to do the things I want to do.

It's okay to want two very contradictory things.

You can't have everything you want is true, but it doesn't mean you can't have anything you want.

I am less the river I was, and more a mountain. I still wonder, how'd that happen?

I enjoy cooking. Seriously, I did not know that.

We are paying too much money for too many channels (Yes, we're joining all the rest of the sane folk who are downgrading or canceling their cable!)

I have something special with my little boys, forged because I've stayed home with them for five years. I love that. Love that I COULD do that.

It will take me a long time to find a job in this economy, with my changing career fields. And that's okay.

And most of all....

I think that this crappy economy has taught a lot of us a good many things on need vs. want.

And it's On

So, the election is 'on'

I've already voted, mind you. I live in a state where mail-in ballots and early-voting is allowed, so all the delays and problems other states encounter will mostly be avoided here. Early voting makes sense, even if it's only opening the polls for two or three days instead of just one, but that is not my point. The merits of early voting will sell themselves today.

What I'm on about is tonight.

Election Eve.

Hubby McRed and I have two bottles of wine. We've invited a neighbor who lives without television. We're not sure what she'll be drinking (ha!).

The plan is to eat leek and potato soup with sourdough bread, drink some wine, watch the election, walk away from the election, watch some more, and hopefully, at 10 p.m., pronounce victory.

If victory is not pronounced, well. We'll have to do a few things.

First, go to the liquor store for more wine. It closes at 11.
Second, pack up and head to Canada, the Last American Frontier for Blue State Refugees.
Just don't tell Canada we're coming.
Hate to have them close their borders and all.

I am cautiously optimistic though.

The polls are all predicting a landslide, but polls can be wrong.
So I'm not celebrating early. But I feel slightly confident.

Election Eve.

Happens once every 4 years. Really, I'm surprised they don't make it a Federal day off, well, except for all the poll workers!

Nano writing

November is nano writing novel month!

I've decided to see if I can crank out an obnoxious rough draft in one month!

Stay tuned to see if I do it, go insane, or just give up.

But I want to make it clear, my goal is to establish an absolute habit of writing, not so much the finishing the novel, as the writing at a specified time every day. IF in the habit of doing this, the rough daft of my serial killing vamp gets completed, it's all bonus.

Good luck me.

Lets talk Daylight Savings Time

I understand this actually held a purpose a long time ago, what with farmers and picking and train schedules and whatever other reason it was imagined we should play with time.

But, what is it's purpose today?

It used to be to give me an hours extra sleep in the fall, followed by a depressing loss of an hour in the spring.

But what is it's purpose?

Particularly, to those of us with children, who didn't wake up this morning and go, 'oh, we fell back, I can sleep for another hour?'

So now, not only do I not get my extra hour of sleep, but I get an extra early hour of darkness in the evening.

Bah.

Happy Halloween,,,, trick or treat

I was going to go on about the horrors of sugar and candy, but this is not really the time.

I love Halloween. I love getting dressed up in costumes, though this is the first year in many that I've bothered... I love taking the kids trick or treating.

Candy?

I generally toss it.

For me, it's all about the experience.

Oh sure, the kids eat come of it. But it quickly disappears. I wish more parents would hand out raisins and toothbrushes, but tradition is tradition, and what would costumed kids without overflowing treat bags filled with healthy food do to Halloween? Hmm....

So tonight we'll visit our friends in the 'hood, the homes we know, the people we see every day, and some we don't, but as we'll be right there, it'll be okay, and we'll teach our children that it's okay to knock on people's doors and demand candy one night out of the year.

And why am I not going to complain about the sugar, the excess candy, and the deeper message we're sending our children by letting them ask for treats?

Because life is hard, and can be full of many hard things, and some people have it harder than others, and some have it easier, but right now, we're in some rough times, and a lot of people are having it hard.

Because childhood is short, and adulthood filled with responsibility, concerns, and the knowledge the world isn't such a great place all the time.

Because they are young only once, and they haven't yet learned about how the world really is.

Because I want them to learn to laugh, and to dress up, and play, and be frivolous, and have fun.

Just for one night, let the world be a magical playground.

A great parenting moment -- wasted

"Mom, Mom," said Bear, a slight panic to his words. "I can't find Henry."

Oh no. Not Henry... Henry was an old 'hood dog that the boys loved. He passed away recently, and I gave a very simple, but seeming satisfactory answer as to what happened to him. But now, Bear was looking for him.

I am one who believes in not blowing off these conversations. Children need to understand the world around them, and death is a part of that world, as is life.

I get down on my knees and take his hand.

"Now Bear," I say. "We've had this conversation. Henry is gone."

I'm about to continue.

But the potential Viggo-like neighbor steps in.

"Um, He means Henry, my cat...."

.....


Ah, yes, Henry is also the name of the old cat the boys like to play with....

So I said, "Oh, WELL THEN," and patted little Bear's hand... "maybe he's just hiding from you hon."

Horrifiedly Aghast

Not really sure if Horrifiedly is a word.

But I have a slight confession.

I think I may perhaps find campy vamp movies funny.

We watched Bitten, with that guy from Clerks, you know, real high budget, and um, I want to watch it again because I can't remember laughing that much in a long time.

Now, Iron Man was all good and well, but it was too slick and not plotless enough. It tried to have a plot when really, it would have been better just admitting there was no real one.

The Dark Knight was superb, but, lets face it, not really a comedy.

So,

Me and campy vamp movies.

Who woulda thunk?

The little things they say

So I realize now that one reason my husband and I together is because of the little things, not the big things.

He drives me insane, mind you, quite batty at times... but... it's things like when we first moved here and he said one day, out of the blue... 'You're losing weight, I can tell, it's showing in your face.' And that one comment spurred me on to new efforts... it was REALLY noticeable because he noticed and, one thing about my husband, he doesn't lie, and when he attempts to, it's obvious.

And other things like, like this morning...

We'd had a rough week, his work is getting to him, to me, and to be too much with all his side projects and school and my school and life, yawn, you get the idea, but this morning I took the boys to school and came home and when I came upstairs because he wanted to chat about something he stopped, and said...

"you look kinda sexy today, in a slightly bohemian way..."

And now, I'm in a great mood.

/aw shucks.

The boat is sinking! The boat is sinking!

So we're sinking. Well, no, Wall Street is sinking, and apparently, if I'm reading the news right, is doing it's damndest to take the Everyman down with it.

I'm not an economics major, although, apparently, neither are any of the executives working at the big companies that are currently falling, but I am uncertain as to why the 700 billion dollar bailout is necessary. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for a plan that will help, but so far, the only reason I can find that explains it, is to 'avoid financial panic.'

Bit late for that.

And, what about the Everyman? It's not like this is going to help the Everyman, bailing out these buffoon companies that, from the headlines this morning, may face angry mobs of protesters demanding pieces of their overblown compensation checks. Because lets face it, even with the bailout going through, and limits on 'compensation,' the checks are going to more than equal people's retirements, retirements that are currently being lost.

So, we need to pass on this great debt to our children and grandchildren, to avoid panic, and a recession?

Haven't we been in a recession?

And can't we, as a nation, come up with a better solution than having the Everyman pay a price the Everyman didn't exact?

I can hear the Everyman asking these questions:

Will OUR debt be forgiven? Will we keep OUR homes? Will we be able to find jobs? Can we relocate Wall Street to another part of the nation, and restaff it with competent people? THIS is what America has come to now? Making the Everyman who's already suffering in an economy of errors, who's already been watching the financial markets warily for some time, wondering why, if we weren't in a recession, things were hard, pay more money they don't have, to bolster the very financial institutions that caused the mistake in the first place.

For shame.

Solution to Wall Street

Give me the $700 billion stimulus package money, and I will personally save the real estate market by buying lots and lots of homes, than refinancing them for the people who lost them... then I'll go shopping and buy lots of consumer goods.

Lets all hate HBO together

I like Netflix because I can get entire seasons of shows that I can't be bothered to pay extra money to get on premium channels. For the most parat, I find that premium channels don't really have anything worth watching.

The exception is HBO.

HBO has Band of Brothers (which you can netflix now)
It had the Sopranos (Netflix!)
Deadwood.

And now,

True Blood.

I want to watch True Blood. I was told True Blood would be available on Itunes shortly after each episode aired. Only now, it seems that information is incorrect. True Blood will only be available after the entire series has aired.

So I hate HBO.

And to be fair, I hate cable television in general. There's so few really good shows worth watching, but to watch them, you have to pay for a lot of crap television. There's no a la carte packages, which, frankly, in today's age of media gluttony, really, there should be.

So I hate HBO because it wants to make money and the only way to make money for its programming is to, apparently, put one or two really good shows on, and then expect people to pay extra money and give them one or two good shows with twenty more crappy shows.

Now, Itunes lets you download shows immediately. Sci-Fi offers some shows on Itunes right after airing. Netflix lets you download some videos and shows immediately. But, not HBO shows. No, I have to wait til the series ends, or I can get HBO.

Is one show worth an HBO subscription fee?
Nope.

I can barely justify regular cable.

I think we ought to start a media revolution. Everyone should cancel their premium channel subscriptions and extended cable plans and demand a la carte service.

Lets be done with crappy televison! Lets demand only good shows! Lets make those shows downloadable immediately, because lets face it, that's where the future is going to be. Eventually, these industry giants will collapse under the weight of all their crap and there will only be shows that people actually want to view, all downloaded on itunes, with no cable bills...

Lets all hate HBO, and bring the future that much closer!

Dang it!